Quick College and NFL predictions.

I am sorry everyone. I am sick as a dog, missing a wedding, and another party this week. So, I will leave you with the picks so that everyone could bash me for how wrong I was on Monday. At least I have to stay in this weekend, and the Weekend Wrap Up will be entertaining. Burrowed inside for days at a time, plus being pissed off? Could be interesting.

College Football Picks:

Virgina Tech 31, Boston College 13
Ohio St. 23, Wisconsin 20
Michigan 27, Iowa 21 (UPSET ALERT!)
Stanford 31, Oregon St. 28
TCU 27, Air Force 7
Auburn 45, Arkansas 38
Georgia Tech 38, Florida St. 28
Texas A&M 42, Oklahoma St. 24 (Upset Alert Nombah 2)
Alabama 28, Ole Miss 10
Oregon 31, UCLA 19

Finally...

Florida 45, LSU 9 (Yes, Tebow will play and get his Heisman moment.)

Last Week : 7-4

Season: 31-22

NFL Picks:

Buffalo Bills 24, Cleveland Browns 13
New England Patriots 31, Denver Broncos 17
Pittsburgh Steelers 41, Detroit Lions 9
Dallas Cowboys 31, Kansas City Chiefs 20
Minnesota Vikings 27, St. Louis Rams 3
New York Giants 34, Oakland Raiders 7
Philadelphia Eagles 38, Tampa Bay Bucs 17
Houston Texans 31, Arizona Cardinals 28 (Upset Special!)
Atlanta Falcons 20, San Francisco 49ers 16
Jacksonville Jaguars 31, Seattle Seahawks 21
Carolina Panthers 23, Washington Redskins 17
Baltimore Ravens 24, Cincinnati Bengals 13
Indianapolis Colts 38, Tennessee Titans 23

Last Week: 9-5

Season: 41-20

Be back on Monday for the Weekend Wrap Up.

Monday Night Game, Tigers-Twins Thoughts, and Other....

The past two evenings have given us some interesting and intense sporting events. Monday Night, we got Packers going into the Baggy Dome to play the Days of Our Favre Vikings. The next night, the Baggy Dome was at it again, this time, the Tigers and Twins in a thrilling extra inning play-in game to face the Godfather Yankees. Think Cable TV ratings have been decent the past couple of days? Here are some thought about both games, starting with the Monday Nighter.

- The Minnesota crowd was deafening. The Baggy Dome, along with the Superdome in New Orleans, are two of the biggest home field advantages once that crowd gets into play like that.

- Jon Gruden and Ron Jaworski gushed about Brett Favre so much, I started thinking that they were the kid from Almost Famous that followed around Led Zeppelin. I was waiting for Gruden to scream out, "He touched this pen!!! Yes, he touched this pen!" Gruden and Jaws should be boarderline ashamed of themselves. That was not unbiased broadcasting, that was two groupies drooling over a guitarist.

- Favre all kidding aside, did play great. He did have some extra zip on those passes. The Vikings OLine was like The Great Wall of China. Favre had more time to throw than Obama has to get his Health Care plan through. After that first TD pass by Favre, and he jumped and pointed to the sky, scale of 1-10 on how big of a slap in the face to Packers fans was that?

- Speaking of OLines, as well as the Vikings OLine played, the exact opposite for the Pack. Aaron Rodgers played well, but got sacked eight times, and pressure even more. Jared Allen had 4.5 sacks. Allen basically put a tattoo on Rodger's body that said, "Property of J. Allen."

- If you are a pure football fan, that game you did get to see three of the best Cornerbacks in the game. The Vikings Antoine Winfield, and the Packers Chalres Woodsen and Al Harris. All three play press bump and run coverage just about every down, which is really a lost art in this league now.

- Woodsen and Harris have gotten alot of respect over the years, but I want to talk about Winfield. This guy up until last year, was one of the most overlooked players in football, right up there with MLB London Fletcher. Winfield is a physical CB that can cover any WR in the league, and tackles like a linebacker. There is not 5 better corners in the league today. If you think there is, leave a comment, and we can debate.

- Gruden is still blushing about the thought of calling that game and saying the name Brett Favre 47,612 times.

Now, the Tigers/Twins thoughts:

- The Baggy Dome was even louder for this game. I really do believe that the crowd almost willed the Twins in this game. When the Tigers were up 3-0, the crowd never stopped. Great fans.

- Jim Leyland put 20 year old, and SportsTown favorite Rick Porcello on ther mound with eveything on the line. Think about that for a second. I wrote a small article about how Porcello pitched in a big game a couple of weeks ago. He is now in a play-in game. The sick thing is, Porcello delivered... again. Most kids his age are delivering pizza, hes delivering a quality start in game 163. Porcello has the guts of a burgular, and Leyland has the stones of one for even starting him in this game.

- Magglio Ordonez is still a clutch hitter. Tigers did not lose the divison because of him. He was red hot the final two weeks of the season.

- I still think if the Tigers scored in the 12th, when Delmon Young threw the ball to 3rd to let Dan Kelly get to 2nd base, Ron Gardenhire would of turned into Simon Phoenix from Demolition Man, and performed a Murder-Death-Kill on Young for that stupidity.

- Leyland should get roasted for keeping an average closer, Fernando Rodney in for a 3rd inning. Closers are not made to throw 48 pitches Jimbo. That one is on you. Think about that over your 67th cigarette of the day.

- How funny is sports when a guy can go from the goat to the hero in less than an hour? Well, Twins infielder Alexis Casilla did just that. In the 10th inning, he got thrown out at home when he did not tag up properly, then got the game winning hit in the 12th. This is one of the million reasons I love baseball.

Other random thoughts before we go:

 My baseball playoff predictions for the first round:

Yankees over Twins in 3, Angels over Red Sox in 5, Phillies over Rockies in 4, Cardinals over Dodgers in 4.

I will say one thing though about the Yankees. They better win tonight at home, with CC on the mound. The Twins just played a grueling extra inning game for their playing lives, and now have to travel and play again in less than 20 hours?  No excuses for the Yankees today. I mean, we do not want Jorge Posada to have to choke a bitch right?

Sadly overlooked with the baseball game last night, was the best sports game of the night. Since half the country does not even get Versus, including Direct TV subscribers, I would say most people did not catch the Capitals-Flyers game. Well, you people missed out. That game is the perfect definition of why hockey can be awesome to watch. Flyers won 6-5 in OT.

Let me get this straight, Braylon Edwards decks a club owner that just happened to be Lebron James's friend, and two days later, Edwards is traded? I have about 15,000 one liners for this, but we will shrink them to five..
1. Edwards was traded to get into Witness Protection.

2. I hope Brandon Marshall was watching, all he has to do to get traded from Denver is to deck Carmelo Anthony.

3. Lebron James is the Godfather of Cleveland.

4. Edwards can come to NY, and deck Eddy Curry. He would be praised.

5. Im shocked Edwards caught the guy's face. First thing he has caught in two years.

Weekend Wrap-Up

Is it just me, or does meaningful games in the last weekend of Major League baseball's regular season make it a much better sports weekend?

The Twins, needing to give the Royals the broom over the weekend, which included beating the future CY Award winner Zack Greinke, did so to force a play-in game against the reeling Detroit Tigers. Thanks to the Vikings, and the Days of Our Favre, the game will be Tuesday, which gives the Tigers a bit of an advantage, considering how hot the Twins bats are. We will be watching that one for sure.

Of course, the Tigers would be alot happier if star slugger Miguel Cabrera was not coming home drunk in the middle of a pennant race at 5am in the morning, fighting with his wife until 6 am, escorted out of his house by the police, then have to be picked up by Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski at 7:30am. Cabrera is lucky, if his coach was Tom Cable, he would have alot more than just scratches on his face.

Since the end of the baseball season is here, the Awards goes to:

AL MVP - Twins C Joe Mauer- Imagine what his stats would of been if he did not miss a month?

AL CY -  Royals Zack Greinke- Felix Hernandez made it close, but 2.16 ERA and 240 strikeouts on that team is just absurd.

AL Manager of the Year - Twins Ron Gardenhire- About two weeks ago, this pick would of been Rangers Ron Washington, but this stretch run the Twins have put up tipped me over to the other side.

AL Rookie of the Year -  Oakland Closer Andrew Bailey - I know relief pitchers do not get much love from this vote, but Bailey was by far the most dominant rookie of this class. The numbers back that up. Beats out Rick Porcello in my eyes, although the media are total victims for the spotlight.

NL MVP - Cardinals 1B Albert Pujols - Do I really need to go into this one? Thank you.

NL CY - Cardinals Adam Wainwright - Alot of good candidates for this one, but Wainwright has the horse that survived the stretch run. Tim Lincecum could not finish strong, same with teammate Matt Cain. Wainwright's teammate Chris Carpenter had a great year, but even he would admit that Wainwright is the man here.

NL Manager of the Year - Rockies Jim Tracy - Took over a cellar dweller mid season, and turned them into a playoff team. When you go 74-40, you are doing something special.

NL Rookie of the Year - Phillies SP JA Happ - This was the toughest decison for me, as Tommy Hanson is unbelieveable, and I hate the Phillies. Overall though, Happ does deserve the award. A sub 3 ERA in that sandbox is pretty damn good.

Finally getting off of baseball, and before we get into the football weekend, just how pathetic is it that NBA TV is showing PRACTICES of NBA teams??? That is right, PRACTICES! The NBA is dull enough until the last quarter, and they are telling me that there is a market for televised practices? Allen Iverson is now wants to go to practice.
It is not fair when Peyton Manning is in Arcade Mode. Watching the Seahawks-Colts game yesterday, it just seemed like before going out in the field, someone would pop a quarter into Manning, and it was like some 12 year old kid running up the score with a joystick. Unreal.

Steve Smith leads the NFL in Receptions and Receiving Yards. He even did it without punching a teammate. Wait a second, wrong Steve Smith. The loudmouth lunatic is not even the best WR with his own name anymore. How the mighty how fallen.

With all the press the New Orleans Saints offense gets, their defense is pretty damn good. They just destroyed one of the better OLines in football against the Jets. They did it with a ton of blitzing. Are you hearing that out in Tennessee? Paging Mr. Cecil!!! Bring more than four men at a time, otherwise, it is your ass.

I still dunno what is the bigger shock to me. The Titans 0-4, or the Broncos 4-0. I think someone put some acid in my Spam.

After getting humiliated by Virginia Tech, the Miami Hurricanes redeemed themselves with a huge win at home against Oklahoma. After those first 4 grueling game, 3-1 is a nice place to be for a program trying to reclaim their old glory.

Congrats to California and Houston. Both programs are the co-winners of the biggest fraud award for this season so far. Cal was suppose to be a powerhouse, and has been pummeled like chopmeat by Oregon and USC in consecutive weeks. Houston was ranked too high for their bridges, but 58 points to UTEP??? The same UTEP team that got hammered by Texas the week before? At least we will not hear the press crying that they are getting overlooked now.

What a catch by Georgia WR AJ Green in the 4th quarter of that great game between LSU. The offical that tossed that excessive celebration penalty should never officate another college football game again. That was one case where an offical played God, and dictated the outcome of a game. SEC, do the right thing.

Speaking of shady nonsense in college football, the Polls have Iowa moving up after 1 spot in the AP and 3 in the Coaches Poll after barely beating Arkansas St. Nice work, I would harp on that even more, if not for the fact that Virginia Tech somehow mysteriously leapfrogged Boise St. in the Polls after struggling against Duke.  Now, I am a Rutger's football fan, can I cut a check to some of these pollsters and see Rutgers #22 next week? This is not a joke, I think I really could.

Last thing on college football before the Monday Night pick. Is there anymore important game for the Heisman this year than Notre Dame against USC in a few weeks? That is the make or break game for Jimmy Clausen. With a great game, he can become to frontrunner in a star-studded year.

Monday Night Pick of the Week:

The only thing the schedule makers messed up was that this game should of been in Lambeau. Cut the tension with a knife tonight, as The Days of Our Favre finally get a crack at his old franchise, the Packers.

The storyline will be Favre against Aaron Rodgers, but this game will more about if the Packers can stop Adrian Peterson. I do not think they can, but the Packers will be smart to just air it out, and let their best playmaker Greg Jennings try to take over. This has shootout written all over it. Last one with the ball wins.

Packers 31, Vikings 28.