Week 3 Panel Picks
If week one was the calm before the storm, week two featured category five hurricanes, dangerous tornadoes, torrential downpour, thunder, and lightning. After going 81-38 in week one, the panel barely kept their heads above the clouds last week, going 60-59 overall.
The forecast for week three doesn’t look much better—there are only two games with a spread of at least seven giving us a lot of toss-ups to pick. However, if I know this panel, I know we’re due for a bounce back.
Here are the standings after two weeks.
Despite the rough week two, no one has a losing record. Yet. Here are the picks for week three.
Primetime Games
Early Window
Late Window
Most alike picks: Ray and George aligned on 15 of the 16 games. They did not agree on Bears vs Colts.
Least alike picks: Josh and I were in sync on only six of the games.
Most underdogs picked: Josh and Ben both picked 9 underdogs in a week where there was an average of 6.4 upsets picked (highest it’s ever been).
Fewest underdogs picked: Theo and I didn’t help the average, only picking three upsets each.
Most picks with majority: Ray and Jackson were in the majority 15 times.
Most picks against majority: Ben was against the majority seven times. It worked out for him last week.
What Stands Out?
When was the last time an 0-2 team got as much love as the Baltimore Ravens? They are winless on the season and just swept the vote in a game where the Cowboys are favored. This isn’t a first-time occurrence for Baltimore. They got all eight votes last week against Las Vegas and seven out of eight against Kansas City making them the most-picked team on the panel so far this season.
I may not like to see the Ravens at 0-2 but I love seeing the Vikings and Commanders get a little respect. The Vikings are playing the powerhouse Texans but still received three votes in hopes that their strong start will carry over to week 3. The Commanders are on the road against the highly respected Bengals but got three votes of their own.
The Patriots got six votes to beat the Jets. I can’t even call it a homer vote because Theo—a Patriots fan—picked the Jets. Perhaps there is true belief that Jacoby Brissett can run the offense and that the Pats excellent run defense and Christian Gonzalez will shut down a slightly disjointed Jets offense.
There are no locks on the games in the early window which means we’re in good shape for the 1:00-4:00 games. Not a single spread exceeds seven and five of them are 3.5 or less. It’s safe to say that we’ll have some games come down to the wire.
The panel seems relatively sold on the Saints. Despite playing against the highly regarded Eagles, the Saints and their electrifying offense got five votes to Philly’s three. If they win, they’ll be the one seed for the week.
Playoff Picture
Let’s pretend our majority pick in each matchup won this weekend. Here would be the playoff matchups on Wild Card Weekend if that were the case.
AFC
(1) Houston Texans vs BYE | Houston has been the projected 1 seed for two straight weeks.
(2) Kansas City Chiefs vs (7) Justin Herbert | Kansas City has won five gams in a row against LA.
(3) Pittsburgh Steelers vs (6) Cleveland Browns | These two teams matched up with the same seeding in 2020. Cleveland won 48-37.
(4) Buffalo Bills vs (5) New England Patriots | These two teams match up in weeks 16 and 18.
NFC
(1) New Orleans Saints vs BYE | New Orleans hasn’t been the 1 seed since 2019.
(2) Seattle Seahawks vs (7) San Francisco 49ers | San Francisco has won five straight games against Seattle.
(3) Minnesota Vikings vs (6) Detroit Lions | Detroit swept Minnesota last season for first time since 2016.
(4) Philadelphia Eagles vs (5) Tampa Bay Buccaneers | Tampa Bay beat Philadelphia in last year’s Wild Card round 31-9.