Trying to survive your Survival football league this year.  Nearly every year week one always is one of the toughest.  New faces in new places and well we just don't know what to expect from certain teams.  This year offers even more challenges with a plethora of division rivalries the first week.  So if you are looking for an edge here is a breakdown of this weeks schedule and good bets, vs bad bets.

Avoid at all costs - Generally a good rule of thumb is to avoid those tough divisional match-ups unless there is a glaring gap in the talent and well in week one, we don't know what to expect yet.

New England vs NY Jets - As mentioned above AFC east division rivals who seemingly always play a tight game when facing each other.  Expect the Pats to win, however, if you can only pick a team once a year it is worth not wasting a Pats pick this early

Atlanta vs Minnesota - Can the Falcons come together with the offseason/pre-season drama?  What can we expect from the Vikings, who is even their QB? Chances are, unless you are a Vikings fan or alreayd played a ton of games in Madden you probably don't know either.  To many question makrs about this game and not enough to even conisder making such a do or die pick on this one.  If you must pick I would say Minnesota just on the hope that the Falcons are not on stable ground with all the preceeding events.

Tennessee vs Jacksonville - Vince Young starting his first full season as starter + Jax just named Garrard as their starter + divisonal match-up ='s avoid at all costs.  Unless you have some kind of inside information this one seems like a toss up either way, I'm sure there are edges on either side but not enough to bank your survival league life on.

Chicago vs San Diego - Two of last years powerhouse teams meet up in week one, good for TV bad for picks. Again you'd hate to waste either of these teams pick in week one, and with what seems to be one of the highlight games of the week, just sit back and enjoy and leave this one off your list of picks

Dallas vs NY Giants - Divisonal Rivals, plus  both teams seem to be about the same level of talent.  Again, not saying a winner can't be picked here, but too many if's to make this be your only pick

Baltimore vs Cincy - By now you should already have guessed it, divisonal rivals and too excellent teams, enjoy the game, don't stake your fantasy life on it.

San Fran vs Arizona - one more divison rivalry game, and these two have had some wild games vs each other in the recent past, i would give the edge to Arizona, but they are the Cards and well no need staking things on the Cards to win in week one against a divsion foe.

Indy vs New Orleans - Again, two of the top teams last year go head to head in week one. you could probably take Indy and be somewhat safe with that pick, but why waste the pick of Indy in week one when it isn't a no brainer pick

Miami vs Washington - Will the Skins finally start pulling things together, how will the Fins do under their new coach. A toss up at the bottom of the barrell, To risky either way to be certain.

Iffy at best -

Carolina vs St Louis - I'm really not a big fan of what the Panthers have to offer didn't play very well last year and now without Keyshaun there is no real reason not to double team Steve Smith on every pass attempt.  I think St Louis has what it takes to win this game and I'm not sure exactly how many times we might be tempted to take St Louis to win this year so this pick can be tempting on the St Louis side.  I personally will stay away from this since i only see it as about 60% for the Rams, but if you want to gamble in week one here might be your chance.

Kansas City vs Houston - Any other year This might be a bonifde no brainer pick. KC seems to have a good edge, but you might have some doubts about Huard, even though he was stellar last year for the most part when he did play.  That is not my concern about this game.  I know it was just the preseason but the Texans look to be much improved I want to see more from the Texans before i pick against them this season, But you probably could bank on the Chiefs and get away with it.

Detroit vs Oakland - Detroit seems much improved and well Oakland needs to show it isn't the bottom of the NFL like it was last year.  It seems like Detroit would be the way to go and this probably could be bumped up to a good bet, i just have a hard time putting the Lions to win in that catagory just yet this season although could be extremely appealing because it could be one of the few times where taking Detroit can almost for sure get you a win.  My advice, wait on Detroit, They should win this game, so taking them in a pick here isn't the worst move you could make this week.

Good Bets -

Philadelphia vs Green Bay - The Eagles should take this one with little trouble, Green Bay seems to be better than the start of last year, but still aren't in the Eagles class.  Reasons to pass on this pick, wasting your Eagles pick, although this is a tough week to pick a sure fire winner so it might be ok, but even with all the wins the Eagles have a way of scaring me just enough and against a team that is at least capable of winning, i would bet on this as your pick but there are some safer bets this week, but not by much.

Pittsburgh vs Cleveland - The Browns are supposedly improved, and this goes against the not picking Divisonal rivalry games, however. the balance of power here seems to be overwhelmingly in the Steelers favor.  How the team reacts under a new head coach might be a bit of a drawback, but still shouldn't be a problem.  could be the best bet and probably should be but this week i am going with......

Lock of the Week -

Denver vs Buffalo - Denver always seems to boast an above avg team at least every year and the Bills have lost their only real offensive threat in McGahee, suspect Qb play, i just don't see the Bills having enough to win this game.  Wasting the Denver pick, eh, you could make that case against picking them this week, but this seems to be the best bet this week and the loss of another Broncos pick isn't that big of a loss that it can't be overcome throughout the season.