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Despite what you may think about the likelihood of our Indianapolis Colts achieving victory Sunday as they host the Arizona Cardinals, most of us feel that the team at least has a better opportunity to make the game watchable. We don’t know how much the defense will grow from the Week 1 embarrassment of their performance, but one must assume that it can’t really get worse.
The Colts will be facing a Cardinals roster that is beat up too, not to mention, Carson Palmer tossed 3 interceptions last week and their defense disintegrated late against the Detroit Lions allowing 20 points in the fourth quarter. Maybe, just maybe, the Colts can get their pass rush and secondary in line and make this game interesting.
Around the rest of the league, Sunday’s day games will feature an increasingly interesting matchup between Sam Bradford and Ben Roethlisberger, two of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game when the New England Patriots travel to New Orleans to battle the Saints. Additionally, a couple emerging defenses in the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs will face off and, within the AFC South, the Tennessee Titans head to the Jacksonville Jaguars who were the only divisional team that won in Week 1.
The midday slate isn’t quite as interesting, but the intriguing matchup of Sean McVay and the Los Angeles Rams hosting his old team, the Washington Redskins will be a good watch and the Dallas Cowboys face off against the Denver Broncos which should entertain as well. It’s quite possible that the Sunday night game featuring Aaron Rodgers and Matt Ryan going head-to-head may be the game of the week, and the Detroit Lions and underwhelming New York Giants will work the Monday Night Football matchup.
Last week our Stampede Blue staff picks turned out pretty well as the group picked 9 of 14 games (64.3%) correctly per the vote, and we’re looking to improve on that in Week 2. Last week’s individual bests were Matt Danely and Faraz Majid – both getting 9 of 14 correct – while Andrew Aziz and Jake Arthur earned the worst individual records with 7 of 14 correct.
This week the following contributors voted on each game: Brett Mock, Matt Danely, Jake Arthur, Chris Blystone, Andrew Aziz, Stephen Reed, Chris Shepherd, Jared Malott and Faraz Majid. Again, our group voted ‘winners’ which have been bolded, with the vote counts in parenthesis and unanimous predictions were noted by an asterisk (*).
Sunday @ 1:00 ET
Bills @ Panthers*
Vikings @ Steelers (6) | Contrarians: Matt Danely, Chris Shepherd and Faraz Majid
Patriots* @ Saints
Eagles @ Chiefs (8) | Contrarian: Jared Malott
Bears @ Buccaneers (8) | Contrarian: Danely
Cardinals (8) @ Colts | Contrarian: Malott
Browns @ Ravens (8) | Contrarian: Chris Blystone
Titans (5) @ Jaguars | Contrarians: Brett Mock, Danely, Shepherd and Malott
Sunday @ 4:05 ET
Dolphins @ Chargers (6) Mock, Blystone and Shepherd
Jets @ Raiders*
Sunday @ 4:25 ET
Cowboys (8) @ Broncos | Contrarian: Majid
Redskins @ Rams (6) | Contrarian: Andrew Aziz, Majid and Mock
49ers @ Seahawks*
Sunday @ 8:30 ET
Packers (6) @ Falcons | Contrarian: Danely, Shepherd and Malott
Monday @ 8:30 ET
Lions (5) @ Giants | Contrarian: Aziz, Majid, Mock and Arthur
Please share your thoughts in the comments to let us know what your picks are for these Week 2 matchups.