Taking Bets | Week Three | It's the Hope!

The weekly betting column returns as the season begins rolling and already doing excellent for her first year in the column is Mallory McCormack, host of The Staredown podcast, which drops each Friday! Find both The Staredown podcast on Fridays and Takin' On Sports on Mondays -- both distinct sports podcasts and both streaming here on the site. Find either one in any podcast app of your preference as well. Let's get to the bets that could easily ruin your weekend!

2023 ATS Record
Blaine Duncan: 2-4-1 (Week Two: 1-2-1)
TD Wood: 4-3 (Week Two: 3-1)
Mallory McCormack: 4-3 (Week Two: 2-2)

Blaine Duncan 
Thanks to an additional game with the NFL's first week, I get my first push of the year! Never fails, do it? For those counting, I picked one winner last week. (For what it's worth, at least it was the bet I loved the most: the Texas at Alabama over at 54.) I need to stop overthinking this bull mess.

Minnesota at North Carolina (-7.5) -- I'm making my bets on Thursday, but if this one elevated to 8 or 9 points, I'd still side with the Tar Heels. I can see a ten-point victory at home in that 2:30 p.m. slot. The only that makes me the least bit hesitant is that I've picked favorites to cover the whole weekend, and, well, you know how that goes.

Tennessee (-6.5) at Florida -- The Vols hit the Swamp, but does that matter these last few years? Tennessee may be a bit undervalued this week because of their weaker-than-expected performance against an FCS school last weekend, but can't you, too, see them winning by seven points? Close your eyes. Now? No?

Colorado State at Colorado (-23.5) -- I'd been keeping my eye on this line to see if it would move, and it hasn't much. Jay Norvell, coach of Colorado State, said this week "When I talk to grownups, I take my hat and my glasses off. That's what my mother taught me," in reference to Coach Prime. That was stupid. If the Buffalos win by forty, don't be surprised. They're more talented than I thought, they were already destined to win this one, and they weren't going to take their feet off the gas pedals. But, now? It's death for the Rams now.

NFL Game of the Week:
Colts at Texans (-1) -- When the Texans defense solidify even more with playing time, they could be a team to watch. Granted, their offense still needs help, like keeping C.J. Stroud off the ground. But that was against the Ravens. Here, two rookie quarterbacks are facing off, so I'll go with the home Texans to win by three points.

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TD Wood
That's more like it. Only a really weird Houston/Rice game kept me from a perfect week. I like some big favorites this week, on what looks to be a pretty tame slate on the college side -- which, of course, means it'll be full of crazy upsets. The NFL's opening week flipped the script a little bit, which will make for some interesting picking going forward.

Florida State (-26) at Boston College -- Florida State = good, Boston College = bad. That's basically what this boils down to, really. I don't care that it's a road game, or that the Seminoles have a huge game at Clemson next week, they'll take care of business here.

Oklahoma (-28.5) at Tulsa -- The Sooners didn't blow the doors off of SMU last week, but SMU is way better than Tulsa. Year 2 of the Brent Venables era is off to a good start, and I like OU to keep building momentum heading towards the Red River Shootout in early October.

BYU at Arkansas (-8) -- The Hogs' offense was the talk of the preseason, but it's their defense that's been the star early in the season, having yet to yield a touchdown. BYU has been one of the worst offenses so far, and to me that sounds like an easy win for the Razorbacks.

NFL Game of the Week: Jets at Cowboys (-9) -- The Jets' season went down the drain four plays into the Aaron Rodgers era, and then they somehow pulled out a miraculous win over the Bills. By "somehow" I mean Josh Allen did everything in his power to give them the game. Maybe he felt bad for their fans after the Rodgers injury? Regardless, the Cowboys will show them no such mercy. That defense looked nasty shutting down the other New York Jersey team, en route to a 40-0 opening win. This one will be a similar story.

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Mallory McCormack
As I sit here and eat some of my crow thanks to the following statement made last week "So with that, let's hit week 2 with a little NFL action throw in (hopefully thrown by someone with a good arm like Josh Allen...)," I am beginning to wonder if the football gods are just toying with us or if it's just normal chaos. In college action, I was thankful to at least be correct about Miami & Colorado, but MTSU & Mizzou was not pretty. And of course the Bears let me down but not as bad as Josh Allen's arm let down many fantasy teams. So let's try and get back on track and run it back like Xavier Gipson...

Minnesota at North Carolina (-7.5) - Minnesota is 2-0 and has played Nebraska and Eastern Michigan. As we saw last week in Colorado, Nebraska is not the Nebraska of old. And Eastern Michigan isn't playing for a shot at a New Year's 6 this year either. That North Carolina defense looked pretty impressive game one. They struggled last week against App State but did not fall into the trap of losing to them. I expect them to bounce back and back the Golden Gophers by more than a TD.

Kansas State (-4.0) at Missouri -- Mizzou gets beat by KSU by more than 4. That’s all I got on this one.

Colorado State at Colorado (-23.0) -- Ok, I'll admit it. I doubted Coach Prime and his ability to have his team ready this early in the season after having only 10 players carry over from last year. But I bought into that narrative. He had more because he brought weapons from JSU with him. These kids are bought in and right now so am I. Do I think Travis Hunter can continue to play 117 snaps each game? Not for the whole season, but for this game, yeah. Colorado wins by more than 3.

NFL Game of the Week:
Packers (+1) at Falcons -- Ok, so let's try this again Packers fans. Forgive me for buying the always unreliable pre-season Bears hype. My bad. I think Jordan Love is going to be a good transition to whoever the next great Green Bay Packer QB is (hopefully they won't steal money from a state government welfare plan). I just don't see the Falcons having it together enough to beat the Packers at this point.

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Note: All games are Against the Spread. Odds are taken from the Caesar's Sportsbook.