Holy Wagers - September 15th Weekend

This is the first installment of the Pope's "Holy Wagers". These are my favorite plays of the week in the sports betting world.

College Games

• Purdue -21 vs Central Michigan [Pope's take: Typical Purdue team - beat up on the little guys with huge offense, throwing all 4 quarters. Purdue has looked very good so far on offense, with everyone back from a bowl team last year. QB Painter is good.]
• Ohio St. -4 @ Washingon [Pope's take: Washington is coached by Ty Willingham. Seriously though, Washington just wont be ready for a more physical defense. I look for OSO to get some big turnovers and just enough offense to cover]
• Boston College +6.5 @ Georgia Tech [Pope's Take: BC is a solid team with one of the best QBs in the country. Georgia Tech's defense is awesome. However, Im not sold on Tech's offense though, and think that this will be a close enough game for BC to cover]

Pro Games

• Bengals -7 @ Browns [Pope's Take: The Browns are awful, and will be especially awful until they start Brady Quinn, which doesnt appear to be in the cards for this weekend. The Bengals have too many offensive weapons, while the Browns have too few, for this to be a close game.]
• Lions-3 vs Vikings [Pope's Take: The Vikings have a very young QB who I am just not sold on. The Lions have some serious WRs and scored well last week against a top defense in the league in Oakland. In Detroit, Martz's guys on offense will be all over the field and I think this is the "Most Blessed Holy Wager" of the week. And yes, the Vikings beat them twice last year, but Im a believer in that offense and not in Tavaris Jackson.
• Titans +7.5 vs Colts [Pope's Take: Yes, the Titans are my team, and its hard to be unbiased. However, the Titans ran the ball incredibly last weekend against a very tough Jaguars squad. Also, last season, the Colts beat the Titans 14-13 in Indy, and the Titans beat the Colts in Nashville. Jeff Fisher is very familiar with the Colts, and usually gets the Titans ready to play against these guys. Straight up, the Titans are 9-3 in their last 12 games, including an ultra impressive 9-3 against the spread in that same span. One more fact - the Titans have covered 6 of their last 7 AFC South games.

We'll see how I do the first week. A good prognosticator will go over 60% correct for a season, which will probably be pretty difficult for me. But nonetheless, you have my best.

FYI - I use a website called Scores & Odds, to obtain my line information. It gives up to the minute lines, as well as a history of how the lines may have changed since they opened for each game. A useful tool.