2017 College Football Picks vs. The Spread - Week 2

Week 1 was OK. A 7-2-1 week would have made me money. Let's see if I can continue the good picks.

1. (11) Oklahoma State (-29) at South Alabama - It is unusual that a program like Oklahoma State would go into South Alabama. I don't expect that the Cowboys will have problems with going on the road here.

Oklahoma State 62, South Alabama 14
Actual Score: Oklahoma State 44, South Alabama 7

2017 College Football Picks vs. the Spread - Week 1

I didn't do this last year and I rocked the picks. The blog has been a little thin, so I decided to take the initiative and start doing the picks for college football again. So let's see if I can do better than I have before on the blog.

WEEK 1

1. UTEP at (7) Oklahoma (-43) - Bob Stoops is no longer the head coach at Oklahoma. Means that the program has something to prove. Don't see the Miners scoring more than 10 points while the Sooners look like the Sooners of yesteryear.

UTEP 7, Oklahoma 66
Actual Score: UTEP 7, Oklahoma 56

2. (11) Michigan (-3.5) vs. (17) Florida - If Alabama vs. FSU wasn't this weekend, this would be the marquee game. I would have picked Michigan to win even without multiple Gator starters suspended for their roles in the Student store fraud scandal. Jim Harbaugh has the Wolverines looking good.

Michigan 27, Florida 20
Actual Score: Michigan 33, Florida 17

3. Western Michigan at (4) USC (-27.5) - Another one of the opening game creampuffs that major programs like to schedule. Watch USC score 50 and roll over the Broncos which get a payday.

Western Michigan 14, USC 55
Actual Score: Western Michigan 31, USC 49

4. Appalachian State (+14) at (15) Georgia - Classic game where I believe that the Bulldogs are looking at next week's game against Notre Dame and not taking App St. as seriously as they should. Georgia will win, but not by the margin they should.

App St. 24, Georgia 34
Actual Score: App St. 10, Georgia 31

5. Georgia Southern at (12) Auburn (-34) - Georgia Southern is not going to like this trip to Auburn. I think that the Tigers are the biggest threat to Alabama this season. Auburn shows why in this game.

Georgia Southern 10, Auburn 52
Actual Score: Georgia Southern 7, Auburn 41

6. (16) Louisville at Purdue (+26.5) - There is no upset here, but with the Boilermakers bringing back the Big 10 passing leader from last year in David Blough, I expect the game to be closer than what many think.

Louisville 45, Purdue 31
Actual Score: Louisville 35, Purdue 28

7. (3) Florida State vs. (1) Alabama (-7) - Even though I believe that both of these teams could be good enough to make the playoffs, you don't pick against Nick Saban in the regular season and a big game.

Florida State 21, Alabama 34
Actual Score: Florida State 7, Alabama 24

8. BYU at (13) LSU (-14.5) - LSU is the better team, but BYU already had their first game which helps. Give me the Tigers just squeaking by on the point spread.

BYU 20, LSU 35
Actual Score: BYU 0, LSU 27

9. (22) West Virginia at (21) Virginia Tech (-4) - Both teams have new starting QB's and both believe that they can win their respective leagues. Let's go with the home team and the fact that there is something about Dana Holgorsen that I don't trust in pressure games.

West Virginia 24, Virginia Tech 31
Actual Score: West Virginia 24, Virginia Tech 31

10. (25) Tennessee at Georgia Tech (+3) - I fully expect the Yellow Jackets to beat the Volunteers outright. I think that Butch Jones has the foundation of the Tennessee program build on sand, not concrete.

Tennessee 21, Georgia Tech 31
Actual Score: Tennessee 42, Georgia Tech 41 2OT

Week 1 Record: 7-2-1
Overall Record: 7-2-1

The Truth and the tooth

A precursor, test post, for when the Celtics finish off George's Wiz in the second round of this year's NBA playoffs, a series we have a friendly blog challenge regarding. Remember those? So a little practice for my fait accompli brag post. So did you see Isaiah Thomas (Jr) have a tooth knocked out and make like a hockey player and keep playing? That's a brag. Did you see the Celts let the Wiz start out with a 16-0 lead before beating them? Brag again. And Paul Pierce retired. He played 19 seasons in the NBA. Doesn't that make you feel old? Not a brag. The Truth is not one of the all-time greats but he is a Hall of Famer and one of the great finishers all time. Brag! I will try to get back in circulation. It's pretty said when I didn't even blog about a Super Bowl win in the greatest comeback of all time. And I must owe you at least one attending games blog. I can't even follow my own rules. I'll post about seeing the Bruins in Dallas and look to see where else I've been negligent.

Bye, Felicia!

The scene here in San Diego where protestors are taking to the streets because the Chargers are moving to Los Angeles pic.twitter.com/KC8tw3p0qk

— Eric Rosenthal (@ericsports) January 12, 2017

The real interesting part? This is true. Even though news broke about two hours ago on ESPN, the Chargers are NOT trending on Twitter here in San Diego.

I was resigned to the fact they were moving to Los Angeles in 2002. I guess the rest of the city's finally catching up to me.

5 Takeaways from Week 6 in the NFL

Just a couple of things that hit me this weekend while watching the NFL

1. Vontaze Burfict is the most hated man in the NFL. He has caused fights with the Browns, Steelers, and Ravens. This weekend, Rob Gronkowski starting going nuts because of Burfict. The man had many opponents angry at him playing at Arizona State. He still has the ability to get under people's skin.

2. While the Jaguars won at Chicago, does anybody believe that the Jags will go on a tear and win the AFC South? Or is the smart play starting a pool of when Gus Bradley is fired? I go with option 2.

3. The Philadelphia Eagles have come back down to Earth. After winning their first 3, the offense is starting to sputter. There is lack of protection for Wentz. The defense is stuggling. Now, what does Doug Peterson do to try and keep the Eagles from falling flat on their collective faces?

4. The Tennessee Titans are showing signs of life. They are 3-3 and 2 of the losses are to Minnesota and Oakland. Mike Mularkey is riding the DeMarco Murray and Derrick Henry Express to the top of the division.

5. The Cleveland Browns are still 0 fer the season. However, I have been impressed with Cody Kessler and the receiving crew that the Browns have. Can you imagine if Josh Gordon was well enough to be out on the field? The receiving corps would be downright scary.

Bonus: If you are New Orleans Saints fan, aren't you tired of no defense to speak of and people trying to tell you that having Drew Brees is good enough? If it were me, I would be saying that I don't settle for a .500 record and video game thinking for my team. It is time to fire Sean Payton.

2016 Houston Astros Season Postmortum

The Houston Astros missed the playoffs by 5 games this year. And instead of being upset by that, I am happy. Why? Because the team was a flawed team and is showed during the last 2 weeks. In the final 10 games, the team went 3-7. Against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim they went 2-5. The Angels finished 21 games back of the West winners, Texas Rangers. When you are fighting for a wildcard spot, that cannot happen. The Astros also played the Mariners who were also fighting for a wildcard spot. The Mariners took 2 of 3. It hurt, but this will help the Astros for the future. There are three things that need to improve. 1) Beating the Texas Rangers. 2) Improve the batting average. 3) Improve the starting rotation. I believe that the Astros are figuring that out.

Now For Something Lighthearted

Have you seen the new "Tecmo Bo" commercial for the 2017 Kia Sorento yet?

Oh, FFS: #Boycott NFL

There are times when you just have to get things off your chest. Me? All I can do is scream, “Oh, for fuck’s sake!” — R.J.

Did you survive the short work week? I barely did. I was very busy all week, and today I’m feeling run down and a little bitchy. I’m sure my upstairs neighbors waking me up at 3am had something to do with it. Anyway…

I logged onto Twitter while I ate dinner at my gaming rig’s desk tonight, and I saw the hashtag #BoycottNFL trending. At first, I thought it was something that dumbass they call a Commissioner (that’s Roger Goddell, y’all) did during my work day. Did he give another suspected wife beater the weekend off, like he gave New York Giants kicker Josh Brown? Did a bunch of whiny New England Patriots fans (sorry, Zeb!) go off because he added an extra game to Tom Brady’s suspension for a missing NFL logo on his helmet?

Nope. It was none of that. It was a bunch of NFL fans who wanted to boycott the league over Colin Kaepernick sitting, and then taking a knee during the national anthem during the San Francisco 49ers’s last two preaseason games.

I can’t help but laugh over this faux outrage. After all, the very people who are participating in this “boycott” are the same people who call themselves patriots for protecting our freedoms. They are the same people who talk about freedom of speech, yet they get their panties in a wad when a person of color exercises those same rights. They want to boycott the game over Kaepernick, and yet they have no problem with Ben Roethlisberger’s dating habits, Rae Carruth finding a unique way to skip child support payments, or how Greg Hardy showed how much he loved his woman. (WARNING: Last link is graphic stuff, y’all)

I call bullshit. You know these assholes are going to watch ESPN or Fox Sports on Sunday night, and then talk with their friends and co-workers the following morning about how their teams did.

2016 NFC Predictions

Well, since the AFC predictions didn't cause the blog to be shut down and a couple of people actually read my picks, I suppose I should finish with predictions of the NFC. 

NFC OVERVIEW: The NFC East is full of a bunch of flawed teams. The NFC West and North looks like 2 team races and the South has a possibility of 3 teams with losing records. The outlook looks like basically the same as last year for playoff teams.

AFC Predictions

The board has been barren lately. Zeb has had plenty of things on his plate, R.J. has experienced computerized racing, and I am moving and taking over a business at the same time. So the board has been put on the back burner. And instead of talking about Hillary, Trump and the two crabby people from the Libertarian and Green Party, let's put out some predictions for the upcoming NFL season.

AFC OVERVIEW: The changing of the guard in this conference is in full swing. Denver after winning the Super Bowl isn't looking like they will repeat, the Indianapolis Colts have dominated the South for years and they are in a dogfight with Jacksonville and Houston, The mighty Pittsburgh Steelers were dethroned last year by the Bengals. But the East still looks like the Kingpin will keep their throne.