Well folks, we have hit ourselves a bit of a skid! This past weekend produced a record setting worst week in Guster’s Guarantee’s history on top of the losing week that preceded it. Now I’m sure that this will provide ample fuel for the haters out there to slander the good Guster name. Good, let em. Sometimes too much success can be a bad thing. I feed off of the pressure and all the early success we have had this year may have softened my edge. As I have preached time and time again, this is a roller coaster and if you can’t hang in there on the lows then you don’t deserve the highs when we bounce back. Now, there did happen to be one silver lining that came out of all of these hot trash picks – Josh decided to only challenge one game this week and it just so happened to be a winner for Gus! Nice going Joshy boy, you saved my week from being a total and utter disaster!
Josh’s challenge:
IND -1 vs HOU
What’s really quite funny about the challenge this week is that if you read gUsTeR’s bLuNdeRs, Josh states that he felt I made some great picks and it would be difficult to find an opening, lol. So he decided that his best option was to take his single best counter. Well that turned out to be the Texans on the road in Indianapolis coming off an upset of Kansas City the week before. You see, Josh is very surface level with his thinking and he considers a big win like that an encouraging sign for the following week. I look beyond the surface and actually count that against Houston. Why is that? Because beating one of the best teams in the league on the road takes a perfect performance. It takes a huge amount of focus and energy, and that is very difficult to repeat on back to back weeks on the road against another very solid team. Josh thinks this game should be considered a toss up. Well if two teams are considered even then the line should be 3 points, given standard home field advantage. In this game, the spread was only 1 point, which implies the Texans are 2 points better than the Colts on a neutral field. I don’t think so. My man Jacoby Brissett had my back on this one big time and put on his best performance since taking over the full time starting duties. Colts would hold off the Texans in a hard fought battle by a touchdown. Gus regains the lead 4-3.
Alright lets get this over with and recap my stupidity:
College picks – [0-5]
Yikes! Not a single winner on Saturday, now that is embarrassing. The first two picks of the day were a double up on Louisville +24 and the over (62). The theory behind this pick was that Louisville was riding high after a 62-59 slug-fest upset win over Wake Forest last week and could carry the momentum back home against Clemson. If Louisville could put up 20 points then we’d be guaranteed to hit at least one of the bets. It also presented a nice opportunity for a double backdoor cover if Clemson was leading big and left room for Louisville to score in garbage time. Well, Clemson had a theory of their own and that was to beat the Cardinals into submission and suffocate the offense all day. Tigers win 45-10.
Washington/Oregon under 48.5 was next in line and disappointing in similar fashion. What was believed to be one of the better defenses Oregon has had in years couldn’t get a stop and neither could Washington in the second half. Over gets smashed 35-31.
Penn State got off to a dream start, controlling rival Michigan 21-0 late into the 2nd quarter. The Wolverines answered with a score before the half and one in the 3rd to get back within a touchdown. Penn State hit on a big 53-yard touchdown to open up the 4th quarter, but Michigan would get it back, knocking us out of the money. Michigan would ultimately get a great last minute chance to tie up the game at the goal line but failed, which is a little annoying because if Penn State wasn’t going to cover for us i’d rather them lose.
Oklahoma State seemed to follow suit on the same path to failure that Penn State fell victim to. The Cowboys squandered a 10 point lead in the 3rd into a total 4th quarter meltdown and lose by 18.
A Saturday to forget!
Pro picks – [2-3]
Rams Falcons was the only easy winner of the week as Los Angeles put a stop to an ugly 3 game skid at home against the Atlanta who seems to be totally lost, winning 37-10.
Giants Cardinals looked like a disaster from the start despite Arizona having its biggest play maker in David Johnson severely limited. Chase Edmonds took full advantage of his opportunity and made the Giants defense look like it had more holes in it than Jason’s underwear. Daniel Jones was able to find a way to close the 17 point gap to 3, but the Giants were never able to overcome the deficit and lose to Arizona 27-21.
Oakland ran into the Aaron Rodgers buzz saw as he put up his best day of the season and one of the best of his career, throwing for over 400 yards and 6 total touchdowns. I guess if I was going to lose this one this is the way I’d prefer it to go. Raiders lose 42-24.
Jets did not cover, that is all the relevant info.
Overall Week – [2-8]
Season Record – [36-24]
Total Record – [78-57]
*DISCLAIMER: GUSTER’S GUARANTEES IS NOT LIABLE FOR ANY WAGERS LOST IN RELATION TO ANY SUGGESTIONS MADE DURING THIS SEGMENT*
Week 9 NCAAF Picks
Ohio State -14 vs Wisconsin
Michigan State +7 vs Penn State
Iowa State -10 vs Oklahoma State
Michigan pk vs Notre Dame
Washington State +14 @ Oregon
Week 8 NFL Picks
DET -6.5 vs NYG
IND -4.5 vs DEN
UNDER 43 BUF vs PHI
CAR +6 @ SF
HOU -6.5 vs OAK
Wasted Talent 