Lombardi Ave picks 2016: National Football League Week 2 roundup

Week 2 has thankfully come to a close, Green Bay Packers fans.

Unfortunately for the Packers this week saw them drop an ugly contest to open Minnesota’s new stadium, but that was only one of the 16 games that happened this week.

As with last week, I along with a few of my fellow writers here on Lombardi Ave made picks for who we thought would come out victorious.

What we got right

There were many games we were in agreement on; a good portion of those ended up being correct.

Baltimore didn’t look good for a second straight week, but they managed a big comeback victory against a Cleveland team that was likely to be among the worst in the league even before injury issues have hit their QB spot.

New England also lost their short-term starter to injury, but did plenty before and after to hold off a late Miami comeback attempt.

Pittsburgh continued showing positive gains with their defensive performance (and the aid of rain) against the usually-strong Cincinnati offense, taking a messy game and staying on track with Baltimore in the division.

Carolina didn’t look nearly as good as the 15-1 team we saw last year, but they did well enough to keep San Francisco from ever really challenging regardless.

Arizona put the brakes on concerns about the team following a somewhat-surprising loss at home to New England in Week 1, blowing out a Tampa Bay team that was earning much (apparently undue) hype; they made Jameis Winston look like a rookie again in a massive blowout.

Denver pummeled Andrew Luck and made enough plays on a depleted (though not all that great to begin with) defense to move up to a 2-0 record and sole lead of the AFC West.

What we got wrong

As a group, we were drinking the kool-aid a bit too heavily on a few different teams and it came back to bite us.

Detroit showed a strong effort offensively against the Colts in Week 1, but that may say more about the bad Colts defense than the Lions’ offense; an underwhelming Tennessee team held them to 15 points, while their defense was unable to make a key stop late that allowed for the final margin of victory. With injuries striking key spots on that unit (Ezekiel Ansah and DeAndre Levy, among others), the offense might need to carry them in games.

Seattle continued its annual tradition of looking absolutely flummoxed by the Los Angeles Rams, and this could be a long-term issue to watch. They have had a tendency to start seasons slow recently and still end up being fine, but this line is the worst they’ve ever had under Pete Carroll and it’s asking a lot for them to become even a mediocre unit with the lack of actual resources the team has put forth at that spot.

Oakland was a darling of the offseason, with a handful of strong veteran additions brought in to go with productive young talents already in-house; it was supposed to make this team a quality playoff contender immediately. So far however, the defense looks worse than ever despite additions all around the unit, and the offense has had to try winning shootouts. That usually ends up as a 50-50 proposition, and it has played out as such in their record.

Jacksonville is an even worse situation. They also had some offseason buzz, and after looking pretty good against Green Bay it seemed like maybe they were ready for a major step forward towards relevancy as a franchise again. They then went out against a San Diego offense that was already missing Keenan Allen for the year (and also lost Danny Woodhead during the game) and got demolished.

Who won the week

With all of us agreeing in so many instances, we ended the week with three of us (myself, Josh, and Thomas) getting 10 picks correct.

Brad was only one pick behind with 9, so this was about as coalesced as a pick set can get in a given week.

Week 2 Picks Records:

Josh: 10-6
Kenn: 10-6
Thomas: 10-6
Brad: 9-7

2016 Picks Records:

Thomas: 21-11
Kenn: 20-12
Brad: 19-13
Josh: 18-14