The Sports Rumors

Monday Night Pick

Dallas Cowboys(-11.0) @ Buffalo Bills

I hate picking games where the line is so big because it’s really hard to tell what’s going to happen, no matter how much research you do. There are a few things to point out though. The Bills are hosting their first Monday Night game in thirteen years and are coming off of their first victory of the season. They might have a little bounce in their step, especially early. However, a bounce in your step can only do so much. You have to execute. The Bills have not done that for about 14 quarters out of 16 so far. As far as the Cowboys go, they are a high scoring powerful team. But let’s be careful before we crown them. They’ve played teams with a combined record of 5-15, including two winless teams (Miami and St.Louis). This game will be semi interesting to see if Dallas starts looking ahead to their big matchup vs the Patriots and perhaps overlook the Bills.

All that said, I highly doubt this game will be competitive and I am furious at whoever scheduled it. Granted, they probably didn’t think Buffalo would be this bad but still…no one wants to see this game. Thank God the Yankees game is on tonight.

Pick: Dallas

Spread: Dallas covers

Weekly Picks vs The Spread wk5

So based on my terrible 2-3 performance last week, I decided to throw in two bonus games this week. Instead of the 3 day games, 1 Sunday night game, and 1 Monday night game, you get 5 day games, 1 Sunday night game and 1 Monday night game. Enjoy!

Carolina @ New Orleans (-3.0)

This is the last time I’m going to roll the dice on the Saints. If there was ever a such thing as a must-win game, this is it. They’re already in an 0-3 slump and if they lose to Carolina, they should do the honors of buying the brown paper bags, and handing them out to their fans. However, I don’t think that the talented cast they have will allow them to lose their first four games. I see this as a rebound game and one that will give them a spark. Plus, Carolina is a very confused and disorganized team right now.

Pick: Saints

Spread: Saints Cover

Miami @ Houston (-5.0)

Houston should not have blown the game to the Falcons the way they did and they should, and will be mad. Winless Miami comes into to town and this team could not be more lost at this point. They have an old quarterback, a weak offensive line, an aging and passionless defense, and decent special teams. Houston should have no difficulty defeating the Dolphins and covering the spread.

Pick: Houston

Spread: Houston Covers

Seattle @ Pittsburgh (-6.0)

Seattle is starting to get back into the groove we’ve seen them be in the past few seasons, while Pittsburgh is coming off of a heat-check loss to the Cardinals. Both teams are going to try and impose their style of play early and it’ll be interesting to see if Seattle’s west-coast offense wins the battle or Pittsburgh’s balanced attack. Shaun Alexander is not 100% but Morris is a more than capable backup. Hasselbeck has also been on point the past few weeks and he seems to have found a good number two guy with Bobby Engram. Look for a close game that the Steelers will win, but not by more than 6.

Pick: Pittsburgh

Spread: Pittsburgh doesn’t cover

Cleveland @ New England (-16.5) *BONUS PICK*

Is there really that much to say about this game? The Patriots are at home… and, well… the Patriots are going to win. I don’t know why the spread isn’t higher. Should be around 19 or so. Because even if it was, I’d still pick the Pats to cover. They are THAT good. Everyone knows it now.

Pick: Patriots

Spread (BONUS): Patriots Cover

Tampa Bay @ Indianapolis (-9.5) *BONUS PICK*

I do have to admit; I was wrong about the Bucs. They are a pretty good team. Oh wait, the Bucs have beaten three teams with a combined record of 2-9. The Bucs are overrated and people are sweating them WAY too much. Give me Indy, give me Peyton, and give me the points. You can have your mediocre Jeff Garcia.

Pick: Colts

Spread (BONUS): Indy Covers

Chicago @ Green Bay (-3.0)

Spread Pick

So I guess everyone was wrong and Brett Favre was right about his decision to come back huh? Shut up, you know you were saying for him to retire too. I have to admit, it’s really great to see him playing with the fun and excitement, even at the tender age of 68. I love the Packers defense and I love the Packers chances of winning the division.

Pick: Green Bay

Spread: Packers Cover

Dallas (-10.5) @ Buffalo

Monday Night Pick will be out Monday

Last Week: 2-3

Season: 11-8-1

I’m in Mediocre City … but we’ll fix that this week.

NFL Week 5 Picks

Jacksonville (-2.5) @ Kansas City

The Chiefs have a surprising little win streak going and are going to come into this game with a bounce in their step. They’ll be hoping to get even better once Larry Johnson gets back on track and starts bruising defensive lines. However, this is the wrong week to play the Jaguars who take pride in doing their own bruising. Look for a low scoring game, but the Jags winning.

Pick: Jags

Detroit @ Washington (-3.5)

Detroit has never won a road game against the Redskins… ever. Could this be the week? Doubt it. The Redskins are coming off of a bye and had two weeks to think about how they blew a win against the Giants at home. They have three pivotal games coming up against the Lions, @ Packers, and Arizona before they go into the brutal middle stretch of their season. They’ll be playing teams like Dallas and the Pats so the Lions game is an early “must win” if the Skins want to have a decent shot at the playoffs.

Pick: Skins

Atlanta @ Tennessee (-8.0)

Atlanta came off of a surprising home win over the Texans but don’t look for them to repeat against the Titans. Tennessee is quietly becoming a very strong AFC team and should easily become 3-1 after this week.

Pick: Titans

Arizona (-3.5) @ St. Louis

This is a scary game to pick and I’d definitely stay away from betting on it. Here’s why. The Rams are a wounded team who could very easily just fold in this game and not really give two cents about it. OR, the flipside, Gus Frerotte comes in and absolutely lights up the Cardinals who haven’t been able to prepare for him well enough and the Rams get their first win of the season. Stay away from this game. I’m going to take Arizona but I’m very, very skeptical in doing so.

Pick: Arizona

New York Jets @ New York Giants (-3.5)

Jets are slumping and Giants are gaining momentum. The Giants defense found a spark, courtesy of the Redskins, and now seem to be playing with the fire and intensity that was missing early on. Look for continued pass rush and blitzes along with Eli spreading the field.

Pick: Giants

San Diego @ Denver (Pick em)

Apparently, Vegas isn’t sure what to do with this game or the line. Well I am. The Broncos are not as good as their record and the Chargers are the most talented team in the league. However, Denver has two shut down corners and the Chargers have zero wideouts of significance. I guess I don’t really know about this game either. But I’ll tell you one thing…it’s hard for me to believe that the Chargers will lose yet another game. Because of that, I’m going to roll the dice and take the Chargers in this one and I predict a little run from them too.

Pick: Chargers

Baltimore (-3.5) @ San Francisco

Underachieving team versus an overhyped team. I’ll take Baltimore ONLY because Alex Smith is hurt. Otherwise I’d pick against the lousy, so-boring-to-watch-that-I’d-rather-listen-to-Kenny-G Ravens.

Pick: Ravens

College Weekly Picks Week 6

Can you believe it’s week six of the NCAA season already? Last week was Upset Week, and I got absolutely rocked because of it… but I’m predicting another week full of upsets. I’m hovering around a mediocre 77% for the season, down from 81% the week before. I need to get that up to 85%. Hopefully, I get back on track this week. Enjoy my picks…

Actually before I get to that.. I have a short letter to Frank Beamer.

Dear Frank,

Please stop being so conservative on offense and let your playmaker, superstar in the making quarterback Tyrod Taylor, use his athletic ability to make plays. I’d appreciate it if you could show a little sense of urgency instead of being content with 7 point wins over garbage teams. So before next game, if you could inject 32 ounces of Red Bull into your veins and throw out your current playbook, that’d be greeeeeeat.. Maybe that way, I won’t have to explain ranking a team thats over 2,000 miles from the mainland ahead of my alma mater.  (Hawaii is the team I’m referring to for the geographically challenged). Thanks.

Sincerely,

The Sports Rumors

To the picks we go.

Sports Sports Sports

There is so much going on.. baseball playoffs, NFL season, College football… i’ve been busy the past two days so I haven’t gotten a chance to update.. more importantly, I didn’t get to post my college weekly picks and there are two ranked teams facing off tonight… I’m on the record as saying that South Carolina will beat Kentucky in a close one.. I’m not even watching right now though.. I’m glued in to my Yankees game which is in the top of the fifth, Yanks down 4-2 with the tying run at first.  You can check out “The Fan vs The Athlete” page for periodic updates throughout the night…

My college and NFL picks will be up tomorrow.. no worries.  Enjoy your sports filled night.

NFL Power Rankings Week 5

As I was coming up with my rankings, I realized something after about the sixth team from the top. EVERYONE is either mediocre or bad. There are only a handful of teams that are good. Those being the Pats, Colts, Cowboys, Packers, and Steelers. Maybe you can throw in the Seahawks. Other than that, there is so much parity, in a bad way, in the NFL. It used to be where there are the elite two or three, the contenders, and then the average teams followed by the bums. It’s not like that thus far through four weeks of the NFL season.

There are two ways that you can look at this.  Either you can say that the parity is good because it gives everyone a chance to make a run for the playoffs.  Or you can look at and say it’s bad that everyone is mediocre because it doesn’t matter if you make it to the playoffs or not, the Pats or Cowboys will crush you easily.  I’m hoping that over the next few weeks, more teams make a jump from being average to being a solid football team.  I’d like to have to think hard about who is in the top ten of the league and who’s not, rather just have a few good teams and a bunch of nobody’s after that.

Things to note however, are the demise of franchises that were supposed to be gearing up for a Super Bowl run. I’m talking about the Bears, Chargers, Bengals, Saints, and the Ravens. What has happened to these teams so quickly? I can’t explain the Chargers. They have so much talent that being 1-3 is inexcusable, even if your coach was Kevin Federline. The lack of emotion that has been shown by all of the teams that I just mentioned might be one of the reasons they can’t win games they are supposed to.

Another team that has fallen flat on its face is the Philadelphia Eagles. I don’t have much doubt in my mind that this is McNabb’s last season in Philly and that he’ll be wearing a Bears uniform next year. But that topic is for another day and time. In the meanwhile, enjoy the rankings.

Monday Night Pick

Well I had an atrocious weekend with my picks versus the spread. Hopefully, I can end on a good note with tonights matchup.

New England Patriots (-8.0) @ Cincinnati Bengals

We all know by now that the Bengals defense is pretty bad and that the Patriots offense is pretty amazing. They’ve put up 38 in every game thus far. Tonight will be different. They’ll score more than 38. The Bengals defense will have no answer for Brady, Moss, Welker and company. I was tempted to say that this might be a close game but then I came back down to earth and realized that it’s the Patriots we’re talking about. No one except the Colts will play them close. Look for a 41-24 type of game.

Pick: Patriots

Spread: Patriots Cover

This just in… Donvoan McNabb has been sacked again.

My College Football Rankings

There are a few things that I want to set straight for the record before you check out the rankings listed below…

-The matter of LSU jumping USC in the rankings, even though USC won: I have heard a lot of whining from people, especially Skip Bayless, about how that’s “wrong”. He even went as far as to say that the USC win was more impressive than the LSU win. Bayless talked about how the team showed a lot by winning a close game on the road in a tough environment.

…….Okay I just took a deep breath so that I don’t lose it.

First of all, in regards to the “You shouldn’t be jumped in the rankings unless you lose” argument, that is ridiculous. What do you think happens almost EVERY week in the college polls? Team 16 jumps Team 15 because they had a more impressive win. Team 22 jumps Team 20 because they beat a better opponent. This isn’t the NFL! This is a beauty contest. You are judged by who you beat, and by how much you beat them by. We’re not talking about the New England Patriots of a few years back who won all their games by a few points. In college, you are supposed to beat the ranked teams, and you are supposed to annihilate the unranked teams, especially if you’re ranked first in the nation. LSU has defeated tougher opponents than USC has. Simple as that. LSU has defeated #9 Virginia Tech and #12 South Carolina. USC has defeated #14 Nebraska, and teams like Idaho.

The second point that was made was that USC showed they can win in different circumstances and overcome adversity. No. False. Are you trying to tell me that Virginia Tech should have gotten kudos in week one for “overcoming adversity” and beating ECU by a measly 10 points??? Because that’s the same concept. Adversity is when you’re down 24-14 to Florida or someone legitimate, and then you come back and win. Adversity is not defeating Washington when you have the fastest college players on earth and the cream of the crop talent. Beating Washington by three is called sneaking away with a win after a terrible performance, which a number one team shouldn’t have had in the first place.

LSU has the better resume thus far, and in college football, your resume is all that matters. So give me a break. This shouldn’t even be a topic of conversation.

-The next thing I wanted to clear up is a topic that will get me many emails and angry phone calls from friends, but I don’t care because I speak the truth. Scroll down and look at where Virginia Tech is ranked in my poll. Now look where I have Hawaii ranked. That’s right. Ahead of the Hokies. Before you pick up the phone to dial my number, hear me out. Hawaii is averaging over 50 points a game. Let that sink in. They are averaging over 50 points a game now through 5 games.

You: Yeah, I know they are but look who they’ve played.

My response to you is this; who the hell has Virginia Tech played and beaten? Eastern Carolina? University of Ohio? William and Mary? North Carolina? These are the teams Tech has beaten and not convincingly either. So you can shut it about Hawaii’s lack of competition because VaTech’s isn’t that top notch either. Oh wait, they played LSU. Oh.. what’s that? That’s right, they got waxed… and then waxed again.

Now I know Virginia Tech’s defense is solid, but let’s not fool ourselves. It’s not at all as strong as it was last year (even though it should be with that talent). They are giving up way too many yards in the air and if it weren’t for a fumble by the bozo runningback of North Carolina at the Tech 7 yard line, they would have possibly scored 17 points on the Hokies. Now I’ll give Tech credit and say that they wouldn’t let Hawaii drop 50 on them; but they wouldn’t hold them below 24 either. Tech’s defense has given up way too many yards in the air for their standards and Hawaii is the best passing team in the nation, bar none. So say Tech gives up 24 to Hawaii. Are you REALLY that confident that the stagnant and lifeless offense of the Hokies can match 24? They couldn’t do it against UNC last week and I’m sure you thought they’d score at least 30 on them.

Fact of the matter is this. Hawaii has played better, overall, than Virginia Tech has. When the Hokies show some life, starting this week at Clemson, I’ll be the first to bring my Alum-bias into it and jump teams ahead of them. But what’s fair is fair and what’s right is right, so please… spare me the “you’re a fake fan” nonsense just because I’m not delusional. I call it how I see it and Virginia Tech is not a very good football team right now.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, feel free to leave me comments with your thoughts and viewpoints.  Enjoy the rankings.

While I’m busy…

It’s definitely a miserable Monday for me and I have had zero time to do anything but deal with work.  However, guest writer Colin sent in a piece from his Yankees-Orioles game.  Check it out at “Colin’s Corner”

I’ll have my Monday Night pick vs the spread later today.  Check back soon.