NFL playoff picture is starting to come in to view. The College Football regular season comes to an end. Thanksgiving weekend servers us up some fantastic games. The match ups did not let us down. Even the ones that turned into blowouts had some interesting things happen in them. We will have the second to last College Football Playoff ranking. The last one before the one that rally matters. Thanksgiving day was not nice to the NFL home teams. In the NFC the first spot has been claimed in for the playoffs. The Saints grabbed that spot on Thanksgiving day. In college football the conference championship games are set. For the fist time since going to the four teams playoff format. Alabama will not be a part of it.
NFL Playoff Picture in Sight
Well at least for one team to be in. The Saint have clinched the NFC South. There is no surprise in that. A few teams took a step closer to clinching. Six teams have been eliminated. The Lions, Cardinals, Falcons and Giants in the NFC. Dolphins and Bengals in the AFC. The Bengals will not be joining the Lions and Browns in the 0 – 16 club. The Bengals were able to win against the Jets. A Jets team that somehow managed to win four games this season. It is kind of a bummer that the Bengals won. If they had finished the fruitless season you could have had a combined 0 – 48 with the Lions, Browns and Bengals. But no the Bengals had to end that. Guess can’t blame them for trying. They had been pretty close to winning a few so it really is not a surprise.
The Ravens took over the lead in the AFC when they beat the 49ers and the Patriots lost to the Texans. With the Ravens win coming against the NFC leading 49ers it is really a nice win. It does look like the Ravens and the 49ers are pretty evenly matched. The Ravens were able to run down the clock and then kick a field goal with no time left for the win. This could have been a preview of the Super Bowl. On a neutral field the results will be interesting to see.
The Packers got exactly what they needed to recover from the beat down the 49ers dished out to them. A trip to The Medowlands against the Giants. It was a bad weather game which played to the Packers and of course it was against the Giants. I usually watch these games with the sound off. Just seem to be able to watch the games better. This time I had the sound on and Chris Spielman was on the call. He kept talking about how great Daniel Jones is and what a great draft pick he was by the Giants. It seemed that every time Spielman said something like that Jones would throw an interception. Being a Packers fan I was all for Speilman saying all those nice things about Jones. Seemed to work out pretty well for me. Aaron Rodgers must have like it too since he threw 4 touchdown passes to make up for the horrible game that he has last week. Next week they have the Redskins so they should be able to keep it going.
Other teams that made some nice progress toward the playoffs. The Texans and Chiefs in the AFC and in the NFC even with the loss the 49ers looked pretty good. As bad as the Rams season started out they got back on track with a thrashing of the Cardinals. I know it is the Cardinals but they have been playing some pretty decent football this year and are way ahead of where people though they would be. There is still a chance that the NFC West could get three teams in the playoffs this year.
On the other had in the NFC East. No one really seems to want to win the division. Dallas is leading with a 6 – 6 record. The Eagles have fallen off the face of the earth and the Redskins and Giants are playing for draft spots. Dallas did not look good on Thanksgiving. A day that saw the home team lose every game. The Cowboys, Lions and Falcons all must have eaten too much before their games started. At least the Lions were in the game for a bit. The Cowboys got ran over in their Thanksgiving game.
Five biglakesports key NFL observations for the week
- The NFC West has become the best division in the NFL. The Cardinals my only have three wins but they still have their moments. After a difficult start the Rams are now two games above .500 and could still make the playoffs. The Seahawks and 49ers are looking like two of the best teams in the NFC
- Cleveland Browns are toast. They are not eliminated from the playoffs yet but their coach Freddie Kitchens will make sure they are. He is more worried about wearing what he thought was a clever shirt as a poke the the Steelers than getting his team ready for the game. I do not see him being the coach of the Browns next year. It turns out the Browns were the most over hyped team of the year.
- Replay on Pass Interference or non called Pass Interference call just needs to go away. They have finally over turned a few of the obvious calls but it is just a drag on the game and a waste of time. It seems that making it possible to challenge that call has made the refs worse. I am actually for getting rid of replay completely. Human error is just part of the game. I still don’t understand how they will do this but then something that is cut and dried like using RFID to tell if a ball crossed the plane of the end zone still can not be done. It is so simple NFL lets make that one happen.
- With the Bengals getting a win the race to the bottom is now a seven team race. With one win the Bengals. With two wins the Giants. Following close with three wins the Lions, Cardinals, Falcons, Dolphins and Redskins. This race is as interesting as the race for the playoffs.
- The Patriots are not looking like they did to start the season. I can see them losing two more games this season. December 8th when they play the Chiefs and the December 21st when they play the Bills. The do get them both at home so that might help. The other two games against the Dolphins and the Bengals they should win easily. Losing two more games will give them no hope of home field through the playoffs. This could be the year we see the Patriots not make it to the AFC championship game.
College Football Conference Championships Set
After an exciting weekend in college football. The conference championship games are set. Alabama will not be a part of next weeks games. They also will not be part of the college football playoff. This will be the first time since going to four teams that Alabama will not be part of the playoff. I am sure the ESPN will be saying well they lost a close game on the road to Auburn their main rival. Heck Greenberg has already been saying crazy stuff like Auburn should be part of the playoff if they expand to eight teams. At least he did not say in the current four team format. Sorry Greenberg but losing four games and then beating your main rival does not qualify you. At least does not if you did not win your conference. Be interesting to see if he would have said the same thing about Michigan if they had beaten Ohio State.
Big Ten has Ohio State against Wisconsin. A rematch from earlier in the year. It was not a close game. I am not sure it will be a close game this time either. I see Ohio State rolling though this one. In the SEC it will be Georgia against LSU. I see LSU rolling through this game as well. Same with Clemson and Virginia I give Virginia no chance in this game. In the PAC 12 Oregon and Utah should be a good game. If Utah wins the PAC 12 has a shot to get in at the fourth team. I think the Big 12 is going to be out. It really does not matter who wins between Oklahoma and Baylor.
Five things of note in College Football
- Alabama is out. For the first time since going to the playoff format Alabama will not be there. Yes they lost a close one to Auburn and Auburn had all the calls go their way. Sometimes that is the way it goes. College football will survive with out Alabama in the mix. Watch out next year though Nick Saban will be on a mission.
- Auburn got fines $250,000 for its fans storming the field after the win against Alabama. Not sure there is anything they could have done to stop this. I get it storming the field is dangerous or rather can be. At least the fine is not a crazy fine. Question does the fine go towards anti storming the field awarness?
- Rutgers caved to the wishes of Greg Schiano. I don’t know that he can bring them back to where he had them before. He will at least give them a chance. My guess is one of the alumni supporters said hey we are sick of one win seasons. Lets make this happen. It already has had some effect. Quarterback Artur Sitkowski has taken his name out of the transfer portal to stay at Rutgers. I don’t know how good he is going to be but that is a good sign for the program.
- Championship weekend is very fun and interesting. Really this should be the first round of the playoffs. The winner of each conference championship should be in. Then they should pick three at large teams to make it an eight team playoff. It would get each conference involved and could help to spread the talent around a bit. It would be good for college football.
- The Biglake Top five. 1. Ohio State 2. LSU 3. Clemson 4. Utah 5. Georgia. Ohio State and LSU are really the co number 1. I think that their accomplishments are pretty close to each other. Neither team has really faced a huge challenge. Maybe week one for LSU against Texas but the first game is such an unknown. LSU got it together after that. Ohio State has won ever game they have played by double digits. The closest game was the 11 point win against Penn State. In Penn State.
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