The full update will be posted around lunchtime. In the meantime, here are the standings:
Salvo and Gary were the top scorers this week, with 15 points apiece. Both managed to miss the big upsets, with the Ravens and Bills both heavily favoured but losing in Week 1. Mark is in third place with 14 points, despite not having any confidence picks!
It’s finally here! The opening weekend of the NFL season – the first of 18 weeks of regular season football!
Here are the lines for the opening weekend, as of 11 am Sunday – the home team is identified in the line – a negative score means the home team is favoured to win by that many points, a positive figure means the away team is favoured to win. The Predictor’s picks are on the left. +1 refers to games with a confidence pick. The Predictor selected Tampa Bay +1 for the Thursday night game
On game day or game night, I’ll post a message similar to this one. Make sure you get your picks in before the game starts (or before 1 pm on Sunday). For the Thursday night games, I’ll post my picks (and that of the Predictor) here. I’ll do the same for the Sunday/Monday picks on Sunday morning
Tonight: Dallas at Tampa Bay, 8:20 pm ET
Line: Tampa Bay -8.5
PICKS: Matt: Tampa Bay +1 (with confidence) Predictor: Tampa Bay +1
Preview: As is customary, the reigning Super Bowl champions kick off the season playing on Thursday night against… Dallas? While this could’ve been Buffalo, New Orleans, or possibly even the Bears, NBC loves the NFC East (RATINGZZZZZZ) and Dallas should be a better team this year with a (presumably) healthy Dak and (possibly) a functioning defense, so it would not be fair to write them off like an FCS team being led to slaughter against a ranked Pac-12 team. That said, the talent in Tampa Bay should be far too great for Dallas and the Bucs should win this game handily.
The game between Green Bay and New Orleans has been moved to Jacksonville in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida. For the purposes of the pool and your picks, this game should be treated as a neutral-site game.