I’m horrible at fading Kevin Wheeler.
There, I said it. Now you don’t have to. (You will anyway, I know you.)
I lost again last week. Hit two of three in college football but went o’fer in the NFL to run my record against Wheeler to 12-16-1.
Following the Packers’ loss to the Cowboys in Week 6, Aaron Rodgers took to the podium and declared that he would pour himself a glass of scotch and look at the film in effort to correct his mistakes.
So that’s what I did this week. I watched film hammered off my ass on scotch and these are the six picks I came up with in my drunken state.
College Football Week 9
Auburn @ Ole Miss
Remember when Gus Malzahn was on everyone’s list of coaches on the hot seat? Thanks to a defense that is allowing just 14.1 points per game (which is third in the nation), Malzahn has turned around the misfortunes of the Tigers.
His outstanding running game is also firing on all cylinders right now, averaging 302.9 yards per game (also third in the country). Sophomore Kamryn Pettway is going to be a handful for Ole Miss and the Tigers could get back Kerryon Johnson (ankle) as well. These two teams are headed in opposite directions and I’ll gladly lay the 4 points on an Auburn team that is relevant again.
Wheeler: Ole Miss +4
Stalter: Auburn -4
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Boise State @ Wyoming
The job that third-year coach Craig Bohl has done at Wyoming has been nothing shy of amazing. The long irrelevant Cowboys are now 5-2 on the year, are 3-0 in the Mountain West, and feature a legit playmaker in Brian Hill, who is the school’s all-time leading rusher with 3,437 yards. Sophomore quarterback Josh Allen has also racked up 15 total touchdowns on the year (10 passing, five rushing), while senior receiver Tanner Gentry has turned 38 receptions into 612 yards with five touchdowns. Wyoming is averaging 30.3 points per game and will be jacked for this one on Saturday night.
Wheeler: Boise State -13.5
Stalter: Wyoming +13.5
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West Virginia @ Oklahoma State
Wheels says he’s not feeling it with West Virginia. I don’t know what’s not to like. The Mountaineers are the only team in the Big 12 that actually plays defense and they rank 10th in the nation in total yards per game offensively thanks to Skyler Howard and Rushel Shell. After holding Texas Tech to 17 points two weeks ago and TCU to 10 points last week, I’ll roll again with the Mountaineers (one of my only two wins last week versus Kevin).
Wheeler: Oklahoma State +3.5
Stalter: West Virginia -3.5
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NFL Week 8
Packers @ Falcons
Green Bay’s secondary is severely banged up but the Packers still own the best run defense in the league and the Falcons are down a key weapon on offense with Tevin Coleman sidelined with a hamstring injury. The Falcons are going to score, but can they come up with that key defensive stop in the fourth quarter when this game is inevitably close? They couldn’t last week versus San Diego and they couldn’t the week prior at Seattle. Aaron Rodgers may have to throw it 50 times again, but the Packers could win outright.
Wheeler: Falcons -3
Stalter: Packers +3
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Chargers @ Broncos
The Chargers played exceptionally well versus the Broncos two weeks ago when they upset Denver on Thursday night. That said, Gary Kubiak wasn’t on the sidelines for that game and Denver will be more prepared this week when it has a full week to game plan. C.J. Anderson is out with a knee injury but Devontae Booker has run hard with the opportunities the Broncos have given him this season. It sounded like Kubiak wanted to get Booker more involved before Anderson went down and this is a perfect opportunity to see what the rookie can do with a full workload. The Chargers are better than their record but they’re not going to score 33 points on the Broncos like they did in Atlanta last week. Or even 21 for that matter, which is what they scored the last time these two teams met in San Diego.
Wheeler: Chargers +4.5
Stalter: Broncos -4.5
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Eagles @ Cowboys
This is going to be a great game between two rookie quarterbacks that could be rivals for a long time in the NFC East. The Cowboys will gain their yards on the ground but the Eagles are allowing just 14.7 points per game this season, which ranks third in the NFL. It’s time for Doug Pederson to expand the offense more for Carson Wentz, who didn’t play much in preseason because he was third on the depth chart behind Sam Bradford and Chase Daniel. It was smart of Pederson to bring him on slowly, but Wentz is capable of more and showed as much at North Dakota State. The Eagles are 4-1 against the spread in their last five games in Dallas, while the road team is 4-0 ATS in the last four meetings between these two teams and the underdog is 6-1 ATS in the last seven meetings.
Wheeler: Cowboys -4
Stalter: Eagles +4