We head into week 2 with a little more information of who these teams are which is good for me because I did not do well last week with my predictions. But it’s a new week and so let’s dive in.

The Battle of unwanted quarterbacks: Bucs @ Lions on Fox @ 11 AM mountain

Jared Goff went from NFC champion to nobody wants you real fast. He went to Detroit in the Stafford trade. I’m not saying that the Rams would want him over Stafford but the Lions sure are happy to have him. Goff is not as flashy as most top quarterbacks, but he gets the job done. All the weapons around him sure do help as well. Baker got dumped by the Browns. Then he got dumped by the Panthers. Then he spent a few weeks with the Rams. He landed in Tampa to replace the greatest quarterback of all time. I did not think it would go well. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Baker has been excellent and led his team to a south division championship and a playoff victory over the Eagles. It seems like he is picking up right where he left off. He played excellent last week albeit against a terrible secondary. Now they head to Detroit where they lost in the playoffs last year. It was a good game then, and I think it will be a good game now. The Bucs have good weapons too and both defenses have potential but haven’t arrived yet. It’s tough to win in Detroit so give me the Lions in a close one.

Lions 27 Bucs 20

The battle of quarterbacks who we are mobile but not great at throwing: Colts and Packers on Fox @ 11 AM mountain

The Colts are coming off a close home loss to the Texans. The Packers also lost close but loss more than that. Jordan Love is out for the foreseeable future or is he? They have him listed as questionable which is baffling to me. This should mean at least for now they are relying on Malik Willis. Malik couldn’t win the quarterback job in Tennessee. First he lost out to Ryan Tannehill and then to Will Levis who does not look good. Does this mean he will be terrible for the Packers? I don’t think he will be terrible because I believe in Matt Lafleur. Matt will have a solid game plan to make things as easy as possible. Malik can run around and will likely pick up some rushing yards as well. Speaking of running quarterbacks, the Colts have Anthony Richardson to do his own running around. He doesn’t always make the best decisions running or passing. But he will have a couple plays that will awe you. Will he make enough plays to get the win? I don’t think so. Give me the team with the home field and the better and more experienced coach.

Packers 24 Colts 20

The team I love vs the team I hate: Bengals @ Chiefs on CBS @ 2:25 PM mountain

As you all know I am a huge Chiefs fan. Obviously I hate the Raiders as all Chiefs fans do. I tolerate the Broncos due to my marriage and the Chargers are too worthless to hate. But the team I have hated the most the last few years is none other than the Bengals. The Bengals are sort of an odd team to hate. They have never won anything. They are terrible more than they are good. And they have a loyal fan base. But yet, I hate them. It’s partially because they beat us 3 times in a row, each time by 3 points. But it is more so because of their players. Joe Burrow seems very smug and cocky. Jamar Chase is always talking smack. Their defense is always talking as well. Last time they talked smack it was the Burrowhead talk after Joe Burrow won one game in Arrowhead. Even their mayor got involved if you remember. That did not go well for them as we beat them by 3 points and went on to win the Super Bowl. Last year we beat them as well as Burrow was hurt and it was sort of when we figured out how to win games again. And now here we are again and the Bengals are already talking. One of their defensive backs stated that there is nothing special about our rookie wide receiver, Xavier Worthy because all he does is run jet sweeps and run straight. That may be true but he does both of those things real fast. Then Chase said that they are the team to beat in the AFC and we need to play like it. I don’t know that I would be claiming that I am the team to beat when I just lost to the Patriots at home and am playing the team that just won the Super Bowl 2 years in a row and has been to 6 straight afc championships. But what do I know. Not as much as Chase. Just ask him, he’ll tell you. The Bengals have been our kryptonite but we usually play them late in the season and in the playoffs. This is the September Bengals. Joe Burrow is 0-4 in week 2 in his career. Maybe this is the time he changes that, I wouldn’t be surprised. But this seems like the tale of two teams. One team is a proven winner that is focused on the goal of winning week in and week out. The other seems to be a team that is trying to talk themselves into being a great team but really has some major issues. Give me the champs in this one. And I think the Chiefs are so tired of the Bengals they don’t even do their normal “keep it real close, so everyone has a heart attack and then barely win” thing that they always do.

Chiefs 31 Bengals 17

Last year’s rookie sensation vs this year’s rookie dud: Bears @ Texans on NBC @ 6:25 PM mountain time

Last year CJ Stroud took the league by storm as he played exceptionally well despite a banged up offensive line, no run game and well, playing for the Texans. Sure he had some weapons but no one expected him to play with so much poise and confidence. He is off to a good start this year as well fresh off a win over their division rival Colts. There were questions about how Stroud would perform in the NFL and he answered everyone of them. Enter Caleb Williams. The only question entering the NFL for Caleb seemed to be how long would it take for him to overtake Mahomes for best quarterback in the league. Williams has even more weapons than Stroud had or at least more experienced ones. He plays on a team with a much better defense. And so there were high expectations for Caleb. His team won in spite of him as opposed to because of him after he threw for a whopping 82 yards. I am sure he will perform better on Sunday night because he can’t perform much worse. And he will have to because Stroud is much less likely to hand the other team points as Will Levis seemed so excited to do. This will also be Caleb’s first road game and his first prime time game. Lucky for Caleb it is a team game. Unlucky for Caleb is that he is playing the Texans.

Texans 27 Bears 13

Prime time Kirk: Falcons @ Eagles on ESPN at 6:15 PM mountain time

What is worse than Prime time Kirk? Prime time Kirk on the road. Kirk looked awful on Sunday. Sure the Steelers defense is good. But it looks like Kirk is not fully healed from his injury. He never took a snap under center and play action is out the window for a team that desperately needs to use play action. With all the weapons I thought Kirk would have a big year and so would those players. It’s only one game but the eyeball test tells me from the parts of the game I watched is that Kirk either isn’t healed up or doesn’t trust his leg. Maybe they were just knocking the dust off but it looked worse than that to me. On the other side, you have the Eagles fresh off their win in Brazil last Friday over the Packers. It was a wild shoot out where the Eagles obviously were wearing better shoes than the Packers. Saquon Barkley played so well he almost single handily beat one of my fantasy football teams. Hurts had an up and down game but still has plenty of weapons to throw to. The defense has some work to do but they won’t play the Packers offense every week. For instance this week they play an injured Kirk Cousins. The only thing worse than Prime time Kirk on the road is injured prime time Kirk on the road. Give me the Eagles.

Eagles 28 Falcons 20