2013 Week 2 Preview

America's Game of the Week is Sunday night on NBC when the 49ers
go to Seattle to take on one of the NFL's best home teams.

Every week on Football Freaks, a production of The All-Sports Crew, my co-hosts and I predict every NFL game of the upcoming weekend. Yesterday we previewed at predicted every game for Week 2. Here is a little more detail on the big games for this weekend.

Sean Kennedy’s game of the week is the Monday night game, but he’ll also preview the Ravens on a weekly basis this season.

Baltimore Ravens vs Cleveland Browns

The Ravens opened the season with a tough loss to the Broncos in an AFC Championship grudge match. Although the team looked good overall, dropped passes and blown coverage on defense doomed them (also, 7 touchdown passes from Peyton Manning). The Browns looked overly average with Brandon Weeden achieving a QBR of 16.4. Expect the Ravens to win big in their home opener with fantasy owners being happy on both sides of the ball.

Cincinnati Bengals vs Pittsburgh Steelers

Last week, not a single team in the AFC North made it into the win column. We saw an ailing Steelers team looking uncertain as they try to reconstruct on both sides of the football. The Bengals built an early lead just to squander it in the last few minutes. Expect a close, low-scoring game that will most likely come down to the wire. Cincinnati may have blown the game last week but they will likely hold on to a 3- to 7-point lead in this game.

Saswat will provide previews when available, but is busy with grad-school work this week, so I’m covering for his game of the week.

Kansas City Chiefs vs Dallas Cowboys

The arrival of Andy Reid and Alex Smith in Kansas City seems to have sparked the historically great franchise back into a state of competitiveness. That said, their first opponent was the Jacksonville Jaguars, who don’t look to be much better than they were last season. Now the Chiefs get a test against the Dallas Cowboys, who didn’t look great but still forced six turnovers to carry them to their first home win against the Giants since Jerry Jones opened his statement of architectural greatness. All four hosts expect Kansas City to win in this, their home opener.

Next up is Eric Meyer’s game of the week, as well as his preview for the New Orleans game, which he’ll typically do on a weekly basis.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs New Orleans Saints

For the second straight week, the Saints will square off against a division rival, this time against the Buccaneers. Although the Bucs have added shutdown corner Darrelle Revis, the Saints still expect to have a good day passing the ball, as Tampa Bay had one of the worst pass defenses in the NFL last season. The Saints hope to build off their big win against the Falcons, while the Bucs hope to get in the win column after a disappointing loss to the Jets last week. With an inconsistent offense going up against a much improved Saints defense, and Drew Brees on the other side of the ball, the Bucs had better be on their game if they want to avoid an 0-2 start.

New York Giants vs Denver Broncos

One Manning looked phenomenal in Week 1. The other… didn’t. Both Manning brothers put up some solid fantasy numbers, but Peyton was the one that avoided costly mistakes and led his team to a big victory. With the Broncos’ offense already firing on all cylinders, it’s going to be tough for a spotty Giants’ defense to get stops. In addition, the Broncos’ defense looked rock solid even without Von Miller, so Eli is going to have a challenge on his hands, especially with no sign of a running game to easy the pressure on him. The Giants need Eli to become elite again if they want to pick up a big home with against Denver, and even that might not be enough with the way his brother can throw the football.

Up next is the Sunday night game, followed by Puff’s game of the week.

Seattle Seahawks vs San Francisco 49ers

Last year, this was a dismal game. The 49ers went into CenturyLink Field and laid an egg, with their leading rusher gaining just 31 yards on the ground. That said, Colin Kaepernick threw for nearly 100 more yards than Wilson and the same number of interceptions. Wilson just had an impressive 4-touchdown performance on just 171 yards passing. I don’t expect Seattle to get so lucky with field position this time around. I’ve picked San Francisco to win this game, as has Sean. Saswat and Eric have both taken Seattle.

Indianapolis Colts vs Miami Dolphins

The Dolphins’ offensive line looked poor and one of the few bright spots for this offense is that Brian Hartline’s new role fits him perfectly and he has a great connection with Ryan Tannehill. In Indy, Andrew Luck is an early MVP candidate and has a nice receiver corps he is familiar with. The defense should be able to handle Miami’s offense, and that should be enough for Luck to work with.

You can hear us talk about these games and more on the podcast of last night’s Football Freaks. Listen to that here, and follow me on Twitter, @cpuffnfl, for links to all of our podcasts and live online shows.