By Jack Healey
I was 9-4 in my NFL picks last week and now stand at 81-46
Thursday November 8th
Carolina over Pittsburgh
Sunday November 11th
Chicago over Detroit
New Orleans over Cincinnati
Atlanta over Cleveland
Indianapolis over Jacksonville
Kansas City over Arizona
NY Jets over Buffalo
Tampa Bay over Washington
NE Patriots over Tennessee
LA Chargers over Oakland
Green Bay over Miami
LA Rams over Seattle
Philadelphia over Dallas
Monday November 12th
San Francisco over NY Giants
The Division 1 high school football state championship game between #1 seeded Mt. Mansfield and #2 seeded Rutland will be this Saturday at 5PM at Rutland’s Alumni Field.
Both Rutland and Mt. Mansfield are 8-2 and did not meet during the regular season. Rutland will be looking for its 11th state championship in the championship game era and is looking for its first state championship since defeating Middlebury in its last state championship game appearance in 2015. Rutland is 10-6 in state championship games. The Raiders have 18 state championships overall winning 7 so called mythical state championships outright and one mythical co-state championship before 1970 which was the start of the championship game era.
Mt. Mansfield is making its first appearance in the Division 1 state title game and 4th appearance overall.
The Cougars are 0-3 in state title games, 0-2 in Division 2 and 0-1 in Division 4. Mt. Mansfield is making its first trip to the state title game since losing to Spaulding in the Division 2 state title game in 2008.
There is a Rutland connection to the Mt. Mansfield football team. Mt. Mansfield assistant coach Norm Lozier is a Rutland High School grad and was a junior on the Raiders’ 1984 state championship football team. That was the first of Rutland’s ten state championship game victories, a 15-14 victory over Middlebury. The Raiders trailed 14-0 at halftime in that game and came roaring back in the 2nd half to win it.