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New York Jets- After falling at home against New England eight straight times, Rex Ryan relentlessly pressured Tom Brady and vanquished the Patriots 16-9.
New Orleans Saints- After the Eagles defense made a fool of Jake Delhomme in week one, Drew Brees continued his hot streak and led the Saints to a 48 point output against Philadelphia to go to 2-0.
Matt Ryan & Atlanta- Ryan was spectacular in Sunday’s win over Carolina, going 21-27 with three TD’s in the division win, bringing the Falcons up to 2-0.
Matt Schaub & Kurt Warner- What a way to bounce back after the loss to the Jets, putting up 357 in the air and four TD’s in a big win over the Titans. Warner also bounced back with an incredibly accurate effort, going 24-26 in a romp over Jacksonville.
Denver’s Defense- Granted they played the two Ohio teams in the first two weeks, but the Broncos have given up a total of 13 points in wins over Cincinnati and Cleveland.
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Tennessee Titans- After a heartbreaking opening loss to Pittsburgh, their defense didn’t show up at all in their defeat at the hands of the Texans. If not for Chris Johnson, Houston would have embarrassed them way out of Nashville.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers- The Bucs’ have the worst defense in the game after giving up 34 to Dallas and 33 to a surprising Buffalo team. They’re a mess right now.
Kansas City Chiefs- With Matt Cassel making his team debut, they managed to score 10 points at home in a loss to their lowly rival Raiders. That’s baaaad.
Tony Romo- In the long-awaited Cowboys Stadium opener, Romo practically gave the Giants the game, throwing three interceptions and erasing an excellent day from the running game. His decisions cost the team a huge division win at home.
Cleveland Browns- Eric Mangini needs to do something to fix this club that has looked lost on both sides of the ball while falling big to Minnesota and Denver.

“I think Stewart and Williams see about the same split vs Atlanta in terms of touches as they did last week (which was pretty close) – but Atlanta has a decent run defense and they may both be limited in terms of production.”
-ESPN’s Stefania Bell on how Carolina will divvy up their carries on Sunday.

“The whole key to attacking the deep middle of the field is for the Bears’ O-line to give Cutler time to throw the football. Polamalu is a huge loss for the Steelers, but the Bears have to make sure that they handle the Pittsburgh pressure better than they did against the Packers last week.”
-ESPNChicago’s Jeff Dickerson on the Bears attack plan against a Pittsburgh D without Troy Polamalu.

“Philly’s a good defense, but Brees is not Delhomme.”
-ESPN’s NFC South Blogger Pat Yasinskas on whether Saints fans should be worried about the Eagles defense forcing turnovers.

“I don’t know that they will ‘stop’ the Giants, but they’ll certainly tighten up some of those run blitzes and stay in their base defense a little more. I’m not overreacting to one subpar performance by the run defense.”
-ESPN’s NFC East blogger Matt Mosley on Dallas’ run defense.

“I think Lance Briggs is the guy who really has to step up. He’s their best playmaker and with Urlacher gone, he’s the best bet to try to pick up the slack. As far as Pittsburgh is concerned, there’s really no replacing Troy, but they have an amazing front seven. I’d hate to see James Harrison wreaking havoc in the Bears’ backfield.”
-Dickerson on who will step up for Chicago without Brian Urlacher.

“Those comments from Rex Ryan and Kerry Rhodes will be used in the Patriots’ meeting and locker rooms. Believe me.”
-ESPN’s AFC East blogger Tim Graham.

Tennessee (+6.5) over Houston- I’m not too confident about this pick because the Titans didn’t exactly light up the scoreboard. But their run defense looked stout against Pittsburgh and Cortland Finnegan should do ok against Andre Johnson despite the secondary getting torched by Pittsburgh last week. If Thomas Jones can run all over Houston, so can Chris Johnson and LenDale White. Matt Schaub may need to take a week off if the Titans pass rush gets to the QB like they did last week, and the way the Texans protected him last week against New York it may not be a winning proposition for the Texans on the road.
Atlanta (+6.5) over Carolina- The Panthers have to prove to me that they can limit their mistakes against a team that’s better than they are on the road. With Johnathan Stewart on the mend a bit and Jake Delhomme mistake prone, DeAngelo Williams will be on every Falcon’s mind on defense. Though Carolina did injure Donovan McNabb, they didn’t put much pressure on him, and Matt Ryan should have ample time to get the ball out and sling it around. Atlanta wasn’t dominant offensively against Miami last week, but their defense was and could be the same against a team with a QB that may not have it all together.
Minnesota (+10) over Detroit- To steal an awful pun from the Paul Revere story, week one by air, week two by ground. Detroit was torched by Drew Brees and the Saints through the air last week, and the Lions will look quite cowardly against Adrian Peterson and the Minnesota ground attack that made the Browns’ rush defense look like…something else brown. This should be another game where Brett Favre won’t have to do anything to earn his $12 million this year except launch some deep balls to Bernard Berrian. Jamal Lewis was able to have some success against the Vikings when Cleveland wasn’t forced to throw it way too much, and Kevin Smith could have some similar success. He’ll have to if the Lions don’t want Matthew Stafford to get flattened by Minnesota in his first home start.
Jacksonville (+3) over Arizona- I wasn’t on the Cardinals bandwagon before the season, and now I won’t even drive on the same interstate as it. With Anquan Boldin likely limited, and Kurt Warner beginning to show his age, Jacksonville could limit the Cards like they held Indianapolis to 14 points last week. Maurice Jones-Drew had a great all around game against the Colts, and expect the same against the Cardinals. The fans in J-ville won’t get to see the collapse of the Cardinals live, but everyone will be leaving Arizona’s bandwagon pretty quickly after Sunday.
Kansas City (+3) over Oakland- Even if Matt Cassel doesn’t play, I think the Chiefs did enough offensively to merit the pick against a Raiders team that didn’t look too bad against San Diego, a notoriously slow starting team. The Raiders could get their running game going well again, since the Chiefs didn’t fare to well against Baltimore. But look for the Chiefs to look revitalized at home enough to cover the three point spread against a team whose top WR wasn’t even the top receiver on the national champions last year.
New Orleans over Philadelphia- Philadelphia’s defense and special teams did most of the dirty work in last week’s romp over Carolina, and having Kevin Kolb at starting QB against an improved New Orleans defense won’t bode well for Sunday. Neither will that Drew Brees guy and a healthy Pierre Thomas. Brees will probably make a couple of turnovers in the game, but the Eagles may not have enough firepower to cash in and capitalize on their opportunities.
Green Bay (+9) over Cincinnati- Dom Capers’ 3-4 defense won them last week’s game against the Bears and made Jake Cutler look worse than Rex Grossman if Grossman’s right arm was cut off. The Packers were flying all over the field, getting to Cutler and the football, and I don’t think the Bengals offense has a chance after they only put seven points on Denver defense (one of the league’s worst last season) last week. Aaron Rodgers should have another fine game, and Green Bay should cruise at home.
Washington over St. Louis (Rams cover the 10 point spread)- Can the Redskins even score enough points to cover a 10 point spread with the most conservative offense in the league? Clinton Portis is probably going to have a field day on the Rams defense, but the Skins seem to play to their competition, up or down (see their six point loss to the Giants last week, where they only scored 10 points before garbage time). St. Louis’ new coach Steve Spagnuolo knows a thing or two about the Redskins and I think he’s going to make this game a bit of a battle. Washington wins, but don’t bet on it being by double digits.
New England (+3) over NY Jets- The Jets were phenomenal last week against the Texans, putting on the best defensive performance of the week. That took the pressure off of Mark Sanchez and allowed Thomas Jones to take over in the second half. But after all the things the team said this week, the pressure is squarely on Gang Green to get things done with sky high expectations against a team they have not beaten at home in their last eight tries. Mark Sanchez will be under a lot of pressure to succeed and we’ll see if he can really step up to the test of a Bill Belichik defense. The Patriots may have slept walked through three quarters against Buffalo last Monday, but I’m willing to bet they have that drive and focus on Sunday. The Jets will be able to get pressure on Tom Brady, but he can deal with that pressure just a little bit better than Matt Schaub can. With New England’s top two receiving options healthy, look for Brady to spread the ball around to Wes Welker, Joey Galloway and Ben Watson and once again break the hearts of Jet fans hyped up after another week one win.
Buffalo (+5) over Tampa Bay- Tampa Bay is one of the worst five teams in football and the Bills may have been a fumbled kickoff away from beating a sleep walking New England team. The Bucs had a tremendous amount of trouble defending the pass last week against Dallas, and Terrell Owens and Lee Evans should stay happy this week. Tampa did a very good job of running the ball last week, and winning a ball possession, grind it out game could be their only chance of winning.
San Francisco (+1.5) over Seattle- If the Niners can keep Julius Jones under raps, which the Rams couldn’t do last week, San Francisco can put some good pressure on Matt Hasselbeck and have a very good chance to win on the ground with Frank Gore. TJ Houshmanzadeh is banged up and will probably be limited even if he plays. If the 49ers can keep Arizona’s offense in check, they can do the same against the Seahawks and take early control of a putrid NFC West.
Baltimore over San Diego- The Chargers are notoriously slow starters, and couldn’t do very well against Oakland’s defense. Despite the Ravens playing poorly on defense against Kansas City, look for Baltimore to put the clamps on Darren Sproles and a limited LaDanian Tomlinson. Joe Flacco was phenomenal last week, and the Ravens seemed dedicated to more offensive balance. But the three-pronged running attack Baltimore employs will still be out in full force against a Chargers team that had trouble stopping Darren McFadden and Michael Bush last week. Look for the Ravens to force turnovers and score a road upset in America’s Finest City.
Pittsburgh (+3) over Chicago- Both teams are going to have to deal with big losses to their defense, but the Steelers are much better equipped to cope with the loss of Troy Polamalu than Chicago is at replacing Brian Urlacher. Green Bay took Matt Forte and Greg Olsen out of the game, and expect Pittsburgh to try to do the same. I do think Olsen will play well, but Forte is the key to that offense. When Jay Cutler was unable to lean on the team’s best player, he was forced to lean on other players and the Packers forced him into bad decisions. Expect the Bears to lean on Forte to take some of the pressure off Cutler, and they need to succeed at that to win. Chicago’s defense was torched by Aaron Rodgers last week, and Ben Roethlisberger should have similar success. Look for Mewelde Moore to get more touches after Willie Parker looked like he lost at least a step.
Denver (+3) over Cleveland-  Look for the Broncos to come out firing against a bad Browns team after their miraculous win at Cincinnati last week. Denver should capitalize on a bad Cleveland run defense with Knowshon Moreno and their defense looked good in holding the Bengals to seven points a week ago. This should be a cakewalk at home for the Broncos, and a confidence boosting victory for Josh McDaniels.
NY Giants over Dallas- The Cowboys were not only unable to stop the run last week against Tampa Bay, they were unable to get to the QB, which was their bread and butter last year when they led the NFL in sacks. Look for New York to employ Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw early and often to wear down Ware and the Cowboys and also to keep the Dallas offense off the field. The Giants are dealing with some injury problems with their secondary, and the more Big Blue has the ball, the less time Tony Romo has to shred a depleted back four. The run game will set up the play-action pass, and the win the Giants have on the line of scrimmage will translate to a win on the field, which happens to be inside the new Cowboys Stadium.