Everyone thought last week was the time to pick against Alabama. LSU was the number 1 team in the country and the Crimson Tide have struggled in the past against the Tigers.
But, what many forgot to realize, is that LSU isn’t as good as its record would have made you thought. The schedule hasn’t been difficult and the Tigers are too one-dimensional to compete with college football’s best. This week, though, is the actual time for people to worry about Alabama’s chances at losing another game.
To see what we think about that game, check out our college football Lockness Monsters.
Here are two games we’ll keep an eye on this weekend. Last week’s betting guide for each major conference went 6-4 and was 1-1 in the SEC. Overall for the season, the betting guides have been 8-10 in the SEC and 53-43 overall in the power-five conferences.
BYU (-6.5) vs. Missouri
In case you haven’t noticed, there’s been a few distractions at Missouri this week. But this isn’t just about the distractions.
This is about a Missouri football team that just isn’t that good.
The offense is failing to do anything, and with all the distractions occurring on campus in the past week, we can’t imagine that helps produce a better offense.
And BYU is a good enough football team to take advantage of a team without much focus. The Cougars started out strong, had a tough time for a two-game stretch, but have since rattled off five straight wins.
The offense is good enough to move the ball against the Tigers, and we don’t see Missouri scoring hardly at all. The betting public has been firm in this game, moving Missouri from being a favorite to giving the Cougars an almost touchdown advantage. We agree. — Go chalk with BYU
Kentucky at Vanderbilt (-3)
Normally we wouldn’t go with Vanderbilt. But the way the Wildcats have played recently, we’d take almost any team over Kentucky.
After a promising start, Kentucky has lost four straight games and wasn’t competitive last week against a bad Georgia team. The offense isn’t doing anything and the defense has fallen on hard times, after a promising start to the season.
And while we’re not too sold on Vanderbilt, it’s been competitive lately. Vanderbilt came within two points of orchestrating the biggest upset of the SEC season last week against Florida. And the Commodores are 2-3 straight up in the last five games.
That doesn’t sound like a great number, but for Vanderbilt, we’ll take it. — Go chalk with Vanderbilt
Other SEC games
Florida (-8) at South Carolina
North Texas at Tennessee (-41)
Georgia at Auburn (-1.5)
Alabama (-8) at Mississippi State
Western Carolina at Texas A&M (-36.5)
Arkansas at LSU (-7.5)
