Week 3: New England Patriots
Going with the Pats in week 3. I know they're the team with the highest spread this week (-14) and are taking on one of the two WORST teams in the league in Oakland (the other is Jacksonville of course). The name of the game is 'Survivor' and that's exactly my approach this season...the idea is to survive as long as possible, enable the sample size of games played to increase, and later in the year have more data to evaluate teams' true strength a little more accurately. Early in the year it's a lot harder to gauge the strength of most teams, unless you have a mismatch like you do this week with OAK @ NE.
Plus take a look at New England's upcoming schedule:
Week 4: @ KC (Monday Night Game)
Week 5: CIN (Sunday Night Game)
Week 6: @ BUF (divisional game on the road)
Week 7: NYJ (divisional game, and playing the Jets is never easy. In '13, NE won by 3 at home and lost by 3 in OT on the road)
Week 8: CHI (sandwiched between 2 divisional games and a big game with the Broncos)
Week 9: DEN
Week 10: BYE WEEK
Week 11: @ IND
Week 12: DET
Week 13: @ GB
Week 14: @ SD
Week 15: MIA
Week 16: @ NYJ
Week 17: BUF
Honestly, besides this week's game at home versus the Raiders, there really is NO other 'gimme' game for the Patriots on their schedule as of right NOW. Of course things can change, and injuries and regression could make some of their future opponents much weaker than they appear to be now, but the same thing could also happen to the Pats as well. People that pass on the Pats while trying to 'save' them for the future, could very well be passing on one of the best opportunities to "SURVIVE". I'll confidently take New England this week and allow everyone else in my Survivor Pools to over-analyze things and set themselves up for potential elimination.
Good Luck
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Week 2: Denver Broncos
I totally forgot to post my Survivor pick last week.
It was Pittsburgh Steelers.
Typically I like having a Survivor Pool thread to discuss weekly picks and track progress.
For week 2 I'm going to go with Denver Broncos.
Yes, I'm taking the biggest favorite but look at Denver's upcoming schedule:
Week 3: @ SEA
Week 4: BYE
Week 5: vs ARZ
Week 6: @ NYJ
Week 7: SF
Week 8: vs SD
Week 9: @ NEP
Week 10: @ OAK
If you don't take Denver this week, I don't think you can take them confidently again until week 10 of the season, by which point you could be out of the contest already. I'm taking Denver in week 2 and hopefully they come through with a comfortable win.
Good Luck
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Week 1: Pittsburgh Steelers