I will always love the second week of any given season. It’s the time when we see the most overreaction, which means it’s the time we get the biggest disconnect between perception and reality.
For most weeks of the year, I take my time moving through games in any order that makes sense based on what we can determine from the prior schedule of games. When it comes to Week 2, however, we can essentially make our picks as soon as the first week is over.
There is, of course, some caution to take. We can’t simply expect any team that lost to revert to a winner in Week 2 just by virtue of the prior result. But we can ask them to play a different style of game than we just saw. Specifically — and more to the point of this column — we can ask them to compete differently against the spread.
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 Fanatics Sportsbook (formerly 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 – 2024 Season: 2-4 (Last Week: 2-4)
(2023 Season: 63-61-4) (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) (10-Year Total: 581-504-30)
All Picks Against Spread – 2024 Season: 9-6-1 (Last Week: 9-6-1)
(2023 Season: 142-135-8) (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) (10-Year Total: 1406-1243-75)
Buffalo Bills at Miami Dolphins
There’s only one concern with the game between the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins, and we’ll address it shortly. But first, a story.
A team is playing at home with lofty expectations. It has been sloppy for much of its first game but hung around long enough to give the impression that a turnaround might happen. Turnarounds require catalysts, however, and so they waited for one.
The