Payton’s Plays – NFL Week 2

Editor’s note: SBD is incredibly excited to announce its new partnership with NBA legend Gary Payton and our new series, Payton’s Plays! Without further ado, take it away, Gary!

Football’s back, y’all! Get excited. All season I’m going to be giving you the best picks of the week in Payton’s Plays.

Week 1 was crazy. Wild finishes all over. Big ups to BlackJack Del Rio and Mike Tomlin for getting aggressive. That’s how you win ball games. Listen up, Jay Gruden. You might learn something.

Week 2 might be just as good. Cincy and Pit are gonna hammer each other … again. Aaron Rodgers and Green Bay are in for a battle against that smothering Vikings defense. But if you’re gonna lay down some benjamins this week, there are two other games that I like more.

New Orleans Saints at New York Giants (-4.5)

Pick: Giants (-4.5)

The Saints and Giants lit it up when they played last year. They scored over 100 points at the Superdome (52-49 Saints). Both teams were horrible on defense all season. That doesn’t sit well with me and my ’96 NBA Defensive Player of the Year award.

The G-Men tried to fix their defense in the offseason. They picked up Olivier Vernon and Snacks Harrison, and their D played ok when they beat the Cowboys last week (20-19). New Orleans didn’t even try to get better on defense.

Surprise! They got lit up by Oakland on Sunday (35-34). And they lost their best player on D, Delvin Breaux.

These teams are gonna ball out this weekend. The Saints will get their points. You can’t just shutdown Drew Brees. But the improved Giants defense will get a few stops, and that’s more than I can say for New Orleans. OBJ and Victor Cruz (welcome back!) are gonna torch Who Dat? all day (even if it does rain).

Kansas City Chiefs at Houston Texans (-2.5)

Pick: Chiefs (+2.5)

Apparently it’s been a minute since last year’s playoffs because everyone’s forgotten that KC laid a beat down on the Texans in Houston. And I do mean beat down. It was 30-0.

The Texans look different this year. I love Lamar Miller, and Brock Osweiler’s better than Brian Hoyer, but the Chiefs are for real, y’all. They won 11 straight games last year and showed a lot heart against San Diego last week. They got down early but didn’t quit. Alex Smith isn’t just a “game manager” anymore. He’s a legit quarterback that can lead a high-scoring offense. And I love my boy Jamaal Charles, but KC doesn’t need him. Spencer Ware is a beast.

Houston’s gonna put up a better fight than they did in the playoffs, you can be sure of that. JJ Watt ain’t at full speed though. If he was, he would have feasted on the Bears last week. At the end of the day, I see KC winning this one straight up. Getting 2.5 points is just the gravy on top. I love me some gravy.

Photo credit: Mike Morbeck [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.