Third Week in NFL Season has some Rivalries Reignited!

It’s the third week of the NFL Regular Season and the games so far have not disappointed. Coming off of a day where we saw some upsets in college football, we are excited to see what the big boys of Pro Football have to show us. Week 3 is all about rivalries in our opinion. We have some great games today and we will be looking at several of them. The games that we will be watching today and on Monday include the following:

12:00 PM CST on FOX – Las Vegas Raiders @ Tennessee Titans (Line: Raiders -2.0)

The battle of the unbeaten teams that were thought to be making the playoffs during the preseason gives us a great game with the Raiders and Titans taking each other on. One would think that having one of the greatest running backs in NFL history in Derrick Henry as well as a fully capable QB in Ryan Tannehill would make for an unstoppable force in the Tennessee Titans. Unfortunately this has not been the case in the first couple of games of the season. The Titans lost an extremely close game in Game 1 to the Giants 21-20. Then they got blown out by the Buffalo Bills who are honestly considered one of the favorites for the Super Bowl this season. If the Titans are unable to get a win this week their schedule does not give them many more chances to win and look for them to be out of the playoff hunt. The Las Vegas Raiders have been one of the favorites to make the playoffs (we picked them to end up on in one of the wild card spots). The Raiders have lost two close games against the Chargers (24-19) and the Cardinals (29-23) and really need this game to get back on track to make the playoffs. They will most likely be without their starting running back Josh Jacobs which will leave them without a potent running game. Their future schedule lends to them 7 or 8 more wins which might be able to get them into the playoffs if they don’t win today if some other things happen for them. Look for the Raiders to cover here as we think it will be a final score of 28-21 Raiders win.

12:00 PM CST on CBS – Buffalo Bills @ Miami Dolphins (Line: Bills -4.5)

Here are two teams that are both pass first, run second types of offenses. Both starting quarterbacks have 85+ QBR ratings, complete over 70% of their passes, and both have 7 touchdown passes in the first two games. On one hand you have Josh Allen who is arguably the best QB in the NFL this season and is just a few yards away from leading his team in rushing yards while on the other hand you have a fairly new QB in the 2020 5th overall pick Tua Tagovailoa who seems to be wielding his team to wins. This game will be a great high scoring game with the Bills most likely covering the line. I would look for the Bills to put up at least 40 pts today. We predict that the Bills will win 48-22.

12:00PM CST on FOX – Baltimore Ravens @ New England Patriots (Line: Ravens -2.5)

While this game looks to be like a blow out game with Lamar Jackson finally coming into his own I wouldn’t sleep on the Patriots. Mac Jones may not be the future of the Patriots but he is an excellent game manager. Look for the Ravens to win this game handedly and cover the spread but it should be a great game nonetheless.

Now we get to the three most anticipated games of the weekend (in our opinion which is probably slightly skewed due to being Cowboys die hards). These three games could change the outcome of division races.

12:00PM CST on FOX – Philadelphia Eagles @ Washington Commanders (Line: Eagles -6.5)

This game has the potential to be a blow out game if Carson Wentz is not able to figure out how to not turn the ball over. Jalen Hurts is looking like the QB to beat in the NFC East. This time last year we were talking about how the NFC East was the NFC “Least” and how the Cowboys had a clear path to making the playoffs early on in the season. This season is very different with all 4 teams having a much better roster. The Commanders are in our opinion at the bottom of the division but that doesn’t mean they can’t upset teams in their division on big rivalry games. Carson Wentz will be facing the team that drafted and trusted him for the first time since leaving the Eagles. Jalen Hurts is giving the Eagles a chance to go 3-0 for the first time since 2016. Look for this to be a tough match up for the Eagles and the Commanders to cover the spread. We are predicting the Eagles win 27-24 in the end.

3:25PM CST on FOX – Green Bay Packers @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Line: Bucs -1.5)

So while the line shows that the Bucs only have a 1.5 point advantage over the Packers, this really means that the Packers have a slight advantage given that we usually give the home team a 2-3 point advantage for being at home. This game is going to depend solely on two things. Can the Bucs keep Tom Brady safe and will Aaron Rodgers be able to throw the ball to Sammy Watkins down the field. Both starting Quarterbacks have over 400 yards passing, 2 touchdowns and 1 interception so far this season with both teams relying heavily on the run game. On one side you have one of the best duel threat running backs in the NFL in Aaron Jones while on the other side you have the blistering running back in Leonard Fournette. As long as Tom Brady can other WR’s to throw to considering that Mike Evans is suspended for the entire game, we see the Bucs being able to pull off this win. Honestly though, this game is going to be amazing and I can’t wait to watch it. Bucs cover the spread 17-14.

7:15PM CST on ESPN/ABC/ESPN+ – Dallas Cowboys @ New York Giants (Line: Giants -1)

This is the premiere game of the week and it’s fitting that it’s on Monday Night Football. The NFL is always doing things right in putting the games in prime spots. I am not sure exactly how they do it but Monday Night Football rarely ever has a really bad game. This game is huge in the sense that both teams are vying for the number one spot in the NFC East. Dak Prescott is still out from his hand injury. He had surgery a couple of weeks ago and there are renewed hopes that he could be back in action by next week’s game. Still, don’t expect the Cowboys to give up much in terms of yards as their defense is doing quite well this season after picking up some amazing talent in the offseason. My heart is telling me to go with the Dallas Cowboys on this one 21-17.