It’s a Friday edition of “No Huddle” which means I’ll be highlighting the games of the weekend in the NFL and college football. Plus, I’ll be finishing up as always with my picks against the spread for the NFL. Before I get there, let me quickly touch on last night’s game between the Cardinals and 49ers.

Arizona got a much needed win against San Francisco last night, and if you read my preview of the game, it went just the way I thought it would. Big games from David Johnson, Larry Fitzgerald, and the Cardinals defense propelled them to a 33-21 win last night.

While this was a big game for Arizona, all of the news coming out of this game is about the dismal state of the 49ers. Chip Kelly said after the game that he needed to reevaluate every player’s spot on the roster, including the quarterback position. I was all over the potential problems in San Francisco coming into this season, and aside from the surprising win in the opener, they have met my expectations.

Now, lets get to the rest of another big week in football. The NFL slate looks good on Sunday, led by a great matchup between Atlanta and Denver. This is rightly the national game of the week on television. Atlanta features the top rated offense so far this season, while Denver’s defensive juggernaut is nothing new to us. There are a couple of important things to keep in mind for this game. The first is the dominance of Denver at home against NFC opponents, as the Broncos are currently riding a ten-game winning streak coming into this game.

The second thing I’m looking at is the health of the Falcons on offense. They will need all hands on deck against Denver, and look to have Mohamed Sanu and Jacob Tamme available. Both have been dealing with injuries for a couple of weeks now, and are on track to play through their injuries again. The name that has not shown up on the injury report is Tevin Coleman, who may see a severely reduced workload on Sunday. Coleman has sickle cell trait, and playing in the high altitude in Denver could exacerbate the symptoms. Expect to see more Devonta Freeman on Sunday, as the Falcons need to be careful with Coleman.

Another game that caught my eye on Sunday is between Houston and Minnesota. I firmly believe that the Vikings should win this game, but I think Houston presents an interesting challenge on both sides of the ball. Offensively, Houston has playmakers all over the field, but has struggled to keep the pocket clean for Brock Osweiler. With big play threats in DeAndre Hopkins and Will Fuller V, this offensive line needs to step up and give Osweiler time to throw. Minnesota has been great on defense, and this will be a nice little test for them on a short week.

Sunday Night Football features a showdown between Eli Manning and Aaron Rodgers, which could produce one hell of a duel between these Super Bowl champions at quarterback. The Packers have not quite looked like the team we are used to seeing, but coming off of a bye week hopefully they have ironed out some of their issues. The Giants were smothered for most of the night against Minnesota on Monday, but have showed some promise early in the season. Both offenses are loaded with talent and the defenses are both capable of making plays. This has the makings of a great primetime game.

Let’s shift quickly over to college football, where the SEC is stealing all of the headlines coming into this week. The big matchup this week is the top-ten clash between #9 Tennessee and #8 Texas A&M. Just on face value hear, I like Texas A&M a lot in this game. These aren’t the Aggies that we’ve become accustomed to seeing over the past few years. They are playing fantastic defense so far this season and playing in front of a great home crowd will give them quite the edge in this game. Another reason I like Texas A&M actually has nothing to do with the Aggies, but with Tennessee. The Volunteers are coming off that miraculous win last week against Georgia, but I see an emotional letdown in the cards for Tennessee. They have been playing tightly contested games all season, and I think their luck may have run out.

The primetime game for the SEC is between #1 Alabama and #16 Arkansas. I learned my lesson the last time I thought Alabama was on upset alert, so I’m not going to jump the gun there. I will say that Alabama has been susceptible to losing conference games on the road against ranked opponents. I’m not falling into that trap this week; I think Alabama is just too good of a team for them to lose this game.

Now onto my picks for Week 5 of the NFL, and I’m not going to lie it was a nail biter for me last week. I still have not gone under .500 with my picks yet, and for a while there last week that streak looked dead. A miraculous comeback in the late games and a sweep of SNF/MNF got me above .500 for the week. So I’m going to try and keep this streak alive again this week. Let’s take a look at the picks (Winners in Bold).

This Week: 1-0     Last Week: 8-7       2016 Season: 34-29

1:00 PM

Houston vs. Minnesota (-5)

Tennessee (+3.5) vs. Miami

New England (-10) vs. Cleveland

NY Jets vs. Pittsburgh (-7)

Washington vs. Baltimore (-4)

Philadelphia (-3.5) vs. Detroit

Chicago (+5) vs. Indianapolis

4:05/4:25 PM

Atlanta vs. Denver (-6.5)

Buffalo vs. Los Angeles (-3)

San Diego vs. Oakland (-3.5)

Cincinnati (+1.5) vs. Dallas

 

Sunday Night Football

NY Giants vs. Green Bay (-7)

 

Enjoy all of the action this weekend, between baseball and football you should be covered. Keep the conversation going on social media, follow me on Twitter @thereal_jmooney and go like the Shooting the Moon page on Facebook. I’ll be back on Monday to recap the best of the weekend.

October baseball, I just love being able to type those two words. Every pitch matters, and every at-bat is critical. Today kicks off both of the NL Divisional Series, while the AL got a head start yesterday. I’ll be checking in periodically with the MLB Postseason as we get closer to the World Series.

So lets take a quick look at the slate today, which could prove to be an awesome day of playoff baseball. As I’m writing this, Toronto just finished off Texas in Game 2 of its Divisional Series, opening up a 2-0 lead going back to Toronto for a potential sweep of the Rangers on Sunday. Here is what the rest of the day looks like.

Boston vs. Cleveland (Cleveland leads 1-0) – Game 2: 4:30 PM (TBS)

The Indians got a big win last night over the Red Sox to open up this series, but could have come at a cost for today. Terry Francona went to his bullpen early last night, and may have exhausted his two best relievers for Game 2. Andrew Miller and Cody Allen pitched a combined four innings and threw 80 pitches last night. The pitching matchup is fantastic between David Price and Corey Kluber. Price is susceptible to getting shelled in playoff games, so I would be cautious if I were Boston. The Red Sox will have to get its offense going early, and try to chase Kluber out of the ball game to get to a potentially short-handed Cleveland bullpen. Another thing that may work in Boston’s favor today, there is no way this lineup is combining for twelve strikeouts again.

Los Angeles vs. Washington – Game 1: 5:30 PM (Fox Sports 1)

In my opinion, it won’t get much better than this pitching matchup. Clayton Kershaw going up against Max Scherzer has the potential to be a duel for the ages. These are two of the best pitchers in the entire MLB and hopefully they both deliver. I say that because the one place where Kershaw has struggled in his career is in the postseason. LA desperately needs Kershaw to shake off the postseason funk because Scherzer has been dominant this season, notching a career best in strikeouts as well as winning 20 games. Out of all four playoff series, I think this is the most important Game 1 we will see.

San Francisco vs. Chicago – Game 1: 9:00 PM (Fox Sports 1)

This has all the makings to be an amazing series. Chicago’s World Series drought is well documented while San Francisco is back in the postseason in an even year. The Giants won the World Series in 2010, 2012, and 2014, so history is certainly on their side here. Don’t count out the Cubs though; this is the best team in baseball with the best manager in the game in Joe Maddon. Game 1 will see a great pitching matchup between Johnny Cueto and Jon Lester. This has the potential to be the epitome of October baseball.

 

Stay tuned to Shooting the Moon as I’m working on the Friday edition of “No Huddle.” Follow me on Twitter @thereal_jmooney and go like the Shooting the Moon page on Facebook.