The Tampa Bay Bucs, the SF 49ers and the KC Chiefs moved on yesterday. The Bucs will host the winner of tonight’s Zona Cardinals-LA Rams game and the No.1 seeded Green Bay Packers will host the 49ers in the NFC. In the AFC, the No.1 seeded Tennessee Titans, with a now pretty healthy Derrick Henry, will host the Cincinnati Bengals, and the Buffalo Bills will travel to the Chiefs to play Patrick Mahomes and that dynamic Chiefs’ offense all in the Divisional Round this weekend. More on those matchups later in the week. For now, let’s take a look at today’s Monday Night Football matchup in the final game of the Super Wild Card Weekend.

Arizona Cardinals (11-6, 8-1 Away) @ Los Angeles Rams (12-5, 5-3 Home)

SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, CA., 70,240

7:15 PM CT

ESPN

Steve Levy, Grease, Louis Riddick, Lisa Salters

Lead Stripe, Clay Martin

Rams by 3 1/2

I’m bullish on the fact that the Cardinals are 8-1 on the road. The Rams remind me a lot of the Cowboys, they look primed for an upset. Give me Kyler Murray, Christian Kirk and the Cardinals to shock the Rams at SoFi.

Arizona Cardinals 28, LA Rams 24

Australian Open predictions

The big news that has overtaken anything else at this Grand Slam in Melbourne Park is Novak Djokovic being expelled from the country for not being vaccinated. I applaud the Australian government and their judges for not letting Djokovic slip by when he clearly knew the rules in Australia where 90 percent of the Australian adults are vaccinated. Good riddance to Djoker. There may be some controversy for him at the French Open in May as well if COVID is still a problem then. They are strict in France also. But enough about him, onto the predictions.

Djoker, Rafa and Fed are all tied with 20 Majors to lead all time in Men’s Singles. Fed is out with an injury and Joke is out, so that leaves the 35 year old Nadal to see if he can break the tie. Djoker is 34 and Fed is 40, so it’ll be interesting to see this competition progress. Fed is kind of running out of time and Rafa is not getting any younger and injuries plagued him last year, so Novak would seem to have the edge though he’s not getting any younger either and the competition has ramped up with guys like 25 year old Russian Daniil Medvedev, last year’s U.@. Open winner, 24 year old German Alexander Zverev, and 23 year old Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas bearing down on the veterans.

The Aussie Open will be televised by ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN+ and the Tennis Channel. There is coverage starting at 6 AM CT on TC and going on throughout the day and the fortnight on the deuce and ESPN+. The Men’s Semifinals will take place Thursday, January 27th to Friday, 1-28-22, from 9:30 PM-12 AM CT on ESPN followed by the second semifinal Friday, January 28th, from 2:30-5 AM on ESPN. The Men’s Final will take place at 2:30-5:30 AM Sunday, January 30th, on ESPN, and the encore presentation will be on Sunday, 1-28-22, from 8AM-12 PM on ESPN.

The Women’s looks pretty wide open as it always seems to. Ashleigh Barty, the No.1 seed, has home court advantage in her native Australia. Naomi Osaka, from Japan, is always a factor and won this major in 2019 and 2021 and has 4 majors on her resume at 24 years old as she has also won the 2018 and 2020 U.S. Open. The 25 year old Barty from Ipswich, Queensland Australia has only managed to reach the semis at the Aussie in her otherwise stellar career so far. She won at Roland Garros in the French Open in 2019 and won Wimbledon in 2021.

So with that said, here are predictions for the first major of the tennis season.

Men’s Semifinals

Rafa over Alexander Zverev

4-6, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, will be a war.

Tsitsipas over Medvedev

5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (8-6), another major confrontation

Final

I’ll take the 35 year old from Manacor Mallorca Espana to capture his 21st Slam and overtake Roger and Novak. Rafa has won the Aussie Open only once, in 2009, so he really wants this. He’s won the French 13 times, Wimbledon twice, in 2008 and 2010, and the US Open 4 times, in 2010, 2013, 2017 and 2019. The 23 year old from Athens, Greece will give him another tussle.

Nadal over Tsitsipas

5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (9-7)

Women’s Semis

Ashleigh Barty over Madison Keys

7-5, 6-7 (7-3) 6-2

Keys, the 26 year old from Rock Island, Illinois has a super showing in Melbourne and garners momentum for a possible major victory in 2022.

Simona Halep over Iga Świątek

6-4, 3-6, 6-4

Simo surveys the 20 year old from Warsaw, Poland. Bright future for Swiatek also.

Final

I’ll take the 30 year old from Constanta, Romania to get the upset victory over the 25 year old Aussie. Halep wins her third Slam in her career after having won the 2018 French Open and Wimbledon in 2019. Another major battle here, which will make for riveting watching. The DVR will come in handy for these matches.

Halep over Barty

7-6 (7-5), 5-7, 7-5

I like Osaka to play well but to go out in the quarters.

Enjoy the football tonight and the Aussie Open the next 2 weeks.