Sanders's Week 1 Predictions

By Jacob Sanders

Another summer has come and passed by. Meaning football season is now back! It always feels good to know that once football starts, it never ends until February. I’ve already wasted too much time. Let’s get to the picks already! FOOTBALL IS BACK BABY!

Just remember folks, these are non-professional opinions and you can share your opinion with me as well!

Twitter: @jcs436

Email: jcs436@nau.edu

Happy Reading!

Kansas City Chiefs vs New England Patriots

A rather enticing matchup on paper considering the success both teams have had the last several years. Unfortunately, you have to take the obvious pick here. Alex Smith and Co. are fine. The Chiefs defense is really good. But Tom Brady and Co. are stellar despite Edelman’s season ending injury and their defense is really good as well. The Patriots have a leg up on the Chiefs because they have more playmakers on offense. It’s possible this game is finished before the second half starts if the Chiefs defense can’t rumble up Brady.

Chiefs 13       Patriots 27

New York Jets vs Buffalo Bills

Oof. What a matchup to start the Sunday games. And probably one that most non-New York fans will be watching. The Jets ARE the worst team on paper and clearly stated in the offseason that they are playing for the future. The Bills started to do the same as well by trading a couple of high profile players in the last couple weeks as well. So how do you pick either team? Well, the Bills arguably have the better starting QB in Tyrod Taylor and they have LeSean McCoy to lean on as per usual. The Jets don’t really have any offenseive playmakers to lean on except an aging Matt Forte. Huh. Yeah this one is obvious the more you think about it.

Jets 10            Bills 17

Atlanta Falcons vs Chicago Bears

Despite the fact the Falcons lost their biggest catalyst for a historical offense last season, the talent is still all there. In addition, this team got better on defense. Meanwhile, the Bears tried to upgrade themselves at QB. With Mike Glennon as the starter for Week 1, it’s hard to believe that they can beat the defending NFC champions. Also, it’s about time to consider that the Falcons have more talent on defense than they do on offense. Yeah? No? Just me? Okay.

Falcons 27    Bears 10

Baltimore Ravens vs Cincinnati Bengals

Tough one here to call. The Bengals have two of their defensive starters suspended for the season opener. Those two players being Vontaze Burfict and Pacman Jones. Also, their offensive line has lost a lot of veterans and been replaced with a lot of unknown. On the flipside, there isn’t much positive for Baltimore either. Flacco hasn’t had the chance to develop any chemistry with his new offense and the running game doesn’t look like it has improved all that much. The one thing going for them is they have a stellar defense on paper that looked smothering in the preseason. However, unless the defense can score a couple TDs, I don’t see Baltimore scoring much against a Bengals defense that is still formidable without two of their starters. Oh and the Ravens haven’t beaten the Bengals in Cincinnati since 2012. So by default…

Ravens 10     Bengals 13

Pittsburgh Steelers vs Cleveland Browns

I’ve been amused at how many people think the Browns have a chance here. Some even have gone as far as to picking the Browns for an upset pick. While there is some legitimacy to these claims, it’s still the Browns people. Don’t get me wrong. I love what the organization is doing as whole. But right now, the seed is still growing and we won’t get to see it come out of the dirt for at least another year or two. It’s also a tall task to ask of rookie QB Kizer to lead an offense and expect him to beat a Steelers defense that has slowly improved every year the last couple years. I haven’t even begun to mention the Steelers offense…jeez.

Steelers 28    Browns 17

Arizona Cardinals vs Detroit Lions

For the entirety of the summer, I pegged this as a Lions win. And why not? Stafford got his new contract. The team seems more upbeat than they have in years. They can beat a quality opponent in Arizona. But now, after the Lions lost their starting LT and John Brown seeming to get back into form for Arizona, it’s kind of hard to not pick the Cardinals. Chandler Jones will take advantage of a broken Lions offensive line and we all know that Arians is going to call for a couple deep flyers to John Brown and he’ll catch at least one of them. David Johnson is also one of the most dynamic running backs in football at the moment as well. Thus the big play dynamic seems greater for the Cardinals than it does for the Lions. Don’t even get me started on the Cardinals secondary.

Cardinals 27  Lions 20

Jacksonville Jaguars vs Houston Texans

Count me as one of those guys who is pretty sick of hearing about the Jaguars defensive potential. That’s cool and all but have you ever heard of having a franchise quarterback? Guess they missed the memo. Speaking of franchise quarterback, the Texans don’t have one of those (yet) either but they at least can get some decent QB play out of Savage to win games with a stellar defense that finally has J.J. Watt back into the mix. Time for some electricity to come back to a city that needs it after Hurricane Harvey devastated Texas this summer. As a matter of fact, forget football here for a second and let’s take a second to appreciate Watt’s efforts to help restore faith in Texas and help many people who are homeless and hungry right now because of the hurricane. What a fantastic human being to put real-life first before a sport. You can donate to his cause here: https://www.youcaring.com/victimsofhurricaneharvey-915053

Jaguars 10     Texans 20

Oakland Raiders vs Tennessee Titans

I’m really excited about this Titans team and they are my pick to win a weak AFC South division. However, it won’t look like that in Week 1. The Raiders are simply a better team and will have the ability to over-take a Titan’s defense that may or may not be prepared to take on the likes of Derek Carr and Co. This should be a back and forth game for a while but Carr’s arm strength and accuracy will beat Mariota’s legs to the endzone.

Raiders 28    Titans 24

Philadelphia Eagles vs Washington Redskins

The Redskins lost a lot of pieces to their offense this season and added a lot of new faces. The same can’t really be said for the Redskins defense who constantly held this team back last season. Barring a massive improvement, the Eagles newly improved offense should be able to handle and beat this Redskins defense who will be at home. Along with that, the Eagles defense has been under-rated for a long time now. We will see why this Sunday.

Eagles 20       Redskins 17

Indianapolis Colts vs LA Rams

My goodness. What a nightmare matchup for anybody who isn’t a Colts or Rams fan. No Andrew Luck and no Aaron Donald. It makes me wonder why even the fans would want to watch a game that should be sloppy without their franchise star players. Alright, with that rant aside, I’m picking the Colts here. Why? The Colts have some offensive pieces to make plays. The Rams? Well. They have Todd Gurley and we saw that if you game plan for him, the Rams can’t answer with their passing game. Goff has got to show something before I can place any faith in him.

Colts 17         Rams 10

Seattle Seahawks vs Green Bay Packers

Much noise about the Seahawks being favorites to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. It’s also much ado about nothing to me. Even with the Sheldon Richardson trade, the same questions on this team remain as it did last year. Will the running game finally do well? Will the offensive line holdup? Will anybody besides Doug Baldwin and Russell Wilson step up on offense? None of these questions really can be answered. As for the Packers, their depth on defense has improved and Rodgers probably has his best group of playmakers to work with since the 2011 Super Bowl. In the end, I feel like this matchup comes down to which offense can score more points and not necessarily about who has the better defense. Rodgers’s offense can definitely score more than Wilson’s can.

Seahawks 21  Packers 24

UPSET OF THE WEEK!!!

Carolina Panthers vs San Francisco 49ers

I might get called crazy for this one and that’s okay. You want to know what’s really crazy? How the 49ers went from being the least talented team last year in the NFL to at least looking serviceable this year. A lot of credit should be given to Lynch and Shanahan for their smart maneuvers of their first NFL Draft and their ability to coax old veterans to play for the in San Francisco. Hoyer should be able to thrive in Shanahan’s offense like he did in Cleveland. As for the Panthers? They dipped last year and I don’t think it was an accident. When Newton’s play isn’t stellar, the Panthers don’t look stellar. This is pretty obvious when you look at Newton’s career as a whole. Unfortunately, he spent almost all of the offseason recovering from injury and also threw a whopping two passes in the preseason. Most people won’t find this concerning but I do. It’s hard to develop chemistry with your offense when you don’t get meaningful reps in.

Panthers 13  49ers 17

New York Giants vs Dallas Cowboys

A lot of the media will be focused on Elliot. You know who hasn’t been in the media lately? Beckham. Odell freakin Beckham hasn’t been in the media lately. How about that?! Maybe it’s a sign that he is finally maturing and can be a leader in this offense instead of just their best player. Enough on the gossip though, what about the analysis Mr. Sanders? Well, the Giants mostly remain intact from last year which is good from an on paper perspective. The same can’t be said for the Cowboys. They lost a little over half of their starting defense to free agency and their defense was already mediocre at best. Both teams have star players on offense that can change the pace of the game at will. So, how do you pick? Pick the better defense that can attempt to hold off those star players.

Giants 31 Cowboys 24

New Orleans Saints vs Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings defense isn’t going to surprise anyone this year like it did last year when Minnesota got off to a strong 5-0 start. The Saints defense can surprise though. There is a lot of expectation that the Saints defense will hold back the team like it does every year. However, the front office did a great job providing some depth to the defense. Will it be stellar? No. But when your offense has Drew Brees, the defense only has to be bend but don’t break. Unfortunately, for Minnesota, that’s all you have to be to beat a dink and dunk offense led by Sam Bradford.

Saints 24       Vikings 17

LA Chargers vs Denver Broncos

A lot of hype around the Chargers this year and it’s well-deserved. But the hype is well-deserved every year and the injury bug along with terrible O-line play always derails their season. You know what’s not deserved? The slamming that the Broncos offense keeps taking. People often forget how well Siemian can function when his offensive line is healthy. The Broncos defense still has a bunch of game wreckers to terrorize Philip Rivers and Co. Thus, while people can say this is a tough matchup, I’ll take the Super Bowl caliber defense who is playing at home.

Chargers 14  Broncos 20