Man, there's so much to take away from last night's Oregon loss.
- 1. You do NOT want to be ranked No. 2 this season. Yikes. I mean, nothing went right for Oregon. Very curse-like.
- 2. You saw how important Dennis Dixon is to Oregon. It's further proof he should have been atop the Heisman race. Now the question is: Does the injury/loss eliminate him? If it drops him a few rungs, can he play his way back to the top? Will he play this year?
- 3. Brady Leaf loves to stare at where he's going to throw the ball. He looks completely uncomfortable in the pocket. I know he was a little dinged up, but it was beyond ugly at times. Any throw over 5 yards was very ugly.
- 4. Jaison Williams drops as many passes as he catches. Wow.
- 5. Jonathan Stewart is a load. Before he went down with his injury, he was tough to tackle. It's a shame he can't play with Dixon as his quarterback next year.
- 6. The crew officiating the game last night was terrible. TERRIBLE.
- 7. Tough day for the Pacific Northwest (if San Fran is included in that region) with the Barry Bonds news and the Oregon loss.
- 8. Wasting 800 words and an hour of research on a team that loses later in the evening is frustrating.
But, there's a lot of football to be played this weekend. A lot of big lines, a lot of so-so games on paper. Of course, there have been a few weekends with so-so games that turned into bombshells with upsets. Let's take a look.
| Game | Line | Pick | Notes |
| North Carolina @ Georgia Tech | GT -10 | UNC | The Tar Heels have given teams fits all season, why stop now. |
| Maryland @ Florida State | FSU -7.5 | FSU | I've come to terms with the fact that FSU is so sporadic but can bust the big one. There's a reason their favorite. |
| Pittsburgh @ Rutgers | Rutgers -11 | Rutgers | Rutgers can shut down LeSean McCoy. Pitt cannot shut down Ray Rice. |
| Kentucky @ Georgia | UGA -8 | Georgia | Georgia is on fire and doesn't appear to be slowing down with Moreno at RB. |
| Missouri @ Kansas State | Missouri -7 | Missouri | The Tigers are 7-2 against the spread and Jeremy Maclin is one of the best freshmen in the country. |
| Duke @ Notre Dame | Notre Dame -5.5 | Notre Dame | Finally, I can pick Notre Dame in a game. However, a 5.5-point favorite against Duke? Yikes. |
| Wisconsin @ Minnesota | Wisc -13.5 | Wisconsin | This one shouldn't be close. Minnesota is horrible. |
| Iowa State @ Kansas | Kansas -26 | Kansas | Kansas will improve to 11-0 and slide into that dreaded No.2 spot, but will fall to 9-1 against the spread. Iowa State has been tricky this year and are playing better this last month. Maybe I need to stop hating. |
| Penn State @ Michigan State | PSU -3 | Michigan State | Throw Michigan State into the mix of teams that's been all over the place, which does not bode well for a no-more-than-decent Penn State team (which is dealing with more arrests). |
| Louisville @ South Florida | South Florida -6.5 | Louisville | The two best passers that USF has seen this year are Ben Mauk and Tyler Lorenzen. Both games resulted in losses. And Brian Brohm is much better than those two. |
| Oklahoma @ Texas Tech | OU -8 | Oklahoma | OU has tunnel vision to New Orleans. Nothing is getting in the way. |
| Boston College @ Clemson | Clemson -7.5 | Clemson | The Eagles are in reverse and don't play well away from home. Clemson is in overdrive and plays well at home. |
| Ohio State @ Michigan | Ohio State -4 | Ohio State | I liked Michigan to win this game, but they finally reverted back to their September ways last week. And I know Ohio State does not want to miss out on the BCS. |
Comments (3)
It appears that the trick is to be in the number two spot at the end, so there is no opportunity for the "curse" to affect you. At least not in terms of your ranking. Doesn't mean a key player can't get hurt in practice, but you would already be in the championship game. That however is another story.
No way I'm letting you off that easy Adam... there's a game between a Top 10 and a Top 25 team that you didn't even mention...
WVU - CINCY?
Come on buddy... show a little respect for the #5 team (you could make a case for #3 since Kansas / Missouri / Oklahoma has to have at least two more losses amongst the three of teams.)
Where's the love Adam?
"I've come to terms with the fact that FSU is so sporadic but can bust the big one. There's a reason their favorite."
"Their?" I guess you did post this at 1 a.m., but geesh.
Do you think KU is going to cover? I know they've been blowing teams away, but that spread seems kind of generous considering many consider this a trap game.