NFL Picks, 2012 Season Week 1

Looking back at 2011, both Andy and I had pretty solid seasons picking games straight up–Andy edged me slightly at the end of the year, with an 11-5 record in Week 17 to my 9-7, putting him at 171-85 for the year (67%) to my 167-88 (65.5%). But while we were alright at picking games, we’ve got to keep pushing ourselves–so we’re adding celebrity team blogger to the picks each week. This week Neal Coolong (@NealCoolong), editor with Behind the Steel Curtain, was kind enough to join us.

Game of the Week: All of them! Seriously, other than the real zebras being on strike, I don’t remember the last time I was this excited about football season starting. And this from a fan who expects his team to win six games or fewer this year.

Game of the Week (for real): San Francisco @ Green Bay – Based on last year, you’ve got strength vs. strength (GB offense vs. SF defense) and weakness vs. weakness (SF offense vs. GB defense). The 49ers made some improvements to their offense, but failed to upgrade QB Alex Smith, which despite his adequate 2011 season, might be what holds them back. Meanwhile, I’ve seen at least one “expert” (ok, he’s only a Fantasy Football guy) claim that “B.J. Raji and A.J. Hawk should ramp it up after a disappointing 2011.” Not really sure what Behrens is basing that off of (Hawk was never that good to begin with, and Raji has already hurt his ankle, which can’t be good for a 330+ pound guy. Regardless, this should be a good game–and one that Andy and I picked differently this week.

Game of the Weak: St. Louis @ Detroit – There are already a lot of games with pick distribution at 95/5 or higher–Indy/Chicago, Philly/Cleveland, New England/Tennessee, Houston/Miami, Baltimore/Cincy. But at least most of those games give you something to look forward to–the beginning of Andrew Luck’s career, two Brown’s rookies plus the Eagles opportunity to rebound from a terrible 2011, New England’s 5 TE offense, Miami’s…ok, maybe not the last two. But a September game, in a dome, featuring on of the worst teams in the league facing off against a much improved Lions team that still has no RB and no DB. Outside of hoping for big numbers from Calvin Johnson for fantasy purposes, I can’t see tuning in to this one.