RSS is back with Hot Off The Grill's NFL Week 2 Preview. As with the college kids, we'll go through the biggest games, stories, and players to watch for tomorrow's action. Today's CFB has already seen some surprises, are there more on tap tomorrow in the league where they play for pay? If you want to find out, come, follow me!
Big Kielbasa's Game Of the Week - New England (1-0) @ N.Y. Jets (1-0)
The game of the week this week is a battle for AFC East supremacy between the old guard New England Patriots and the upstart New York Jets. Certainly, a lot of attention from the NorthEast, I mean, national sports media has been placed on this fixture. Of course, any game Tom Brady's in is going to draw the eyeballs, but the cajones of rookie head coach Rex Ryan and the impressive week 1 performance of rookie QB Mark Sanchez have made this matchup even more enticing. The pregame hype for this one will make it feel more like a December rivalry game instead of the second week of the season.
The big question going in will be the Patriots reshaped defense. I wonder if Bill Belichick regrets trading away Mike Vrabel and allowing Tedy Bruschi to retire now after leading tackler Jerrod Mayo was lost to injury last week. The defense didn't look all that great last week against Buffalo (not exactly a high-powered attack), although the Jets offense might be coming in a little overrated after their thrashing of the Texans. Although Mark Sanchez played well, I think senior citizen Joe Namath could have made some of the throws Sanchez did. New England has dominated this series recently, and while the Jets are on the rise, I think the Patriots are able to hang on tomorrow in a close game because of the experience at quarterback. The next meeting might be a different story...PICK-Patriots
Beer Brat's Spotlight Game Of the Week - Pittsburgh Steelers (1-0) @ Chicago Bears (0-1)
Our spotlight game takes us to the windy city where the defending Super Bowl Champion Steelers take on the Chicago Bears. Questions about for Chicago, "Can Jay Cutler be much worse?", "Do the Bears have more than 1 legitimate wide reciever?" and most importantly, "How will the D fair without their leader, Brian Urlacher?" While the gloom and doom forecasts may be a tad overstated, I don't see all the answers coming this week. Even without Troy Polamalu, the Steelers have had 10 days to prepare for a shaky Bears offense. Chicago will get better as their offense and defense have time to gel, but they'll have to face more pain this Sunday. PICK-Steelers
Chorizo's Upset Of the Week - Seattle Seahawks (1-0) @ San Francisco 49ers (1-0)
Ok, so the spread is only about 1.5 for this one, but it's still an upset, technically speaking. After an impressive road win at Arizona in Week 1, Mike Singletary's boys will play host to a healthy Seattle, who destroyed St. Louis in their opening game. Although the 49ers are still improving, with or without Michael Crabtree, the Seahawks should assert themselves as the class of the perennially weak NFC West with a crucial road win early in division play. PICK-Seahawks
Andouille's UTR Game - New Orleans Saints (1-0) @ Philadelphia Eagles (1-0)
New Orleans goes in to Philly looking to go 2-0 for the first time since 2006. Drew Brees and Co. were on fire all week against Detroit... but it was the Lions, so how much credit can you really give Sean Payton? Under Sean Payton, the Saints have struggled under pressure and they should see a lot of it against the Philly defense. You have to wonder if Kevin Kolb will lead the Eagles O to the same effectiveness we saw in Week 1. How will they fare without McNabb and Vick still on the sidelines? A win for either team could build enough momentum to vault one of these teams to NFC Supremacy. The QB edge alone makes the Saints the favorite... if they keep Drew Brees upright. PICK-SAINTS
Hot Dog Of The Week - Vikings RB Adrian Peterson
No, there isn't a conspiracy on this blog to always make our hot dog of the week someone who's playing the Lions. But, Drew Brees didn't disappoint last week with 6 TDs, so Adrian Peterson should be a safe pick this week against Detroit. Lost amid the look-at-me debut of Brett Favre, All Day AP may have officially taken the mantle of the best running back in the NFL. Look for similar numbers to last week's big day against the Browns where he went for 18o yards and 3 TDs.
Extra Toppings -
-Good news for the Saints this week as well with the StarCaps case against DEs Charles Grant and Will Smith being postponed until the end of the season. More than a crooked eyebrow would have been raised if Commish Roger Goodell would have punished these two and not done anything to the Williams Wall in Minnesota.
-No matter what happens in our Big Kielbasa Game of the Week, expect the winning quarterback to be the star of Week 2. I guess that's what happens when you're a GQ model/quarterback.
-Who wants to bet Denver needs another immaculate reception style play to win at home against Cleveland this week? The sad thing is, the Broncos could very well start 2-0, giving false validation to Josh McDaniels methods. Let's see what happens when they don't play the "professional teams" from Ohio.
-The over/under on face time for Jerry Jones on Sunday night's Giants/Cowboys home opener is 37 minutes.
-One team that needs to bounce back in a big way will be Houston who's at Tennessee. This is a team who needs to make that step forward into the playoffs, but looked awful at home in Week 1. An 0-2 start will have people asking Gary Kubiak and Matt Schaub questions.
-Since Jay Leno's new show finally debuted, will we still be subject to endless promos? Why doesn't he just replace Tiki Barber as a reporter, I think he could do at least as good a job!
Randall's Got His Eye On You... Jake Delhomme
Now would be a good time for Jake Delhomme to show why he merited that big money extension in the offseason. After those two dozen turnovers in his last two games, no man is under more pressure this week than the Panthers QB. While they don't necessarily have a backup breathing down his neck, Jake needs a good performance to stay in the starting lineup. Then again, every time his back is against the wall, Delhomme seems to come up with a career-saving performance. We'll see how many lives he has left Sunday against the Falcons.
That's it for Hot off the Grill for the weekend. It was a busy weekend at RSS as today we were busy covering OWU sports with streaming broadcasts of football and soccer. But, we'll be back in full force this week to wrap up all the football action and continue our countdown of the top 10 athletes of the decade. Until then, it's bye for now!
No comments:
Post a Comment