Philadelphia suffered a huge blow last week when Michael Vick left with a rib injury. His loss is much bigger than most people realize, and his absence alone is enough to trigger a play against the Eagles tonight in San Francisco. What Vick was doing on the field this season was tremendous and he had Philadelphia

The Buffalo Bills come into this game at 0-4 SU, but they

This is an extremely tough scheduling spot for Denver as the Broncos will be playing their second consecutive game on the road. Last week they played at Tennessee, and now they have to travel further East to take on the Baltimore Ravens. That

Both teams come into this game off disappointing losses last week. USC suffered a one point home loss (32-31) to Washington while Stanford blew a 21-3 lead at Oregon and lost by 21 points (52-31). Since that was the first loss by each team this season, we do expect some hangover here from the Trojans and the Cardinal. But we think it

Coaching is a major factor when handicapping college football and you would be hard-pressed to find a better overall coaching staff in the country than what head coach Brady Hoke has assembled at San Diego State. The Aztecs may have the best pair of coordinators in college football with Al Borges calling the offense and Rocky Long running the defense. Hoke, Borges, and Long are no strangers as they were all part of the UCLA staff back in 1997. Borges was fantastic while at Auburn where his team led the SEC in scoring in back-to-back years. Long was the head coach at New Mexico for 11 seasons and his defenses were always rock solid.

The Aztecs come into this game at 3-1 straight-up and a perfect 3-0 against the spread against their FBS opponent. They should be undefeated as their only loss came at Missouri after they blew a 24-20 lead with just over 1:40 left to play. There

After stumbling out of the gate, Connecticut has finally hit their best stride over the last couple of games. The Huskies began the season at just 1-2 after losing both of their road games (at Michigan and at Temple) and getting a win over Texas Southern. But they

These are the two best teams in the Sun Belt, and the winner of tonight

Chicago is off to one of their best starts in recent years; the Bears are 3-0 coming into tonight

Arizona was extremely fortunate to beat the Raiders last week. The Cardinals won 24-23, but they were thoroughly out-played in that game as they were out-yarded by 137 yards (364-227). Oakland just couldn

The Houston Texans are a play-on team this season as their offense is explosive with quarterback Matt Schaub and wide receiver Andre Johnson. And now that they

Cincinnati is 2-1 coming into today

Louisiana Tech is really struggling under first year head coach Sonny Dykes. The Bulldogs are now running Dykes

This game may be the biggest game in the Pac-10 all season as 4-0 Stanford travels to Autzen to take on 4-0 Oregon. Both teams have been ultra impressive this year as all eight wins have come by double digits so neither has yet to be in a close game. However, since we feel these two teams are just about equal across the board, we expect a close game throughout. There is not a touchdown difference between these teams so the fact that this pointspread is this high means we see some tremendous value on the Cardinal in this game.

Head coach Jim Harbaugh has done a phenomenal job at Stanford. He took over the Cardinal back in 2007 after they went a dreadful 1-11 in 2006. Over the last 3 years, Harbaugh has led Stanford to 21 wins including last year

Both teams come into today

NC State is off to their best start (4-0) in eight years. And their fast start has not been a surprise to us because we pegged the Wolfpack as a play-on team this season. Here

Green Bay has played two impressive games so far; they won at Philadelphia 27-20 and then crushed Buffalo last week 34-7. But they

Oakland played a fantastic game last week against the Rams. The scoreboard only showed a 16-14 win, but the Raiders were much more dominant than that final score would indicate. Oakland won yardage 404-210 with 173 of those yards coming on the ground. The Raiders also converted on 41% of their third downs which also indicates that their offense played well. Oakland deserved to win that game by more than a meager 2 points, and because of their narrow win, this pointspread isn

San Francisco comes into today

These two teams come into tonight

LSU is 3-0, but the Tigers have not been impressive at all. In their season opener, they caught a decimated North Carolina team and just hung on to win that game 30-24. Two weeks ago, LSU beat Vanderbilt 27-3. But that was a misleading final score as LSU

On the surface, this pointspread looks way too high. However, when you dig through the box scores of Oregon St, it

Alabama appears as if they picked-up right where they left off last season. The Crimson Tide is a perfect 3-0 SU/ATS winning by a combined score of 134-19. And despite being a favorite of more than two touchdowns in all three games, they

NC State is off to their best start (3-0) in eight years. And their fast start has not been a surprise to us because we pegged the Wolfpack as a play-on team this season. Here

TCU is a team on a major mission in 2010. The Horned Frogs were so disappointed after their bowl game loss to Boise St last season (it cost them an undefeated 13-0 season) that this team is hell-bent on winning every game they can by as many points as they can. Head coach Gary Patterson has made no secrets as to his team

New Orleans opened their season with a win over the Minnesota Vikings last Thursday night. That was a big game for the Saints as they wanted to prove that winning the Super Bowl last season was no fluke. But their 14-9 win over the Vikings doesn

The Giants cruised to an easy win last week over the Panthers; they won that game 31-18 despite turning the ball over four times. New York won the first down battle 21-14 and they also out-yarded Carolina 376-237. So if it wasn

We played against Dallas last week, and we

This is the return game of a home and away series between Iowa and Arizona. Last year, Arizona had to make the long cross-country flight and play Iowa in an early kickoff game in just the third week of the season. Now it

Both teams come into tonight

This is the one game Mississippi St has had circled all summer. And the fact that this game comes early in the season makes it more of a powerful motivator for the Bulldogs. Last year, Mississippi St went toe-to-toe with LSU and they got stopped on 4th down at the goal line on the final play of the game and lost 30-26. Mississippi St thoroughly out-played LSU in that game; they won first downs 21-12 and they had 374 yards of total offense including a 151 rushing yards to LSU

Recent results have now created line value with Virginia Tech as the Hokies are an underrated team at 0-2 SU, while East Carolina is an overrated team at 2-0 SU. The Hokies need a solid performance this week after a last minute loss versus Boise State and then an embarrassing outright loss versus I-AA James Madison last week.

The Hokies played a terrific game against Boise State, but they came up a bit short at the end of the game. There was no shame in losing that game on a neutral field despite it being a pro-Hokies crowd in Maryland. Their loss to James Madison was bad, but in reality, Virginia Tech was in a terrible scheduling situation for that game. Off the last minute loss to the Broncos, they had to wheel back in five days to play an opponent to which they gave zero respect. The writing was on the wall for the Hokies to slumber through that game, and obviously they did that and lost.

Virginia Tech actually played better than the 21-16 final indicated as they won yardage 362-235 but a 3-0 turnover deficit did them in. At the half, Tech had a 15-1 first down edge, but only led 13-7 after a turnover, a stop on fourth and short, and settling for two short field goals turned domination into a close football game after a James Madison screen pass went 77 yards for a touchdown on third and 17. Virginia Tech was a few plays away from winning that game by more than 3 touchdowns, but instead they took the loss in a misleading final score.

Things should get on track this week as we expect Virginia Tech to come out and absolutely crush East Carolina from start to finish. The Pirates come in at 2-0, but both of their wins were phony and also came at home. They beat Tulsa on a Hail Mary in their season opener, and then last week allowed a horrendous Memphis team to gain over 400 yards of offense on them. ECU cashed in three Memphis turnovers as they returned an interception for a TD and also had two TD

The Cubs have won two straight games and four of their last five games overall as they continue their series with the Cardinals on Wednesday night. St. Louis played without Albert Pujols on Tuesday and the lineup was pretty woeful in the loss. He is questionable for Wednesday's game as he continues to deal with various ailments. Carlos Zambrano makes the start for the Cubs. He's 5-0 with a 1.60 ERA and 39 K's in 45 innings pitched since returning to the rotation. Zambrano's only start against St. Louis this season was a 3-2 victory where he out-dueled Chris Carpenter. Zambrano gave up two runs and seven hits in 5.7 innings of work. Overall, he is 11-6 with a 3.53 ERA in 25 career starts against the Cardinals. Yadier Molina (7-34), Aaron Miles (8-31), Pedro Feliz (3-19), Matt Holliday (4-16), Brendan Ryan (1-10), Colby Rasmus (1-10), and Nick Stavinoha (0-1) struggle with the Cubs starter. The Cubs have won four of their five games in St. Louis this season. The Cardinals have lost six of their last eight games and they are just 34-34 in the division.

Chris Carpenter is coming off one of his worst starts of the season. The Cardinals' starter gave up eight runs and eight hits in five innings pitched to Atlanta. He's facing the Cubs for the 4th time this season. Carpenter is 1-1 with a 3.20 ERA against Chicago with their hitters hitting .293 against him. Aramis Ramirez (17-54), Alfonso Soriano (13-39), Marlon Byrd (7-19), Bobby Scales (2-5), and Micah Hoffpauir (2-3) all have good numbers against Carpenter. The Cubs are hitting right around .260 as a team this season. They have won two straight series and three of their last four series overall and they are in much better current form then the Cardinals right now. There

San Diego is once again loaded this season, and they certainly qualify as a legitimate Super Bowl contender. The Chargers have a terrific offensive attack led by quarterback Philip Rivers; they

The Washington Redskins are on the verge of a breakout season. They went just 4-12 in 2009 as they repeatedly found different ways to lose close games. Washington lost half of their games by 5 points or less, with five of those losses coming by 3 points or less.

The team has made some major changes in the off-season with the hiring of new head coach Mike Shanahan and the acquisition of QB Donavan McNabb. The coaching and quarterback spots have been weaknesses over the last couple of seasons, but they are much improved with two veterans in place that know how to win. McNabb had a solid 2009 season with a 92.9 QB rating and a 22/10 TD/INT ratio, his best since the 2006 season. The Redskins also drafted OT Trent Williams with the 3rd overall pick to protect McNabb

Arizona

The Miami Dolphins regressed a bit last season. The Dolphins went just 7-9 after losing their last 3 games of the year. However, four of their nine losses came by 7 points or less so Miami didn

The Houston Texans come into the 2010 season extremely high on our list. The Texans had a winning season in 2009 at 9-7, but they failed to make the Playoffs. However, since we expect improvement, we

USC beat Hawaii 49-36 last week, but despite their 49 points scored and their 13-point win, the Trojans defense looked horrendous. But there was actually a good reason for their poor showing. Head coach Lane Kiffin revealed that his team was too banged-up to run a full practice leading up to that game against Hawaii. The Trojans did not hit during the week, and that obviously played a role in their defense looking slow and lethargic against Hawaii.

This week things will be a lot different. USC will not face a spread passing team like they did in Hawaii. Virginia is more of a run-based offense this season under new head coach Mike London, and that will get USC

Both teams opened with blowout wins over Division II schools last week; NC State beat Western Carolina 48-7 while Central Florida beat South Dakota 38-7. Neither game tells us much about either team, but we like the prospects of NC State coming into 2010 and feel that they are going to be an underrated team this season. And that certainly looks to be the case here as they are an underdog against a CUSA team.

This will be Tom O

Oddsmakers normally make their biggest adjustments in the pointspreads and their power ratings betweens Games 1 & 2. This often creates an overreaction and that is definitely the case in this game as Oklahoma would probably have been a double-digit favorite in this game last week.

Florida State dominated a weak I-AA opponents, while Oklahoma struggled against a below average I-A opponent. However, the final score and game stats do not always tell the truth, and that certainly is the case when we dissect last week

Hawaii played a respectful game against USC last week in their 49-36 loss to the Trojans. They actually out-yarded USC 588-524 and also had more first downs (31-25) than the Trojans. But don

Both teams opened their seasons with easy wins over Division II schools last week; UTEP beat Arkansas Pine Bluff 31-10 while Houston throttled Texas St 68-28. Now we really can

This game will be played at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland so it is not a home game for Virginia Tech. This is the best match-up of Week 1 as these two teams are legitimate national title contenders. Boise St comes into this year off an unbeaten (14-0) season in 2009, and with 20 of their 22 starters returning from that team, expectations are extremely high for the Broncos. Virginia Tech had their typical 10-win season in 2009, but with just 12 starters returning, the Hokies have their skeptics. But for a program that just reloads talent year in and year out, there

This game will be played at MT&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore so it is not a home game for Navy. Despite being from the same state, you cannot call this a rivalry game because the last time these two teams played was back in 2005. Coming into 2010, expectations are low for Maryland and high for Navy, and because of that, this pointspread has been inflated a couple of points too high. When Navy plays big-name schools from BCS conferences, they are more often than not installed as underdogs. In fact, Navy has been an underdog in 13 consecutive games in this situation dating back to the 2007 season. So to see them laying this big of a price is very unusual, even though they are facing a Maryland team coming off a 2-10 campaign.

While not much is expected from the Terrapins this year, they may actually be a little better than most people realize. They are a young team, but they were much younger last year as they only had 9 starters back compared to 12 this year. And they actually played in some competitive games in 2009 as five of their ten losses came by 7 points or less. And for such a young team to be in that many close games is definitely a positive sign, and something they can build off of for this year. If Maryland just takes natural progression steps forward, there

These two teams appear to be heading in opposite directions for the 2010 season. Neither team should resemble what they looked liked a season ago as Tulsa should be much improved after going 5-7 in 2009 while East Carolina should regress off their 9-5 campaign last year. While the pointspread may look a tad high based on what these teams have accomplished in the past, the reality is that the oddsmakers set this game just right with the projection of each team this season rather than setting a number based on the team

Oklahoma is a mission team in 2010. The Sooners did not live up to their expectations last season after going just 8-5. But to be fair, the team was dealt a bad hand when Sam Bradford was knocked out for the season in their first game against BYU. Oklahoma was forced to play freshman quarterback Landry Jones the rest of the season, and while playing him instead of Bradford was correlated to Oklahoma

Washington made huge strides last season going 5-7 after an embarrassing 0-12 season in 2008. Steve Sarkisian and his coaching staff did a phenomenal job as the Huskies improved their offense by 13 points per game and defense by 12 points per game. With 18 starters back, Washington should improve even more, especially now that they

A lot of change happened at USC over the last nine months. Pete Carroll saw the writing on the wall and he took off to the NFL to coach the Seattle Seahawks. Lane Kiffin jumped at the chance to return to Los Angeles; Kiffin coached under Carroll for six years before he left for the NFL and then back to the colleges in Tennessee. So Kiffin is familiar with his surroundings and familiar with how USC has done things in the past. Despite the overhauled coaching staff, not much has changed in the way USC football runs. Kiffin learned under Carroll so he

Pittsburgh had their best season under head coach Dave Wannstedt in 2009 as the Panthers went 10-3 after capping off their season with a win in the Meineke Car Care Bowl. Last year

The final week of preseason football is similar to the final week of the NFL regular season. Teams go into these games with different agendas, and it

With this being each team

Arizona

Cincinnati was in a terrific scheduling spot for their game on Sunday against the Broncos. It was the Bengals second game of the preseason while it was Denver

Cincinnati will be playing their second preseason game of the season tonight. And since this will be Denver

This game has a ton of meaning for Cleveland, even though it is just their first preseason game of the year. The Browns were humiliated by the Packers twice last year, once in the preseason and also in the regular season. In last year's preseason opener, the Packers had 392 yards and held the Browns to 191 yards in a 17-0 win at Lambeau Field. Then in Week 7 of the regular season, the Packers out-gained the Browns 460-139 and embarrassed the home team in a 31-3 waxing. And the Cleveland players remember those two games well, and they are hell bent on playing a much better game tonight.

There

Houston has had one of the best offenses in baseball since the All-Star break. They broke out the bats last night defeating the Braves rookie Mike Minor. Houston has scored at least four runs in two straight games and in 11 of their last 12 games overall. They'll face Atlanta

The 2010 NFL preseason gets underway tonight with the annual Hall of Fame game in Canton, OH. The Bengals and Cowboys are taking a different approach to this game. Dallas used their trip to the Hall of Fame as an educational experience; they learned the history of the game after going on a couple of trips to the Hall of Fame. And they also spent time with former Cowboys star Emmitt Smith as he was inducted on Saturday night.

Dallas has not been focused on this game, even when they were still in training camp back in San Antonio. Head coach Wade Phillips and his staff mentioned Cincinnati for the first time at the end of their final practice. Phillips does not believe in setting game plans for exhibitions. He is more interested in watching how the club performs the fundamentals.

Boston was completely embarrassed in Game 6 on Tuesday night. The Celtics lost that game by 22 points (89-67), and they actually trailed by as many as 27 points. Boston was in a terrible situational spot after winning the previous two games; they knew the Lakers would fire their

Los Angeles played good enough to win Game 4, but they came up a bit short in the fourth quarter after taking a 62-60 lead over the first 36 minutes of play. The Lakers out-shot the Celtics 45.1% (32-71) to 44.6% (37-83) from the field and they also made 4 more three

Boston had little chance in Game 1 on Thursday night because of the way the game was officiated. The Celtics rely a ton on their defense to win games, but they were unable to play their style of defense because the refs were not allowing much physical play. In the first quarter alone, there were 18 personal fouls called, and the majority of those were on the Celtics away from the ball. Boston was unable to establish any type of defensive rhythm which really prevented them from playing their game. Because of the way the game was called, the Celtics allowed Los Angeles to score 102 points on 48.7% (37-76) shooting from the field and 40% (4-10) from three-point land.

Prior to allowing those 102 points to the Lakers, the Celtics had allowed more than 100 points in just 4 of their 17 previous playoff games, and in fact, the Celtics held their opponents to less than 90 points in 10 of those 17 playoff games. The Lakers were also rewarded by the multitude of foul calls as they got to the free-throw line 31 times. They made 24 of those attempts which certainly aided their point total a bit. In the two regular season games, Boston held the Lakers offense to just 90 and 86 points so they are more than capable of shutting down Kobe Bryant and company.

Off their disappointing loss in Game 1, Boston will bounce back in a big way tonight. They were one of the best road teams in the NBA all season long going 26-15 on opponent

Orlando got themselves back into this series after winning the last two games. The Magic were able to escape with an overtime win in Boston in Game 4, and they carried that momentum over to Game 5 which allowed them to win by 21 points (113-92). That was Orlando

Phoenix showed a lot of fight as they got back into this series after winning the last two games on their home court. The Suns used big fourth quarters to get both wins as they out-scored Los Angeles 62-47 in those two games. Both of those games were tight heading into the final 12 minutes of play, but the Lakers shot the ball dreadfully which allowed Phoenix to pull away to comfortable wins. Before those two wins, the Suns had all kinds of trouble playing against the Lakers, especially in games played in the Staples Center.

Los Angeles dominated the Suns in all four home meetings this season. The Lakers won the four homes games by 19 (121-102), 20 (108-88), 21 (128-107), and 12 (124-112) points. They controlled all of those games as they led by 27, 23, 28, and 16 points and they only trailed three times in those games combined. They also held 21-point and 14-point leads heading into the fourth quarter in those games. That

Los Angeles played good enough to win Game 3, but they came up a bit short because they were on the short end of the ref

After losing the first two games of this series on their home court, Orlando was in a terrific situation to get back into the series in Game 3 on Saturday night. However, that never happened as the Magic were embarrassed in Game 3 by Boston in a 23-point loss (94-71). The Celtics won the first quarter 27-12 and they never trailed in the entire game while holding a 32-point at one point in the game. Orlando

Orlando was completely embarrassed on their home court in the first two games of this series. Boston had their way with the Magic on both ends of the floor as the Celtics offense couldn

Phoenix was blasted in Game 1 by the Lakers 128-107. The Suns actually did not play as bad as the 21-point loss would indicate; they scored 107 points after shooting 49.4% (39-79) from the field. And they got to the free-throw line often, connecting on 75% (24-32) of their attempts. Their shooting troubles came from three-point land where they shot just 22.7% (5-22) which is well below their seasonal average of 41.1% from beyond the arc. With a return to normal long-range shooting by the Suns tonight, there

Phoenix was highly impressive in their last series against San Antonio. The Suns swept the Spurs winning every game by at least 6 points after scoring 107 points or more in every one of those games as well. But the Suns are taking a big step-up in class here as the Lakers are a much better team than San Antonio and also a better all around team than Phoenix. The Suns have always had trouble playing against Los Angeles, and we expect more of the same here, especially in the opening game of this series.

Los Angeles dominated the Suns in three of the four meetings this season. The Lakers won the two homes games by 19 (121-102) and 20 (108-88) points. They controlled both of those games as they led by 27 and 23 points and they only trailed once in both games combined. They also held 21-point leads heading into the fourth quarter in both games. That

These two teams had alternated wins and losses in this series before Boston won Games 4 and 5. The Celtics were on the winning end of Tuesday night

Atlanta was embarrassed in Game 3 by Orlando for the second time in this series. The Hawks lost Game 1 by a whopping 43 points (114-71) in a performance that may go down as the worst loss in NBA Playoffs history. Atlanta lost Game 3 by 30 points (105-75) in a similarly dismal performance. However, Atlanta

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