5-at-10: Winners and losers from the weekend, Rushmore of female signing voices

Wow, hope you enjoyed the weekend.

Big happenings. Loud noises. Lots and lost of questions.

From the "Talks too much" studios, let the good times roll and let the bad times roll away.

Weekend winners

We are going to give you our top five of weekend winners, and you can choose from this group. You also can go off the board for $200 Alex and add your own. As always, the order is meaningless - we're a free flowing enterprise, not unlike LL Cool J back in the day. MCA, get on the mic my man.

1) Peyton Manning - Dude did not play his best and still beat an elite AFC team because of the revamped Broncos defense. Manning with a defense, huh, intriguing. Plus, Manning joined Brett Favre as the only other quarterback to beat all 32 NFL teams.

photo Serena Williams, reacts after defeating Caroline Wozniacki, of Denmark, during the championship match of the 2014 U.S. Open tennis tournament, Sunday, Sept. 7, 2014, in New York.

2) Serena Williams - Her third consecutive US Open title gives her 18 career major singles titles. She has won like 14,000 in doubles with her sister. She is tied for fourth with Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert in career majors, trailing Margaret Court (she has 24 and the best tennis name ever, right), Steffi Graf (22) and Helen Wills Moody (19).

3) Handling your BID-ness - We asked which of the SEC games would be the closest in a weekend filled with cash contests, and the South Carolina win over a spunky East Carolina team was still by double digits. The challenges grow some this week as Georgia goes to South Carolina, Tennessee goes to Oklahoma, and Kentucky faces Florida. Good times.

4) Matt Ryan, Matt Bryant, everyone named Matt in the A-T-L (other than Matt Diaz) and the Atlanta Falcons - Wow, nice debut, Matty Ice. Dude throws for 448 and leads Atlanta to a 37-34 win over New Orleans. Good stuff.

5) Ton of other NFL shootouts possible here, but we'll tip the visor to Ken Whisenhunt, Jake Locker and the Tennessee Titans, who drubbed Kansas City on Sunday. Good stuff, and while there were several NFL showings worthy of mention, we've been less than glowing in our reviews of Mr. Locker, so his success deserves to be highlighted.

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Weekend losers

1) Derek Mason - The Vandy coach has erased the entire James Franklin era in Nashville in 10 days. A 41-3 loss to Ole Miss - couple with the opening 37-7 loss to Temple - leaves Vandy scuffling, and as the Tennessean reported today, Vanderbilt fan Kevin Anderson of Cookeville bought the domain name firederekmason.com. So there's that.

photo Kei Nishikori, of Japan, reacts after defeating Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, during the semifinals of the 2014 U.S. Open tennis tournament on Sept. 6, 2014, in New York.

2) The U.S. Open - Wow, the 5-at-10 actually would have watched some Federer-Joker action in the men's final. Instead, they both get bounced and the men's final is between a Wheel of Fortune dream matchup with a ton of vowels (the cats combine for seven I's for crying out loud.

3) The Big Ten - What was that? Ohio State gets thumped in the Horseshoe. Michigan State lets a third-quarter lead become a blowout loss at Oregon. Michigan gets waxed by a better-than-average Notre Dame team. Want to know who may be carrying the banner of the L1TTLE Ten? James Franklin and Penn State.

4) The Mocs offense - Wow. No bueno. One of the things you have to be careful about in the "Call to Arms" of the fan base is making sure you have your ducks in a row. The city answered UTC coach Russ Huesman's challenge - almost 15K, the third biggest in Huesman's tenure, was at Finley and by all accounts the crowd as loud and into it - and the Mocs laid an egg offensively.

5) The entire Dallas Cowboy franchise - Wow. Gross. The Cowboys are the worst team in the NFL - and the most valuable. Only in Roger Goodell's NFL, right?

(Side note: As for who pushed the weekend, well, that would be the 5-at-10 picks. Winners with Missouri (-4 in 1 49-24 win over Toledo), Ga Tech (-10 in a ) and USC (+3 in a 13-10 win over Stanford) and losers with Arizona (minus-6 in a 26-23 win over UTSA), Michigan State (+13.5 in a 46-27 loss to Oregon) and UCLA (-23 in a 42-35 win over Memphis). We are now 7-4 against the number through two weeks. Alas.)

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Off the field

photo Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald T. Sterling, right, sits with his wife, Rochelle, during a Clippers NBA basketball game against the Detroit Pistons in Los Angeles in this 2010 file photo.

We have debated around these parts about the handling of the Donald Sterling matter and the Ray Rice matter.

It's been an interesting discussion, and all views are welcomed as long as they are within the confines of the a family-oriented, interweb-based sports discussion.

While there is ample room to discuss the Sterling view from each side, the recent revelation that the decision forced an internal-reporting of Hawks part owner Bruce Levenson makes the ripples form that decision even more powerful.

Levenson has announced his decision to sell his interest in the Hawks because of a racially insensitive email sent two years ago. (There are back stories here of course. Levenson is less than a savory dude, but he has tried to sell the Hawks before. So there's that.)

How true it appears, that as Dallas owner Mark Cuban said, the Sterling decision could open Pandora's box.

As for the Ray Rice decision, well, it's getting worse by the day, considering TMZ released the video of Ride and then-fiancee Janay Palmer inside the elevator.

Wow. Mr. Goodell, this is only worth two games? Wow.

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This and that

- Scotch tape was introduced today in 1930. Truett Cathy, Chick-fil-A founder, died today. Talk about two products that became the official name of the brand, along with Xerox and Kleenex.

- The Braves are a half-game back for the final wildcard spot after losing two of three to Miami over the weekend. Not good times.

- Want to know some crazy gambling info? Of course you do. OK, Alabama was a 40-point favorite over FAU and that spread grew to 42 in some spots. Alabama was leading 41-0 when weather forced the coaches to agree to end the game with just less than eight minutes left to play. So there were some very happy or sad bettors depending on the side and the number they had. In Vegas, however, all bets were void because the game failed to reach the 55 minute minimum, according to RJ Bell of pregame.com.

- The NASCAR field is set and the drivers better hire some mathathletes to figure out the possibilities. Here's a detailed lay out of the new NASCAR postseason.

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Today's question(s)

We want to hear your winners and losers from the weekend for sure.

photo Patsy Cline

Also, get the mailbag stuff in early because the questions are flowing pretty quickly.

As for interesting dates, well, we'll start with pouring one for Erk Russell, who died on this day in 2006.

As for birthdays, we have two Rushmores to ponder potential Rushmores for the group:

• Patsy Cline was born on this day in 1932. What's the Rushmore of best female signing voices?

• English actor James Gandhi was also born on this day in 1995. We have no view on Mr. Gandhi's theatrical skills, we're sure he's a talented chap. Here's our question: What's the Rushmore of last names that would make people think, "Hey, I wonder if he's related to....?"

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