After a whole bunch of churn in this year's college football season and a very entertaining topsy-turvy ride up and down the weekly rankings, LSU finished pretty close to where it started the season - at the very top. They were either 1 or 2 at the beginning of the season right behind USC and they ended up winning the championship at the end. The funny thing is, LSU and USC were probably the best teams at the end of the season and they ended up at 1 and 2 in the final USA today poll. USC was 3-Rd in the AP poll behind Georgia. Too bad for USC that they lost 2 games and dropped out of the championship run somewhere mid-season. After all the upsets this season, it would have been real strange if LSU and USC played for the ring after all.
I was a little disappointed when the BCS match-ups came out initially because LSU-OSU is a traditional powerhouse match-up and I would have preferred something totally off the wall like Kansas-West Virginia or Missouri-Georgia or something. That would have established true parity at the end of a truly unique college football season. Plus I knew OSU will lose for sure. A real weird match-up would have also dealt a blow to NCAA and the TV networks ratings wise. I am always for landing body-blows to the NCAA. After watching Notre Dame getting crushed in one BCS bowl game after the other for ratings reason, it would have been ironic if they had ended up with a non-traditional, low ratings match-up for the BCS championship game. BCS ratings were not too impressive anyways this year with the championship game dropping down 17.2% from last year. Plus most other BCS games dropped in ratings as well because of these lesser-known team teams playing in those games.
Now all the football eyes are on the NFL. Great games this weekend with the Chargers playing the Colts and the Jaguars playing the mighty Pats. This weekend is always the best NFL weekend of the season. The number of games goes down after this weekend and the quality of the games are usually better than the wild-card weekend where we do get the same 4 games. The Chargers beat the Colts at home earlier in the season in a weird game. The Chargers offense didn't do much but their D and special teams won the game for them. Manning threw like a million interceptions in that game and still almost won it. That victory is now a huge burden for the Chargers. The Colts are going to be extra motivated and are at home. There's no way Manning has such a bad game again. If you add all of that up, the Chargers should be a huge under-dog in this one. The only saving grace for the Chargers is that they are a better team now than they were then. But I pick the Colts by at least 10 in this one.
The Pats-Jags is a culture clash and should be a good one. I don't think America still realizes how good the Jags are. There is something special about this team. Great defense, great toughness, heart and great coaching. I expect a tough one for the Pats. They still win, but only after a bloody dog-fight. In the NFC, the games should be equally fun. The Dallas-Giants game should be a high-scoring affair and as always, the Giants will live or die based on which Manning shows up - Peyton-Junior or the Anti-Peyton. It's 50-50 with Eli and the Giants will lose either way. But if Eli plays like Anti-Peyton, this will be ugly. Otherwise this will be a fun game to watch. The Packers-Seahawks game takes Holmgren and Hasselback back to Green Bay just like a few years back when Matty won the OT toss and called his shot on the microphone only to see his pass get intercepted and run back for a game-ending Packers TD. He'll keep his pie-hole shut this time, but will desperately try to avenge that defeat. The Hawks or on a roll and are definitely in this one. I pick them to win it in an upset.
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