TheSportsNotebook’s NFL analysis previewed the four national games of Week 2, from Thursday night to late Sunday afternoon to the Sunday-Monday prime-time parlay. Now let’s wrap up our prep for the season’s second week with a rundown on the 12 undercard games. Each one is picked on the moneyline, with the odds for an outright win noted in parentheses…
The marquee games of NFL Week 2 are highlighted by three divisional showdowns that are each important in their own unique way, along with the next installment of the Manning Brothers Civil War. Let’s focus on each of the four big games that the entire country will see.
The biggest game of Week 1 was Green Bay-San Francisco, and that one was recapped here. Let’s close out our NFL analysis on the season’s opening week with a run through the 15 remaining games…
If you’re a part of the conventional wisdom that sees Green Bay-San Francisco as a logical—even likely—matchup in this coming January’s NFC Championship Game, then nothing happened on Sunday afternoon to change your mind. The 49ers held serve at home with a 34-28 win over the Packers, but both teams set a high bar for any challengers to come after.
There are four games in NFL Week 1 that the nation will see, starting in the late afternoon window on Sunday afternoon and rolling through the now-traditional Monday Night Football doubleheader on ESPN. TheSportsNotebook’s NFL analysis concludes it’s Week 1 coverage with a look at the four money games…
All of the games are predicted on the moneyline, which unlike the pointspread is simply about winning outright. If a team is (-300) as the favorite, it means you’re required to wager $300 to turn a $100 profit. If an underdog is (+220), a simple $100 bet gets you a profit of $200. Each team’s moneyline is in parentheses, and the road team is always listed first.
We’re back at the scene of the crime, so to speak, for the opening of the 2013 NFL season. The Baltimore Ravens visit the Denver Broncos on Thursday night to kick off the year in an 8:30 PM ET kickoff on NBC.
The last time these two teams faced was the second round of last year’s playoffs, which had about as stunning an end to regulation as we’ll ever see, when Denver free safety Rahim Moore allowed Baltimore receiver Jacoby Jones to get behind him for a 70-yard touchdown catch that tied the game 35-35, and ultimately allowed the Ravens to win in overtime.
TheSportsNotebook’s NFL analysis has been going full-bore through the month of August, completing previews on all 32 teams individually, as well as a separate overview on each of the eight divisions, exploring their betting odds, recent history and including links to the team previews of its members. Now it’s time to tie everything together into one last preseason preview.
When the Washington Redskins closed the 2012 season seven straight wins and won the NFC East, it completed the division’s superfecta—all four teams had won it in four successive years. The streak started with the Dallas Cowboys in 2009, then the Philadelphia Eagles in 2010. The New York Giants won the division en route to their Super Bowl title in 2011 and then Washington last year.
Chip Kelly’s arrival in the NFL is probably the most anticipated college-to-pro coaching jump we’ve seen since Steve Spurrier tried the same thing 11 years ago. The Philadelphia Eagles are hoping their grand experiment with an innovative offensive mind from college works better than Spurrier did for the Redskins (two bad years).
The Dallas Cowboys opened the 2012 NFL season with a notable performance on national television and closed it with another one. Each game—the opener with the Giants and the finale with the Redskins, each in prime-time—showed the wide pendulum that this team’s fortunes can swing.
The collapse of the New York Giants down the stretch was perhaps the most surprising element of the NFL regular season in 2012. The Giants looked to be coasting home in the NFC East, before they fell apart, watched the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys play for the division title, and the Giants ended up out of the postseason altogether. Was it a temporary swoon or a sign of things to come?