Stanford Cardinals @ Virginia Tech Hokies Discover ORANGE Bowl Pick

Stanford Cardinals @ Virginia Tech Hokies Discover ORANGE Bowl Pick: I know this about the Stanford/Virginia Tech game – everybody thinks the Cardinal are supposed to win. They roster the best quarterbacking prospect in all of college football. Some people even think Andrew Luck is going to be one of the best of all time, and if everyone watches Sports Center then everybody knows that, too. When a player is hyped like that, when he’s a 1st overall pick lock, his team is almost always tougher to gamble on. While I can’t see it in the spread, that is probably the case here, so this is probably one of those games that I’m wrong about.
Oh well, I guess, I still like Stanford to sneak this one out.

Luck has been all kinds of fantastic. He has completed 70% of his passes in a pro style offense with 28 touchdowns and just 7 interceptions. But the guy across the ball has been pretty good too. Tyrod Taylor was very good to start the season against Baylor, and he’s put up numbers close to Luck’s. He’s thrown for 500 fewer yards, and completes 10% fewer of his passes, but his 23 to 4 touchdown to interception ratio is very impressive, and it means the Hokies haven’t beat themselves too often.

In fact, after an 0-2 start, the Hokies have rallied off 11 straight wins and Taylor’s a big reason why. He may not get the NFL hype that Luck gets, but this is college football, and Taylor is damn good in that regard.

Both of these teams are well coached, and even though Harbaugh is one of the hottest names in coaching right now, the ol’ Hokie Frank Beamer has made a career out of doing more with less, out of putting together a consistent program that can compete with anyone.

But I’m still going with Stanford, yes. I give them the slight edge offensively, and honestly, a slight edge defensively as well. It comes down to slights, and a touchdown victory gets me a win – so I’ll shoot for that!

#4 Stanford Cardinals (-3) @ #13 Virginia Tech Hokies

Free Football Picks Review for Week 17 Against The Spread Predictions

Free Football Picks Review for Week 17 Against The Spread Predictions: 12-4, what an ending to the season! Over the last two weeks I was 24-8 to really climb some points in my final season stats. I’ll post a “Final Season Review” later in the week if I can get my life together. I’ll give you a preview, I was a winner! But you know that. Here’s the Regular season’s final week in review.

Miami Dolphins @ New England Patriots (-3) (Win)
The Patriots sat their starting wide receiver duo, one of their young tight ends, and limited action to a couple of other guys. They still dropped close to 40 on the Dolphins. Tom played. Pats won their 14th game. That’s a lot of wins.

Cincinnati Bengals (+10.5) @ Baltimore Ravens (Win)
The Bengals stayed close throughout, and came up a couple yards short of beating the Ravens. The game ended up meaning nothing to Baltimore, but the Bengals showed their talent, then showed why they won 4 games.

Minnesota Vikings @ Detroit Lions (-3) (Win)
Joe Webb wasn’t at his Eagle-beating best, and the Vikings just didn’t do nearly enough offensively to beat the Lions. Just as I suspected, the Lions stacked the line of scrimmage and made Webb beat them. He didn’t. Watch out for Detroit next season.

Buffalo Bills (+1) @ New York Jets (Loss)
The Bills played without Fitzpatrick. They lost terribly. Even with many of the Jets starters taking the day off. Twas an embarrassing end of the season for a team that played very well at times.

Oakland Raiders (+4) @ Kansas City Chiefs (WIN)
The Raiders and Chiefs were close for much of the game, but a big Michael Bush touchdown run gave the Raiders a 17-10 lead in the 2nd half, and KC never recovered. The Raiders won big. Now I hear that Tom Cable will be let go at the end of the season – if that’s the case, somebody has to poor water on Al Davis’s extension cord that keeps him ticking. Cable gets the Raiders to 8-8 and gets the ax. All time dumb move.

Pittsburgh Steelers (-5.5) @ Cleveland Browns (WIN)
The Steelers won easily against the Browns. They started out with big plays and ran the ball hard throughout – defensively, the Steelers are a terrible match-up for run-first teams that can’t beat them deep.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (+9.5) @ New Orleans Saints (WIN)
The Bucs ended the season strong, beating the Saints but coming up just short in the tie-breaker world. That’s okay, I realized how many rookies play a prominent role for the Bucs – they’ll be in the playoffs for many years, if not next year, for about 5 years after that they’ll be money.

Carolina Panthers @ Atlanta Falcons (-14) (WIN)
The Falcons allowed a late touchdown to make it a 31-10 win, obviously it wasn’t that close.

New York Giants (-4) @ Washington Redskins (Loss)
The Redskins just did enough to give the Giants the win and still get close enough to give me the loss. I would have taken either or. Maybe this is part of the reason why I hate the Giants – I must admit, however, I’m getting weak spot for Tom Coughlin.

San Diego Chargers (-3) @ Denver Broncos (WIN)
The Chargers just barely held off Tim Tebow and the Broncos. Tim needs to play well from the start, but if he keeps finishing games like he has been, the Broncos are going to be in good hands with the former Gator. The Chargers’ special teams almost got them again, but they won by 4.

Dallas Cowboys (+3) @ Philadelphia Eagles (WIN)
The Cowboys won by a point in Philadelphia in a game that was borderline unwatchable. I know that the RedZone channel spent about 39 seconds covering the game in Philadelphia. But hey, it’s nice to get wins any way I can, ugly or beautiful.

Chicago Bears (+10) @ Green Bay Packers (WIN)
The Bears came to play, even though they had nothing to win. It’s awesome when a team’s interest in keeping their opponent out of the playoffs becomes more important than rest. Still, Aaron Rodgers and the Packers wouldn’t be denied, and they’ll be playing football next week in the playoffs.

Arizona Cardinals @ San Francisco 49ers (-6) (WIN)
Whew. The Cardinals sure stink. San Francisco straight dominated the Cardinals from start to finish, it was a little glimpse into what 49er fans were hoping for when the season started.

Tennessee Titans (+10.5) @ Indianapolis Colts (WIN)
The Titans damn-near beat the Colts, and it’s not because Indy didn’t come to play or that the Titans are a good team, it’s because the Colts aren’t that good. Every time the Colts would do something good, the Titans would come right back and match them – until the end, of course, because they lost by 3.

Jacksonville Jaguars (-1) @ Houston Texans (Loss)
Yuck. I warned you in today’s write-up, hopefully you took my advice and left this game alone. Houston doubled up the Jaguars – but then again, it’s always tough when your best player (MJD) and starting quarterback aren’t playing in your most important game.

St. Louis Rams (-1) @ Seattle Seahawks (Loss)
The Hawks won. If you were there to see this game on TV, you definitely saw a lot of what Seattle fans would call “Steeler-Super Bowl-Calls” go the way of the Hawks. But the Rams didn’t deserve to win. Their game plan was way too conservative, especially against a bad Hawks secondary. When they did test the Hawks, receivers were open, but they just dropped the ball. Seattle’s D played tough, but their run game was the thing that gave them the victory. Quarterback controversy for Week 1?