1. Okay I may as well start off with the elephant in the room. I missed last week. I don’t really have much of an excuse other than to say that some stuff came up. I have a major paper this term that I will be working on and unfortunately it got in the way this time. I hope it wont happen again but to be honest who knows. This isn’t a professional gig for me so sometimes other things come up. I would say I’m sorry but chances are you didn’t even notice. Anyways, I’m not here to talk about the past. I’m on to Cincinnati.
2. Nit Picks this week is probably going to feel like it has a bit a theme, and that’s because in the past couple of weeks, pretty much all of my rooting interests in the wonderful world of football have been hit with quarterback issues. My teams and my favorite guys all find themselves in sketchy situations with regards to the most important position on the field.
3. Tony Bromo Romo no homo* went down with a broken collar bone last weekend and for 48 hours my feelings couldn’t have been more mixed. On the one hand, this Cowboys team is good. They really are. They have the best line in football, and if they can hold the secondary together they have a defense that could make them a serious NFC Super Bowl contender. I picked them because it’s what I want to see (not even going to try to lie about that one), but the fact is, with Brandon Weeden under center, that all goes to hell.
On the OTHER hand, the injury to Romo means that someone has to be the backup to the 84 year old third year player that most people believed to be in the CFL, but is now the signal caller for the Dallas Cowboys. That means….
That’s right. You’re boy, and my favorite player (YES I still get to have a favorite player at 26 years old) Kellen Moore is looking aat a promotion to the 53 and his first ever activation in a regular season game.
By Tuesday, that was confirmed, as it was reported that he was being called up from the practice squad. I still didn’t want to say I was happy that Romo was down, you know, because winning football games and all, but KELLEN IS ACTIVE AND HOW SOON CAN I GET A JERSEY????
Unfortunately that was short lived. The Cowboys decided less that they were uncomfortable with Kellen as the #2 than that they were uncomfortable with Weeden as the uncontested number one (because, again, they like to win football games) and made a move for Matt Cassel. The end result is that we are going to get to see Kellen Moore active in an NFL football game (and I could buy the only Cowboys jersey I’ll ever need to own if they would UPDATE THE NFL ONLINE SHOP ALREADY) this weekend, but after that it is probably back to either the inactive 53 or the praccy squad
(Unless Weeden goes down which I’m not rooting for because I have nothing against the guy and that’s bad karma but let’s be honest I’m totally rooting for.)
*not that there’s anything wrong with that it’s 2015 for god sakes
4. Nextly, we move to the Boise State Broncos. Ryan Finley went down with a broken ankle and is out for at least 8 weeks. It goes without saying that you feel awful for the kid who is popular as a leader, waited two years to see the field and earned the starting job in camp. That is the basic human reaction. But this is the blog of a football fan, not a human, and from a football perspective…
I hate to say it because he was clearly committed to the program, he has shown flashes at times, and he played hockey when he was younger (yer damn right that matters), but Ryan Finley had simply not been good this year. Finely didn’t make the plays necessary to put away Washington, and he didn’t do enough to beat (or even allow his team to beat BYU. Both teams stacked the box to neutralize the advantage created by the Bronco line and shut down the three running backs. He was hurt by a few drops, but Finley simply failed to take the top off of those Ds.
There is no way of knowing if his injury will make the Boise State offense-downright tough to watch at times this year-better
5. And lastly, there is the saga of JFF. Johnathan “tackle football” Manziel.
Last Sunday, the best part of my day was when this happened:
Which meant that in the homes of those of us who long for Johnny’s A&M days, this happened:
Which led to this happening:
JOHNNY’S BACK! PRAY FOF THE AFC! https://t.co/d9MkcattUt
— Jack (@OVSportsJack) September 20, 2015
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But now… the Browns have broken our hearts, and probably sunk their own chances of becoming a playoff team by going back to Josh McCown, who is like 54 years old and has about a 0% chance of taking the Browns to anything other than a high draftpick.
Listen, I don’t think that Johnny is ever going to look like he did at Texas A&M, but I do think that he is a skilled guy who WOULD BE A SENIOR IF HE HADN’T LEFT. The Browns seem intent on running him out of town and/or the league and that’s a shame because as much as everyone wants to write him off, we haven’t really gotten a chance to see what he can do.
6. Boise State better win (by at least 3) tonight because my best friend in law school is a UVA grad and I really don’t want to bring him the breakfast of his choice in class all next week. That would be, uh…awesome…wait no what’s the other thing? Suck. That would suck.
7. Can we take a second to note that the majority of the college football talent comes from 3 of the biggest states in the nation, and that the flagship universities for those three states have been GARBAGE for the past three years? That is INSANITY. I’m talking, of course, about Florida, Texas and Cal. Sure, Cal is 3-0, as is Florida, but it has been 5 or 6 years since any of the three have been contenders, and none of the three look like they can be taken seriously this year. Texas is the craziest to me (followed closely by Florida: Cal has never been as good as they should be), but it seems to me to be inexcusable that the three main public universities of the three most talent rich states are a joke. Bananas.
8. I gotta be honest, I really don’t feel like I’m seeing the ball that well right now. I came out week one and crushed it (during the actual weekend, the picks that I published just went six and four). I lost big on Boise State and on Aston Villa and still, some crazy how, came out on top for the weekend. The last two though have been a little bit rough though. I stormed out to a 4-0-1 on the column in week two, only to drop five in a row (lowlighted by the BYU loss for Boise) to hand myself a losing week just two weeks into 2015. Last week I missed the column, obviously, but I would have been right around .500 once again. I think the fact that I can’t help but continue to pick 2 or 3 players a day from a BRUTAL Red Sox offense on Draft Kings, and subsequently find myself out of the money there more often than not. Having said that…
9. This week I am turning it around. That’s my promise. I went into the picks earlier this week. I started to look on Wednesday, looked at numbers and scores, picked a ton of games and pared it down so that I feel good about the games that I’m actually going to post. Did I find myself in a hole only to say “FUCK IT I NEED A BIGGER SHOVEL”? Maybe. But I don’t think so. We have some results to go off of. Like I said earlier. I spent most of last weekend abusing my body and watching football. This is when we turn it around. I’m getting excited. I can feel it. Good things coming this weekend. Let’s DO THIS.. Let’s find some WINNERS! IT’S NOT OVER UNTIL WE SAY IT”S OVER. THEIR TIME, IS DONE. THIS IS WHERE WE FIGHT. THIS IS WHERE VEGAS DIES. Let’s GO.
10. The Picks
Boise State (-3) over Virginia
BYU (+4.5) over Michigan
Georgia Tech (-8) over Duke
Maryland (+17) over West Virginia
Oklahoma State (-3.5) over Texas
Tennessee (+1.5) over Florida
Nevada (Pick) over Buffalo
TCU (-7) over Texas Tech
Texas A&M (-7.5) over Arkansas
Auburn (-2) over Mississippi State
USC (-5.5) over Arizona State
Steelers (-2) over Rams
Last week 4-5-1, 10-9-1 on the year
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