Week 3 Picks:

Overall Record:

Game Picks: 22-11

Fantasy Football Leauge: 2-0

Last Week’s Grades:

Game Picks: A

Week 2 was a breeze… I came out on top of a lot of people with a 13-3 record, with a solid forecast of upsets like the Saints’ stunner. Of the three games that I picked the loser, I marked two of them as the games I was least confident in (I play in a confidence ESPN league, where you rank each match-up by confidence in the result) so morale is riding at an all-time high! Well almost… Dang, those Dolphins were tricky on Thursday night.

Fantasy Football: B+

A winner again in my personal league thanks to a solid duo in Cam Newton and Julian Edelman, my plays worked out pretty well again. Last week I projected Aaron Jones as a must-start in my column, and of course, #33 came up with the PPR- Performance in the whole league. Hines and Peterson didn’t come up big like I thought they would but at least avoiding Johnson and Wentz saved you some points.

Notable Game Picks:

Bears @ Falcons – Dare I pick a team that failed me twice to beat a team I ended up wrongly picking as a loser two times over? Yes. Besides the choking, the Falcons still put up 39 points while the Bears struggled to hold onto their lead versus a Barkley-less Giants Squad. This time, Matt Ryan leads his team to a win with a 4th quarter comeback touchdown pass to  Hayden Hurst. Either that or all of Atlanta will be forever ashamed… me included.

Rams @ Bills – No matter how many yards Josh Allen throws for, can you really ever feel safe in Buffalo? If this were one of those white-out blizzard condition games, maybe you would consider a home-court advantage proving to be effective. But, it’s September. The Rams are rolling, even with their banged-up backfield so expect the Jared Goff to play hero.

Titans @ Vikings – The Vikings have now been shredded in coverage by both good quarterbacks (Rodgers) and not-so-good ones (Rivers) in two games this season. Tannehill is on a roll of touchdowns while Henry is in a slump. Expect Tennesse to pick up the spread even if Cousins tosses two passes to the end zone. Plus, don’t worry if you have ‘King Henry’ in your leauge, the legend will rise again once he shakes off the dust.

Raiders @ Patriots – Make no mistake, the Patriots are still great. A Pick-6, 400+ yards by Newton, and some explosive plays had New England come short by a missed field goal and some time-mismanagement decisions. The Seahawks had to play a full, flawless 60 minutes to win that game. The Raiders themselves came-up with some inspirational stuff in a second-half effort versus the Saints. Vegas’ offense is versatile between Waller, Carr, and Jacobs, but unfortunately will come up a field goal short without being able to play as perfect game a Seattle did. Defenses win you games, and Vegas doesn’t have one.

Texans @ Steelers – The Texans are the Falcons from last year.  Randall Cobb might as well be the #1 receiver on that team considering how little Houston cares about protecting and building around Watson. The Texans will start out 0-3, but don’t expect the Steelers to shine en route to being undefeated. Pittsburgh had 5+ sacks versus the Broncos (who played with a back-up QB) and still barely won their game. This could be the second overtime match-up of the season and prepare for the ‘Burgh’ to scrape by with a few points in a low-scoring game.

Packers @ Saints –  The Packers are on their way to one of the most fortunate schedules of all-time with the Saints missing Michael Thomas tomorrow and the 49ers basically prepping to be without half their starters for next week. If there is a time to go 16-0 with Rodgers, this is the season! Assuming that Sean Payton is smart, there will be answers for Jones, while the Packers will probably struggle with Kamara. But, Matt La Fleur has an astounding win percentage of .800 as Green Bay’s coach through 20 games, and M.V.S. will end up boosting the Packers early in the first quarter to where they can put the game in the driver’s seat.

Other Game Predictions:

Dallas @ Seahawks, Panthers @ Chargers, Jets @ Colts, Buccaneers  @ Broncos,              Lions @ Cardinals, Bengals @ Eagles, Washington @ Browns, 49ers @ Giants

Next Week Thursday Night Football:

Chiefs @ Ravens – Hmmm…. A great quarterback show-down in the making, right? Actually, probably not. Expect this to be the ultimate showdown between Helaire and JK Dobbins, respectively the No.1 and No.2 backs taken in the draft. Great coaches switch things up, and the run game is a bit of a lost story-line for these teams right now. And for the record, I’ll say this every week, Jackson is a million times better than Mahomes. The Ravens will ricochet through Kansas’ defense for eight more points than their AFC foes.

Fantasy Advice:

Reminder, I play in a regular PPR league with typical scoring rules and rosters.

Start: M. Valdes-Scantling, Cooper Kupp, Ryan Tannehill, Colts D, Sony Michel

Bench: Malcolm Brown, Quintus Cephus, Stefon Diggs, Justin Herbert

Risk-It: Darrius Byrd, Chase Claypool, Michael Pittman Jr.

Pick-Up: Mo-Allie Cox, Devonta Freeman, Daniel Carlson

That wraps this week up! More coming for Week 4 with our first edition of power rankings?