Casey Grant remains atop local college football contest standings

Week Six of our local college football pick ‘em contest wrapped up on Saturday night, and local football prognosticator Casey Grant remained atop the local standings again this week. Casey correctly picked the outcomes of six of 10 games last week and has correctly picked 99.9 percent of games in the contest this season.

Clint Hyde was in second place this week, just two points behind Casey. Blake Stringer and Mark Cotten were tied for third place. Jesse Jordan was in fifth place.

Defending champion Drew Skipper and Brett Loftin were tied for sixth place. Travis Presley, Cody Thomas, Justin Chandler and I were all tied for eighth place. Austin Weaver followed next in 14^th place.

----- 0 -----

The New Orleans Saints continued to roll on Sunday by beating NFC South rival, Tampa Bay, 31-24, at the Superdome in New Orleans. New Orleans was favored by three points in that game and improved to 4-1 on the season with another win without the services of future Hall of Famer Drew Brees. The win also gave New Orleans sole possession of the No. 1 spot in the division rankings, ahead of the second-place Carolina Panthers. New Orleans isn’t scheduled to play Carolina head-to-head until Nov. 24 and much can change between now and then for both teams.

This coming Sunday, New Orleans is scheduled to play the Jacksonville Jaguars at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville. That game will kick off at noon and will be televised by CBS. Jacksonville enters Sunday’s game with a 2-3 overall record and third in the AFC South standings. Oddly, this game was a “pick it” when this column was written on Monday morning with an over-under of 44 points.

As best that I can tell, Brees is not expected to be back on the field this Sunday. Brees had surgery on his throwing-hand thumb and is continuing to rehab the injury. Leading up to the Tampa Bay game, Brees practiced with the team, but did not throw. However, there was footage floating around on Instagram last week of Brees throwing a regulation-sized ball that had many fans hoping he’d be back on the field sooner than later.

In his absence, backup quarterbacks Teddy Bridgewater and Taysom Hill have not only held down the fort, but have seemingly improved each week. Bridgewater threw for 314 yards and four touchdowns against Tampa Bay, and Hill came in several times to keep the opposing defense off balance. Until Brees returns, let’s hope that both of these guys stay healthy because if not, the Saints are going to be in a real bind.

----- 0 -----

As of Monday morning, the Atlanta Braves also remained in the hunt for the World Series trophy. Atlanta had a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five National League Division Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. If Atlanta can win their Division Series, they’ll face either the Dodgers or the Nationals in the National League Championship Series, which is scheduled to begin tomorrow (Friday).

Teams still alive in the American League, as of Monday, included the Houston Astros, the Tampa Bay Rays, the New York Yankees and the Minnesota Twins. One of those teams will represent the American League in the World Series, which is scheduled to begin with Game 1 on Tues., Oct. 22. I know a lot of baseball fans in our neck of the woods are hoping that the Braves will not only make it to the World Series, but will also win it all.