Irish Warriors: NFL Week 1 picks

Hard to believe but the NFL is back for another year. Tonight we see an all NFC East battle as Superbowl champions the NEw York Giants face the Redskins. For a long time I can't remember an open campaign as there has been right now but anyway lets get straight to the perdictions

Week 1 Matchup Washington @ New York Skins to win this and upset the Superbowl champions. An awful lot of pressure on Eli to step up and be the leader here. The loss of both starting DE's is a huge blow. Jerome Mcdougal won't make any difference so the easy pick is Washington

Cincinatti @ BaltimoreTwo mediocre teams with both expected to be incontention for a high draft pick. Troy Smith or Flaco won't be enough to get the win here

New York Jets @ Miami Dolphins Personally i think the Jets had an average offseason but against the worst team in the League they win this one. The Dolphins Defense without Taylor won't have the pass rush to handle Favre

Kansas City @ New England Never mind Brady's suppossed foot injury the Patriots romp in this one. After losing Samuel the Pats secondary might be a little weaker then last year but with Brody Coyle and Damon Huard the Chiefs have no QB to try and exploit this

Houston @ Pittsburgh The Steelers win this one easily. I saw nothing last year that makes me believe that the Texans have found their QB. The Steelers will be solid this year and I imagine they'll be back in the playoff hunt once again.

Jacksonville @ Tennessee After the disaster that was Jaguars OT Collier and his horrible sounding shooting (Irish Warriors sends their best wishes) the Jags will have a lack of O-line depth especially when Haynesworth is on the other side of the ball. Yet the Jags take this one

Detroit @ Atlanta Kitna said 10 win last year right?. I don't think they'll get 10 wind this year. They should be 9 wins more after this game although Turner and Norwood will prove a handful. Kitna should pick up his passing yardage with Calvin Johnson and Roy Williams especially with a mediocre Falcons secondary. Matt Ryan might prove the fresh face Atlanta needs though

Seattle @ Buffalo Winners of the NFC West this year will take the opening game in Buffalo. Still think they will miss Alexander but against Buffalo's offense they won't have any problems

Tampa @ New Orleans Additions on Offense and Defense means the Saints will probably take over from Tampa as NFC South Champions. Tampa were shown the gulf between them and the best in the NFC last year in the wildcards and I expect nothing to change here. With Reggie Bush being labelled overrated it's a make or break season for him

St Louis @ Philadelphia Westbrook will dominate the Rams in this one. The Eagles have lost both their starting WR's to injury but Deshaun Jackson has shown massive potential in pre-season. Expect a shootout in Philly's favour

Dallas @ Cleveland The Browns are in Quarterback trouble and have no idea whether Quinn or Anderson is starting material. Another potential shootout going in Dallas favour

Carolina @ San Diego Panthers without Steve Smith = no chance. Rivers has the look of a top quality QB and the players have learned a lot from last year if their press confrences are anything to go by. The work ethic seems to have returned. The loss of Merriman is huge but the Chargers should have enough to get past the Panthers.

Chicago @ Indianapolis The Bears still have the same problem they had last year. No QB. And they're in trouble on the ground as well. Manning may be partly injured and Jeff Saturday is out but like the Pats game the Bears aren't good enough to take advantage

Minnesota @ Green Bay How will Rodgers fare as a starter? Well he couldn't have picked a worse team to begin against. The Vikings are probably the best team in the NFL if Tarvaris Jackson doesn't lose them too many games. They have a dominating D, a great O-line some decent players at WR and of course All Day in the backfield. The Vikings should win this easily enough.

Bay Area Football

Arizona @ San Francisco No matter how bad the 49ers were last year they still swept the Cards. In 2004 they beat Arizona twice to avoid going 0-16. Last year they lost twice to the 49ers costing themselves a shot at the playoffs. Stays the same here and the 49ers win.

Denver @ Oakland Won't be a Bay area sweep though as the Raiders fall in this one. Cutler will show the ESPN crew just how good a QB he really is and gives JaMarcus Russell an idea of the QB he needs to be