Saturday, September 16, 2017

Week 2 NFL Picks Against the Spread (Yanotchko)

Every week, four of our contributors pick between two and five games each and assign a number of units (one to five) to their selection based on their confidence in the pick.

Earlier this week, John Trifone posted his Week 2 picks against the spread. Now it's Dan Yanotchko's turn.

Editor's note: Play for $1 Million in DraftKings Week 2 Millionaire Maker ($5 Million in prizes, $1 Million to 1st, $20 to enter)

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Here are Dan's Week 2 NFL picks against the spread:

New England Patriots -6.5 over New Orleans Saints (4 Units)

It's been a crazy start to the season, and I think perhaps most surprising of all was the Patriots losing to the Chiefs on championship banner night. As a certified Patriots homer, I know there has been a lot of panic in Patriots Nation, but in the end, we trust Bill Belichick to fix it. Look, the Patriots were not that bad last week as they had the lead going into the fourth quarter.

Yet New Orleans defense was certainly as bad as usual as they let Sam Bradford rip them for 341 yards and three touchdowns through the air. Not one team in the league bounces back from a loss better than the Patriots. I would look for Tom Brady and Brandin Cooks to have huge days, as Cooks is going against the team that traded him in the offseason. This is a get-right game for both the New England offense and defense, and I like them by more than a TD going after that horrible Saints defense.

Oakland Raiders -13.5 over New York Jets (3 Units)

About four years ago, the roles were reversed as Oakland was a team tanking and the Jets were an up-and-coming team. No matter what, the Jets have been historically bad in the Black Hole as the Jets have posted a record of 1-4-1 in their last six when travelling west against the number. I expect that loss column to expand by one. While the Jets typically have a stout run defense, they were shredded by the Bills to the tune of 190 yards and 4.5 yards per carry. Hence all the love this week from my colleagues in DFS for Marshawn Lynch this weekend and I expect him to have a big day as well as the Jets just won't be able to put up more than 13 points.

San Francisco 49ers +14 over Seattle Seahawks (3 Units)

While no one really expects much from the 49ers this year, they still have some positive signs in the first year of their rebuild. The Seahawks were humbled last week against the Packers, but they still showed that they have a long way to go on that offensive line. The 49ers were pretty inept on offense, but they had some excellent numbers against Cam Newton & Co. last week. The 49ers allowed only 3.1 yards per carry last week to Jonathan Stewart and Christian McCaffrey and they were also equally adept at holding Newton in check with 171 yards passing and a 56-percent completion rate. While I don't think that the Niners will win this one outright, 14 points just seems like too big of a number for a team that has one of the worst offensive lines out there. This has junk TD back-door cover written all over it.


- Note: All of our NFL picks against the spread will be centralized here.

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