NFL 2013: Week 2 Picks

We got off to a rough start to the 2013 season.  Only our 9-7 showing in picking the games straight up could be termed “mildly successful”.  Here were the failures: knocked out in the Knockout Pool after Week 1, 6-10 against the spread, 0-4 picking local games against the spread, and losing 137-100 in our Start ‘Em/Anti Start ‘Em game.  Just awful.

You have heard some of our picks on the Sports With The StatMan Saturday morning show, “This Week in Fantasy Sports”, but here are all of our picks for the week.

JOIN US!

It is never too late to join and see how you measure up against me and other listeners who participate.  You can enter your picks and join the groups I created for the show.  The winner will be touted on the Saturday show and, if you top the charts, you could even call in to give me your picks!  Here is how:

Game	Goal	Where to Play	Group to Join
Eliminator Challenge	Pick 1 winner per week, no repeat picks (a.k.a. Knockout Pool)	ESPN.com	Sports With The StatMan
Pigskin Pick’Em (Straight Up)	Pick a winner for each game, every week	ESPN.com	Sports w/the StatMan-Str
Pigskin Pick’Em (Against the Spread)	Pick a winner against the point spread for each game, every week	ESPN.com	Sports w/the StatMan-ATS
NFL Gridiron Challenge	Pick a team of players with a $50 million salary cap	ESPN.com	Sports With The StatMan

KNOCKOUT POOL/ESPN.com ELIMINATOR CHALLENGE

It is a new year and definitely different luck this time around.  Tampa Bay, admittedly a questionable pick, was done in by a personal foul penalty to put the Jets into field goal range.  Nick Folk made the kick and the Jets pulled off an improbable 18-17 opening week win.

This week’s pick: Cincinnati defeating Pittsburgh

The Bengals are on the way up and the Steelers are on their way down.  Ben Roethlisberger is still on the team, but the rest of the team is not as easy to recognize.  The biggest issue for Pittsburgh is their lack of a running game, as Isaac Redman is the head of a committee that includes the released-then-re-signed Jonathan Dwyer.  I am going with the Bengals on Monday night to even their record and push Pittsburgh to 0-2.

PAST PICKS

Week 1: Tampa Bay (L at NYJ)

GAME PICKS/ESPN.com PIGSKIN PICK ‘EM

Here are the game picks for this week.  We talk about the local games and the three of the other most important games, our “Big Games”, on our weekly This Week in Fantasy Sports segment on Saturdays, but we pick every game, every week here on the blog.  New this year is the listing of our preseason pick we made for our NFL Preview series on the show.  This will give you an idea on what I thought of each team before the season and what I am thinking of each team during the season.

LOCAL GAMES

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS	Straight Up	Against the Spread	Preseason Pick
Week 1	1-3	0-4	2-2
WEEK 2 LOCAL GAME PICKS	Straight Up	Against the Spread	Preseason Pick
N.Y. Jets at New England (Thursday night)	NE	NE (-12.5)	NE
San Diego at Philadelphia (Sunday 1pm)	PHL	PHL (-7.5)	PHL
Denver at N.Y. Giants (Sunday 4pm)	DEN	DEN (-5.5)	DEN

BIG GAMES

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS	Straight Up	Against the Spread	Preseason Pick
Week 1	2-1	1-2	2-1
WEEK 2 BIG GAME PICKS	Straight Up	Against the Spread	Preseason Pick
Dallas at Kansas City (Sunday 1pm)	DAL	DAL (+2.5)	DAL
San Francisco at Seattle (Sunday night)	SFO	SFO (+2.5)	SEA
Pittsburgh at Cincinnati (Monday nght)	CIN	CIN (-7.5)	PIT

OTHER GAMES

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS	Straight Up	Against the Spread	Preseason Pick
Week 2	6-3	5-4	8-1
WEEK 1 OTHER GAME PICKS	Straight Up	Against the Spread	Preseason Pick
St. Louis at Atlanta (Sunday 1pm)	ATL	ATL (-7.5)	ATL
Carolina at Buffalo (Sunday 1pm)	BUF	BUF (+2.5)	CAR
Minnesota at Chicago (Sunday 1pm)	CHI	MIN (+6.5)	CHI
Cleveland at Baltimore (Sunday 1pm)	BAL	BAL (-6.5)	BAL
Washington at Green Bay (Sunday 1pm)	GBY	GBY (-7.5)	GBY
Tennessee at Houston (Sunday 1pm)	HOU	TEN (+9.5)	HOU
Miami at Indianapolis (Sunday 1pm)	IND	IND (-3.5)	IND
Detroit at Arizona (Sunday 4pm)	DET	DET (-0.5)	ARZ
New Orleans at Tampa Bay (Sunday 4pm)	NO	NO (-3.5)	NO
Jacksonville at Oakland (Sunday 4pm)	OAK	JAX (+6.5)	OAK

START ‘EM/ANTI-START ‘EM/ESPN.com GRIDIRON CHALLENGE

We are participating in the ESPN Gridiron Challenge on ESPN.com.  The object is to pick the best team possible with a $50 million salary cap.  However, we have added another wrinkle.  The object of the ESPN.com is to buy low and sell high and the more you accomplish that, the more money you get in your salary cap.  My goal is to put together a nine-man unit (2 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 K, 1 DEF) that is better than another nine-man unit at a similar price.

Week 1 did not go all that well overall and the Gridiron Challenge was no different.  We scored 100 as a “team”, but the anti-start team, the team that I thought would perform worse than our “team”, scored 137 points.  If you look at each lineup slot, the start team only outperformed the anti-start team two out of nine times.

WEEK 1: Head-to-Head – L, 100-137; By Position: 2-7

Here is the Week 2 entry in the Gridrion Challenge, our “Start ‘Em” team, along with our comparable “Anti-Start ‘Em” team, which is our “opponent” for the week.

 (all dollar figures in millions)

Start ‘Em Team	POS	Anti-Start ‘Em Team
Eli Manning NYG (vs. DEN) ($6.2)	QB	Robert Griffin III WSH (at GBY) ($6.3)
Alex Smith KCY (vs. DAL) ($5.3)	QB	Carson Palmer ARZ (vs. DET) ($5.7)
LeSean McCoy PHL (vs. SDG) ($6.0)	RB	Trent Richardson CLE (at BAL) ($5.9)
DeAngelo Williams CAR (at BUF) ($5.2)	RB	Fred Jackson BUF (vs. CAR) ($5.1)
Victor Cruz NYG (vs. DEN) ($5.6)	WR	Reggie Wayne IND (vs. MIA) ($5.5)
Miles Austin DAL (at KCY) ($5.0)	WR	Steve Johnson BUF (vs. CAR) ($5.1)
Jared Cook STL (at ATL) ($4.9)	TE	Greg Olsen CAR (at BUF) ($5.0)
Randy Bullock HOU (vs. TEN) ($4.2)	K	Rian Lindell TBY (vs. NO) ($3.9)
Cincinnati Bengals CIN (vs. PIT) ($4.9)	DEF	Tampa Bay Buccaneers (vs. NO) ($4.8)
$47.3 million	TOTAL	$47.3 million

Catch me on "Sports With The StatMan" on Wednesdays at 11pm ET and Saturdays at 11am ET. We'll break down these picks and look ahead to next week on our This Week in Fantasy Sports segment, Saturday morning at 11am ET.