Seattle at Denver:
Seattle's absolute drubbing of the 49er's last week may have been the biggest shocker of week 1. This team is supposed to be rebuilding under Pete Carroll. Denver also lost a game they probably had expected to win against the Jaguars. Josh McDaniels team does not look like its poised to repeat its quick start from last year, especially with their two best players from 2009 not on the field (Brandon Marshall gone to Miami and Elvis Dumervill out indefinitely with a torn pectoral muscle) Kyle Orton does look like he's starting to get comfortable as the starter of the offense and threw the ball well last week. The Broncos will need to establish a better run presence but their offense is not going to be their problem.
The Denver defense did not look anything like the Orange Crush, yielding 24 points to a Jaguars team led by David Gerrard.
The Seahawks have talent all across the board and Matt Hassleback seems determined to prove that he's not too old to lead the Pete Carroll rebuilding effort. I think Carroll's enthusiasm will become contagious and spark a fire for this Seattle team which knows that it is in the weakest division in football and a 2-0 start could set it up for a nice little title run.
Final: Seahawks 19 Denver 17
St. Louis at Oakland
Sam Bradford was impressive in his NFL debut and Oakland doesn't look like they've made much progress this off season. Their leading rusher last week, Darren McFadden also led the team in receiving yards against the Titans and that is not a good sign for Jason Campbell and the Raiders passing attack. Their offensive line is shoddy and, even though the Rams defense is still very porous, Jake Long is finally starting to look like a player on the field. If the Rams can get any sort of consistent pressure on Campbell, Bradford manages the game efficiently, and Steven Jackson does he does best, the Rams could pull one out in the black hole.
Final: Rams 17 Raiders 10
New England at New York Jets
Is it possible that Fireman Ed and the rest of the Jets fans go home drunkenly disappointed again?Absolutely. Don't get me wrong. The Jets defense looked superb, especially against the run last week against the Ravens. Revis Island, was not giving any free tours and the Jets came to hit. Still, the Ravens exposed some glaring weaknesses that Tom Brady, who looks like vintage Tom Brady, will surely expose. Randy Moss the slouch is motivated and even if Darrelle Revis shuts him down (he is playing on a sore hamstring) none of the other Jets secondary players have shown that they will be able to cover the resilient Wes Welker. Cromartie and Kyle Wilson were exposed and embarrassed last week and it could be more of the same this week.
Even if the Jets defense stands up to the Patriots offense, which it very well could, the Jets offense doesn't look like it will be reliable for anything this year. Brian Shottenheimer needs to take the training wheels off of Mark Sanchez and try and open up the passing game because everyone saw what happened when they became one dimensional last week: They got a lot of work in for their punt cover team. If Sanchez is allowed to open up the game a little bit, Jets fans still have to worry about his ability to make the right reads in a short amount of time. The jury is still out on the Sanchize and I don't think this game will do anything to solidify his cause.
Final: Patriots 21 Jets 14
Jacksonville at San Diego
Phillip Rivers is pissed. One of the most fiery personalities in the NFL, he was lashing out at anyone in his path last week during the rain-soaked loss in Kansas City. He is too good to allow the Chargers to lose to a subpar team two weeks in a row. Jacksonville won a close game over a decent Denver Broncos team but going into San Diego against a hungry chargers team might silence all that excitement in Jacksonville. Gerrard is a productive quarterback with some good weapons on offense and Maurice-Jones Drew is a wrecking ball with the rock. Still, the Chargers defense is fast and physical and if they can contain Jones-Drew they will force Gerrard to make some costly errors.
On the offensive side of the ball I expect Chargers rookie RB Ryan Matthews to have a better game than his first one and Rivers will consistently find TE Antonio Gates to methodically suffocate the Jaguars defense. Phillips must be wary of DE Aaron Kampman. He's back in a system hes comfortable in and will be in non-stop beast mode on Sunday.
Final: Chargers 24 Jaguars 17
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