It's back! After a one-year hiatus, The Coin Toss is returning to the Daily. If you haven't read before, here's how this works: I make three bold predictions every week about professional sports. Today we're talking about Week 3 of the NFL season. Let's start off with some Thursday Night Football.
The Jets UPSET the Browns?!
You read that right. The Browns are favored to win this game; Vegas has them at -3, the first time that the Browns have been home favorites since 2015. The weird thing is that this makes sense — the Browns are a better football team this year. They held their own against the Steelers and Saints and will now face arguably their worst opponent of the season so far.
So why do I have the Jets in this game? This is my team, so I may be biased, but I think they're due for a bounce-back win after a loss at home to Miami. The Jets lost that game for a variety of reasons, but the big takeaway was that their defense typically only gave up points after turnovers that led to good field position for the Dolphins. If Sam Darnold can limit turnovers (two interceptions last week), the Jets' defense, which looked very good against the Lions in Week 1, should be able to hold the Browns' offense enough to get the road win.
Blake Bortles is a top 10 fantasy quarterback (again)
In case you didn't realize, Blake Bortles put up 32.6 fantasy points against the Patriots last week. This wasn't a fluke performance either; he was making throws and looking like an actual quarterback. Could he really be good? That remains to be seen, but I think he'll put up some more numbers at home against the Titans in Week 3, at least enough to be a top 10 fantasy QB once again.
You might think the Titans will be ready for their divisional rival, but their defense allowed 22.8 fantasy points to Deshaun Watson last week, on 310 yards and two touchdowns. Bortles is coming off of 377 yards and four touchdowns against New England. I think he'll ride that hot hand and put up another big performance.
The Chargers beat the Rams in battle for L.A.
This would be an upset. Not because the Chargers are a bad team; they're not. The Rams are just stacked, and it's no coincidence that they're 2–0 at this point. However, this is their toughest opponent yet. They faced the Raiders in Week 1, beating them 33–13 in Oakland, then shut out the Cardinals at home (34–0) in Week 2. The Chargers will put up more of a fight than those teams.
They have a high-powered offense led by Phillip Rivers, who has put up 680 yards and six touchdowns while completing 73 percent of his passes this year. The Chargers' defense has been solid as well, save for what Patrick Mahomes did to them in Week 1. This L.A. team has what it takes to beat its crosstown rivals, and I predict it will pull off the upset.
The Coin Toss: NFL Week 3
