This week has games that nearly nobody thought would be good games, but now, going strictly on records in both the college and professional games, they should be good games. Perhaps the premier game of the week in the NFL is San Francisco at Detroit, which to most is completely shocking. Then, in college, there are four clashes between ranked foes, and all of them are conference games, which is great, to see some rivalry games and also to further separate the national title contenders from the non-contenders. Now, on to the games.
College
# 11 Michigan at #23 Michigan State, noon, ESPN
Michigan State is looking to beat their in-state rivals for the fourth consecutive year, and Michigan is looking to continue its march towards the Big Ten title game in Indianapolis, which is looking very sharp currently. However, Michigan was 5-0 last season and then just crumbled down the stretch, which helped to get Brady Hoke into Ann Arbor. Michigan will rely on its Heisman contender, and do it all quarterback Denard Robinson who averages over 400 yards a game combined rushing and passing.
Michigan State should be able to control Robinson, as they have the past two seasons, holding Robinson to under 300 yards. Although in 2009, Robinson was only in part-time. Michigan State also is very capable of holding their opponents down as far as points are concerned, only holding them to 10.6 points per game during the season. Michigan State also has a pretty good quarterback of its own in Kirk Cousins, who is in a much different mold than Robisnon, as he is more of a pocket passer. Cousins ranks in the top third in all of college football in passing yards as well. This game is also at East Lansing, so give the advantage to Sparty.
Pick: Michigan State 27, Michigan 17
#6 Oklahoma State at #22 Texas, 3:30 p.m., ABC
Oklahoma State was off last week to get ready for the Longhorns who really fell flat on their faces last week in their trouncing by Oklahoma. State should easily be able to match the 55 points that their rivals put up last week, due to their explosive offense, which averages just over 50 points a game. Texas proved last week that they're not ready for the big boys just yet, so even with this game being at home, don't expect the Longhorns to put up all that much of a fight.
Pick: Oklahoma State 58, Texas 24
#18 Arizona State at #9 Oregon, 10:15 p.m., ESPN
Oregon is without their star running back LaMichael James for this game, as he is out with a dislocated elbow, much like the one Rajon Rondo suffered during this past year's NBA playoffs. James has gone off in the past three games, rushing for over 200 yards in each of them. So, to make up for James' loss, the Ducks will now run out De'Anthony Thomas, who is a true freshman and only has about 200 yards rushing on the season. Thomas has had a few problems with ball security, but has learned to rectify those problems during the course of the season.
Arizona State deploys a much different offense than the Ducks, as they are much more of a pro style offense with Brock Osweiler at quarterback, who is probably the second best quarterback in the Pac-12, behind Andrew Luck of course. Osweiler has close to a 2-1 touchdown to interception ratio on the season, and nearly 1300 yards passing. The Sun Devils are a very good team, and their only loss this season came on a road trip to Illinois and a 11 a.m. central start. Well, after this game, Arizona State will have two losses, as this game has Gameday in Eugene along with a rare night game for the Ducks, so this will be an even tougher environment to play in.
Pick: Oregon 38, Arizona State 30
#20 Baylor at #21 Texas A&M, noon, FX
This game has the "Law of Gus" written all over it. Now, for those unfamiliar with that term, it means that nearly every game Gus Johnson, the play-by-play man for FX's coverage of college football has covered in the pros, each game has been close, and Gus Johnson is notorious for some of the most enthusiastic calls you would ever hear. Now, for the game itself. This game could definitely be a shootout, as Robert Griffin III of Baylor continues to dominate the season with both his legs and arm. Griffin has only one interception on the year, and 19 touchdowns. Griffin also has averaged a little bit over 50 yards on the ground per game. Baylor is the only team in the nation in which to have averaged over 300 yards passing and 200 yards rushing per game.
Texas A&M meanwhile is 3-2 and still ranked somehow because they played two top 10 opponents in Oklahoma State and Arkansas in back to back weeks, and lost both due to some epic failure in the second half of each of those games. A&M barely hung on last week against Texas Tech and their potent offense. The Aggies got outscored 27-9 in their loss at home to OSU and then the very next week got outscored 25-3 in their loss at a neutral site to old/new rival Arkansas. The reason for the old/new designation is because both schools were once in the now defunct Southwest Conference and now Texas A&M will be joining Arkansas in the SEC. But, this game has shootout written all over it. And, I'm going with the hopeful Heisman contender in Griffin and the Bears.
Pick: Baylor 58, Texas A&M 55
#19 Virginia Tech at Wake Forest, 6:30 p.m., ESPN3.com
This game has upset written all over it. Wake Forest, while unranked, has won four straight since their heartbreaking overtime loss in Syracuse. Wake is playing some of its best football since they won the ACC back in 2006 right now due to the great coaching of Jim Grobe and his assistants. Wake doesn't really have any "star" power, but they are just a solid team, much like Kansas State, which is also flying under the radar. Wake Forest will look to deploy the same strategy which Clemson deployed in their win over Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. Clemson stopped the Hokie running attack, only allowing 3.3 yards per rush in their win over Tech, and Wake has an even stronger rush defense, only allowing 102 yards per game. Tech had a big passing game last week against a fairly weak Miami team, so I don't expect that to continue this week against a formidable Wake team.
Pick: Wake 24, Tech 16
NFL
San Francisco at Detroit, 1, FOX
This game should be amazing. Both teams are a combined 9-1 after going a combined 1-9 through five weeks last season. That should tell you what kind of turnaround both of these teams are having. San Francisco just completely mauled the Tampa Bay Bucs last week, winning 48-3. Detroit meanwhile continues just to win, winning last week 21-10 in their first home Monday Night Football appearance since 2001. Matthew Stafford is continuing to mature and is not getting killed this year behind an improved offensive line. Detroit also has a pretty good running game in Jahvid Best, who in his second season is getting some more carries and averaging just a shade under 5 yards per rush. Detroit then has one of the best defensive lines in football, which will just wreak havoc upon the opponents offensive line.
San Francisco hasn't been too flashy, just playing solid defense, running the ball well with perennial pro bowler Frank Gore and rookie Kendall Hunter, then giving Alex Smith nice short passes and then letting his receivers do the rest of the work. San Francisco lost one of its better receivers in Josh Morgan due to a torn ACL last week, so that will hurt a bit.
This game will be very close, but since San Francisco is making its third trip out east in the first five weeks of the season, they will be tired and without Morgan, give the edge to Detroit to continue its undefeated season.
Pick: Detroit 27, San Francisco 23
Buffalo at New York Giants, 1, CBS
This game is also a good one, as the Giants want to come back with a vengeance after their embarrassing loss to Seattle last week. New York has some very good pieces in their one-two punch of a running game in Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw, which will deplete a defense's energy throughout the game and then two good young receivers in Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks, and then a pretty good all around defense, but they just haven't been able to put all of that together throughout all five games thus far, they've been up and down.
Buffalo is much like Wake Forest, not many "name" people, they just go out and win. Their latest example was last week against Philadelphia where they forced five turnovers against the Eagles. Buffalo then just runs the ball with Fred Jackson and throw it up to their best receiver in Steve Johnson. Buffalo's defense then just gets the job done.
Pick: Buffalo 28, New York Giants 20
Houston at Baltimore, 4:05, CBS
Baltimore has had one slip up in their season thus far, a somewhat surprising 26-13 at Tennessee after their big win against Pittsburgh the week before. Now, Baltimore is coming off their bye week, so they are very fresh and should be able to do very well against a fairly mediocre Houston team. Houston is coming off an emotional loss to Oakland at home, and now will have to travel to Baltimore to face this rested and great defense. Baltimore should win based on the strength of that defense.
Pick: Baltimore 31, Houston 14
Dallas at New England, 4:15, FOX
Dallas has a big advantage in this game through their defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, who was the defensive coordinator of the Browns last year. Cleveland beat New England last season in Cleveland by just bringing a whole bunch of folks on each play and just confusing Tom Brady and the New England offensive line. New England should learn from last season's mistake and make the necessary changes. New England just continues to roll after their loss against Buffalo in week 3. Although New England doesn't have the best defense now, they should still have enough to disrupt Tony Romo and turn him from "good" Tony to "bad" Tony in the second half, which Romo has done thus far this season.
Pick: New England 38, Dallas 21
New Orleans at Tampa Bay, 4:15, FOX
Tampa Bay is looking to rebound from their awful loss out west last week and try to prove themselves against the undisputed leaders of the NFC South in New Orleans. Tampa Bay will continue to try their method of running the ball with Earnest Graham and LeGarrette Blount and then try and have Josh Freeman lead them on a comeback in the fourth quarter. New Orleans will continue their method of winning. Out-throw you with Drew Brees and all of his different receivers who are great, while sprinkling in a power running game with Mark Ingram. Both teams should have big offensive days, as neither defense is all that strong.
Pick: New Orleans 35, Tampa Bay 34
Enjoy the weekend of football, and expect an NHL preview sometime over the weekend. Yes, I know the season is a week old, but hockey seems to sneak up on you.
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