The captain is back for week 2 NFL predictions and week 3 College Football predictions! Plus, in this jammed packed blog entry, I added some bonus information on one of my favorite hobbies, The Great American Cinema. Hold your applause; it’s not necessary, especially after the ghastly performance in picking games last week. The Captain went a solid 8-2 in picking college football, but barely finished over .500 in NFL picks going 9-7. Overall that ends up being 17-9. Not too good by my standards. Its okay, last week will eventually prove to be valuable. I learned a few things:
1. Running Diaries are a fun idea, but take away greatly from actually watching games. My passion is writing, but I also like being able to watch the games without having to constantly monitor what is going on. From now on, any running diaries are going to be retro diaries. It’s settled.
2. Apparently not all Florida teams will win over Ohio teams this year. I took a shot with picking the upset of Miami over Ohio St, but it didn’t pay off. I understand why though. LeBron wanted the Buckeyes to win. He loves Ohio St, just hates the Cavaliers. And Cleveland. Remember, he is taking mental notes. He was aware that Terrelle Pryor had been supporting him. So LeBron got what he wanted, a Buckeyes win.
3. Denard Robinson is God. Enough said.
4. Picking NFL games isn’t simply going with the team that is supposed to win. 7 of the 12 playoff teams from last year lost on opening weekend. The Texans were ready, the Redskins were ready (or was it the Cowboys weren’t ready), and the Chiefs were ready. Could there be a changing of the guard? Not necessarily.
5. I love the Monday Night double header! I couldn’t enjoy that more and I absolutely love the idea of there being a Monday Night double header every week. Scrap that crappy Thursday night game and give me two Monday Night games every week. In November by the time we start having Thursday NFL night games, NBA is on TNT on Thursday nights. And I will be watching NBA, I could guarantee that.
6. First weekend of football + home for the weekend from college= good food. My god! The food schedule might have been better than the schedule of football games. Shrimp and pasta, Chicken Parmesan and Stuffed bread in consecutive nights. That is food heaven for the Captain.
Anyways, on to the picks. Remember, last week I was a combined 17-9, a winning percentage of only 65%. Time to get on track this week!
College Football
Arkansas over Georgia
North Carolina over Georgia Tech
West Virginia over Maryland
Nebraska over Washington
Florida State over BYU
Florida over Tennessee
Texas over Texas Tech
Iowa over Arizona
Houston over UCLA
Stanford over Wake Forest
NFL
Tennessee over Pittsburgh
Minnesota over Miami
Atlanta over Arizona
Baltimore over Cincinnati
Kansas City over Cleveland
Chicago over Dallas
Philadelphia over Detroit
Green Bay over Buffalo
Carolina over Tampa Bay
Seattle over Denver
Oakland over St. Louis
Houston over Washington
New England over New York Jets
San Diego over Jacksonville
Indianapolis over New York Giants
New Orleans over San Francisco
A final big thought that I should just turn into a separate column:
I just got back from Easy A. I really enjoyed that movie. Emma Stone was hilarious and very cute, and the story was original. I was very impressed, and even mentioned that in my Facebook status. The upcoming slate of movie releases intrigues me very much. From today, September 17th until just the end of October, I have 12 movies (Not counting Easy A) that I feel like as a pop culture guru I should watch. What are those movies you ask:
12-6 in order of release:
Catfish- Some type of creepy looking documentary, which states “The final forty minutes of the film will take you on an emotional roller-coaster ride that you won’t be able to shake for days, and “A shattering conclusion.” That excites me. Released on September 17.
Devil- This one is an M. Night Shyamalan film. Looks like it might be really good or really bad, no in between. Fact: I’ve never seen a movie that is associated with M. Night Shyamalan except the beginning of Lady in the Water. Released on September 17.
Buried- I don’t know if I can make myself see this because there is a good chance I will freak out during it. Ryan Reynolds stars in a thriller where he is buried alive and being taped. He has a cell phone, a lighter and 90 minutes of oxygen. And he needs one million dollars in order to get out. Good luck Van Wilder! Released on September 24.
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps- Sequel to the 1987 film in which Michael Douglas won the Academy Award for Best Actor. This time, Shia LeBeouf co-stars with Douglas. Had I seen the original, this one may have cracked the top 5, but I’m going into this uninformed. Released on September 24.
Secretariat- The true story of the Triple Crown winning horse (Damn, sorry if I spoiled the ending of this movie for anyone.) Disney has a pretty good track record with sports movies (Remember the Titans and Miracle,) so I’m expecting the same in this one. Released on October 8.
Jackass 3D- The fact that it’s in 3D doesn’t excite me as much as the simple fact that there is another Jackass movie for our viewing pleasure. It has been so long since I’ve seen new Jackass hooligans. I had been going through withdrawal. Everything I’ve seen in the preview has looked hilarious. And FYI: if you are interested in watching any of the trailers, you can find them on You Tube. Released on October 15.
Paranormal Activity 2- The bad news: Is there any chance the sequel is half as good as the original? In a word, probably not. The storyline will be an exact replica of the first and it will feature the same kind of scares. The good news: Those scares scared the ever living hell out of me the first time around. So that probably means there will be a repeat performance. Released on October 22.
5. Conviction- Hillary Swank stars in the true story of an uneducated woman who goes back to high school, then to college in order to become a lawyer and defend her brother who was convicted of murder. She dedicated almost 2 decades of her life to try to prove her brothers supposed innocence. In case you couldn’t tell, this has “Academy Awards” written all over it. Released on October 15.
4. Stone- Two words: Ed Norton. And another THREE words: Robert De Niro. Norton stars as Stone, a convict who is attempting to get an early release from prison, but has to go through parole officer Mabry (De Niro.) In an attempt to increase his chances of getting out, Stone’s looks to his wife to try to convince Officer Mabry to approve his release. However, an affair arises between Stone’s wife and a much older Mabry. Uh oh! Who knows how this is going to end up. Released on October 8.
3. The Town- The Town is made by the same studio that brought us The Departed. If The Town is half as good as The Departed, this will be worth seeing. Ben Affleck stars as a bank robber who falls for a woman whom he and his bank robber friends kidnapped on one of their jobs. If you are asking yourself “Why the hell would she fall in love with a guy who kidnapped her?” it’s because they wear cool masks that make them look like goblins and nuns when they rob banks. I really hope this can live up to the hype, because I’m big on The Town. Released on September 17.
2. The Social Network- For some reason, this is my most anticipated movie of the next month (I know it says #2 for The Social Network, but you’ll see why in a minute.) It’s number one for a couple of reasons.
A. The idea of making a movie about the website that more people from teenage years on up use daily sounds awesome to me. I never realized that there was so much drama involved in a website that is all about causing drama. Facebook has been a key piece of the last decade. Perhaps no other website or media invention is as prevalent on a day to day basis as Facebook is.
B. The immortal Justin Timberlake is in The Social Network. He is ready to bring Sexy Back… again.
C. The TV spot for this movie is totally frickin’ awesome! They hype the absolute right things that need to be hyped and top it off with Kanye West’s song Power, which couldn’t fit more perfectly. Job well done by those who made that trailer. Released on October 1.
1. Saw 7- If you know me and you knew that Saw 7 was coming out on October 29, then you knew this was going to be number one. Regardless of the fact that other movies mentioned in this list will be much better than Saw 7, the final chapter of the Saw series is absolutely must see cinema, despite my displeasure with Saw 6. Nonetheless, my commitment to this series has been unparalleled. I have figured out the twist in 4 of the 6 movies, a track record that I feel is pretty damn impressive. I expect nothing less than a mind blowing “Holy crap I did not see that coming at all! I’m still shocked at how that shit ended!” And I don’t think I mentioned all of this blood and gore will be in 3D. That’s a visual orgasm. Whoa! An explanation of the Saw series has “separate column” written all over it. Released on October 29.
I know after reading my awesome previews you are as excited as me to see these movies. If I happen to see any of them, you will be the first to know how they were. I’m that kind of guy. Happy football weekend!
