Cotton Bowl: Miami 24, Ohio State 14

Hmmm, another loss in my picks, and not only do I not care, I'm actually glad the team I picked lost. Fuck Ohio State!

The Cotton Bowl was host to the first of this season's CFP quarterfinals, and had the No. 10 Miami Hurricanes (11-2), fresh off their First Round win over A&M, face off against the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes (12-1), playing their first post-season game this year after a First Round bye. I picked the Buckeyes to win without any points, since I made my picks before the playoffs began and it wasn't yet established who they'd be playing in the Cotton Bowl. At gametime, though, OSU was a 7½-point favorite.

But as soon as the game began, I found myself cheering for the Hurricanes because ex-Georgia QB Carson Beck still has some Dawg in him, and because fuck Ohio State and fuck Ryan Day's dyed beard ("rinse the grey away!"). I've lost so many games already and I'm so deep in the hole, there's no redeeming this season so what's one more loss versus selling my soul to cheer for an overrated, undertested, and feckless Ohio State squad? 

Miami never trailed in the game and the closest OSU ever got was 17-14 in the fourth. But there was no NCAA script with a surprise rally and equally surprising string of turnovers by the leader, and Miami held on and won the game by 10. It turned out to be the biggest upset in CFB history.  

The University of Georgia Bulldogs, should they survive Ole Miss tomorrow, will face their former QB and the Hurricanes in the Fiesta Bowl (semifinal game of the CFB) on January 8. 

For whatever its worth at this point, and it's not much, I'm now 12-22 in my picks and with 10 games left to the postseason, I'd have to win them all to even reach .500 mediocrity.

Long day. I'm logging off and we'll pick this up again tomorrow.

              

Las Vegas Bowl: Utah 44, Nebraska 22

I won one! I finally get a win! First one in six games, and first since 5:00 pm yesterday! Woo-hoo! Vegas, baby!

The Las Vegas Bowl featured the Utah Utes (10-2) of the Big12 against the Nebraska Cornhuskers (7-5) of the Big10. I don't normally take Mormon teams, but I went with Utah as a whopping 15½-point favorite based on win-loss records (what's a five-loss team even doing in the bowls?).

It worked - Utah won, 44-22, covered the spread, and there were no scripted late comebacks or sudden rash of turnovers in the fourth to give the illusion of drama. I got a win, fair and square. However, I'm only 12-21, nine games below .500, and with only 11 games left this season, I'm gonna have to go at least 9-2 down the stretch to even break even, starting with Ohio State as a winner over Miami with no points (pick 'em) in the Cotton Bowl, starting shortly.    

Wish me luck.

Citrus Bowl: Texas 41, Michigan 27

 

Okay, NCAA or whatever dark cabal is manipulating these games behind the scenes -  if you're going to script the endings of these games, at least use different scripts. This game ended just like the previous Sun Bowl between Duke and Arizona State did.

Michigan (9-3) of the Big10 scored a TD in the fourth to take a 27-24 lead. I had the Wolverines as 4½-point underdogs, so I didn't worry even when Texas responded with a TD of their own and took a 4-point lead. Michigan got the ball back but threw an interception on their drive, and Texas capitalized on the turnover with another TD and an 11-point lead in a single play, an open-field Arch Manning rushing TD.  Michigan still had a chance to score again and at least beat the spread, but they got intercepted AGAIN, resulting in a Texas FG.

So just like the last game, the underdog took a fourth quarter lead, turned the ball over twice, and lost the game. Same script, different teams.

I should be glad that the SEC finally got a win, and over the Big10 at that, but not this SEC team, not only a Texas team, but the Texas team.   Georgia beat these guys, 35-10, back in November, and there was even a time when they were out of the Top 25 before they weaseled their way back in. I hate Texas and I hate the Longhorns, and now that they've just handed me my fifth consecutive loss in my picks, I take no joy in their SEC victory. At least this wasn't a playoff game and we won't be seeing these guys any more this season.

Another game's already in progress and the big game, the Miami-Ohio State quarterfinal, begins shortly.

Sun Bowl: Duke 42, Arizona State 39

The Arizona State Sun Devils (8-4) of the Big12 were 1½-point underdogs to the Duke Blue Devils (8-5) of the ACC. Sun Devil vs. Blue Devil in the Sun Bowl. Uncharacteristically for me this year, I took the underdog in this game.  

I lost. As frustrating as a fourth consecutive loss is, it's made even more frustrating because ASU almost won. They took the lead in the fourth and stopped Duke on a turnover by downs on the Sun Devils' 8-yard line with three minutes left. On what should have been ASU's last drive - just run out the clock and end the game - they fumbled the ball back to Duke, and let Duke score a TD and take a three-point lead. On their next drive, which could have tied or even won the game, ASU threw an interception and lost the game when Duke ran out the clock.

I thought I had this one and then it slipped between my fingers. 

Two more games in progress. No point in wallowing in this misery. 

ReliaQuest Bowl: Iowa 34, Vanderbilt 27

Well, dagnabbit! There I was, all set for my comeback in my bowl picks and for the SEC to regain its footing, and then the Vanderbilt Commodores (10-2) of the SEC fall to the Iowa Hawkeyes (8-4) of the Big10. They were 4½-point favorites, so I'll come out and say it - I never cared for, or more importantly trusted, Vanderbilt as a football program. When you're relying on Vandy to uphold the integrity of your conference, you know your conference is in the shitter.   

Here's the problem of a lower-tier program putting all its hopes on a potential Heisman QB: Pavia got his numbers - 347 yards rushing, two TDs, no interceptions - but the entire team only had 51 yards rushing. Iowa's Kamari Moulton alone had 95 rushing yards and the Hawkeyes as a team had 167. You live by the superstar QB, you die by the superstar QB. 

And with that, the mighty SEC falls to 2-6 on the post-season; 1-5 in inter-conference play. My stupid picks fall to 11-19. I suck at this. 

There are not one, not two, but three games on simultaneously right now, so gotta go. This is going to be a busy day.

I'm 11-18 With My Picks So Far This Season and My SEC Is 2-5! I'm Dying Here!

Things can only get better, right? We've completed 29 of the 44 bowl and playoff games so far this post-season, and if I can go 11-4 on the remaining games, I can still at least break even. It might seem optimistic to think I can win 73% of the remaining games when I've only gotten 38% right so far, but now we're getting to the good games with teams that I know, not those only-think-about-them-during-bowl-season Sun Belt and CUSA teams.

As for the SEC, the best is yet to come. Sure, we're down 2-5 right now, but that includes the Alabama-Oklahoma, SEC vs. SEC, first-round game, so 1-4 might be the better statistic. Today, No. 14 Vanderbilt (10-2) and No. 13 Texas (9-3) play, and tomorrow we'll see No. 9 Alabama (9-3) again and, most importantly, No. 3 Georgia. Alabama should be good for two more wins and Georgia three, and if the Mississippi State Bulldogs (5-7) can pull off a victory, that's potentially eight wins by SEC teams. 

That would make the SEC 10-7 overall, and since Ole Miss will lose their game to Georgia, and another loss will be either Alabama or Georgia (Alabama) in the Championship Game, the SEC's inter-conference record would be 7-4. And those four losses will be A&M, a Texas team, 8-4 Missouri, 7-5 LSU (who only lost by three), and 8-4 Tennessee, who never win big games and haven't beaten a Power 4 team with a winning record all season.

Yes, that's a big-ass dose of copium right there, a double-dose really (one for my record and one for the SEC's), but this year I need all the painkillers I can get my hands on. And someday, when this post-season is finally over and done with, you'll look back at these posts and think, "My God, he was right about everything!"    

 

Celtics 119, Jazz 109

 

The Celtics underperformed in the first quarter this time, but only by 7 points - they're getting better at managing those random sub-par quarters.

Meanwhile, they beat the Utah Jazz last night by 10. Brown's 30-point game streak ended, but he got 23 and White scored 27. The bench was hot from outside the paint, with Garza going 2-2 on threes, González 1-2, and Simons 4-10. They gave González 17 minutes playing time, but it was Simons who was the impact played with a +27 while on the court. The Celtics outrebounded the Jazz, 44-40, and had 9 blocked shots, seven of them by Mr. White, to the Jazz' 3.

My prescription for the Celtics to win remains the same: outrebound your opponent, improve your three-point percentage, and give González playing time. 

Boston's next game is in Sacramento, and if I were on the team, I'd get to California ASAP, because it's GOT to be a lot more fun celebrating New Year's Eve there than in Salt Lake. Ever see the movie SLC Punk? Case closed.  

Alamo Bowl: TCU 30, USC 27 (OT)

Oh, what a wicked world! Unranked TCU, a Texas team - it's right there in their name, Texas Christian University, they don't even try to hide it - won the Alamo Bowl in overtime over No. 16 USC (9-3). An unranked, 8-4 team from the Big12 - and from Texas, I'll remind you again - gave the Big10 their first loss in this year's bowls.  

I don't have the stomach to go through a play-by-play description of what happened, how the game went into OT, or how TCU came out on top. Google it if you're curious.  I just know that with two losses and one win today, I fall to a frankly embarrassing 11-and-18 in my bowl picks this season. I suck at this.

The world is changing and I wasn't made for these times. The effects of climate change are ravaging the globe even as levels of greenhouse gases continue to rise. The oceans, choked with plastic, are dying and we're well into the 6th Extinction. Authoritarianism and outright fascism are on the rise all over the world,  and we’re closer to nuclear war than we’ve been at any time since the Cold War years of the 60s and 70s.

Domestically, half my fellow citizens, preoccupied by ludicrous claims and fictional scenarios, are accepting of the most outlandish conspiracy theories imaginable and rejecting the very principles of democracy on which this country was founded. Stupidity and ignorance are no longer barriers to holding political office, and some politicians even seem to treat them as assets to be proudly displayed. Racism, antisemitism, homophobia, islamophobia, sexism, and any other form of hatred or intolerance you can imagine are present in virtually all aspects of our lives. White Christian Nationalism seems to be the platform of at least one major political party, and cruelty their default position. And economic inequality is at an all-time high, with a small sub-percentage of the people controlling the vast majority of the wealth. It’s as if we’re teetering between “Brave New World” and “Idiocracy.” 

And meanwhile, Texas teams, Texas, are winning bowl games and my picks are a paltry 11-8. What a wicked world!

Music City Bowl: Illinois 30, Tennessee 28

SEC vs. Big10! Now, that's more like it, even if it's not exactly the elite of either conference. Still, it's better than anything else we've seen since Saturday night's LSU-Houston game.   

To be specific, Nashville's Music City Bowl featured the Illinois Fighting Illini of the Big10 against the Tennessee Volunteers of the SEC. Both teams are 8-4 and neither is ranked. I picked Tennessee as a 5½-point favorite because of my SEC bias/cognitive blind spot, even though the Vols dropped to 3-point favorites by game time.

Playing in Nashville was practically a home game for Tennessee, and they scored the first touchdown. But the momentum didn't last, as Illinois scored a TD of their own, and then kicked a FG and scoop 'n' scored a fumble to take a 17-7 lead early in the third. The teams exchanged TDs, and then a Tennessee TD for an Illinois FG in the fourth, before the Vols returned a punt for a 94-yard TD to take a one-point lead. But on their final possession of the game, Illinois took the ball 64 yards down the field for a walk-off FG and a 30-28 win.

I lost my pick, but what really hurts is the SEC is now 1-4 so far in interconference games in this year's bowls, 2-5 if you include Alabama's 34-24 takedown of Oklahoma. Vanderbilt and Texas play tomorrow, but you know you're already in sorry shape if you're looking for redemption from the Commodores and the Longhorns. 

Last game of the day has already started. Let's see if I can wash that awful Illini taste out of my mouth with a win in the Alamo Bowl. 

      

Independence Bowl: Louisiana Tech 23, Coastal Carolina 14

What the hell? ANOTHER Sun Belt vs. CUSA bowl? This is the FIFTH ONE this season, and the conferences had at least one team in five other bowls! Does the NCAA know there are other conferences? Ever hear of the SEC, you numb nuts?

But here we go again - the 7-5 Louisiana Tech Bulldogs of CUSA against the 6-6 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (whatever those are) of the Sun Bowl. Neither team is ranked.  I took the Bulldogs as seven-point favorites (they were up to 10 by gametime) because I'm a Georgia fan and can't seem to bet against any Bulldogs, regardless of specific teams.

It was an awful game. There were 25 penalties, four lost fumbles, three interceptions, and a turnover on downs. The whole thing took 3 hours and 45 minutes. Coastal Carolina got only 44 yards rushing, total. Total! 

The most exciting moment in the game, possibly the only exciting moment, was a coaching decision. The Bulldogs were down most of the game despite being 7- (or 10-) point favorites, but finally took a six-point lead midway through the fourth (my spread, remember, was seven). After three punts, a fumble and a turnover on downs (yes, it was that kind of game), they faced a fourth and seven on the Coastal 17 with one minute left to play. Will they try for a field goal and a nine point lead and cover my point spread, or will they try and convert and either run out the clock if they succeed or try to keep Carolina from scoring again if they don't? If they went for the conversion, they wouldn't cover the spread. Decisions, decisions, and they called a timeout to think about it while I was on the edge of the couch. They opted for the FG, it was successful (but just barely), and they won the game, 23-14, and covered the spread.

I got the win, and "improved" to 11-16 on the season with my picks.

Two more games today, and both are delightfully free of Sun Belt or CUSA teams.   

Flames 2, Bruins 1 (OT)

 

Well, this is fun - the Bruins just lost their sixth game in a row and pick up their second OT loss of the season. This latest lost happened in Calgary, where Andrew Peeke was the only Bruin who could score a goal and the team went down on a power play in OT.  Boston's 42 points puts them seven back from first-place Detroit in the Atlantic, and two points below the Wild Card cut-off line.  

The Bruins will celebrate New Years Eve tomorrow with a game in Edmonton because what better place to ring in the New Year than the province of Alberta? There, they'll get to reunite with former Bruins star Trent Frederic and BU Terrier alumnus Quinn Hutson, who beat the Bruins with a game-winning goal back on December 18, so I'm sure things will go well for Boston.  

Birmingham Bowl: Georgia Southern 29, Appalachian State 10

Only one game today, and it had two Sun Belt teams. The Birmingham Bowl typically has a team from the SEC playing against an AAC team, but if either conference doesn't have a qualifying team available, they pick a team from CUSA or the MAC, or choose an at-large team. This year, with so many teams opting out of bowls, they had to scrounge and wound up with two Sun Belt teams (the Georgia Southern Eagles and the Appalachian State Mountaineers) who've already played each other this season; the Eagles won that game, 25-23. 

Georgia Southern went 6-6 this season and Appalachian State, 5-7, and neither team was ranked. I picked Georgia Southern as a 2½-point favorite because they're from Georgia, because they've already beaten App State once, and because of what the Mountaineers did back in 2017. 

On September 2 of that fateful year, Appalachian State opened the season with a game against Georgia in Athens. In the first quarter of that game, defensive tackle Myquon Stout hit Georgia QB Jacob Eason with a cheap, out-of-bounds shot at the end of a play and Georgia had to replace the injured Eason with a freshman QB, Jake Fromm. However, the joke was on the Mountaineers, because Fromm played so well that not only did the Dawgs win the game, 31-10, but Fromm went on to become Georgia's starting QB for the next three seasons. Jacob Eason, realizing that with Fromm as the starter there was nothing left for him to do at Georgia, transferred to Washington to get some playing time. What’s more, Justin Fields, Georgia’s backup QB, transferred to Ohio State to get his playing time. Those transfers would not have happened if not for Appalachian State's cheap shot. 

In his first year as Georgia's starting QB, Fromm led the Dawgs to the 2017 National Championship Game. The Bulldogs took a 13-0 halftime lead over Alabama in the game, forcing coach Nick Saban to replace his starting QB, Jalen Hurts, with then-unknown freshman Tua Tagovailoa. The Tide won the game in OT with a field goal, and Tua wound up becoming the new starting QB at Alabama, and with Tua starting at ‘Bama, Jalen Hurts had to transfer to Oklahoma. The chain of events that started with the Mountaineer's cheap shot on Eason led to all those transfers and changed the course of college football history and I'll never forgive them for that. 

So yeah, I'm not picking the Mountaineers, especially not over a Georgia team they've already lost to once this season. Which turned out to be a smart decision. The Mountaineers threw four interceptions and missed a field goal, and Georgia Southern won easily, 29-10. I'm still only 10-16 on my picks so far this season, though.

The ESPN announcers made a big deal over the fact that this game was the first time in CFB history that a team beat a conference rival twice in the same season - there have been rematches in the same season before, and one team won both games in some of those rematches but, they claimed, those two-win rematches never were between two teams from the same conference. That's ominous, because Georgia beat Ole Miss, 43-35, this season and will be playing them again in the CFP quarterfinal on January 1. Is it possible that a team never went 2-0 against a conference opponent until this year, and then it happens twice in one season?

Trailblazers 114, Celtics 198

 

Okay, this one I just don't understand. Brown drops 37 points, tying Larry Bird's team record for consecutive 30-points-or-more games, and González gets 30 minutes and actually scores (13 points), and the Celtics lose? How does that happen?

Could it be Portland's edge in rebounds (47 to 40), or their higher number of threes (18) compared to the Celts (13)? 

And even the Celtics classic one quarter of underperformance (the third this time) wasn't really all that bad (31-22) compared to past bad quarters.

So I'm not asking rhetorically. I didn't see the game and honestly don't know. 

This Western Conference road trip continues with a game in Salt Lake on Tuesday against the Jazz (12-19).      

New England 42, Jets 10

 

The New England Patriots (13-3) dominated the New York Jets (3-13) today with QB Drake Maye completing  four touchdowns in the first half alone  Maye completed his first 11 passes for 159 yards and didn't throw an incompletion until there was 1:44 left in the second quarter and he already had three touchdowns.

The Patriots won, 42-10.

Maye didn't even play the fourth quarter but still finished the day with 19-of-21 passing for 256 yards, a total of five TDs, no interceptions, and 22 yards rushing. TreVeyon Henderson had 82 yards rushing,  Rhamondre Stevenson had 47, and Stefon Diggs had 101 yards on six receptions, including one phenomenal catch that kept Maye's opening streak alive.

The Pats will play their last game of the regular season next weekend at home against the Miami Dolphins (7-9). A Patriots win and/or a Bills loss today or next week would clinch the AFC East for New England.  A Pats win and a Denver Broncos loss next week would clinch the AFC conference title for New England. The Broncos hold the tiebreaker over the Patriots due to a better record against a common opponent, the Raiders. New England lost to the Raiders in Week 1, while Denver beat them twice.

And to think, we were in last place this time last year and now we're figuring ways we might clinch the conference..

Sabres 4, Bruins 1

 

David Pastrnak scored a goal in the first period for the Boston Bruins, his 15th of the season. That's about all that could be said about last night's game. Boston lost to the Buffalo Sabres, 4-1, their fifth consecutive loss. The Bruins (20-18-1) haven't won a game since December 16, when the Mammoth graced us with their presence in the Garden.

The Bruins' 41 points trails first-place Detroit by six and puts them in seventh place, one up from last-place Toronto.  

Buffalo, of course, is the gateway to the west, and the game last night was the first of a Bruin's Pacific Division road trip. Their next game is against Calgary (16-18-4) Monday night, and then Edmonton (19-14-6) on New Year's Eve, Vancouver (15-19-3) next weekend, and Seattle (15-14-6) on Jan. 6 before coming back home.  

Texas Bowl: Houston 38, LSU 35

True story: in 2007, I rented a pickup truck in Houston for a work project and drove to central Louisiana. Along the way, I got stopped by a Louisiana State Trooper for speeding. He clocked me at 78 mph in a 60-mph speed limit. 

I told him, honestly, that I had lost track of how fast I was going; it was a rental truck and I was unfamiliar with it's speed and feel. Surprisingly, he understood and was sympathetic, and even more surprisingly, he let me go with a warning because when he saw my Georgia driver's license, he realized I wasn't from Texas.

"Those Texas drivers come through here driving like bats out of hell," he told me. "I get it, what it's like driving a new rental, but at first I thought you were one of them Texas drivers coming through here disrespecting our speeding laws." He let me go simply because I wasn't from Texas.

Moral: there's no love lost between Louisiana and Texas. 

The 2025 Texas Bowl had the No. 21 Houston Cougars (9-3) of the Big 12 against the unranked LSU Tigers (7-5) of the SEC. Pop quiz: who do you think I picked in a game between a Texas team and an SEC team? If you don't know the answer, please log off of this blog right now, or at least go back a few weeks and attempt to catch up (I picked LSU as 3-point underdogs).

It's been a long day, and I don't have the energy to go over the whole LSU coaching drama, except to say they were playing without their former head coach or their new hire, and had an interim dude coaching, and that hasn't worked out well for most teams that tried that so far this season. 

It was a long game at the end of a long day, with the momentum and the lead constantly shifting from team to team. LSU scored the last points of the game with a TD in the last minute of play, but when it was all over and done for, Houston, the motherfucking Texas team, won by three. I'd call in that state trooper from 2007 to intervene, but the spread was 3 so the game was another push - no one won the bet and no one lost. It's as if the game never happened. Fuhgeddaboudit, as they say up north.

So, now that the long, long day is finally over and done with, all eight games of it, I'm down 9-16 on the season. I know, I know - I suck at this. I went 2 and 5 on the day today with one push. My precious SEC went 0-2 on the day, and I'm sure I'll see no shortage of memes about that tomorrow on Facebook and Reddit. I'm not a proud man but at least I know where I'll make my stand.

No bowl games tomorrow, thank whatever pagan gods you believe in.

Good night.

Gator Bowl: Virginia 13, Missouri 7

 

Now, that was some bullshit!

The sequence of southwestern state bowls was interrupted to bring you a very important SEC game - the unranked Missouri Tigers (8-4) of the mighty SEC against the No. 19 Virginia Cavaliers (10-3) of the ACC in the Gator Bowl. The game itself wasn't the bullshit, but the last play of the game was.

Virginia took a 13-7 lead in the third quarter, and all through the fourth neither team could score again. But then, toward the end of the fourth, as the clock was running out, Missouri mounted a last drive. I had the Tigers as seven-point favorites, even though their edge was down to four points at gametime, and there was no way they'd beat the spread or that I'd get the win. But for the honor of the SEC, the Tigers were trying to at least win the game if not beat the spread.

With 1:33 left, Missouri took possession of the ball for their last-ditch drive. They advanced the ball 61 yards to the Virginia 21, and then, on third and 10 with eight seconds left, Missouri QB Matt Zollers threw an incomplete pass under heavy coverage and fell down hard on the field. His helmet hit the turf and his hands immediately went to his head, but he got right back up and got into position for a final fourth-and-10 play.

But the refs took the ball out of his hands and had Missouri's backup QB enter the game. Concussion protocol, or concerns about concussion. It was fine for him to stand on the sidelines and watch the last play, but after three hours-plus of football, one more snap was more than the refs could allow. The backup made a great pass and a miracle very nearly, almost happened, but it was incomplete and the game ended with a Virginia and ACC win.

Look, I'm no fan of CTE or brain concussions, but Zollers didn't look dizzy or disoriented to my eyes, and it was only ONE MORE PLAY. Couldn't they just have given him the chance for one more throw and to win or lose the game in which he had fought for the last three hours? In a perfect world, he'd have thrown a game-winning TD, left the field, and get all the medical attention he needed. But no, the refs determined the last play of the game wasn't for him, and that was that, and that was some bullshit.          

New Mexico Bowl: North Texas 49, San Diego State 47

First Arizona, then Texas, tomorrow the world! I'm on a winning streak, baby, and there's no stopping me now.

But first, the New Mexico Bowl. Here we have the No. 25 North Texas Mean Green (11-2) of the AAC against the unranked San Diego State Aztecs (9-3) of the Mountain West. The Mean Green were 3½-point favorites, but I wasn't picking no Texas teams. Sure, UTSA won their game last night, but that was the exception that proved the rule. Texas teams suck and picking them is a loser's bet. Plus, I've picked the SDS Aztecs many times before over the years and they've always been good to me, so I took the underdog here.    

And good god, did it ever pay off! Down, 42-20, at the end of the third, the Aztecs ran off two unanswered TDs before North Texas scored their own TD and seemingly put the game out of reach, 49-34, with four-and-a-half minutes left. However, down but not out, the Aztecs forced a turnover on downs, and when they couldn't score after that, intercepted the Mean Green on its next drive. When that possession didn't result in a score either, they forced a punt and with less than two minutes left, drove the ball 88 yards down the field in 14 plays and scored a  touchdown in literally the last seconds. It didn't win them the game - they lost - but it made the score 49-47 and beat the spread, so I got a second straight win, my first back-to-back victory since December 20.

See? I told you it was all W's from here on in. And now I've got my luck riding on two SEC teams for the last two games of this long-ass day. 

Go, Aztecs!    

Arizona Bowl: Fresno State 18, Miami (Ohio) 3

Okay, we got past the Military Bowl, and the two weird stadium bowls, and whatever the hell the Pop Tarts Bowl was, and now we have three bowls all named for their southwestern host states, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. The first of these, the Arizona Bowl, has the 8-4 Fresno State Bulldogs of the Mountain West against the 7-6 Miami (Ohio) Red Hawks of the MAC. The Bulldogs are 3½-point favorites.

As a Georgia Bulldogs fan, I can't cheer against the other Bulldogs, so I took Fresno State as the favorite. And you know what? IT WORKED! Fresno State got a TD and a whole lot of field goals, and beat Miami, 18-3. My first win of this very long day, my first win in the last six games, and my eighth win of the season, which is pretty pathetic. I suck at this.

I can feel my fortune turning. This game was a jinx-breaker and I know I'm starting on a winning streak that will last as long - no, longer - than the losing streak that just ended. First, Arizona, then New Mexico, then Texas, and then the world. There's no stopping me now.

There's two other games already in progress, so I need to go over there now.

Pop Tarts Bowl: BYU 25, Georgia Tech 21

Talk about a sordid history - this bowl has been through more name changes than J.D. Vance and George Santos combined. It's been the Blockbuster Bowl, the Carquest Bowl, MicronPC Bowl and the MicronPC.com Bowl, the Visit Florida Tangerine Bowl, the Mazda Tangerine Bowl, the Champs Sports Bowl, the Russell Athletic Bowl, the Camping World Bowl, and since 2020, the Cheez-It Bowl. It's almost like it's trying to hide something.

Anyhow, this year's game is probably the best of the day, pitting the No. 12 BYU Cougars (11-2) of the Big12 against the No. 22 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (9-3) of the ACC. BYU was the 3-point favorite.

As a Georgia Bulldogs fan, I instinctively hate the Yellow Jackets and am constitutionally forbidden from cheering for them, even though their campus is just down the road and within easy walking distance. But it's not like I'm going to  pick BYU, though - after all, the Jackets gave the Bulldogs a helluva fight this season, and them beating a No. 12 program will make Georgia look good by extension. So don't tell anyone in Athens this, but I picked Tech as the underdog in this game.  

So imagine my excitement when Georgia Tech ran out to a 21-10 halftime lead. Then, imagine my disappointment when BYU stormed back with 15 unanswered points in the fourth and took a four-point lead, covering the spread. Then imagine my excitement when Tech completed a 66-yard passing play to the BYU 18 with seconds remaining. Then imagine my disappointment when, four plays later, Tech threw the ball for an interception as the clock expired and BYU got the win.

I probably deserve it for picking my team's archrival. But now I'm 0-4 on the day, and even this closest game to a win yet turned up empty for me.  

More games - some ongoing, some yet to start. The torture never ends.

Fenway Bowl: Army 41, UConn 16

While the glory teams of the Twenty-Teens, Clemson and Penn State, were going at it in Yankee Stadium, two other team were freezing in Fenway. This year's Fenway Bowl had the Army Black Knights (6-5) of the  AAC as 3-point favorites over the independent UConn Huskies (9-3). I took UConn as the underdog due solely to their better win-loss record, and I'm leery of military teams.

Of course (of course) like most of my picks this season, my team lost. No one told me Army had a running back named Godspower Nwawuihe, who had 171 yards rushing today and two touchdowns. How are you going to beat a team with a rusher named "Godspower"? Asking for a friend, because UConn sure couldn't figure it out. They lost, 41-16.

So, going back to yesterday's UTSA-Florida International game, that's now four consecutive losses, my longest losing streak so far this season. I'm 0-3 on this wretched day, and 7-14 on this disappointing season. Fenway failed me, the Pinstripe humiliated me, and the Military failed to defend me.

Three lousy games down and five more still to go. Sooner or later, my luck has GOT to turn around.  

Pinstripe Bowl: Penn State 22, Clemson 10

Okay, this is weird - two bowls this afternoon, both played in baseball parks and named after the stadiums ("stadia" sounds so pretentious) they're played in. The first game is the Pinstripe Bowl played deep in the gritty, urban bowels of the Bronx, the home stadium of you-know-who (Yankees suck).

Fortunately, "that" team's not on the field today, and instead we have Clemson and Penn State. Can you imagine how exciting that matchup would have been in, like, 2016? But times change. Penn State and Clemson were ranked No. 2 and 4, respectively, in the preseason poll this year, but now the Nittany Lions are 6-6, the Tigers are 7-5, and neither team is even in the top 25. And here they are, playing an early-afternoon, pre-NYE bowl in the chilly Bronx - temperatures in the 20s with wind-chills down into the teens. Oh. how the mighty have fallen!        

I'm far from a fan of either team, but I wound up picking Clemson as the three-point favorite out of a combination of southern pride and a lingering aversion to the whole Penn State/Jerry Sandusky scandal (Joe Paterno had to have known). But Clemson, as they so often do, let me down. After three quarters, the score was 6-3 and the game could easily have gone either way, but although they scored a fourth-quarter TD, Clemson also gave up two TDs and an FG to Penn State in that final quarter and lost the game, 22-10. 

I've seen more than my fair share of disappointments in this stadium, and now with this game, I'm 0-2 on the day and 7-13 on the season.

But the other baseball stadium game, the Fenway Bowl, is already in the second quarter, so let's go to that friendlier park and see if we get some happier results.     

  

Military Bowl: East Carolina 23, Pittsburgh 17

 

Another bowl celebrating the military-industrial complex. Why is it so hard for some people to imagine a World Peace Bowl or an Arts United for Freedom Bowl? As if . . .

Hey, we've got lots of games today and finally some good, even nationally ranked, teams. This game, however, had two unranked teams, both 8-5, although they're from better conferences than yesterday - the ACC (Pittsburgh Panthers) and the AAC (East Carolina Pirates). At various times, I had some sort of baseball flashbacks and kept wanting to call the first team the "Pittsburgh Pirates." 

I had the Panthers as 6-point favorites, even though the spread went up to 12½ by kickoff. Thought I had it made in the shade with my discount favorite. I lived in Pittsburgh for one year and found it quite enjoyable so that influenced who I wanted to cheer for. Also, I felt the Panthers' had the greater strength of schedule in the ACC. 

But no, Pitt was just awful, fumbling the ball away three times. two turnovers on downs, and an interception. East Carolina didn't play much better, with a missed field goal, a turnover on downs, and a fumble resulting in a Pitt pick-six. But the bar was low, and the Pirates performances was enough to beat the Pirates Panthers, 23-17. 

It's gonna be a long day and it doesn't help that I started it off with a loss. 0-of-8 on the day so far, and 7-12 on the season. Things have got to get better. 

  

Celtics 140, Pacers 122

 

Q: Which quarter in this game did the Celtics underperform? A: The first, when they let the lowly Pacers (6-24) outscore them by 39-28.

But outside of that (there's always that one quarter with this Celtics team), the game was great and they dropped 140 on Indiana. Jaylen Brown scored 30 points, his eighth consecutive game with 30 or more points, second in Celtics' history only to Larry Bird's nine. The whole team was on fire - Pritchard scored 29 points, Hauser 23, White 21,  and Garza 15. The Celtics outrebounded the Pacers, 43-35, and had a respectable three-point percentage of 51.3. 

Hugo González, whose behind-the-scenes heroics carried the team in several recent games, scored no points last night and perversely figured out a way to somehow have a -13 plus/minus record while on the court. 

Games against the Pistons before and after Christmas - the NBA's holiday gift to Boston that just keeps on giving.     

The Celtics improve to 19-11, third overall in the East and second in the Atlantic Division, two back from the Knicks. The team is travelling today for a West Coast road trip starting Sunday in Portland against the Trailblazers (12-19) and our old friends Jrue Holiday and Timelord Robert Williams III. It'll be nice to see our former players - as long as they don't get any funny ideas about actually beating us.

First Responders Bowl: UTSA 57, Florida International 20

 

Another corporate bowl. This one was tentatively called the Dallas Football Classic until Ticket City, an online ticket reseller, became the title sponsor in 2011 and named the game the Ticket City Bowl for two years (Phoenix' earlier Rate Bowl today was the Ticket City Cactus Bowl in 2015). The bowl was renamed to the Heart of Dallas Bowl in 2013, and then the Zaxby's Heart of Dallas Bowl from 2014 to 2017.  

In 2018, the name was changed to the First Responder Bowl, with Servpro, a disaster restoration company, the title sponsor. For the record, the crew that eventually shows up to restore sites after fires and floods aren't the "first responders" - police, ambulances, and firemen were all there first. But whatevs. It's also amusingly ironic to note that the first First Responder Bowl had to be cancelled in the first quarter due to a potential disaster in the form of severe weather.

This year's game featured the Florida International Panthers (7-5) of the CUSA. What? Another CUSA team? We've already seen Jacksonville State, Missouri State, Kennesaw State, Delaware, and Western Kentucky, and now we have another CUSA team? How many of these are there, and are they ALL in bowls? This team,  the FIU Panthers, are 8½-point underdogs to the UTSA Roadrunners (6-6) of the AAC.

And there's the problem. I may be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of CUSA teams, but life is too short and I have too much self-respect to spend three hours cheering for a Texas team (UTSA is University of Texas - San Antonio). And after all, CUSA is 3-2 in bowls so far this season, so if it comes down to CUSA vs. UTSA, I'll take the CUSA team over those beep-beep motherfucking Roadrunners any day. 

And then UTSA jumps out to a 31-14 halftime lead over Florida Man just to mess me up. And as if that wasn't enough, they outscored Florida Man, 26-6, in the second half and win the game, 57-20. They more than cover their 8½-point handicap in their win, and I take a loss with my underdog pick. But at least I wasn't cheering for a Texas team for the duration of the game. Tricksy beep-beep motherfuckers!  

And that's a wrap on today. I get a win, I take a loss, and the other was a push. My record after ten days and 19 games is 7-11. Twenty-seven more games to go, and eight of them are tomorrow.      

Rate Bowl: Minnesota 20, New Mexico 17

Goddamn, you'd think Phoenix was ashamed on this game of something. What started in 1989 as the Copper Bowl became the Domino's Pizza Copper Bowl, the Weiser Lock Copper Bowl, and then, by 1996, just the Copper Bowl again. After that, during the dot.com years of the late 90s and early Y2K, it was the Insight.com Bowl (1997–2001) and then the Insight Bowl (2002–2011), before becoming the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl (2012–2013), the Ticket City Cactus Bowl (2015), the Motel 6 Cactus Bowl (2016) and finally just the Cactus Bowl in 2017. Not content with the name changes, it was the Cheez-It Bowl for two years (2018 and 2019) and then the Guaranteed Rate Bowl for four (2020–2023). For the last two years, it's been just Rate Bowl, which based on its history, means it's about to have a rebranding and whole new name soon.

Anyhow, in this Rate Bowl, second of its name, the Minnesota Golden Gophers (7-5) of the Big 10 were 3-point favorites over the New Mexico Lobos (9-3) of the Mountain West. I took the Minnesota as favorites because of their Big10 strength of schedule. To be frank, neither team distinguished themselves on the field, and regulation ended with the teams tied at 14. Minnesota got there with two TDs and New Mexico with two FGs, a TD and a two-point conversion.  The game went into overtime.

I needed Minnesota to win by more than three points, so when the Lobos got a FG during their first OT possession, I was hoping the Gophers would settle for a three as well and move on to a second OT, since there's no extra-point kick in overtime in that situation, and a six point scoring play wouldn't cover the spread. But no, Minnesota wouldn't give me that and scored a TD anyway on a 12-yard, third-down pass from the eight, and won the game by three. 

Technically, the game was a push with regard to the spread - the three-point favorite won be three, so no one wins the bet and no one loses. From a betting POV, it's as if the game never happened and as if I just wasted three hours of my life. Oh well, at least it wasn't another loss.

The push, along with this afternoon's Northwestern win, put me at 7-10 on the season. One more game to go today, and it's already started.     .   

GameAbove Sports Bowl: Northwestern 34, Central Michigan 7

Oh, Detroit! Once you were the proud host of the Motor City Bowl (1997-2008) until corporate sponsors acquired the naming rights (Jablonski Auto Body LLC, anyone?) and it became the Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl (2009-2013). That, in turn became the Quick Lane Bowl (2014-2023) and since last year, it's been known as the GameAbove Sports Bowl. GameAbove is a shadowy cabal of enterprises that include GameAbove Sports, GameAbove Capital, GameAbove Entertainment, and GameAbove Giving. To me, "game above sports" sounds like a creed for cheating and gamesmanship over sportsmanship, which might very well be appropriate for the current state of collegiate football.

This years game had the Northwestern Wildcats (6-6) of the Big 10 as whopping 11½-point favorites over the Central Michigan Chippewas (7-5) of the MAC. Despite the large number of points, I picked the Big10 team as the favorite because of strength of schedule and it worked - the Wildcats covered the spread and then some. The Chippewas' only TD came late in the fourth when Northwestern was already starting to take it easy down the stretch.

One down, two more games to go today, and the next one's already started. 

    

6-10

Three bowl games today, all named for their corporate sponsors - Game Above, an investment firm, Guaranteed Rate, a mortgage company,  and Servpro, a licensor of fire and water cleanup and restoration franchises. Three games in three cities (Detroit, Phoenix, and Dallas) with three capitalist sponsors and played by six teams, not one of them ranked.

I'm 6-10 on my picks so far this season, and I went with the favorite, both from the Big10, in the first two games today. I didn't pick the favorite in the third game because that team is from Texas, and picking a Texas team is a bridge too far for me.

If I sweep the day with my three picks, I could rise to an almost-respectable 9 and 10 on the season before the whopping eight games tomorrow.  A loss of all three would doom be to 6 and 13.

Merry Christmas!

 

Merry Christmas, happy Hannukah, blessed Rohatsu, or whatever holiday you're celebrating or not celebrating. Saturnalia, Yule, Festivus, whatever - it's up to you and we don't care. 

We here at Sweat Dissolves Water want to take a brief moment to thank all of you for following along with us on these games and other diversions. Thank you to all the Georgia Bulldog fans, the college football fanatics, the followers of Boston sports teams, the BU Terrier hockey supporters, and whatever other weirdos are out there. Thank you to all the athletic supporters! And a shout-out and thank you to all the many Hong Kong and Singapore bots who hit this site up every day, scrapping data or god knows what  and keeping my viewer numbers artificially inflated.

This blog, of course, is an offshoot of the parent blog, Water Dissolves Water, which mainly covers politics, Buddhism, and my own dumb-ass life. There's also a music blog, Music Dissolves Water (although that has been strangely inactive as of late) and there could just as easily be a movie blog, a video-game blog, a book or even comic-book blog. But for some reason, my energy has gone into this sports blog, and it wouldn't have been as rewarding if not for you.  

Thank you, and I love you.

Hawaii Bowl: Hawaii 35, California 31

Dagnabbit, California! Can't you do ANYTHING right?

This year's Hawai'i Bowl featured unranked Hawaii (who else?) of the Mountain West at 8-4 and unranked California of (believe it or not) the Atlantic Coast Conference at 7-5. California, who was among the many teams this season to briefly hold the lineal championship belt and Georgia's 2021 and 2022 national championship rings, was a 2½-point favorite.

California took an early 21-point lead and then blew it like they were the Oklahoma Sooners playing Alabama or something. The Reading Rainbows or whatever they're calling their team tied it up, Cal responded with a field goal, and then Hawaii scored a fourth-quarter TD to take a 28-24 lead. 

Then with 1:52 left in the game, the Golden Beers, or whatever Cal's calling their team, scored a TD, their first since midway through the second quarter, and took a 31-28 lead. All they had to do to win was keep Hawaii from scoring for less that two minutes. But no, they couldn't even do that and they let the Warriors drive 82 yards down the field and score the game-winning TD - WITH THE BACKUP QB! It's almost like the Bears didn't want to win the game or something.

I had Cal as the 2½-point favorite so the final score pretty much ruined my Christmas. Thanks for nothing, California. See if I ever pick you again. Now I'm a Loserville 6-10 on my picks this season.

No games tomorrow, thank heavens, and then three on Friday and a staggering eight on Saturday like it's New Year's Day in the 1980s. Between those eight games, I should be able to pick up at least four wins and return to at least 50-50 mediocrity. 

I suck at this.

Canadiens 6, Bruins 2

 

What if they had a fight and a hockey game breaks out?

These two teams - Boston and Montreal - longtime rivals and NHL OGs - don't like each other. A fistfight broke out right at the opening faceoff between Tanner Jeannot and the Habs' Josh Anderson. Montreal drew first blood in the game but the Bruins were 2-1 by the end of the first. But Montreal's Lane Hutson - former BU Terrier and brother of Quinn Hutson who beat us with a game-winning goal with the Oilers back on December 18 - assisted with three goals, including two of the Habs' four in the third period. 

Montreal went on to win, 6-2. Merry fucking Christmas. We don't like the Montreal Canadiens. 

The Bruins enter the holiday break 20-17-1 with 41 points, and suddenly in sixth place in the NHL's Atlantic Division.   

Ohio 17, UNLV 10

If there was something familiar about this game, if you had a strange sense of deja vu, it's because there was a bowl game played in this very stadium just five nights ago - the Xbox Bowl. Arkansas State won that one over Missouri State, 34-28.

Meanwhile, this game in that same stadium, the Ford Center at the Star in Frisco, Texas, pitted the unranked Ohio Bobcats (8-4) of the MAC against the unranked UNLV Rebels (10-3) of the Mountain West. I had the Rebels as 4½-point favorite - they were favored by 6½ points at gametime (pick the favorite early in the week, etc.). I guess I was impressed by UNLV's win-loss record but in any event, I picked all favorites today. 

As it turns out, UNLV had nothing. They didn't score until the third down, and that was just a field goal, and they didn't score their sole TD until the fourth. The Bobcats, who weren't exactly overpowering themselves, won the game by a touchdown, 17-10.

And with that, I fall to 6-9 on my picks. I suck at this. 

Only one game tomorrow and then, mercifully, a day off for the Christmas holiday.  

New Orleans Bowl: Western Kentucky 27, Southern Miss 16

What? Another Sun Belt/CUSA bowl? How many of these teams are there, and is EVERY ONE of them in a bowl? I go a whole year without watching either conference and then in the past week, I've watched like a dozen of these teams. Sheesh.     

This time, we had the unranked Western Kentucky Hilltoppers (8-4) of CUSA against the Southern Miss Golden Eagles (7-5) of the Sun Belt. I usually pick southern teams over Yankees in these bowls, but for some reason I took WKU as four-point favorites (Southern Miss is more "deep south" than Western Kentucky, but it's only down here in Georgia that Bowling Green could be considered "Yankee"). 

In the game, the Hilltoppers did for me much like what Toledo did to me in the previous game. Specifically, they only scored a pair of field goals in the first half and fell behind 13-6 at the half. They finally scored a TD in the third, and then came roaring back (literally) with two more TDs in the fourth, won the game, and beat the spread. 

I won the bet and improve to a modest 6-8 on my picks. 

The third and final bowl of the day had already started - they're keeping these things on schedule - so I'll pick this up later.    

Boca Raton Bowl: Louisville 27, Toledo 22

Three bowl games today, all named after their home cities - Boca Raton, New Orleans, and Frisco (Texas). Three games, six teams, and not one of them ranked. 

In this first bowl, we at least have a team from a major conference - the Louisville Cardinals (8-4) of the ACC. Louisville has the further distinction of holding, at least for a couple weeks this season, the lineal championship belt and Georgia's 2021 and 2022 national championship rings. They won them back on October 17 when they beat Miami, who won them from South Florida, who won them from Florida. They lost the prizes on November 8 when they lost to California, who lost them to Stanford, who lost them to Notre Dame, who didn't get invited to the CFP and decided to sit out the post-season like the spoiled, privileged little bitches they are. 

In Boca, the Cardinals played the Toledo Red Rockets (8-4) of the MAC. I had Louisville as 8½-point favorites, although by game time they were 12½-point favorites (pick the favorites early in the week and the underdogs late in the week).  For the first three quarters of the game, Toledo only scored a single field goal, and Louisville had an 18-point lead after the first play of the fourth quarter, an 11-yard TD run by Isaac Brown. 

But then Toledo woke up and decided to start playing football. They scored two TDs and another FG in the fourth, and although Louisville still had one more TD left in them and won the game, they won by only five points, so underdog Toledo beat the spread and I lost the bet.

I'm now 5-8 on the season, but what, me worry? The next game, the New Orleans Bowl, has already started and I've moved on.     

Celtics 103, Pacers 95

 

The NBA gave a very special Christmas present to the Celtics this year: a December 22 game against the lowly Indiana Pacers (6-21). And what did the C's do with that generous gift? They fell behind in the game by 20 points, 63-43, early in the third quarter.

And then the holiday miracle showed up in the form of one Hugo González. He played for nearly the entire second half and logged over 36 minutes total, more than anyone else on the team. While he didn't score a lot of points (he finished the night with only six), his 11 rebounds and two blocked shots,  his steal and his assist, his presence all over the court, contributed to his +21 in the game and the Celtics' eventual comeback and eight-point win.

Mr. Brown had 31 points and Mr. White 19. Nobody was hot from outside - the Pacers had more threes in the game and also more rebounds. But we had González, and that made all the difference.

The Celtics are 18-11, 2½ back from the Knicks. They're off until the 26th, when the NBA will regift them with another Pacers game, and this time at home.

Potato Bowl: Utah State vs. Washington State

Ugh. that blue field again . . .

The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl features the unremarkable matchup of the unranked Utah State Aggies (6-6) against the unranked Washington State Cougars (6-6). I'm going with the Cougars as 3½-point underdogs out of sympathy for what remains of the PAC-12. The Cougars and the Oregon State Beavers are currently the only teams left in the conference, although I do understand that a bunch of Mountain West teams, including the Aggies, will be moving over there in the next season or two. 

Utah State lost this bowl, 45-22, to Georgia State two years ago. That, and my deep-seated mistrust of Mormons, also compels me to pick the Cougars here. 

A tradition in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl is to shower the winning coach with a basketful of French fries. That's a missed opportunity. I think the game would be so much more interesting if instead they poured a vat of the hot deep-frying oil used for the fries over the head of the losing coach. Imagine how hard each coach would push their team to avoid that fate, even taking the ball themselves or Woody Hayes-ing opposing players with punches to the neck. That would make the bowl an unmissable, must-see-TV spectacle, but instead we'll get this mediocrity on a blue field.

This is the only game today, but we have three tomorrow.

UPDATE: Washington State won easily, 34-21, and the game was even more lopsided than the final score suggests. Since I had the Cougars as underdogs, I improve to 5-7 on my picks. 

Patriots 26, Ravens 24

 

We're in the playoffs, baby!

Last night, the New England Patriots, one of the worst teams in the NFL last season, finishing 4-13 for the second straight year, came back from a double-digit, fourth quarter deficit to beat the Baltimore Ravens 28-24, improve to 12-3 on the season, and clinched a spot in the NFL playoffs.  

The Ravens scored two unanswered touchdown at the end of the third and beginning of the fourth quarters to turn a 13-10 New England lead to a 24-13 score favoring Baltimore. It didn't look good for New England. But then Drake Maye drove the Patriots 73 yards down the field to score a TD and the two-point conversion brought New England back to within two points. The D held the Ravens to 13 yards and six plays on their next drive, and then Maye drove the team 89 yards down the field, including a completed fourth-and-two pass to keep the drive alive, and the Pats scored again. On Baltimore's final possession of the game, New England's K'Lavon Chaisson forced the Ravens' Zay Flowers to fumble, Marcus Jones recovered, and New England won the game, 28-24, clinching their first playoff spot since 2021. 

It was a game of contrasting styles - the Ravens rushed for 171 yards to New England's 79, while New England got 374 yards in the air to the Ravens' 159. Drake "MVP" Maye finished the game with 380 passing yards for two TDs, and leads the NFL in percent completions (70.9); Mac Jones is second with 69.6. Maye also leads the league in yards per attempt (8.7 yards). 

The win wasn't without its costs. TreVeyon Henderson sustained a head injury early in the first half when the back of his head hit the turf at the end of a run, and he had to leave the field. The Patriots ruled him out of the game at halftime and a timetable for his return has not yet been announced. In addition to Henderson, wide receivers DeMario Douglas (hamstring) and Kayshon Boutte (head injury) both left the game, defensive tackles Joshua Farmer (hamstring) and Khyiris Tonga (foot injury) both had to leave, and cornerback Charles Woods left with an ankle injury. Offensive tackles Morgan Moses and Thayer Munford Jr. both sustained knee injuries but were able to return to the game.  

Baltimore QB Lamar Jackson left the game early, too. After sliding late in the second quarter with 1:03 remaining in the half, he left the field in obvious pain and was ruled out for the second half. Best wishes to Jackson and hope that he returns soon healed and healthy.

The Pats have two games left - the woeful Jets (3-12) in New York next week, and then the Dolphins (6-9) in Foxborough. Their rivals for the AFC title, the Denver Broncos, have to face the disappointing but vengeful Chiefs (6-9) in Kansas City and the playoff-hopeful Chargers (11-4) back home.    

Exciting times we're living in, kiddo, Exciting times.

I'm 4-7!

 

Yes, yes, yes, I know - I suck at this.

My picks in the college football bowls and the CFP so far have been seven wrong and only four correct. So much for my prognostication. 

I won two in a row last night - Miami over ATM and Ole Miss over Tulane. Easy picks, and I thought I was going to run the table and go three-for-three after Oregon ran up a 35-point, 48-13, lead over James Madison. But nobody told James Madison that they were out of it and they went and scored three more second-half touchdowns to pull within 17 points - still a decisive loss, but they managed to beat the 21½-points spread. I had the Ducks and points and wound up losing the pick even though the Ducks blew the Dukes out of the water.

Damn.

No college games today, thank goodness, but the madness starts again on Monday afternoon with the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl and Washington State versus Utah State..