The Red Sox look unstoppable. Like the Sox over the Dodgers in six in the World Series. I picked the Tampa Bay Rays over the Nationals before the season started, but the Sox have combined a potent first four hitting lineup of the amazing hitter Jacoby Ellsbury, the speedy, electric Shane Victorino, the clutch, dangerous bat of Dustin Pedroia, and the ageless Big Papi, who seems to hit better with age, along with incredible defense, stellar starting pitching led by Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz and the best bullpen in baseball, led by the un-hittable Koji Uehara, to form the best team in baseball. Plus they’ve got the passion with the Boston strong attitude from the tragedy of the Boston Marathon. They’re just an unstoppable force. Like the Red Sox to capture their third World Series title in 10 years. They also won it in 2004 and 2007.
I watched the Indianapolis Colts in the preseason and really liked their team. Watching them beat San Francisco on the road and Seattle at home has me convinced. I like Andrew Luck and the Colts, provided they can stay healthy–which is one of the main keys in football– to beat the Saints in the Super Bowl. Peyton is tremendous and he and Luck will have a showdown in Indy a week from Sunday Night (Oct. 20, 8:30 PM ET/7:30 CT on NBC), but with what I’ve seen this season, the Colts look like the team that will win at MetLife Stadium February 2 in Super Bowl 48 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. You never know with the injuries, but I like the Colts with the present team they have to win it all.Believe in Andrew Luck.
A couple of interesting games this weekend in college football. No.25 Missouri @ No.7 Georgia (Noon ET/11 AM CT, ESPN) looks like a stellar matchup. Missouri looks like the Texas A&M of 2013. Quarterback James Franklin and the Missouri offense are the real deal. They shredded a young, and not very good Vanderbilt defense last week for 523 yards, and are tied for second in the country in interceptions with Northwestern, Tulane and Tennessee with 11. Virginia Tech leads the country at 13. They aren’t great on defense, but they turn the ball over, which is a good way to play defense against these high powered offenses now-days. Georgia is coming off two wars; first the LSU game two weeks ago which was a classic, and the Tennessee game last week which turned out to be a major war as well. Georgia lost running back Keith Marshall and wide receiver Justin Scott-Wesley for the season last week, and receiver Michael Bennett looks like he’s on the shelf. That’s after losing star wide out Malcolm Mitchell for the season in the opening game against Clemson. How many more brilliant performances can Aaron Murray have? I think he’s got more in him, but the defense is questionable with a lot of young guys who haven’t figured it out. The game is at UGA so that helps the Dawgs, but this is going to be tough for Georgia. Will have prediction tomorrow along with my other predictions.
The other game that is interesting is Oregon @ Washington (4 PM ET/3 CT on Fox Sports 1). Washington is coming off a tough loss @ Stanford in which honestly they got robbed from possibly winning the game @ The Farm. A Huskies pass that looked complete on fourth down was ruled incomplete on a drive that could have led to the winning score late in the game. It was ruled a catch by the ref on the field and TV replay showed no evidence that the officials could overturn the call. But they did. It was a travesty. Just like the Northwestern call that went against them on fourth and half yard in which the refs called the Wildcats’ quarterback short on a sneak. That was a blown call as well and costly as Ohio State and Urb remained undefeated with a 10 point win. The Georgia-UT call with the running back for UT fumbling just before the end zone was the right call. Stanford won over Washington, 31-28. They just survived. Oregon hasn’t been challenged this year, but this one could be more of a test. I wonder how Washington will respond after losing a tough one in which they poured everything they had into the game. Would like to see Oregon get tested, get into a pressure situation, and see how they respond. There look like three teams that can cause the Oregon offense some problems because they play good defense: ‘Bama, Stanford and Florida State. Plus all three teams are good on offense. Clemson can score with them, but I don’t think they can stop’em. LSU could give them a very good game, but LSU’s defense is suspect as well. LSU’s defense is young, so we’ll see how they keep progressing. They’ve got a shot to go deep. They’ll play one of the best defenses in the country in Florida this weekend in Baton Rouge (3:30 PM ET/2:30 CT on CBS), so that should be interesting. Florida’s backup quarterback, Tyler Murphy, has done a better job than starter Jeff Driskel was doing. Driskel was lost for the season with a broken ankle in the Tennessee game. Florida has gotten better. So could be fairly interesting in Death Valley. The Gators’ defense can keep them in it.
‘Bama goes to Kentucky this Saturday (7 PM ET/6 CT, ESPN2), so they should be OK there. AU hosts Western Carolina, so they should be fine too. AU will be on ESPN 3 and ESPN Game Plan @ 2 PM ET/ 1 CT. Loved the way Auburn played against Ole Miss. AU looks like an eight or nine win team to me. They’re 4-1 and I see them beating Western Carolina, Florida Atlantic, Arkansas and UT. A&M, Georgia and ‘Bama will be tough.
The final thing I wanted to talk about was this Condoleezza Rice controversy; her selection on the committee to pick the four playoff teams in 2014. First of all, there are going to be too many people on the committee. Tweleve is a little much and 18 is ridiculous. You don’t need 18 people to pick the top four teams. Eight to 10 is a better number. But back to Condi, she was national security advisor and Secretary of State under W. Her father was a football coach. She talks plays with Stanford coach David Shaw. She is very, very smart and highly capable of handling this. I think Condi can figure out who the best four teams in football are objectively just as well as Pat Dye or David Pollack can. Actually, I’d trust her more. It doesn’t take a heart surgeon or an electrical engineer to figure out the best four teams in college football at the end of the season. Condi can handle it. Not worried about that.
By the way, my choice for Player of the Year in the PGA was not Tiger. It was Adam Scott. Tiger did nothing late in the year. Adam Scott won the Masters and the Barclays. His year winning a major was more significant than Tiger’s five victories.
One Response
Great readding this