ETG if I may let me talk you off the ND/SDSU first half line a bit in favor of the full game.
I'll just list the reasons why I think a full game spread is a better option than a 1st half:
SDSU has played a game. Regardless of what happened they won't have the 1st game confusion that we saw all weekend, especially ST blunders. Alot of these problems get ironed out during halftime.
SDSU is thin up front. This will be most noticeable in the 2nd half when they haven't had the ability to shuffle fresh bodies in/out. The Aztecs have a chance, however small, to hang for a half but will eventually wear down.
ND will go for blood here. With a spread of 3 TD's their is no reason ND would let up until extremely late. Think 5 TD's. I'd be shocked if they went into the half up 28-3 only to let SDSU come back and make it a 35-17 game. Weiss needs to show the ND faithful that this team is different from last year and what better way than a 1st game blowout.
The emberassment of the Cal Poly loss will show more in the motivational department for the Aztecs in the 1st half then then 2nd half. One could see them coming out fired up and keeping the game close in the 1st half. This motivation should be overcome by a pure talent gap.
With the injuries that the Aztecs have on their DLine and their OLine being in shambles as well I think you're better off letting 48 minutes of football overcome the random INT's and every other random occurence that may happen in one half.
Just my .02c though.
wow, thank you for these comments. I am going to stick with the full-game because you've made a good enough case to stay away from the 1st half.
Having some trouble cutting down my leans and picking the games I want to play. Current leans:
WVU -8: Think w/ the upset of a well-known program like VT, there is value in WVU here. Friends said WVU looked like dog shit in WK1 but I think they will play better and ECU has their attention. Think like goes up from here though and not down.
SoMiss +17.5: Auburn didn't look so hot on offense in WK1, they have some injuries to deal with, they don't have the game breakers imo here, still adjusting to life with a new offense, game is at 12:30pm too and from my experience of going to early games, the crowd sucks and the team laying a lot of points can be sluggish. Force Auburn to throw the ball and don't make any mistakes and set them up with good field position. Both teams want to run, clock will be moving, strong lean to the points here.
ND -21.5: I think the reports from the forum are pretty detailed enough here, SDST sucks and ND has to make a statement.
UConn -7: I know Temple should of maybe won the game last year and they got robbed by the refs but I think UConn is salty enough on defense here to win this game by a fair margin. I am worried about Lorenzen sucking at QB in this game and would prefer if UConn kept the ball on the ground. Temple couldn't run on Army, they will not run on UConn which makes them 1-Dimensional and UConn pass defense is pretty good.
UL Monroe +12.5: Please tell me how Arkansas can be laying anything like this right now? This is more of a "prove me wrong" type play. They were losing in the friggen 4th last week to ultra-super-power Western Illinois and UL Monroe played better than 34-0 versus Auburn.
Other games of interest:
CMU-6
usf -13.5
Mem -3.5
