WEEK 2: "NO WHERE TO GO BUT UP!

One word: OUCH! That’s the only way to describe opening weekend for myself. At least I wasn’t alone. And my loss wasn’t as big as the one suffered in Dallas last weekend by Oklahoma. And while I lost a three team teaser, at least I lost it big time with not only Oklahoma losing outright to fail to cover, but Ohio State not covering on their end of the dime either. I’d rather have that than lose by some measly missed extra point or something like that.

This brings us to week 2 of the season, and a nice slate of Big Ten games this week, what with the opening of TCF Bank Stadium for Minnesota, the rockstars known as USC head in to C-Bus, Michigan & Notre Dame meaning something, and Purdue getting to go to Eugene and attempt to not be a punching bag for Oregon (thank you, thank you….I’ll be here all season, folks!)

Time to punch the clock & get down to business.

[**] Air Force (-4.5) over MINNESOTA: My wager with Minnesota & Syracuse looked like the easiest money I had ever made about 19 seconds into the game last week. Almost like I was stealing and I felt bad. But then Adam Weber decided that he was going to throw every 5-7 yard out in front of and at the toes of every Minnesota WR the rest of the game minus the 4th quarter when they were fighting for their lives. I’m sort of torn on the Gophers’ performance. Syracuse is not a good football team (more on them a bit later) and Minnesota should have blasted them. But from what I hear from a few sources, it was VERY loud in the Carrier Dome, and the atmosphere was pretty intense. Add to that the emotion of a football team staying in it, and you have a game like that. I look at LSU-Washington as an example. Washington was 0-12 last year and while the addition of Jake Locker is huge, one player isn’t the only difference. The Washington crowd was into it, emotion plays a part with 18-22 year old kids, and you have an SEC West contender needing to escape with their lives out of Seattle over a team with a 14 game losing streak. Bottom Line: A win’s a win!

To this game: Air Force zoomed to a 72-0 win over something called Nichols State. They’re better than Navy, who gave Ohio State all they wanted. And they will move the ball & have some success on the Gophers. I would feel this way regardless of what I think of the Gophers. Minnesota opens the new stadium with a win, but it will only be by a field goal.
FINAL SCORE: MINNESOTA 34, AIR FORCE 31. [$11 straight wager, $10 payoff]

[**] PENN STATE (-30) over Syracuse: Syracuse is not a good football team. Arthur Jones is a legit DT and will be a 1st or 2nd round pick, and I was actually surprised by the poise of Paulus. But they lack talent, and Penn State will absolutely punish a defense that should have been punished last week. You come into danger when you hit the 30 point spreads because mistakes will keep the game at the 31-10 range or the team may put it into cruise control the 2nd half like Penn State did last week against Akron. But I think Penn State sees an opportunity to impress a few pollsters with the other big games on the schedule.
FINAL SCORE: PENN STATE 52, SYRACUSE 13 [$5.50 straight wager, $5 payoff]

MICHIGAN (+4) over Notre Dame: Oh no! Some sister named Helen Moriarty or whatever the bitch’s name is will put on a prayer curse on me. So I got that going for me, which is nice. Anyway, Michigan’s offense resembles a bit more of what Rodriguez assembled at West Virginia, but it’s still not quite there. Notre Dame wins, but Michigan gets the cover.
FINAL SCORE: NOTRE DAME 27, MICHIGAN 24

INDIANA (-1.5) over Western Michigan: A win’s a win, but Indiana was rather unimpressive on a lowly Thursday night. I guess my only reasoning behind this is I think Michigan would be Indiana by a similar score of what they did to Western Michigan, so it will be a close game, and I think Indiana will win by a field goal. Also note that last week, the games I got right were the games I had no clue about, like this one. So this may be a huge money maker because I have no idea what I’m doing.
FINAL SCORE: INDIANA 24, WESTERN MICHIGAN 21

[**] MICHIGAN STATE (-15) over Central Michigan: MSU has the defense and the offense will only get better. Michigan State, as said here at the beginning of the season, is a legit Big Ten contender. They will show even more while getting ready for next week’s tilt in South Bend.
FINAL SCORE: MICHIGAN STATE 38, CENTRAL MICHIGAN 17 [$5.50 straight wager, $5 payoff]

Southern Cal (-7.5) over OHIO STATE: When I first saw this line, I messaged Pliers and said “either this line is WAY too low or WAY too high, but I don’t know which yet. You have on one hand, a true freshman QB making his first road start in a place that isn’t the best place for said freshman QB to make his first road start. A night game, in Columbus. A senior Vince Young needed an incredible play to Limus Sweed to get through it in 2005. And Daryl Clark didn’t even make it through 60 minutes last year as Penn State put up their lowest point total of the season. Problem is I don’t have any faith in Ohio State in a big game. You know that Pete Carroll was sitting watching the film of last week’s Ohio State-Navy game and simply giggling when watching the success Navy was having. And Ohio State’s offense has only one playmaker. Good thing for OSU is that guy has the ball in his hands every single time and will have some success….but Joe McKnight will have a lot more. And it doesn’t hurt to have Taylor Freaking Mays killing people either.
FINAL SCORE: USC 38, OHIO STATE 24

OREGON (-12) over Purdue: Time for Oregon to punch back in on the clock and go to work (so many ways to go with this). Purdue was impressive, but they were playing a Chester Taylor-less Toledo Rocket club. Autzen Stadium is different. Oregon’s offense will improve from week 1 to week 2, they’ll use the distraction of Blount as an opportunity, and will squeak by the spread for the cover.
FINAL SCORE: OREGON 31, PURDUE 17


ILLINOIS plays Illinois State this week, so no prediction, but hopefully, Juice is able to hit double digits this week.

OKLAHOMA STATE (-16) over Houston: Should I be worried about Oklahoma State a week after a big win against Georgia? I guess I’m more focused on the 24-3 outscoring of the Bulldogs from the 2nd quarter on.
FINAL SCORE: OKLAHOMA STATE 41, HOUSTON 14

[**] Northwestern (-12) / Iowa (pk) / Wisconsin (-2) 6.5 point teaser: Well, the 6 point teaser threw me on all fours & took me doggy last week in two separate times (although I did hit 2 in my Minnesota & Cal teaser, thanks Eastern Michigan). This week, I get revenge on Eastern Michigan by tossing them as the first victim in my 3 team teaser this week as I knock Northwestern down to a -12 (current line moved up to -20, so I like my timing). Iowa, while not impressive, I think will get at least a FG victory in Ames this week, so knocking them down to a pick should be good enough. And while Wisconsin will have their hands full with Fresno State, I see at least a 3 point win for the Badgers, so knocking them down to -2 should be good enough hopefully to get the teaser train back on track for the good times roll ahead. [$5 teaser wager, $9 payoff]