Sports Agenda For Thursday (9/5/13)
Top Stories:
And lo, on the fourth day, the angels sounded their trumpets and the sky opened up and a most glorious sight was to unveiled for all the world to see, the NFL regular season was back. Plus, more on UF vs. UM including my pick and all of my other weekend picks.
Quote of the Day:
"If winning isn't everything, why do they keep score?" – Vince Lombardi
NFL:
The NFL is back….oh yeah.
Here's a few things I will be watching this weekend:
Rookie quarterbacks – E.J. Manuel, Bills and Geno Smith, Jets
Manuel is in a much better situation mainly because he has a better cast around him, namely Stevie Johnson and C.J. Spiller. Smith is surrounded by, um, Stephen Hill?
Course Manuel is also facing the New England Patriots…good luck there son.
Players taking dives
With the proliferation of high-speed offenses (see Philadelphia), will defenses take dives to slow down the momentum?
It's happened in the past, and I bet it happens this year.
The Dolphins offense
Can the Miami Dolphins run the football?
If they can, it takes a huge weight off of Ryan Tannehill's throwing arm and will give the Fins offense a much-needed boost.
The offensive line is set to run the ball, but me thinks they want to air it out more to see if they got their money out of Mike Wallace (trust me, they can't get it out of him short of him putting up Calvin Johnson numbers)
Has the NFL picked up the spread-option?
If you watched the Packers and 49ers in the playoffs last year, the Pack had no answer for the read-option running quarterback.
There are now several of them including Colin Kaepernick, Russell Wilson, Michael Vick, Tannehill could run it, as could Andrew Luck, and others.
So have the defenses figured out how to stop it?
It can be done, but they would have to go talk to college guys to figure out how to do it. Some did, but can they get their guys to execute it?
Will running quarterbacks survive the season?
It's always popular to say a running QB can't survive in the NFL.
Those guys listed above beg to differ, but can they survive the punishment over a 16 game schedule taking lots of hits?
Time will tell.
Who is the worst team in the NFL?
My early candidates are…Oakland Raiders, seriously they just have no talent. New York Jets, see Raiders, Oakland. Jacksonville Jaguars, no quarterback right now.
All of them are either in the Teddy Bridgewater or Jadeveon Clowney sweepstakes.
Finally, my first coach to get fired – Rex Ryan, NY Jets or Mike Munchak, Tennessee Titans
Here are your Week 1 picks:
Broncos over Ravens
Patriots over Bills
Steelers over Titans
Falcons over Saints (game of the weekend)
Bucs over Jets
Chiefs over Jaguars
Seahawks over Panthers
Bengals over Bears
Dolphins over Browns
Lions over Vikings
Colts over Raiders (lead pipe lock pick)
49ers over Packers
Rams over Cardinals
Giants over Cowboys
Redskins over Eagles
Texans over Chargers
UF vs. UM:
After doing some searching through old stats and trying to figure out which way I'm leaning here, I'm still a little unsure.
I like UM's offense, but Will Muschamp's defense is always good.
Still, UF's defense is a big unknown, though they did completely shut down a good Toledo offense.
When I'm torn like this, I try to think back to the past and what my dad used to say.
Offense puts butts in the seats, defense wins championships.
I'm just not sure UM has the horses on defense to hang, though I'm hopeful they can.
Currently, Vegas has the game with UF favored by 3 points and an over/under of 49 total points scored.
I'm taking UF and the under here, saying UF wins 20-14
Straight up with no odds, I still take UF because I just don't know enough about UM's defense.
Hopefully for UM fans, I'm wrong.
The win would mean much more to UM than to UF in the grand scheme of things.
We'll see on Saturday!
College Football Picks:
I've got upsets and more in the Week 2 picks, so here we go.
*I have added what channel the games will be on, why because you guys rule!
UCF over Florida International (CBS Sports Network)
Cincinnati over Illinois (ESPN2)
Florida over Miami (Game Of The Week 1) (ESPN)
Western Kentucky over Tennessee (Upset Special) (SEC Network)
Oregon over Virginia (ABC)
Missouri over Toledo (ESPNU)
South Carolina over Georgia (Game Of The Week 2) (ESPN)
K-State over Louisiana-Lafayette, but it will be close (FS1)
Texas A&M over Sam Houston State (ESPN3.com)
Texas over BYU (ESPN2)
Oklahoma over West Virginia (FOX)
Vanderbilt over Austin Peay (ESPN3.com)
Oregon State over Hawaii (Pac-12 Network)
Michigan over Notre Dame (ESPN)
Arizona over UNLV (CBSSports Network)
Washington State over USC (Upset Special 2, why not?) (FS1)
Small school pick of the week….UNA over Miles College (CSS on Thursday)
