NFL Survivor Pool Picks Week 2: Opening Line Report

NFL Week 1 was a lousy one for me. One of the worst ever, actually, as I bombed out on all my Survivor Pool picks (I took the Pats on all four cards) and lost most of my bets, pickem pools and just had a nasty week overall. I consider myself a solid NFL handicapper and I will have some bad weeks throughout the season, so all I can do is shake it off and look forward to Week 2 and getting back on track. Thankfully my Survivor loss was on Thursday so I still had a chance to reenter my pool and I picked up a couple extra tickets so I can provide focused content here on the blog for hopefully much of the season. I have had bad weeks in Survivor Pools where I have lost multiple cards early in the past and then still managed to make it far or to the end in my pool, and sometimes I think I do better with one or two cards rather than four as I can focus more.

Every week in this spot I will go down the list of decent-sized favorites for the week and give my knee-jerk reaction to the lines. This week looks pretty easy as there are lots of big favorites on the board. Currently there are seven teams that are favored by seven points or more.

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There is one clear pick for me this week, and I don’t have to think about it much because I think this is the of the strongest picks of the season: Oakland Raiders over New York Jets. That is who I am going with, likely on both of my two cards, but if you wanted to save the Raiders for any reason (a strategy I never use, but that did bite me in the ass last week!) then I think there are some other pretty solid picks on the Survivor Pool board for Week 2.

Week 2 NFL Survivor Pool Picks: Opening Lines

Cincinnati -5.5 vs. Houston (Thursday):  No thanks. The Texans had a lot of injuries in Week 1, and that is one of the reasons for the big line here. But both teams looked like crap in Week 1, and there is no way I would back the Bengals in this situation.

Baltimore -7.5 vs. Cleveland: I was impressed from what I saw from the Browns in Week 1 vs. the Steelers. I think this team is a lot better than last season. Baltimore has won three straight in the series, but they should have lost in Cleveland last year and the Browns have won three of the last seven matchups and played some others very close. Not on the Ravens bandwagon despite a nice performance Week 1.

Carolina -7 vs. Buffalo: I couldn’t argue with you if you wanted to use the Panthers this week. This is a pretty solid pick in my eyes. But I will probably stay away from this one. Carolina looked good on Sunday, but that was against a rebuilding San Francisco squad. Buffalo is a bit further ahead of that team. We can’t be sure if this Carolina team resembles the 2015 or 2016 Panthers, so it’s best to take a wait-and-see approach with the squad.

New England -7 at New Orleans: The Patriots looked pretty bad on Thursday. I expect that game was just a bump in the road rather than something Pats fans should seriously worry about. The Saints showed a bit of defensive improvement on Monday Night, but Tom Brady and Co. should be able to shred this D and put up a big number on the scoreboard. Don’t like taking road teams this early in the season, however, so will stay away from New England this week.

Arizona -7.5 at Indianapolis: Without Andrew Luck the Colts may be a better fade team than the Jets. At least New York put up a fight on Sunday. That was just an embarrassing performance from Indy. RB David Johnson will miss a few months for the Cards, and that hurts. But I think you can safely play any decent team against the Colts until Luck returns, and this is probably one of my favorite plays of the week even though the Cards are on the road here.

Kansas City -4.5 vs. Philly: The Chiefs looked like the best team in the NFL on Thursday. They are probably not that good but a for-sure playoff team barring injuries. And Andy Reid will be hyped up to play his former team. I think the Chiefs win here, especially since Reid has had extra time to prepare, but I think there is also chance for a letdown after the big win Thursday.

Pittsburgh -6 vs. Minnesota: The Vikings are on a short week, but they looked awesome Monday night and I think this matchup may be closer than this spread indicates. Many used the Steelers last week, including me, and I would not play them this week in what looks like a tough matchup.

Tampa Bay -7 vs. Chicago: There’s breaking news that this game will be played in Tampa Bay despite the devastation left behind by Hurricane Irma. This will be the Bucs season- and home-opener. I really like Tampa Bay this year and expect them to get the win here over a bad Chicago team, but with all the distractions going on off the field for this squad I do think it’s best to stay away this week.

LA Chargers -4.5 vs. Miami: Los Angeles is a team that always seems to let games go down to the wire, just like they did Monday night. This will be the home opener for the Chargers in their new digs, and this will be Miami’s season opener after the hurricane situation last week. Too many unknowns here, so I will pass.

Oakland -14 vs. New York Jets: Sometimes Survivor Pool picks are easy, and that is the case this week. Oakland looked great in a gutsy win at Tennessee last week, while the Jets did play better than expected but were no match for the Bills. They take a big step up in competition here, and this one should be ugly by halftime.

Seattle -13.5 vs. San Francisco: The line here is similar to the Oakland game, but I don’t like this matchup nearly as much. There is always a good team that starts the season badly, and after losing to the Packers last week the Hawks have a lot of pressure on them to avoid another loss this week. I think the Niners are an improved team, and this is also a division rivalry. I won’t be taking Seattle, and actually like Arizona as my No. 2 pick, but I couldn’t really argue with you if you took the Seahawks this week.