Week Sixteen

I’m going to the Jets Rams game this Sunday! The “feels like” high and low is 16 at 3pm and 8 at 9am … WOOOOO! My wife’s Uncle was a big Rams fan. In April he suddenly passed and it still doesn’t feel real. I couldn’t imagine the pain of losing a parent so sudden, and many families are “close” but this family seemed especially close. We have a nice group of people going, my wife’s three cousins, her brother, her aunt, and the WAGs of the group. I’ll need a few early morning soda’s to keep warm in the tundra, but on a football end I’m super excited for the game. I was at my wife’s cousin’s bachelor party the night Matthew Stafford got traded to the Rams. At the time, many looked at this trade as an overpay. The Rams went to a recent Super Bowl and traded their QB AND two 1st round draft picks for Stafford who had a career 0-3 in the playoffs. I was souped up for the trade though. I mean, I’m a Jaguars fan, I understand that a QB can be great and the team is so bad and dysfunctional around him. The Lions have turned it around but they were a mess with Stafford. Matthew Stafford is a Hall of Fame quarterback (and so is his opponent Aaron Rodgers) and I get to see these two duel on Sunday. Sure it’ll be cold, but it’s not every week you get two HOF guys slinging it against each other. Prepping for the game I ordered a Stafford tee shirt because in neutral games I’ve always rooted for him. But as I mentioned it’s going to be COLD so nobody will see the tee. Guess I’ll need the Rams to make the playoffs for me to bust out the shirt again!

Texans -3 – HIT!
Patriots +6 – Miss.
Seahawks +3 – Miss.
Bears +7 Miss.
2024 NCAA 8-8-1
2024 NFL 11-12-1
NCAA 116-118-6
NFL 154-130-11
269-249-17

Tennessee +7 at Ohio State
I like Tennessee in this matchup because Tennessee feels like a better Michigan. Now, the emotion won’t be there which probably lost Ohio State the game, but Tennessee’s size in the trenches, mixed with their run game feels like a way to beat Ohio State. Ohio State is the most talented team in college football, but there’s something about Ryan Day and his coaching that always makes his teams feel “soft.” I haven’t been impressed with what was supposed to be the best running back duo in the nation in Ohio State. Henderson and Judkins in November are averaging 115 yards and that’s just not going to cut it. Instead, I have confidence that Dylan Sampson will rack up 130+ rush yards which was his average in his 8 SEC games. In ways, Nico Iamaleava has been disappointing his first year starting, but the 6foot6 slinger has thrown only 3 interceptions his last 10 games. Will Howard played lights out vs Oregon in a loss but hasn’t been the same since. In those 6 games he has 5 interceptions and averaging 214 yards passing. I’ll give defenses a wash in this matchup. Both are LOADED with talent and are the better unit of their squad. Give me the better QB, the better run game, and the better Coach. Rocky Top!

Steelers +6.5 at Ravens
Feels like this rivalry is always a nail biter, and about five weeks ago we saw Pittsburgh win 18-16. I’m feeling smashmouth football on Saturday. Bateman is banged up, Steelers pass defense has been very strong, and there will be no George Pickens. This is Steelers football. They will want to play a field possession game, getting punts off and letting their defense which leads the league in takeaways do their thing. The Ravens coughed up the ball three times last time these two played and I see no reason not to think they won’t cough it up at least twice. They’ve had a stretch of taking care of the ball, one turnover the last three games since the Steelers game, so I see some regression. The Ravens are more explosive, they feel more talented, but the Steelers are just more sound. They don’t make mistakes and pounce on the opposition’s mistakes, and the Ravens just feel they are being held back by their mistakes.

Thank you,
Goose