The Saints (2-1) are at least slightly stiffer competition, but even they should have an eyebrow raised at their contender status considering their offense is severely diminished without Drew Brees. Before anyone celebrates too much about last week’s road upset in Seattle, consider that New Orleans had a 27-7 lead after three quarters and then fell apart in the fourth, just barely hanging on for a 33-27 victory. That’s consistent with a defense that has allowed an ugly 436 yards per game.

The Cowboys’ offense averages 141.6 more yards a game than New Orleans’s and their defense allows 100 fewer than the Saints’. They have scored 8.3 more points a game (32.3 to the Saints’ 24.0) and allowed 12.6 fewer (14.7 to 27.3). That this is considered a potentially close game owes entirely to the Saints’ typical home-field advantage. But Brees’s backup, Teddy Bridgewater, will need to show a lot more this week than he did against Seattle if the New Orleans offense is going to keep up with Prescott and the Cowboys. Pick: Cowboys -2.5

Browns at Ravens, 1 p.m., CBS

Line: Ravens -7 | Total: 45.5

If you look only at yardage (511.7 yards per game, tops in the league) and his team’s ability to compete no matter the opponent, it’s extremely easy to be enthusiastic about Lamar Jackson. If you look at completion percentage on a weekly basis, there are some red flags. Jackson threw more than twice as many passes in Week 3 as he did in Week 1, but his completion percentage dropped from 85 percent to 51.2 percent and his yards per attempt dropped from 16.2 to 6.2. The Ravens (2-1) came fairly close to upsetting the Chiefs in Kansas City, but the loss made it seem as if Jackson may have more work to do as a passer.

This season has been a bit of a mess for the Browns (1-2), with Baker Mayfield fending off calls that he is overrated and the defense dealing with numerous injuries. Winning in Baltimore is tough, but safety Damarious Randall is out of the league’s concussion protocol, and there is a chance for cornerbacks Greedy Williams and Denzel Ward to return from hamstring injuries. If even two of those three are able to play, the Browns may slow Marquise (Hollywood) Brown, Baltimore’s electrifying rookie wide receiver, and force the Ravens to grind out the game on the ground. They have shown repeatedly that they can do that, but it would result in a fairly close score. Pick: Browns +7