Weekend winners
Tennessee hoops. Welcome to the SEC Tom Crean. Buckets did UT’s top-five powerhouse look the part of wrecking machine in a 96-50 win over Georgia that in truth was not as close as the score. Tennessee was efficient (53.1 percent from the floor and 84.6 percent from the line with a 25-to-9 assist-to-turnover ratio) and stifling (Georgia shot less than 33 percent from the floor and 5 percent from distance). The lead was 29 at halftime friends.
Jerry Jones. Yes, there were four teams that prevailed over the Wildcard weekend, but the Dallas owner has the biggest reason to smile considering the following: He moved all his chips in on this team and this season by dealing a first-rounder for Amari Cooper, who had more than 100 yards receiving in the Cowboys’ 24-22 win over Seattle; he has said repeatedly that he stands behind his coach, and Jason Garrett out-coached Pete Carroll on Saturday night; he has has said repeatedly that he stands behind his quarterback, and Dak Prescott delivered on Jones’ faith. Now add in the fact that the TV numbers remind all of us that the Cowboys are undoubtably still America’s team across all sports, and Jones has reason to grin from ear-to-ear. How big of a draw were the Cowboys? Try this: Saturday’s nightcap was the most-watched Wildcard game in three years with a 15.9 rating and more than 30 million total viewers (TV and steaming), and was up 24 and 29 percent respectively from last year’s same window; yes, it was the lowest rated Cowboys’ playoff game since 2004 and the least watched Cowboys postseason game since 2007, but for comparisons sake know that only one NBA game of the last 21 years (Game 7 Cavs-Warriors in 2016), one MLB game in the last 15 years (Game 7 Cubs and Indians in 2016), and two college football games since the BCS started (Ohio State-Oregon in 2015 and USC-Texas in 2006) have had more viewers than the Cowboys did Sunday night.
Nick Foles. Dude is going to get paid. P-A-I-D. You know it, I know it and most importantly, he knows it. Also of note: The Eagles brass who held on to Foles rather than trade him in the offseason should be feeling pretty good about themselves right now all things considered. Because there is no way the Eagles are two wins from the Super Bowl – never mind winners of six of their last seven to still be alive – if Nate Suderfeld is behind center. And now seems like a fair time to wonder if the Eagles would be in this place if Carson Wentz was still prominently involved, you know?
Xander Schauffele. Wowser, what a Sunday charge. Dude shot an 11-under 62 (yes, the course was a par 73) to edge Gary Woodland by a shot. How good was Schauffele? He was first in the field in strokes gained tee to green and strokes gained on approach shots and second in the field in strokes gained around the green and strokes gained putting.
North Dakota State. With seven titles in eight years, Alabama is the ND State of the FBS.
Our NFL picks. Another weekend, another round of entertainment. We finished 2-1-1 with a fortunate back-door push in the Seattle-Dallas game. (And truth be told, that line closed in a lot of places at Seattle at plus-2.5 and even plus-3, so that late TD and two-point conversation was a highly entertaining win for many. But we had the number on Thursday at Seattle minus-2 and that’s the deal.) Our NFL picks are now 14-5-1 (against the spread) since the college football regular season ended.
Weekend losers
Our NFL picks. Never look a hot streak in the mouth, but we followed a similar line of thinking – experience, quarterbacks you trust, going against young QBs making their first playoff start – to two wins and a push in the first three games. Then we inexplicably backed Mitch Trubisky because we fell in love with the Bears defense. We should know better simply on its face: Second-year QB making his first playoff start vs. Reigning Super Bowl MVP. That one is on me.
NFL in general. Gang, we know the real-world truths that replay is needed and it’s always better to take time to get the calls right. But what in the world is happening when even after replay we are unsure about the calls and wondering how this play did not get overturned or why that one did. And the ramifications of those calls – the Chargers’ fumble at the goal-line that wasn’t, the Bears catch and fumble that wasn’t recovered and then negated, and a few others – were clear. When you have three thrilling, one-score, win-and-advance playoff games and the general talking points are about the officials that is never a good thing.
The confidence level in Holly Warlick. Here’s Mean Gene Henley’s game story as the Lady Vols lost – at home – to a very mediocre Missouri team that has a fancy record built with few meaningful victories. That changed Sunday as the Tigers topped the Warlick’s 10th-ranked team, which makes you wonder if Warlick has guided the Lady Vols closer to the middle of the SEC than the top.
Bears fans. Wow, that was a painful loss for a team that had monster aspirations.
All of the NBA teams that are going to tank and finished with picks outside of No. 1 and the prize that will be Zion Williamson. Dear Buckets that dude is a freak.
Environment of the college football title game. The weather has been so bad – cold and wet and generally nasty – Sunday’s fan fest event and concert were cancelled. Tonight’s title game almost assuredly will be played with empty seats. Here’s hoping this is the last time they decide to move this puppy to Northern California. Weather for tonight is temperatures in the mid-50s with a chance of showers. That said, by all reports, the field is nasty and there could be some real issues with the footing.
Alabama running back Damien Harris leaps over the lines during the Sugar Bowl national semifinal against Clemson last January. Harris helped the Crimson Tide rout the Tigers 24-6 in New Orleans before going on to beat Georgia in the College Football Playoff title game in Atlanta, but tonight the Tide and Clemson will meet in a CFP final for the third time in four years. Alabama beat Clemson 45-40 to end the 2015 season, but the Tigers topped the Tide 35-31 for the championship the next season.National title game
We are here.
And a lot of us thought the folks invited to this national title showdown all the way out in Cal-E-Forn-I-A were going to be Clemson and Alabama from the very beginning.
Alabama-Clemson. Clemson-Alabama. Round 4 in the playoff, which is pretty amazing.
(Side note: Considering that he replace Perry Tuttle at Clemson in the mid-1980s, Hunter Renfroe is going to leave Clemson with a lot of college football playoff records, right? He will be the fall back answer for “Who holds the record for receiving _______ in the college football playoffs?” like John Smoltz or Derek Jeter are the fall-backs for most MLB postseason trivia because of games played.)
As for our picks, well, we have said this for quite a while and we will stand by it. We are not picking against Alabama in anything that is not a money game. Not in tiddlywinks, not in hopscotch. Not now, not any time soon. Maybe not as long as Lord Saban is still in Tuscaloosa. (Yes, we have made some entertainment in years past with say The Citadel plus-50 because the Dark Lord did not want to beat them too badly.)
So of course we are picking Alabama, but we do so with a fair amount of pause. We have frequently asked, “How many points would Alabama have to give before you would bet against them?” The line started around a TD and has dropped. Maybe there is big money on the Tigers. Maybe the sharps are waiting before kickoff hoping the line gets closer to 3 or 3.5.
The current line – Alabama minus-5 on VegasInsider and even at 4.5 at some shops – falls directly into the “If it looks too good to be true it almost always is” corollary of entertainment-hunting advice.
It’s clear that Vegas likes the underdog Tigers. And there is a lot to like. Trevor Lawrence likely would be the No. 1 quarterback taken if he was eligible to enter the draft. (That said, if was eligible to enter the draft, then so would Tua Tagovailoa, so maybe Lawrence would be the No. 2 QB on the board.) He has two future NFL dudes on the perimeter, and Alabama’s biggest weakness is in the secondary.
The Tigers’ defensive front is excellent and filled with NFL dudes.
But this is Alabama with the chips on the line, and laying less than a TD. And when/how does Alabama lose games like this: Well, Lawrence is going to have to be other-worldly for starters. Whether it was Deshawn Watson or Cordell Jones at THE Ohio State, it takes a magical quarterback showing. That’s a tall order for a freshman on this stage friends, especially with a front seven that includes Quinnen Williams and a host of future Sunday millionaires.
I hope for a good game, and most signs point that way. The last time two future first-round QB picks and the last time two teams played for a national title with average margin of victories of 30-or-more was USC-Texas, which turned out to be one of the best bowl games ever.
So game on. Again.
We’ll take Alabama to cover, with our fingers crossed that this one is an all-timer.
And if it’s not an instant classic, hey maybe next year’s re-re-re-re-rematch between these two will be.
This and that
– Our heart hurts for Chicago kicker Cody Parkey, the former Auburn kicker who had a potentially game-winning field goal tipped in the final seconds of Sunday’s loss to Philadelphia. Even after the kick was tipped by Treyvon Hester, it doinked off the left upright and again off the crossbar. Heart-breaking loss for the Bears. Side note: How did the broadcast crew not notice the ball was tipped? Seriously. Heck, Parkey faced the media – and answered all their questions – and was booed by fans with no one knowing that Hester got his fingers on the ball.
– Speaking of the college football title game tonight, here’s TFP ace sports columnist Mark Wiedmer on Nolan Turner, a Clemson DB that is assuredly worth cheering for.
– One correction on the Bowling for Bowls of Bowl Game Success (Bowler Optional) scores. Sportsfan was among the wise few who topped the 80-point threshold. His score does not change the reality that if Alabama wins, Justin S. gets the prize and if Clemson wins, scole023 prevails, however. Good luck you two.
– The news started circulating Friday, but it’s official now that Justin Fields has transferred from Georgia to THE Ohio State. A monster get for new coach Ryan Day. And the early frontrunner for the most interesting storyline of 2019 will be Fields’ appeal to play right away because of a clause in the NCAA rules that reads “The transfer is due to documented mitigating circumstances that are outside the student-athlete’s control and directly impact the health, safety and well-being of the student-athlete.” And considering that Fields can claim, at least in part, that this transfer is due to the since-dismissed UGA baseball player that directed racial slurs at Fields, it seems like Fields has a pretty good argument. And if his appeal is granted, well, it will certainly change the transfer system as we know it.
– Speaking of golf, it’s worth discussing a couple of the rule changes that were put into place with the turn of the calendar. First, Webb Simpson benefited in the second round from a rule change based on common-sense. Simpson was looking for his ball on Friday in the weeds and stepped in a clump of grass and out rolled his golf ball. Every round before 2019, that would have meant a penalty stroke. Now, he got to replace it without penalty under Rule 7-4, which reads, “There is no penalty if your ball is accidentally moved by your, your opponent or anyone else while trying to find or identify it.” As for the other big talking point about the changes, only Bryson DeChambeau consistently putted with the flag in during Schauffele’s win in Hawaii. How did it turn out for DeChambeau? Well, he led the field in putting this week, so here’s betting others will be trying his tactic sooner rather than later.
Today’s questions
Weekend winners and losers. Please share.
Also, speaking of Bryson DeChambeau, does the name Bryson DeChambeau sound more like someone who would have a butler or the name of the butler? What about Xander Schauffele? Discuss.
Today is national bobblehead day. So there’s that.
The Globetrotters played their first game on this day in 1927.
Let’s also pause because the man, the myth, the legend, Nicolas Cage is 55 today. Thanks Nick. Side question: Did you know that Cage’s uncle is Francis Ford Coppola, the famed director that did a little movie called The Godfather.
Screech from Saved by the Bell is 42 today.
The impeach proceedings of Bill Clinton started on this day 20 years ago.
The Newlywed Game premiered on this day in 1967.
OK, and this is more information on toots than we have ever seen in one place, but today is National Pass Gas Day. (Why, you ask? Not sure, but Sunday was National Bean Day, so maybe that has a connection.) https://www.checkiday.com/590aee912cf5b491dff5d860d71d286c/national-pass-gas-day
Rushmore of phrases for passing gas. Go.