Good morning everyone! I hope you have all been enjoying your weekend so far. It’s another NFL Sunday so it’s time for a literal “No Huddle” to get your day started. That means quick previews of the day’s best games and my picks against the spread.

Unfortunately, Thursday didn’t exactly leave us a whole lot to talk about. The game boiled down to a handful of meaningful plays and was pretty hard to watch at times. Houston picked up a huge win 13-9 over Cincinnati. The Texans improved to 1-1 but still have plenty of questions surrounding their offense moving forward. Cincinnati on the other hand, they are quickly heading towards the brink of oblivion at 0-2 with talks of a “near mutiny” on head coach Marvin Lewis. Either way, if you didn’t watch the game, you didn’t miss much.

Now let’s move on to today’s action, which promises to be quite the day in the NFL. Numerous games have some serious potential, and could make for a white-hot day on the Redzone channel. New England-New Orleans promises to be a scoring fiesta along with the Sunday night matchup between Atlanta and Green Bay. Minnesota and Pittsburgh will square off in a meeting of two potential NFL heavyweights. Even the Philadelphia-Kansas City game has provided a certain level of intrigue heading into kickoff. We can’t talk about all of these games though so we will focus on the two best matchups on-paper. Apologies for those looking for a breakdown of the Raiders and Jets games.

All joking aside, our first game on the slate could possibly the best of the day. Minnesota travels to Pittsburgh for a tremendous strength on strength clash during the 1:00 p.m. window of games. The clear matchup to watch here is the high-powered Pittsburgh offense versus the vaunted Minnesota defense. It’s a classic battle between an unstoppable force and an immovable object. This will be a chess match to see how Minnesota tries to slow down a Pittsburgh offense that is lethal in the friendly confines of Heinz Field.

To be more specific, Ben Roethlisberger is nearly unstoppable at home. Last season his completion percentage was ten percent better at home than on the road. Big Ben also threw nearly 75 percent of his 29 touchdowns at home last season. Last week we saw that this offense isn’t nearly as sharp on the road. As a counter, the Vikings were actually a better road defense by the numbers last season.

However, that may not be much of a concern for anyone if Sam Bradford cannot play in this game. Bradford is dealing with a knee injury and will be a game-time decision, which may even be decided by the time you read this piece. This would be a huge loss for the Vikings because this offense looked great on Monday night against New Orleans.

If Bradford is able to play, this is the type of game that will come down to the waning moments. It should be an extremely hard fought games and a true slobber knocker.

Let’s move onto tonight’s colossal rematch of last season’s NFC Championship game between the Falcons and the Packers. It will be quite the scene in Atlanta tonight as the Falcons “open” Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The NBC ads for this game certainly had the right idea by asking the crew in Atlanta to make sure the scoreboard works.

Despite the fact that both teams are touting improved defenses, they will be facing one of the best offenses in the league respectively. Last season saw a pair of games go to the Falcons, 33-32 in Week 8 and 44-21 in the NFC title game. Revenge will certainly be on the minds of the Packers heading into this big early-season matchup.

Since most of us all pretty much know about the many stars in this games (Rodgers, Ryan, Nelson, Jones, Freeman, Adams) let’s talk about two guys who could have a big impact on this game. Packers running back Ty Montgomery could be in line for a big day on the stat sheet. The converted wide receiver may have a huge role in the passing game as the Falcons are content to allow short passes to running backs. Atlanta is not a shutdown defense, but will instead allow you to hit shorter plays and rally to the football using their team speed. Don’t be surprised to hear Montgomery’s name early and often.

The other player that could have a big day in this game is Falcons receiver Mohamed Sanu. Considering the Packers would rather not relive another drubbing by Julio Jones, coverage may allow Sanu to run free underneath from the slot. Sanu played a huge role in Atlanta’s Week 8 win a year ago, setting a career-high in receiving yards. With the bevy of weapons at Matt Ryan’s disposal, process of elimination could leave Sanu as his go-to guy tonight.

As for the outcome of the game, its tough to bet against Aaron Rodgers but you would have to think that Atlanta has a slight edge heading into this big matchup. This game will more likely resemble the 33-32 thriller that we saw during the regular season where it came down to the final possession.

Okay now on to my picks for the week. I know what you’re probably saying, “Moon, what the hell? You burned me last week.” Everyone has bad weeks, and while my 5-9-1 record wasn’t a total disaster, I’ll chalk that up to just that, a bad week. Week 2 is already off to a better start with my winning Houston pick. So let’s build on those positive vibe and make this week a winner for us. Here are my ATS picks for Week 2 (Winners in Bold).

This Week: 1-0        Last Week: 5-9-1     2017 Season: 6-9-1

1:00 p.m. kickoff

Philadelphia (+5.5) vs. Kansas City

Cleveland vs. Baltimore (-7.5)

Buffalo vs. Carolina (-7)

Arizona (-7) vs. Indianapolis

Tennessee (-1.5) vs. Jacksonville

New England (-6.5) vs. New Orleans

Minnesota (+6.5) vs. Pittsburgh

Chicago vs. Tampa Bay (-6.5)

 

4:05/4:25 p.m. kickoff

Miami (+3.5) vs. LA Chargers

NY Jets vs. Oakland (-13.5)

Dallas (-2.5) vs. Denver

San Francisco vs. Seattle (-14)

Washington vs. LA Rams (-2.5)

 

Sunday Night Football 

Green Bay (+3) vs. Atlanta

Enjoy all of the action today. I’ll be back tomorrow to recap Week 2 and preview Monday Night Football. Follow me on Twitter @thereal_jmooney and go like the Shooting the Moon page on Facebook.