Week 2 NFL Picks: Final Vegas Odds and Predictions for Sunday's Slate

It's time for a wild Sunday in Week 2 of the NFL, where countless teams and players will surprise us once again.

Last Sunday, the Buffalo Bills and St. Louis Rams led off the schedule with wins over strong teams, while the Tennessee Titans and Cincinnati Bengals showed unexpected dominance in the afternoon games. Marcus Mariota looked nothing like a rookie in his Titans' dismantling of the Tampa Buy Buccaneers while Jameis Winston looked exactly like one.

Who will change their reputations Sunday?

That remains to be seen, but let's look through final odds for the games, predict each final score and run through a few contests that look to be safe bets.

Matchup	Spread	Prediction
New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills	NE -2	Bills, 24-23
Arizona Cardinals at Chicago Bears	ARI -2.5	Cardinals, 27-17
San Francisco 49ers at Pittsburgh Steelers	PIT -6.5	Steelers, 21-16
Atlanta Falcons at New York Giants	NYG -2	Falcons, 31-28
Tennessee Titans at Cleveland Browns	TEN -2	Titans, 24-14
Houston Texans at Carolina Panthers	CAR -3	Panthers, 23-17
Tampa Bay Buccaneers at New Orleans Saints	NO -10	Saints, 31-17
Detroit Lions at Minnesota Vikings	MIN -3	Lions, 21-20
St. Louis Rams at Washington Redskins	STL -3.5	Rams, 24-7
San Diego Chargers at Cincinnati Bengals	CIN -3.5	Bengals, 30-21
Miami Dolphins at Jacksonville Jaguars	MIA -6.5	Dolphins, 26-17
Baltimore Ravens at Oakland Raiders	BAL -7	Ravens, 27-13
Dallas Cowboys at Philadelphia Eagles	PHI -5	Eagles, 37-28
Seattle Seahawks at Green Bay Packers	GB -3.5	Packers, 31-24

Safest Bets

Arizona Cardinals (-2.5) over Chicago Bears

Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press

The Cardinals are flying under the radar once again, and, like last year, they're poised for another excellent season.

Carson Palmer might be the most underrated quarterback in the NFL. The backfield situation might lose a little something with Andre Ellington out Sunday, per ESPN.com's Josh Zeinfuss. Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Floyd and John Brown lead a nice receiving corps, however.

But the defense is undoubtedly the team's strong suit.

Against the New Orleans Saints in a 31-19 Week 1 win, Arizona allowed just 54 yards on the ground, the fewest in the league. Drew Brees gashed the team for 355 passing yards, but he had just one touchdown and threw an interception.

The main weakness of the Cardinals is its vulnerability to short passes to running backs. Saints running backs and fullbacks combined for 15 catches and 154 yards in Week 1, which is, unfortunately for them, a strength of the Bears. Chicago running back Matt Forte makes a killing off of Jay Cutler dump-offs.

However, aside from that, the teams are just unevenly matched on paper. Cutler may not have No. 1 receiver Alshon Jeffery on the field Sunday, as he's questionable due to calf and hamstring injuries, per ESPN.com's Jeff Dickerson. The rest of the Bears offense, while respectable, isn't good enough to scare the Cardinals defense.

And Chicago's defense is notoriously bad (31st in opponent scoring a year ago), so Arizona should have no trouble scoring even with Chris Johnson starting at running back in Ellington's place.

St. Louis Rams (-3.5) over Washington Redskins

Tom Gannam/Associated Press

The St. Louis Rams beat the defending NFC champion Seattle Seahawks in overtime last Sunday. On Sunday, they visit arguably the conference's worst team, the Washington Redskins.

One matchup that could turn out to be a microcosm of the game is the Rams' stacked defensive line against the Redskins' poor offensive line. In fact, Bleacher Report's NFL experts voted the struggle between those two position groups as the biggest mismatch of Week 2.

At this point, I'll turn it over to B/R's Ty Schalter to explain this matchup:

"

In the end, it's sheer numbers: There was too much size, talent and depth in the St. Louis Rams defensive line for the Seattle Seahawks to handle, and the Seahawks surrendered six sacks to the Rams. Washington's perennially rebuilding line earned Pro Football Focus' fourth-worst pass-blocking grade from Week 1 and threatens to be overrun in Week 2.

"

Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins will have almost no time to throw, and this is a passing league, after all. Having No. 1 receiver DeSean Jackson out with a hamstring injury doesn't help matters, either. Running back Alfred Morris is a stud, but he can't jump-start an offense himself.

Add in the fact that the Redskins defense is certainly below average compared to a decent Rams offense, and this game has snoozer written all over it.

Baltimore Ravens (-7) over Oakland Raiders 

Joe Mahoney/Associated Press/Associated Press

The Ravens are looking to become the second AFC North team in as many weeks to embarrass the Raiders on their home field. Last Sunday, Cincinnati Bengals took a 33-0 lead into the fourth quarter before closing the gap to 33-13 by the end of the game.

The good news for Oakland is that starting quarterback Derek Carr is probable to play the contest after bruising his thumb in Week 1. The bad news is that the Raiders had still not scored when he left in the second quarter, and the Ravens defense might be better than the Bengals, even with star outside linebacker Terrell Suggs sidelined for the year with a torn Achilles.

Oakland's defense may be short-handed, as well, with safety Charles Woodson questionable due to a shoulder injury, per CSN California's Scott Bair.

That could spell trouble against an offense led by quarterback Joe Flacco and running back Justin Forsett, 

Baltimore, a team whose overall talent is comparable to Cincinnati's, only has to come within 13 points of the Bengals' final score differential against Oakland to cover the spread.

I don't think that's much to ask of the Ravens.

Note: All statistics are from ESPN.com unless otherwise indicated.