Mississippi State QB Dak Prescott
Slip Up Weekend:
The matchups aren’t sexy this college football weekend, but what’s on the line certainly is.
Alabama at Mississippi State – (Chance of upset 20%) Alabama now has a clear road to a return to the college football plays. The team plays two road games against middle of the road SEC West teams before they get a chance to play Florida for the conference title.
Alabama will close with a bad Auburn team, so Mississippi State remains the last big hurdle.
Dak Prescott is having an outstanding season for a team that was picked to finish last in the SEC West, completing 67% of his passes for 18 touchdowns and just 1 interception. Prescott also is a rushing option which has given Alabama trouble at times. His 7 touchdowns on just 86 attempts makes him a threat to pull it down and go.
Oregon at Stanford – (Chance of upset 15%) This has been a disappointing season for Oregon but they still present a danger to Stanford as a 6-3 team (4-2 in Pac 12 play). This game would almost ensure Stanford’s place in the Pac 12 title game as they close play next week against Cal. Stanford has to take care of Oregon to not only setup a conference title opportunity, but keep their momentum going towards a possible playoff bid when they close the season with Notre Dame in Palo Alto.
Oklahoma at Baylor – (Chance of upset 50%) Perhaps the best situation for the Big 12 to make the college football playoffs will be for the Oklahoma at Oklahoma State game to end the year be a massive game. But that can’t happen unless Oklahoma beats Baylor on the road today. Baylor has been penalized from the schedule thus far, so they need this victory in the worst way.
As of today, Baylor has beaten every team on their schedule. Not one of them currently has a winning record for their season. Not one.
Patriots at Giants – No one in the NFL has the reputation that Patriots coach Bill Belichick does. Now that’s not always a good thing, but Belichick is renowned for making your team play left handed. Put simply, the Patriots take away what you like to do and force you to beat them by doing stuff you don’t like to do.
The Giants don’t just like, but love to get the ball to receiver Odell Beckham Jr. OBJ continues to be off to the most prolific start in NFL history for a receiver. He’s currently projected to catch over 100 passes for 1,400 yards. Over his first 21 NFL games, Beckham Jr. has caught 150 passes for just over 2,000 yards and 19 touchdowns.
The Giants want to get him the ball. The Patriots want the Giants to do something else. You have to score 30 plus points to beat the Patriots. The Giants will have to get the ball to Beckham Jr. to do that.
Cardinals at Seahawks – There have been three teams to beat the Seattle Seahawks at home during the Russell Wilson era. Those teams were the 2015 Carolina Panthers, the 2014 Dallas Cowboys, and the 2013 Arizona Cardinals.
Seattle needs this game in order to get within one game of the NFC West division lead. But this will be perhaps the best overall team that Seattle has played thus far. Arizona is the only team in the NFL who is currently top 5 in both total offense and total defense. They’re ranked third in each category.
Seattle is just a three point favorite at home according to Vegas. This game is going to be tight and should go to the 4th quarter.