Week 2 NFL picks: 5 teams on upset alert, including Tom Brady’s Bucs
More Week 2 NFL picks as upset candidates: Bucs on upset alert?
2. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Opponent: New Orleans Saints (in New Orleans)
It’s an upset anytime someone can go out and beat Tom Brady, right? The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had a pretty boring but also pretty convincing Week 1 win over the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys lost Dak Prescott in that game and the Bucs still only ended up winning by a final score of 19-3.
The New Orleans Saints slightly flirted with disaster against the Atlanta Falcons, who were one losing team from Week 1 that still exceeded expectations, but ultimately the Saints showed some resolve and got a one-point win. It’s not going to be easy for New Orleans, even playing at home, to get a win over Tom Brady and the Bucs, but it’s possible.
Jameis Winston is playing against his former team and has a chance with a full arsenal of weapons at receiver and hopefully, for his sake, Alvin Kamara will be able to plow through the injury he’s dealing with that kept him out of practice on Thursday.
3. Atlanta Falcons
Opponent: Los Angeles Rams (in Los Angeles)
Now this would be an upset. The Los Angeles Rams are coming off of an embarrassing loss at the hands of arguably the favorites in the AFC (the Buffalo Bills) but they looked bad in that game. Simply put, the Rams are not as good of a team as they were last year and they have some serious issues when it comes to their pass rush off the edge and whether or not their offensive line will be an issue without guys like Andrew Whitworth (retired) and Austin Corbett (Panthers).
It’s important to remember, not every single one of these upset picks will come to fruition but in Week 1, I called three upsets out of five and another one of my picks ended up in a tie.
The Falcons racked up over 400 yards of offense against the Saints’ defense in Week 1, they had 26 first downs, and they scored 26 points. Marcus Mariota had almost 300 total yards of offense and Younghoe Koo made four of his five field goal attempts.
The Falcons weren’t far off from a win in Week 1 and if they can clean up some mistakes, they might be able to steal one on the road against the Rams.