Howdy everyone and welcome back to Nikkel’s Picks! We’re in the last week of September which means we’re already a full month into the football season. It goes by so fast, we didn’t do too terribly last week, going 4-5 on the week thus making our record 14-18. We got a way to go to reach .500 and get into the green. Hopefully this will be the week to do it. Here we go. We begin with our local teams.
Cowboys at Giants (Tonight at 7:15 p.m. CT, Amazon Prime Video)
The pick: Cowboys -5.5
Thursday Night Football features “Dem Boys” after their loss to the Ravens. They travel to the Big Apple (or East Rutherford, New Jersey) to take on the New York Football Giants. I know the Giants won but I do not trust Daniel Jones at all. I’ll reluctantly take the Cowboys here, the Giants stink.
#20 Oklahoma State at #23 Kansas State (Saturday at 11 a.m. CT, ESPN)
The pick: Kansas State -5.5
I’m getting flashbacks to the last time Oklahoma State traveled to Little Manhattan. It was a 49-0 blowout. It featured Gunnar Gundy’s hands shaking in the pocket in the fourth quarter. There’s a reason he’s at Emporia State now ladies and gentleman. I don’t trust Alan Bowman at all. Ollie Gordon hasn’t been impressive in his last three games. The Wildcats are going to be angry after losing to BYU. I’ll take Kansas State with the points here unfortunately for our Stillwater fans out there.
#21 Oklahoma at Auburn (Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT, ABC)
The picks: Oklahoma -1.5 & Under 45.5 points
This is an honest to the Heavens a toss up game. I somehow trust Michael Hawkins in Jordan-Hare Stadium over that Auburn Tiger team. I also really love the under here, both offenses are bad, really bad. It’ll be a 17-10 slugfest.
And now… the rest of my picks.
#15 Louisville at #16 Notre Dame (Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT, Peacock)
The pick: Louisville -6.5
I do not care if Notre Dame is the bigger program, if they have more prestige or if the Irish are at home. Louisville is the flat out better team. They are the more entertaining team and they are one of the best teams in the ACC. I’ll take the Cardinals over the Irish in South Bend.
Arkansas at #24 Texas A&M (in Arlington, Texas) (Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT, ESPN)
The pick: Arkansas +4.5
The Southwest Classic is one of the more interesting SEC rivalries. A clash of former Southwest Conference opponents now meet in AT&T Stadium in Arlington so Jerry Jones can be disappointed in another team that he likes. However, I love Arkansas’ offense and Bobby Petrino has the hogs rolling. Mike Elko still has some work to do. I’ll take the +4.5 for Arkansas here as I see this being a three point game. But I totally expect something weird to happen.
Wagner at Florida Atlantic (Saturday at 5 p.m. CT, ESPN+)
The pick: Florida Atlantic -29.5
There’s not a whole lot of reasoning for this pick. It really is just because of this:
If you don’t know who AJ and Big Justice are, it’s ok because I just learned about them this month. They are a father and son duo that are viral TikTok stars that literally go to Costco and eat cookies and whatever the heck a chicken bake is, while rating things on a BOOM or DOOM scale. I don’t understand it half that time, but it’s nice that a father and son are making shopping fun. I’ll take the Florida Atlantic Owls here. I think AJ would call that a boom.
Washington State at #25 Boise State (Saturday at 9 p.m. CT, FS1)
The pick: Over 63.5 points
This could easily be the best game of the week. You have an undefeated Cougars team traveling to the blue turf of Boise to take on the number 25 Broncos. Ashton Jeanty is a dawg. Both of these offenses are electric, the defenses… well, have their moments. But you give me the chaos of a 9 p.m. kickoff on FS1? This game is going to be electric. I’ll take the over here.
Eagles at Buccaneers (Sunday at 12 p.m. CT, FOX)
The pick: Buccaneers +1.5
So what if I picked the Buccaneers last week and it didn’t work out. I’m now going to do what they call a spin zone. Clearly that was a let down spot for the Buccaneers after a giant win against the Lions in Detroit. But now they have an Eagles team coming into town. There’s playoff history here. The Eagles season ended in Tampa. But after that disastrous loss to the Broncos, I think Baker is going to relish in this underdog role against and beat the Eagles outright. I’ll ride the pirate ship again and hope Baker Mayfield bakes again.
Browns at Raiders (Sunday at 3:25 p.m. CT, CBS)
The pick: Raiders -1.5
You can’t lose to both the Panthers and Browns back to back weeks man. So far the Raiders are the weirdest team in the NFL and have been super inconsistent. Beating the Ravens but losing to the Panthers is actually nuts. They have to be Deshaun Watson here right? Antonio Pierce put the Raiders roster on notice last week and I think they’ll mind their Ps and Qs after that disastrous performance.
Parlay of the Week
Seeing Red: Cardinals +6.5, Arkansas +4.5 & Oklahoma moneyline (+583)
I like doing parlays where everyone is playing at the same time. Because if you have a parlay with an 11 a.m. game, a 2:30 p.m. game and a 6:30 p.m. game, the parlay could be ruined before the second game. Funny enough, all of these games are at 2:30 p.m. and all these teams wear red. Therefore, like a bull in front of a matador, we are seeing red in this parlay.
Always make sure to gamble responsibly. Good luck everyone.
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