What a weekend of football. The Cincinnati Bengals went into Nashville on Saturday and upset the AFC’s No.1 seed, the Tennessee Titans on a last second field goal by kicker Evan McPherson. The 49ers did the same to ARodg, who is becoming known, as Peyton Manning was, as one of the greatest “regular season” quarterbacks of all time, as Niners kicker Robbie Gould booted a 45 yarder to lift the Niners over the Pack, 13-10. Gould is now 20-of-20 on field goal attempts in the playoffs in his career. Then on Sunday, Matthew Stafford and the Rams went into Tampa and defeated the Bucs on a last second field goal despite a heroic comeback by Tom Brady and the Bucs, who were down 27-3 and tied it at 27 with under a minute to go. Stafford hit Cooper Kupp on a 44 yard pass which set up Matt Gay’s game winning 30 yard field goal as time expired. And Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen put on a quarterback duel for the ages with the great Mahomes just getting the better of Allen and the Bills, 42-36 in overtime. Both were brilliant with Mahomes completing 33 of 44 passes for 378 yards and 3 TDs against 0 interceptions and rushing for 69 more yards and a TD. Allen was 27 of 37 for 329 yards and 4 TDs against 0 interceptions and had a quarterback rating of 136 with 158.3 being perfect. Mahomes was 123.1. Anything over 120 is outstanding. Allen rushed for 68 yards. Thirteen seconds is all Buffalo needed to make it to the AFC Championship Game and host it. I told my wife when the Bills scored their go ahead TD and got the 2 point conversion to go up 36-33 with 13 seconds left that it wasn’t over, not with Mahomes, wide receiver Tyreek Hill, 11 receptions 150 yards, and tight end Travis Kelce, 8 receptions 96 yards and a TD. Sure enough, Buffalo played prevent defense and Mahomes, with 3 timeouts, moved the Chiefs into field goal range with explosive pass plays to Hill and Kelce and Harris Butker kicked the 49 yard field goal to tie the game and send it into overtime where the Chiefs won the coin toss, something needs to be done about overtime in the NFL with a coin toss deciding it, both teams need to get the ball, and Mahomes found Kelce for a 25 yard game winning TD. There were masterful performances by Mahomes and Allen, but the veteran in these games prevailed with Mahomes showing that he’s close to unstoppable many times. He said the week before, after the Chiefs’ victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers, that he was really happy the Bills game would be at Arrowhead and the stadium was electric, as always. And the game lived up to its billing. An all time superb playoff game.

Now the Chiefs host the surprising Bengals at 2 PM CT on Sunday on CBS, followed by the 49ers @ the Rams at 5:30 PM CT on FOX. SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA., where the Rams will be hosting the Niners , is the host for Super Bowl LXI on February 13th at 5:30 PM CT on NBC. The Niners defeated the Rams twice this season including a 27-24 victory on the final game of the regular season to make it into the playoffs. They have won six straight over the Rams. Interestingly, in that final game at SoFi, there were many more 49ers fans than there were Rams fans, so both sides are rallying their troops to get them to SoFi. The Niners want to have home field and the Rams want to defend their home field. The Rams are a 3 1/2 point favorite.

The Bengals defeated the Chiefs 34-31 the next to last game of the regular season at Cincinnati. The Chiefs are a 7 point favorite at Arrowhead.

Looking for another stellar Sunday of football. It’ll be tough to surpass last weekend’s action, but you never know. Four excellent teams locking horns on Sunday. Will have previews and predictions on Friday.

Farmers Insurance Open Preview/Prediction

Today through Saturday. With the NFC and AFC Championship Games Sunday, the PGA decided it’d be best to finish on Saturday for viewer’s and spectators’ purposes..

Torrey Pines Golf Club, South Course, 7,765 yards, Par 72, the longest track on the PGA tour this year outside of the U.S. Open of The Country Club in Brookline MA June 16th-19th. The North Course is 7,258 yards par 72.

Defending champion

Patrick Reed Will have a shovel in the bag… just in case

Weather

Today, Sunny in the afternoon, 65, wind 5-10. Thursday, 68, mostly sunny, wind 9 MPH, Friday, 73 Partly Sunny, Wind 8, Saturday, Partly Sunny, wind 9.

TV

Today, 11:30 AM-3:30 PM CT, Golf Channel.

Thursday, 2-6 PM CT, GC.

Friday, 2-4 PM CT Golf Channel, 4-7 PM CT, CBS.

Saturday, 1:30-3:30 PM CT, GC, 3:30-7 PM CT, CBS.

Top 10 golfers in the World Rankings in the Field. No.1 Jon Rahm, No.4 Dustin Johnson, No.6 Justin Thomas, No.7 Xander Schauffele, No.9 Bryson DeChambeau, No.10 Hideki Matsuyama.

Odds

Rahm, 7/1, Thomas, 12/1, Xander 16/1, Matsuyama 18/1, DJ 18/1, Bryson, 18/1, Daniel Berger 20/1, Sam Burns, 25/1, Tony Finau, 28/1, Sungjae Im, 28/1, Scottie Scheffler 28/1, Will Zalatoris, 30/1, Jordan Spieth, 30/1, Brooks Koepka, 33/1, Marc Leishman, 35/1, Patrick Reed 40/1. Matthew Wolff, 60/1. Justin Rose, 66/1. Jason Day 80/1.

Could be the ever present “Marine Layer” in the morning in San Diego that sometimes holds up play, so they’ll try to get in the first two rounds and have a cut on Thursday after the second round as always. Players will play the North Course one day and the South Course the other today and Thursday, and play the South Course exclusively Friday and Saturday. Driving the ball is critical on Torrey Pines South as the primary rough will be 3 1/2 inches. The bent/ Poa Annua greens will be stimping at 12 1/2 feet, which is very quick. Anything above 11 is fast. The Masters is 13 on the Stimpmeter. Jon Rahm won the U.S. Open at Torrey in June of 2021 with birdies on 17 and 18. He also won the 2017 Farmers with a 55 foot eagle putt on 18.

Winner

Sometimes when the pick is so overwhelmingly favored, you just go, is this too good to be true? But I’ve got to take the 27 year old from Barrika Biscay, Spain. He played last weekend at the American Express and finished -14, tied for 14th, and he’s been superb at Torrey. Hudson Swafford, the 34 year old from Tallahassee and the University of Georgia, won the American Express at La Quinta, CA. last weekend with a final round 64. I’ll take the Spaniard by way of Arizona State University, who learned English by listening to Rap Music. Give me…

Jon Rahm

Sleeper

I’ll take the 90/1 odds player. The 39 year old from Turin, Italy. He won the 2018 Open Championship and played well last weekend at the American Express shooting -19 going 67, 67, 67, 68 on the Par 72 layouts at the 3 courses at La Quinta, La Quint Country Club, the Nicklaus Tournament Course and the Pete Dye Stadium Course. I’ll take…

Francesco Molinari

The 2022 Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic

On the DP Tour, the stallion tour on the European Tour named after a Global Logistics Company in Dubai. The name of the tour this season is for sponsorship reasons. Slync.io is another Global Logistics company based in Dubai. This has been called the Dubai Desert Classic in previous years. Paul Casey is the defending champion. DeChambeau won it on 2019. Lucas Herbert won it in 2020. Sergio won it in 2017. Rory won it in 2015. Rory also won it in 2009. Eldrick won it in 2008. By the way, Eldrick, who is still out of competition, has won at Torrey Pines 8 times, including the 2008 U.S. Open in an 18 hole playoff victory over Rocco Mediate, in an epic performance by Eldrick.

The tournament will be played at the Emirates Golf Club, the Majlis Course, 7,424 yards, Par 72.

Weather

Perfect. Thursday, 79, Sunny, wind, 9 MPH. Friday, Sunny, 11 MPH. Saturday, Sunny, 13 MPH. Sunday, Sunny, 13 MPH. So, some wind for the weekend.

TV

Thursday, 1:30-7:30 AM CT, Golf Channel

Friday, 1:30-7:30 AM CT. Golf Channel,

Saturday 1-7 AM CT, Golf,

Sunday, 1-7 AM CT, Golf Channel. Bowl of Cheerios and a pot of Coffee ought to do the trick for the final round. Some of the Due Rights may just be getting in from a night on the town on Sunday, so that’ll work perfectly.

Odds

Rory, 7/1, Viktor Hovland, 9/1, Collin Morikawa, 10/1, Tyrrell Hatton, 18/1, Sergio Garcia, 22/1, Shane Lowry, 22/1, Adam Scott, 25/1, Paul Casey, 25/1, Thomas Pieters, last week’s champion at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, 25/1, Tommy Fleetwood, 28/1. Ian Poulter, 40/1, Lee Westwood, 70/1, Henrik Stenson, 100/1, Paddy Harrington, 175/1.

Winner

I’ll take the 24 year old, can’t believe he’s just 24, from L.A., by way of Cal-Berkeley. He won the 2021 Open Championship and the 2020 PGA Championship and has won 5 times on the PGA Tour including those 2 majors. He’s also won 4 times on the European Tour, including the PGA Championship and the Open, and won the Race to Dubai last season. I’ll go with…

Collin Morikawa

Second choice

Viktor Hovland

‘This 24 year old from Oslo, Norway, by way of Oklahoma State, looks ready to win a major this season. I like him at the Open Championship at St. Andrews July 16th-19th.