Mike Martz Ready to Fly Past Titans Again

Type/Last Week/Season
NCAA/1-2/3-3
NFL/2-1/3-1
Invest/-1.1*/-1.1*

INVEST
St. Louis 37 (-6 ½) Tennessee 20**. Tennessee played their Super Bowl last week. It was their home opener against rival Baltimore. The Titans and Ravens played several significant regular season games in recent seasons for playoff positioning and/or AFC playoff games. Ravens QB Anthony Wright doesn’t have the ability to be a full-time NFL starter; Rams QB Marc Bulger has a home winning percentage in the vicinity of .850. The Rams have offensive balance (if HC Mike Martz realizes that running plays are legal) with RB Stephen Jackson and WRs Torry Holt, Isaac Bruce, and Kevin Curtis. The Titans’ defensive shortcomings will be exposed by “The Greatest Show on Turf”.

SATURDAY
If your team is playing as scheduled, tune in. There only game that figures to have BCS implications has been moved to Monday due to Hurricane Rita.

SUNDAY
1:00 ET CBS Philadelphia 31 (-8 ½) Oakland 20. Because it’s on TV! That’s what makes this game worth watching. It’s the most intriguing early Sunday game, which speaks volumes. It’s a battle of Prima Donna WR’s, Terrell Owens (PHI) and Randy Moss (OAK). I’ll take the team with the better defense in this one.

4:15 ET CBS HD New England 30 (+3) at Pittsburgh 24. The 2 meetings between these teams last season weren’t close. Early turnovers staked the Steelers to a 21-3 lead in October. In January the Patriots jumped at to a 24-3 lead. Pittsburgh has Fast Willie Parker at RB instead of powerful Jerome Bettis or Duce Staley. The New England defense has done better against backs like Bettis or Staley than Parker, so this could help the Steelers. New England will have to contain QB Roethlisburger (they didn’t in the first game but did in the 2nd) in order hand him his first regular season loss as a starter.

7:30 ET ESPN HD NFL PrimeTime 8:30 ET San Diego 30 (-5 ½) v. NY Giants 20. The Chargers are eventually going to show up this year, right? TE Antonio Gates was in the lineup last week and had a good game, but didn’t see much red zone activity. RB LaDamian Tomlinson had 2 TDs, but still hasn’t caught a pass yet this season. HC Marty Schottenheimer must know that I drafted QB Drew Brees in one of my virtual leagues this season! The Bolts had 14 points in the first 20 minutes last week, then didn’t do much of anything until late in the 4th quarter. They’ll be fired up for this one with QB Eli Manning making his first trip to the city he refused to play for.

MONDAY
7:30 ET ESPN2 HD? Tennessee 23 (+7) LSU 17. This game was originally in the Saturday 7:45 time slot but was moved due to Hurricane Rita. I figure that the Tigers will suffer from the affects of Katrina on the football field. Their 28-point 4th quarter in the road opener at Arizona State was incredible, but emotional energy can only last for a short period of time. Tennessee suffered a loss at Florida last weekend; they do need to improve on offense. There were too many 3-and outs by the Vols last week.

9:00 ET ABC HD Kansas City 27 (+3) at Denver 20. The Chiefs can make a huge statement with a victory in this game. It would be their second road divisional victory. RBs Priest Holmes and Larry Johnson are both off to a good start this season. The defense followed up a near shutout of the Jets with a solid performance against the Raiders (17 points). Denver took awhile to get going versus the Chargers last week, but eked out a 20-17 win on a last-second Jason Elam field goal. The Broncos changed pace last week and got solid play from a 1st-round RB. Ron Dayne was the RB of choice in the 4th quarter… I think he gained more yards last week than he did in some seasons with the NY Giants! Quality depth is good news for the Broncos since RBs Mike Anderson and Tatum Bell are suffering from injuries. Their success with Dayne makes me really wonder why they spent a 3rd round draft choice on Maurice Clarett. That’s a move I expect from Rams HC Mike Martz, not Broncos HC Mike Shanahan.