One of my unspoken policies for my longtime biweekly column is not to write about the same topic twice in a row. I have all sorts of gimmicks, er, features — my phantom mailbag, my odds-and-ends, my livestreaming, and more — but it's important to me to cycle through them and not rely too heavily on one.
But when your last column is three football picks, and those picks go 3-0, you sort of have to see if you can keep the streak going, do you not?
As before, we'll do one college football pick, one NFL pick, and one CFL pick. Odds courtesy of Sportzino:
College
Oregon State (-12.5) @ UTEP (Saturday 9 PM ET, MW+)
Has anyone but me noticed that Oregon State actually looks pretty good this year? They hung right with a couple of ranked teams in Texas Tech and Houston, and absolutely wrecked a Montana team that is ranked #3 in the FCS poll.
Similarly, UTEP has played two ranked teams and got their doors blown off by both of them — and both of those teams, Oklahoma and Michigan, have some big questions marks. I don't see this one being close.
Alas, this game is only available on Mountain West Network, which used to be free but now isn't.
NFL
Tennessee Titans (+2.5) @ New York Giants (1 PM Sunday, CBS)
I don't understand this line. The Giants have lost Jaxson Dart, possibly for the season. So they will have to rely on their running game more as they prepare for life with an 100-year-old Jameis Winston behind center. The Titans held the Eagles to 2.8 yards per carry last week. The Giants aren't exactly famous for resilience in the face of adversity anyway. The Titans should be favored.
CFL
Ottawa Redblacks (+2.5) vs. Calgary (3PM Saturday, CFL+)
I've heard it said that a lot of sports bettors lose because they put too much weight on streaks — that teams playing well will continue to, and so will teams playing badly.
Such trends must end, it is true, but focusing on them has actually worked well.
Last time in this space, I picked against Calgary as 3 1/2-point underdogs. They lost by 37. Last week, they played these same Ottawa Redblacks (which, style-guide-wise, is supposed to be REDBLACKS, all caps, but I refuse, that's stupid) in Calgary, and the Stampeders won by 2 on a 62-yard field goal as time expired.
They are playing atrociously and, according to the line, they are supposed to win by a little more now that they are going back to Ottawa?
Ottawa, it must be said, is winless. 0-13. But they seem to be playing quite a bit better with nothing to lose and McLeod Bethel-Thompson at quarterback. They've lost their last two games, both on the road, by a total of 5 points. One of those game I talked about above, the other was at Toronto, also on a last-second field goal, who in their most recent to games besides that one won at Hamilton by 15 and beat West-leading (and arguably the team to beat in the CFL) Edmonton by 5. Everything points Ottawa's way in this game.
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