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A Look at the Best Bets for Weekend NFL and College Football
By Joe Tansey
Published:
The sports gods gave us a tremendous weekend to sit back and not give a shit about our teams.
Hell, we need it after a gut-wrenching Thursday night.
There’s some incredible college football on the Saturday slate and the NFL Week 6 scheduled is headlined by a Lions/Chiefs game with a ton of potential to be awesome. This game has a total of 52.5 at bet365 and sounds a lot more fun than watching the Eagles.
The entire NHL is in action on Saturday as well, but let’s be honest, it feels, smells and looks like a football weekend.
College Football
Ohio State (-14.5) at Illinois: Ohio State is an absolute wagon. The Buckeyes are probably the top team in college football right now. They head to Illinois with a defense that hasn’t allowed a double-digit point total in five games. On the other hand, the Illini can’t stop a nose bleed. Ohio State is one of four teams with a loss against the spread this season. With the way OSU’s defense is playing, it’s hard not to lay the two touchdowns and a hook with the Buckeyes.
Alabama (-3) at Missouri: Penn State transfer QB Beau Pribula has Mizzou at 5-0, but the Tigers haven’t played anybody, Pawl. Bama just reeled off wins over Georgia and Vanderbilt and they look like a true title contender after the opening-week ass-kicking they received from Florida State. The line stinks to high heaven, because why should Mizzou be a three-point dog at home? But you just have to trust the better team here and that’s Bama.
Indiana at Oregon (-7): Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti talks a big game, but he doesn’t have a signature win yet in two years. The Hoosiers lost by double digits to Ohio State and Notre Dame last season in their two games that mattered. Oregon is the real deal. Don’t let Penn State’s failures discredit Oregon’s win in Happy Valley. The Ducks are very good and they will have no problem running up the score either.
Oklahoma (-1.5) vs. Texas: Arch Manning hasn’t delivered for Texas. The Red River Shootout feels like the game where he could potentially shift the narrative around him, but Oklahoma’s defense is damn good. The Sooners are likely going to get back quarterback John Mateer for Saturday, but the defense is the real deal with five concessions of 17 points or fewer. It’s probably going to be the opposite of a shootout at the Cotton Bowl.
Air Force at UNLV (-7): Air Force is 1-4 and allowed 34+ points in four straight weeks. UNLV is 5-0 and a playoff contender. Don’t overthink the obvious.
Rutgers/Washington Over 60.5: Fun Fact! Rutgers is one of three teams with a 5-0 record to the over. Air Force and Tennessee are the others. I know the Scarlet Knights are only localish, but this is the best bet to make on a local team. Game is Friday night, by the way.
NFL
Rams at Ravens (Over 44.5): The Ravens are the only NFL team with a perfect 5-0 mark to the over. They gave up 38, 37, and 44 in the last three weeks to the Lions, Chiefs and Texans. The Rams are more than capable of putting up similar numbers on the depleted Baltimore defense. I wouldn’t mind taking the Rams at -7.5 or in Survivor pools either. Baltimore has a bye next week and they’re targeting Week 8 for a Lamar Jackson return and a potential surge back up the AFC standings.
Patriots (-3.5) at Saints: I don’t have any data here. If you’re the Patriots, you have to back up last week’s win in Buffalo to show you are for real, for real. A loss to a Saints team full of nobodies just puts you back at square one.
Titans (+4.5) at Raiders: The Raiders stink. The Titans are frisky with an improving rookie quarterback. Hold your nose and just ride out the 4.5.
Lions at Chiefs (Over 52.5): If you had to pick one football game to watch this weekend, it’s probably Lions/Chiefs. Kansas City’s going to have to score 24-30 points to win. The Chiefs defense allowed 20+ points in four of five games. The Lions are in an offensive groove with four games of 34 or more points.
Touchdown Scorer Parlay: Josh Jacobs, Jonathan Taylor, Amon-Ra St. Brown (+324, BetMGM): It’s basic as hell. St. Brown should score in a high-scoring game versus the Chiefs, Jacobs faces the Bengals and Taylor gets the Cardinals at home. Sometimes you just have to keep it simple with Pennsylvania sports betting and NJ sports betting.
SPORTSBOOK
Joe Tansey writes sports betting posts for Crossing Broad and also covers the Philadelphia Union for his Substack site, Union Soccer Blog.