Revenge Of The Nerds

We were thiiiiiiiiiis close to nailing a Thursday Night Super Ticket of MIN, BAY and ORE.  Unfortunately, it turns out the the football players at Stanford are not only big, strong,  and pretty quick, but they might also be kinda smart.  Smart enough to knock off Oregon for the second year in a row.  I believe Clay Davis, lion of the Maryland State legislature, said it best - Sheeeeeiiiiiiiiit.  Anyways, on the bright side we took our medicine early and have a weekend full of clean tickets ahead of us.

We also are patronizing Bill Hill enough that we got a $10 thank you credit, which we promptly rolled into a bet that paid out $19.  I guess the old commercials were right, membership DOES have its privileges.  Anyways, that was a nice way to get back some of our Thursday losses.

So what looks good for the weekend?  There is some debate to be had but we are set on the following:

College Teaser

Missouri (-7.5) at Kentucky.
Minnesota (+4.5) hosting Penn State
LSU (+19) at Bama.

Missouri has shown no reason to back off them and we won't until further notice.  Minnesota has turned a corner since it's coach's health issues have been resolved, and Penn State has been uneven this year.  Speaking of uneven, LSU is the picture of uneven.  They are also the picture of a team that played Bama tougher than anyone not named Johnny Football, and beaten them more.  Ignoring history in the Stanford game came back to haunt us.  We won't do it twice.

Upset Special Ticket

We are taking the following dogs on the money line:

PHI (+105) at GB.
BUF (+135) at PIT
HOU (+125) at ARI
DAL (+230) at NO

First the low hanging fruit - Green Bay is in trouble with Seneca Wallace - he was cut by the Browns. Moving on, we have been touting the Bills and not seeing anything of note from the Steelers.  Plus, EJ Manuel is allegedly returning, so that is comforting.  Same with the Texans and Case Keenum.  This looks like a good team - the offense is fun and the defense seems rejuvenated.  Yes, they are on the road, but Carson Palmer throws lots of bad interceptions and takes sacks.  That is not a good combo against a Texans team that might be excited.  We are also assuming no more of their coaches will suffer mid-game strokes. Fans and bettors, maybe.  Finally, we're in on the Romocoaster again. This is not easy.

On a sadder note, in our initial emails about this ticket I did consider adding MIN.  That didn't happen.

The Winner's Ticket is shaping up to include the following:

Missouri, Johnny Football, San Francisco, UNC, Fresno State, Seattle, or Indy.

The NFL Teaser has the following candidates:

SF, NYG, DEN, HOU, BUF, MIA, SEA, DET.

We'll have to kick around some configuration since we've been burned recently with doubling up teams and losing multiple tickets.  I'm also nervous about DEN without John Fox.  Cam Newton might be good again, and the Seahawks are hell bent on being the 2010 SF Giants of football.

Games We Like But Don't Have The Stones To Bet

Vandy (+310) at FLA
NEB (+189) at Michigan - Seriously?
LSU (+345) at Bama.  Covered above.  We could wake up on Sunday where Jameis Winston sits in his rightful place on top of College Football.