Monday Morning Thoughts

Here we are on a Monday, but not just any Monday, the greatest Monday of the entire year (this claim is void if my wife's birthday or our anniversary is on a Monday)!! The best holiday of the year is this week, and the greatest rivalry in college football that the national chumps don't really care about is going to be played this Saturday in Provo. That makes today the beginning of rivalry week! On sports radio all you hear is former players telling great stories and ripping the other school, fans being belligerent and bold predictions that are sure to go wrong once they actually step on the field and knock heads. With that in mind lets get into what happened this weekend.

The NBA:
This weekend was a pretty good weekend to be a Jazz fan, the Jazz had a nice run of 3 straight wins, which included a win in San Antonio on Thursday for the first time in over a decade!! (Never mind the fact that Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli didn't play for the Spurs) The Jazz are looking a little bit more like a team that might be able to hold their own in the west. Don't get me wrong I am not saying they can compete with the Lakers or Nuggets, there are still a bunch of problems with this team. Paul Millsap is virtually worthless in about 4/5 games he has only played well maybe 3 times this year and sometimes the Jazz look like they were out partying until 5 in the morning and woke up just 1 hour before game time and dragged themselves down to the arena. With that said I really like what AK is doing out there and I still love the rookies, Wes Matthews and Eric Maynor are playing well and contributing on a team that desperately needs them.

The NFL:
Some good football in the NFL this weekend. The Colts barely hung on in Baltimore, which is a good win, despite them not going to my boy Austin Collie very often (1 time in fact). The Saints blew the doors off the Bucs, which is no surprise. Both the Colts and Saints are 10-0. I can't believe that either team goes undefeated but just if they could, imagine the hype going into the super bowl if 2 teams faced off, both unbeaten! That would be great. Elsewhere in the NFL, the Vikings look awfully good, with the exception of not giving the ball to Adrian Peterson enough because Brett Favre is hogging all the glory. The Steelers and Bengals both suffered humiliating losses to the Chiefs and Raiders respectably. My fantasy team however continues to dominate moving to a 10-1 record with a close win this weekend.

MLS:
I know I know, everyone I have no intention of getting into soccer very often if ever, but Real Salt Lake won the MLS cup on penalty kicks last night. They were huge underdogs and beat a team that has Landon Donovan and David Beckham on it, so that is pretty cool. Good for them. (That is probably the last time we will ever mention soccer on this blog).

College Football:
There were some exciting games this past weekend, but as for the ones we care about, there were 4. TCU blew the doors off Wyoming despite playing awful. Good for the Mountain West, TCU now just needs 1 win to be guaranteed a BCS bowl berth and if by chance Texas slips up a shot at the national championship. Boise St blew out Utah St, this game was tied at 14 with 5 minutes left in the first half, and at half time it was 35-14 Boise St. Ridiculous outburst there, BSU looks good, but how about they play someone at least kind of good maybe. Utah slaughter-housed San Diego St, defense looked good, offense looked good, they are playing well. BYU meanwhile dominated Air Force. Max Hall looked good, Pitta looked better, bottom line here is that BYU's running backs are bigger than Air Force's defensive lineman, there is no way that a scenario like that ends well. Both teams are ranked in every poll, BYU is about 3 or 4 spots better in every poll. But throw it all our this weekend, this game will be a good one, I am not sure of the last time these two teams were more evenly matched. Should prove to provide some great fireworks this weekend. More will be coming over the coming days about the "Unholy War".

That's the View from the Upper Bowl for now.