Every week (or thereabouts) I’ll do my best to share 10 of the most eye-opening things I saw during a busy weekend of wall-to-wall football. Feel free to agree, disagree, or call me a total moron, but the general idea will be to create a gambling takeaway from each that we can all file away and use to make money down the road.
College Football
Ohio State has a real problem offensively right now. Thankfully, the Buckeyes don’t play another loseable game until the end of October which might give Kevin Wilson time to fix a unit that hasn’t scored more than 20 points in 3 of the last 5 games. The 2nd half against Indiana showed signs that things were coming around, but J.T. Barret’s struggles for four quarters against Oklahoma reveal a quarterback dealing with a major crisis of confidence.
When it comes to contenders with questions at QB feel free to add Auburn to the list. Jarrett Stidham was touted as the perfect fit to lead a Gus Malzahn offense, but he’s struggled mightily to life on the Plains. The biggest takeaway for me is I see a QB ill-equipped to make something out of broken plays; a hallmark of success for those that ran this offense most efficiently. His mechanics need some work, as well.
Let’s hold off on eulogizing the USC offense for at least another week, Sam Darnold and company exploded for 623 yards in their dominant victory over the Cardinal. USC also found a way to keep Stanford’s offense in check limiting Bryce Love to just 170 yards. I say just because exactly half of his total output came on a single carry early in the game.
Don’t be fooled by the final score of 47-44 in Pullman over the weekend, Boise and Wazzu had quite the defensive battle taking place before everything went haywire in the 4th and overtime. Sixty-four of the game’s 91 points were scored in the 4th or OT turning a mundane 17-10 game into a more traditional #Pac12AfterDark shootout!
One resounding win by a group of 5 doormat doesn’t mean everything is A-OK in Austin. However, the dual-threat freshman Sam Ehlinger played well in his collegiate debut going 15-27 for 222 yards while contributing 48 more yards on the ground. While Herman won’t commit to Ehlinger as his starter of the future, he’s a much better fit than incumbent Shane Buechelle for the kind of offense they would like to run in Austin.
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NFL
It was a little of column A and some of column B at Reliant Stadium this past weekend. Jacksonville supplied the most surprising result of the week absolutely thrashing the Texans as 6-point underdogs at BetOnline.AG behind the strength of 10 sacks. I’ll reserve judgment on the Jags taking the next step given Bortles still only threw for 121 yards, but I will say there’s definitely a problem in Houston. The absence of Duane Brown on the left side of the line was apparent and combined with mounting injuries the Texans could be in for a very rough start to the season. I won’t lie, going to Watson after only 30 minutes felt like a move of desperation for Coach O’Brien.
Arizona will quickly become one of the league’s best under teams against appropriate opponents. The defense still has plenty of punch behind a core responsible for a deep playoff run two years ago however, without David Johnson the offense offers minimal punch. Unfortunately, Carson Palmer is closer to the retirement home right now than he is to leading this team to a Superbowl appearance.
Cam Newton’s game is going to be a work n progress while he recovers from the shoulder injury. Albeit a comfortable victory, Newton missed plenty of easy throws he has to make against average competition. Thankfully, the playmaking-ability of Christian McCaffery will make life easier for the big fella, but until zip and accuracy return to his ball laying points with the Panthers could become a dangerous proposition. I get wanting to protect the franchise investment, but it’s clear Cam needed more than TWO pass attempts in the preseason.
The Giants offensive line stinks; it won’t look better with OBJ unless he can play tackle. Until New York solves their pass protection issues this team remains one with an elite defense and below average offensive capabilities. You have to hop in your time machine and go back to Week 12 of last season to uncover the Giants scoring 20 or more points in a game. Guess what? That’s not good! Seattle will solve their o-line concerns, but I’m less confident the Giants can do the same.
Carson Wentz isn’t a franchise quarterback yet, however, he’s going to get there soon (I think). Some of the plays the sophomore signal-caller made in the Eagles win at Washington were incredible; avoiding pressure while keeping his eyes down field rather than just taking off for the sticks. His decision-making will improve with maturity, but the raw skills I questioned plenty last year don’t appear to be the thing that holds him back. The Eagles were our Best Bet on last weeks podcast, will we go back to the well with Philly in Week 2? Listen and find out!
