All Sports All The Time

With two weeks to go before the post season starts and many of the playoff spots are filled and some have yet to be decided. Only six teams have officially clinched spots in the playoffs; Dallas Cowboys, Chicago Bears, New Orleans Saints, San Deigo Chargers, Baltimore Ravens and Indianapolis Colts.

The Colts, Saints, Bears and Chargers all clinched their respective divisions and the Bears have clinched homefield advantage throughout the playoffs. The Patriots and the Seahawks are still alive in the divisional races and it will depend on the last two games.

The Wild Card spots are still wide open, but there are two teams that are front runners for the NFC Wild Card and AFC Wild Card spots. As of today, the Eagles and the Giants are the front runners for the NFC and for the AFC it is Bengals and the Jaguars. But the list of teams that could over take them is quite long.

I have caught only a few games on the radio this season and I have my favorite and least favorite teams that I would like to see make it to the Super Bowl; The Colts being my favorite and the Patriots being my least favorite and as of right now the Patriots haven’t made it.

If I had to make a prediction now, I would say the Chicago Bears and San Deigo Chargers will be facing each other in the Super Bowl.

As expected Troy Smith of Ohio State was announced as this years Heisman Trophy wiiner at the Downtown Athletic Club in New York City. The more surprising part of the voting was that Brady Quinn of Notre Dame finished a distant 3rd behind RB Darren McFadden. Most of the experts were sure that Brady Quinn would be runner up, but I guess what do the experts know anyways.

By all accounts Troy Smith had great season and his team is playing for the National Championship against Florida and that in most years would be enough to satisfy most people that he should be the obvious choice. I guess that is what the voters were thinking when he won the Heisman voting by the widest margin in the history of the trophy.  

For the fourth time since joining the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series in 2000, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has won the title of Most Popular Driver. I would much rather see him win a championship, but he is pretty proud that he is well liked by the NASCAR fans. It really isn’t hard to tell that he is a fan favorite, one only needs to watch the race broadcasts and listen to the fan reactions when he is introduced during driver introductions. He is generally the driver with the most applause no matter what track they are at.

Many people had some pretty high expectations of Dale Jr. when he moved up to the elite NASCAR series after winning back to back Busch Series championships and those same people feel that he hasn’t lived up to that hype. Well, just because he hasn’t won a championship doesn’t mean hasn’t had success. Afterall, he has 17 wins and has finished in the Top 10 in points four times, including 2 third place finishes.

I fully expect Dale Jr and the #8 Budweiser team to continue to build on the success they had this year since being reunited with his cousin Tony Eury Jr. as crew chief. I fully expect more wins and possibly a championships win come in the next few years.

The Sooners defense and the poise of 5th year senior QB Paul Thompson was the difference in the game  for the #8 Sooners. Paul Thompson led the Sooners on what turned out to be the game winning scoring drive that began on the Sooners 1 yard line and ended with a beautiful TD pass to Malcome Kelly.

The real story was the Sooner secondary that covered the Nebraska receivers all game long and never really let them make any big plays. They also picked off Nebraska QB Zac Taylor 3 times, twice to stop Nebraska from scoring deep in OU territory.

Paul Thompson proved many of the critics wrong and played far better than most people expected and led the Sooners to an 11-2 record and Big 12 Championship. I remember when it was reported that Rhett Bomar was kicked off the team just before fall practice was about to start and coach Stoops went to 5th year senior Paul Thompson and asked him to move back to QB from wide receiver. After a little thought about it, he decided to step up and lead the Sooners. All he did was lead his team to an 11-2 record including the debacle with Oregon and ended with a Big 12 title and an automatic bid to a BCS bowl game (Fiesta Bowl)

Todays Big 12 Championship Game between longtime rivals OU Sooners and Nebraska Cornhuskers is shaping up to be a battle. OU which won the Big 12 Conference South Division comes into the game 10-2 and 8th ranked coming off a close call in Stillwater with Oklahoma State and Nebraska the Big 12 Conference North Division Champions are 9-3 and 19th ranked in the country coming into the game. 

The Sooners will be without superstar runningback Adrian Peterson again due to the broken collarbone he suffered 6 weeks ago. Fortunately for the Sooners his backups have stepped up and have actually exceeded the yardage output as a group. Second string runningback Alan Patrick has electrified the crowd on more than one ocassion with his power running style and speed when he breaks to the outside. Things looked bleak when Alan Patrick injured his ankle and missed a couple of games and he was backed up by fourth string and rookie Chris Brown. Chris Brown who was supposed to redshirt this season and battle for ther starting job with Alan Patrick, had to come in when Patrick was injured. Chris Brown had two spectacular games in place of Alan Patrick.

Unfortunately, the weather is going to be a huge factor in the game and hopefully it will benefit the Sooners power running game. The Big 12 Championship game is being played at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, MO the home of NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs. The snow has cleared out, the temperature at game time is expect to be around 25 degrees and a little breezy.

Hopefully the Sooners will hold on to the ball this week, unlike the way they have been the past few games (11 fumbles in the past three games).

I predict the Sooners will win in a close game 24-21.