ACC Football

The ACC took a big step in shutting up the SEC?  The ACC was 2-0 in the BCS games while the SEC was 0-2.  To make this lingo in basketball terms since we live the ACC basketball country Auburn and Alabama losing BCS games is like Duke and Carolina losing on the same weekend in the NCAA basketball playoffs.

I do however believe the  SEC losing is good for college football.  Those of you that remember that the best thing that ever happen to college basketball was NC State beating UCLA and knocking down ironically the seven year rein of the Bruins as National Champions.  Since 1974 no team has won more than four titles which has opened up the hope that if you get in the NCAA tournament you have a shot.

Now that the football is going to a four team playoff here is my view of what will happen in the future.  Three or four years from now there will be cry to expand to eight teams and not long after that 16.  When college football gets to 16 teams in that will be the equivavent of 64 in the basketball tournament 12 of those 16 will have a legitimate chance to win the playoff college football will sky rocket.

Women's college basketball will never become a big time money making sport until more than one team can win the title.  Over the years it has been Tennessee then Connecticut as the favorites every year.  I understand that the top teams draw more people so regionals are always near the top teams home.  Back in the day when UCLA was winning all the titles in the men's basketball they were the only team west of the Mississippi and always hosted the west regional. As good as they were then who can beat them on their home court to get to the final four.  Who can beat the Connecticut women in a regional in Connecticut every year.

Who Beat Who Now

Last week we took a look at all 12 teams that made the playoffs and how their won-loss record against each other stacked up.  San Diego had the best over all record but had to play a team on the road that ironically had beaten them.  Didn't matter the team with the best record won San Diego.

Now a week later let's look at who is left and how they stack up against each other.  We will start with San Diego.  They split during the season with Denver losing at home 20-28 but won in December in Denver 27-20. That is an overall score of 56-55 Denver in the two matchups.  San Diego beat Indy in
San Diego 19-9.  They did not play New England.  2-1 overall record amongst AFC team left.

Denver is where you really have to start wondering about the great year Denver had and how good was it really.  1-1 with San Diego.  lost 33-39 to Indy and loss 31-34 at New England.  Peyton Manning is 0-2 against Philip Rivers in playoff games.  1-3 against the other AFC teams.

Indianapolis lost at San Diego 9-19 beat Denver 39-33.  Did not play New England.  1-1 against the other AFC playoff teams.


New England beat Denver 34-31 in New England so they stand 1-0.  You just might say New England did't play too many teams that were good.





Over in the NFC Carolina lost opening day at home to Seattle 7-12.  Split with New Orleans losing
On Bourbon street 13-31 winning at home 17-13.  Beat San Francisco 10-9 in Frisco. 2-2 against the survivors.

New Orleans split with Carolina winning at home 31-13 and losing in Carolina 17-13.  New Orleans beat SF 23-20 but lost 34-7 at Seattle.  2-2 against each other.

Seattle beat Carolina 12-7 at Carolina.  Crushed New Orleans in Seattle 34-7.  Split with SF losing in Frisco 17-19 but won at home 29-3. 3-1  against the other foes.

San Francisco split with Seattle winning 19-17 and losing in the Great Northwest 29-3. Lost at home to Carolina 9-10.  Lost to The Saints 23-20 .  1-3

If you use the crystal ball of stats to make predictions look for the Super Bowl to have two NC State quarterbacks facing off against each other. Peyton got his work cut out to throw TD's against the Chargers.

Typical NFL Playoff Weekend

Two games end on the last play of the game with field goals.  Three visiting teams win and oh yeah one was down by 28 with 26 minutes to play and won.  The weather was not quite as bad as thought  in Cincinnati until the home team got behind.

Andrew Luck's name will now join the ever lasting list of comebacks as Luck and the Colts managed to get enough Chiefs players out of the game to make you think KC had their second team in at the end like last week.  Indy now gets prime time Saturday night against New England at 8:00 pm.

New Orleans won their first road playoff game ever on  a last play field goal against Philly.  There has to be no more agony for any team knowing that there is nothing you can do but hope for a miss on the winning field goal.  The Saints play at Seattle 4:30 Saturday.

The sunshine boys the San Diego Chargers got a break again Sunday as the weather was not as bad as expected but when it did start pouring rain they took over the game in the second half.  A healthy defense made life miserable for Andy Dalton.  Chargers return to Denver Sunday night at 4:30pm

Yes is was four degrees and the 7th coldest game in history but weather really didn't  play a part as San Fran kicks a field goal on the last play and the Packers had to endure not being able to stop the 9er's down the stretch  and by not doing so had to know with two minutes to go they were beat.  San Francisco comes to Charlotte at 1pm Sunday.  I missed the New Orleans game to go 3-1.

Most of my radio/tv life I have covered one team but over the last seven years or so as I have been game of the week type games.  One game this season as I flashed my media pass to work the game
the ticket taker said to me.  This must be a big game if Tony Doughtie is in the house.  That being
said Tom Suiter was in Nash County last week. You know what that means when Tom comes to town it is for the WRAL TV's "Extra Effort Award".  Can't say who it is but you can find out Tuesday night during the 6:20 sports.

Real Basketball Starts Friday

Big East conference basketball starts Friday and to this point half of the boys teams have lost more than they have won. Southern Nash who at 4-9 will host the only undefeated team in the Big East Fike  who stands 12-0 but 11 of those wins have been  to 1-A and 2-A schools.  They did beat Hunt in a Holiday Tournament last week by two so to this point Fike remains untested.  They sure are putting up numbers in Wilson with the football team going 10-1 in the regular season and now 12-0 in basketball.

Northern Nash 6-7 travels to Hunt 6-3.  Northern May have lost Paul Cherry with a knee injury last week and the Knights are holding their breath waiting on the results of an upcoming MRI. Hunt's three losses have come to some good teams.

Rocky Mount 6-4 travels to Nash Central 4-8 Friday.  These two have already played each other in the Nash County Chrismas Tournament with the Gryphons winning by 12.

There is only one girls team with a losing record Southern Nash 5-6 as they will host Fike 7-5 on Friday.   Northern Nash 9-1 will open at Hunt 5-3.  This week senior Alexus Hill went over 1000 points for the Lady Knights and she received  a plaque honoring her before their game Friday against
Southern Vance.  Rocky Mount 6-4 travels to Nash Central 8-3.  One of those losses on the Bulldogs occurred in the Christmas Tournament but this one is on the Bulldogs home floor.

This Saturday Northern Nash will be hosting a baseball clinic that starts at 9:30 and will go until 3:30.  The cost is $40 which includes lunch.  There will be 12 instructors and the guest speaker will be Jerry Sands a Smithfield Selma High school graduate who last year played AAA baseball in Indianapolis in the Pittsburgh Pirate Organization.  Just the day before Christmas he was picked up by the Tampa Bay Rays.

Sands 26 years old is a 276 hitter career hitter in the minors and has played all three outfield positions plus first base. Sands played his college base at Catawba College and was drafted by the LA Dodgers and has played in the Red Sox,Pirates and now Tampa. Should be a fun day.

NFL Takes Center Stage

The next two weekends the NFL will have double headers both Saturday and Sunday.  Every game will have national coverage  and you can expect frozen Tundra in some areas.  Who's going to win let's take a look at what could happen.

Kansas City at Indianapolis:  There was a point in the season that KC's defense was by far the best in the NFL but injuries started to mount and all five losses have happen since the injury bug.  They played just two weeks ago in KC and it was all Colts.   I am still not sold on Indy but I do think they win this one. Colts 23 Chiefs 17.

San Diego at Cincinnati:  If you didn't catch the hint from yesterday I think the winner of this game makes it to the Super Bowl.  They played five weeks ago in SD and the Chargers have three turnovers inside the Bengals 30 yard line and Cincy won 17-10.   No telling what kind of weather there might be. Yes I'm picking SD, the Chargers defense has has all 11 starters the last four weeks and they were all wins.  Philip Rivers is 8-2 all time with the temp under 40 degrees. And one of those losses was in New England when he played with no knee ligaments.  Should Cincy win I still think the winner of this game plays in a Super Bowl.  Chargers  26 Bengals 21.

New Orleans at Philadelphia:  This New Orleans team has not been very good on the road.  Here again no telling what kind of weather they will face.  Remember New Orleans plays inside and I quite frankly am disappointed with the way NO finished the season.  I would not be shocked if Philly makes it to the Super Bowl.  Eagles 27 Saints 17.

San Francisco at the Frozen Tundra:  Will not have to worry about field being frozen before game starts as Green Bay learned from the 1967  heating of the field with tarp on.  I just don't think Green Bay's defense is healthy enough but I don't see the 9ers offense is one that scares me to death.  This may be the lowest scoring game of weekend.  San Fran 20 Packers 17 .

If this comes to past that will send San Diego to Denver and Colts to the Pats next weekend.  Philly will come to Carolina Andy SF would go to the rainy Northwest to Seattle.

Just Who Is NFL Super Bowl Favorite

The NFL has this quirky schedule deal where all of last years division winners play each other the next year.  Last place teams play last place teams and when it is all over the top six from the NFC and AFC start the run for the Super Bowl.  Just how did this years playoff teams do only against the other playoff teams.  The results are going to surprise you.

San Diego was 5-2 against  the other 11 playoff teams.  Seems they played to the level of their competition but have wins over Denver, KC twice,Indy, Philly.

Cincinnati only played four games against playoff teams but they won all four beating San Diego, Indy, New England and Green Bay.

Denver was 4-3 beating San Diego, KC twice and the Eagles.

Seattle  goes 3-2 beating Carolina and San Fran the first two weeks then took down New Orleans

Carolina is 3-2 against the other play off teams beating New Orleans, New England and San Fran.

Indianapolis took down Denver, KC and San Fran while losing twice going 2-2.

Even New England played only four playoff teams and they were only 2-2.

Looking at the other end Green Bay is glad to have Aaron Rogers back but during the season only played three other play off teams and lost all three.

Kansas City started out winning their first nine games and by the years end lost five of six played against other playoff teams.

Philadelphia the team with the offense of the NFL future was only 1-3 against the NFL's best.

San Francisco was just 1-4  while New Orleans was 2-3.

What does all this mean?  What it tells us is Peyton Manning's career year with all those touchdowns didn't happen against the other playoff teams.  Tom Brady is only average against other teams still playing.  There has been a trend lately in the NFL playoffs that the teams with a bye wind up winning the Super Bowl.  If that trend continues everyone may need to pay attention to the winner of the San Diego at Cincinnati game because they are the best among the twelve left against each other.

I Was Pulling Hard

I don't know which team you pull for but I find it hard to believe unless you were a Texas A&M fan that you weren't pulling for Duke Tuesday night in Atlanta.  An underdog from the odds maker in Vegas right on down to the one sided coverage on ESPN.   Did anyone besides me notice that leading out of every timeout ESPN showed a picture of Johnny Manziel.  I got to the point I thought he was the only player on the field for A&M.

Having seen Duke football way back during the days of the lonesome end right through the dry spell of the past 40 years David Cutcliffe has transformed a program at Duke that all Blue Devil fans can be proud.  Even as good as this year has been they still are not yet ready for the prime time.  You could see speed is lacking on both sides of the ball.

What you get from the Devils is all out give me everything  you got on this play mentality.  They tried every trick in the book and in the first half every trick worked.  Just think in the second half all the third down plays they made.  What they didn't have was enough speed on defense to stay with A&M.

I think Manziel is a very exciting player and for college and he had better come back to college next year.  If he turns pro he will be a flash in the pan.  He will have his moments and everyone  will rave at how good he is and then spend time on the injured list.  To me he is a Tebo or Vince Young.

You know the pick six that won the game for A&M had nothing to do with Manziel.  Then there were two missed interference calls that helped lead to the second pick.  Duke needed that touchdown just before the half instead of the field goal on the last play.  Despite defeat Duke put on a show with the effort they gave because I thought they would lose by 30.  It was a heck of a game.

This was a dream season for the Devils but you know they didn't play any great team during the season.  They beat Virginia Tech but as the rest of the year unfolded Tech was awful on offense.  They didn't play FSU during regular season and missed out playing Clemson. Everything this year fell the Devils way.  There is no doubt it was fun watching them play but next year no longer will everyone they play think in the summer Duke will be a win.  They will now get respect from others when their schedule has Duke this week.  They have never had that before in this generation and Duke will have to adjust that they no longer will be looked at as an underdog.