Big E Stumbles Out of the Gate
Well, thank God nobody reads this thing, otherwise they’d see that I’m 2-4 in football picks to start the season. For some reason, everything is in a foreign language to the Big E right now. Press 1 for winning football picks. Well, we try again this week:
MICHIGAN +2.5 over penn state
One of the main reasons we stink, is because we keep picking the Michigan games wrong. So why are we doing it again? Why ask why? Penn State simply can’t beat Michigan. It doesn’t matter if Penn State is good or bad. Something always carries Michigan to the win. It has happened nine straight times. Nine! We observed a respected handicapper picking Penn State in this game, stating that they are the better team. That may be true (we’re not sure), but it doesn’t matter if they’re better. We’ve since some pretty good Penn State teams lose on bad bounces and suspicious referee calls. We figure we can’t lose here, Michigan wins, we can put one in the win column, Penn State wins, well, we hate Michigan, and like Penn State. You say JoePa I say Terno!
air force +11.5 over BYU
This one is jumping off the page at us. Air Force is 2-0, having beaten pretty good Utah and TCU teams. BYU, on the other hand, is 1-2, having lost to UCLA and Tulsa. Stay with us here: UCLA lost last week to Utah 44-6. Air Force beat Utah. BYU lost to UCLA. Therefore, Air Force should beat BYU 100-0. Well, we’ll settle for losing by less than 11.5 points. That’s a lot of points, and Air Force must have something going for it, to be 2-0 against two solid teams. This might be a trick, but we’ll take the points.
CHICAGO -3 dallas
Just a feeling on this game. Dallas has feasted on sub-par competition so far this year, and we think they are going to be in for a rude step up in class here. Dallas’ defense has been poor, which may encourage Good Rex Grossman to show up for the Bears. We expect a ramped up Bears defense to hammer Tony Romo into some turnovers, and it’ll be one rowdy crowd on Sunday night in Chicago. Big E will be in attendance, and we rarely lose games where Big E makes a personal appearance. Bears 27, Cowboys 14.
Time to get it rolling!
Football Newsletter Week 2
Well, it was a slow start in Week 1, as we got off to a boring 1-2 start. None of these are BEST BET games, but still, you’d rather be right than wrong. On the Michigan game, we could not have been more wrong. As soon as the Big E watched 5 minutes of the game, he knew he had the wrong side. Michigan has absolutely no speed, and instead of running the ball, pounding the Ducks, and controlling the clock, they were throwing the ball every down. Recipe for disaster, cooked by the master disaster-chef himself, Lloyd Carr. Anyway, this week we offer you 3 college games. We looked and looked at the pro’s but nothing really jumps off the page at us. So…….
WASHINGTON +4 over ohio state
The Big Ten does not play well on the West Coast. For that matter, they do not play well against teams of superior conferences like the SEC or Pac-10. Washington has been on the bottom of the Pac-10 in recent years, but reeled off a nice win last week against a good Boise State team, showing they are probably ready to return to a bowl game. Ohio State meanwhile is struggling against its hand-picked pasties, like Akron. Ohio State has not settled on a quarterback to replace Troy Smith, so we should struggle all day to move the ball. That’s right, it’s “we” when we’re talking about the Buckeyes, we’re goin’ down on Saturday.
notre dame +8 over MICHIGAN
We’re going to right the ship this week from that stupid Michigan pick last week. What is Michigan, who will be playing without starting QB Chad Henne, doing as an eight point favorite over anybody not named Illinois or Indiana?? We watched some of that backup QB against Oregon, he was h-o-r-r-i-b-l-e. We also watched the Irish against Penn State. They struggled all night to get anything going, but Penn State has a helluva defense. Freshman QB Claussen will find the going much easier against slow, slow Michigan. The road team in this series has dominated, and expect that to continue. Charlie Weis does not start 2007 0-3, Lloyd Carr does.
southern cal -9.5 NEBRASKA
Well, if we’re going to pick non-BEST BET games, we might as well pick the ones on TV, so you might actually see it. Saturday night, there’s going to be a party going on in Lincoln, NE as ABC Saturday night football rolls into town. It’ll be a happening, 80,000 fans screaming, drinking, partying…. And then the game will start, and USC will take the fun out. Crunch. From what we’ve heard, this is one of the best USC teams ever, and they’ll prove it on national TV. USC generally shines out of conference, and we expect them to dominate here.
For those of you who prefer the NFL to NCAA… tough! At least for this week. Just wait, the NFL picture will become clearer in a week or two. Onwards and upwards!
Big E, aka Eric Arnold
Football Newsletter Week 1
Opening Weekend
WHOOOOOOOOOOEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s football season!!! The season has just started and already we’ve got fireworks. In the colleges, football history was made last week when #5 Michigan was defeated at home by Division 1-AA Appalachian State. Kudos to Appy State, although this is not the mega-upset the pinhead-media is making it out to be. Appy State is the two-time defending champion of Division 1-AA. While these schools are very much smaller than the major schools like Michigan, they do have athletes, and they also have speed, something Michigan sorely lacks. Many forget in the late 1990’s, Marshall was a Division 1-AA school. That was a Marshall team with Chad Pennington and Randy Moss. The year they went into 1-A, they went to Motor City Bowl in Detroit, so it’s not like these top of the line Division 1-AA schools are complete stumblebums.
Now, that being said, what the hell is up, Michigan? Yes, it makes this Ohio State alum joyful to see those perennially overrated bums fall on their faces, but this is getting boring. Plus its hurting the conference. Ohio State will not be able to beat the USC’s, Florida’s, and LSU’s of the world, if the level of competition in the Big Ten doesn’t improve. Michigan keeping Lloyd Carr on as coach is a joke. What is it now, five losses to Ohio State? When was the last bowl game he won? I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I hate stupidity. Take it from me, Michigan: Dump this guy. Everyone told us that we’d be crazy to get rid of bonehead John Cooper (career record vs. Michigan 2-10-1). Then we finally did it, and now we have Jim Tressel (career record vs. Michigan 5-1, one National Championship). Dump him, we’ll all be better off.
But now let’s make some predictions! In football season, I am no longer trucking safety consultant extraordinaire Eric Arnold. I am The Big E! And the Big E is a premier handicapper. For entertainment purposes only, at this stage of his career, however. It occurred to me about seven years ago I could make more money in stock market than I could with my bookie Guido.
Nevertheless, let’s get it started. We offer two types of selections. One is the run-of-the-mill pick, which usually just something to take up space and pass the time. We have middling confidence in these picks. The second is the BESTBET!!!! These are the ones in which we have complete confidence, and would bet boatloads of money, if we still did that sort of thing. (At one point, at the urging of Joe Salamy, we called them BIG E BETS, but we were losing at an alarming rate under that name, so we quickly switched it back).
MICHIGAN –8 over Oregon
Losing last week was embarrassing, but Michigan is still a very powerful team. If idiot Lloyd Carr goes to what the Wolverines do best, which is run Mike Hart, they should easily beat Oregon. A red-faced Michigan starts the long road back on Saturday.
HOUSTON –3 over kansas city
The Big E is bullish on Matt Schaub as quarterback, and we think Houston will be a hidden jewel this year against the number. He will be a dramatic improvement over David Carr, who is headed on the Tim Couch Train out of the league. KC, on the other hand, has no solution at quarterback, with two journeymen manning the position. Larry Johnson will be the only hope KC has, and that won’t be enough. Houston cruises.
ST LOUIS –1 over carolina
The Big E saw Carolina play in the preseason, and they were L-O-U-S-Y. We think that St. Louis is poised for a big year, with a premier quarterback and running back leading the way. We’re not sure that Carolina has a premier anything. Only laying one point at home, that looks like a gift. Take it, and bet it.
There are no BESTBETs this week.
You may fire when ready, Gridley!
Are You Ready for Some Football???
God knows I am. I have watched enough Little League baseball, WNBA (ok, I don’t really watch that, but if I see it when I’m flipping through the channels…. that’s still too much), drag racing, golf, tennis and reality cooking shows to last me…. until next summer. But now it is TIME! Break out the football!!!! For those of you who don’t know, I am a premier football handicapper, although these days it’s done on a strictly recreational basis. Without further ado, I bring you my fearless 2007 NFL predictions. Note: in last year’s preseason 2006 edition, I correctly predicted the Colts would break their playoff jinx, and bring home the bacon.
AFC East AFC North AFC South AFC West
New England 12-4 Baltimore 11-5 Indianapolis 12-4 San Diego 11-5
New York Jets 9-7 Pittsburgh 10-6 Jacksonville 9-7 Denver 11-5
Miami 8-8 Cincinnati 9-7 Houston 7-9 Kansas City 6-10
Buffalo 5-11 Cleveland 6-10 Tennessee 6-10 Oakland 6-10
New England appears to be the class of the AFC (and the league for that matter), at least to hear the talking heads tell it. About a month ago, I was ready to go with Indianpolis, mostly on the Ric Flair basis (To Be The Man, You Have to Beat The Man). However, the Colts had their All-Pro left tackle Tarik Glenn unexpectedly retire, plus they lost one of their starting defensive tackles for the year as well. I believe these losses do, in fact, put New England in the driver’s seat. San Diego will take a significant step backwards. Norv Turner?? Coach Norv Turner??? Oh, my, why don’t you ask some of my Redskins friends what they think of Norv Turner. I know we used to love the guy in Philadelphia, because we knew we never had to worry about the Skins. Baltimore will also be in the hunt. Nevertheless, I pick New England to be in Glendale in February.
NFC East NFC North NFC South NFC West
Philadelphia 11-5 Minnesota 10-6 New Orleans 11-5 Seattle 11-5
Dallas 9-7 Chicago 9-7 Tampa Bay 8-8 St. Louis 10-6
Washington 6-10 Green Bay 8-8 Carolina 8-8 San Fran 8-8
New York 3-13 Detroit 5-11 Atlanta 5-11 Arizona 6-10
For those of you who don’t know, I’m from the Philadelphia area, and I bleed Eagles green. As much as I want to pick them this year, after having watched them closely in the preseason, the defense will not be good enough. Again. So, who’s left? I think New Orleans will come back to the pack a little, generally after a magic season, things tend to bounce the wrong way. Chicago will fall hard… you can’t win consistently in the NFL when your quarterback can’t hang onto the ball. I will take Seattle. They were close last year, losing in OT in Chicago, and that was a year where everything went wrong for them. I except them to rebound and beat the Eagles in the championship game. Who’s the champion? Call it: Seattle 24, New England 17. You heard it hear first!
King James takes on Tim Duncan and the Spurs!
I know, most of you hate NBA basketball, because there’s too many fouls, not enough scoring, nobody can shoot, etc., etc., etc. For the most part I agree, but this is the first Finals I’ve been interested in since the glorious run of the 76′ers in the summer of 2001. If you didn’t see Game 5 of the Cavs-Pistons series, then you missed one of the greatest games in NBA history. Double-OT, LeBron James scores 48, including 29 of the Cavs’ last 30 points, Cavs win. Last time I saw a game like that was probably Game 1 of the Sixers-Lakers series in 2001, when Iverson dominated in overtime, leading the Sixers to victory. Of course, they lost the next 4 straight, but that’s another story. The Cavs are a 5-1 underdog in the Finals, which is ridiculous. This will be a closer series than people think. Cleveland won both meetings between the two teams in the regular season. I’m backing the Cavs all the way. Will they get it done? Probably not, after all, they’re from Cleveland! Spurs in 6.
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Do it for the team.
