THE UAB Blazers take on the Northern Illinois Huskies on December 18 at FAU Football Stadium in the Boca Raton Bowl. NIU had some ups and downs, but still managed to win their last game to win the MAC title and they look to close out the season strong. Standing in their way is the Conference USA champion UAB Blazers, winners of ten games this season and also looking for a nice bowl triumph to cap off a big season. Read on to get our prognosticator’s ATS play on the game.
The Arizona State Sun Devils take on the Fresno State Bulldogs in the Las Vegas Bowl on December 15. It looks to be a competitive game, despite some divergent results this season. The Sun Devils finished well but were still only 7-5 this season—more or less also-ran status in the PAC-12 Conference. The Bulldogs won 11 games this season and ended the season on a big note with an overtime win at Boise for the Mountain West Conference title. Read NCAA football handicapper Loot’s pick to cover the spread on this college bowl game.
The Cleveland Browns take on the Denver Broncos at Mile High in week 15 AFC action in a Saturday Night Football matchup. As each team has 7 losses, the postseason seems out of the question in a crowded AFC wild card picture, but these are two teams that are playing hard, trying to set the table for the future. And both have done well in some regards toward that end, especially the 5-win Browns who have found wins a lot easier to come by than the last few seasons. On Sunday, a win over the Panthers was their third win in four games. On Sunday, the Broncos faltered to the Niners after a nice run of wins that got them back to .500. How do you play these scrappy teams here in week 15? LL has your free NFL pick.
Rocky Fielding of Liverpool defends his WBA Super Middleweight title against one of the sport’s biggest stars in Canelo Alvarez. The 31-year old Fielding might not be known by fans on this side of the pond, but he’s a capable 168-pounder and if nothing else, the biggest fighter Canelo has faced. Alvarez, 28, is fresh off a September 15 win over GGG, with this being a fight not many expected so soon after such a tough fight against his arch-rival. Can Fielding catch Canelo looking past him or will Canelo overpower and out-skill a fighter in Fielding who might not quite be up-to-snuff for a challenge of this nature?
The Los Angeles Rams take on the Chicago Bears on Sunday at Soldier Field on a key NFC week 14 matchup. The Bears, playing without starting QB Mitchell Trubisky for the second straight week, saw their five-game win streak broken on Sunday in a rough overtime loss to the Giants, 30-27. They look to bounce back with the return of their QB, but it’s not easy when the team with the best record in the conference is coming to town. Despite the league records online sportsbooks are only favoring the Rams by a field goal.
The Detroit Lions come to Glendale for a week 14 match with the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. Neither team has had a successful season based on wins and losses, but their is still fight left in both clubs based on Week 13 games. The oddsmaker has the Cardinals as a small -2.5 home favorite with the total line offered up at 40.5 points. Scoring greater than 20 points has been a problem for both teams all season and the Week 14 match-ups suggest more of the same. Read our prognosticator opinion on how the game will unfold and get his forecast.
The Denver Broncos come into the Bay Area for a week 14 showdown with the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday Night Football. San Francisco is home, coming off their third loss in a row—a 43-16 road-loss to the Seahawks last Sunday. At 2-10 and almost as bad against the spread, confidence is low and for a good reason. The linesmaker has the Broncos as a -5.5 road favorite. Denver is banged up on the defensive side of the ball so they may be ripe for the upset. Football handicapper Loot Levinson has down his homework and gives out his suggested wager on the game.
The struggling Bengals losers of six of their last seven matches head to Los Angeles to take on the high flying Chargers in Week 14 NFL action. The NFL betting board lists the hosts as a large -14 point spread favorite with the total posted at 47.5 points. This has the feel of a college game to me with Cincinnati outmatched in most metrics making the two-touchdown line appear to be an underlay. Get Loot’s take on this game and see which side of the spread he is landing on.
The Fresno State Bulldogs come to Albertsons Stadium to take on the Boise State Broncos in the Mountain West Conference Championship Game. Both teams are 10-2, with Fresno having won the West division with a 7-1 conference record and Boise taking down the Mountain division with the same mark. Last week, Boise beat a 10-1 Utah State team, 33-24, to win the division and earn a spot in this game. Fresno finished the season strongly and now looks for revenge against their tormentors. Who will be the victor this time around and more importantly who will get the money?
The Stanford Cardinal come to Memorial Stadium in Berkeley for a week 14 PAC-12 showdown with the California Golden Bears. It’s not much of a road trip, with Stanford about an hour from Cal and it should be a well-contested game between these 7-4 teams. Both teams have won two in a row, but the similarities end there. In what has been a wild and woolly PAC-12 this season, each season’s path to this spot has been very different. Read on to get Loot’s free college football pick.