Road through Week 3 will be paved with visitor upsets
Texans coach Bill O’Brien says “you can’t hide in the NFL.”
Pro Picks can hide its eyes from the Thursday night extravaganza, which this week, uh, features the Rams against the 49ers.
Los Angeles is one of nine visiting teams favoured in Week 3; it’s 10 if you count the Ravens against host Jacksonville i n London. These Rams seem to have something decent going on and the 49ers have shown very little.
In other words, the coaching change to Sean McVay in L. A. is working better so far than the switch to Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco, which has scored a conference-low 12 points.
On a short week, though, who knows what will appear on the TV screen. Well, we kind of know it won’t be pretty. McVay looks at the positive side. “I think the big thing ... is that these guys know how to take care of their bodies,” McVay says. “The thing that you do feel fortunate is at least this is Week 3, not Week 13 where you’re having to do that.”
The Rams are a two- point favourite on the road. We’re buying.
Rams, 16-13
The Rest: Baltimore (minus 3.5) vs. Jacksonville at London The Ravens carry their defensive prowess across the pond. Best Bet: Ravens, 20-9
Seattle (plus 3) at Tennessee Have to go with the home team. Titans, 17-13
Atlanta (minus 3) at Detroit Lions might be better than anticipated. Still not good enough here. Falcons, 30-23
Dallas (minus 3) at Arizona, Monday night Which are real the Cowboys? Which are real the Cardinals? Cowboys, 26-20
Pittsburgh (minus 7) at (tie) Chicago The Steelers are 2- 0 without looking particularly good. Steelers, 22-13
Denver (minus 3) at Buffalo The Broncos are 2- 0 and have looked very good. Broncos, 20-10
Oakland (minus 3) at Washington Remember when the Raiders struggled in the Eastern time zone? Forget it. Raiders, 33-26
Cleveland (minus 1) at Indianapolis Wait, the Browns are one of those road favourites? Got to go with them. Browns, 13-10
Miami (minus 5.5) at New York Jets Dolphins taking advantage of an easy opening schedule, even with Week 1 postponement. Dolphins, 26-10
Houston (plus 13) at New England A house of horrors for the undermanned Texans. Patriots, 30-13
New Orleans (plus 6) at Carolina The Saints could keep this close before failing. Panthers, 21-18
New York Giants (plus 5.5) at Philadelphia Pre- season NFC East co- favourite falls to 0-3. Eagles, 21-20
Kansas City (minus 3) at Los Angeles Chargers Dangerous game for the Chiefs, but if the Chargers can’t hit late kicks ... Chiefs, 24-23
Cincinnati (plus 9) at Green Bay This is prime CBS telecast. We might turn on NASCAR instead. Packers, 20- 6
Tampa Bay (no line) at Minnesota Too bad there is no line ( Sam Bradford’s availability), because this could have been the Best Bet. Buccaneers, 21-10
2017 Record: Last week: Against the spread (7-9). Straight up (12-4)
Season Totals: Against the spread (13-18). Straight up: (21-10) Best Bet: 2- 0 against the spread, 2- 0 straight up.
Upset special: 2- 0 against the spread, 2- 0 straight up