Cory Lidle, George Rogers, A little baseball, and NFL and NCAA Picks

I appeared on the George Rogers Show yesterday and the Opening Drive in Greenville, SC today. My George Rogers appearance can be found at www.georgerogersradio.com. My segment goes from about the 5.5 minute mark until about the 20 minute mark. Stitzer’s Yankee guest column may be posted tomorrow (Saturday), so check back for that. Also, win or die picks will be posted Sunday before kickoff.

R.I.P. Cory Lidle. Nobody should die like that. Three points I would like to make on this matter. First, I feel bad about writing in this blog less than a month ago that he should “get hit by a bus”. He was bashing my team on the way out the door, and I need to stick up for my guys, but in retrospect, I guess I should have chosen my words a little more carefully. Second, every time a tragedy happens and someone dies before their time, the media gets itself into a frenzy making that person into one of the greatest people on the Earth, and how big a loss to society it will be. I am sure Cory Lidle was a great guy, but enough of making everyone that dies into a martyr. Finally, I am waiting on the Yankee fans to fuel the flames that A-Rod killed Lidle. After all, if he did not suck so bad, they would still be playing. This is not me talking, this is simply my hypothesis of where Yankee fans might take this.

Wow. What a performance last night from Tommy Glavine. Who would have thought the Mets, with their old and injured pitching staff and stuff offensive lineup, would need a masterpiece from Glavine to overcome an almost as strong performance from Jeff Weaver. I thought the Mets would win games 9-8, not 2-0. Still does not make a Hall of Famer out of Glavine in my opinion, but great performance in a huge spot.

Time to get down to business and get to my picks for this week…..

NCAA (Last week 3-3; Season 15-18-1, 46%)

Back to a better than embarrassing week, but we need to turn in a winning college week. That is exactly what I intend to do this week….

Rutgers +2.5 at Navy. I think Rutgers is a legit team that can take care of business on the road against Navy. The key is whether Navy can stop Ray Rice and the Scarlet Knight rushing attack. I say not quite. Close, but Rutgers wins.

Texas A&M +1.5 vs. Missouri. Turns out I was one week early predicting the demise of the Tigers perfect season. This line is a trap, as they want you to lay less than a field goal on a perfect team who is playing against a team that could not win at home against the Texas Tech team that Mizzou beat on the road last week. This game is a slam dunk. Aggies get it done.

Auburn +1.5 vs. Florida. Florida has a great defense but so does Auburn. The difference in this game will be Kenny Irons and the Tiger rushing game (note: if you hear that Irons is not recovered and back to close to 100% from his injury, stay away; this is assuming a healthy Irons). In addition, Auburn will be fired up beyond belief after an embarrassing home loss to Arkansas last week.

Florida St (-22) at Duke. Look, I hope I am wrong, but I am just not sure how even a subpar FSU team can help but winning by 30+ points, even in Durham.

Penn St (+6) vs. Michigan. The Nittany Lions will be ready for Michael Hart with their great linebackers, forcing Chad Penne to beat them without his best receiver. I don’t think he can do it. As a bonus, we saw last year against Ohio State that State College is a tough road atmosphere at night.

NFL (Last week 4-1-1; Season 16-10-1, 62%)

That’s right, another excellent week in my NFL picks, leaving me at over 60% for the season, documented. In actuality, I did not lose any games as Carolina line moved to 8, getting me a push, but I will take a loss here, as it was 8.5 at time of publication).

The Eagles face an interesting test this week. Can they avoid a letdown against a good team after a huge monumental win last week against the Cowgirls? Historically, under Andy Reid, they have done a good job in this area, typically winning the games they are supposed to. It appears that they will be without Stallworth and Hood again. And is McNabb ever going to have an average or poor game this year? I think the Eagles get it done in a dogfight this weekend, but I am not confident enough to include it in the picks. Eagles win, NO PICK.

Seattle (-3) at St. Louis. This is how silly I am. If the line were the same, and St. Louis was 2-3 instead of 4-1, I would LOVE the Rams. But because they are 4-1, the line is probably legitimate, and I think Seattle, who has had a week off to fix the disaster that was the Sunday night game against the Bears, has too much for St. Louis, even at the Edward Jones dome and even without Sean Alexander. Plus, Mark Bulger is due for an interception; he has none all year. Seattle handles the Rams.

NY Giants (+3) at Atlanta. This line says that on a neutral site, these teams are dead even. I do not believe that. I think the Giants are much better and will win a close game.

Carolina (+3) at Baltimore. Ditto the Giant logic above, Carolina covers.

J-E-T-S, JETS JETS JETS (-2) vs. Miami. The Jets have looked good except for one game. The Dolphins have looked bad in all their games. The Dolphinns defense is old and has lost a step, specifically Zach Thomas and Jason Taylor. They are starting Joey Harrington at quarterback. And the public is fooled, driving the line down a ½ point since it opened at 2.5. The Jets will deliver a fatal blow to Miami’s floundering playoff hopes.

Kansas City (+7) at Pittsburgh. The Steelers may win, but I am not laying 7 on them the way they are playing against anyone, especially against a Chief team that is actually getting good quarterback play from Damon Huard. Take the Chiefs.

Oakland (+15) at Denver. I will wait until you finish laughing. Are you done? Look, Oakland is not going to go 0-16 against the spread, and Denver can barely score 15 points in a game, much less win by that much. This is a rivalry game, and Al Davis hates Shanahan, so if Oakland ever will play with heart, it will be now (of course, the flip side is that we know Shanahan will not pull off the dogs). It will hurt you to do and you might feel silly, but play the Raiders here and you will be thanking me around midnight Sunday night, east coast time.