Glad to be back, and the 5-at-10 hopes you had a blessed holiday season. Wow, we missed a bunch last week getting ready for Santa, so let’s get to it.
NFL playoff picture taking shape
About the final piece of the meaningful playoff puzzle will be placed tonight when the Atlanta Falcons host the New Orleans Saints in a game with a lot on the line. We’ll cover this more this afternoon, but the Falcons can seal home-field advantage with a win, and let’s remember that Matt Ryan is 19-1 as a starter in the Georgia Dome. That seems pretty good.
As for the rest of the league, here’s what we know:
– The Packers are tough with Aaron Rodgers on the field;
– The New England Bradys are strong. Seriously, the Patriots’ offense is Tom Brady, two guys that played some junior college ball and three guys from Section 104 and a collection of furniture movers. And all they do is destroy folks;
– Don’t sleep on the Steelers, who have a recharged running game and are resting safety Troy Polamalu;
– It’s tough to trust either the Bears or the Jets right now, considering each team claims to be a defensive-minded club first and they played a 38-34 shootout Sunday.
Regardless, it’s going to be interesting.
Bowl me over
The game’s have been good, but wow there’s too many bowls. The 5-at-10 has always been a big believer in the more the merrier, but seriously, FIU-Toldeo is a bowl game? Seriously?
Granted, FIU’s comeback was highly entertaining, but quick tell me the bowl they played in last night? Or either team’s nickname? Thought so.
Big week for the local bowlers
UGA and UT arrived at the sites and started getting ready for their bowl games this week.
For the Bulldogs, the storyline lines in the Liberty Bowl against Central Florida are replacing Caleb King, who was ruled academically ineligible, and how will A.J. Green and Co. fare in what is almost assuredly their final game with the Bulldogs. Green and defensive end/outside linebacker Justin Houston are each ranked among the top 25 players by NFL draft analyst Mel Kiper and figure to skip their senior seasons and enter the draft.
For the Vols, it’s a chance to see whether that end of the season run was a product of improved play (and the insertion of freshman quarterback Tyler Bray into the lineup) or a product of impoverished opponents (UT’s four-game winning streak to close the year was against 1-11 Memphis, 2-10 Vandy, 4-8 Ole Miss and 6-6 Kentucky).
The Ohio State Scandal
I guess Terrell Pryor was tired of being a poor man’s Cam Newton only on the field, huh? The 5-at-10’s kidding of course, but last week’s news that Pryor and four of his Buckeyes teammates were going to be suspended for the first five games of next season for selling some of their OSU and bowl gear and receiving extra beneifts seemed somewhat strange.
Pryor allegedly committed some of the NCAA violations roughly 18 months ago, and now he’ll get to play in the Sugar Bowl next week but will miss almost half the season next year. So it goes, in the crazy season of suspensions, which will include UT hoops coach Bruce Pearl missing the first eight SEC games in the coming days. Which brings us to…
Vols to the wall
Hey Vols hoops fan, after those huge wins over Villanova and Pittsburgh earlier this season, in a million years did you think you’d be relieved and somewhat happy with a one-point win over Belmont? At home?
Yeah, us too.
Seriously, the college basketball season is long and you have to trust it, but the early ebbs for Pearl and Co. were about to flow away after their December struggles that lead to losses against Oakland and Charlotte.
The losses are not what worries the 5-at-10; it’s that this team appears to lean an awful lot of Scotty Hopson, which is fine if he’s playing well, but disastrous when he’s not.