There's no need to fear, Underdog is here (Jack Bog's Blog)

It's Week 2 of the NFL Underdog Pool. Last week I picked Baltimore to upset Cincinnati, and they kept it interesting, but in the end came up empty. (The week's only winners were Green Bay and Tennessee, especially the latter.)

Here's this week's schedule, with the underdogs in caps; the rules of the pool are summarized here. Can anyone out there find me an underdog that will not just beat the point spread, but win its game outright?

12 KANSAS CITY at Chicago
11 NEW YORK JETS at Baltimore
10.5 ATLANTA at Jacksonville
9.5 OAKLAND at Denver
9.5 BUFFALO at Pittsburgh
7.5 TENNESSEE vs. Indianapolis
7 WASHINGTON at Philadelphia
6.5 CLEVELAND vs. Cincinnati
6.5 HOUSTON at Carolina
3.5 MIAMI vs. Dallas
3 TAMPA BAY vs. New Orleans
3 SAN FRANCISCO at St. Louis
3 MINNESOTA at Detroit
3 SAN DIEGO at New England
2.5 ARIZONA vs. Seattle

I hear the Bears are overrated, but can Kansas City actually beat them? Can Tennessee do it again? Original Steve and Sebastian, I'm especially interested in your thoughts.

UPDATE, 9/17, 12:34 a.m.: The big winners of the week were Cleveland and Houston. And I had Houston -- yay! Now I'm part of a seven-way tie for first (out of 16 players). Thanks, commenters. On to Week 3.

Comments (10)

San Francisco will beat St. Louis. I thought their young defense looked pretty damn good Monday night.

Posted by Roger | September 13, 2007 2:21 PM

Great attitude, Jack. Screw basketball. We've still got football. I'd take Minnesota over Detroit.

Posted by Bill McDonald | September 13, 2007 2:27 PM

Give me San Diego. A week of video cam gate and the revenge factor for last year's playoff loss=a win.

Posted by Gannicott | September 13, 2007 3:02 PM

Possible winners: Kansas City, Washington, San Diego

Probable winners (I'd bet on the team): San Francisco, Minnesota

Posted by John | September 13, 2007 3:09 PM

I'll try again in order of confidence and SWAG and prayer:

1) SF - Just based on clips, StL doesn't look like much more than Steven Jackson on off and he gets off to a slow start

2) Houston - Carolina is weak offensively. I am assuming Hou OL line holds up.

3) SD - Here's hoping the old men on NE def backfield cant keep up with the points SD puts up. This is off the table if you see video cameras in the stands.

4) Jets - This is heart over mind. Baltimore is getting older than NE on defense and Clemens will replace Pennington. I hope his first start reflects this.

5) Redskins - McNabb is not really in sync with the rest of the team. Witness what happened when Garcia replaced him plus they drafter Kolb for a reason.

6) Sam Adams as mayor - Taxpayers / pothole avoiders / citizens wanting police protection will lose this no matter what the spread.

PS - My wife says I should pick teams with animal mascots. I just noticed almost every game is animals vs. non-animals.

Posted by Original Steve | September 14, 2007 7:31 AM

I'll give it a go:

1-Niners
2-Texans
3-Vikings

All three to win and cover the spread...

Posted by MIke | September 14, 2007 9:32 AM

Well, first..who I don't like to upset:

-KC is gonna get crushed mercilessly
-STL in a 'kinda' must win at home...I'd lay off SF
-I suspect DET is kinda good. So is MINN, but they're playing in DET.
-SD had a tough game against CHI last week. Going across the country into a seriously ticked off NE atmosphere. Longshot to upset I think.
-TENN always plays INDY tough. I think TENN will cover, but not win outright.

Who I like to upset, in order of most to least likely, IMO:

-HOU might be legit, and I think CAR is overrated. This seems like one of those 'AFC is better than the NFC' games.
-BALT looked terrible, and is beat up even more. Even with Clemens starting on the road against a tough D, I could see a game winning FG for NYJ.
-AZ could surprise against a SEA team that looks rusty, and is always better at home than on the road. AZ defense did a nice job on Gore last week, so they could shut Alexander down.

Posted by Sebastian | September 14, 2007 12:53 PM

"KC is gonna get crushed mercilessly"

Only good advice I have is avoid picking Cleveland and KC UNLESS they are playing each other. These guys disprove the parity theory about the NFL.

Posted by Steve | September 14, 2007 4:45 PM

I'll take Oakland and Buffalo. Both unloved teams that might surprise a few folks.

Posted by Dave A. | September 14, 2007 6:24 PM

Oakland should have been given the win in their game against Denver. They got jobbed by a sleazy maneuver off the Denver bench in the OT.

Posted by Jack Bog | September 17, 2007 12:36 AM