Sunday, November 21, 2010

Smelling like a rose

In case you missed it, Saturday was a day filled with a lot of good college football and a lot of good call of duty black ops playing on xbox live. Since video games don't really pertain to Wisconsin sports, I'll save you the details there even though we both know you want to hear about it. Seriously though, it was an emotional roller coaster for the fans of Big Ten football, and it started at 11 AM central time...unfortunate for me since I was up until 3 in the morning the previous night. Being the trooper that I am (and because of the fact that I contribute to this blog every week), I dragged my lazy ass out of bed and watched the Badgers put a good ole fashioned whoopin' on the Michigan Wolverines (save for a rather nerve-racking third quarter). While this was going on, there was another game of interest in progress between Michigan State and Purdue. Purdue at one point in the fourth quarter had a 15 point lead and a Spartans loss would basically end any worries for the Badgers as far as a tiebreaker scenario is concerned....more on this situation later. For now, let's take a look at the NFL picks for week 11. I considered quitting after last week's performance, but decided that since sports involve a lot of ups and downs, I had to stick with it. No analysis this week since I clearly don't know what I'm doing, but here are the picks and the official standings on the year:

(DAVE) (KYLE)

CHICAGO @ MIAMI (-1.5)
BUFFALO @ Cincinnati (-5.5)
Detroit @ DALLAS (-6.5)
BALTIMORE @ Carolina (+10.5)
Cleveland @ JACKSONVILLE (-1.5)
Oakland @ PITTSBURGH (-7.5)
Washington @ TENNESSEE (-7.5)
Arizona @ KANSAS CITY (-7.5)
GREEN BAY @ Minnesota (+3.5)
Houston @ NY JETS (-6.5)
ATLANTA @ St. Louis (+3.5)
TAMPA BAY @ SAN FRANCISCO (-3.5)
Seattle @ NEW ORLEANS (-11.5)
Indianapolis @ NEW ENGLAND (-3.5)
NY GIANTS @ PHILADELPHIA (-3.5)
DENVER @ SAN DIEGO (-9.5)

Last week/Overall (Excluding the Chicago/Miami game from Thursday night):
Kyle: 5-9/76-68 (7-1-2)
Dave: 2-12/67-77 (1-7-2) ... ouch

Before I get to the whole Big Ten standings fiasco, I'd like to touch on perhaps the most satisfying Sunday afternoon I've experienced in quite awhile. I'm talking, of course, about the thumping the Green Bay Packers put on old man Favre and the Minnesota Vikings. What a beautiful sight it was. The Packers may have shown a little rust early on when they went down 3-0 and showed no signs of having the ability to move the football. However, three points would be all the Vikqueens could muster against a stellar Green Bay defense and Aaron Rodgers and Greg Jennings lit up the Minnesota defense all over the field to chalk up a 35-3 victory in the Humpty Dump. The only unfortunate bit of news I have to share with you about this game is that I sat Aaron Rodgers in favor of Mike Vick in my auction fantasy league, so I kind of feel stupid about that one. Fortunately, I'm still projected to win by over 60 points, I'm 8-2 in the league and I'm in first place ahead of Kyle. Come to think of it, I'm ahead of Kyle in both of the fantasy leagues that we're participating in...this is a cheap shot that I will pay for in some way, shape or form in the near future, I'm sure. Getting back to the game and away from my poor fantasy football decisions that really don't affect any of you, the Packers look damn good right now. Dom Capers 3-4 defense is so stellar, even without some key players, and it's only getting better as the season moves on. Green Bay is peaking at the right time...let's just hope they can stay on top of that peak for another 10 weeks or so. Just have to love how the offense has put up a combined 76 points in the past two weeks while the D has only allowed a measly 10 in the same time frame. That sounds like a recipe for success. One more thing: let's take a look at Benedict's stat line for a moment - 17/38, 202 YDS, 0 TD, 1 INT, 51.2 PASSER RATING. Before the season, I was afraid if old number 4 returned to the Vikings because of his career year in 2009...consider that fear to be dead and buried.

Okay. Big Ten football. Right. So where were we again? Oh yeah, Purdue had a 15 point lead in the 4th over Michigan State, the only team standing in the way of the Badgers because of the head-to-head tiebreaker (in case you forgot, tying Ohio State at the end of the year doesn't matter because of a certain game that took place on October 16th), and the Badgers are literally running wild all over Michigan as all this is happening. Well low and behold, the Boilermakers didn't exactly Boiler Up and found a way to blow their lead all over the place (one letter away in that phrase from a rated R blog). This meant that Michigan State and Wisconsin would remain tied and Ohio State would have to defeat Iowa later in the day. Why is that you ask? If the Badgers, Spartans and Buckeyes end up with the same conference record at the end of the year, the Badgers would win the tiebreaker as long as they maintained the highest BCS ranking out of the three teams. And as you'll see below:

#7 Wisconsin, #9 Ohio State, #12 Michigan State (going into this week)

Barring some sort of idiot computer ranking Ohio State over Wisconsin, which logically wouldn't make any sense, Wisconsin should remain above the others assuming each team wins out. Therefore...THE IOWA AND OHIO STATE GAME WAS UNBELIEVABLY HUGE! In what turned out to be a heck of a game, Terrelle Pryor led the Buckeyes down the field for a game winning drive in the 4th quarter to take a 20-17 victory out of Iowa City and hand Iowa yet another depressing loss. Here is what the standings currently look like (the conference record in parentheses and without the updated BCS standings):

#7 Wisconsin: 10-1 (6-1)
#9 Ohio State: 10-1 (6-1)
#12 Michigan State: 10-1 (6-1)

Since #8 Nebraska went down to the Mike Sherman-led Texas A&M Aggies (for the record, I always liked Sherman and don't think he deserved to lose his job in Green Bay), Ohio State should move up to the 8th spot and Wisconsin will more than likely stay put at 7th since no one lost in front of the Badgers this weekend. This sets up a wild and crazy Saturday where three teams in the Big Ten will have to win and pray for help...I cannot wait.

The Bucks failed to win a game this week...they're 5-8 now...don't really wanna ruin the mood of the blog so let's just enjoy the success of our two football squads and save the Deer for another time. Sound good?

Also, a quick shout out to the UW-Oshkosh men's soccer team for their victory last night in the sectional final against Calvin, 1-0. Oshkosh will now head down to San Antonio, Texas for the Division III final four! I wish I could attend seeing how it's beginning to get rather cold in the great state of Wisconsin, but I'll be there in spirit.

Go Pack, On Wisconsin and Fear the Deer! (smiley face)

2 comments:

  1. you forgot to mention the tottenham/arsenal game. it was glorious

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  2. if those teams ever play a game in Wisconsin I'll be sure to mention it.

    ReplyDelete