Week 4: A New Hope for The Ticket

NFL:

*2 Denver (-5.5) over New Orleans. Anyone who watches football can see that Denver has been playing well this season. They beat up on the Raiders and played a great game against a San Diego team that proves the old adage that it is better to be lucky than good. Denver is home. Denver is a tough place to play, and New Orleans is not physical enough. Deuce seems to be on Sean Payton's shitlist, which means that New Orleans is going to attempt to air it out on Dre Bly and Champ Bailey with Devery Henderson and thus far unproven Robert Meachem. I like Denver's odds in shutting down the passing game.

*5 Carolina (+3) over Minnesota. Carolina's defense is silently becoming one of the best in the league again. Minnesota has Adrian Peterson possibly out and a new starting quarterback, so how many points is Minnesota getting? WRONG! They are giving 3 because they are at home. Look for this to be a slam dunk as Minnesota goes 0-3. O yeah, and Steve Smith is back, and ready to dominate.

*3 Washington (-3) over Arizona. Washington is giving three, because they are home. I am not going to lie, those three scared me. But then I thought about the two teams the Cardinals dominated. The 49ers and the Dolphins. Awful. The Dolphins have the worst secondary in the league, and the 49ers are nothing to be impressed with. Washington's defense is pretty decent (despite what you saw on the Thursday night opener) and Jason Campbell looked somewhat comfortable last week. Add in the fact that Clinton Portis is going to be running angry after what Brian Mitchell said about him on the John Thompson radio show and I think Washington shows the rest of the league that the Cardinals are what we thought they were.

*3 Tennessee (-4.5) over Houston. Tennessee's defense is awesome. I don't know how they get it done, but Jeff Fisher has them ready to play every week. Kerry Collins looks like he has this offense ready to score. I look for Houston to still be a little woozy after the hurricane last week, and Tennessee to be prepared to make Houston's offense miserable. I know everyone is high on Steve Slaton in the zone blocking offense, but lets not forget that when keyed, he was shut down his senior year at WVU. If he puts up decent numbers in the first half, then I look for him to be shut down the second half. Take Tennessee.

College:

*3 Florida (-7.5) over Tennessee. Give the 7.5. Florida is just about to hit their stride, and they always get up for the Tennessee game. After watching Tennessee struggle in the last few weeks, and the fact that Jonathan Crompton is a little banged up, I think Florida runs up the score on the vols.

*3 Georgia (-7) over Arizona State. Arizona State was beat by UNLV last week. Nothing against UNLV, but they are not Georgia, and Arizona State is not going to know what to do with Knowshon Moreno (MIDDLETOWN SOUTH!). The dogs lay the touchdown and win by three touchdowns. GO DAWGS!

*2 Rutgers (-5.5) over Navy. Rutgers looks awful thus far. But they still have a lot of talent on that team. They have two WRs that will play in the NFL in a year or two, and a powerful offensive line. Look for Rutgers' defense to hold Navy's offense (which lost its pop when their coach went to GA Tech), and Rutgers to put up a few TDs. It will be enough to win by 5.5 points.

*2 UNC (-3) over Virginia Tech. Butch looks a year ahead of schedule on his rebuilding campaign. They are giving 3, at home, which is standard. VA Tech has been shaky on special teams, which is usually a staple for them, and their QB situation is shitty to say the least. UNC knows they need to beat VA Tech to be the team and get some national attention. UNC plays solid football, and fundamentals win this game as they grind it out on Saturday.