The major injuries take place in the National Football League and teams suffer from drastic declines as a result, games then become easier to predict. Well, at least in a perfect world. Here in reality, two teams with those circumstances are the New Orleans Saints and Pittsburgh Steelers. They may be without their starting quarterbacks and may be on the road for Week 3, but this is still the Saints and Steelers that we’re talking about. Whose to say they couldn’t pull off an upset?
Let’s face it, the NFL is unbelievably unpredictable (hell, football in general is), which is apart of the reason why we’re so addicted to this league and the sport overall. There’s, of course, exceptions to the rule, such as the 2019 Miami Dolphins who have been absolutely depressing to watch this season. After getting stomped out by the New England Patriots, 43-0, they’re entering this week against the Dallas Cowboys as a heavy underdog — a three-touchdown underdog to be exact. You can pretty much guarantee that Dallas will be a victor this weekend, but other than that, it’s complete unpredictability. You’ve got to love the NFL.
Week 3 should bring a good amount of home victories this week, and this is based off of the point spreads. There’s obviously a few games that should go the other way, but the majority of the games should side with the home team, and this is especially true considering previously-mentioned New Orleans and Pittsburgh don’t have Drew Brees and Ben Roethlisberger. If you live close to an NFL franchise, go to the stadium, because it’s looking like a good week for home cookin’.
Let’s go over the biggest games to bet on for Week 3 of the 2019 NFL regular season, including a few of the contests where we’ll have a road victor, the odds released by the top football betting sites for each game and I’ll also be giving you my personal betting predictions for the entire slate. Before we get into everything though, here are my top five power rankings entering the third week of the season:
ANALYSIS: The chaotic division that never stops being chaotic is, well, chaotic, and it’s anyone’s division to win, even a team such as the Jacksonville Jaguars who are currently 0-2 and trying to rid of Jalen Ramsey and his distraction after he requested a trade. Welcome to the AFC South, baby. The meeting between the Jaguars and Titans will be a matchup of two teams who are on the rebound. For Jacksonville, they’ll be looking to get things back together after a loss to the Houston Texas last week, while the Tennessee Titans will try to earn a victory after dropping their contest against the Indianapolis Colts. On paper, this “Thursday Night Football” square off is pretty even, and can certainly be considered a toss-up. However, with the on-going tension and drama with the Ramsey situation right now, you’ve got to side with Tennessee to pull out the victory on the road — one of the few road warriors this week.
ANALYSIS: Last season in Week 14, the Baltimore Ravens would take a loss to the Kansas City Chiefs while on the road. During this game, however, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson would record his second-highest passer rating of 2018 with a 100.5. If he were to pull that same figure this week against the Chiefs, it would actually be his worst showing of the new campaign, that just shows you how good Jackson has been this season. Lamar Jackson is legit, and the Ravens offensive potency is real. But here’s the problem for Baltimore, and nearly the entire NFL: You’ve got to have a massively elite defense in order to stop MVP Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City offense, and even then it’s a bit of a stretch. I have the Baltimore Ravens making it competitive throughout, but the Kansas City Chiefs will just be too much for them to handle — especially at Arrowhead.
ANALYSIS: Without their quarterback Andrew Luck, it looks like the Indianapolis Colts will have to scratch and claw their way to wins. This Sunday’s game against the Atlanta Falcons is the latest example, with the Colts sitting as just a 2-point favorite — the line was an even -1 in favor of Indianapolis at one point. After getting beat by a distance by the Minnesota Vikings in Week 1, the Falcons would recover with a 24-20 win against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 2. Despite the rebound, they need to pull off another big win this week. With the state of each the Saints without Brees, the 0-2 Carolina Panthers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers being who they are, Atlanta needs to take advantage. The opportunity is real in 2019 for them to win the NFC South. However, a loss against the Colts would be a setback, considering Brees will eventually come back. You don’t want to leave the door open for the Saints when that happens. The main way they can achieve a victory is to improve their running game this week, and speaking of, Indianapolis’ rushing defense has been absolutely dismal this year, allowing an average of 124 yards-per-game in the first two weeks of the season. We’ll have a close game here, but I think the Atlanta Falcons smell blood in the NFC South and take advantage of a Luck-less Indianapolis Colts team, and on the road at that.
ANALYSIS: The Minnesota Vikings would roll all over the Atlanta Falcons in their Week 1 contest, and last week, they would nearly earn another victory against their rival Green Bay Packers in comeback fashion, but would fall just short. Despite the loss, Dalvin Cook and the Vikings’ defense showed their potential and how good they can be. Minnesota hopes to add to their list of resources this weekend to prove they can be a playoff team, and they’re hoping quarterback Kirk Cousins can be thrown on that list. In a perfect world, Cousins should tear up the Oakland Raiders at U.S. Bank Stadium. As far as Oakland’s passing defense is concerned, it’s been absolutely dismal allowing an average of 341 passing yards-per-game, which is ranked the worst in the National Football League. Under those circumstances, Cousins should thrive this weekend to give the Minnesota Vikings an offense of potency, as well as a distant win at home.
ANALYSIS: This is another one of the few games that I think the road team will claim the win, but it certainly won’t be easy. As you see, the Carolina Panthers enter the game as the favorite, but this is a very unpredictable contest with both teams being 0-2 and Cam Newton dealing with an injury. Speaking of that injury, Newton is dealing with an aggravated foot and it’s a day-to-day process. Even so, the Panthers need to get back on track after a dismal performance last week only scoring 14 points against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — they’ll be looking to return back to their form in Week 1 where they would score 27 against the Los Angeles Rams. And there’s two reasons why that can happen:
Coming into this week, they’re on 10 — a lot better circumstances for sure. With that being said, Carolina’s defense hasn’t been the best the first two weeks of the season, and Arizona’s David Johnson has got to be licking his chops. I don’t think Cam Newton will be at full health just yet against the Cardinals, but he’ll be a lot better off and rested. As a result, the Panthers should pull out the win against 0-2 Arizona, but it’s going to be an ugly game to watch at times.
ANALYSIS: The Los Angeles Chargers and Houston Texas are very similar franchises here in the 2019 season, and that’s because of how confusing they are as far as their state of contending in the AFC. Los Angeles would earn a victory and Houston might have lost, but both offenses were very impressive in their Week 1 showings. However, when Week 2 came around, both went from 100 to 0 with dismal play. They would also show opposite results with the Texans getting a win and the Chargers taking a loss. As far as the quarterback play has been for both teams, it hasn’t exactly been the greatest, so keep your eye on the rushing game this week for this matchup, because that’s what the result will come down to. With that being the case, the Los Angeles Chargers not having Derwin James and examining the statistics for both teams, you have to ride with the Houston Texans in this one for the road odds-upset.
BETTING PREDICTION: Buffalo Bills 23, Cincinnati Bengals 17
BETTING PREDICTION: Green Bay Packers 27, Denver Broncos 10
BETTING PREDICTION: Philadelphia Eagles 27, Detroit Lions 17
BETTING PREDICTION: Dallas Cowboys 38, Miami Dolphins 6
BETTING PREDICTION: New England Patriots 31, New York Jets 10
BETTING PREDICTION: Tampa Bay Buccaneers 30, New York Giants 17
BETTING PREDICTION: Seattle Seahawks 27, New Orleans Saints 17
BETTING PREDICTION: San Francisco 49ers 30, Pittsburgh Steelers 17
BETTING PREDICTION: Los Angeles Rams 31, Cleveland Browns 20
BETTING PREDICTION: Chicago Bears 24, Washington Redskins 13
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