TPL Picks: Week 3 - Winners, Spread picks & Game of the Week

After two weeks the pressure is already on for the 8 0-2 teams, two of whom made the playoffs last season. Some may feel that a tough opening schedule is the reason (Minnsota), or that bad luck has played its part (Tampa Bay). Others, like the Jaguars, are right where we expected them to be.

Meanwhile our 2-0 teams (including the now 3-0 Chiefs) are hardly all happy with themselves. New England have scratched out a pair of divisional wins and will need a greatly improved offensive performance against Revis and his new team this week, while Houston have had to fight tooth and nail for their wins and over-come a very iffy start to the season from Arian Foster.

So who are we picking for some crucial week 3 match-ups? Find out after the jump!

Game of the Week: Houston Texans (2-0) @ Baltimore Ravens (1-1)

1pm ET, Sunday

Our defending champions have had a tricky start to the season. First the Baltimore Orioles schedule meant they had to open on the road in Denver (where they got shellacked) rather than at home, then they struggled enormously in a 14-6 win over Cleveland. Worse still, during that Browns game Ray Rice got injured and is officially listed as "Doubtful" for this game.

Without him the Ravens offense are going to have to lean heavily on backup Bernard Pierce. For as good as he's looked in limited time as Rice's backup it's not at all clear that he can take on a full time roll, let alone if he can do enough against this stout Texans front to move the chains and the scoreboard.

Speaking of the Texans front, they were a dominant force in this game last year (a 43-13 win in Reliant Stadium), feeding off the chaos JJ Watt created to get 4 sacks and 2 turnovers. That, however, was against a very different offensive line. Since that game Bryant McKinnie has come into left tackle, allowing Oher to move back to the right and Kelechi Osemele to shift to guard. There is of course the retirement of Matt Birk to consider, and certainty that during this game Watt will line up over new centre Gino Gradkowski and test him. How this new offensive line can deal with Watt, an impressive Brian Cushing and their running-mates will go a long way to deciding this game.

On the other side of the ball the Ravens defense have a rather different looking Houston offense to contend with. Arian Foster, who missed the whole pre-season, has been extremely pedestrian so far, going at just 3.7 yards a carry while his back-up Ben Tate has ripped off an average of 8.2 yards in his 18 carries. If things continue in that vein Foster could quickly find himself sliding down the depth chart and Tate, an impending free-agent, could be in for a big pay day.

Because of Foster's struggles the Texans have been throwing it a lot. The only people with more attempts than Matt Schaub are Alex Smith (who's played 3 games) and Joe Flacco. That's it. I doubt Houston's Super Bowl plans had Schaub being so heavily involved but the running game issues have forced the passing game to play a larger role. And because of that we've seen two things: Andre Johnson has still got it, and DeAndre Hopkins might just be the 2nd receiver they've been looking for for so long. His 7 catches, 117 yards and game-winning touchdown last week were mightily impressive. If he can replicate some of that this week then the Ravens defense will be stretched to try and cover Johnson, Hopkins and the continually productive Owen Daniels.

So how does this game go? For one I think it will be far closer than last year's game, but I'm still going with a Texans win. The lack of over the middle options have really hurt the Ravens passing game, with Torrey Smith as the only reliable option. So could turn become a long day for Joe Flacco in the face of an heavy Houston pass rush which is averaging over 6 QB knockdowns a game. Houston walk away 28-17 winners. (TD)

TD's Spread Picks (Last week: 1-2):

Minnesota (-6.5) over Cleveland

I don't care that Christian Ponder is a bad QB or that the Browns defense has played very well to start the season, giving less than a touchdown to a Richardson-less Cleveland Browns lead by Brian Hoyer is a steal.

Houston (-1.5) over Baltimore

See above.

Seattle (-19) over Jacksonville

Yes, this line is very, very high and any team needs a lot to go right to win by 3 scores. But that said, can you really see the Jaguars scoring more than 10 points in Seattle? Maybe the Seahawks have a bit of a let-down game after hammering the 49ers last week, and maybe the crowd isn't as loud as it normally is, but the Jaguars have a hurt MJD, Chad Henne and are still without Justin Blackmon. It's going to get ugly.

	Toby Durant	Phil Gaskin	Gur Samuel
Chiefs @ Eagles	Chiefs	Eagles	Eagles
Packers @ Bengals	Packers	Packers	Packers
Rams @ Cowboys	Cowboys	Rams	Rams
Chargers @ Titans	Chargers	Chargers	Chargers
Browns @ Vikings	Vikings	Vikings	Vikings
Bucs @ Patriots	Patriots	Patriots	Patriots
Cardinals @ Saints	Saints	Saints	Cardinals
Lions @ Redskins	Lions	Redskins	Lions
Giants @ Panthers	Giants	Giants	Panthers
Texans @ Ravens	Texans	Texans	Texans
Falcons @ Dolphins	Falcons	Dolphins	Falcons
Bills @ Jets	Bills	Jets	Jets
Colts @ 49ers	49ers	49ers	49ers
Jaguars @ Seahawks	Seahawks	Seahawks	Seahawks
Bears @ Steelers	Bears	Bears	Bears
Raiders @ Broncos	Broncos	Broncos	Broncos
Last Week:	12-4	10-6	12-4
Overall:	23-9	20-12	23-9