Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Weekend Review #1 - Owweee!


Shows how much I know.

Bombed:

Well - I took the easy way out on my biggest miss of the week - picking Georgia Tech to outlast BC, but still saying the Eagles would cover. Boy, did they ever. Matt Ryan looks more like a #1 pick than Brian Brohm right now.

This was typical Gailey-era Georgia Tech, though. Too agressive on defense, too predictable on offense. It'll work against most of the ACC, but BC looks to be for real.

The people that should really be worried about this are NC State fans - Jeff Jagodzinski has this team playing well on both sides of the ball, with the same players Tom O'Brien seemed to always go 9-3 or 8-4 with. The Eagles may well be 7-0 going into Blacksburg on October 25th - a game that looks entirely winnable.

The Rest of the Story:

The first sentence that comes to mind when looking at the 2007 College Football season is "What the hell is going on?!"

Obviously, Michigan-App State started that...but when Wisconsin struggles to hold off the 3rd or 4th best team in the Southern Conference, FAU thumps Minnesota, and Northern Iowa can rightfully claim to be the best team in Iowa (thanks to beating Iowa St., who beat Iowa), these first 3 weeks have just been one hefty helping of crazy. Now that I look at it - especially if you're a fan of the Big Ten.

This is going to be one of those years like 1990, when Ga. Tech and Colorado split the National Title. We're going to have BC vs. Oregon or Rutgers vs. Cal in the National Title game.

Quickly reviewing my less than stellar picks (reminding me that maybe I should stop betting on football):

UTEP +5 vs. New Mexico State:29-24 A push. Nonetheless, can't figure out how you lose to Texas Tech by 14 and can't beat the Aggies. I can only figure Mike Price pulled a "Jake Taylor in his first scene in Major League" type bender the night before.

Incidentally - are Land Grant schools west of the Mississippi just incapable of coming up with better nicknames? Texas A&M, Cal-Davis, New Mexico State, and Utah State...all the Aggies. We get it.

Arkansas (+3.5) vs. Alabama:41-38 The Hogs covered - but didn't do what I wanted, and win. Alabama didn't get Arkansas' best shot until it was already 21-0. It's almost as if Houston Nutt wants to prove he can win without leaning on Darren McFadden. Call me crazy, but when you have the best running back in the SEC since Bo, you lean on him. While, he got 32 carries, and 190 yards - they waited until the Tide were up big to really utilize him.

When Saban finally faces a team with more than 1 player, it'll be a little more difficult (fortunately for him, he has Georgia this Saturday).

Notre Dame vs. Michigan (-8):38-0 Wait, I got one right on the line, and the outcome? Someone stop the Prognostication Sensation! Seriously, you had to see this one coming. Michigan has better athletes, Mike Hart, Mario Manningham, a home game, they were facing Notre Dame's defense...and Mike Hart and Mario Manningham. The Irish might actually start 0-8 - where's your Jesus now, Notre Dame? That's right, he's over here with us Protestants.

I won't even mention the Georgia - Western Carolina prediction. That was just a throw in. The Dawgs still look destined to fall flat on their face this Saturday night.

We'll give this whole picking games thing another go Friday, hopefully it'll turn out better.

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