Week 2 NFL picks

Here are my Week 2 NFL picks, for the degenerate gamblers.

I made this pick before their gameThursday night:

The main rationale there was that the Steelers are a bad football team, and I figured the Ravens were good for an emotional performance. The Steelers are reputation only. They may be picking in the top 10 in the draft this year, and possibly for a while after that.

Both the Dolphins and Bills earned surprise Week 1 wins over the Patriots and Bears, respectively. The Bills were a really good home team last year, comparatively speaking anyway. They were 4-4 at home in 2013, with three of those losses coming to playoff teams, two coming in overtime, and one coming on a last second FG against the Pats. They also beat two playoff teams at home.

If Nick Foles were on last week, the Eagles might have put a 50-burger on the Jags. The Jaguars have a nice pass rush, but not much else. They are a terrible football team with a looooong way to go. This is a rare Redskins win, and big day for DJacc.

The Cowboys' defense was supposed to be the Cowboys' atrocious unit this year, but their offense turned the ball over on four of their first five possessions against the Niners. Defensively, there's some optimism in that they weren't awful, however, the Cowboys gave up TDs on three of the first four Niners' offensive drives. The Niners went into ball control mode for the bulk of the second half. In other words, the D only got stops when the game was already basically in the Niners' hands.

Carson Palmer might not play. If he can't go, the question then becomes "Do I take the team with a backup QB, or a Giants team with backup quality players occupying almost every starting spot on their offense?

The Patriots are coming off a bad loss on the road to the Dolphins, and now they'll head to Minnesota to take the Adrian Peterson-less Vikings, who whooped up on the Rams on the road last week. The Vikings are actually kind of tempting here. A couple friends asked me if they should take the Pats in their survivor pool. I wonder if they're in the midst of a sharp decline. I would advise against that.

I originally thought the Browns would at least be good on defense, and then they gave up 503 yards to an unimpressive Steelers offense. The Saints will get theirs today.

The Falcons' offense was impressive Week 1 in their win over the Saints. Their defense was predictably porous. If they can win in Cincy this week, where the Bengals went undefeated in the regular season in 2013, they'll have my attention.

The Lions stomped out the Giants last week, as many teams will do this year. Meanwhile, the Panthers' D shut down the Bucs' O last week, as many teams will do this year. DE Greg Hardy wil be inactive this week, but the Panthers will also be getting Cam Newton back. It feels like we're still just getting to know what these two teams will be in 2014. I'll play it conservative and take the home team.

5.5 points is a big spread to overcome for a team with a really bad offense. The Bucs averaged 277 yards per game last season, which was dead last in the NFL. Week 1 total yards for the Bucs - 264. I'm still trying to figure out the preseason buzz for the Bucs. I just don't see it at all. I'll take the Rams to win outright.

I really like the Chargers, and this line seems high, but there's no reason to pick against the best team in the NFL.

This game has serious draft position implications.

The Packers will have some extra rest after being dominated by the Seahawks a week and a half ago, and clearly have more fire power than the Jets on offense. However, the Jets' defense is clearly far superior to the Packers on the defensive side of the ball. We'll take the Packers to win, but the oddsmakers are giving the Pack to much respect, and the Jets not enough.

Obvious survivor pool pick this week. Don't be a hero. Just survive Week 2 and head on to Week 3.

The Bears are among the most overrated teams in the NFL because their shiny skill position players attract attention away from the rest of this dreadful roster. And now Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery might not even play. If you are going to go against the grain in your survivor pool, the Niners are a nice second option after the Broncos.

Obviously, Andrew Luck is a stud, but when I looked at the Colts this week, I came away pretty unimpressed with them as a whole.

Last week: 4-1

Ravens +5.5, Jets +8, Rams +5.5. That's it -- Only three this week.

» READ MORE: @PhillyKelly

Sauce: 1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 stick butter, 1 clove minced garlic, 2 tbs Worcestershire sauce, 2 tbs ketchup, 1 tbs mustard (I use spicy). We'll be heating those jawns up in a minute.

5 chicken breasts cut into 2-3 inch tenders

1 lb bacon

1. Combine brown sugar, butter, garlic, worcestershire, ketchup and mustard in pan and heat until butter melts, set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 350.

3. Wrap each chicken tender in a piece of bacon and place in a greased pan.

4. Brush each chicken with sauce (the sauce is awesome so use a lot).

5. Cook for 30 minutes or until bacon is crispy.

Aaaaand...

Follow Jimmy on Twitter: @JimmyKempski