Good teams win, great teams cover Part III

Let's get into it

Jeff
College 
Ohio State (-39.5) over Miami (OH)
LSU (-24) over Vanderbilt
Florida (-14) over Tennessee

NFL 
Titans (-2) over Jags (LOL)
Rams (-3) over Browns
Bears (-4) over Redskins

Brad 
College
Alabama (-38.5) over Southern Miss
Southern Miss has been playing well, but come on. There's no change they lose to Alabama by less than 40.

Wisconsin (-3.5) over Michigan 
Michigan has been lackluster this year. It hasn't proved me wrong yet, so I'm taking Wisconsin at home.

BYU (+6.5) over Washington 
BYU is good. The Cougars beat a ranked USC team at home and Tennessee on the road. Knowing this, I'm confident in them at least covering against the Huskies

NFL
Steelers (+6.5) over 49ers
I'm sold on Mason Rudolph from the lone half I saw him play. I think Pittsburgh bounces back in a big way.

Cowboys (-21.5) over Dolphins 
The Dolphins have been an absolute mess this year.

Colts (-1.5) over Falcons 
This should be a good football game. Thanks to the spread, unless its a tie or a one-point game, if the Colts win they'll cover. I think they'll win and, thus, cover.

Joe 
College 
Notre Dame (+14.5) over Georgia 
Notre Dame is 1-18 against top five opponents since 1999, so I don't think the Irish will beat Georgia on the road. But 14.5 points in a matchup between two top 10 programs is a little drastic.

Pitt (+10.5) against UCF
This UCF team is good and will probably go undefeated again, but I watched Pitt against my Nittany Lions in Happy Valley last week. This defense is good and can cause a problem against a lot of teams. If Pitt can come within a touchdown of beating Penn State on the road, it can do the same against UCF at home.

Charlotte (+41.5) over Clemson 
Charlotte isn't going to come close to winning. Let's not kid ourselves here. But the 49ers can put up points. In three games, the 49ers have scored 49, 41 and 52 points and has put up 500 yards of offense in each game. So don't be surprised if Charlotte puts up around 20 against Clemson and loses by 36.

NFL 
Pats (-21.5) over Jets
Lol

Packers (-21.5) over Broncos 
Rodgers. Lambeau. Money.

Cardinals (-2) over Panthers
On the road potentially without Cam? Please. Carolina looked bad enough at home with him last week.

Pittsburgh Steelers: Five takeaways from week two

By: Donny Chedrick 

Not an ideal start. 

The Steelers are 0-2 and that isn’t even the worst thing that happened this weekend at home against Seattle. Not only did the Seahawks prevail 28-26 with a huge game-ending drive— that required no points, but saw multiple big plays from Russell Wilson, the Steelers lost their Hall of Fame leader. Ben Roethlisberger is now out for the season needing surgery on his throwing elbow.

There is a lot from this weekend to recover from, but we’ll break down five things as the Steelers move to Week 3 in San Francisco.

1.     Ben goes down

Going into the season, nobody on this team wanted to prove more than Ben Roethlisberger. Even with a as a no doubt first-ballot Hall of Fame quarterback, Big Ben was going into the year without Antonio Brown for the first time in about a decade. Arguably the best QB-WR tandem in the league for the last five or so years broke up in an ugly way. Ben didn’t have a good start to the year, but nobody did. He completed eight passes Sunday at Heinz Field for 75 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions. There were two throws when Ben immediately grasped his right elbow after the release. The second one took him out of the game and for the season as things quickly went from bad to worse.

2.     Rudolph’s turn to lead the sleigh

For just over a year, Mason Rudolph didn’t really get the chance to play in any reindeer games. Now his number is being called and the Steelers hope his bright, red nose can lead them down the cloudy road of uncertainty. The second-year QB was thrown into the fire Sunday and looked better than many may have expected. Rudolph was 12-19 for 112 yards, two scores and one interception – thanks in large part to another Donte Moncrief drop. Quite frankly, the Oklahoma State product stepped in and kept the Steelers in the game. He has some tough tests coming up as he will be expected to lead this team the rest of the way.

3.     Vanimal in action

In New England, Vance McDonald was virtually invisible, besides to late-game snags amounting to a few yards. In the home opener at Heinz Field, McDonald found the endzone twice on passes from young Rudolph. McDonald’s final line was 38 yards on seven receptions and a pair of scores. Both touchdowns came in the red zone as the “Vanimal” proves to still be a great target inside the 20-yard line. Sometimes a young QB relies on a TE as a safety blanket of sorts. We could see that here and we could see McDonald’s numbers go up without Ben under center.

4.     Still no running game

It was a concern after last week’s dreadful loss in New England, but even in a close game, the run game wasn’t there on Sunday at Heinz Field. James Conner led the charge, but left early due to an injury, finishing with just 33 yards on 11 attempts. Rookie Benny Snell Jr. added 23 yards, all of it coming on one carry and Jaylen Samuels held the rock just three times for 18 yards. This is something the Steelers need to fix quickly moving forward, especially having a young, inexperienced quarterback. Conner is questionable for Sunday, so if the Steelers go with a “by committee” strategy, two or three guys that carry the ball should expect to carry the load.

5.     The defense showed improvement, but got beat when it mattered

Luckily, the defense also made strides this week. Four sacks (2.5 from Stephon Tuitt) and two fumble recoveries – one being returned for a score by Mark Barron, only to be called back for a bad block and one returned to the goal line by rookie Devin Bush. Unfortunately, at big points in the game, Russell Wilson had his way with the Steelers defense. 300 yards and three touchdowns, while also running for more than 20 yards, including a few key scrambles on the Seahawks’ final drive. Granted, Pittsburgh has faced two QBs that will have busts in Canton, Ohio one day in weeks one and two. As the season goes on, the Steelers will have to find ways to make big plays in big moments because the defense will be a key part in how high the ceiling is for this team without Roethlisberger. On Monday night, the Steelers acquired defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick from Miami for a 2020 first round pick. No matter what you think of the trade, Fitzpatrick will certainly bring more stability to the defense over the course of the season, getting set to start his first game for the black and gold at free safety Sunday in San Francisco.

Good teams win, Great teams cover Part II

Brad

College

Alabama (-25.5) over South Carolina

I believe this game will be similar to the Duke-Bama game. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the game start slow before Alabama turns it on in the second half. Either that or the Tide roll from the get-go. Whichever way, Bama wins by 30+

USC (-4) over BYU

I liked USC’s resiliency in its win over Stanford last Saturday. They fell behind early but battled back to a dominating win. BYU isn’t better than Stanford. Give me the Trojans. 

Kentucky (+8) over Florida- For my money, this will be the game of the week. Both teams are talented, but neither has impressed up to this point. I see a close game due to it being played in Lexington, but I see Florida squeaking out a one-score win. 

NFL

Patriots (-19) over Dolphins

A +19 spread at home in the NFL? That seems impossible, but Miami is that bad. If Lamar Jackson and co. can but up 59 on Miami, imagine what Tom Brady, Antonio Brown, Julian Edelman and Josh Gordon can do. Pats by 100.

Bears (-2.5) over Broncos 

The Bears opened the season with an absolute dud. The bright spot? Their defense held Aaron Rodgers to 10 points. With more than a week to get in check, I have faith in their offense this time around. Bears win big.

Seahawks (+4.5) over Steelers

Talk about an ugly week one. The Seahawks were disappointing, but not as much as the Steelers. I like the Seahawks playmakers to pull out a six-point victory.

Jeff 

College

Clemson (-27.5) over Syracuse 

Oklahoma (-23.5) over UCLA

Ohio State (-16.5) over Indiana 

NFL

Ravens (-13.5) over Cardinals 

Texans (-9) over Jags 

Browns (-2.5) over Jets

Joe 

College 

Maryland (-5.5) over Temple

These Terps are good, man. Penn State will test them next week, but for now, Maryland will ride its momentum to a fairly comfortable win over Temple. 

Notre Dame (-35) over New Mexico 

Easy money.

Pitt (+17) against Penn State

Pitt’s defense is good and will limit Penn State enough to keep the game reasonably close. With that said, Penn State by 13. We are. 

NFL

Steelers (-4.5) over Seahawks

It can’t get worse than last week. The Steelers will bounce back on their home turf. This is still a good football team, and they’re not starting 0-2.

Packers (-2.5) over Vikings 

Aaron Rodgers. Lambeau Field. If the Packers win, they’ll probably cover. I think they beat Minnesota at home, so I also think they’ll cover. 

Giants (+2) over Bills

I don’t care about this game in the slightest. Just a gut feeling.