Week 1 NFL Football Lock?

LuckyDad

Is anyone else doing the ESPN Eliminator Challenge or something like it?

Basically, each week you pick one NFL team that "can't lose" that week. If you are wrong, you are done for the season, if you are right, you advance. The trick is you can't pick the same team more than once in a season.

For week 1 I'm going with the popular consensus pick, Colts over Oakland at home. Consensus picks are always dangerous and I've found this first week or two are tricky, when we don't really know which teams have made big strides forward or big slides back. I always like picking a home team favorite.

Feel free to discuss any upcoming week 1 matchups you like in this thread.

LuckyDad

Ok, I'll talk to myself.

Definitely don't pick the Lions at home over Minnesota. For one thing, they're the Lions. For another, it's the NFC North; crazy things tend to happen when those teams face off. I really like my Vikings chances against the Lions this week in general.

Sadly, I don't feel the same way about my Chargers at home Monday night against the Texans. I wouldn't fault someone for taking Houston this week, although I think they will be a nice "safe" pick down the road to save for later.

I actually don't love the Broncos at home against Baltimore. I think there's a better than average upset potential there.

Coltsdad

Teams I would consider taking in an eliminator pool, in decreasing order:

Colts over Raiders
Pats over Bills, especially with a rookie QB no one has heard of
Dolphins over Browns
Chiefs over Jaguars

LuckyDad

I like Pats over Bills, I just usually like to save the Pats for later in the season.

Chiefs over Jaguars intrigues me. But the Chiefs won TWO GAMES last season. So did the Jags, but race to the bottom matches scare me.

I actually like the Browns over the Dolphins this week. Minimally I call that game a toss-up.

Coltsdad

The Chiefs were and are in much better shape in overall talent last year, they just lacked a QB.  The QB position cost them multiple games.  They fixed that problem with Alex Smith, Jacksonville did not, they are still in Blaine Gabbert mode.

LuckyDad

Coltsdad said:

The Chiefs were and are in much better shape in overall talent last year, they just lacked a QB.  The QB position cost them multiple games.  They fixed that problem with Alex Smith, Jacksonville did not, they are still in Blaine Gabbert mode.

I think the Chiefs will win, but I'm actually not the biggest Alex Smith fan. I think he was successful behind an awesome SF Offensive Line.