"The Stack" 9-13-17

The Stack is back on this Thursday and nope, the Cleveland Indians still haven’t lost. Thoughts on their win streak, the longest in AL history plus your college football weekend forecast (no not the meteorology kind) in “the stack” for today, Thursday, September 14th:

College football weekend forecast

Let’s face it. The first two weeks of the college football season haven’t been great. Sure there have been some decent games here and there, but for the most part it hasn’t lived up to the excitement apart from Sunday night of Labor Day weekend. Hurricanes Harvey and Irma have certainly contributed and Irma is at it again with the postponement of #11 Florida State versus #17 Miami (FL) which will be made up on October 7th. Florida International @ Indiana and Georgia Tech @ Central Florida will not be. Those have both been cancelled. I have mixed feelings on this. Certainly the damage caused by Irma factors into it and people’s safety and the rebuilding process should take center stage, but FIU was traveling to Bloomington, Indiana. If they can play against Alcorn State last Friday in Birmingham, I think they could have played this game. I would have liked to see UCF play too, but if they deemed that it was just too much, I will take their word for it.

On to the games of significance (and consequence) this weekend. No game is bigger than the ACC battle between #3 Clemson and #14 Louisville (8 PM ET ABC). College Gameday will be there and it will be another primetime showing for reigning Heisman Trophy winner Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson to show his stuff. Clemson’s defense though is really good. They had an epic battle last year in Clemson. I think Clemson can contain Jackson enough to leave Papa John’s with a win, but I say that with extremely low confidence. There’s a ranked SEC matchup between #24 Tennessee and #23 Florida (3:30 PM ET CBS). Florida’s defense will be too much and they get their guys on offense who were serving a suspension back. Show me something Tennessee. I’m guessing you won’t. Texas @ #4 USC (8:30 PM ET FOX) is only interesting because it is a rematch of the 2006 National Championship game in the Rose Bowl where Vince Young and Texas pulled off the win, but USC has it listed in their program notes that they are 4-0 against Texas, because the NCAA told them that that year didn’t count. USC is either trolling big time or being a bunch of little whiners. Either way, I don’t think this makes them look all that good. Won’t matter. They’ll dominate on the field and win easily.

Other than that, there really isn’t much else. Most ranked teams are going against cupcakes or far less superior competition. #9 Oklahoma State may get tripped up in Pittsburgh (Noon ET ESPN) against the Panthers, but I don’t see that happening. I don’t see it happening for #10 Wisconsin as they visit BYU (3:30 PM ET ABC). And #16 Virginia Tech, don’t lose to this bad East Carolina squad this year (3:30 PM ET CBSSN). #12 LSU at Mississippi State (7 PM ET ESPN) might be fun, but I still expect LSU to win. The Oregon Ducks should be on upset alert against Josh Allen and Wyoming (7 PM ET CBSSN), but I expect them to win and I’m really hoping #18 Kansas State at Vanderbilt (7:30 PM ET ESPNU) is a better game than people expect and that it is close. To close the night down, why not watch #19 Stanford visit San Diego State (10:30 PM ET CBSSN)? Stanford has yet to play a home game in Palo Alto. The Aztecs could upset them, but I don’t see it happening. Hope it’s a good week of college football. Enjoy it everyone.

Indians extend win streak to 21

The Cleveland Indians just keep winning. The Tribe extended their win streak to 21 games Thursday with a 5-3 win over the Detroit Tigers. They have made history now with the longest win streak in American League history. What they are doing is nothing short of incredible. Their pitching has been dominant. Their bats are hot. They’ve outscored their opponents by over 100 runs during the streak and have seven shutouts. They are playing unbelievable baseball right now. Yes they should be considered World Series favorites, at least in the American League, but let’s not forget that the Los Angeles Dodgers were prohibitive World Series favorites when they were at 80 wins in the blink of an eye and now look at them. They had lost 15 of 16 before taking two straight from the San Francisco Giants. Anything can happen, but as it stands right now, the Indians have been unbeatable the last three plus weeks and are looking like the World Series team I thought they would be coming into this year. Keep it up Cleveland!

Houston Texans @ Cincinnati Bengals 8:25 PM ET NFL Network

This is a real stinker of a game for Thursday Night Football. There will be a sense of desperation for both teams though as each team is 0-1. The Texans are the walking wounded after losing five guys to concussion last week in their loss to Jacksonville and they won’t have linebacker Brian Cushing for this game or the nine after it as he was suspended ten games by the NFL for using PEDs. Shame on you Cushing. That’s twice now. I thought the Texans would be strong this year even with questions surrounding the quarterback position. After last week I’m second guessing myself. I like Deshaun Watson a lot, but I don’t know if he can do much behind an offensive line that gave up ten sacks last week. Plus with the whole Hurricane Harvey thing, it might just be a year where they can’t get to the level they need to be at emotionally or mentally. Perhaps I am reading too much into this and over-exaggerating slightly, but you get my drift. The Bengals stunk out the joint last week in their 20-0 home loss to Baltimore with quarterback Andy Dalton throwing four interceptions and losing a fumble. He was harassed as he left the field to head to the locker room after the game. Not good by him or the fans. I think he bounces back slightly and the Bengals come away with a “W” that both teams have to have.

Prediction: Bengals 24 Texans 13

Coming up Friday: NFL Week 2 preview and predictions

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