Top 5 NFL Games in Week 3

Well it’s week three already and if the first two weeks have been any indi­ca­tion, we are in for yet another treat this week­end. So let’s pick some games.

Atlanta Fal­cons @ Tampa Bay Buc­ca­neers (-1 ½) (Sun­day / 4:15 p.m. / FOX)

A good old fash­ioned AFC South bat­tle, which the Fal­cons have owned over the past few years, but it never, comes easy. Nei­ther team has looked par­tic­u­larly sharp over the first two weeks; each team is 1–1, both hav­ing come from behind wins last Sun­day. The Fal­cons would appear to have played the supe­rior oppo­nents in their games, but what looks good on paper doesn’t always trans­late on the field. How­ever, when doing pre­dic­tions all we can go by is on paper. So far the trio of Bucs quar­ter­back Josh Free­man, run­ning back LeGarette and wide receiver Mike Williams have not been impres­sive, thus the Tampa offense has strug­gled, so they need to get going to have a chance. The Fal­cons on the other hand need to start using the run to set up the pass instead of the other way around; it worked for them last year to the tune of a 13–3 record. I’ll take the Fal­cons and the points.

Fal­cons 24   Tampa Bay 21

New Eng­land Patri­ots (-8 ½) @ Buf­falo Bills (Sun­day / 1:00 p.m. / CBS)

This game should be a shoot-out between two of the league’s top offenses and two of their worst defenses, in other words it should be a fun game to watch. The Bills are prob­a­bly a lit­tle bit of a sur­prise to most peo­ple this sea­son. I can’t say I’m com­pletely sur­prised they are 2–0 and have a great offense, but more than six wins from this team I don’t see. That being said, I do think they will be com­pet­i­tive and in every game with the bal­anced pass­ing and run­ning game they have, they will just have a prob­lem stop­ping teams. This doesn’t bode well for them with Tom Brady com­ing to town this week­end. I think this game stays com­pet­i­tive through­out with the Patri­ots ulti­mately win­ning, but I will take the Bills and the points.

New Eng­land 38   Buf­falo 31

Green Bay Pack­ers (-3 ½) @ Chicago Bears (Sun­day / 4:15 p.m. / FOX)

You can almost always throw the record books out the win­dow when these two teams get together. They met three times last sea­son, each team win­ning at home until the NFC Cham­pi­onship game which the Pack­ers won in Chicago. All the games were close and very phys­i­cal and com­pet­i­tive. Expect more of the same Sun­day after­noon. For the Bears to win they have to run the ball early and often in order to keep the pres­sure off of Jay Cut­ler, and when they throw the ball Cut­ler has to get it out of his hands fast, he can’t hold the ball too long. The Pack­ers just basi­cally need to hold onto the ball and spread out the Bears thin sec­ondary and let Rodgers pick them apart. I think the Pack­ers win, but don’t cover.

Green Bay 20   Chicago 17

Wash­ing­ton Red­skins @ Dal­las Cow­boys (Even) (Mon­day / 8:30 p.m. / ESPN)

This match-up is just as big of a rivalry as the Pack­ers and Bears. Being that it is the fea­tured Mon­day Night game and at Jerry World makes even that much more of a spec­ta­cle. The keys to this game to me will be three things, num­ber one, how many Cow­boys will be out due to injury? We already know pro-bowl wide receiver Miles Austin is out, but will Tony Romo, Felix Jones and Dez Bryant also be out? Num­ber two, which team can run the ball the best? The Red­skins have been run­ning it well with Tim High­tower and now with Roy Helu back from injury last week look like they have a nice one-two-punch combo. The Cow­boys strug­gle to run the ball even with Felix Jones, so if he’s out, can they even run it at all effec­tively, it doesn’t look that way. And finally, num­ber three, who will win the turnover bat­tle? The Cow­boys have been turn­ing it over even with Romo in the game, but even more so win Kitna had to come in last week for just a lit­tle while against San Fran­cisco. The Red­skins have turned it over a few times as well and we know Gross­man has been turnover prone in the past, but his inter­cep­tions this year have not been the bad Rex throws like in the past. So, after pon­der­ing these three ques­tions I like the Red­skins to win the game.

Wash­ing­ton 24   Dal­las 20

Hous­ton Tex­ans @ New Orleans Saints (-4) (Sun­day / 1:00 p.m. / CBS)

This should be another fun game to watch between two very good offenses and under­rated defenses. I really love the way the new look Tex­ans defense has played so far, but this will by far be their biggest chal­lenge to date. Even if Arian Fos­ter can’t go on Sun­day they should be ok with back-up Ben Tate, who if he had not got­ten hurt last year would have been their starter then. We all know about the Saints pow­er­ful offense, so no need dwelling on it. The key to the game will be which team runs the ball the best and stops the run the best. I’m rid­ing with the Tex­ans in this one to win straight out.

Hous­ton 28   New Orleans 24

So those are my picks for this week. After a rough 1–4 start to the year, I bounced back with a respectable 3–2 week to make me 4–6 on the year so far, hope­fully I can at least to get .500 on the year with my picks this week. Enjoy the games.