NFL Week 2 Picks: Game-by-Game Over/Under Predictions

The lesson in Week 1 of the NFL season was that Vegas always knows something. 

According to TeamRankings.com, eight games hit the over. Eight games hit the under. 

It's one thing to pick winners and who is going to cover the spread. It's quite another to predict just how many points will be scored between the two teams. 

However, if we take a closer look at some matchups and trends, we can reasonably forecast which games will be shootouts that are guaranteed to go over the point total and which ones will be defensive slugfests that will barely see any scoring. 

In today's fantasy football-crazed world, over/unders have become important to monitor. When setting your lineup, you need to know which games will feature more scoring so that you can target players involved and avoid matchups that aren't likely to generate many points. 

With that in mind, here's a look at the entire slate of the latest odds from Odds Shark, predictions and a look at some fantasy matchups to target or avoid based on point totals. 

Day	Road	Home	Line	O/U	ATS Pick
Thursday	Jets	Bills	Even	40.5	Jets/Under
Sunday	49ers	Panthers	CAR -14	48.5	Panthers/Under
Sunday	Cowboys	Redskins	WSH -3.5	44.5	Redskins/Over
Sunday	Bengals	Steelers	PIT -3.5	47.5	Steelers/Under
Sunday	Saints	Giants	NYG -5	51.5	Saints/Over
Sunday	Dolphins	Patriots	NE -6.5	41.5	Patriots/Over
Sunday	Chiefs	Texans	HOU -2.5	43.5	Texans/Under
Sunday	Titans	Lions	DET -5.5	47	Lions/Over
Sunday	Ravens	Browns	BAL -6.5	43	Ravens/Under
Sunday	Seahawks	Rams	SEA -3.5	N/A	Rams
Sunday	Buccaneers	Cardinals	ARZ -6.5	50	Cardinals/Over
Sunday	Jaguars	Chargers	SD -3	48	Chargers/Under
Sunday	Falcons	Raiders	OAK -4.5	48	Raiders/Over
Sunday	Colts	Broncos	DEN -6	45	Colts/Over
Sunday	Packers	Vikings	GB -2.5	44.5	Vikings/Under
Monday	Eagles	Bears	CHI -3	43	Eagles/Over

Fantasy Matchups to Target

New Orleans Saints at New York Giants

If you're looking for one game to produce scoring galore every week, you might as well have a copy of the New Orleans Saints schedule handy. 

For anyone who was wondering if Drew Brees still had anything left in the tank, he gave an emphatic answer in Week 1. As Jeff Duncan of the Times-Picayune noted, the 37-year-old was one of the league's top performers last week:

That's great news for Brees fantasy owners and daily players, but it wasn't exactly great news for the Saints.

Despite the phenomenal performance, New Orleans still came up short. That's because the defense figures to be horrific this season (and not to opposing offenses). In Week 1, the Saints gave up 22 fourth-quarter points in a 35-34 loss to the Oakland Raiders.

While the Raiders offense is promising, it's far from proven. That won't be the case when the Giants take the field against their NFC South opponent. The Giants squeaked out a 20-19 win in Week 1 against the Dallas Cowboys but have time to get the offense back to the level it was last season when it was sixth in the league with 26.3 points per game. 

Expect Eli Manning, Odell Beckham Jr. and Rashad Jennings to have better days than the solid—but not great—numbers they had in Week 1. That trio will be difficult for the Saints defense to contain all game, and any of those three could change the outlook of the game.  

Indianapolis Colts at Denver Broncos

Jeff Roberson/Associated Press

The Denver Broncos opened up the season with a gutsy performance that held the Carolina Panthers to just 20 points in a come-from-behind win. 

This week, the Broncos should once again pull out a victory, but it could be a higher-scoring affair. 

First, Trevor Siemian will have a much easier defense to pick apart. The Panthers defense was dominant last season and appeared to pick up right where it left off, whereas the Colts have still not fixed their defensive woes. They gave up 39 points to the Detroit Lions in a loss. 

Improvement probably isn't in the cards for the Colts this week, either. Four defensive starters were out last week with injuries, and head coach Chuck Pagano doesn't sound hopeful they will be back this week. 

"We are going to err on the side of caution with [defensive tackle Henry Anderson] and the rest of these guys that are coming off those knee injuries and significant injuries to make sure that they are ready," Pagano said, per Stephen Holder of the Indianapolis Star.

Meanwhile, the Colts have a good shot at putting up some points against a strong Denver defense. The Broncos' pass rush is daunting, but the Indy offensive line looks much-improved from last season, per Pro Football Focus:

Plus, the Colts still have that Andrew Luck guy at QB. While Denver did well to slow down Cam Newton, Bradley Roby and T.J. Ward both made PFF's Worst Team of the Week:

That's enough to believe that Luck will find holes in the Denver secondary to keep the score relatively high and his team in it for a while.

Fantasy Matchup to Avoid

New York Jets at Buffalo Bills

There's a reason that the Jets-Bills matchup has the lowest point total on the slate this week. It might not even hit the low bar of 40.5 total points set by Vegas. 

First, Thursday games have a penchant for being ugly. Simply put, the turnaround from playing on Sunday to taking the field just four days later is too hard for players to get healthy and teams to make any real improvement from one week to the next. 

In regard to players getting healthy, that's bad news for the Bills, who need wide receiver Sammy Watkins to recover. According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the receiver won't necessarily miss time for his foot injury, but he will be playing with pain throughout the year:

That's bad news for an offense that struggled in Week 1 against the Baltimore Ravens. With Watkins still leading the team in receiving with four catches for 43 yards, the Bills scored just seven points. 

Now they're supposed to play four days later against a talented Jets defense that is looking to bounce back from a tough one-point loss to the Cincinnati Bengals? That's a tall order. 

The Bills should continue to look like one of the most inept offenses in the league. And the Jets aren't exactly an offensive juggernaut. 

If you have other things to do Thursday night, you won't miss much scoring in this game.