NFL Week 6 Pep Talk, College Football Reaction

Brandon had a solid week with his picks. He ended up in positive territory with a 7-4 record. My college football picks were 3-4-1. My top 5 got banged up going 1-4 and my bonus picks were 2-0-1.

USC was in the money most of the game, but came out with a 7-point win so they didn’t cover the 10. Wake Forest was blown up by Clemson, Kansas was shockingly upset by Colorado, and Ohio State was upset by Purdue. We finally see the upsets occurring. That’s why you really have to be careful betting against the home underdogs, especially in college football. I was also somewhat surprised by the Virginia Tech loss to Georgia Tech, but GT is a solid football team and it shows you again just how valuable home field is in college football.

I really liked the Boston College pick at a mere -2 at home, but read too much into things since NCS has been able to put up offense and has been solid against the run. They are just unable to win games. I knew BC was the much better football team, but talked myself out of putting it in the top 5 plays due to those reasons.

The South Carolina +18 was another solid call, but I found it hard to bet against a hot team like Alabama, especially when they’re 4-1 ATS and have covered high spreads all season long, but with a quality team like South Carolina, I knew the 18 points was just way too high.

The only game I played in college football was Kansas since I figured they would light up the scoreboard on a bad defense, but Colorado finally put up a solid performance out of nowhere. Very surprising.

I generally have my focus on the NFL and merely dabble in college football. That is why I generally leave college football to Brandon and stay on the sidelines, but after a hot week, I wanted to test my college skills once again.

After having said that, I have my eye on the ball tomorrow in the NFL. I stand by Eagles -14 and Steelers -14 as my top 2 picks. Although they’re high spreads, they’re playing the Raiders and Browns and with the type of defenses these teams have, I’m willing to bet that the Browns and Raiders score less than 17.5 points COMBINED. Both the Browns and Raiders have poor defenses as well, so I’m expecting blowouts. Polamalu and Mendenhall will play for the Steelers, so that’s more comforting to know.

The one thing I’m worried about with the Eagles is they tend to lose their focus when playing out on the west coast. I don’t know if it’s Donovan partying west-coast style or just the time difference, but in past games against the Seahawks or the 49ers, they sometimes disappoint. After the Raiders debacle against the Giants, I see no reason why they shouldn’t crush the Raiders, but I wanted to put up a little “buyer beware” notice before you rely too heavily on this game.

Good luck everyone!