Author Archive

Question: Who do I play in week 4?

RB: (Start 1-2): Pierre Thomas vs. NYJ, Ray Rice @ NE, Glen Coffee vs. STL

WR: (Start 3-4): Reggie Wayne vs. SEA, Chad Johnson @ CLE , Donald Driver @ MIN, Vincent Jackson @ PIT

I was thinking I will start:

RB: Thomas and Coffee
WR: Wayne, Ochocinco, and Driver

I don’t want to sit Vincent Jackson, but I hate his match up @ Pittsburgh. I could put him in the roster in place of Coffee, who I picked up since I picked him up on waivers since he should tear up Seattle with Frank Fore being limited in action.

Answer:

Start Pierre Thomas and Glen Coffee. St. Louis’ run defense is pathetic and the Saints will put up big numbers.

At wide receiver, I would start Reggie Wayne, Ochocinco, and Vincent Jackson, even though he’s playing against Pittsburgh. You have to play your best players regardless of their matchup. I don’t think Pittburgh’s defense is too overwhelming right now, especially with Polamalu out. The Chargers offense is too strong at this point to bench him.

You have a phenomincal receiving corp.

What do you think? Answer below!…

SOUTH FLORIDA BULLS (-2.5) @ PITTSBURGH PANTHERS

Thursday night presents itself with a nice betting opportunity when Thursday Night Football features a week 5 Big East matchup between the South Florida Bulls (4-0, 3-1 ATS) visiting the Pittsburgh Panthers (2-2, 1-3 ATS).

The Bulls come into this game ranked 14th in the nation. They have been extremely impressive so far this season, starting out by beating Notre Dame on the road 23-20. Notre Dame came into Pittsburgh last week and escaped with a 15-12 win. Since the Bulls week 1 stunner over the Fighting Irish, the Bulls have demolished Mickey Mouse opponents in Ball State, Florida A&M, and UTEP by winning those contests 37-7, 70-17, and 52-24.

I have not been impressed with Pittsburgh this season. The Panthers barely beat Maine and lost against Iowa 31-27 by blowing a 27-10 lead. How do you give up 3 unanswered touchdowns in the 4th quarter? Pittsburgh managed to do it.

Pittsburgh’s offense has been simply average. While the running game gets going at times with RB Ray Graham, QB Tino Sunseri is average at best, and fails to stretch the field with the deep ball. I expect the Bulls to key in on Graham and force Sunseri to beat them with his arm. Sunseri’s 4 TD/4 INT season doesn’t instill confidence in Pittsburgh fans. I have much more faith in the dual-threat senior QB B.J. Daniels. The Bulls have been on fire all season long, albeit against 3 weak opponents.

When these teams faced each other last season, Pitt ended up winning 17-10 as 3-point favorites on the road. South Florida QB B.J. Daniels struggled against Pittsburgh — 15/29, 132 yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT, and 6 rushes for -5 yards. …

To all the haters, you have to acknowledge that I nailed that Cowboys vs. Redskins game. I was all about the Redskins D going into this game and they made it a close game throughout, so you were feeling good with the 3.5 points on your side. The Redskins have a top 5 defense — no doubt about it. I also recommended a teaser of Redskins +10.5 and under 51.5 points. With the Monday night win, I came out on top in week 3. While I listed Lions and Chargers as my top picks in week 3, if you caught my final word before kickoff, you saw that I avoided the Chargers due to the high spread and changed my top pick at 1:00 from the Lions to the Panthers. The Panthers ended up hitting and the Lions failed to cover by a half point. Onto week 4.

FOREWORD: I have three road favorites on tap this week. I hate going with too many road favorites because every now and then you get burned. Sometimes they work out, sometimes they miss. See the Ravens. They were upset by the Titans in week 2, but won as road favorites against the Rams in week 3. The Steelers also fell into the road favorite trap last week. If you’re looking for points, games where I like the points are Miami +7.5 over San Diego and Carolina +7 over Chicago. It’s going to be an interesting week in the NFL.

NEW ORLEANS SAINTS (-7) @ JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS

With the Jaguars non-existent offense, you have to go Saints on the road. The Saints are putting points up at will. How will the Jaguars keep up? There’s no way the Jaguars score more than …

This week, if you checked out our final word on week 3, I changed my top play from the Chargers and Lions to the Carolina Panthers. I didn’t like the Chargers high spread and felt the Vikings were due for a win (or cover). Unfortunately for me, I had the Lions in a parlay and the Lions didn’t show up until the second half. Although they won the game by 23-20, they didn’t cover the 3.5 points they had to lay. I took the Panthers on my top individual ticket and then parlayed them with the Lions. That would have been a sweet win. I put portion of the Carolina win on the Steelers in the night game, who ended up hanging with the Steelers and covering the spread. Another day where I ended about even.

WASHINGTON REDSKINS (+3.5) @ DALLAS COWBOYS

I’ll take the points in tonight’s game. Tony Romo may play with sprained ribs and a couple sacks from the Redskins should send him to the sidelines. His top target in Miles Austin is out. His other primary target in Dez Bryant is questionable. Felix Jones is also banged up. I don’t see the Cowboys offense doing a whole lot against against this tough Redskins defense. The Cowboys will have to rely on Jason Witten to move the chains, so he’ll be getting the full attention of the Redskins and should be contained.

I’ve also been impressed with the Redskins offense so far this year. Rex Grossman is looking like a comeback player of the year candidate. The Redskins have been running the ball with ease. The Redskins offense should be able to hang with the Cowboys banged up offense no problem.

In what looks to be a …

We are onto week 4 of our NFL Survivor Pool picks. We avoided taking New England last week, who was upset by the Buffalo Bills. Our week 3 survivor pool pick was the San Diego Chargers at home over the Kansas City Chiefs. Although the Chargers didn’t come close to covering the spread, they escaped with the victory. Too bad the Steelers escaped with a 3-point victory over the Colts because half of the survivor league went with the Steelers in week 3.

In week 4, there are several viable options: (1) New Orleans Saints on the road over Jacksonville Jaguars; (2) Atlanta Falcons on the road over Seattle Seahawks; (3) Green Bay Packers at home over the Denver Broncos; (4) Tampa Bay Bucs at home over Indianapolis Colts; and (5) San Diego Chargers at home over Miami Dolphins.

The sure-fire pick would be the Packers at home over the Broncos. Let’s see if we should pull the trigger and take Green Bay or wait another week to take them. Green Bay visits Atlanta in week 5. Week 6 presents another good opportunity to take Green Bay when they’re at home against the Rams. Other than their week 6 game against the Rams, there aren’t any other “locks” for the Packers. The Packers will have the Bucs, Vikings, and Raiders at home later, but this should be the best opportunity to take the Packers this season.

I still have several top teams to pick from later in the season including the Patriots, Steelers, Ravens, Jets, Texans, Saints, and Falcons. I am going with the Green Bay Packers over the Denver Broncos in week 4 of my NFL Survivor Pool. Let me know which game you like best. Vote below.

Question: Who should I start out of Blount, Benson, and Wells?

Adrian Peterson is my No. 1 RB and I need some advice on who to pick for my No. 2 RB.

LeGarrette Blount vs. ATL
Cedric Benson vs. SF
Beanie Wells vs. SEA

I need to pick 1 out of those 3.

Answer:

All are pretty good matchups so you can’t go wrong there. I would go with LeGarrette Blount. He was hot last week.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!…

Yesterday my week 4 college football picks went 4-3 ATS. Miami was a huge let down, but the Florida pick got some of that back. On Saturday, I made some game-time decisions which were posted right before kickoff. Of the picks posted, I hit on Georgia Tech (-6.5) over North Carolina, LSU (-6.5) over West Virginia, Florida (-20) over Kentucky, and Clemson (-2.5) over Florida State. I missed on a Notre Dame (-7)/Under 54 parlay, Colorado (+17) over Ohio State, and Miami (-11.5) over Kansas State. I pretty much ended up even on the day, but let’s take a look at the NFL action.

Based on my week 3 picks, you see that I like 5 games on Sunday: San Diego, Detroit, Carolina, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh. At 1:00, I don’t care much for too many of the games. Most are toss ups in my opinion. I think you’re best sticking with Carolina (-3.5) at home over Jacksonville, who is due for their first win. I want to get on Detroit (-3.5) over Minnesota, but I just have that gut feeling that Minnesota is due for a rebound win (or cover) at home. I’m really high on this Detroit team this year.

At 4:00, I like the Chargers (-14.5) despite the high spread. This game should be a blow out just like the Chiefs last two games, but maybe the Cheifs show up this work for the division game and play a hard fought game. If the Chiefs offense can manage just 13 or 14 points, they can cover. However, I’m looking for a 5 TD performance form the Chargers offense to have them cover in comfortable fashion. This is the NFL though, not Florida vs. Kentucky.

If high spreads …