Not an awesome start to the year for my picks, but I’ll bounce back next week. Ohio State and Notre Dame really screwed me over and led me to go 1-2. Thank goodness for the Iowa vs Iowa State game.
My lock of the week was Ohio State -14.5 at home against the Oregon Ducks, who barely beat Fresno State a week prior. Well, Ohio State didn’t even win the game, let alone cover. They lost 35-28.
The Ducks were led by quarterback Anthony Brown, who threw for 236 yards with 2 touchdowns and also rushed for 65 yards on only ten carries. The other big offensive contributor for Oregon was back CJ Verdell who rushed for 161 yards and 2 touchdowns while also catching a touchdown.
Defensively, Mario Cristobal and the Ducks didn’t skip a beat without Kayvon Thibodeaux. Bennett Williams tallied eight tackles while Verone McKinley III had six tackles and a pick.
Ohio State really did disappoint after having a great showing in week one against Minnesota. CJ Stroud balled out as he passed for 484 yards, 3 touchdowns, and an interception.
Strouds top three targets all went for over a hundred yards. Jaxon Smith-Njigba had 145 yards and 2 touchdowns, Chris Olave recorded 126 yards, and Garrett Wilson went for 117 yards and a touchdown on eight catches.
While the offense had a pretty big day, Ohio States defense just didn’t have an answer for Verdell. Their top performer was safety Ronnie Hickman who tallied ten total tackles.
After my lock of the week missed, I surely thought that Notre Dame would cover against Toledo. I took the Irish -16.5 against the Rockets in South Bend and of course, that one also missed. Shit, Notre Dame almost lost the game all together.
Notre Dame squeaked out a 32-29 win.
For the Irish, Jack Coan had another solid performance as he passed for 239 yards with 2 touchdowns, one of which was the game winner, and just one interception. His top target was once again, sophomore tight end Michael Mayer who reeled in 7 balls for 81 yards and 2 big time scores, one of which was the game winner.
On the rug, Kyren Williams carried the ball 16 times and went for 78 yards and a single score. Williams also caught 3 passes for 25 yards.
Defensively for the Irish, linebacker JD Bertrand tallied 11 total tackles and a sack while defensive tackle and captain Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa recorded 2 tackles and 2 sacks.
I do have to give Toledo props, they put up a hell of a fight. The Rockets starting quarterback Carter Bradley passed for 213 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions. Backup quarterback DeQuan Finn came in and rushed for 24 yard and a touchdown.
Running back Bryant Koback rushed for 122 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries while receiver Devin Maddox reeled in 9 passes for 135 total yards.
I won’t lie, after this game I was rattled. I was 0-2 and had just one game left and it was Iowa vs Iowa State.
For this game, I didn’t pick the spread, I picked Iowa vs Iowa State under 46.5 points and they came through HUGE for me.
The final was Iowa winning 27-17 over the Cyclones which totaled 44 points.
The real takeaway from this game is that the Iowa Hawkeyes defensive is the real deal. They held Breece Hall to just 69 yards, nice, and one touchdown. This is beyond impressive because of how good the Cyclones oline is and that Hall is a top three back in the nation.
Iowas defense also held Brock Purdy to 138 passing yards and forced 3 interceptions and held one of the nations top tight ends, Charlie Kolar, to 4 catches for 34 yards.
1-2 on the week ain’t bad, but shit, it isn’t great. Huge bounce back this week.