Monday Spread Option Labor Day Edition

1. Last week we picked which Week 1 College Football game looked the most intriguing this week we pick which one ended up being the best to watch. 

Spencer- 
This one is easy for me; Had to be Florida State and Oklahoma State. College Game Day got their Week 1 location right. The game was back and forth all night. Just when you thought Florida State was going to run away with it Oklahoma State came storming back, and what an effort by their defense. Forced the reigning Heisman winner to throw two picks, were able to make some huge stops when they needed to. Just an overall great game that came down to the final minutes. The Beavers surprised some people I think and on the other end the Seminoles didn't look as unbeatable as they did a year ago.

Ty-
Florida State and Oklahoma State was definitely the best game to watch because it was one of the only ones that had a top ranked team in a close game. I did enjoy watching the Texas A&M vs South Carolina game because of how Kenny Hill and the new and improved Aggie defense just dismantled South Carolina. Either way none of these games were instant classics so hopefully we can get some better games this weekend.

2. The NFL Season officially kicks off on Thursday with a match-up between the defending Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks and the Green Bay Packers. With week one getting started pick your preseason favorites to meet in Super Bowl 49 and a champion. 

2014 NFL Season Previews: AFC East

Just 17 days. That's how long we have to wait for the NFL season to return. In honor of the occasion Running The Spread Blog is breaking down the upcoming season division by division.

Today we begin with the AFC East.

1. New England Patriots

2013: 12-4, won the AFC East. Lost in AFC Championship Game.

Key Losses: RB LaGarrette Blount, CB Aqib Talib, LB Brandon Spikes, LB Dane Fletcher and TE Mathew Mulligan.

Key Additions: CB Darrelle Revis, CB Brandon Browner, Rookie DL Dominique Easley, S Patrick Chung, WR Brandon LaFell, DE Will Smith and LB James Anderson

Toughest Match-ups in 2014: Kansas City Chiefs, Cincinnati Bengals, Chicago Bears, Denver Broncos, Indianapolis Colts, Green Bay Packers

2014 Outcome: 

It's Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the Patriots, so enough said. Baring some unforeseen injury to Brady this team will be in the playoffs. They addressed basically everything that held them back last season particularly on the defensive side of the ball adding guys like Revis, Browner and Chung in

the secondary, as well as Smith and Anderson at linebacker. I'm definitely not worried about a loss like Talib because Revis is a better defender than him anyway, arguably the best in the game. Those other guys give them depth defensively, which they didn't have last year. Easley is coming off an ACL injury and is slowly working his way into practice. As a rookie he'll probably get out to a slow start as he regains a feel for the game, but he certainly has the potential to be dangerous for them upfront. Offensively LaFell adds some more depth at receiver for Brady following a year where his options were limited and inexperienced. Rob Gronkowski's return from injury obviously helps the cause as well, but New England needs him to stay healthy. If he does Brady has a number of solid targets to throw to, and that can make this offense extremely dangerous. I predict that the AFC East title will once again reside in New England.

Monday Spread Option 03-17-14

It's March Madness time! Which region of the bracket looks like the toughest?

Ty-
The toughest region has to be the midwest region. It has 1 seed Wichita St. and 2 seed Michigan but it get's a lot tougher with Louisville as a 4 seed and Duke as a 3 seed. Oh and don't forget about Kentucky, the team that almost beat Florida yesterday, as an 8 seed. Oh and 5 seed Saint Louis does tend to keep lesser teams in the game because of their playing style but they also keep themselves in games against better teams too. So you really can't sleep on anybody in this bracket. This is already a hard bracket for me to pick just because I could see so many teams coming out of this bracket.