Some Week 2 Thoughts

I give you a couple pieces of evidence to indicate just how much this entire season may suck for a lot of foobaw fans...

• Not even 39.5 points a game for the week so far.  To no one's surprise, the Over was 3-12.
• Home teams 6-9 for the week, and 2 games under .500 for the year -- even this early in a season, I do not recall that kind of a start to the year.
• Miami was completely toothless against New England (43-0, easily covering -18), and has now given up 102 points in the first two games of the season.  They've scored ten.
• Today (Pro Football Reference) represented the 23rd time in NFL history a team was an 18 point favorite or more on the road -- the first of it's kind this early in the season.  7-16 ATS.  23-0 straight up.
• Couple of probable rigs to report:  Kirk Cousins threw a BAD fourth-quarter interception to aid the Packers in going 2-0.  And with 4 of their next 5 at home, escaping Dallas and Philly might actually make 7-0 a real probability with a defense which has a pulse!
• And then there's the Lawsuit Game Rematch, in which the refs deliberately took 7 off the board on a fumble, scoop, and score for New Orleans.  LA basically wore them down, and with Brees probably out the better part of the year, you can remove New Orleans from consideration.
• One Cliffhanger this week so far.  There have been four Cliffhangers this year, all in the late Sunday games.
• Nine games this week 40 points or under.
• There could be at least three fines for post-game media interactions.  JJ Watt of Houston and New Orleans coach Sean Payton (see above) for the officials, and New England's Antonio Brown for avoiding it completely for obvious reasons.
• The NFL is meeting with Brown's accuser tomorrow.

Welcome to Foobaw Season.  Welcome to the Rigged Suck.

Yeah, it's only Week 2, but at least some early crystal-balling:

The AFC does appear to be setting up for New England vs. Kansas City twice.  Week 14 to determine the site, AFC title game six weeks later to determine if New England is The Chosen Team.  Really, the way it is appearing, with all the media surrounding Mahomes, is that Mahomes is being pushed as The One that can stop this.

NFC?  Scratch New Orleans, with the rigging and the Brees injury.  Green Bay could be entering the fray as a backup plan, but I still can't see more than that!  The Rams would make some sense, but the same questions regarding the LA Experiment persist.  Don't sleep on Seattle, especially if the NFC Champion is a discard to an undefeated (or nearly so) New England.  Ditto Dallas, but they have to stay out of the league doghouse for that to consummate.

And New England is giving 16 1/2 - 17 1/2 to the Jets next week.  I'd have to check the record books to see if, back to back weeks, it's ever been that bad.

(Pro Football Reference)  Using a criteria of NE -17 NYJ:

• New England will have been the favorite of 17 or more points 5 of the last 6 times (it's already four out of five).
• It will NOT be the first time it's ever happened that a team is 17 or more favored in consecutive weeks.  In fact, New England did it twice in 18-1 (and four weeks out of five: Weeks 12, 13, 15 and 16 -- over 20 point favorites three of the four and failed to cover any of them).
• Cleveland was a 17 or more point underdog twice in a row in 1999.

EDIT TO ADD Monday 10 AM PDT:  And the Superbook now is taking odds:

• 10-1 (for now) that New England runs the table.  Probably doesn't even have a competitive game until Baltimore in Week 9.
• 7-2 that Miami goes 0-16.