NFL Viewer's Guide for Week 2: Ranking the Matchups and Predictions
Each week we'll be counting down the weekend games in terms of viewer appeal and later share our predictions — confidence pool style.
As usual, there are several intriguing matchups on the schedule and we've ranked them (in reverse order) based on the expect quality of the game along with Dolphins-related impact, if applicable.
COUNTDOWN OF THE BEST GAMES
15. Detroit at Green Bay, Monday, 8:15 p.m. ET: We have never hidden our affinity for Dan Campbell, but the reality is he's coaching an overmatch (albeit gritty) team that should get blown out here after Aaron Rodgers and his teammates were embarrassed by the Saints last week.
14. Houston at Cleveland, 1 p.m. ET: As impressive as the Texans were last week, this game has Browns blowout written all over it.
13. Denver at Jacksonville, 1 p.m. ET: The Urban Meyer watch is on, right? That's about as much excitement as there can be with a team that's lost 16 in a row since the 2020 opener.
12. Cincinnati at Chicago, 1 p.m. ET: An intriguing matchup pitting Andy Dalton against his former team ... ah, who we kidding? There's nothing intriguing about the Bears until they finally realize they need to have Justin Fields at quarterback. Joe Burrow and the Bengals, on the other hand, are a team to watch.
11. Atlanta at Tampa Bay, 4:05 p.m. ET: This is the matchup that FOX has decided to showcase in the late window, but frankly we just don't see the appeal. Yes, we get it, Tom Brady, blah, blah, blah, but the Falcons are just bad.
10. Minnesota at Arizona, 4:05 p.m. ET: Speaking of encores, Kyler Murray and Chandler Jones are going to be hard-pressed to duplicate what they did in Week 1.
9. New England at N.Y. Jets, 1 p.m. ET: What stands out in this AFC East battle, of course, is the matchup of rookie quarterbacks Mac Jones and Zach Wilson. Until further notice, though, the Jets remain a really bad team.
8. New Orleans at Carolina, 1 p.m. ET: The big question in this matchup is what kind of encore Jameis Winston can produce after his big outing against Green Bay in Week 1.
7. Tennessee at Seattle, 4:25 p.m. ET: This is a much better matchup than Week 1 might suggest because the Titans are a lot better (or at least should be) than they showed in Week 1.
6. San Francisco at Philadelphia, 1 p.m. ET: DeVonta Smith is the player to watch here and we'll get to find out early if the Eagles are a bona fide legit team in light of their blowout victory at Atlanta in Week 1.
5. Kansas City at Baltimore, 8:20 p.m. ET: This should have been a fabulous matchup, but the Ravens have just been so decimated by injuries that it's difficult to see them making much of a game against Patrick Mahomes and his buddies.
4. Dallas at L.A. Chargers, 4:25 p.m. ET: After the aerial show Dak Prescott put up in the opening Thursday night game, this game has the potential to be a lot of fun because Justin Herbert sure looks like he's ready to take the next step in his second season.
3. L.A. Rams at Indianapolis, 1 p.m. ET: The matchup of Aaron Donald against Quenton Nelson is about as good an individual matchup as you'll ever get in the NFL. This game also should be interesting in establishing whether the Rams are nearly as good as some have made them out to be because of the way they hammered the lowly Bears.
2. Las Vegas at Pittsburgh, 1 p.m. ET: This has intriguing potential in light of the Raiders' wild Week 1 Monday night win against Baltimore, though they'll have to solve what looks like a dominating Steelers defense.
1. Buffalo at Miami, 1 p.m. ET: Is it too early to call to use the term "showdown" for this AFC East battle? The Dolphins could make a major statement here while taking early control of the division race if they can solve the Josh Allen puzzle.
GAME PREDICTIONS
In a different way of doing this, here are projected winners, and they are ranked in order of confidence that the projection will be accurate with No. 1 being the most confident. Note that the Dolphins game will not be included in this exercise; the Dolphins prediction will come in a Saturday column.
Week 1 record: 5-10 (Yikes!)
1. Tampa Bay over Atlanta
2. Green Bay over Detroit
3. Cleveland over Houston
4. Pittsburgh over Las Vegas
5. New England over N.Y. Jets
6. Arizona over Minnesota
7. Denver over Jacksonville
8. New Orleans over Carolina
9. L.A. Chargers over Dallas
10. San Francisco over Philadelphia
11. Indianapolis over L.A. Rams
12. Kansas City over Baltimore
13. Seattle over Tennessee
14. Cincinnati over Chicago
