NFL Picks Week 1: Picking Chiefs/Falcons

Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

The expert picks for NFL Week 1 are starting to come in and it looks like the Atlanta Falcons are holding a slight edge over the Kansas City Chiefs.

Over at ESPN, of the 12 experts, six picked the Chiefs and six picked the Falcons. The folks over at Pigskin Pick’em have chosen Atlanta, tipping things in the Falcons’ favor.

Accuscore, a computer simulation, also has Atlanta coming out on top. winning 55% of the simulations. It looks like the average winning score for Atlanta is 22-20. As AA’s Lyle Graversen pointed out earlier this week, 25 points seems to be the magic number for the Chiefs.

"In games where Atlanta allowed 25 points or more they are 5-14 (26.3%)."

Over at Yahoo, only one of the three analysts picked the Chiefs. The fans also picked the Falcons.

Last, but certainly not least, our our good friends over at Sports Illustrated. Peter King has the Falcons winning in a close one, 33-27. Here is what he had to say:

"Game of the Weekend, in terms of explosive plays and great end-to-end action. Tamba Hali picked a bad week to be suspended (the ace Chief pass rusher is gone for one game for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy), because this will be the coming-out party for the deep-throwing Atlanta offense. Watch for offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter, in his maiden voyage aboard the Ryan Express, to challenge the Chiefs deep four or five times, minimum."

Now it is your turn. I’ll have my official prediction on Sunday morning but we want to hear from you. Who takes it Sunday, Chiefs or Falcons?