Post-weekend Football Update, etc.
Well, the 1st half of the MNF game is winding down, and I'm not crazy about my Philly pick right now. Atlanta has the lead (14-7) the ball, and the Eagles running game has been stuffed so far. Things are looking up a little, as Brian Westbrook is 6 or 16 yards right now, up from 4 for -2 yards. The Falcons seem to be able to move the ball in big chunks as well.
Enough about MNF.
The Saints came through this weekend, an I'm happy for them, even if it cost me money. The silver lining for me was that the Panthers LOST. If a team can't cover the spread for me, I'd prefer to see them suffer a bit. This of course doesn't apply to teams that I really root for as a fan, but I usually avoid betting on games I have a rooting interest in, in order to TRY to be objective. The biggest exception to this at one time was Michigan State vs Anyone from the bottom 1/3 or so of the Big 10(11).
Michigan State used to start their season off against one good team, one meatball, and Notre Dame. They would play Michigan fairly early, and at times Iowa would be strong and they would play them early too.
Halfway into the season, you might see MSU at 2-4 against an Indiana or Illinois squad that was 4-2. Michigan State would be a slight dog, a slight favorite, or at most a 6 or 7 point favorite against a team they had beaten by 20 or 30 the year before. You could get lines like this for about 3 weeks in a row before the oddsmakers adjusted, I suppose because it took that long for the college football bettors to adjust. MSU would win by 20+ every game.
I'm not sure why, but it seems like now MSU's schedule has more good teams at the end (Michigan IS later, I don't think anybody else is as consistently good) so if anything they get overrated and tend to choke as they face stronger opposition, instead of being this MONSTER sleeper team. I bet the SEC, Big 12, and Pac 10 have teams like this. I need to find out who they are.
The other thing is MSU seems to be playing more meatballs at the beginning of the season (Kent State, Hawaii). That is why the Spartans have put up ridiculously good numbers that have me tempted to take the 6.5 at South Bend. They also have beat ND 4 straight times there. This is not enough to erase the year-in, year-out beatings at the hands of the Irish that once seemed as inevitable as the change of seasons, but its nice.
You see, the Michigan-Notre Dame game is probably the biggest game of the year where I really hate both teams, but still care about the outcome. (The other one is Michigan-Ohio State, but I don't REALLY hate Ohio State. At the Student Book Store in East Lansing you can buy bumper stickers that say "OhHowIHateOhioState," but don't let anyone fool you. MSU alums with that sticker are wannabe Wolverines that dont want to get a "You call it Maize, We call it CORN" bumper sticker on their car, because they secretly LOVE Michigan. They deserve slightly more respect than closet NAMBLA members. More on this later.
So who do I root for when ND plays U-M? It varies, but as a rule of thumb, the answer is simple:
Notre Dame.
Why? Because the next week they play Michigan State. And I'd much rather have them fat & happy than all pissed off and looking to monkey stomp the next team that they face, i.e. the hapless Spartans....
It can get pretty ugly. How ugly? Well...
If you're on their campus about Thursday/Friday at midnight you MIGHT hear distant chanting and drumbeats from a secret vault deep beneath the golden dome, as an ancient voodoo ritual is enacted upon a giant doll uncannily resembling MSU's mascot. (It also uncannily resembles USC's mascot...) You won't hear screams of pain as the doll is flogged, stabbed, and sometimes burned. (It's just a doll, silly!) But miles away, you just MIGHT see the largest ceramic statue in the world, "Sparty" with a tiny trickle of blood flowing from his hands or wrists.
That's right, the Sparty stigmata.
Last year the powers that be considered dressing the doll up like that Boilermaker guy to hex Kyle Orton before the Purdue game. But they had to save the ritual for USC. If they call on the powers of darkness too many times, a terrible price is exacted. A plague of Locusts. Seven years of famine. Gerry Faust. It was better to get humiliated by Purdue, take their lumps, and move on.
In 1993 they dressed the doll up in a headdress and a Charlie Ward jersey. They horsewhipped it and dripped melted wax from black candles onto its nipples. The hex worked so well that time that not only did Notre Dame beat Florida State and vault over them to #1 in all the polls, but Charlie Ward wasn't even drafted by the NFL, and instead toiled in obscurity in the NBA for a team known as the New York Knickerbockers. In a related move, Michael Jordan became a minor leaguer for the Chicago White Stockings. Dennis Rodman morphed into a multi-dye-jobbed, tatoo-encrusted, body-pierced cross-dressing freak, but continued to play basketball. Snoop Dogg volunteered to coach a profesional football team, and Shaq volunteered to be a Miami police officer. Sometimes the forces of darkness get it wrong, and sometimes they get carried away....Pandora's box was wide open, and chaos reigned...and reigned...and rained...and...
But there were other side effects as well.
There are always unforseen consequenses when souls get sold. Sometimes the price is paid later, sometimes sooner, and it's usually more than one can bear. It would be twelve long years before Notre Dame beat Michigan on the road again, but the worst of it came MUCH sooner.
Rumor has it that before the Ink had dried on the Sunday early edition, that is, more than a day before the polls officially declared Notre Dame #1, a Jesuit hit squad was dispatched to South Bend on a mission to foul to imagine.
The details of what transpired that week are unclear. Memories grow hazy when worked over by blackmail and torture. Current inquiries have been met with blank stares, angry denials, and whispered warnings. Who can say what dark deeds were done, what deals were made, or what was covered up? Or why Lou Holtz received repeated phone calls from Ross Perot...why a trophy case was found with the glass broken, and several trophies arranged to simulate various sexual perversions....Strong arm tactics are child's play for a determined band of Jesuits. What is clear is that seven days after Notre Dame defeated Florida State, they were in turn defeated in a stunning upset by the Golden Eagles of Boston College, 41-39.
The year before Notre Dame had demolished Boston College, 54-7.
Hopefully Irish overconfidence is enough to help the Spartans upset Notre Dame this weekend. After all, Michigan State is an agricultural college, not a Jesuit college.
Back to the weekend results:
Pick, (Result)
notredame+7MICHIGAN (Notre Dame17 Michigan10)
virginiatech-20DUKE (Virginia Tech 45 Duke 0)
cal-9WASHINGTON (Cal 56 Washington 17)
CAROLINA-7neworleans (New Orleans 23 Carolina 20)
indianapolis-3BALTIMORE (Indianapolis 24 Baltimore 7)
philadelphia-1.5ATLANTA (Atlanta 14 Philadelphia 10)
So I'm 3-0 college, 1-2 pro. 4-2 overall, but 3.5-2 in betting units, since I only bet a half unit on Notre Dame vs. Michigan.
Right now I'm thinking that Philly's running game needs some serious help, though I'm guessing most of their opposition this year shouldn't be as tough against the run as the Falcons. Atlanta was attractive as a revenge pick, especially with the Terrell Owens issues hanging over the Eagles heads. On the other hand, McNabb to Owens had looked really good during the preseason. They looked to me like they had something to prove, like "Even if we never speak, make eye contact, or otherwise communicate, we can be devastatingly effective." Something like that. I expect that mid-season adversity could lead to some sort of crisis where Owens will start acting up again, but perhaps their possible implosion will happen sooner than I expected. I also prefer to make revenge picks against Super Bowl Champions, not runners-up. And in the end, I expected Philadelphia's defense to be effective against Vick, where a lesser unit would not be. Oh well.
Indy kicked ass against Baltimore. Does this mean their defense no longer SUCKS? I have my doubts, but I am considering betting on them until the pointspreads reach the sky, or until they fail to cover. INDY-9jax? I'm thinking about it.
I'm also still thinking about NYG-3neworl. The Giants did alot better than I expected last week, and my resident Mississippiean believes that Eli Manning will be looking to kick the crap out of daddy's team. I'm still not sure that it matters yet what Eli wants, but if the Giants can keep scoring points I may have to take him seriously. Right now I'm also considering pitt-4HOU, butwhere I checked the line was already 6. I'm trying t find some underdogs to pull for, but it's hard. I'm also thinking DAL-6wash. I don't like giving many points in divisional matchups, but I'm thinking they might really have the 'Skins outclassed right now, especially with the unsettled QB situation in Washington. What else? Apparently the Rams are like 7-20 on the road, or as a road favorite,or something, but I'm thinking the "OVER" (44) between the St. Louis and the Cardinals could be a good pick. I just don't see much defense going on here.
On the college front, last week I was considering Nebraska giving 6 or 7 to Wake Forest, but with a 5-6 record last year, and only a 2-6 record vs. the Big 12, I wasn't sure Nebraska deserved that much respect. I also got burned picking BC over Wake last year. Well, Nebraska came through with a 31-3 win over Wake Forest, so now I am thinking about laying 10.5 with them at home vs. Pitt, who managed to lose last week to the mighty Ohio Bobcats (NOT Ohio State) 16-10. I'm staring to believe that Nebraska can at least be trusted to beat up on inferior opposition, and Pitt is looking...well...INFERIOR. If this was the NFL I might be looking for them to bounce back this week, but in college threre is MUCH less parity, and Lincoln might seem like Austrailia to some of these boys.
After this past weekend I'm thinking that I ought to consider looking for more college picks instead of pro. I'll be sure to let you know before gametime if I throw any $$ down on anybody. Here are some teams I am considering:VANDY, AUBURN, WAKE FOREST, CAL, wisconsin, ASU, N.TEXAS. I am very intrigued by the GA. TECH -17 uconn matchup and could go either way on that one....
Meanwhile, on my other blog, Two Men Out, (www.twomenout.blogspot.com) where I had one of my characters who is something of a bookie advertise my picks for the weekend, (same ones as above, he also avoided taking Nebraska or Texas, same as me) his penchant for insulting Joe Paterno led to him booking a bet for a customer on Penn State, who was an 18.5 point favorite vs. Cincinnati. Since they won by 18 (42-24) it worked out perfectly for the plot. Now my bookie character has a nemesis, who is bent on defending JoePa's honor by wagering on Penn State. (Note: I am not picking for or against Penn State. Frank states his picks in the narrative, while another character bets on Penn State and Frank takes his action. When I do go against [or for] Penn State I'll say so.)
LATER--
Enough about MNF.
The Saints came through this weekend, an I'm happy for them, even if it cost me money. The silver lining for me was that the Panthers LOST. If a team can't cover the spread for me, I'd prefer to see them suffer a bit. This of course doesn't apply to teams that I really root for as a fan, but I usually avoid betting on games I have a rooting interest in, in order to TRY to be objective. The biggest exception to this at one time was Michigan State vs Anyone from the bottom 1/3 or so of the Big 10(11).
Michigan State used to start their season off against one good team, one meatball, and Notre Dame. They would play Michigan fairly early, and at times Iowa would be strong and they would play them early too.
Halfway into the season, you might see MSU at 2-4 against an Indiana or Illinois squad that was 4-2. Michigan State would be a slight dog, a slight favorite, or at most a 6 or 7 point favorite against a team they had beaten by 20 or 30 the year before. You could get lines like this for about 3 weeks in a row before the oddsmakers adjusted, I suppose because it took that long for the college football bettors to adjust. MSU would win by 20+ every game.
I'm not sure why, but it seems like now MSU's schedule has more good teams at the end (Michigan IS later, I don't think anybody else is as consistently good) so if anything they get overrated and tend to choke as they face stronger opposition, instead of being this MONSTER sleeper team. I bet the SEC, Big 12, and Pac 10 have teams like this. I need to find out who they are.
The other thing is MSU seems to be playing more meatballs at the beginning of the season (Kent State, Hawaii). That is why the Spartans have put up ridiculously good numbers that have me tempted to take the 6.5 at South Bend. They also have beat ND 4 straight times there. This is not enough to erase the year-in, year-out beatings at the hands of the Irish that once seemed as inevitable as the change of seasons, but its nice.
You see, the Michigan-Notre Dame game is probably the biggest game of the year where I really hate both teams, but still care about the outcome. (The other one is Michigan-Ohio State, but I don't REALLY hate Ohio State. At the Student Book Store in East Lansing you can buy bumper stickers that say "OhHowIHateOhioState," but don't let anyone fool you. MSU alums with that sticker are wannabe Wolverines that dont want to get a "You call it Maize, We call it CORN" bumper sticker on their car, because they secretly LOVE Michigan. They deserve slightly more respect than closet NAMBLA members. More on this later.
So who do I root for when ND plays U-M? It varies, but as a rule of thumb, the answer is simple:
Notre Dame.
Why? Because the next week they play Michigan State. And I'd much rather have them fat & happy than all pissed off and looking to monkey stomp the next team that they face, i.e. the hapless Spartans....
It can get pretty ugly. How ugly? Well...
If you're on their campus about Thursday/Friday at midnight you MIGHT hear distant chanting and drumbeats from a secret vault deep beneath the golden dome, as an ancient voodoo ritual is enacted upon a giant doll uncannily resembling MSU's mascot. (It also uncannily resembles USC's mascot...) You won't hear screams of pain as the doll is flogged, stabbed, and sometimes burned. (It's just a doll, silly!) But miles away, you just MIGHT see the largest ceramic statue in the world, "Sparty" with a tiny trickle of blood flowing from his hands or wrists.
That's right, the Sparty stigmata.
Last year the powers that be considered dressing the doll up like that Boilermaker guy to hex Kyle Orton before the Purdue game. But they had to save the ritual for USC. If they call on the powers of darkness too many times, a terrible price is exacted. A plague of Locusts. Seven years of famine. Gerry Faust. It was better to get humiliated by Purdue, take their lumps, and move on.
In 1993 they dressed the doll up in a headdress and a Charlie Ward jersey. They horsewhipped it and dripped melted wax from black candles onto its nipples. The hex worked so well that time that not only did Notre Dame beat Florida State and vault over them to #1 in all the polls, but Charlie Ward wasn't even drafted by the NFL, and instead toiled in obscurity in the NBA for a team known as the New York Knickerbockers. In a related move, Michael Jordan became a minor leaguer for the Chicago White Stockings. Dennis Rodman morphed into a multi-dye-jobbed, tatoo-encrusted, body-pierced cross-dressing freak, but continued to play basketball. Snoop Dogg volunteered to coach a profesional football team, and Shaq volunteered to be a Miami police officer. Sometimes the forces of darkness get it wrong, and sometimes they get carried away....Pandora's box was wide open, and chaos reigned...and reigned...and rained...and...
But there were other side effects as well.
There are always unforseen consequenses when souls get sold. Sometimes the price is paid later, sometimes sooner, and it's usually more than one can bear. It would be twelve long years before Notre Dame beat Michigan on the road again, but the worst of it came MUCH sooner.
Rumor has it that before the Ink had dried on the Sunday early edition, that is, more than a day before the polls officially declared Notre Dame #1, a Jesuit hit squad was dispatched to South Bend on a mission to foul to imagine.
The details of what transpired that week are unclear. Memories grow hazy when worked over by blackmail and torture. Current inquiries have been met with blank stares, angry denials, and whispered warnings. Who can say what dark deeds were done, what deals were made, or what was covered up? Or why Lou Holtz received repeated phone calls from Ross Perot...why a trophy case was found with the glass broken, and several trophies arranged to simulate various sexual perversions....Strong arm tactics are child's play for a determined band of Jesuits. What is clear is that seven days after Notre Dame defeated Florida State, they were in turn defeated in a stunning upset by the Golden Eagles of Boston College, 41-39.
The year before Notre Dame had demolished Boston College, 54-7.
Hopefully Irish overconfidence is enough to help the Spartans upset Notre Dame this weekend. After all, Michigan State is an agricultural college, not a Jesuit college.
Back to the weekend results:
Pick, (Result)
notredame+7MICHIGAN (Notre Dame17 Michigan10)
virginiatech-20DUKE (Virginia Tech 45 Duke 0)
cal-9WASHINGTON (Cal 56 Washington 17)
CAROLINA-7neworleans (New Orleans 23 Carolina 20)
indianapolis-3BALTIMORE (Indianapolis 24 Baltimore 7)
philadelphia-1.5ATLANTA (Atlanta 14 Philadelphia 10)
So I'm 3-0 college, 1-2 pro. 4-2 overall, but 3.5-2 in betting units, since I only bet a half unit on Notre Dame vs. Michigan.
Right now I'm thinking that Philly's running game needs some serious help, though I'm guessing most of their opposition this year shouldn't be as tough against the run as the Falcons. Atlanta was attractive as a revenge pick, especially with the Terrell Owens issues hanging over the Eagles heads. On the other hand, McNabb to Owens had looked really good during the preseason. They looked to me like they had something to prove, like "Even if we never speak, make eye contact, or otherwise communicate, we can be devastatingly effective." Something like that. I expect that mid-season adversity could lead to some sort of crisis where Owens will start acting up again, but perhaps their possible implosion will happen sooner than I expected. I also prefer to make revenge picks against Super Bowl Champions, not runners-up. And in the end, I expected Philadelphia's defense to be effective against Vick, where a lesser unit would not be. Oh well.
Indy kicked ass against Baltimore. Does this mean their defense no longer SUCKS? I have my doubts, but I am considering betting on them until the pointspreads reach the sky, or until they fail to cover. INDY-9jax? I'm thinking about it.
I'm also still thinking about NYG-3neworl. The Giants did alot better than I expected last week, and my resident Mississippiean believes that Eli Manning will be looking to kick the crap out of daddy's team. I'm still not sure that it matters yet what Eli wants, but if the Giants can keep scoring points I may have to take him seriously. Right now I'm also considering pitt-4HOU, butwhere I checked the line was already 6. I'm trying t find some underdogs to pull for, but it's hard. I'm also thinking DAL-6wash. I don't like giving many points in divisional matchups, but I'm thinking they might really have the 'Skins outclassed right now, especially with the unsettled QB situation in Washington. What else? Apparently the Rams are like 7-20 on the road, or as a road favorite,or something, but I'm thinking the "OVER" (44) between the St. Louis and the Cardinals could be a good pick. I just don't see much defense going on here.
On the college front, last week I was considering Nebraska giving 6 or 7 to Wake Forest, but with a 5-6 record last year, and only a 2-6 record vs. the Big 12, I wasn't sure Nebraska deserved that much respect. I also got burned picking BC over Wake last year. Well, Nebraska came through with a 31-3 win over Wake Forest, so now I am thinking about laying 10.5 with them at home vs. Pitt, who managed to lose last week to the mighty Ohio Bobcats (NOT Ohio State) 16-10. I'm staring to believe that Nebraska can at least be trusted to beat up on inferior opposition, and Pitt is looking...well...INFERIOR. If this was the NFL I might be looking for them to bounce back this week, but in college threre is MUCH less parity, and Lincoln might seem like Austrailia to some of these boys.
After this past weekend I'm thinking that I ought to consider looking for more college picks instead of pro. I'll be sure to let you know before gametime if I throw any $$ down on anybody. Here are some teams I am considering:VANDY, AUBURN, WAKE FOREST, CAL, wisconsin, ASU, N.TEXAS. I am very intrigued by the GA. TECH -17 uconn matchup and could go either way on that one....
Meanwhile, on my other blog, Two Men Out, (www.twomenout.blogspot.com) where I had one of my characters who is something of a bookie advertise my picks for the weekend, (same ones as above, he also avoided taking Nebraska or Texas, same as me) his penchant for insulting Joe Paterno led to him booking a bet for a customer on Penn State, who was an 18.5 point favorite vs. Cincinnati. Since they won by 18 (42-24) it worked out perfectly for the plot. Now my bookie character has a nemesis, who is bent on defending JoePa's honor by wagering on Penn State. (Note: I am not picking for or against Penn State. Frank states his picks in the narrative, while another character bets on Penn State and Frank takes his action. When I do go against [or for] Penn State I'll say so.)
LATER--
posted by roQQ | 6:57 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home