NFL Picks, 2012 Season Week 2

When we were talking about ways to make the weekly pick segment more interesting we decided to add a team blogger to the mix. I think we’re going to change the segment up on the fly and try to see if we can make sure that whoever we contact for “celebrity blogger” status is covering a team that had something interesting happen the previous week.

This week we have two: Kevin Ewoldt, managing editor of Hogs Haven, and Steven Mullenax, editor of The Landry Hat. The Landry Hat got to watch its underdog Dallas Cowboys convincingly put it to the New York Giants in the season opener last Wednesday.

Mullenax celebrated his team’s win with a series of A-Team awards, singling out the performances of a number of Cowboys’ players from the win.

One of the most exciting parts of week one was watching the performance of Robert Griffin III, or RGIII, or as Ewoldt calls him, RG!!!. While the Redskins have a way to go, the team appears to finally have a franchise quarterback for the first time in 20 years, much to the delight of Ewoldt, managing editor of Hogs Haven.

He acknowledges the advantages Washington had in preparing for the game, which included distractions from bounty-gate, the absence of head coach Sean Payton and the lack of any ability to game-plan against the Redskins’ rookie quarterback. But Ewoldt also expressed excitement at how Griffin was able to live up to — and perhaps exceed – an almost insurmountable amount of hype leading up to the opener.

“It’ll be very interesting to see how RGIII plays against the Rams,” he says. “He took a lot of hits despite that great performance and how the secret is out on our personnel. If he’s going to play 16 weeks, the Redskins need to protect him better. But it’s clear Washington D.C. finally has a franchise-worthy QB again. … It only took us 20 years and three extra draft picks.”

Last week’s guest, Neal Coolong from Behind the Steel Curtain, beat us both with his Minnesota, NY Jets and Tampa Bay picks. For purposes of keeping score, we’ll use the score from whichever of the two guests gets the most games correct.

Celebrity Bloggers 11-5
Tony 8-8
Andy 8-8

Without further ado, here are all four of our thoughts on who will win in week two:
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In depth: Dallas Cowboys

Few teams have been harder to figure out in recent years than the Dallas Cowboys. The team often has tons of talent on the field only to self-destruct in strange ways and the 2011 season was no different. After 11 games, Tony Romo was clicking and DeMarco Murray was running hard.

Then Dallas lost two heartbreakers to Arizona and the New York Giants late and the Cowboys were on their way to a 1-4 finish.
So what’s ahead for Jerry Jones, Jason Garrett and crew? Steven Mullenax, editor and head writer at The Landry Hat blog, recently shared his thoughts with Zoneblitz.

Zoneblitz: Are Jason Garrett and his current coaching staff the right mix for the Cowboys? (more…)