All good things must come to an end. After fourteen consecutive victories, I finally tasted the bitterness of defeat. The San Diego Chargers were unable to win against Denver. They weren't even able to keep the deficit to single digits. The streak magic that had saved me for nearly two weeks dissipated. As the fourth quarter progressed, I thought the Gods were still looking down on me. The Broncos had just missed a 53 yard field goal up 14 points. The Chargers had great field position and I thought the back door cover was just half a field away. I didn't need San Diego to make a full comeback but a garbage touchdown would have sufficed. Instead, Philip Rivers threw an interception. Even then, I thought the Streak Pantheon would cater the calls to my whims. However, Raheem Moore's interception was held up by video review and the game was seemingly over. Still, I didn't lose hope. I thought that a quick three and out, a fumble, or even an uncharacteristic pick six was in the cards. After the run I've had, why would I have thought anything else? Peyton Manning had other plans. The man who I backed for over ten years dashed my chances at a minimum of $20,000. So with eight days left in October, I need to do some serious work to rehabilitate myself.
Today I have made a 4-pack of picks to get myself back on the green side of things. Although the match is already underway, my first pick is Ana Ivanovic over Simona Halep. It is a gut pick against the community but sometimes that is how you need to go to get back towards the top. My second selection is that 5 goals or more will be scored between two different European soccer games (Koln/Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga, Lens/Toulouse in Ligue 1). Each game features the worst team in each league (Bremen & Lens) who both have leaky defenses. I should have the five goals by halftime of the two games.
The two late night picks are both from the college football ranks. Firstly, an interesting prop in the game between South Florida and Cincinnati. The bet is to whether any player completes five passes before a 10+ yard rushing play occurs. If it was an NFL game, I'd surely take the five pass completions. In college however, I feel that the ten yard rush is the surer thing to happen first. My last pick, and hopefully W4, for the night involves the Oregon/Cal game at 10:05. The prop is the question of who will have more first half offensive yards, Oregon's Marcus Mariota or California's Jared Goff. Cal has a defense that can only be likened to Swiss cheese. Oregon's isn't the greatest either but it is leaps and bounds better than the Golden Bears'. I am taking Mariota for the W4 without hesitation. Jonathan Coachman, however, probably hesitated before each time he interviewed The Rock for fear of the skewering he was in for.