Week Two: Redemption

OK. The Ticket wasn't so hot week one. It's not The Ticket's fault that College Football has no Exhibition season. Nonetheless, that was The Ticket's warm up. It ended up being an expensive warm up because The Ticket did Mortgage his penthouse on Park Ave on the Tennessee game. What a blunder. How could a third string QB with a new coaching staff beat Tennessee!?!?! Merda di Bullia! To compound that, The Ticket bet his wife's weeks spending money on Oregon State; Ticket Jr.'s Diaper money on Clemson, and The Ticket's Beer money on Colorado State (luckily The Ticket prefers vino). So after The Ticket went 0-4 in week one, what does he do? Like a person with a true gambling problem he goes double or nothing in week 2. Here are The Ticket's picks:

NFL:

The Ticket really likes two games this weekend, but The Ticket always play four. The Two games The Ticket is willing to put 5 units on are Dallas over Cleveland (-5.5) and Philly over St. Louis (-7.5). Cleveland's defense is horrible, and the Cowboys are going to be ready for Showtime in week one. In addition, Cleveland's stellar offense has not looked that stellar in the preseason. If there is one thing Wade Phillips knows, its defense, and he will have his D ready for a banged up Derek Anderson, an aging Jamal Lewis.

The reason The Ticket likes Philly, is because word out of Lehigh University is that Donovan has had his best training camp in years. Add a rejuvenated special teams and the fact that St. Louis just is not that good, and you have your mortgage re-paid in no-time.

If you are like me and have to play four games, then here are two more games that The Ticket will bet 1 Unit each on. Jacksonville should be able to outscore Tennessee by three points. Tennessee's offense under new offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger has looked awful this preseason. They cut their leading WR from last year, Roydell Williams and Justin Gage and Justin McCariens do not seem in sync with VY. The Ticket would bid more points on this game, if The Ticket weren't so perplexed by Jacksonville's passing game. Tennessee is going to put 8 in the box, and David Garrard is poise and accurate, but Jacksonville's passing game is like Harvey Dent.

Lastly, The Ticket will give the Four against the Redskins on Thursday night, hoping that emotions will be running high at Giants Stadium and that the Redskins aren't as comfortable with the West Coast offense as they will be later in the season.

Synopisis: Dallas (-5.5), Philly (-7.5), Jacksonville (-3), Giants (-4)

College Football:

Notre Dame cannot beat ANYONE by 20. Whenever you look at a Notre Dame line, you have to assume that it is giving more points to the other team than they would normally to even out the betting. Every Catholic in America likes to bet Notre Dame. The Ticket thinks Note Dame will be able to pull one out at home, but not by 20. The Ticket bets 5 Units.

Connecticut will beat Temple by more than 7. Connecticut rolled Hofstra on College football opening night. Big deal. But it is a big deal that Connecticut has a soft schedule and knows that when it plays a cupcake, it has to dominate that cupcake to get national attention and continue to build their program after winning the Big East last year. Connecticut isn't great, but they can beat up on sorry opponents. They will push around Temple up front and control the game. The Ticket bids 1 unit on Connecticut.

Rice will beat Memphis outright. The Ticket has to admit, he knows very little about Rice. But The Ticket watched them beat a re-building Southern Methodist team convincingly on Friday. The Ticket likes their passing game, but more importantly doesn't like Memphis. Memphis was relevant in football for two years when DeAngelo Hall ran all over Conference-USA. They weren't relevant before and haven't been relevant since. Rice looked decent last year, and seems to be continuing their competitive trend this year. The Ticket likes Rice to win, but The Ticket will take the three points anyway and bet a unit.

Arkansas will cover the 13 on UL-Monroe. Arkansas is an SEC school. UL Monroe is in the Sun Belt Conference. That alone is worth giving 13. But Bobby Petrino needs to make a splash in his first game. They already lost a recruit due to Petrino being painted as untrustworthy by the entire Atlanta Falcons organization, and he needs to give the kids in Arkansas a reason to not play for Ole Miss and old Arkansas coach Houston Nutt. The Ticket will throw a point on it to better his win total after last weeks debauchery

Synopsis: San Diego State (+21), Uconn (-7), Rice (+3), Arkansas (-13)