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Buffalo Bills running back James Cook has a large space to run and almost makes it to the end zone before getting tackled during the second half at the Bills home opener game against the Detroit Lions on Sept. 17, 2026.

NFL Week 2 and College Football Week 3 Best Bets: My Steve Makinen Analytics Experiment

September 17, 2026

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It was a fun time at Circa last night. Keyshawn Johnson, our new co-host with Patrick Meagher on Thursday Night Betcast, went 6-1 on his bets and was 1.5 Josh Allen passing yards from cashing a crazy 8-leg parlay in the Bills’ 41-31 victory over the Lions.

🏈 I Have Steve’s Data. So Why Is He Beating Me?

Time to check the receipts.

I went 0-3 with my college football picks last week, dropping me to 3-6 for the season.

Steve Makinen, meanwhile, is 21-17-1 ATS (55.3%) with his college football Best Bets. And he opened the NFL season 6-3 ATS (66.7%) with his NFL Best Bets.

I also tried using Steve’s NFL Analytics Report to make three Sunday picks last week. I went 1-2.

Clearly, having Steve’s data and knowing what to do with it are two different things.

Not to be deterred, I went through Steve’s NFL and college football Analytics Reports without looking at his Best Bets. I looked for games where multiple independent systems, team trends and Steve’s ratings all seemed to be pointing in the same direction.

Want to try it yourself?

>> Steve’s NFL Week 2 Analytics Report

>> Steve’s College Football Week 3 Analytics Report

Here’s the five-play card I came up with:

NFL
Bengals +3 at Texans
Raiders-Chargers Under 43.5

College Football
Texas Tech -7.5 vs. Houston
Western Michigan-Rice Over 43.5
Louisiana -7.5 vs. UAB

Then I looked at Steve’s actual picks.

We landed on Cincinnati together. I had Bengals +3; Steve made Cincinnati +2.5 one of his official Best Bets.

Raiders-Chargers was more interesting. The analytics led me to Under 43.5. Steve looked at the same data, added his own handicapping judgment — and went in a different direction.

That’s what makes this exercise interesting: The data can point you toward a game. What you do with it is the handicapping.

So how closely did my other three plays match Steve’s college football card?

>> See Steve’s NFL Week 2 Best Bets

>> See Steve’s College Football Week 3 Best Bets

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