It’s time to preview the Superb Owl

Haha so funny.  Not really.  But still.  I hear all the time from people who don’t like sports taking potshots at the Super Bowl and being a fan of sports in general.  I get it.  Not everyone likes sports.  That’s fine.  It’s starting to become like, well, everything these days.  “Oh you like something I don’t?  Then you must be a FUCKING LOSER.”  It’s tiresome.  I like football.  A lot.  I make no bones about it.  And I don’t care if people make fun of me for it.  Why?  Because if they are it probably means their lives are missing something anyway and they are putting me down because they have nothing to look forward to.  Morbid?  Sure.  And fuck those people anyway.

Look I am not going to do some long drawn-out preview.  The NFL Network is in the middle of their 300-hour preview show as it is.  The only thing they have shown that was mildly interesting was the Senior Bowl this past Saturday (and it was kind of fun…and bittersweet).  Other than that?  Nothing of importance really.  This preview will not be as good as others.  I don’t give a shit.  Want a long-ass preview?  Go somewhere else.  Want something concise and to the point?  This will only take a few minutes of your time.

Anyway, the Super Bowl is on NBC.  So you can watch it there.  It is also on the entire CTV network.  Last year it was also on CTV Two and probably 40 other networks as well, but this year, just CTV.  UPDATE: So of course now I see that CTV Two and TSN2 are showing the game as well.  I don’t quite understand the logic here but oh well.  Also, you get to see the U.S. broadcast, not the simsubbed version with the 40 Canadian Tire and 2,000 Tim Horton’s commercials.  We will get the American commercials again.  Honestly, last year was a disappointment.  Don’t know what all the hullabaloo was about.  Hopefully this year is better since EVERYONE seems to want the American Super Bowl commercials.

So now my breakdown of the big game.  Before that, let me say this: the Patriots’ fanbase is, by and large, an insufferable bunch.  There are a few in there that are fine but most likely you are to encounter a Patriots fan who is a dickhead.  The worst part is that a lot of those people are not dickheads normally: they are people you would gladly hang out with or date or just be friendly with.  But then you talk about football and they become fucking jackholes to the nth degree.  It’s a fanbase I hate dealing with.  Here’s the issue: fans of the other 31 teams understand this fanbase.  We deal with it as best we can and then ignore them otherwise.  Eagles fans are a different story altogether though.  They can be not the nicest bunch of fans in the world.  Their reputation is of a fanbase that you also can’t deal with, but in a much more violent way.  And if the Eagles win the Super Bowl, what will it be like?  Will we have half a year of hearing them go over the game over and over ad nauseum to the point you just want to strangle them?  Quite possibly.  This is a tough call here folks.  Way tougher than last year when I mostly wanted the Falcons to win since they’re the Falcons and their sad-sack fans needed something to cheer them up (the outcome most definitely did the opposite).  And the Pats winning and telling Goodell to eat a big bag of shit didn’t happen either.  Frustrating all around.

Alright, let’s break down the game very quickly and go to my pick:

Offense – This is a tough call…..BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA just kidding.  It’s not even close.  Not saying the Eagles have some aspects of their offense that are good but compared to the Patriots this is a no-brainer.  Advantage: New England.

Defense – This is where the Eagles shine.  They have been lights-out in the playoffs in terms of defense.  The Patriots haven’t been bad but other than a couple of times, they have not been known for having a really stingy defense.  Advantage: Philadelphia

Special Teams – I’m not going to give an edge to either team.  This is fairly close to be honest.  Or maybe I just don’t know what I’m talking about.  Either way, I don’t care enough to pick one team or the other.

Coaching – Also not even close.  With all due respect to Doug Pederson, he (along with most other coaches) can’t hold a candle to Bill Belichick when it comes to coaching.  I just wish people would stop with the dumb press conferences he does, calling him a genius.  At the podium, he’s a curmudgeonly, old bastard who wants everyone to GET OFF HIS DAMN LAWN!  As a coach, brilliant.  At that, not so much.

I have to go with the Patriots in this one.  Considering every Super Bowl they have won has been close I will say this one will be close…for about three-and-a-half quarters.  Then they will pull away a bit in the end.  38-28.  I think Tony Romo is safe.  I won’t take his job with that piss-poor analysis.

This is it ladies and gentlemen (I am sure it’s mostly gentlemen but I digress).  Last football game of the season.  Soon enough the XFL will entertain us with its brand of football straight out of the 1950s to bring is out of the Spring doldrums.  Shitty helmets and everyone looks like Johnny Unitas, follows the law, eats their Wheeties, doesn’t even get so much as a parking ticket and never gets into trouble at all.  So basically Leave it to Beaver.  Until then (2020), we will have a long dark period until about early June when the CFL begins so we at least we have some semblance of football to put our eyeballs on.  I will fill up this time with more mock drafts (ugh), posts on how my predictions were for both the college and pro game (double ugh) and maybe another post or two on something else (good?).  Have a great Super Bowl Sunday and hopefully you eat and drink everything you want and don’t gain a pound or have indigestion. I know I will probably eat shitty and drink shitty and, for that game and that game alone, I do not care.

One final thing: today is Bell Let’s Talk Day.  Five cents will be donated to mental health initiatives for every text, tweet, Facebook post, Instagram post, long-distance call and I am sure some other things as well.  I think the long-distance calls and texts have to be on Bell phones as an FYI.  They raised over $6 million last year with this and I am sure it can get over $7 million.  This is near and dear to my heart so I hope you will, if you can, do something to help raise money since mental health funding, medical help, and even understanding is still woefully low in this country.

It’s about that time of year…mock draft time WAIT DON’T LEAVE!

Yeah I’m not too happy about this either.  I mean I don’t mind the draft.  The lead-up to the draft is beyond ridiculous and the Combine is creepy as fuck but the draft itself is some solid stuff…at least the first two days.  The last day is…well, it’s something that’s for sure.  I can whip through it on the PVR in like an hour.  It’s good on fast-forward.

So the reason I am unhappy is doing this post means we are at the end of another football year.  Well almost.  We got the Pro Bowl ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha sorry I couldn’t say that with a straight face.  For normal football fans we have the Super Bowl obviously and the Senior Bowl this weekend which I will discuss later in this post.  For now, let’s get to my first mock draft:

FIRST ROUND

1		Sam Darnold, QB (USC)
2		Josh Rosen, QB (UCLA)
3		Orlando Brown, T (Oklahoma)
4		Minkah Fitzpatrick, CB (Alabama)
5		Baker Mayfield, QB (Oklahoma)
6		Saquon Barkley, RB (Penn State)
7		Bradley Chubb, DE (NC State)
8		Calvin Ridley, WR (Alabama)
9		Quentin Nelson, G (Notre Dame)
10		Mike McGlinchey, T (Notre Dame)
11		Roquan Smith, LB (Georgia)
12		Josh Allen, QB (Wyoming)
13		Derwin James, S (Florida State)
14		James Washington, WR (Oklahoma State)
15		Courtland Sutton, WR (SMU)
16		Derrius Guice, RB (LSU)
17		Connor Williams, T (Texas)
18		Joshua Jackson, CB (Iowa)
19		Vita Vea, DT (Washington)
20		Marcus Davenport, DE (UTSA)
21		Mason Rudolph, QB (Oklahoma State)
22		Maurice Hurst, DT (Michigan)
23		Denzel Ward, CB (Ohio State)
24		Anthony Miller, WR (Memphis)
25		Will Hernandez, G (UTEP)
26		Taven Bryan, DT (Florida)
27		Christian Kirk, WR (Texas A&M)
28		Tremaine Edmunds, LB (Virginia Tech)
29		Billy Price, G (Ohio State)
30		Arden Key, DE (LSU)
31		Malik Jefferson, LB (Texas)
32		Sam Hubbard, DE (Ohio State)

Notes

• Only did the first round this time around.  Will probably stick with that the first few mocks and then afterwards include the second round.  I will not do like a dozen mocks.  That’s absurd.  I did five last year and I wonder if that might have been too much as well.
• I am not giving into the Josh Allen hype.  Yes, he’s a good quarterback but I don’t think he’s better than Darnold or Rosen.  He should still get his name called somewhere mid-first round.
• Honestly I believe Josh Rosen is a more polished quarterback than Sam Darnold but he has made it abundantly clear they he does not want to play in Cleveland.  The Browns are a shitty franchise but even they have to see the potential John Elway situation and tell themselves it’s best to steer clear of this one.  It helps that Darnold should still be a good pick.
• There will be trades.  I know there will be.  There was last year that set up situations like the Bills picking twice in a row in this draft’s first round.  I am not including any potential trades.  At all.  Once they happen I will curse and then re-do my draft board (that sounds so douchey to say).
• What should my reward be if I get like half of these picks right three months before the draft occurs?  Actually, you know what…I’m not gonna go there.

This Saturday is the final college football anything of the season as we get to see the Senior Bowl on the NFL Network.  Starts at 2:30.  Again they have some weird variation on rules but it’s still college football.  As long as it’s a good game I don’t mind at all.  And yes the Pro Bowl is on Sunday at 3:00 on ABC and TSN2.  I will not be watching it.

Next week there’s an important game supposedly.  I might look into that next week.  Enjoy the rest of your week (and weekend) everyone!

The Conference Championship Schedule…and a college all-star game!

And then there were four.  Here’s the sked:

Sunday

AFC Championship: Jacksonville at New England (3:00)	All affiliates		All affiliates
NFC Championship: Minnesota at Philadelphia (6:30)		All affiliates	All affiliates

Two (count ’em…two!) quick notes

• We have the normal afternoon and evening times for conference championships.  It’s kind of a nice change from the regular Sunday sked.
• CTV gets both conference championship games as well as the American networks CBS and FOX.

See that was quick.  It will be interesting to see if the NFL gets close to the amount of viewers they had last season for the conference championships.  For a myriad of reasons I am going to say they won’t.  Let’s just hope the games are good since the playoffs, in general, have been fun to watch.

As for college ball, we have an all-star game this weekend.  It’s the East-West Shrine game and it’s on at 3:00 on the NFL Network on Saturday.  If I recall correctly, they have some weird hybrid NFL/college rules in this one but hey, it’s still college football and I will still watch it…OK I will PVR it and watch it later but I will watch it dammit!  There’s actually two all-star games this Saturday but the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl is on FS1 so fuck that.

Enjoy the games everyone!

Ranking the Bowl Games from First to Worst – 2017-18 Edition

First off, holy shit with that game on Sunday.  First walk-off touchdown in playoff history EVER.  Poor Marcus Williams will never live that down despite the fact he is a key reason that a) the Saints were still in the game to begin with and b) the Saints were even in the playoffs this season.  Either way, other than in New Orleans, he will get shit on forever.  Ask Scott Norwood (who is still revered in Western New York and treated like a goat (and not the good kind of goat) everywhere else).  So now we have Case Keenum vs. Nick Foles in a conference championship game.  What a time to be alive!

Alright it’s time to rank the bowl games after they have been played for, I believe, the second year in a row.  This is such a text heavy blog and I know it will probably look like shit (i.e. an absolute wall of words) so if you read the whole thing then congratulations.  I mean you don’t get a prize but that shows how focused you can be which is good in real life, correct?  Let’s begin.

1. National Championship (Alabama 26 Georgia 23 (OT)) – Jesus Christ this was an amazing game.  And that final touchdown throw in overtime: it was a thing of beauty.  Tua can really chuck the ball.  I see Jalen Hurts transferring soon enough although he will still try to win the starting job for the 2018 season.  It was a great way to end the season and gives us something to cling to (even you absolute despise Bama) for the next seven months or so.  OK I am getting sad already.  Somebody hold me (a female preferably).
2. Rose Bowl (Georgia 54 Oklahoma 48 (2OT)) – Should I make this number one?  Part of me thinks it should be but when the national title game is an all-time classic you almost have to put it number one right?  Anyway, this made last year’s Rose Bowl (one of the best ever) look like a mediocre game.  This game had almost everything and you couldn’t look away.  I think I needed a smoke after it was done and I don’t smoke.  Also, there was no Baker Mayfield crotch-grabbing so it was definitely a win-win…unless you’re a Sooners fan.
3. Belk Bowl (Wake Forest 55 Texas A&M 52) – Until the College Football Playoff again this stood a chance at being the best bowl game of the season.  Wake and the Aggies (this sounds like a horrible band name) decided “Fuck Defense” and put on an arena football-like performance for the ages.  The fact the Deacs could hang with TAMU shows that the ACC has really narrowed the gap recently on the field.
4. Alamo Bowl (TCU 37 Stanford 35) – Don’t bet against TCU when they play in San Antonio.  If TCU wants to schedule a series against your team and at least one of the games will be in San Antonio, DO NOT DO IT!  It’s a trick!  Gary Patterson owns the Alamodome.  Period.  No matter what colour shirt he wears.
5. Birmingham Bowl (USF 38 Texas Tech 34) – If this was based on everything up until early in the fourth quarter this game would be WAY down the list.  But Quentin Flowers went all Quentin Flowers and willed the Bulls to a victory over Texas Tech who had to reaffirm that, yes, Kute Kliff Kingsbury is safe and his job is not in jeopardy…until the first weekend of the college football season when we begin the serious hot seat discussions.
6. Armed Forces Bowl (Army 42 San Diego State 35) – Don’t let the final score fool you: this game was MUCH closer than that.  It was old-school football at its finest.  Running the ball a boatload of times to set up a few big passes.  It was glorious to watch.  The Black Knights scored with 18 seconds left to tie the game up, went for two, got it, then got a scoop n’ score on the final play of the game.  And even with all that, the Aztecs’ Rashaad Penny was a sight to watch.  Ran for over two bills and four touchdowns.  Unreal.
7. Arizona Bowl (New Mexico State 26 Utah State 20 (OT)) – And now for the game almost no one watched but should have.  The Aggies winning their first bowl game appearance in 57 years pushed this into the top ten although it was a damn good game in the fourth quarter.  This is why these bowls need at least partial national spotlights.  So they get their moment in the sun that’s not overshadowed by another bowl game at the same time.
8. Foster Farms Bowl (Purdue 38 Arizona 35) – Even though there was no GUS JOHNSON in this one and the better game on paper looked to be the Holiday Bowl, we lucked out when this one ended up on the main FOX network.    Quite a few lead changes in this one from two teams that almost no one expected to be bowling this season.
9. Citrus Bowl (Notre Dame 21 LSU 17) – That ridiculous catch-and-run in the final minute put this game into the top ten.  Otherwise it might have dropped into the 20s and maybe even farther considering the field was in atrocious condition thanks to all the rain (although it could have been worse *COUGH*Outback Bowl*COUGH*).  Expect Brian Kelly to sign that 12-year contract extension any day now.
10. Peach Bowl (UCF 34 Auburn 27) – True national champions?  Meh, I don’t think so but UCF was the only unbeaten (and untied LOL) team in FBS.  Scott Frost finishing what he started should be a reminder to almost all coaches to do the same before getting on the first private jet to your new destination.  Not just from a PR standpoint but also from a “Don’t be an Asshole” standpoint.
11. TaxSlayer Bowl (Mississippi State 31 Louisville 27) – If this wasn’t on at the same time as two other bowl games, I might have watched more of it (and may have moved it up a slot or two.  Lamar Jackson was good not great in his last college game (probably) but the story here was the Bulldogs.  Lose their coach to Florida.  Lose their quarterback a month prior due to a horrific injury on national television.  And what do they do?  Come back and win a bowl game against a good Cardinals squad.
12. Liberty Bowl (Iowa State 21 Memphis 20) – From the massive crowd at Liberty Bowl Stadium to the noise to the quality of football, this felt like a big-time bowl game; something completely lost from all non-New Year’s Six games (and non-College Football Playoff games also although this should be obvious).  The only thing that kept this from going up the list is the lack of points from two teams we figured would shoot the lights out in a potential pew-pew game.
13. Pinstripe Bowl (Iowa 27 Boston College 20) – A game that most people, including myself, figured would be a bit of a bore.  It wasn’t.  On the frozen tundra of Yankee Stadium, we witnessed slippin’ and slidin’ and more slippin’ and slidin’.  Part of me thinks it’s complete stupidity to put a game on this kind of field.  The other part of me thinks this is fucking fantastic and we need more of this!
14. Music City Bowl (Northwestern 24 Kentucky 23) – This will forever be known as the Benny Snell game for Snell being thrown out for…what I don’t really know.  Basically the ref was being a dick and took it out on this kid.  Both coaches said it was one of the worst officiated games they had ever seen.  I tend to agree.  From what I watched it was piss-poor which is saying something since bowl season was rife with terrible officiating.  Too bad since this was a close game that came down to the wire.
15. Hawaii Bowl (Fresno State 33 Houston 27) – For the first time in what feels like forever, these two teams made the annual “Finish up Wrapping Presents and Put this on in the Background” Bowl exciting.  I had to actually watch the entire second half since it was that good.  Fresno State finished up a remarkable turnaround year with this victory.  Oh and Ed Oliver will be a beast on Sundays.  Bank on it.
16. Outback Bowl (South Carolina 26 Michigan 19) – First off, the field conditions were atrocious.  The Bucs played a late afternoon game the day before this game which started at Noon.  And it rained a lot.  So yeah, not fun for the players.  Secondly, Michigan had the fate of the Big Ten’s ridiculous perfect bowl record on the line.  They couldn’t close out the Cocks and now they have the scorn of an entire conference and Big Jim Harbaugh on a Big Hot Seat next season.
17. Fiesta Bowl (Penn State 35 Washington 28) – No matter how close the Huskies tried to make this, it always felt like the Nittany Lions were at least a couple steps ahead.  Which meant I felt just a bit dirty after watching it since the hype didn’t match the actual game despite the score saying it was close when it really wasn’t.  Ugh.
18. Orange Bowl (Wisconsin 34 Miami 24) – The New Year’s Six itself, I would say, was underwhelming.  Some great storylines coming in but the games didn’t match the hype.  I was kind of hoping this would have been closer, especially once Mark Richt went fucking crazy on the sidelines before halftime.  Having him lose his shit again late in the game would have pushed this possibly into Top Ten territory.
19. New Mexico Bowl (Marshall 31 Colorado State 28) – Hey this wasn’t a bad bowl at all.  Too bad it was lumped in with a few bowl games on at the same time.  When that happens you really have to stand out to be high in these rankings.
20. Camping World Bowl (Oklahoma State 30 Virginia Tech 21) – Here is where things start to fall off a cliff.  I was really hoping and expecting this game to be good.  It was OK at times but there weren’t enough huge defensive plays or big offensive shootouts going on in this one.  It was just there.  At least we still had Mike Gundy’s mullet to keep us entertained.
21. Camellia Bowl (Middle Tennessee 35 Arkansas State 30) – A misleading final score as ASU wasn’t really in this one.  It did have a few bizarre plays that only bowl games seem to unearth.
22. Sugar Bowl (Alabama 24 Clemson 6) – This game suffered from it not being really close for a game that started at 8:50 on the night before many of us had to go back to work.  The other thing was it came on after that crazy Rose Bowl.  Not enviable at all.
23. Cure Bowl (Georgia State 27 Western Kentucky 17) – This was the game that ruined my chance at bowl perfection.  Yes, I know it was only like the fourth game of bowl season, leave me alone.
24. Texas Bowl (Texas 33 Missouri 16) – The punter was the MVP of this game.  Let that sink in.
25. Cactus Bowl (Kansas State 35 UCLA 17) – There were a lot of questions about the Rosen One (or Chosen Rosen which sounds infinitely worse but whatever) before this game.  He ended up not playing.  The first half had UCLA out to a lead and I thought this would be a good game.  It wasn’t  KSU blew them out in the second half and I’m being kind.
26. Las Vegas Bowl (Boise State 38 Oregon 28) – Boise State did everything in their power to keep Oregon in this game.  Oregon was terrible.  TERRIBLE!  It should have been 49-0.  That it was a ten-point game is a testament to college football getting wacky at times.
27. Heart of Dallas Bowl (Utah 30 West Virginia 14) – It was so depressing watching this game seeing the Cotton Bowl with barely any people in it.  It doesn’t look like the most, um, stable stadium I guess is the term I am looking for.  What a difference between that and the Red River Shootout.
28. Sun Bowl (NC State 52 Arizona State 31) – This was never close.  And it was on at the same time as a few other, better bowl games.  And it doesn’t include an SEC team on the network that has the SEC.
29. Cotton Bowl (Ohio State 24 USC 7) – For a New Year’s Six game, this was brutal.  Not fun to watch.  And it was the first NY6 game this season.  It gave everyone a bit of anxiety hoping that the rest of the games wouldn’t be this way.  They weren’t thankfully.
30. Quick Lane Bowl (Duke 36 Northern Illinois 14) – I will be completely honest…after the first half I watched very little of this game.  Fast forwarded through, noticed Duke was handling this game pretty easily, and felt good about my decision.
31. New Orleans Bowl (Troy 50 North Texas 30) – Only good thing about this one was that there were a lot of points.  I mean it was close for the first half but that was about it.
32. Idaho Potato Bowl (Wyoming 37 Central Michigan 14) – Did you know Josh Allen is a TOP-NOTCH quarterback that should be taken high in the first round?  If not, then you didn’t watch this game.  I don’t think the announcers were relatives of Allen but it sure felt like it.
33. Independence Bowl (Florida State 42 Southern Miss 13) – This had a certain car crash quality to it.  Would the Noles crash and burn and end one of their worst seasons in recent memory on a terrible note?  Or would they rise to the occasion and show everyone why this game shouldn’t be close.  It was definitely the latter which kind of made it more boring than the first option would have been.
34. Bahamas Bowl (Ohio 41 UAB 6) – I honestly hate this bowl game.  I don’t want to.  But it’s on at a horrible time every year (during the day on a weekday before Christmas).  So other than that one year with the ridiculous Central Michigan comeback with the crazy final touchdown and they still lost by 1, it hasn’t impressed me at all.  I guess the players get to go to Bahamas so that’s fun.  And UAB was there.  It was a fun story to talk about…during the first quarter.  After that?  Blah.
35. Gasparilla Bowl (Temple 28 FIU 3) – I was more in awe of the absolutely stupidly massive Bad Boy Mowers dog inflatable mascot than anything.  That thing was huge!  They really should have just had mower races.  I think the St. Pete crowd would have been more appreciative.  And I still think the Trop is a fucking dump even if they do have slightly nicer turf now.
36. Holiday Bowl (Michigan State 42 Washington State 17) – This may tell you how bad the worst five bowl games are.  I rated this game, a blowout that no Canadian could watch live, better than those ones.  Yeah.
37. Dollar General Bowl (Appalachian State 34 Toledo 0) – This should have been a better game.  Two Group of Five conference champs going toe-to-toe.  It was anything but.  The only interesting thing was if the Mountaineers would hold on to get the goose egg.  They did.
38. Boca Raton Bowl (Florida Atlantic 50 Akron 3) – A fair amount of Lane Kiffin talk and John Franklin acting like a douchebag and dropping the ball before the goal line on a long touchdown run are the only highlights here.
39. Military Bowl (Navy 49 Virginia 7) – At least the Hoos celebrated their first decent season in a long time with an opening kickoff return for a touchdown.  After that this game suck-diddly-ucked.
40. Frisco Bowl (Louisiana Tech 51 SMU 10) – New location, same shitty bowl game.  Other than the Memphis-BYU brawl a few years back the Miami Beach-turned-Frisco Bowl has been horrendous.  The game they had in Frisco recently (the FCS Championship) was tons better and might have had two better teams competing.

So a lot of good and a lot of not-so-good.  It was college football but some of the not-so-good games were tough to watch.  Tomorrow (or Friday depending on time) I will have the conference championship schedule up (all two games of it!).  Enjoy the rest of the week everyone!

CFP National Championship Review (well a short one at least) and the NFL Divisional Playoffs sked

God DAMN that was a good national championship game.  I understand many of you didn’t want Alabama to win.  I kind of wanted Georgia to win but I really wanted a good championship to end the season on a high note.  Especially with seven-and-a-half months of no college football coming up (or at least college football that counts).  So with that criteria, it was a fantastic game.  And now the playoff can expand to a fifth team thanks to the Tide and to UCF.  We are slowly going towards an eight-team playoff.  While I don’t fully agree, I will embrace it as long as they don’t go beyond that.

I will get more into the game when I do my final bowl ranking and review.  For now here is the schedule for this weekend’s divisional playoffs.

Saturday

Atlanta at Philadelphia (4:30)		All affiliates	All affiliates
Tennessee at New England (8:00)	All affiliates		All affiliates

Sunday

Jacksonville at Pittsburgh (1:00)	All affiliates		All affiliates
New Orleans at Minnesota (4:30)		All affiliates	All affiliates

A few Divisional Round notes

• I noticed I didn’t have the times in for the Wild-Card post.  That has been corrected.
• So CBS gets two games this round and FOX only gets one.  NBC gets one because it’s NBC I guess.  I have a feeling CBS and FOX alternate who gives one of their games in this round to NBC.
• CTV gets all the playoff games this weekend.  Don’t know why and don’t care since when I watch them I will watch the US channel anyway (Despite the fact we still get the 500 Canadian Tire commercials, 400 Tim Horton’s commercials and approximately 1 million commercials about the same three shows that CTV wants to promote.  Sorry CTV, no matter what you do, I REFUSE to watch Young Sheldon.).

Wild-Card weekend was fun I have to say.  Only one game that would be considered not that great and it was still not bad (Falcons-Rams).  Epic comebacks, defensive battles (let’s stay positive here), Marcus Mariota channeling his inner Mr. Perfect, the Saints just not being able to stop scoring.  It was pretty good.  To be honest, paired with Week 17, it is the most NFL football I have watched in a couple years.  I know part of that is my near-obsession with college football so I will always pick that over the pros.  But the product had become shit.  These past two weekends proved there are still times when the NFL is just so much damn fun to watch.

Alright that’s it that’s all.  I am wiping away my tears at no more college football (save a couple of all-star games later this month).  Enjoy the games everyone!

Your NFL Wild-Card Weekend Schedule and CFP National Championship (short) Preview

Alright we have finally hit the second season in the NFL.  And we have a few relatively new fanbases to the party, including the one I belong to, that being a fan of the Buffalo Bills.  Not a member of the Bills Mafia though.  Those people are nuts.  I mean it’s nice to see fans take tailgating to the next level but if it involves wrestling moves that Cactus Jack might even cringe at then you may have gone too far.  And I am positive he has also never drank beer that has been run through the crack of a woman’s ass (he would then be Crack-tus Jack, right?  Right?  Is this mic on?).  I may be wrong though.  Anyway on to the short and sweet Wild-Card Weekend schedule!

Saturday

Tennessee at Kansas City	All affiliates		All affiliates
Atlanta at LA Rams		All affiliates	All affiliates

Sunday

Buffalo at Jacksonville	All affiliates		All affiliates
Carolina at New Orleans		All affiliates		TSN1, TSN3, TSN4, TSN5	All affiliates

The few Wild-Card notes I have

• Seeing the Bills, Jaguars and Rams all in the playoffs on the same weekend makes it feel like it’s 1999 all over again (or at least around that timeframe).
• CTV gets three of the four games and the last one goes to TSN and CTV Two.  The game will be in progress on TSN3 after the hockey game is done.

Every game is obviously important from here on in which makes the NFL actually exciting again.  I’ll be honest: no matter how this past Sunday turned out, it was one of the most exciting NFL days in recent memory.  Sometimes you have to set things up to hopefully create drama.  Then cross your fingers and if it works then it’s something people will remember for a long time.  For once they did something right!  I’m sure something will happen over the next month that will fuck things up again but for now, let us all breathe a sigh of relief in honour of the National Football League.

OK now to the College Football Playoff National Championship.  An all-SEC affair with Georgia facing Alabama.  You know what this means right?  Let’s have a little history lesson.  The last time the natty was an all-SEC matchup it was Alabama and LSU in early January 2012.  It was a rematch of a game these same two teams had earlier in the 2011 season.  Alabama ended up blowing LSU out but that is beside the point.  What it did was essentially put the final nail in the coffin for the BCS.  People had been complaining about the BCS for years but this is what put it to the point of no return.  This brought us the College Football Playoff which is a whole lot better but still has its wrinkles.  Many bemoaned the fact there were only going to be four teams involved.  I liked only having four teams as it still made it exclusive, made the regular season important, but now provided a playoff on the field.  But this all-SEC matchup, combined with a bit of a lack of respect for UCF, has started the rumblings again.  I know this is only year 4 of a 12-year contract but I have a feeling that before this contract is up, there will be at least one more team added to the CFP.  We know it will happen, it’s just a matter of when.

Anyway, the game will be shown on all the TSNs, except for TSN2.  UPDATE: The game will be shown on all the TSNs.  TSN4 will join in progress after the Leafs game but the rest of the channels start right at 8:00.  It should be a good game.  Evil Saban is undefeated against his old assistants.  That’s pretty remarkable.  Unfortunately for many people I have a feeling he will stay that way.  It will be close but I see Bama winning it all.  Going to go 27-21 Tide.  The game starts at 8:00 Monday night if you needed any reminder.

UPDATE #3: TSN2 is showing the Coach’s Film Room which is usually fairly hilarious.

One final thing: the FCS Championship is this Saturday.  Unfortunately for us it looks like the specialty packs have stopped showing FCS football.  Nice for them to do that during the season.  I wondered when this would start to happen.  Don’t get me wrong, do I NEED to watch this game?  No, but it would be nice to.  Plus, I paid for ALL college football shown on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and the SEC Network not already shown on TSN.  Not just FBS.  All.  I pray that they don’t do something drastic and end the specialty pack altogether although Bell and Rogers (and some of the smaller telcos) are known for their short-sighted dumb decisions.  As long as they can save a buck they will do it, no matter who’s expense it’s at.

UPDATE #2: Thanks to reader Mike, I have been informed that the FCS Championship is on TSN2 at Noon on Saturday.  This is the first time an FCS game has ever been on TSN (as far as I know).  This feels like college football broadcasting bizarro world.

Anyway, everyone enjoy the game this weekend and Monday night!

Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit’s the final pre-national championship Bowl Recap!

God DAMN were there ever some epic bowl games.  Through the first two bowl recaps I wondered if we were headed for a mediocre bowl season which would have, frankly, sucked.  Especially after it was quite a good regular season, one of the best this decade.  Business started picking up and ended (kind of) with a crescendo of epic proportions.  So let’s get right to the recap before I start getting teary-eyed over the end of another college football season.

Belk Bowl – Wake Forest 55 Texas A&M 52 (My pick: Texas A&M 35-28)

What a great start to these final set of bowl games.  107 points.  And Wake Forest (WAKE FOREST!) scored 55 of them.  I don’t know if I should be a bit worried for Jimbo Fisher, a bit worried for the rest of the ACC, or a bit of both.  I’ll go with both.

Sun Bowl – NC State 52 Arizona State 31 (My pick: NC State 43-27)

I was not surprised in the least by this bowl result.  And it was even worse than the final score implied.  This game was over early.  I do feel a bit bad for Brad Nessler on his first full season back at CBS (as much as I can feel bad for a top announcer who is very popular and makes a lot of money).  He had very few good games to call this season.  The SEC on CBS was not appointment viewing for the first time in a long time.  Let’s hope that changes next season.

Music City Bowl – Northwestern 24 Kentucky 23 (My pick: Northwestern 33-10)

OK the officiating during bowl season has been, well, terrible.  Like seriously bad in some cases.  Take the Music City Bowl.  Benny Snell was ejected for supposedly coming in contact with an official.  The replay shows the official putting out a hand to help Snell up.  Snell pushes the hand away and the ref throws the flag immediately and ejects him.  Chris Coyte, the referee said the player got up, grabbed his arms and pushed him away.  This didn’t happen.  At all.  So we have an official being a fucking dick and getting away with it and we wonder why people get on their cases all the time.  This guy should be reprimanded.  Period.  It was uncalled for and gives most officials a bad name.  Period.  Oh yeah, it was a damn good game but that and most of the officiating from that crew was so bad it overshadowed it.  Too bad.

Arizona Bowl – New Mexico State 26 Utah State 20 (OT) (My pick: New Mexico State 30-27)

The good games continue with this one.  It was a lot of fun to watch.  And the Aggies winning it in overtime when, arguably, their best player possibly ever, Larry Rose, runs it in in overtime to cap off NMSU’s first bowl game in almost six decades.  Surreal.  The scene afterward of the fans storming the field was great to watch too.  This helps the “There are never too many bowl games” crowd for sure.  And what is New Mexico State’s reward?  They get kicked out of the Sun Belt.  Ugh.

Cotton Bowl – Ohio State 24 USC 7 (My pick: USC 44-39)

Wow I was nowhere close with my pick here.  Ohio State completely shut down Sam Darnold and the Trojan offense.  Now who will the Browns pick number one?  Doesn’t matter really: we know whoever they choose will not have a fun time in the pros, at least to begin with.  This was not a great start to the New Year’s Six and had some people (including myself) a bit antsy.

TaxSlayer Bowl – Mississippi State 31 Louisville 27 (My pick: Louisville 40-24)

Did anyone pick the Bulldogs to win this one?  I highly doubt it.  Unless it was more of a protest pick than anything.  Someone going “Duh, Lamar Jackson ain’t as good as everyone thinks he is” or something dumb like that.  Jackson played pretty well.  But MSU was on top of its game which is something since they lost their coach and MVP in a very short time.  Good on them for toughing out this victory.

Liberty Bowl – Iowa State 21 Memphis 20 (My pick: Memphis 45-35)

God damn this was another fun game.  And the Liberty Bowl was PACKED!  That’s a good sign considering most of the smaller non-NY6 bowl games struggled with attendance.  And this was a great game.  Also, whichever NFL team picks Joel Lanning in the draft is getting a gem.  I’m callin’ it now!

Fiesta Bowl – Penn State 35 Washington 28 (My pick: Penn State 37-17)

OK a lot closer than I thought but it never really felt like Washington was in this one, even when they made it close.  And that last play: so many emotions in one play.  The start of the hook and ladder was executed perfectly.  Chris Petersen at his best.  Then for Gaskin to try and throw the ball back to a teammate with a couple seconds left and him near the out-of-bounds line was soul crushing to Washington fans and alumni.  If he had kept it, the Huskies would have had one final heave to tie it up.  College football giveth and college football taketh away.

Orange Bowl – Wisconsin 34 Miami 24 (My pick: Miami 36-30)

In what was essentially a home game for The U, they could not pull it off against the hottest conference’s second-best team.  The Big Ten continued their bowl perfection and Alex Hornibrook actually looked like a good QB for once.  Usually the Badgers seemed to win in spite of him but he was a big part to them ending their season in a successful way, in front of tens of thousands of rabid, turnover chain toting Canes fans.

Outback Bowl – South Carolina 26 Michigan 19 (My pick: South Carolina 27-25)

Remember what I said about the B1G being perfect during bowl season.  If the Wolverines could pull off this win, they would complete the best conference bowl season of all-time.  And for a while, they had it.  Up 19-3 it looked like a foregone conclusion.  Then they gacked it away and now Jimmy Harbaugh will find himself squarely on the hot seat for the first time as the head man in Ann Arbor.  Not good times for Michigan.  I’m sure Ohio State fans loved it though.

Peach Bowl – UCF 34 Auburn 27 (My pick: UCF 43-42)

So let me get this straight: UCF beats Auburn and finishes their season undefeated.  Auburn beat both Georgia and Alabama when both teams were #1.  Georgia and Bama are playing for the national championship.  Do I need to do the college football transitive property here?  This is one reason why the College Football Playoff will definitely expand to at least five teams if not six or eight in the next five years, before the contract is over.  The pressure (and potential cash windfall) will be too much to ignore.  And congrats to Scott Frost.  He went out the right way.  I wish more coaches did that.

Citrus Bowl – Notre Dame 21 LSU 17 (My pick: Notre Dame 23-20)

This game started slowly.  VERY slowly.  The weather and footing didn’t help.  Tons of rain after an NFL game that had ended just 18 hours prior did not make for great conditions.  But boy did things pick up in the fourth quarter.  And that one catch by Miles Boykin for the winning touchdown is an early candidate for catch of the year.  It was just incredible.  Now we know what happens right?  Brian Kelly will be signed to like a ten-year extension.

 

Rose Bowl – Georgia 54 Oklahoma 48 (2OT) (My pick: Oklahoma 33-23)

Possibly the best Rose Bowl of all-time?  It’s up there.  The best bowl game this season?  Absolutely.  One of the best college football games this decade?  Also, right up there.  This game was un-freaking-believable.  I was exhausted after watching it and I had no stake in the game.  I can’t imagine with Georgia and Oklahoma fans what they went through.  Worst part was there was another game after this one and it was moved to another channel because this game went so long.  I am not complaining though.  This is the kind of game that makes me a college football fan.  One of very few Canadian college football fans.

Sugar Bowl – Alabama 24 Clemson 6 (My pick: Alabama 35-28)

My thought process here was that 2017 Clemson was not 2016 Clemson and not even 2015 Clemson.  I was right.  Bama looked pretty dominant most of the way.  And many people’s worst nightmares came to fruition.

Yes we now have an all-SEC National Championship.  Remember what happened the last time we had an all-SEC National Championship.  Well, Alabama blew LSU out of the water and it marked the death of the BCS and the birth of the College Football Playoff (eventually).  I see this being one of the things that moves us to at least five teams in the CFP, if not six or even eight.  But I am hoping they don’t ever go beyond that.  The 24-team tournament at the FCS level is absurd.  And the attendance at most of those games is not very high.  And it’s a battle of attrition more than seeing who the best team is.  I think four is a fantastic number of teams but I knew it wouldn’t last.

Alright so the natty is Monday.  On the Saturday before that there is the FCS Championship which may or may not end up on the specialty pack.  Who the hell knows anymore.

Finally, the Buffalo Bills made the playoffs!  It has been a long time coming for this Bills fan.  What a fantastic last day of the NFL season.  I will get into it more when I do the NFL schedule later this week.  Enjoy the first week of the new year and hopefully 2018 is better than 2017.  I sure hope it will be.