The NFL returns for Week 2 with the Washington Football Team hosting the New York Giants on Thursday Night Football. Since every team has to play one time on TNF, I suppose we should thank the NFL for getting these two out of the way early in the season. But given how wild TNF can sometimes get, maybe we get a wild one.
Washington comes into this game as a 3.5-point favorite at DraftKings Sportsbook. I think Washington will win thanks in large part to their defense, but that 3.5 points is a lot. I’m still thinking on it heading into game day, but I’m leaning toward taking the points with New York in what ends up a close loss for the G-men.
Last year, we tried something new for our weekly Thursday straight-up picks. We offered basic straight-up winner picks, but with confidence levels — high, medium, low, and no. A game with three asterisks (***) after it indicates a game where I’m picking the betting underdog to get the win.
Below is a full list of my picks, with Week 1 performance for each category noted in parenthesis. I went 7-9 for the week thanks to a massive run of outright upsets from underdogs. We’ll see if the favorites right the ship this week.
High confidence (2-0)
Browns over Texans
Steelers over Raiders
Bucs over Falcons
Seahawks over Titans
Packers over Lions
Medium confidence (2-5)
Saints over Panthers
Rams over Colts
Bills over Dolphins
49ers over Eagles
Cardinals over Vikings
Low confidence (2-2)
Washington over Giants
Bears over Bengals
Ravens over Chiefs***
Cowboys over Chargers***
No confidence (1-2)
Jaguars over Broncos***
Jets over Patriots***
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