Tap's Thursday Night Picks

Thursday night football can be entertaining, sloppy, and everything else under the sun honestly. I make picks to help clear your head.

NFL
New Orleans (-9) at Atlanta 7:25 pm NFLN - For the last couple years, everyone would circle the two times Saints and Falcons would get together to play in a rivalry game. These fanbases hate each other. It is pretty well-documented as the best NFL rivalry in southeastern part of the United States. But this game has definitely lost its luster for at least for one matchup on Thursday as Atlanta is one of the biggest dumpster fires of the season while New Orleans are Super Bowl contenders. This is not what NFL Network planned for when they scheduled this game at the beginning of the season.

I am trying to figure out ways Atlanta wins this football game. They have to figure out to run the football to at least control the clock a little bit against a potent Saints offense. Steven Jackson is not a good running back anymore, but maybe Jacquizz Rodgers finds something tonight against a tough New Orleans defense. Matt Ryan also needs to avoid turning the ball over. Rob Ryan's crew lives off the turnover, and that cannot happen for Matty Ice tonight. I am not going to say Atlanta needs to play a perfect game, but they need to be damn near close to win this one.

As for the Saints, they cannot take Atlanta lightly in this one. Sure, the Falcons look like the worst team in the NFC but this is still a rivalry game plus a tough place to play in primetime with hopefully a fired up fanbase. I think this one is close for the first three quarters, and New Orleans wears this team down finishing them off in the fourth quarter. NO 34-20

College Football 
Rutgers at 18.) UCF 6:30 pm ESPN - KNIGHT BOWL! I am going to put this out there that Rutgers has given up on the season in the last couple of weeks. After losing by 14 points against Louisville, it has been downhill for the Scarlet Knights. They were blown out at home by Houston and Cincinnati in which both put up more than 45 points. They also are once again in the news for all the wrong reasons with accusations of their defensive coordinator bullying a former player. UCF escaped a trap game on Saturday afternoon against Temple. The Owls gave them quite a game only to have a spirited comeback by Blake Bortles and company. I do not think the Knights stumble in this game. Big night for Bortles on the big stage. UCF 45-20

Charlie.