The Stanford Cardinal may be the No. 5 team in the country, but they’re coming off a big-time scare against the University of Washington last weekend. The Huskies played them until the very end, and the Cardinal were barely able to escape with a three-point win.
The 15th-ranked Baylor Bears have steamrolled opponents this season, and look to continue their dominant play on Saturday when they take on the Kansas State Wildcats, who will be looking for revenge after their undefeated 2012 season was spoiled by the Bears.
The 19th-ranked Northwestern Wildcats are coming off a hard-fought loss to Ohio State, whom they had a shot at upsetting in the fourth quarter, and they will get thrown right back into the Big Ten fire with a trip to Camp Randall for a date with the Wisconsin Badgers.
No team has been able to make 5-0 look as bad as the 18th-ranked Michigan Wolverines have, dropping in the polls despite a perfect record. They’ll look to put forth an impressive win this weekend when they take on a Big Ten foe, the Penn State Nittany Lions.
It’s the middle of October and the Cleveland Browns are tied for first place, riding a three-game winning streak.
The Houston Texans are a becoming a big disappointment in 2013, after having won the AFC South the last two seasons, and will look to get back to their winning ways when they host the St. Louis Rams on Sunday in an AFC vs. NFC Week 6 NFL battle.
The Green Bay Packers came into this season with a lot of question marks, and it turns out those concerns might have been warranted, as the team stumbled out to a 1-2 start before getting a win on the other side of their bye week.
The Philadelphia Eagles got back on the winning track a week ago with a win over the Giants, and now find themselves in a tie for the division lead despite a slow start to the season. Now they’ll face a Tampa Bay Buccaneers team coming off a bye that has endured a slow start of their own.
Colts Visit Chargers on Monday Night
The Indianapolis Colts play their second game this year on the West Coast when they pay visit to the San Diego Chargers on Monday Night Football. The Colts are coming off a character building win against Seattle while the Chargers laid an egg in Oakland in Week 5 and came away with 27-17 loss in Oakland.
Pitt is now in the ACC but this game should feel a little familiar to the Panthers as they visit Blacksburg to face their old Big East pals the Hokies. So far Pitt has fared reasonably well in their new league, the only hiccup being getting blitzed by Florida State in the opener, not shame in that.
The UNLV Rebels and the Hawaii Warriors are set to face off Saturday night, and while last year’s contest was one-sided in favor of Hawaii, the script might be flipped in 2013. The Warriors are 0-5 up to this point in the season. UNLV, on the other hand, has won its last three games despite losing its first two.
For the first time in school history, the University of Washington will be the site of ESPN’s College Gameday, and for good reason. The No. 16 Washington Huskies are slated to host the No. 2 Oregon Ducks in a matchup of bitter Pac-12 rivals.
The Oddsmakers’ lines for Week 5 in the NFL were razor thin with seven favorites and seven underdogs each covering against the spread. The total line was evenly split as well with seven games going OVER and seven staying UNDER.
Moving on to this week’s games I have uncovered a couple of matchups that come together perfectly to form this Sunday’s NFL parlay of the week based on lines provided by [dfads params=’groups=63740&limit=1&return_javascript=0′].
Pointspread: Kansas City -10
Total Line: 40.5
ATS Matchup Stats | NFL Gambling Insight!
Oakland improved its record to 2-3 straight-up on the year with a 27-17 victory over San Diego in a game that stayed UNDER the 46-point closing line.
The total has now stayed UNDER in four of its first five games. The Raiders’ offense is ranked 23rd in the NFL in scoring with an average of 19.6 points a game, while its defense is holding teams to an average of 21.6 points a game.
The dramatic turnaround in Kansas City from a team that won just two games all last season to one that is off to a perfect 5-0 start has been fueled by an offense that does not turn the ball over and a defense that does not allow teams in its end zone. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
The Chiefs are currently ranked first in the NFL in points allowed; giving-up an average of just 11.6 points a game. Look for them to put the clamps on Oakland as well to keep this game UNDER the 40.5-point line.
Pointspread: New York -2
Total Line: 41
ATS Matchup Stats | NFL Gambling Insight!
The Steelers are one of those early season head-shakers with a 0-4 start has them buried in the basement of the AFC North. They will be coming off a bye after losing to Minnesota 34-27 in a Week 4 matchup in London as three-point favorites.
The one positive take away from that game was an uptick in scoring from an offense that managed a combined 42 points in its first three games.
This team is not as bad as it has looked so far and a week off could mean all the difference for this Sunday’s game.
New York is off to a surprising 3-2 start after last Monday night’s stunning 30-28 victory over Atlanta as a 10-point underdog on the road.
The Jets did steal a game from Tampa Bay on a last second field goal in their season opener and they were blown-out by Tennessee 38-13 as 3.5-point road underdogs in Week 4 so I am still not buying what Rex Ryan’s bunch is trying to sell.
Pittsburgh is 7-3 straight-up in the last 10 meetings and I fully expect the Steelers to get off the schneid with a SU win this time around to secure the back-end of this parlay.
The Arizona State Sun Devils are coming off of a tough three-point loss to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, while the Colorado Buffaloes were completely blown out by the No. 2 Oregon Ducks in Week 6. Both teams are looking to prove they’re better than their most recent showings, and both will look to bounce back against one another on Saturday.
NASCAR’s Sprint Cup series returns to racing under the prime time lights of Charlotte Motor Speedway this week for the running of the Bank of America 500. Saturday night’s race is set to get underway at 7:30 p.m. and it will be broadcast nationally on ABC.
Following a 10-win season, the Cincinnati Bearcats entered the 2013 season with plenty of promise, but they find themselves reeling after a pair of poor efforts on the road. They get the Temple Owls at home this week.
