I really do wish that every week was Week 2 of the NFL season.
Of course, we always want more. More wins. More opportunities for wins. More football. Still, we saw exactly how the carryover from just one week of action led to misplaced expectations.
Now what?
For starters, we are dealing with a few trends forming. Some are teams that might fall to 0-3 or improve to 3-0 while others are squads about to play in front of their home crowds for the first time all year. Whichever we use, we still have the benefit of leaning on assumptions based on last season’s outcomes. That will continue to give us an edge for the time being.
Below are predictions for each game against the spread. Spreads have been taken from various websites and are subject to change. The spread in parenthesis denotes the selected team. Spread is listed as advertised number and odds at either DraftKings Sportsbook, FanDuel Sportsbook, Caesars Sportsbook, or PointsBet. All efforts were made to provide picks at -110 or better, with some stretching to a -125 if no reasonable advertised spread was found.
*Confidence Picks – 2023 Season: 8-5-1 (Last Week: 5-1-1)
(2022 Season: 54-54-5) (2021 Season: 55-50) (2020 Season: 53-42-3) (2019 Season: 57-43-3) (2018 Season: 63-48-4) (2017 Season: 53-48-4) (2016 Season: 53-67-3) (2015 Season: 69-45-2) (2014 Season: 61-46-2) (9-Year Total: 518-443-26)
All Picks Against Spread – 2023 Season: 16-15-1 (Last Week: 9-6-1)
(2022 Season: 143-132-9) (2021 Season: 158-126-2) (2020 Season: 132-128-7) (2019 Season: 142-118-7) (2018 Season: 137-118-12) (2017 Season: 137-119-11) (2016 Season: 123-136-8) (2015 Season: 143-117-7) (2014 Season: 149-114-4) (9-Year Total: 1264-1108-67)
New York Giants at San Francisco 49ers
This is a problem. The New York Giants were obliterated and embarrassed on national television to start the year, then played as poorly as a team could against the lowly Cardinals. Eventually, New York pulled off one of the best and most improbable comeback wins in years, but the team should have never been in that position from the start. That’s fine, though. Even after the rough start, the Giants are 1-1 and can move on to their next game.
And that’s where the problem lies.
The reward for New York’s historic comeback is a trip even farther west to face the 2-0 San Francisco 49ers in the team’s home opener. Everything about that sentence should be worrisome for the Giants.