Worst NFL Game of the Week – The Monday night game is certainly not going to be a gem – neither Cleveland nor Buffalo are in a particularly good place right now. It’s gets worse, though. Late Sunday afternoon the Niners will play in St. Louis. Two struggling offenses with all sorts of troubles. Ugly, ugly, ugly. Insomniacs rejoice – the cure has been found.
Best NFL Game of the Week – It should be Tennessee at Jacksonville, San Diego at Pittsburgh, or Dallas at Washington, but each of those games features one deeply flawed team that robs the game of some potential. The Jets at New England is a good old fashioned showdown for the division lead. It’s not all it could be, but it should still be compelling. My choice, though, is an unexpected one – Baltimore at the Giants. The Ravens are red hot, and the Giants are probably the best team in the league. It should be a battle of wills.
Game With Teams With The Most To Prove – Cleveland and Buffalo. The Bills need to end their ugly, ugly slide that threatens to rob them of the promise their early season showed. Cleveland lost ugly yet again on Thursday, and they desperately need to do something to get things off to a strong start in the Quinn era.
Oddest Line – Oakland (+10.5) at Miami. The line makes sense now, but who would have guessed six months ago that a team that was coming off a one win season would be this heavily favored against anyone going for a 6-4 record.
Best College Game – For the first time in a long time this one doesn’t feature a team from Texas. This week doesn’t feature a whole lot of marquee games, so we have to look for the less obviously interesting. My choice is North Carolina at Maryland. The ACC is wide open. A UNC win would them in decent shape in the Coastal. Maryland wins and they keep pace in the Atlantic. High stakes should make for a great game.
Filling Me With Dread – I am now very confused by Michigan. I expected the worst against Minnesota, and instead got a blowout win. Now we are playing Northwestern, and we are actually favored by more than a field goal. Bizarre. Anything can happen I guess.
Four Interesting Games Between Unranked Teams – Nebraska (-7) at Kansas State. The Huskers are coming off a big upset. K-State is rumored to be getting a fancy new coach. This is two teams with much brighter futures than present times. Virginia Tech (+4) at Miami. Another game with huge ACC implications. Cincinnati (-3) at Louisville. A Cincy win here sets up a huge game against Pittsburgh next week that will likely decide the Big East. Arizona (+3.5) at Oregon. I’m not convinced that there is a second tier of power in the Pac-10, but if there is then this is a battle for the top of it.
Biggest Line – Washington State (+36.5) at Arizona State. It’s a testament to just how truly terrible the Cougars are that they are this much of an underdog against a team with as many problems as Arizona State.
