Friday Football Blotter - Ergen Versus the Tree

I'm going to try and write this in spite of one of the biggest news stories to envelop collegiate sports and gravitate toward the non-sports watching public. I'm talking, of course, about the recent Athletic Director firing at UCF and suspension of head hoops coach and former UF coaching badass Donnie Jones. C'mon, Knightro, get your boys together! In other news, I went a putrid 4-7 last week, dropping my record to an astoundingly statistical mark of the same number of wins and losses. While most of these are 50/50 picks, there are some pick ems thrown in each week, so I'm somehow now doing worse than science and science-y folks would dictate.

Last week: 4-7

Season total: 50-50-1

(6) Oregon at (3) Stanford, 8PM EST ABC
Unlike that unfortunate bore we got lost week from the Tigers and Tide, this one should be all kinds of exciting. More of a hunch than anything else, I think the pressure of the primetime gets to Andrew Luck and the Cardinal, while Ducks QB Darron Thomas finds seems in a vulnerable Stanford defense. Oregon wins 37-31.

(19) Nebraska at (12) Penn State [43 O/U], 12PM EST ESPN
Noon kickoff, two (or three) not so steady QBs....I don't expect too many points here. Off the field, PSU has already said that if they win they will go over to Joe Paterno's house and give him the game ball. Whatever you think of the devastating fallout this past week, JoePa sure did help out a lot more folks than hurt. I expect some solid efforts from the school in donating money to children's charities and organizations and I'm glad that they didn't announce something like "kids get in free" for this game. Through all of this, I see that PSU defense stepping up and stopping Taylor Martinez. I'm going under 43 here.

(24) Auburn at (14) Georgia, 3:30PM EST CBS
Aaron Murray should probably carve this lax secondary up early and often, and even though the Tigers have pretty nice weapons on offense, one of them isn't QB Barrett Trotter. I usually buy into Auburn covering these kinds of spreads, but I can't keep forgiving Trotter's pedestrian 54% completion percentage and 10/6 TD/INT ratio. Georgia wins 40-23.

...fuck, the heck is this?!? Okay, Texas Christian...

TCU at (5) Boise State [-16], 3:30PM EST Versus
Remember when Boise came over to join the MWC and this was going to the matchup to look out for? Neither defense will scare you, and Boise rarely drops games at home. Still, TCU QB Casey Pachall is quietly having a great season with a 68% completion percentage and only 300 paYd less than BSU's Kellen Moore. I'll take the Horned Frogs to cover the 16.

Steelers at Bengals [+3.5], 1PM EST CBS
Pittsburgh's offense is in a groove right now and I just don't see Andy Dalton stepping up in his first matchup against the still stout defense. Because I suck at this, the Steelers will probably win by a last second Jeff Reed Shaun "Shazam" field goal, but I'm still taking Pittsburgh to cover the 3.5.

Saints at Falcons, 1PM EST FOX
I like what Matt Ryan has been doing lately, no matter how banged up Julio Jones is for this game. In a battle of two sub-par defenses, I usually lean toward the home team, as Drew Brees has definitely shown he's human outside the Superdome. Falcons win 31-27.

Not so Rowdy Roddy White

Giants at 49ers, 4:15PM EST FOX
Week in and week out, Eli Manning and his winning ability has proven me wrong, but don't let that awful line against the dumpster squad Pats last week fool you. Actually, fooling you is what he wants, and now he gets the Niners. They somewhat rule at defense and Patrick Willis will eat Eli's lunch. 49ers win 23-13.

Lions at Bears [-3], 4:15PM EST FOX
You know that Lions collapse that is no doubt coming? Yeah, that starts this week. I know the Lions are still undefeated on the road at 4-0 (remember when they lost, like, 50 in a row on the road a couple seasons ago??), but the Bears D showed up in a serious way last week and I just don't think Detroit can keep up without a serious run game. Also, in kicker news, Lions perfect PK Jason Hanson probably won't play. Yeah, I'm taking the Bears to cover the 3.

If this was part of some "derp" countdown I can't in my right mind believe there were 17 more derp-ier shots than this

Patriots at Jets [O/U 47.5], 8:20PM EST NBC
Perhaps it's my unjustified thinking that favors the over because it's a finite number once it's achieved, but I legitimately like these two teams to go past that mark Sunday night. Mark Sanchez has been playing great, while Tom Brady should muscle just enough to get in that low-20's range for his team. I like the Jets all day in this one, but I'm going over 47.5 on the split.

Stats = cbssports.com, lines = vegasinsider.com