by Matt Fischer
INSTANT DEATH! NFL week 1 didn’t go well with my survivor pool pick as the Lions were embarrassing. They were blown out 48-17 by the Jets at home on Monday night. So my apologies for such a horrific start to the NFL season. I promise to do better with my week 2 NFL Survivor Pool Pick. Last season I went 15-2 with NFL Survivor Pool Picks so hopefully there’s a lot of surviving the rest of the way.
NFL Week 2 Survivor Pool Picks stick with consistent strategy to narrow down the possibilities. There were 6 finalist for our pick last week, four won.
My picks are based upon our data driven week 2 NFL predictions and power rankings.
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Survivor Pool Pick Strategy:
There are easy steps to cut down your potential pick for your NFL survivor pool. My first step in the process is eliminating the teams I’ve already picked so those loser Lions are out! We start with 15 NFL week 2 winners.
Eliminate Toss-Up Winners
First I eliminate toss-up winners. That means I’m cutting the 1 point winners out of the list for consideration for week 2 NFL Survivor Pool Picks. The Seahawks are 1 point winners at the Bears for Monday Night Football this week. The Lions were also our only toss up winner but since we’ve eliminated those losers already we’re at 14 teams to consider for NFL week 2.
Eliminate Road Winners
Next we eliminate road teams. I don’t like taking road teams to win in the NFL at all. Just too risky when you need a win, go with a home team.
Eliminating predicted road winners, the Chargers (at Bills), Vikings (at Packers) and Eagles (at Bucs) are predicted road winners so they’re out of contention for our Week 2 NFL Survivor Pool Pick. 11 teams remain.
Eliminate Low Ranking Winners
Next, I look for team that aren’t in our 20 of the power rankings. Eliminated are the Bengals (22), Jets (23) and Broncos (27). Eight teams are left in consideration for our NFL Survivor Pool Pick for week 2 .
Eliminate Winners Playing Good Teams
Then, I look for our predicted winners that are playing teams ranked in the top 16 and take them out of consideration. This eliminates the Steelers (against Chiefs), Falcons (against Panthers), Titans (against Texans) and Jaguars (against Patriotss). Four teams remain as my Week 2 NFL Survivor Pool Pick.
Final NFL Week 2 Survivor Pool Picks
We’re down to the final four for NFL week 2. The Saints, Redskins, Rams and Cowboys all made it through the NFL Survivor Pool Pick vetting process. Now it’s time for me to rank them in order of confidence.
4 – Cowboys (against Giants) – You never know what you’re going to get between these two. The Giants have gone to Dallas in primetime before and one in past seasons. The Cowboys offense was dominated in Carolina last Sunday. Being a divisional game, I’m staying away from it to survive NFL week 2.
3 – Saints (against Browns) – This looks to be an obvious pick. The Browns haven’t won in over a season now. The Saints are coming off a loss at home and I think this will be a blowout. I’m going to hold off on using the Saints in the NFL survivor pool for this week. There will be other opportunities this season.
2 – Rams (against Cardinals) – The Rams blew the Raiders out in the second half Monday night. They’re one of the league’s most talented teams. They’re another obvious pick but being a divisional game, I’m going to hold off on the Rams.
1 – Redskins (against Colts) – There probably won’t be a lot of opportunities to use the Redskins this season in your survivor pool. The Colts aren’t very good. The Redskins with Alex Smith are going to be tough each week. I think Washington takes this game comfortably. Take the Washington Redskins as your Week 2 NFL Survivor Pool Pick.
Get our weekly NFL Survivor Pool Picks.