Joe Gavazzi
San Diego Chargers vs. Arizona Cardinals
Play: San Diego Chargers +3
Must credit 1st year HC Arians with the 10-6 SU ATS turnaround of last season! The offensive guru, who was the OC for the 2008 Steelers in their championship season, used his NFL experience to improve the Cards’ offense from 16/263 to 24/346. Along with modest defensive improvement, it was enough to cross the Cards into winning territory. This year, Arizona veteran QB Palmer will operate behind an improved OL and an explosive trio of wide outs. Yet, their opening night task will not be an easy one. For under 2nd year San Diego HC McCoy (former Detroit Asst.), San Diego was another improved team. In moving from 7-9 SU ATS in 2012 to 10-8 SU, 12-6 ATS in 2013, the Chargers, like Arizona, made a huge offensive jump. Of the 84 yard YPG improvement, a meaningful chunk came at a running game that improved from 91 to 123 YPG. Just when the career of QB Rivers appeared to be on a downward spiral, he erupted with a highly successful season featuring a 105.5 QB rating, among the best in the league. Only question remaining is how the Chargers will respond to the loss of OC Whisenhunt. It says here that with a strong RB corps and a solid receiving unit led by emerging wide out Keenan Allen, that this will be another explosive offensive unit. Strongest opinion for the game is that it will be a high-scoring affair with the percentage side being the underdog Chargers, who are easily capable of obtaining this victory.
Rocky Sheridan
Chargers vs. Cardinals
Play: Over 46½
With Arizona losing Washington and Dockett on the defensive side of the ball, San Diego should be able to get the tight ends and backs involved in the passing game and move the ball down the field. For Arizona, with the potential loss of Ellington in this game, the Cardinals will look to open up the pass game more and take advantage of Sand Diego's mediocre secondary, ranked just 23rd in the NFL on defense last season. Looking for a lot of points to be scored here tonight.
Wunderdog
New York @ Detroit
Pick: Under 47.5
The NFL has always been a QB dominated league. You either have a good one or you don't win a lot. Eli Manning is closing in on the age of 34, and he has regressed in each of the past two seasons. Last year was brutally bad. Manning threw just 18 TD passes, his fewest ever, and the most interceptions at 27, also a career high. That is not a healthy situation for an offense that struggles to run the ball. The Giants did make some changes, but not important ones on offense. In fact, a big playmaker in Hakeem Nicks is gone. The Giants went out added Rashad Jennings and Andre Williams to the backfield. They should be deeper and better as injuries killed them last year. The Detroit Lions have one of the best front sevens in the NFL, but their secondary has always been suspect. Can Eli Manning exploit it at this point? His 83 INTs over the last four years doesn’t bode well. New York has played to a 14-4 mark to the UNDER in their last 18 road games, and Detroit has now gone 7-0 to the UNDER in their last seven Monday night games. Since the arrival of Tom Coughlin in New York, the Giants are 26-11 UNDER in road games with a total set above 45. This one stays UNDER.
Bob Balfe
Detroit Lions -5
The Lions come into this season with high hopes. If Stafford can stay injury free these team has the offense to make a playoff push. Detroit returns a lot of familiar faces on both sides of the ball. On offense every player starting has been in this system except for the upgrade of Tate at WR. The Giants scare me. This team lost both their tight ends and the running backs in this system never have taken a snap in a Giants uniform. The middle part of this offensive line is new to the system and there is not much experience on it, beware of Suh and Fairley tonight rushing the passer. This is a tough playing surface being that it is indoors. The Lions have the home crowd and I believe at this point of the year have less wrinkles to work out.
San Diego Chargers +3
Arizona is in a tough spot tonight. There is a chance Mathieu doesn’t play tonight and Jefferson next to him at safety has only 2 career NFL starts. The Chargers return everyone on offense and if you remember this team had so many injuries on both lines of scrimmage last year that the playing experience for some of the backups is so valuable. Arizona had a huge blow when Dockett went down and they are dealing Abraham coming into camp late and out of shape and Foote coming over from Pittsburgh at the tail end of his playing days. The Chargers have three legit starting running backs who are dangerous to matchup with. Rivers is coming off a great year and I am high on this team. The Cardinals have a rookie kicker and their punter might miss tonight’s game. The Special team’s edge then goes to San Diego. Look for the Chargers to win this game on the road.
Philadelphia Phillies +110
This Phillies team is playing with extra confidence and this is always about the time of year when Pitt fades away. The Pirates are one or two pieces from getting to the playoffs and making a run. Until that time the Cardinals or Brewers are always going to pass them. Look for Philly to get the home win tonight.
Non Stop Sports Picks
Giants/Lions Over 46.5
We'll just go ahead and lock in now before this # hits 47. Giants WILL score tonight, and they'll need to in order to keep up with the offensive-minded Lions. I don't see Detroit having problems putting up points tonight, and I don't see the Giants defense slowing them down. Their pass-rush is average at best. On the outside, they're mis-matched against Megatron...and I look for a BIG game from Reggie Bush, both in the slot and running the ball. Giants, although they haevn't looked good in the pre-season WILL move the ball tonight. If they can put up 3 TDs (which I think they can), this game should sail OVER. Keep in mind we always have the BS penalties this year, which WILL help add a few points to the final score.
Harry Bondi
DETROIT (-5) over New York
Will this be the year the Lions finally live up to their hype? We think so and it starts tonight against a New York Giants squad still trying to incorporate its new offense. The Giants have been lousy Monday night underdogs going 0-7 in that role their last seven games. We are not fans of new Detroit Head coach Jim Caldwell but his team is loaded with talent on both sides of the ball and even he should be able to win this one by double digits. History as with us with the big cats as well as the Lions have covered five of their last six as Monday night favorites. Lions roar again!
OC Dooley
Cardinals -2.5
Arizona is in “triple revenge” in a series where they have lost 9 times in a dozen chances versus San Diego. The last time these pair of sides met on the same field saw the Chargers humiliate the Cardinals by a 41-10 final count. One can argue that Arizona even though at home should not be favored this evening due to the myriad of INJURIES that have hit them on both sides of the football. The defense is already without inside linebackers Karlos Dansby (free agency) and Daryl Washington (one year league suspension) who were integral parts of what was a stellar 2013 stop-unit. Late in training camp Cardinals defensive lineman Darnell Dockett was lost to a season ending knee injury while veteran elite pass rusher John Abraham (off the field problems) was for the most part absent. Many reading this analysis will remember last year’s gruesome knee injury suffered by former “troubled” LSU secondary star Tyrann Mathieu whose overall effectiveness is now in question after being a model citizen during 2013 in the desert. On the other side of the football Arizona’s lead rusher Andre Ellington (foot injury) has been reduced to a “game time” decision. The key to this pick surrounds a difficult Arizona SCHEDULE as next week they travel to New York to face what most likely will be an angry Giants contingent who is a prohibitive six-point underdog in the opening Monday ESPN telecast. The Cardinals then come back home to face a San Francisco contingent that yesterday tore up the opposition in a high profile road affair in Dallas. With Bruce Arians as head coach and a posted total (42’ to 49 points) inside tonight’s parameters Arizona is UNDEFEATED AT HOME (7-0 against the spread) where it counts
Vegas Butcher
New York Giants +4.5
This one dropped from +6, but above +4 there is still ample value here. In my NFL preview I've discussed how I expect Giants D to remain very strong this year as their offense will look to improve after ranking 31st last season. Giants' strength on defense are their corner-backs, so if anyone has a chance to contain Detroit's WR's, NY can do it. And of course typically when an offense ranks 10th, 7th, and 7th in consecutive years, then falls off to 31st, something had to be up. And that something was a lot of injuries, especially on the O-line and at running-back. You can typically expect a bounce-back, and of course with a new Offensive coordinator, that could be a bigger jump than normal.
As far as the Lions are concerned, they're going through a coaching change as Jim Caldwell is taking over this year. But what has Caldwell done in his career? He took over for Dungy after his retirement and oversaw a loaded Colts team behind Peyton Manning to a 14-2 regular season record and a SuperBowl berth. When Manning was out for a full year next season, the Colts ended the year at 2-14 with Caldwell unable to do anything to keep the team competitive. He was then fired. He latched on with the Ravens, took over the Offensive-coordinator job when Cam Cameron was fired, and then helped lead the Ravens to the SuperBowl win. Last season, he oversaw a Ravens offense that ranked 30th in the league in offensive efficiency. Hmmm.... So how much impact has he had on the Colts/Ravens successes and how much is he responsible for their failures the following seasons? Hard to say of course. But what is clear is that both times, Caldwell walked into solid situations and proceeded to have success. He crashed and burned miserably the following years though when his system was fully implemented. Honestly, I'm not very impressed with Caldwell so far. Typically truly 'strong' coaches do not let teams perform as poorly as teams under Caldwell's tutelage did in 2011 (Colts) and 2013 (Ravens' Offense). Regardless, Lions are garnering way too much respect here. Grab the points with the Giants, who I expect to have a strong chance to win this game outright.