Happy New Year!! It has been a couple of weeks since our last post. The holidays were fun and busy and we here at the Upper Bowl were too busy filling our pie holes to blog. So here we have the first blog of the new year and it is filled with a bunch of stuff. So lets get to it.
The NFL:
We have had a couple of exciting weeks in the NFL, ok not really, but kind of. The Colts and Saints had wrapped up their respective #1 seeds and home field throughout the playoffs before the 15th game and as a result they have both gone half speed and lost their last two games. The Chargers are the only other team that I have any faith in right now. As far as I am concerned I think the super bowl is a 3 horse race between the Colts, Chargers and Saints. The Colts and Chargers are light years ahead of everyone else too. And unfortunately they will have a AFC championship show down in Indianapolis before the Super Bowl. As for this weekends match ups, The Jets/Bengals game is the most intriguing. I hope that the Bengals can bounce back and win that one. The NFC games are boring but I have the Packers over the Cardinals and the Eagles over the Cowboys (because I hate Dallas). As for the last game, I think the Ravens should pound the Patriots. Mostly because of Wes Welkers injury, Tom Brady wont know what to do with himself without his pacifier of a wide receiver.
The NBA:
Suffice it to say, my interest in the professional version of the worlds greatest game is waning right now. This can be blamed partially on the fact that I have been out of town, but mostly on the fact that the Jazz are imploding in front of our eyes. Ever since the Jazz were deemed team of the week 3 weeks ago by ESPN and NBA.com they have been no better than an unorganized group of street ball players getting beat by nearly everyone. Case and point, on Saturday last week the Jazz were beat badly by the Nuggets. The Nuggets are a good team and there is no shame in that except that Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups didn't play. So the Jazz lost at home to a team of back ups!! Ridiculous. I have been saying this for some time but I think it makes more sense than ever now, trade everyone. Ok not everyone, but at least a few people, we need to trade some of the following: Boozer, Okur, Brewer, Miles, Korver, Koufus. Any combination will do. I have been particularly disappointed in Okur and Brewer, two of my personal favorites. Now is the time to rebuild, clearly these players either aren't very good are aren't very motivated. We need to fix this. In the meantime, at least the Cavs are playing well, hopefully Lebron can repeat as MVP and this time as world champ.
College Football:
Bowl season is all but wrapped up, with just the Orange Bowl (yawn) and the National Championship to come. As for the teams we care about, things have gone pretty well until last night. Wyoming (from the MWC) was a 10 point underdog to Fresno St, and they won by 7. BYU was a 3.5 point underdog to Oregon St, BYU won by 24. Utah was a 2.5 underdog to California, Utah won by 10. Air Force was a 4.5 point underdog to Houston (once ranked 13 in the country) and Air Force won by 27. A resounding 4-0. Looking very impressive. Now the only think left was the big one, TCU vs BSU in the Fiesta Bowl, and with the world watching, TCU laid an egg. Andy Dalton looked like he did as a sophomore. Their wide receivers dropped about 1/2 the balls that hit their hands including a big would-be TD. The defense was stellar, and unfortunately for them they lose 3 seniors on their defense, all of which are studs. As a result BSU tricked their way into another big win, with the fake punt (beautiful pass) that led to the game winning TD. Give BSU credit, they played stellar defense, but that also had something to do with TCU's ineptness. As for the big picture, TCU let the Mountain West down last night. It was a bad showing for the conference that is barking the loudest about getting into the BCS automatic qualifying group. The 4-0 record from everyone should still help, but the conference needs another team to get into the BCS Bowls next year and that isn't easy. As for BSU, they should be ranked top 10 to start the year, possibly top 5, if they do and they run the table they could be in the National Title game for sure.
I think that is enough ranting for now.
