Mike Rose - Who2beton

The second week of the CFB season was one I’d much rather forget. We didn’t get killed unit wise (3-5 ATS overall losing 3.60 Units), but the couple of gut-wrenching defeats we suffered prevented me from getting a peaceful night sleep.

We’ll start with the Thursday night game with Oregon State invading Boise to take on the Broncos on the “Smurf Turf”. We backed the Beavers in this one, and came out strong out of the gates. The Beavers converted a successful fake punt on their end of the field, and parlayed it into a 7-0 lead after the Beavers ran the ball right down the Broncos throats. We then got a stop defensively, and returned the punt for a TD to gain a 14-0 lead. I was gitty at this point and felt relatively comfortable. That was until I saw Boise RB Ian Johnson out run a pair of OSU defenders all the way into the endzone to cut my lead down to seven. A RB in the WAC had the speed to outrun a pair of Beaver cover men? You’ve got to be kidding me!!! Well, that run was just the precursor of what was about to come as Ian Johnson had a night he’ll never forget rushing for 240 yards and five TDs en route to the 42-14 shellacking of the Beavers. That’s right folks; we went from having a 14-0 lead in this one to losing ATS by 20 points. Head Coach Mike Riley and his staff should be ashamed of themselves for not being able to make any adjustments, and the Beavers are in for a long year if they’re really that dreadful in stopping the run. Boise looked tremendous defensively as well after getting pummeled on the ground in the Beavers initial drive. HC Chris Peterson and the Broncos shouldn’t skip a beat in ’06. I wish I would have known that earlier, and I will no longer look back anyone else on the blue turf other than Boise in the future.

Saturday started off great. Missouri pounded Mississippi into a bloody pulp as I expected, and it was a relatively easy game to watch. Except for the muffed punt that led directly to the Rebels only score right before the first half ended. I thought momentum had gone over to the Rebs side coming into the 2nd half, but QB Chase Daniel and the Tigers offense were just too much for the Rebels young defense to contend with. They rolled by a 34-7 count gaining 471 yards of combined offense, and the Tigers defense dominated limiting QB Schaeffer and the Rebels offense to a paltry 162 total yards.

Our 5* Best Bet was on Kent State plus the points over Army and we played them on the $$$-line as well. I really thought the Flashes were undervalued in this one after everyone saw them get smoked by Minnesota in their first game of the season. This contest began wonderfully as well. The Flashes took a 7-0 lead on a fake FG attempt as holder Darren Rogers grabbed the long snap and ran left, untouched into the end zone for a 17-yard score. The rest of the first half was troublesome though as Army scored a pair of TDs behind frosh RB Moore, and held a 14-7 lead at the half. Kent made some tremendous 2nd half adjustments, and looked to be a completely different team on the defensive side of the ball. They stuffed Army’s ground game, and managed to tie the game and send it into OT. However, QB Edelman fumbled the pigskin on the Golden Flashes’ second play of overtime. Army ran a couple plays, and set up for what would be the game winning FG. We had a number of chances to cash our $$$-Line ticket in this one, but we’re more than happy in keeping our 5* Best Bet streak intact at 3-0 ATS on the year.

We then dropped a pair of 2* selections on Idaho (+) and South Carolina (+). Wazzou was a PO’d group of Cougars after getting dismantled by Auburn the week before, and took their frustrations out on a Idaho squad that grossly overachieved in their first game vs. Michigan State. South Carolina’s performance was dreadful. It was the first time a Steve Spurrier coached team got shutout since 1987 when he was the head coach at Duke. The Cocks offensive struggles at Mississippi State weren’t just first game jitters. This offense lacks the ground game necessary to compete in the rugged SEC, and QB Blake Mitchell is NOT the QB the ‘ol ball coach needs to get his offense up and running. Georgia however looked fantastic. Even with the back-up QB, and their defense really opened my eyes.

Our evening slate saw us on Arizona State (-) and the ‘Under’ in the Fresno/Oregon game. ASU simply cut apart the Wolfpack’s defense with its air assault as QB Rudy Carpenter threw for 333 yards and 5 TDs en route to the 52-21 home win and cover. Their defense also gained some much needed confidence when they returned an interception for a TD for the second week in a row.

The Oregon/Fresno game was by far one of the best games of the weekend. That being said, I’m still livid about losing my position on the ‘Under’. To make a long story short, there were two plays that just killed our position and the hopes of the Bulldogs in pulling off the upset. "Two field goal attempts turn into 14 points. That’s obviously the difference in the ballgame," Fresno State coach Pat Hill said. Oregon lined up for a 36-yard FG attempt late in the 3rd and got it blocked. However, the idiotic Bulldogs inexplicably thought they had to recover it to gain and the pigskin was ultimately recovered by Oregon. Their next play from scrimmage was a TD run. Then, with 4:55 left to go and the Ducks lined up to kick the apparent go ahead FG, HC Bellotti thought it necessary to use trickery and it paid off. The Ducks ran a fake FG, optioned their way into the endzone for the go-ahead score, and pushed the total ‘Over’ the posted number by a single freaking point. It was a brutal way to end what looked to be a profitable day. We ended up 3-4 ATS overall and dropped .30 cents.