Saturday, October 14th, 2011:
#15 South Carolina at Mississippi State, 11:00 am, a late safety by conceded by the Gamecocks game me a loss ATS but the bigger news out of this game is the loss of Marcus Lattimore for the season. The loss hurts their chances of repeating as East champions and leaves college football without one of it's most dynamic players. Hope Marcus can get healthy and continue to play football after this injury. Mississippi State just continues to be a major bust in the eyes of just about everyone. Winner: 1-0 ATS: 0-1
#11 Michigan at #23 Michigan State, 11:00 am ESPN, Michigan is improved this year especially on the defensive side of the ball, however, their passing game is a joke and that finally caught up to them this week as the Spartans were able to put the clamps on Denard Robinson and slow the Wolverines to a crawl all day. Michigan State is very impressive on defense their front four is very good and physical but they get a bit overzealous and commit personal fouls. The offense got going this week but the running game hasn't been as explosive as many expected it to coming off a breakout year in 2010. Winner: 1-1 ATS: 0-2
#20 Baylor at #21 Texas A&M, 11:00 FX, Texas A&M looked like a different team this week as they expanded on a half time lead and finally played at a high level for 4 quarters, at least on offense. Baylor continues to put up good numbers and RG3 is an amazing talent but Baylor appears to be a couple good recruiting classes away. Winner: 2-1 ATS: 1-2
Indiana at #4 Wisconsin, 11:00 am ESPN2, last year the Badgers put up 80 on the Hoosiers, this year was much of the same in Madison. Winner: 3-1 ATS: 2-2
#12 Georgia Tech at Virginia, 2:30 pm ESPNU, I said this was a trap game but left my balls at home when I didn't follow through and take the Cavaliers to win the game. Georgia Tech looked like a team who thought they could sleep walk through Virginia and come away with a win. You can see the strides that Mike London's team has made on the field and it's those positives that foretell of good things to come for Virginia in the coming years. Winner: 3-2 ATS: 3-2
#6 Oklahoma State at #22 Texas, 2:30 pm ABC/ESPN, The Longhorns aren't as good as everyone seems to think they are. All I heard this week was how this game would be a close one or how Mack Brown has never lost coming off a Red River Rivalry game but come on did anyone really think the defense was good enough to keep up with the Cowboys offense. Winner: 4-2 ATS: 4-2
#1 LSU at Tennessee, 2:30 pm CBS, without Tyler Bray and against LSU the Vols offense looked anemic. LSU continues to impress on offense with it's two-headed monster at QB with Jefferson and Lee. Winner: 5-2 ATS: 5-2
Ohio State at #16 Illinois, 2:30 pm ABC/ESPN, Ohio State has no passing game but they didn't need it this week as the running game more than made up for the lack of production. Illinois, however could have used an aerial game as their run game has been anemic all year. Winner: 6-2 ATS: 6-2
UCF at SMU, 2:30 pm, SMU looks like a real threat to win Conference USA after it handled UCF yesterday. SMU looks good midway through June Jones' fourth year and even seem to be playing a good amount of defense which was not always something you could say in the past for Jones coached teams. Winner: 7-2 ATS: 7-2
#5 Boise State at Colorado State, 5:00 pm, Mountain West meet Boise State, this team should walk through most of their conference slate just like thy handled Colorado State this week. Winner: 8-2 ATS: 8-2
#2 Alabama at Mississippi, 5:00 pm ESPN2, the Rebels put up a bit of a fight early but Alabama is better in all facets of the game. Winner: 9-2 ATS: 9-2
#19 Virginia Tech at Wake Forest, 5:30 pm, Wake Forest put up a good fight against the visiting Hokies but the talent/coaching gap shown through as the game wore on. Virginia Tech seems to be getting it's act together after a loss at the hands of the Clemson Tigers. Winner: 10-2 ATS: 10-2
#17 Kansas State at Texas Tech, 6:00 pm, I'm still surprised that Kansas State was a 3 point dog at Tech which suggests that Vegas thinks that these two teams are equal. Kansas State continues to play really good ball under Bill Snyder and they keep winning games that many believed they wouldn't. Tech on the other hand still hasn't developed a defense under Tubberville which is a surprise because that has been a staple of his former teams. Winner: 11-2 ATS: 11-2
Florida at #24 Auburn, 6:00 pm ESPN, apparently a Florida team without it's top 2 quarterbacks and half of it's explosive running back tandem are 5 points better in the eyes of bettors. This one ended up being closer than I expected but still pretty much handled by Auburn all the way through. Winner: 12-2 ATS: 12-2
#8 Clemson at Maryland, 6:00 pm ESPNU, Maryland made me look pretty good for about 3 quarters but Clemson showed a very un-Clemson like poise to comeback from down 17 to win the game. Winner: 12-3 ATS: 12-3
Northwestern at Iowa, 6:00 pm BTN, Iowa bounced back nicely from a loss at Penn State last week and got the monkey off their backs as it relates to Northwestern. Northwestern continues to play well on offense but, once again Pat Fitzgerald's team doesn't seem to be able to put together the defense needed to win games with consistency in the Big Ten. Winner: 12-4 ATS: 12-4 P.S. if Iowa loses this game its chances of making the Big Ten Championship game go from slim to practically none.
#7 Stanford at Washington State, 6:30 pm Versus, Washington State is making strides toward being competitive in the Pac-12 but Stanford has Andrew Luck and a punishing defense. Winner: 13-4 ATS: 13-4
#3 Oklahoma at Kansas, 8:15 pm ESPN2, Kansas played a much better game this week than last week and managed to keep this game close later than many expected them to. Winner: 14-4 ATS: 13-5
#18 Arizona State at #9 Oregon, 9:15 pm ESPN, Arizona State played ok but not well enough to win versus a banged up Oregon team. It should be noted that ASU is also pretty beat up on the defensive side of the ball which limited it's ability to take advantage of the injuries on Oregon. Oregon continues it's reign over big time games in the Pac-12. Winner: 15-4 ATS: 13-6
Overall a fairly good week for me as the conference pictures continue to evolve and clear up as we get deeper into this season. Bringing my season total to 123-26 on winners and 65-57-3 ATS. I will have a poll recap coming up tomorrow and my Week 8 picks Wednesday or Thursday.
No comments:
Post a Comment