AFC Week 3 Preview & Match Ups
Some bold statements were made in the AFC in week two with the boldest being the New York Jets upsetting the New England Patriots 16-9 in the Meadowlands. Rex Ryan’s attack style defense was relentless as they forced Tom Brady way out of his comfort zone and more importantly out of the end zone. Rookie QB Mark Sanchez did just enough to help the Jets improve to 2-0 and take an early lead in the AFC East. Baltimore showed that their offense can win games as well as QB Joe Flacco led his team to a 31-26 victory over the favored San Diego Chargers. The Texan’s offense finally came to life as Houston went into Tennessee as a 6.5 point underdog and came away with a 34-31 victory. Denver improved to 2-0 beating the Browns 27-6 and the Raiders got their first win of the year beating the Chiefs 13-10. In a Monday night match up, Peyton Manning led the Colts from behind to beat the Dolphins 27-23. The amazing stat in this game is that Indianapolis only had the ball for 13 plays in the second half and their total time of possession was under 15 minutes. Manning makes it very hard to ever bet against this team.
Moving onto week three in the AFC the key match ups we will be reviewing are; Tennessee @ N.Y Jets, Miami @ San Diego, and Pittsburg @ Cincinnati.
Tennessee Titans @ New York Jets (-2.5) Current Over/Under 37
The Jets will have to come down quickly from their big win against New England to take on a Titans team that is 0-2, but lost their first two games by a total of 6 points. While Tennessee did score 31 points on the Texans, I do not see that happening against the Jets. Both these teams will try and run the ball in an effort control the clock as well as win the battle of field position. Both these defenses have been tough against the run so which ever team’s offensive line does a better job of opening holes will give their team the best chance to win. I do not think the Jet’s will be able to avoid a letdown and the Titans get the win on the road in a low scoring contest.
Miami Dolphins @ San Diego Chargers (-6) Current Over/Under 43
The Dolphins relied heavily on their Wildcat formation against the Colts to primarily run the ball. While they completely controlled the line of scrimmage and the time of possession, their defense still managed to breakdown and let Peyton Manning beat them in the end. They are facing a very similar situation this week against Phillip Rivers and the high powered San Diego offense. The Chargers have shown almost no ability to run the ball, but in their first two games they have averaged 330 yards of passing offense which has then ranked 1st in the league. Miami will have to find a way to get to Rivers to force some bad throws that lead to an interception or two. Unfortunately, this does not play into the strength of their defense which is currently ranked 23rd against the pass. This all adds up to a big day for Rivers and San Diego. Go with the Chargers -6 and the over.
Pittsburgh Steelers (-4) @ Cincinnati Bengals Current Over/Under 37
Both teams come into this game with a 1-1 record with the winner getting an early edge in the AFC North. This is the perfect chance for Cincinnati to prove that they are a playoff caliber team, but they will have to knock off a very angry Steelers team to do it. It will also depend on which Bengal offense shows up, the one that scored 31 points on the road against Green Bay or the one that only managed 7 points at home against the Broncos. The question mark for Pittsburgh will be their ability to run the ball against Cincinnati as they are only averaging 70 yards a game on the ground ranking them 28th overall. Big Ben has been slinging the ball all over the field averaging 332 passing yards per game, but so far it has not translated into points. Look for Pittsburgh to put a complete game together and win this one by more than 4. There will be more scoring than you think in this one so take the over as well.
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