As most of you know, I played in a total of five fantasy football leagues this year. And going into Monday Night Football, which ends the regular season, I was guaranteed a playoff spot in three of those, eliminated in one, and needed just a victory in another to make that bracket. So, needless to say, Monday night was big in the latter league.
And to start the night, it was looking real good. Needing the threesome of Ray Rice, Ryan Grant and Greg Jennings to combine for just 32 points - less than 11 points per - I would keep the six-seed and make it 4-of-5 in playoff appearances. Sounds like a slam dunk, right? Yeah, I thought so too.
If you watched the game, you know the story. Rice did absolutely nothing, putting together just 5.5 points, 13 less than his season average. He also lost a goal-line touchdown to Willis McGahee ... why the stinking Ravens bring in McGahee to steal Rice's scores is beyond me. And it cost me. At least the Ravens lost, meaning the Jets have an even better shot at putting together a final run at the wild card.
Anyway, Grant was even worse than Rice, scoring just four points, which was nine below his average. I can tell you this for sure, I will never draft Grant again in any league I play in. He is on The List. Jennings did do his part, scoring 10 points, which is still a point below his average.
So, I was eliminated in what I consider shocking fashion - I still can't believe it. I never thought I would walk away with a loss, but here I am 12.5 points short. Needing just 32 points, I thought this was a gimmie. Just thinking about it makes me depressed and angry ... as horrible a night it was, I still only lost by 12.5 points. It just makes everything worse. In the end, I settle for 3 playoff appearances in 5 leagues. Still good, but the timing is horrible.
In my fantasy league, the one I consider the most important, I got the top-seed and a first-round bye. In the sports writer's league, I get a wild card spot despite having the second best record. I play the Middletown Press sports editor in the first round. Still, it's hard not to get hung up on the loss Monday night.
Switching to college football, the BCS game matchups came out on Sunday night, and all I saw was a bunch of boring games. The main piece of garbage spit out by the BCS was the Fiesta Bowl picking TCU and Boise State to play each other in its game. I hate to break it to the BCS, but this is an embarrassment. Nobody wants to watch two Cinderella's play each other - it ruins everything. Cinderella is supposed to be there to knock off the giants of the sports world. TCU should be playing Florida and Boise State should be playing Cincinnati. In those matchups, everyone outside of Florida and Cincinnati supporters will be rooting hard for TCU and Boise State. Now, who do you root for when TCU and Boise play each other? Do you even care who wins? I don't. I would have been the biggest TCU and Boise State fan in the world if they were going against the establishment. But now it's all ho-hum. Nobody will care if TCU wins and vice versa. And, worst yet, is that nobody is going to watch the game. The BCS should be embarrassed over this decision.
GameDay will continue through the bowl games, so look here first for the early games, and later in both print and here for the big bowl games. For this upcoming weekend, without looking at the schedule, I believe it's only Army-Navy on the docket. So, I'll pick that game exclusively on the blog. So, look for that here on Friday afternoon.
Now, finally, on to College GameDay Rewind:
My Weekend: 4-4 (spread); 6-2 (overall); 2-0 (upset picks)
My Season: 50-49-1 (spread); 78-22 (overall); 8-5 (upset picks)
My Money:
DOWN $390
Craig's Weekend: 4-4
Craig's Season: 46-53-1
Craig's Money:
DOWN $1,230
No. 5 Cincinnati -2 at No. 14 Pittsburgh
My Pick: Cincinnati 33, Pittsburgh 27
Actual Score: Cincinnati 45, Pittsburgh 44
I'm glad Cincinnati hasn't gotten respect in the polls and BCS despite being an undefeated team from a big conference. The Bearcats don't deserve to be a Top 5 team and this game proved it. Cincinnati should have easily won this game, as it needed to make a big impression on the voters in order to skip over TCU. But the result was a one-point win over Pittsburgh. It's too bad Cincy can't play Boise or TCU in a bowl game as the Bearcats would get beat by either. Craig and I both start off with a loss in the pick of Cincinnati.
No. 18 Houston -2.5 at East Carolina
My Pick: Houston 35, East Carolina 24
Actual Score: East Carolina 38, Houston 32
Houston quarterback Case Keenum threw for 527 yards and five touchdowns but it wasn't enough to beat East Carolina. Keenum's three picks killed the Houston pick. I thought this one was the easiest pick of the day, but alas, I was wrong. Craig and I both take the loss.
No. 24 West Virginia +1.5 at Rutgers
My Pick: West Virginia 28, Rutgers 21
Actual Score: West Virginia 24, Rutgers 21
The Mountaineers come through with the upset pick and finally gets both Craig and I on the board in the early games. We both are 1-2 going into the big SEC Championship game.
Arizona +7 at No. 20 Southern Cal
My Pick: Southern Cal 41, Arizona 30
Actual Score: Arizona 21, Southern Cal 17
It's gotten so bad in Southern Cal that the Trojans aren't even ranked in the Top 25 this week. Technically, that means No. 25 Central Michigan is better than USC. Wild, wild, wild stuff. Craig and I drop to 1-3 by going with the Trojans.
No. 1 Florida -5.5 vs. No. 2 Alabama
My Pick: Alabama 28, Florida 27
Actual Score: Alabama 32, Florida 13
I gotta say, I enjoyed this game immensely. Not only did I finally get the upset of Florida right, it wasn't even close. So, after all these weeks of me writing that Alabama would beat the Gators in the SEC title game, I get to celebrate a bit. Alabama RB Mark Ingram won my vote for the Heisman with a great game as well. On a down note, Florida QB Tim Tebow should be respected for his will to win, but the fact that he was on the verge of tears at the end of the game is a little much. This was a 19-point loss that was cemented several minutes before the final gun, so Tebow should have come to grips with what was happening. There is no reason to tear up there and it left me with an awkward feeling seeing a soon-to-be professional football player crying. That just can't happen. Anyway, Craig and I both get victories to move to 2-3 going into the three late games.
South Florida +7.5 at Connecticut
My Pick: Connecticut 23, South Florida 20
Actual Score: Connecticut 29, South Florida 27
Connecticut almost blew another inexplicable game, but instead got a dramatic ending to go its way for once. It was nice watching snow fall in Connecticut while I was home on Long Island, which didn't have a trace of the white stuff. Living and driving in Connecticut for a while now has made me hate snow, so I was happy to miss it. I was happy to get the victory here as well, to move to 3-3 on the day. Craig took the loss with UConn to drop to 2-4.
No. 12 Georgia Tech -1 at No. 25 Clemson
My Pick: Georgia Tech 24, Clemson 17
Actual Score: Georgia Tech 39, Clemson 34
This one got way too close for comfort, but Georgia Tech managed to finally win the game late to seal the victory. I get the win to improve to 4-3 on the day while Craig moves to 3-4 with just the Big 12 championship game to be decided.
No. 3 Texas -14 vs. No. 21 Nebraska
My Pick: Texas 38, Nebraska 10
Actual Score: Texas 13, Nebraska 12
Why, why, why couldn't Nebraska have beaten Colorado easily the week before? If the Cornhuskers did, I would have went with them in this game. But Nebraska struggled and I switched my pick to Texas and it cost me. Nebraska nearly pulled off the shocker and if Texas QB Colt McCoy took just one more second to look around on the final play before the field goal, the Huskers would have done it. By the way, McCoy says that he knew all along how much time was on the clock and that he knew there was two or three seconds left even though the clock read zero. Interesting, but at best, there would barely be one full second left. More likely is that McCoy got lost on the field and didn't realize how much time was left. He was just extremely lucky that his pass landed out of bounds with one second left. To say that he knew exactly what was going on seems like a extreme exaggeration. I lost a lot of respect for McCoy after that interview on ABC following the game. I hope he doesn't win the Heisman, because he doesn't deserve it, especially after his explanation of the final play. With one game to go in the regular season battle for Carroll supremacy, I lead Craig by four games. Craig pulled into a tie for the day with his Nebraska pick to end the day at 4-4. I drop to 4-4 with the Texas pick. There is still a whole lot of bowl games to pick, so the battle is far from over. Check back to see how it all shakes out.
(AP photos)
Executive Sports Editor Brad Carroll takes a look at the top bowl games
