I just advised a buddy of mine to take the Bengals plus the six points in their Week 2 matchup against the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium at 4:25 p.m. EST on Sunday.

Am I crazy? Am I trying to lose friends? Cincinnati just lost its Week 1 game at home against the hapless Patriots by a score of 16-10.

Joe Burrow looked ordinary in his return after missing the last seven games of 2023 with a significant wrist injury. The Bengals offense, sans running back Joe Mixon (free-agent departure) and receiver Tee Higgins (hamstring injury), only posted 224 yards on the day.

Truth be told, the game wasn’t even as close as the score indicated. New England methodically jumped out to a 13-0 lead before the Bengals decided to wake up from their hibernation late in the third quarter.

So why am I confident Cincinnati will recover and give the champs all they can handle in their own home in Week 2? Because it’s the NFL–on any given Sunday…Besides, Week 1 results are usually a terrible barometer of how a team’s season will go. Lots of fluky things happen during the first week of the season. For example, Bengals tight end Tanner Hudson fumbled right when he was about to score a touchdown late in the second quarter. If Cincinnati scored there, it might have changed everything.

Anyway, why am I going out of my way to defend the Bengals? Because I still can’t believe they lost at home to New England. I mean, have you seen the Patriots roster? They’ve got nothing, and I mean, nothing. They have Drake Maye, a rookie quarterback they picked in the first round (third, overall), but he rode the bench on Sunday, while Jacoby Brissett, a dependable but “meh” veteran quarterback, started the game.

I looked over New England’s roster, and Brissett is battling it out with Austin Hooper and Jabrill Peppers as the most recognizable names on it.

The Patriots came into the year with an over/under win total set at 4.5 (at least according to the folks in Vegas). So was the win at Cincinnati one of those 4.5, or should we now all take the over?

I still don’t think that’s a wise move, even after stealing a victory right off the bat.

At any rate, the Patriots win at Paycor Stadium was the biggest shocker of Week 1.

I know I’ve said this before, but I can’t believe how much has changed in the NFL over the past five years. In the late 2010s, Cincinnati was just a rest stop along the way to another Super Bowl victory for the Patriots. Today, Paycor Stadium is the same Jungle old Riverfront Stadium was in 1988 when the Bengals went to their second Super Bowl of the decade. I’m confident Burrow and Co. will play well against the Chiefs because they’ve shown they can do that in the recent past.

In the late 2010s, Gillette Stadium was a place teams were afraid to visit because it was haunted by two people–Tom Brady and Bill Belichick–who terrorized every opposing player and fan who dared to enter. Today, Gillette Stadium is a venue an opposing team can visit if it wants to “get right.”

The Seahawks will fly into Gillette Stadium this Sunday afternoon, and I fully expect them to fly back home with a 2-0 record after picking over the carcass of the former Super Bowl dynasty.

There’s no way the Patriots are going to leave that game with a 2-0 record, right? If New England remains undefeated after two weeks, the writers should immediately name newbie Jerod Mayo Coach of the Year.