The Yankees can sweep the Athletics with a win on Thursday afternoon. They'll send CC Sabathia to the mound to get that victory. He has been money at Yankee Stadium going 10-0 with a 2.46 ERA in 13 starts there this season. In 91.3 innings pitched, he has given up just 28 runs. Sabathia is 1-1 against the Athletics this season. His last time out in Oakland, he gave up one run and seven hits in 7.7 innings of work. Furthermore, Sabathia is 16-6 with a 2.07 ERA in his last five September’s combined. Only Daric Barton (3-11) hits above .250 against Sabathia on the Athletics roster. Oakland has gone Under the total in 20 of their 34 games against southpaws this season. They average only 3.8 runs per game against left-handed starters. They have also gone Under in 26 of their 43 daytime games. Dallas Braden is on fire for the Athletics. He's 2-1 with a 1.64 ERA in his last three starts giving up just five runs in his last 22 innings pitched. During that span, he managed to defeat the Rangers and Blue Jays while losing a one run tilt with the Tampa Bay Rays. Braden defeated Sabathia 4-2 back in April of this season after giving up just two runs and six hits in six innings of work. Curtis Granderson (1-8), Robinson Cano (1-8), Nick Swisher (1-6), Jorge Posada (1-4), and Brett Gardner (0-2) all struggle with the Athletics starter. The Yankees don't hit southpaws as hard as they do righties, and since we expect Sabathia to shutdown the A’s, we anticipate a low-scoring game this afternoon.

Play UNDER the total.

Pittsburgh had their best season under head coach Dave Wannstedt in 2009 as the Panthers went 10-3 after capping off their season with a win in the Meineke Car Care Bowl. Last year’s team was expected to really improve as they had 15 returning starters and an offense that was in the same system for the previous two seasons. The team increased their production on both sides of the ball because of their experience, but a lot of their experience has graduated as the Panthers return just 11 starters for the 2010 season. And they figure to be up against it tonight in Utah because Pittsburgh will be starting sophomore quarterback Tino Sunseri who has little experience after throwing just 17 passes last season. Sunseri will be making his first collegiate start and that chore is more magnified with this game being on the road in a very tough place to play. Utah always enjoys a strong homefield advantage because of the thin air and altitude, and that edge should be even more pronounced tonight with this being the first game of the season. Pittsburgh hasn’t traveled this far West for a game since 2004, so the whole experience is going to be new for the entire staff and team. There’s no simulation for the affects of the thin air and altitude so without knowing what to expect, Pittsburgh has had minimal preparation for what they will go through tonight. Utah is also playing with a new quarterback this season. However, Jordan Wynn got some much-needed experience last season as he started the final 5 games with the Utes going 3-2 in those games. But Wynn increased Utah’s offensive production 7 points per game as they averaged 34 points per game rather than the 27 points per game they scored before he took over as the starter. Utah returns 8 guys on offense so their production should pick-up right where they left off. Utah is on an incredible 17-1 run at home over the last 3 years, and since Pittsburgh is a young team that is playing behind a young quarterback, we expect the home to pull away to a comfortable win tonight.

Play UTAH (-).

A lot of change happened at USC over the last nine months. Pete Carroll saw the writing on the wall and he took off to the NFL to coach the Seattle Seahawks. Lane Kiffin jumped at the chance to return to Los Angeles; Kiffin coached under Carroll for six years before he left for the NFL and then back to the colleges in Tennessee. So Kiffin is familiar with his surroundings and familiar with how USC has done things in the past. Despite the overhauled coaching staff, not much has changed in the way USC football runs. Kiffin learned under Carroll so he’ll continue doing things the same way which is a positive for the current roster at USC. As we mentioned, Carroll left before USC was handed their suspensions from post-season play for numerous violations, but again, he knew they were coming. But those rulings have had a major hand in the way the Trojans are preparing for the 2010 season. They were mediocre by their standards after going just 9-4 last year, but this team is simply loaded with talent throughout the roster to regress any further. And knowing that they’ve got a new coach to impress and plenty of motivation, this team is looking to make a statement early on, especially in their first game of the season on national TV. Hawaii is simply out-classed in this game. And not only that, but the Warriors are decimated by youth and injuries to their offensive line. It’s going to be extremely difficult for Hawaii to contain USC's front seven with four new starting offensive linemen, and their job got more difficult after their starting center hurt his knee and is now out for this game. In his place will be a walk-on center, and USC’s fast, talented, and explosive defense should wreck havoc all game long. So we have the more talented team playing with motivation looking to make a statement against a young Hawaii team that lost three home games by 25, 41, and 45 points a season ago. We don’t expect much of game here as USC rolls to dominating win in their season opener.

Play USC (-).

The final week of preseason football is similar to the final week of the NFL regular season. Teams go into these games with different agendas, and it’s imperative to try and decipher what each team wants to get out of the game. And in this particular game tonight between the Saints and Titans, there’s a certified difference in the approach these teams will take. New Orleans opens their regular season exactly one week from tonight at home against the Minnesota Vikings. And head coach Sean Payton could care less about tonight’s game in Tennessee, and he’s treating this like a glorified workout for his team as half of his starters are not even going to make the trip to Nashville. ‘In our case, the very first game being the following Thursday, there's not additional time if you get a player nicked,’ Payton said. ‘So we're going to be pretty smart about how we approach it because we play seven days later in a game that means something.’ On the other hand, Tennessee head coach Jeff Fisher views tonight’s game as a way to get his team better, especially after they played a terrible game in last week’s 15-7 loss to Carolina. The Titans will be playing their starters tonight as quarterback Vince Young is expected to see extended action once again, possibly into the third quarter. ‘They're going to have 11 on the field, and that's what is important to us and we're getting ready to play hard,’ Fisher said. ‘We're going to play hard, we're going to play a lot of people, we're going to play the starters, and we'll continue to play guys who are working to earn a spot on this roster. We've got a lot of things we need to accomplish.’ So because of the game plans listed above, we expect the Titans to cruise to an easy win tonight in a game that means a lot more to them than it does to New Orleans.

Play TITANS (-).