{"id":378144,"date":"2025-09-18T16:52:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T16:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/378144\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T16:52:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T16:52:10","slug":"nfl-and-college-football-betting-picks-why-were-going-with-titans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/378144\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL and college football betting picks: Why we\u2019re going with \u2026 Titans?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our resident betting dummies, Zac Jackson and Jon Greenberg, had a horrific run last week, going a combined 2-11<\/a>. Then again, they also cover the Browns and the Bears, so maybe they\u2019re getting some bad juju from their day jobs.<\/p>\n

JON GREENBERG: (1-4 last week, 6-6-1 overall): I was in suburban Pittsburgh all week for family reasons. Sadly, I wasn\u2019t able to make it back to Steubenville for Ohio Valley pizza. But in the spirit of the Ohio Valley, I\u2019m marshaling my strength to pick some winners.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start by staying in Ohio for an unusual game in our beloved Mid-American Conference.<\/p>\n

Miami (Ohio) is hosting UNLV at Yager Stadium on Saturday. Most people are flying back to Cincinnati from Vegas dead broke and tired. The Rebels are making the trek for work. UNLV is 3-0, while the Redhawks are 0-2 and coming off a bye week after a beatdown at Rutgers, and the Rebels are only 2.5-point favorites on the road. Hmm.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to stay away from the spread and take\u00a0under 49.5. I\u2019ve had a couple of groggy mornings in Oxford, and I\u2019m betting the time change for UNLV will keep the scoring down.<\/p>\n

As usual, we\u2019ll bet the Civil War out in Oregon. The Ducks are great, the Beavers stink and we\u2019ll see some points. I\u2019m taking over 55.5.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d love to bet the Big 10 matchup of the week, Michigan (-2.5, 45.5) at Nebraska. Do you have a side? How about the other game of the week, the state of Ohio vs. the state of Florida in Kent State at FSU?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m just glad to be invited back after the way my picks went last week.<\/p>\n

ZAC JACKSON (1-7 last week, 8-10 overall): I told Jon that I went 4-1 in the first week in my other NFL beat-the-spread contest and that I expected to go 1-4 in the second week. I went 1-4. Hard game this is.<\/p>\n

Like the Browns, we\u2019re only looking to the future. Kent State lost a heartbreaker last week and now goes to Florida State, which is off a bye. I can\u2019t believe this line isn\u2019t 49. I\u2019ll take the Seminoles -45.5.<\/p>\n

I was anxious to see the Michigan-Nebraska line, but I don\u2019t think I have a strong lean there. I understand the slight move toward Michigan, since Dylan Raiola still has to prove he\u2019s more than a Patrick Mahomes impersonator against decent competition.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m taking North Carolina +7 at UCF just on the coaching matchup being Bill Belichick vs. Scott Frost. It might be a 3-2 type of game, in which case I win! I\u2019m also taking UNC\u2019s archrival Duke -3.5 against N.C. State. Somebody\u2019s spending money on football at Duke, and everybody with an online betting account has liked Duke the last two weeks. That went about like it usually does, but I think Duke has enough offense to win a wild one this weekend.<\/p>\n

I also like over 56.5 in USC-Michigan State, your typical Big Ten game that kicks off at 11 p.m. EST. Michigan State was giving up points to Youngstown State last week, and USC gave up 357 yards to a bad Purdue team in a weird game that included a weather delay and multiple red-zone failures by Purdue.<\/p>\n

GREENBERG: I also had a one-win week, made worse by taking your advice on Michigan State vs. Youngstown State. You said to take the Spartans because the line was off by a touchdown. That turned out to be true, but it was a touchdown the other way.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go to the NFL. I kept track of consensus picks on BetMGM last week, and the favorites went 9-6 with one 50-50 split.\u00a0 That brings me to a very lopsided game. What do you, an unbiased observer, think of the Cowboys-Bears line? Last I checked, 86 percent of BetMGM customers were taking the Cowboys -1 in Fox\u2019s Game of the Week.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve watched the Bears play their first two games in person and written scathing columns with hundreds of comments. And yet, I\u2019d probably take the Bears here. Caleb Williams played better in his second game, and I\u2019m not sure the defense can be that bad two games in a row, even with cornerback Jaylon Johnson out for the foreseeable future. I wouldn\u2019t personally put money on the line, though. So I\u2019ll suggest taking over 50.5. There should be points aplenty at Soldier Field.<\/p>\n

A lot of people (55 percent) are riding the Bengals +3 at Minnesota in a battle of backup QBs. I\u2019ll happily go opposite the crowd here and take the Vikings -3 at home. New Vikings starting running back Jordan Mason is going to go wild, and Bengals QB Jake Browning, who beat the Vikings at home in 2023, will hear that damn Gjallarhorn in his nightmares.<\/p>\n

And no one (only 18 percent of BetMGM bettors) is taking the Titans at home against undefeated Indianapolis and its new QB hero Daniel Jones. Except me. I\u2019d like it if I had a few more points, but give me\u00a0Tennessee +3.5. (Warning: This could backfire dramatically.)<\/p>\n

JACKSON: After you have a bad week, you probably should never chase the next week and try to get it back with one play.<\/p>\n

Well, I have my play of the month. The chase is on with Green Bay-Cleveland under 41.5.<\/p>\n

First, the Browns would struggle to get to 20 points if the Packers\u2019 buses break down. But since both will show up, it will be a matchup of the two best yards-per-play defenses through two weeks and two of the scariest pass rushes (and rushers) in the league.<\/p>\n

The Browns know their blueprint for trying to win a low-scoring game. The Packers will do what the Bengals and Ravens did and take away the deep ball from Old Man Joe Flacco. The punters and kickers will be busy.<\/p>\n

Green Bay wins an ugly and close one, and the under hits.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll take the Jets +7 (-120) in Tampa. The Bucs are on a short week coming off two dramatic wins and might be down multiple offensive line starters. I know Justin Fields is out, but is that really a significant loss?<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, I want over 52.5 in Baltimore on Monday night and the Titans +3.5 over Jones and the Colts. My survivor pick is the Seattle Seahawks, who are hosting the Saints.<\/p>\n

GREENBERG: I can\u2019t believe we\u2019re both betting on the Titans. What could go wrong? Nothing more than usual, I suppose. My survivor pick is Buffalo.<\/p>\n

Zac Jackson\u2019s picksJon Greenberg\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

(Photo of Cam Ward: Justin Ford \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Our resident betting dummies, Zac Jackson and Jon Greenberg, had a horrific run last week, going a combined…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[117,391,256,54,257,113,7643,4713,7,345,392,21180,21192,2549,259,255,6,4714,4717,575,6094,5433,250,394,4708,1442,8242],"class_list":{"0":"post-378144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-baltimore-ravens","9":"tag-chicago-bears","10":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","11":"tag-cleveland-browns","12":"tag-dallas-cowboys","13":"tag-detroit-lions","14":"tag-duke-blue-devils","15":"tag-florida-state-seminoles","16":"tag-football","17":"tag-green-bay-packers","18":"tag-indianapolis-colts","19":"tag-kent-state-golden-flashes","20":"tag-miami-oh-redhawks","21":"tag-michigan-state-spartans","22":"tag-minnesota-vikings","23":"tag-new-york-jets","24":"tag-nfl","25":"tag-north-carolina-state-wolfpack","26":"tag-north-carolina-tar-heels","27":"tag-oregon-ducks","28":"tag-oregon-state-beavers","29":"tag-sports-betting","30":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","31":"tag-tennessee-titans","32":"tag-ucf-knights","33":"tag-unlv-rebels","34":"tag-usc-trojans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}