NFL Picks Week 2: Underdogs That Will Beat the Odds on Sunday

Throw money down at your own peril this week.

This early in the NFL season, you can never really know how good or bad a team is. Sure you have your hunches, but there've only been one regular-season game and a meaningless preseason from which you can base those judgments.

There's still a lot of games to be played, and a good chance that a lot of teams are neither as bad nor as good, whichever may be the case, as they looked in Week 1.

In order to try to help you out, here are predictions for each Week 2 game, followed by three teams that could end up beating the spread.

Odds are courtesy of VegasInsider.com.

Miami Dolphins (+3) at Indianapolis Colts

Don't sleep on the Miami Dolphins. They've got a good-enough defense and an offense that has gotten a lot better with the offseason additions of Brandon Gibson and Mike Wallace.

It was an assured 23-10 win over the Cleveland Browns on Sunday. Miami was actually out-gained by Cleveland but allowed the Browns to convert just one of 14 third downs and picked off Brandon Weeden three times. The Dolphins also got six sacks and hit Weeden 16 times.

The Indianapolis Colts, meanwhile, are coming off a close win over the Oakland Raiders. They had a hard time handling Terrelle Pryor, who rushed for 112 yards to go with his 217 yards passing and one touchdown.

The Colts will be happy to face a pocket quarterback like Ryan Tannehill. However, there are still question marks concerning the Colts secondary.

With Tannehill's weapons, he should be able to lead the Dolphins to a big win.

Cleveland Browns (+6.5) at Baltimore Ravens

Speaking of the Browns, they did look poor against the Dolphins. The offense was average at best. Weeden completed fewer than half of his passes, and Trent Richardson only averaged 3.6 yards a carry.

As bad as Cleveland was, at least it didn't have as bad a week as the Baltimore Ravens, who surrendered seven touchdowns to Peyton Manning and could very easily have gotten 56 points dropped on them. It was a very disappointing performance, even for a team that lost Dannell Ellerbe, Paul Kruger, Ed Reed and Ray Lewis in the offseason.

Many will project this to be a one-sided affair, but the Browns should be able to surprise. They weren't as bad as their record last year would have you believe, and they'll continue getting better as they adjust to Rob Chudzinski and Norv Turner's offense. You should see an improvement in Week 2. Plus the defense looked much better after Cleveland added Kruger and Desmond Bryant.

At the very least, this game will be decided by fewer than seven points.

Jacksonville Jaguars (+6) at Oakland Raiders

The Jacksonville Jaguars should actually improve with Blaine Gabbert out and Chad Henne in, which will be the case, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter:

This is still a very bad team, but at least Henne has the ability to break out for 250 to 300 yards and a couple of touchdowns. You have to believe that Maurice Jones-Drew will be better than 15 carries for 45 yards, as well.

The Raiders almost sneaked a win against the Colts, only to lose via that Andrew Luck touchdown run in the fourth quarter. It was a strong performance, but you wonder how effective Pryor will be the longer he's in the league. Teams will get more and more game film on him and figure out ways to try to stop him.

Since it's only Week 2, Pryor should have another good performance.

This one is liable to turn into a shootout, and don't be surprised when the Jags offense is able to keep pace with Henne under center.