Week Three- Let's Begin | Off the Board & Chalk It Up

Right, right, right- sure, ya'll say; it's wicked easy to stand on the sidelines for the first two weeks, take in all the games, early injuries, bide your time before you make any decisions about which bandwagon to jump on (or off). Well, yeah, that's the disciplined way to do thangs, is my opinion. Look, my big brother (God help him) inherited the bug from a great uncle of ours, a man who- as my Dad put it- bet on anything that moved. The (in)famous story illustrating this axiom of Uncle Bill involved his going up to New Hampshire with some buddies to check out the NASCAR track, where he immediately stalked up to the concession stand and asked "Where do ya bet?!"

Where, indeed, Great Uncle Bill, where indeed. Well, my poor bro carries on this rich tradition. He texts me in August to tell me he needs Tampa over Oakland by six and the hook (good luck, I think to myself- those guys that are gonna be working at Subway in two weeks may need it out there). At the other end of the season, he eagerly studies the matchups in week 17 between all the everything's-clinched squads who would just as soon go home and watch Top Chef as try to win one more meaningless game. Etc, and etc...

But now we're here in Week Three, and if you made it this far- just observing the action- you've done yourself a favor. And if you haven't, well, I guess you had fun out there, right? So now I've rambled on and it's almost 10:30 of a beautiful Saturday morn up here in New England, so I'll make with a few quick picks and let us all get outta here.

Look at the Illini; they're 1-1 (lost at St. Louis to Missouri in week 1 but they've since had a tune-up game against Eastern Illinois- go Redbirds!- and a bye week to think about what all this means to them). And now they head to the Big Shoe or Golden House or whatever in Columbus to square off against a Buckeyes team that's already gotten their Annual Heartbreaking Loss out of the way. True, Illinois will prob'ly lose, but the Man says they lose by 14, and I think they'll keep it a little closer than all that. You still have Juice Williams out there, and last year this one didn't get out of hand (30-20 Ohio State)- so I say take the head start.

And who else do I like? Well, gee, who's Virginia playing?! What? The Cavs are off this week? Well sir, gimme a grand on the bye week... No, seriously, how about Rutgers over Maryland? I know everything great and dynamic (read: Ray Rice & Mike Teel) has up and left the Scarlet Knights, but the Terps are a worse-than-it-looks 1-2 this year- don't believe me? the one win was in OT over James Madison- I assume the school and not the mid-major Framer of our early United States, but who knows with this team anymore? So yeah, grab Rutgers minus 1 here.

Also take a look at Fresno State- this week's wherever, whenever Bowl finds them at Cincy where we 'dog fans get a 16.5 point spot against the Bearcats, who may be a tad overrated this year. Don't get me wrong- they're good- but I don't know that I'd assume they'd lay out a visiting out of conference team who play ever game like they want to prove their mettle to the world.

Also worth a look: the Battle of the Unranked Pac 10-ers who Knocked Off USC, 2009 edition pits Washington against Stanford. The Huskies- who granted define being ready for a letdown game- nonetheless are a 7.5 point dog on the road. I don't know- they just beat the Trojans: take those points. And back another dog while you're at it- the Hoosiers get 20 and a half at Michigan, and granted I'd be a lot comfier with the full 3 td's w/ PATS, but I'd say this Indiana squad might well keep it close today. Both teams are 3-0 (and, yeah, I noticed those W's came against Eastern Kentucky U, Western Michigan U, and Akron- who for the sake of a trend here we'll call Northeastern Ohio U), so let's root for this one to be closer than all that.

All right, now- good luck; I see I've laid out four dogs and one fave, whatever that means... now let's watch these games.