Friday, September 5, 2008

Weekend Preview - 9/5/2008

The weekend got off with an early start last night. The NY Giants dominated the 1st half last night and hung on in the second half. The Redskins continued their preseason hangover. Vanderbilt shocked South Carolina. Like I said last earlier in the week, the Gamecocks did not impress me last week, even though they won 34-0.

Here are some weekend predictions:

The Panthers travel to San Diego this Sunday. I'm not picking the Panthers to win, but I think it will be close. Historically under the John Fox era, the Panthers play season openers on the road a lot better than they do at home. Granted they've never opened with an opponent the caliber of San Diego, but I think San Diego wins by 4 or less, not the double digits a lot of the experts predict.

Georgia Tech has their 1st real test of the year when they travel to Boston College. This will be the 1st big test to see how Paul Johnson's offense works against the big boys. BC's strenghth in their defense is stopping the run, where they were one of the top teams in the country. GT's strength this year, will be their defense, not their offense. GT has 2 potential 1st round draft picks on the D-Line. I predict a low scoring affair. BC comes out on top though.

Not much of a big slate in College Football this weekend. A lot of good games next weekend. The game that interests me the most is Florida-Miami. Miami has historically played Florida tough and has won most of the time. However, the game is at the swamp, Miami is young with an inexperienced QB, and Florida is primed and ready to go. Even though I still don't trust the Gator defense, they should have no problem with this young Miami team.

I'm going to start picking an upset special every Friday for college and pro.

College: Not a good slate to pick upsets this weekend. However, I think East Carolina can knock of West Virginia. The Pirates have a good defense and are sky high off their win over Virginia Tech. WVU gave up more points than I though they would against Villanova and gave up a ton of yards.

Pro: I initially said Buffalo over Seattle, but I'm not sure if that would be considered an upset. I'm going to go with Atlanta over Detroit. How often has Detroit ever been favored on the road? Everyone is counting Atlanta out this season. However, if they do win this game, it will be one of the few they do win. Atlanta will rely more on Michael Turner than Matt Ryan. Detroit lost their best defensive lineman in the off-season. The Lions have a lot of offensive weapons. Atlanta's defense will have to get into bend but don't break mode.

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