Turkey and Football

Thanksgiving is now over. I cooked the turkey for the first time and it turned out very well, if I do say so myself. However, I have learned that its best to just read the directions on the turkey bag or on the bird itself. Don't follow a recipe unless you are going to follow it to the letter. We had my parents and my sister and her husband over. It was fun, although towards the end of the meal preparation, I was getting a little frazzled. Apparently while my mom, sister and I were cooking, dad and Mr. S thought it would be a good idea to park themselves in the kitchen for chatting. The kitchen started feeling very small by that point and I accidently snapped at Mrs. X. But she has forgiven me and now all that is past.

Now on to the real point of Thanksgiving: football. The bowl games are falling into place. The BCS is desperately praying that all things go according to plan in the championship games and in the USC-UCLA game. Things are as follows:

1) USC vs. UCLA: USC wins and remains undefeated, keeping is #1 ranking and goes to the Rose Bowl.
2) Big 12 Title game - Texas vs. Colorado: Texas should crush Colorado who has lost their last two games and backed in when ISU lost to Kansas.
3) ACC Title game - Va. Tech vs. Florida St.: Florida St. has also been losing a lot lately with a very suspect offense and special teams. Va. Tech should cruise for an Orange Bowl berth.
4) SEC Title game - Georgia vs. LSU: The BCS really doesn't care who wins as both teams are well qualified and the loss will knock the loser out of BCS contention.

The Fiesta Bowl hasn't made up its mind yet about whether to take Ohio St. or Oregon, but the feeling among the sports shows is that Oregon is going to get left out just because of the money that Ohio St. can bring to the table as opposed to Oregon. The real monkey wrench gets thrown if a team that's supposed to lose ends up winning and ends up winning the automatic berth, much like Kansas St. did to Oklahoma a couple of years ago. But if things go as the BCS prays, the match ups will be as follows:

Rose - USC vs. Texas
Fiesta - Notre Dame vs. Ohio St./Oregon
Orange - Virgina Tech vs. Penn St.
Sugar - LSU/Georgia vs. West Virginia (I think it'll be LSU)

Meanwhile in the NFL, the AFC gets clearer while the NFC gets murkier. Barring some major slippage, the Indianapolis Colts and the Denver Broncos will secure the #1 and #2 seeds respectively. I don't think the Colts will go undefeated, but if Denver keeps on their heels, they may have to play hard until the last game of the season. Cincinnati and Pittsburgh are fighting it out for the division with next week's game in Pittsburgh almost sure to decide who gets the #3 seed. New England will limp in as the #4 seed. Jacksonville is the strong #5 now, even though Leftwich is going to be out 4-6 weeks. Their schedule is so soft that they should be able to finish either 12-4 or 11-5 without breaking much of a sweat. That leaves the Cincinnati/Pittsburgh loser, San Diego, and Kansas City fighting it out for the #6 seed.

In the NFC, Seattle's luck held and allowed them to hold onto the #1 seed. They should win the division next week and might hold on to #1 seed, simply by how the other teams keep beating each other up in division play. Chicago has the #2 seed at the moment, but the lack of offense may catch up to them eventually, allowing Carolina or Dallas to slip in, who are the current #3 and #4 seeds respectively. The NY Giants and the Tampa Bay Bucs currently have the #5 and #6 seeds, but Atlanta is currently in striking distance. Hard to believe, but Minnesota is still in the hunt as well. They're only two games behind and the NFC South and East are going to bloody each other up in the next five weeks.

As of yet, I see no reason why the AFC championship won't be between Denver and Indianapolis, with Indy emerging triumphant. The NFC, I think will pit Seattle against Carolina. Seattle might squeek out because of home field, but only if they play much better than they did against the Giants.