The Carnage and WEEK 2 MAC

[spang]

First week was brutal as I went 8-13 in all plays after starting out 3-0. I ended up dropping 15.55 units so I'll be peddling uphill. Making matters worse was that I blew some more on a large out of conf. halftime play yesterday.God, I don't want to re-up by week 3 so its time to buckle down.

I wasn't really expecting much as a whole from this conference but there were some very decent performances on the road from Buffalo and NIU, while BG looked very good at home in their opener.

Moving on..

Week 2 plays that I am grabbing now as I suspect the numbers may be as good as they get.

W Mich +1 (3 units)

I refuse to believe that the Broncs are as bad as they looked in Ann Arbor. They ran into a buzz saw and Michigan looked great. After all the shit that went down at Mich. Richrod really had the wolverines ready. I want to think that Michigan was much better than I expected( especially on defense) rather than believing that Western just really stinks. I think Hiller and crew can rebound and will get untracked vs yet another crappy I U squad and their porous secondary.

N Tex +3 (4 units )

I had the chance to see the entire N Tex/ Ball St game and came away very impressed with the Mean Green. They went into Muncie and really took it to the Cards. The final score was no fluke at all as N Tex was the better team on both sides of the ball. They played with a confidence thats been seldom seen from them in quite some time and backed it up with a very solid performance. I will gladly take the 3 now on a very live home dog vs. an at best so so Ohio U outfit.

May have a couple more including Toledo, given the very strange scheduling by Colorado. I will remain disciplined from here out, I have taken the first weeks lessons to heart.
__________________

 

[BGFalcon]

Those are two that I like. There is no way WMU is as bad as they looked on Saturday and IU is not good at all. N. Texas should be able to outscore Ohio in a game that may also be an over for me.

FWIW, I laid 5 with USC when it opened and may buy some back when the line gets pushed to 7. I'm not convinced OSU can stop the running game and Pryor's arm still seems a little shaky.

 

[Skipper]

Love, love, LOVE the West. Mich play. Will be hitting that one hard. GL Spang

 

[spang]

Buffalo + 10' One unit

I've been back and forth on this one a few times before landing on the Bulls.

The Bulls are coming off a very good road win and they answered two critical questions in the process.
How would they overcome the season ending injury to the very talented RB, Starks and would Maynard be able to step up and do an efficient job of leading the team after the graduation of Wiley, their very good QB and team leader of last years MAC champions.

The answer to both was yes they can. Maynard was very good and did what he needed to do in a hostile environment. his numbers were not that great but he took good care of the ball with no TOs in his first start. The Bulls also did OK on the ground rushing for 150 or so. All in all, it was a nice performance that Buffalo can build on

Gill is one of the best young coaches out there and I'll take the 10' at home over the 'stache any day.
This just has the feel of one of those games where the home dog will be fired up bigtime and could be mighty live. Buffalo played Pitt very tough at Pitt last year getting the cover, I think they can do it again. The only thing that has me making this a small play is that Pitt has been a very good road cover team going back the last couple of years.

 

[Irish]

Spang....
N.Tex is on my short list. More than likely gonna pull the trigger on them later just looking at some intangibles.

Cheers
Irish

 

[hawkeye]

Like your picks--GL

 

[hawkeye]

Spangero--I am still lookig at Kent at B C-liking Kent a little whats your input on that game-thanks

 

[AR182]

i'm with you on w. mich. spang...you'll bounce back....

good luck...

 

[spang]

Spangero--I am still lookig at Kent at B C-liking Kent a little whats your input on that game-thanks

Hey Hawk, I didn't get a chance to see the Kent game last week so I don't have that much to go on.
I do like the under however. Both teams are coming off of shut outs and last years meeting at Cleveland Browns stadium in Cleveland was a dull low scoring affair dominated by BC.

Kent will try to get the ball in the hands of Jarvis as much as they can. He had 27 carries last week and will be leaned on again. BC will also probably run the ball a lot as they got 230 yards on the ground last week . I would expect to see the clock rolling right along in this one.


I just can not back a side here but the under looks pretty strong to me.

 

[spang]

Thanks, Al

Adding to the card with some total plays.

Col/Toledo over 54' one unit
Pitt/ Buff under 49 THREE UNITS
Kent/ BC under 46' THREE UNITS
OU/ N TEX under 52 one unit.

That should be the entire card for the week. Best of luck to all.

 

[hawkeye]

CU is going to try an run the ball alot-Tol gave up lot of rushing yards last week to Pur wo is not a great running team-still looking at that total. I a thinking the GTech total is a bit low also--GL

 

[hawkeye]

What about Akron -28' tomorrow?

 

[Master Capper]

good luck this week, I was looking at Ohio and Kent as possible plays. Cannot decide if Ball State is just terrible this season, or if NTX is that good.

 

[spang]

good luck this week, I was looking at Ohio and Kent as possible plays. Cannot decide if Ball State is just terrible this season, or if NTX is that good.

I'm just not a fan of Kent's head coach Martin. The last couple of years some pretty good things were expected from the Flashes but he just never seems to deliver. Jarvis is a very talented RB, but other than that the cast of skilled people is pretty untested.

That said, I can't lay the 21 with BC nor can I play the Flashes. I am down pretty good on the under. I have to wonder where Kent finds their scoring in this one.

On the other comment, I would suspect a little bit of both. I did see that game and N Tex is a far better team than previous editions. They really did kick Ball State's ass over the field. For that reason, I see Army as a strong play when they hook up with the Cards next week.

Best of luck MC

 

[spang]

What about Akron -28' tomorrow?

Hawk, I thought a long time before passing on this game. I expect a very good performance from the Zips in their debut at their great new stadium. They did play well in the 2nd half at Penn State and this game is very close to a sell out so the Zips should be very fired up.

The problem is that I know almost nothing about Morgan State or the rest of the MEAC for that matter. I actually read their media guide to try to get a feel for them but still I just don't know. Their QB, Jackson appears to be a solid player as a dual threat QB and they have some returning talent on defense.
I did note however that they tend to get creamed when stepping up in class over the last few years. What really makes it tough is that they didn't play last week so I can't fall back on that for an idea either.

Just can't pull the trigger here. Good luck this week