5-at-10: College football recap, Series drama, Testing Tiger, weekend winners and losers

Wow, that escalated in a hurry. Brick killed a guy.

From the "Talks too much" studios, if you were a tree, what tree would you be and if you were a tree that fell in the forest with no one around, would you make a noise? We say yes and we'd be a Dogwood. At Augusta. Good times.

Saturday splendor

The college football world became more defined and more confusing. It became more clear while becoming more clouded.

Basically we're dealing with a lot of stuff. And we all know that candlesticks make a nice gift, maybe find out where she's registered and get a nice placesetting. OK, let's get two. Better make it five.

photo Alabama Coach Nick Saban

- Alabama is pretty good at tackle football. We almost made the Tide minus-28 our final Fab 4-plus-1 pick (more on that to come) and we certainly knew there was trouble for the UT Vols on Friday when the main complaint from Nick Saban was the frat boys were leaving the blowouts early. Let's face it, Nick Saban is going to complain about something involving his football program. He's perfection's guardian and to be that he most pick nits and constantly remind those in and around his program that something is not perfect. Well, if the only thing left on his list is frat boys and their dates leaving 52-0 blowouts early to go find some cocktails, well, his football team is in pretty good working order. The first half of Alabama's 45-10 drubbing of Tennessee was flawless (of course Saban said he was not happy with the second half).

- One of Twitter followers shared that the FSU students were chanting "We want Bama," during the Seminoles drubbing of N.C. State. Uh, you may think you do but you don't. Well, actually you do want the shot - as TFP ace columnist Mark Wiedmer points out here the final run of the BCS may be the most unforgettably flawed - since there could be three or four unbeaten major conference champs eyeing a spot opposite Bama in the title game.

In some fitting space in the gap between irony and ironhead is the BCS going out like a toot in church. That said, in the 5-at-10 power poll that gauges how Vegas would weigh the top 10, here's a guess how the wise guys would rank the top 10 (as in who would be favored over every other team below them):

1) Alabama

2) Oregon (how great was that fake punt, by the way - major-league juevos for sure)

3) FSU

4) Baylor

5) LSU

6) Stanford

7) Clemson

8) Ohio State

9) Texas A&M

10) Miami

Again, this is not the 'most accomplished' or the 'best' rankings of anything. This is a guess how Vegas sees them, and in truth, since Vegas has skin in the game, those rankings should carry significant weight.

- The 'upset bug' toppled unbeatens Texas Tech and Missouri. We used the quotes around 'upset bug' because Texas Tech was actually getting points form Oklahoma and Missouri was only laying 2.5 to South Carolina. That was the one game we missed last week - and the stupid kicker missed two chip-shots, including one in regulation that would have iced the game - in our Fab 4-plus-1 picks. We hit BYU minus-7, over 51.5 in the Auburn game. over the 66 in the Baylor game and Buffalo plus-2 in a 20-point win over Kent State. Dang right it was a good day - didn't even have to use our AK. The 4-1 swing back into the path of righteousness moves us back to 10 games over .500 and 27-17-1 against the number, meaning if you wagered 100 entertainment credits on each of the Fab 4-plus-1 picks this year, you'd be 820 entertainment credits to the good (that's minus the entertainment commission for your local entertainment broker, of course).

- Big ups to the UTC Mocs for delivering in the final moments in Saturday's win over El Cid. In what sounded like a sluggish and physical game, the Mocs scored with two minutes left for a 28-24 win that was big on several levels. It is win No. 6 overall and the Mocs' fourth in a row. It was a game UTC should have won and it did win - a threshold the program needs to step through consistently. It was a win when the Mocs did not play especially well, something that has been a headache for a while. It was a win overcoming adversity, losing your leading rusher before you take an offensive snap would have been an easy excuse. But the Mocs didn't need excuses because they finished what they started. Was it pretty? Not sure - but it looks mighty fine in the left-hand column of the standings. And we got a preemptive email from JMC that will surely stir the drink later this morning about Saturday. We'll post it in a few.

- Weekend winners and losers: Winner - David Cutcliffe and Duke beating Va. Tech. Loser - Missouri stubbing its toe against South Carolina. (Side note: Conner Shaw is a flat gamer. Dude came off the bench injured and willed South Carolina to a 'W' on the road. Dude's a winner.) Winner - Unbeaten teams Alabama, Oregon, THE Ohio State, FSU and Baylor CRUSHING conference foes. Loser - BCS. Winner - Auburn, sweet buckets what a turnaround. And a little of everything - Johnny Football. Dude can light it up on Saturday, but then he comes out and says he wants to party with Sheen, Gronk and Tiger.

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Series drama

And now it's a best-of-three to decide the intergalactic supreme superforce in baseball. Side question, since there are only two countries represented, why is this the World Series? Shouldn't this be the North American Series? Does the Japan baseball championship team just get hacked off to the Nth degree about this 'World Series' assumption we're making?

photo Boston Red Sox's Koji Uehara, catcher David Ross and Mike Napoli (12) celebrate after Game 4 of baseball's World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013, in St. Louis. The Red Sox won 4-2 to ties the series at 2-2.

Where were we? Oh, yes, a twisting, turning World Series that may not have everyone's attention over a football-packed landscape, but a drama-filled, highlight/lowlight-riddle affair that has rewarded those who have watched late into the crisp fall night.

How crazy has this been? Well, know this, it's not a surprise that we seem destined for a Game 7 that is scheduled for Halloween night.

The Cards winning Game 3 on a walk-off error. The Red Sox winning Game on a three-run homer from a replacement outfielder and a game-ending pick-off. Good times, unless of course you are the Cards pinch-runner who was picked off first to end Sunday night's game with Carlos Beltran at the plate in a 4-2 game. OUCH-standing.

This of course is the recap, and with the Red Sox and Cardinals tied at 2, tonight's game 5 in St. Louis is must-win for the Cardinals since the final two games are back in Boston.

Tonight Adam Wainwright and Jon Lester will pitch and we recommend watching. This has been great theater and could get even better.

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And now this happened

OK we talked about Brandel Chamblee, the Golf Channel analyst who insinuated that Tiger Woods is a cheater.

This was less-than-thrilling for Woods - and his agent threatened legal action last week. Now, it's less than thrilling for Mr. Chamblee.

Woods told reporters in Hawaii that the ball is now on The Golf Channel's green. While we certainly do not condone any media organization being strong-armed, Chamblee created this sandstorm.

photo Tiger Woods

And make no mistake, Woods in the game of golf is every bit the needle-mover and head-turned as the biggest stars in any sport with the possible exception of Lance, MJ and Tiger a decade ago. Those guys were at such an apex that the very threat of any of those three blackballing someone was paramount of a nuclear winter. Seriously.

That's a terrible amount of power to afford anyone of course, and to his credit, Tiger did not say boycott or offer his suggestion to The Golf Channel.

But not unlike Chamblee's vague apology - he said he was sorry for the discussion this has created not for what he wrote - Woods has left this open for determination and the folks at The Golf Channel are certainly smart enough to know that they need Tiger a heck of a lot more than he needs them. Regardless of how many improper drops he takes.

It's a rare spot for certain, and one that plagues media outlets of all ilk. It's the Frankenstein principle of sports media. And how The Golf Channel handles the monster situation will be interesting, because in some ways, whether they were going to discipline Chamblee or not over his allegations (which he wrote on another media site so TGC is completely dealing with a mess not of its making) now it would appear they are being strong-armed by Camp Tiger.

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This and that

- Julianna Hough is in hot water for donning black face as part of a Halloween costume. Gang, the black face idea is never a good one. Trust us. Here's a few more thinks to remember - say no to drugs, refrain from Hitler references, don't run with scissors, never play cards with a guy nicknamed after a city and skip the black face. You follow those and everything else is gravy.

- There were bits and quibbles last week that Dez Bryant was as good as Calvin Johnson. The two and their teams played in Detroit on Sunday and Bryant had three catches for 70-plus yards and two scores. Calvin Johnson had 14 catches for 329 yards. Yes, 329 yards. During the game, Dez had a sideline meltdown and afterward he was a quote-machine. You know what? We'd take Dez on our team for sure. Dude has passion - it can be misguided at times - and you have to play the game with a desperation of excellence. Well, at least the great ones do. And more times than not, that comes with a too-quick-to-the-red-line possibility. There was only one Jerry Rice.

- Speaking of desperation, the Falcons are cooked. And when did the NFL become so top-heavy. There are a lot of bad teams in today's NFL. Tampa's terrible. The Jags are jerky. The Steelers stink. The Falcons are foul (and fowl). The Redskins are rotten. Heck, they showed the Giants-Eagles game to prisoners and the ACLU protested. And tonight the Rams are sending Kellen Clemens and his 0.6 QBR against the Seattle Seahawks.

- The NBA starts Tuesday and we're in. Some of you are assuredly out - and Spy we certainly won't argue your choices of where to spend your hard-earned Benjamins - and that's OK.

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Today's question(s)

We have a bunch of them so buckle up:

Who won the weekend?

What are you going as this Halloween?

If you were Brandel Chamblee's boss, what do you do?

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