Now that was a nice first weekend of football! Not only did my team, the Green Bay Packers manage to grab a win, I was more impressed by our defensive in a mostly defensive game. The Smith brothers are no joke it seems, as they combined for a couple of sacks and a bunch of hits/hurries. We weren’t bad in the run game, and I didn’t see many long passes getting anywhere. I’m not going to say they’re elite just yet, but I can’t believe how much better they look compared to last year. The offense was sputtering far too often, but I attribute that to the fact that Aaron Rodgers and most of the starters didn’t play preseason snaps so the chemistry is off. I’m sure next week we’ll see something better offensively. There was a picture perfect drive that took 1:35 to complete, but outside of a that the only points put up was a field goal in the 4th quarter. I suspect we’ll see more action next week, but it has to start with the run game, certainly. I actually watched several other games this weekend because my game was on Thursday and on Sunday after work I was in the mood to watch more. I caught parts of a few games, but I was pretty impressed by Dallas as well, and I hate saying that. Still, they looked good but the Giants haven’t been too hot for a few seasons so that could be why. There were a few blowout scores I wouldn’t have seen coming, and in the end the Patriots beat the Steelers in this sort of fashion as well. I caught the Saints/Texans game on Monday night but didn’t stay up to watch the Broncos lose to the Raiders. The former was a great game with a bunch of lead changes in the 4th quarter, but the Saints pulled out the victory. Anyway, let’s score last week’s picks:

Packers 35, Bears 27 – Correct
Rams 24, Panthers 20 – Correct
Redskins 21, Eagles 17
Bills 20, Jets 10 – Correct
Vikings 27, Falcons 21 – Correct
Ravens 30, Dolphins 7 – Correct
Chiefs 35, Jags 21 – Correct
Browns 17, Titans 10
Chargers 20, Colts 13 – Correct
Seahawks 23, Bengals 14 – Correct
49ers 21, Buccs 20 – Correct
Cowboys 21, Giants 9 – Correct
Lions 20, Cardinals 16
Steelers 28, Patriots 26
Saints 31, Texans 17 – Correct
Broncos 24, Raiders 13

So I ended up going 11-5, which is a good enough score to get into the playoffs. Most of the scores were way off, but I did sort of predict the Ravens blowing out the Dolphins, though it was by an even larger margin. Sad times. I really thought the Browns might come out swinging with all of the shit talking that’s been going on, but then they just proved to be as bad as ever, losing to the so-so Titans. The Lions – Cardinals game ended up being the lone tie of the week, and the only one of the season so far. And for those of you still laughing at the Browns, just imagine how the Steelers felt having the same 30 point deficit against the hated Patriots? Whatever the case, it was an exciting football weekend and I’m looking forward to Thursday night already. Let’s make some picks for the upcoming weekend:

Panthers 27, Buccs 24
Cowboys 30, Redskins 14
Titans 20, Colts 17
Seahawks 23, Steelers 13
Bills 24, Giants 20
Patriots 50, Dolphins 3
Texans 24, Jags 21
Packers 28, Vikings 14
Lions 20, Chargers 10
49ers 20, Bengals 13
Ravens 31, Cards 20
Chiefs 35, Raiders 21
Saints 33, Rams 24
Bears 24, Broncos 17
Eagles 27, Falcons 23
Browns 14, Jets 13

Going to go out on a limb and assume the Browns will pull it together. Otherwise pretty predictable things. I suspect the Packers will catch the Vikings off guard, despite having some footage to study of the new defense. If the offense can get going sooner and the defense plays a similar game, we just might get ahead into first place in the division early into the season, and that would be sweet. We’ll see how I do, will check back in next week.