Lance's 2024 Week 3 Predictions
Every week I’ll be putting out my predictions, they will include my winner for each game with a brief explanation, and 1 start and 1 sit for each fantasy football position. I will start making my spread picks after week 5, once I have more statistical data to go on. As usual, I’ll start with my picks:
Head-to-Head record: 18-14
NY Jets over New England
Made the pick via Twitter and Facebook before the game cause the article wasn't ready to be posted.
Cleveland over NY Giants
The Browns pass rush is too much for the Giants O-Line and for Daniel Jones.
Indianapolis over Chicago
Might come down to which Quarterback turns over the ball less. I'm taking Indy to favor Jonathan Taylor and limit the number of turnovers Richardson can commit.
Minnesota over Houston
Really tough game to pick, but I'm loving what I've seen from Brian Flores' defense so far and I think he flusters Stroud enough to help the Vikings walk away with a close win.
New Orleans over Philadelphia
Philly's defense has been giving up a lot of yards and chunk plays, but they've locked it down in the redzone (only 2 TDs allowed on 8 redzone trips). New Orleans has been very efficient in the redzone (8 scores on 9 trips), so something has to give. However, if Philly continues to win that battle, the Saints are well equipped to take advantage of long scoring opportunities.
Pittsburgh over LA Chargers
The key matchup for me is Joe Alt vs T.J. Watt. Watt was the main cog in Pitt beating Atlanta week 1, because he was constantly beating Kaleb McGary around the edge. The rookie has a tough one on his hands, and the Chargers won't be able to hide behind their run game forever.
Tampa Bay over Denver
Denver hasn't shown the defensive strength to shutdown an offense that's running as smoothly as Tampa's, and Nix has yet to show he's ready to compete at a high level (but I'm hoping that starts to turn around soon).
Green Bay over Tennessee
Green Bay can win this one with the exact same strategy they deployed last week. Bonus, it's a Malik Willis revenge game.
Las Vegas over Carolina
I think Carolina and Andy Dalton keep it close, but the Raiders' (kind of struggling) run game and defense let them escape with a win.
Seattle over Miami
No Tagovailoa, and Skylar Thompson isn't scaring anyone. McDaniel could get creative with the deployment of his explosive playmakers, but it'll take a lot of creativity to pull off the upset.
Arizona over Detroit
My numbers favor the game to go this way. Since I picked Detroit for the Super Bowl, I'll be pulling for this not to happen, but with the way Goff played last week I have a hard time making an argument for Detroit to win.
Baltimore over Dallas
I don't see Dallas getting blown out like they did against the Saints, but the Ravens will fight harder to avoid the 0-3 pit of despair.
San Francisco over LA Rams
The Rams keep it close at home, but because of the injuries they're unable to matchup with the Niners' firepower and that's their downfall in the end.
Kansas City over Atlanta
I'm going to say a Kansas City field goal at the end of the game to pull out another nailbiter.
Buffalo over Jacksonville
The first half of their week 1 matchup with Arizona was a wake-up call for the Bills, since then they've been firing on all cylinders. They keep that momentum going against a Jags team dealing with flat play calling which has cost them big through two weeks.
Cincinnati over Washington
My numbers actually favor Washington, but their secondary is ripe for a Joe Burrow-Ja'Marr Chase breakout game. Daniels' dual threat ability will give them a chance, but his inexperience will keep them from pulling off the upset.
Fantasy Starts and Sits
Under Construction: This segment currently isn't going well and a big part of that is it takes quite a bit of research time that I can't currently dedicate to it. I'm working on creating a program that can do the digging for me. Could be a while, but I do plan to bring this back at some point.