National Football League

Weekend Blitz: Week 2 NFL Picks, plus much more

Published Sep. 12, 2014 12:59 p.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

Jimmy Traina

Welcome to another edition of "Weekend Blitz," a column that will appear on FOXSports.com each Friday during the football season. Consider this one of your must-read features as you wrap up the week and head into a Saturday and Sunday filled with pigskin. We'll be giving out NFL picks, possibly some college football picks and looking back at the week that was in the world of sports and pop culture.

Please come back every Friday or check FOXSports.com/Buzzer or follow me, @JimmyTraina, on Twitter.

THE PICKS

We opened the season with a 2-1 Week 1 thanks to the Browns and Chargers while missing badly on the Rams. The best thing to do in Week 2 is to not put a ton of stock in what you saw during Week 1. With that, most of our picks this week center around bounce-backs.

BILLS -1 vs. DOLPHINS: The Dolphins looked very impressive, especially their defensive line, in beating the Patriots at home last week. I see a letdown this week against a Bills team that could surprise people this season. Don't sleep on E.J. Manuel.

COWBOYS +3 AT TITANS: Best thing for the Cowboys after that embarrassing home loss was to hit the road. Most people expected Dallas' defense to be a problem this season, but the unit wasn't terrible against the Niners last week. I'll take a chance that Romo cuts down on the turnovers this week, leading to an outright Cowboys win.

GIANTS +1 AT CARDINALS: New York is a mess on offense. The play-calling in their loss to  Detroit on Monday night was atrocious. Having said that, I would be shocked if they dropped to 0-2 by losing to a ho-hum Arizona team at home. I have to believe New York finds a way to pull this out.

BROWNS +6 AT SAINTS: Why not go back to the Browns after they rewarded me last week? Nobody expected Cleveland to put up a fight after going down 27-3 at Pittsburgh, but they did. What I like even better was coach Mike Pettine's comments after the game about what he took away from the loss. "We take out of it that we're 0-1. I told the team afterward that this is a pass-fail league, and we failed . . . There are no moral victories in this league, but I was proud of the character and resolve that showed up. They went out and executed the plan in the second half. It's a valuable lesson, but it doesn't change the fact that we're 0-1." It never hurts to bet against the Saints when they're out of a dome, either.

PACKERS -8 VS JETS: I fully expect Green Bay to put up 30-plus points. Raiders rookie quarterback Derek Carr wasn't able to take advantage of New York's depleted secondary. Aaron Rodgers will.

WHAT I LIKED THIS WEEK

* My colleague Katie Nolan had a strong viewpoint on women and sports media.

* Bears offensive lineman Kyle Long revealed what kind of prank regularly takes place in the Chicago locker room.

* Vin Scully's call of the Dodgers making three errors on one play.

* Panthers receiver Steve Smith correcting a report from "Pro Football Talk" about his salary.

* This video which explains why Starbucks baristas misspell your name. (Warning: Video contains NSFW language.)

* Alex Trebek's mustache is coming back to "Jeopardy!"

* Kelly Ripa being very dirty when talking about the size of the new iPhones.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE THIS WEEK

* You've probably heard about Mike Tyson cursing out a reporter on a Canadian news show, but here's something that hasn't been talked about: How about all the graphics and text making for the most cluttered screen in TV history?

* Can sports fan stop burning jerseys already? It's dumb and played out, especially after ONE WEEK of the NFL season. Not to mention, Eli Manning has won two Super Bowls for the Giants.

* This was not Chris Berman's finest moment.

share

Get more from National Football League Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

National Football League