All I Do Is Win...

"All I do is win, win, win no matter what, got money on my mind, I can never get enough, and every time I step up in the building, everybody hands go up..." -DJ Khaled-

Welcome to the eve of another football weekend everyone.  Just poking a little fun at my not so perfect record last weekend with the lyrics above, although we got a couple of games right.  Looking back to last weekend, my overall record was 3-3 in the college games and 2-1 on the NFL picks.  In the college matchups of top 15 teams, I was right about Wisconsin and Clemson, and I missed on Florida, although none of these games ended up being the coinflips that I envisioned (Wisconsin 48 Nebraska 14, Clemson 23 Virginia Tech 3, Alabama 38 Florida 10).  In the games involving Texas teams, I was right about the Longhorns, and whiffed on the other two (Texas 37 Iowa State 14, Arkansas 42 Texas A&M 38, Kansas State 36 Baylor 35).  First off, tough weekend to be an A&M fan and a Cowboys fan I imagine...  I thought A&M had the Hogs, the way that the game started.  Second, I need to give a SHOUTOUT to Kathryn, one of my former kiddos who is up in Manhattan, and got to experience the atmosphere of the underdog Wildcats knocking off the Bears from Baylor.  EMAW!!! (Every Man A Wildcat).  ;)  On my NFL picks last Sunday, I lost my favorite play of the week, the over in the Pats/Raiders game (Pats 30 Raiders 19 - failing to get to 57 by about a touchdown).  However, Detroit (+3.5) and the Giants (-1.5) did cover (Lions 34 Cowboys 30, Giants 31 Cardinals 27), but both had to make bizarre comebacks for me to take those.  I will spare you Dallas fans reliving it, except to say that one of my friends who was preparing to go out after the game said that he was singing in the shower at halftime after watching the Cowboys sprint out to that huge lead... 

On to this weekend's games...  One of my co-workers told me that he is a loyal follower of the blog, and since I may have four of you at this point, I told him that I would take my chances on the Notre Dame games each week.  If anyone else has a team that they want me to handicap each week, let me know.  I am going to continue picking the college games straight up and giving you my top NFL plays of the week with the spread-over/under since that is the way that I started doing it last week,   The Irish are hosting the Air Force Academy this weekend, and I am taking the Irish at home.  Notre Dame had a nice road win at Purdue last weekend, and I think that the Falcons may have a little hangover from their overtime win at the Naval Academy last Saturday.  The other matchups I'm looking at come from games featured in a college pick 'em contest that I'm in, most of which are intended to be difficult to pick.  I will pick the 24th-ranked Texas A&M Aggies in Lubbock against Texas Tech tomorrow, mainly on the strength of the competition that the Aggies have faced so far, but A&M better be careful out there.  I don't know if they'll be able to withstand another disappointment after their near misses against Oklahoma State and Arkansas.  I'm going to take Nebraska at home against Ohio State, in a spot similar to A&M's.  The Cornhuskers do not want to come out of the Big 10 gate with another loss after all of the hoopla of entering the conference, and Ohio State is down right now.  Bill Snyder may get me again, but I'm going to pick Missouri at 20th-ranked Kansas State.  Missouri played Oklahoma to 10 points, and K-State HAS to lose one of these close ones SOMETIME, right?...  Oklahoma vs. Texas - the little game up in the Metroplex that will jam up I-35 North later this afternoon...  I have worked for the University of Texas, I will be rooting for the Longhorns, but I have to take Oklahoma to win this one.  The Sooners have played a few tough teams this year already, and they have a proven, experienced quarterback.  Although Texas has bounced back nicely after last year, they have been rotating inexperienced quarterbacks this year, and they are playing a lot of young kids in key positions.  In NFL contests, I like the New Orleans/Carolina game to go over 51 points.  Both of these teams have been playing a lot of offense and not so much defense so far this season.  I also like the Jets/Patriots game to go under 49 points.  I think that the hard-hitting nature of the renewal of this rivalry, plus my perceived perception that the Jets won't want Mark Sanchez gift-wrapping turnovers like he did against the Ravens can keep this score under.  I'm also going to pick the Lions (-5) against the Bears.  I just have a hunch that the atmosphere at Ford Field with a 4-0 Lions team on Monday night is going to be very similar to the post Katrina Superdome home-opener on a Monday night a few years back when the Saints crushed the Falcons.  Have a great weekend football fans!