Section 30

There has never been a better example of why we love the NFL than could be experienced last weekend. In week one we were full of hope for the new season that’s to be filled with fantasy football championships and wheelbarrows full of cash from offshore gambling websites. Well, that’s not even close to what transpired. The weekend ended with an 0-2 fantasy record and me making yet another deposit into by BetUS.com account.

Then the tide turned. Week 2 saw an explosion of fortune for the kid as he pouned out wins in both fantasy leagues and managed to hit a 3 team teaser.

So here we are, at Week 3 with the Worm hitting his stride. Hitch your wagon while you can, we can only go up from here.

NYJ +5.5 over BUFFALO: The Bills were impressive last week, but they aren’t good enough to be giving 5.5 to anyone.

Cincinnati +2 over PITTSBURGH: The Steelers just didn’t look good in Week 2. Big Ben looked shaky against the Jags and the Bengals are no slouches. The Bengals also have motivation, they’ll be looking for some revenge after last year’s playoff loss.

INDY -7 over Jacksonville: I think Peyton and the Colts get really lucky here. They catch the Jags in the Dome in what could very well be a hangover game after the Jag’s coming out party on Monday night.

Tennessee +11 over MIAMI: Is there a more over-rated team in the league right now than Miami? Well, besides the Panthers. At least the Panther’s aren’t laying 11. I don’t want to say Miami’s in the tank, but Dolphin fans are about a week away from begging for Joey Harrington.

Washington -4 over HOUSTON: The man has 2 Super Bowl rings, the highest paid coaching staff in history, and he’s only giving 4 to Houston, a team that’s given up 67 points in 2 games? Anyone have Mark Rypien’s number handy?

Chicago -3.5 over MINNESOTA: Minnesota’s O Line showed some weakness last week against the Panthers. This week they’ll play a team that good enough to exploit it.

Carolina -3 over TAMPA BAY: Honestly I have no clue. The mitigating factor in this one has to be Chris Simms, who’s suddenly morphed into an old Brett Favre.

Green Bay +6.5 over DETROIT: Signs of life from #4 last week. I think he finds a way to get it done in Detroit this week, take the Packers straight up in this one.

Baltimore -6.5 over CLEVELAND: BMore has been very efficient this year. They’ve given up only one trash time TD and are able to put up points this year. That, and Cleveland still sucks.

Arizona -4.5 over St. Louis: This is another that could go either way. I think this plays out a lot like last week’s game between the Rams and Niners. For what ever reason, the Rams just don’t have the offense anymore. The Cardinals should be able to put up enough points to put the St. Lunatics at 1-2.

New York Giants +3.5 over SEATTLE: Another upset pick. Seattle has had a hard time getting points this year and the Giants have the best defense that the Seadogs will have faced up to this point. The Giants are riding high after last weeks big comeback. Look for the Giants to take this one straight up.

Illadelph -6 over San Francisco: Here’s the one I don’t understand. Philly bounces back and beats the brakes off the Niners.

NEW ENGLAND -7 over Denver: I can’t figure Denver out. They haven’t been able to move the ball yet against two bad teams. I don’t think they’ll do it this week either. New England is 2-0, but no overly impressive in doing it. Tom Terriffic Strikes again.

ATLANTA -3.5 over New Orleans: I’ve heard numerous pundits picking the Saints in this one. It’s the first game back in the Superdome and it’s so great for the city of New Orleans. Too bad Atlanta doesn’t care about any of that. The Falcons have the best ground game in the L and haven’t given up a TD yet. The Saints just don’t have enough to get it done.

Lead Pipe Locks: Baltimore, Philly and Atlanta

Let’s see how the ultimate gambler fared in week 2.  As you can see from his post, he liked the blowouts this week.  Please keep in mind that one should always gamble, on every game, even if one decides not to use Slim’s picks.  Without further adieu:

Balitimore -11.5 over OAKLAND – Right on my man.  Blowout #1 : 1-0

INDY -13 over Houston – Another good pick in blowout #2 : 2-0

CINCY -10 over Cleveland – solid pick in blowout #3: 3-0

Buffalo +6.5 over Miami – uh oh.  I hope you guys bet with Mr. Calhoun: 4-0

Detroit +9 over CHICAGO – First mistake…sleeping on my Bears..back on my mid 90’s teams : 4-1

Carolina -1 over MINNESOTA – OT, I think the indians snuck through : 4-2

New York Giants +3 over Philly – OT, Nice pick in a hard game to handicap: 5-2

Tampa +5.5 over ATLANTA – not quite : 5-3

Nawlins -2.5 over GREEN BAY – nice pick.  NO might be fun to watch this year : 6-3

St. Louis -3 over SAN FRANCISCO – wrong: 6-4

SEATTLE -7 over Arizona – can’t pick against the hawks: 7-4

NYJ +6 over the Patriots - No Sir maintain 2 above even: 7-5

FOOTBALL JESUS -11 over Tennessee – right pick and analysis right on: 8-5

DENVER -10.5 over Kansas City – OT, kept it close even without Green: 8-6

DALLAS -6 over Washington – Nice pick to finish Sunday 3 above: 9-6

JAX +2 over Pittsburgh – right on.  Nice upset pick: 10-6

Lead Pipe Locks: Cincy, BMore, and NYJ – (2-1) decent on the locks, but we are expecting a perfect record here.

Overall record: 14-18

Nice comeback by Slim.  Had several nice picks and was relatively accurate.  Of note, Calhoun was 1-2 in the overtime games.  Also of note, Clinton Portis killed my fantasy team this week.  Bastard.

Football Jesus, aka Philip Rivers, led the Chargers to a 40-7 victory over the Titans.

Here’s what comes to mind after a near-perfect Saturday with picture-in-picture and a fridge full of beer…

The Auburn victory over LSU was by far the best 7-3 game I’ve ever seen.  It proves why SEC football will always be so great to watch, even when no one scores.  Those were two physical teams with stingy defenses and hard-nosed, between-the-tackles offenses; say what you will about SEC power football, but that game was more enjoyable than any West Coast game I’ve seen this year.  Auburn will win the SEC hands-down and this time they won’t get snubbed by the BCS.

My Sooners got hosed twice in the last minute of their game against Oregon.  I think replay in college football stinks, if only because it fails to work way too often, and always when the game is on the line.  If you’re going to institute replay in college football, at least have competent officials reviewing the video.  The onside kick review was conclusive from every angle, and yet the referee announced it was “conclusive” in the wrong direction.  The pass interference call where the ball was apparently tipped at the line looked obvious, but was arguably inconclusive.  Even still, Oregon scored twice in the final two minutes and blocked the potential winning field goal to stay undefeated.  

While Brady Quinn can likely forget his NYC invite to the Heisman Trophy ceremony in December, the Irish aren’t out of the hunt for a national championship just yet; it will be very difficult for any team to finish undefeated this season.  However, next up for the Irish is a road trip to Michigan State, who played a solid and complete game in its victory over Pitt Saturday.  A loss to the Spartans will certainly have Notre Dame looking at a second-tier bowl.

Conversely, Michigan was impressive all-around and is a contender as well.  They appear to have fixed their offensive issues from 2005 and they have a favorable schedule with Wisconsin (next week), Iowa, and Michigan State at home.  That finale in Columbus will be huge, as usual.

Clemson did what they do best, play inconsistent football.  The best part of that whole game was Tommy Bowden saying at halftime that he wouldn’t kick again for any reason.  The solution to a winning field goal?  Running the ball in for a touchdown from the one yard line with 0:08 to play.  They kept their ACC title hopes alive, but will need help; Boston College, who needed 2OT again against BYU, will have to lose twice.

Chris Leak played with poise and finesse against Tennessee, and the Gators look tough and should be in everyone’s national championship conversations…Nebraska may be better, but they are definitely not back, which is understandable with a playbook where every audible is a short essay…USC is definitely a contender, especially in a per-usual lopsided PAC-10…TCU held Texas Tech to a field goal, which is absolutely mesmorizing…

And last, and certainly least, a call into Terry Harvey’s post-game call-in show:

Caller: “Terry, is it possible that Southern Miss is just significantly better than what we thought?”

Terry: “No.”

As the Captain so eloquently stated earlier in the week, I humped the dog and went 4-12 last week. However, I was 1-1 on my confidence picks. I’ll take that for week one. The first week is always rough, no matter what sport. Only a love for gambling would cause someone to be dumb enough to lay lumber during week one. All of that aside, I plan to launch the comeback this week. On to the picks. A lot of the favorites are playing at home this week causing a lot of big lines. Let’s see how it plays out.
Balitimore -11.5 over OAKLAND: I believe Sabo put it the best, “Stephen Hawking would make a better QB than Aaron Brooks.” The Ravens are 6-1 SU and ATS in their last 7 against the Raiders. Take the Ravens in a romp.

INDY -13 over Houston: The Colts had problems stopping the Giants on the ground, but Samkon Gado is no Tiki Barber. The Tejans couldn’t cover Donte Stallworth so I doubt they have an answer for Marvin and Reggie.

CINCY -10 over Cleveland: The Bengals put the hammer to the Cheifs without much help from Palmer. They’ll get it going this week at home.

Buffalo +6.5 over Miami: The Fish are 0 for their last 4 ATS against the Bills. If Buffalo’s D can cause problems for Tom Terrific, then they should have Saban ready to kill Culpepper by the 3rd quarter.

Detroit +9 over CHICAGO: The Bears win this one, but Detroit is decent enough to keep it close.

Carolina -1 over MINNESOTA: This one will be interesting. Based on Week 1, the Vikes should roll, but you can’t bet against John Fox after a loss. No one circles the wagons like Coach Fox.

New York Giants +3 over Philly: The Eagles are 5-1 ATS against the Eagles over the past 3 years, but this game is almost a must win for the Giants. If they lose this one, they drop to 0-2 with a trip to Seattle looming. I think they find a way to win.

Tampa +5.5 over ATLANTA: Classic case of one team not being nearly as bad as they looked playing another team that isn’t anywhere near as good as they looked. Don’t let Week 1 fool you. The Bucs are 5-1 ATS in their last 6 at Atlanta.

Nawlins -2.5 over GREEN BAY: It’s gone get ugly.

St. Louis -3 over SAN FRANCISCO: The Niners have a good history ATS vs. the Rams, but the Rams defense looked stout. With Will Witherspoon clogging up the middle, they’ll keep Frank Gore under control. Take the Rams and lay the 3.

SEATTLE -7 over Arizona: Shaun Alexander gets it going against a defense that gave up 600 yards to Frank Gore. Seattle wins this one in a shoot out.

NYJ +6 over the Patriots: This is a tough one to call. The Patriots were dogs last week and the Jets looked good, but Kerry Collins is no Tom Brady. There’s also a distinct possibility that the Pats just aren’t as good as people think.

FOOTBALL JESUS -11 over Tennessee: Young Man Rivers makes his home debut against the Titans. With this schedule, he may not have to complete his 50th pass until sometime in October.

DENVER -10.5 over Kansas City: The Cheifs get shredded again this week while Herm Edwards starts wishing he was back in Jersey.

DALLAS -6 over Washington: Both teams lost their openers so the loser of this one goes 0-2 and puts themselves in a hole. The Cowboys should be able to move the ball better this week and I’m not sure if the Redskins offense can keep up. However, if the Skins can get to Bledsoe and force a few more interceptions, the Romo Watch will officially be on.

JAX +2 over Pittsburgh: Upset of the week. Both teams looked good last weekend, but I think this is the year Jax makes a statement. The offense looked solid against a decent Dallas defense and their defense has been good for a while. Meanwhile the Steelers still don’t know who’s going to start the game at QB. Also, the Jags are 8-2 ATS in their past 10 vs. the Steel Curtain, so they’ve got that going for them. Which is nice.

Lead Pipe Locks: Cincy, BMore, and NYJ

Just so we’re clear…

All these years we’ve labored under the apparently misguided presumption that if we spend millions of dollars and build extravagant field houses and pressbox towers complete with extravagant suites and weight rooms and practice fields, and we enclose our antiquated, yet somewhat charming, cow pasture of a stadium and erect massive statues and scoreboards and we launch a seemingly uncoordinated attack on the entire gameday “experience” in order to bring the attention onto the actual game itself and we keep making everything pretty, and we have contrived “traditions” like a Walk of damn Champions…

Then naturally we’ll draw the five-star and blue chip talent from South Florida to Raleigh that will promptly catapult us out of ACC mediocrity and into Jacksonville in December and Tempe in January.

All these years we’ve tried to draw a correlation between all of the above and winning…

And we now know, that in fact, we are not at that next level because we do not accept non-qualifiers into our program.  Seems like an easy fix to me.

We should just secede to the MAC.  Surely we could finish second in that conference.

Just a little review of the maestro’s picks from Week 1.  I hope this doesn’t discourage Slim from making picks in subsequent weeks, but we need to fully disclose to the public the accuracy of said picks to maintain our objectivity.  I have no idea what that means.: 

Miami +1 over Steelers – wrong : 0-1

Atlanta +5 over Panthers – right: 1-1

Tampa -3 over B-more – wrong: 1-2

New England -9 over Buffalo – wrong: 1-3

Kansas City -2 over Cincy – wrong: 1-4

Denver -3.5 over St. Louis – wrong: 1-5

Cleveland -3 over New Orleans – wrong: 1-6

Tennessee -2.5 over NYJ – wrong: 1-7

Philly -5.5 over Houston – right: 2-7

Seattle -6 over Detroit – wrong: 2-8

Chicago -3.5 over Green Bay – right: 3-8

Dallas +2 over Jacksonville – wrong: 3-9

Arizona -9 over San Francisco – wrong: 3-10

Indy -3.5 over NYG – wrong: 3-11

Washington -4.5 over Minnesota – wrong: 3-12

San Diego -3 over Oakland – right: 4-12

4-12 for the total record.  Including one miss on a Golden Bullet pick of the week.  I look forward to providing future fact checking information to the masses….in the future.

Captain

On September 11, 2006 He rose and led the Chargers to a 27-0 victory over the Raiders!

Like Gary Hahn said, Happy Appy was the first #1 team State has beaten at Carter-Finley, although we got within six touchdowns a few times against FSU in the early to mid 90s.  Hahn was just as serious with that comment as he was the night we won the Hispanic College Fund Classic by beating The Citadel and one of the Loyolas and he said “It never gets old hoisting championship trophies, does it Tony?”

So I have to think this is the perfect letdown game for us.  Beat #1 and then fall to the defending MAC champion.  We’ve seen it before (Baylor 1998).

Three reasons Akron will win:

[1] The Zips held JoPa’s rushing attack to 76 yards and allowed only 282 yards altogether against a much superior offensive team.  If they shut down Brown and Baker, do we play for the pick-six? 

[2] QB Luke Getsy, a fifth-year senior (notice, when you’re a senior you lose the “redshirt” prefix), passed 42 times and completed 22 of those for 160 yards.  Unimpressive, right?  Well, it’s a 7.3 YPC average and indicates that he’s skilled at the short passing game and managing the clock with it; i.e., not many three-and-outs.  Must be nice.

[3] A.J. Davis is out.  Anyone remember the 2003 Texas Tech game where B.J. Symons threw for about 900 yards?  Getsy had about a half-dozen games like that last year.

Three reasons State will win:

[1] Penn State’s pass rush had a fun day against the Akron O-line.  Ours should, too.     

[2] Marcus Stone was impressive against App, completing all of his 36 yards off his back foot.  For those of you that think that isn’t impressive, Peyton Manning throws off his back foot a lot, too.

[3] We’re the Red & White from State and we know we are the best.  We have a Walk of damn Champions to prove it. 

Prediction: Akron 49 – 35

Pictures from the first Wolfpack football game of the 2006 season vs. Appalachian State can be found here. There are exclusive shots of the Section30.com contributors so check it out!