Wee 2 Musings, Weeknight edition

Well, it certainly was a nice week last week. Hopefully, everyone took a look at the Week 1 musings, printed them out, got on a plane for vegas, took out the max your ATM card can handle and proceeded to bring the thunder to the sportsbook of your choice. 11-1 on the numbered musings, 4-2 on the others receiving votes, though I ended up playing Georgia after all, since Matchbook was begging me to do it, giving out -6 1/2 at +111. Actually, the only loser was Utah, and their starting QB and starting RB had to get hurt in the 1st quarter in order for that one to lose. It was 7-0 when the injuries happened. (More on that later)

The full gamut will come later on, probably Friday, but I wanted to get out the games for tomorrow and Friday. There's three games total on those days, and wouldn't you know it, I have thoughts on all 3.

Thursday

1. @Louisville -39 v Middle Tennessee St:I the past 3 years, while at home, Louisville has broken 50 9 times. As a matter of fact, they've scored more than 60 6 times. They've done this against the likes of Rutgers, North Carolina, Cincinnati, Oregon St and TCU. Now they face MTSU, who last week against Florida Atlantic was trailing 24-0 in the 4th quarter, at that point having only made 5 first downs. FLORIDA ATLANTIC! Now Howard's bunch at FAU might be improved from last year, but that program is still miles and miles away from being anything other than cannon fodder for any substantial programs in D-1. MTSU played cannon fodder to FAU last week. What are they this week, nuclear fallout? Anthrax in the water supply? Scud missile residue? Louisville absolutely names the score in this one, and when Louisville has been in this position in the past, they're throwing in a couple of elbow drops off the top rope for good measure in the 4th quarter, even after the opponent is having convulsions. The public is all over this one, but for good reason for once.

2. @Cincinnati +3 1/2 v Oregon St: As I mentioned above, Oregon St handled Utah last Thursday night 24-7. You'd think it was all good for the Beavs, handling a solid MWC team in the opener, but they got lucky. Utah completely collapsed after their offensive leaders went down(go figure) and Oregon St cruised. However, their QB by committee arrangement was awful, completing far less than 50% of it's passes. The ended up ok becuase they ran it well with Yvensen Bernard who piled up 150 on the ground. In their first road game, they will need to run it at least as well this week, since they can't bank on getting another crack at a collection of backups. Enter Cincy, a team on the upswing. Last year, Cincy only gave up 106 yards rushing per game, and that includes games with Ohio St, Va Tech, Louisville and the ultimate stat skewer West Virginia. At home, they gave up 2.4, 2.6, 1.4, 1.9, 3.2, 2.0 and 2.4 per carry. 6 of their front 7 returns, so their strength will be stopping the run. New coach Brian Kelly has implemented a spread offense that worked like a charm last year at CMU, even with a true freshman at QB. They piled up 661 yards in their opener. Granted, it was against SE Mo St, but 600+ is 600+. I think if Cincy stops the run and makes Canfield and the other guy beat them, they have a great shot of winning this game as long as they don;t give up any ST TDs.

3. @Rutgers -15 1/2 V Navy: Bad spot for the Middies. When I first saw this line, I immediately thought about taking Navy, since it's always a smart move to gobble up DD points on a team that runs it at a good clip. However, Navy is very weak on the lines, and is not athletic in the secondary on D. Rutgers is really turning the corner offensively. We all know about Ray Rice and his ability to bludgeon people, but Teel and the passing game have made great strides. They have playmakers, especially Underwoodat receiver, and their D is stout. In last year's game in Anapolis, Navy's QB got hurt, so one might think that the game was an aberration, but it wasn't. Rutgers held Navy to 2.3 ypc, the only time all year that they didn't top 4ypc. Navy's D is weaker this year, and Rutgers offense is better. The game is in Piscataway instead of Anapolis. Rutgers drilled them 34-0 last year. Expect a similar result Friday night.

That's it for now, I' should have the remainder of the week at some point on Friday,