"Kids Club" Picks - Week 5 Results: Oat Man extends his lead; Ron holds steady

2014 so far has been one of the toughest seasons for football predictions in modern history.  Just look at how unpredictable this weekend was.   #1 goes down.  #3 goes down.  (these may be different rankings in other polls)  #6 goes down!  #4 goes down!  Alabama, UCLA, Oregon, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and more were wiped out of the undefeated ranks.  My goodness, was it a wild week.

The consequence of this much manic unpredictability, with no newspapers or milkmen, not even TV, is that getting picks against the spread was nearly impossible, but one man made it out... the OAT MAN.  He went 3-0 in picks leading up to the Jets game, and had they had any competitive fire or perhaps more importantly, more talent, on the team, he may have had our first 4-0 week of the year... but he still went 3-1 with the Jets pick missing.

Ron went 2-2, but it's as good as a win with the way many games were twisting and changing across college and pro football.  The others were not so lucky, so we now will break down how all the picks went.

Say Hello to Ottis (3-1) 
Hit with: Baylor, Louisville, Packers
Missed with: Jets

A little funny that his favorite team winds up being the letdown this week.  Agains the spread, the Jets have had their moments, but not this time around in San Diego.   Two of the picks he hit with were non-weekend games.  Packers on Thursday and Louisville on Friday.  And, if you remember, he picked L'ville "out of spite" to stick it to Syracuse.   The gamble paid off!  Oat Man also sweept his college picks.

Ron in NJ (2-2) 
Hit with: Notre Dame, Colts
Missed with: Wisconsin, Falcons

Let me tell you: the Falcons' inability to close a game is pretty annoying.  I digress.  Ron had a gutty pick going with Notre Dame against Stanford, and they delivered for him in the late moments of their game.  The Colts game seemed like it could go either way for two quarters but after the Ravens proved they didn't know how to score that week, the outcome was in hand for Indianapolis.  Wisconsin, by the way, didn't just fail to cover, but they lost outright at a suddenly resurging Northwestern.  That's 3 wins in a row for the Wildcats since that hopeless home loss to Northern Illinois.  The Badgers probably blew their chance at a serious bowl game.

Andy in Seattle (1-3) 
Hit with: Packers
Missed with: Oregon, Alabama, Cowboys

Really, these were a product of some tough luck in the latter two misses.  Oregon was simply history repeating itself, but it seemed unusual for Oregon to lose this soon.  Usually if they lost that first game, it was late in the season.  'Bama had control of the game leading up to half time, but the fourth quarter things fell apart and they lost altogether to Ole Miss at Oxford.  The Cowboys game was shaky as many anticipated, but there was a very good shot at Dallas scoring more points, but one interception by Romo took away would-be points from the scoreboard.  The Texans are showing themselves to be a better defense and that may prove to be an asset for them in Week 6.  Houston next plays at Indy.

John in CT (0-4)
Hit with: none
Missed with: ECU, Tennessee, Falcons, Ravens

No sugarcoating it, this was a tough week for John.  Both Tennessee and the Ravens had numerous chances... more than numerous, maybe abundant chances to score points and it didn't take.  A tough break indeed.   ECU had an odd moment where they were really hanging around with SMU, only to pull away later.  I was as shocked as anyone else that SMU scored a few touchdowns.  Things didn't play out well, but John still had a good cumulative record going into the week, so he is still in the mix for the contest's stop spot.

Oat Man's big week means he's still the leader, and he's the winner of Week 6.  Here are our updated standings:

Say Hello to Ottis: 11-8-1
Ron in NJ: 9-10-1
John in CT: 8-12
Andy in Seattle: 7-13

The last three weeks haven't been kind to most of the Kids Club, but the use of four games each week keeps everyone in it, and things can twist and change just like the NFL's Witching Hour.   We'll hope for better luck going into Week 6 later on.