NFL: Week 2

Oakland +3 Kansas City - The Raiders showed a bit of a pulse on Monday night against San Diego, so maybe this team won't be as bad as we thought. More importantly, the Chiefs put some non-traditional points on the board against Baltimore to stay in the game...which is whey they're getting the edge here. Home Field Advantage means nothing in this series, with the visitors winning 5 straight outright (the last 4 as a dog of a 3 or more) and the Raiders have covered their last 3 trips to Arrowhead.

Denver / Cleveland UNDER 38 1/2 - Both teams really labored to score in week 1, and I suspect it's because both offenses just aren't very good. Brady Quinn has never materialized as a QB you can count on to sustain drives, and he'll be facing a Denver defense that looked pretty solid in holding the Bengals to 7 points. Kyle Orton reminded us last week that he's certainly not Jay Cutler and that you don't choose a quarterback based on emotion. The UNDER is 4-2-1 in the last 7 games involving the Browns.

New England / NY Jets OVER 45 1/2 - The Jets offense showed signs of life last week in Houston, and he returns home to be supported by a raucous crowd in his first start at the Meadowlands. On Monday night, the Patriots showed that their defense will be a little bit suspect but that the offense can still get it going. This game could turn into a track meet...with the one question being is the Jets defense really as good as it looked in holding a good Houston team in check. I think it could be a good unit, but it can't play that well two weeks in a row. The OVER has paid in 7 of the last 8 Pats games and is 6-4-1 in the last 11 involving the Jets.

San Diego -3 Baltimore - The Chargers defense was 11th against the run last year and 31st against the pass, so it's a defense pretty well suited to give trouble to Joe Flacco and the Ravens' run-oriented attack. Baltimore played 5 teams with a rushing defense in the top dozen last year and averaged barely over 15 points in those games. LT is hurt, so (I can't believe I'm going to write this), Darren Sproles will get more touches and provide more explosiveness to the San Diego offense.

NY Giants +3 Dallas - There will be a lot of festivities around the regular season debut of the Jerryland, but I just can't see how Dallas is favored here. This is still a 9-7 team that plays tremendously inconsistent football and generally has lines skewed toward them (they were underdogs only 3 times last year in losing those 7 games). The Giants, on the other hand, generally you pretty consistent effort, were a 12-4 team last year, and generally play just as well away from home as they do in Jersey (6-2 ATS last year on the road). The Cowboys are just 2-8 ATS in their last 10 against the NFC East. Either the big Dallas win last year is holding this number artificially or I'm falling for a Vegas trap. We'll see tonight.

Leans:

Jacksonville -3
Chicago +3
New Orleans -1
Tennessee -7