Auburn (3 - 2) 23 @ Kentucky (4 - 1) 28: The Wildcats are much improved under Mike Stoops and they can make it tough for Auburn to find a path to bowl eligibility with a win tonight. The Tigers' defense has been terrible, while Kentucky has looked pretty good so far. Gus Malzahn needs a win, but I don't think he'll get it in Lexington.
(18) UCLA (4 - 1) 27 @ (15) Stanford (4 -1) 30 : The weekend starts out with what is truly a playoff elimination game. Neither of these teams can afford a loss, especially since the Cardinal still has Oregon, Cal and Notre Dame on the schedule. The Bruins must also face Cal, in addition to Utah and still very dangerous USC team. UCLA has had issues defending the rush. That doesn't bode well for the Bruins as they face a back in Christian McCaffery who is averaging over 120 yards a game and almost six yards a carry. After an opening loss at Northwestern, the Cardinal has been on a roll and I don't see that coming to an end tonight, especially if they can get their ground game going and play good enough defense to confuse freshman QB Josh Rosen.
NFL:
Atlanta (5 - 0) 31 @ New Orleans (1 - 4) 34: This is an interesting game. The surprising Falcons head to the arch rival Saints on a short week after squeaking by the Redskins in overtime on Sunday. New Orleans can't seem to generate any kind of running game, while their defense is giving up the fourth most points in the league. Not exactly a recipe for success, as indicated by their lousy record. Conventional wisdom would be to go with the Falcons to continue their unexpected roll. But it's Thursday night, the Saints fans should be fired up and Drew Brees might still have a big game or two in that arm. He's going to have to put up a lot of points if Atlanta's Devonta Freeman runs wild on the Saints' defense, and I think he will.
Don't forget to check out my new book, "Roughing the Passer - A PK Frazier Novel" and my first, "Illegal Procedure - A PK Frazier Novel", available in print and e-formats at Amazon.com, iBooks and Smashwords. The third installment, "Offsetting Penalties" is due out in the fall.
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