Morning After Daily "Linkin' Logs" (12/8/08)

Well, the dust has settled and we've learned a few things this weekend:

• The college football "regular season" has come to an end leaving Oklahoma and Florida left as National Title Game entrants. This game has the looks of a dandy, but I think Florida is so superior that this one will, again, be over around the 3rd quarter.
• The Fiesta Bowl, pitting the 3rd potential NTG entrant, Texas against Big 10 also ran Ohio State has all the makings of a crap-fest. OSU has no business in a BCS bowl after losing to both USC and Penn State and has been a BCS joke as of late. I don't see Texas winning by less than 10.
• The Sugar Bowl does look better though. While I'm slightly unfamiliar with how the BCS system works, its ashame they couldn't put 'Bama againt Texas in what could have essentially been a 3rd place game. Alas, Alabama will be facing Utah in the annual, "We belong here!" game. I just don't see Utah hanging with a tough 'Bama squad
• The Orange Bowl sorta represents why the BCS is kind of lame. Because both the relatively mediocre ACC and Big East are BCS conferences, they each get at least one entrant. At least they managed to contain the crapfest to just this one game. It should still be a good game with Cincy finishing on top.
• And another that could be a dandy is the Rose Bowl. While it doesn't have the glam of the National Title Game, this bowl looks second best to be given that OSU and Utah make the other two decent bowls look a little sluggish. PSU is a team with real moxy, but USC has all the swagger and talent in the world. This one could be good and it pains me to say, Pete Carroll and his Trojans will close out the season with a win and a National Title Game gripe...

Meanwhile, in the world of professional football:

• The Eagles punished the Giants, defeating them 20-14. Those proving the paradigm of the division that any one team can beat any other on any given Sunday. Brian Westbrook strung together 130+ rushing yards, 70+ receiving yards and a pair of TDs to keep the Eagles hopes alive
• The Green Bay Packers have officially emploded and with a 24-21 stunning loss to the Texans. Don't blame Aaron Rodgers here, but with the Vikings 3 game lead (by virtue of their win over the Lions), they have all but no shot at making it in.
• Fortunately for Packers fans; a Jets loss, coupled with Pats escaping victory in Seattle and a Miami victory over the Canadian National team, has created a 3-way AFC East clusterfuck. Even after asshole Collinsworth declared them the AFC Champions (the Jets that is).
  
• The Ravens downed the 'Skins and all but ended their playoff hopes with the NFC South appearing primed to steal 1 spot and a probable second.
• And in typical Tony Romo fashion, the Dallas Cowboys lost a choker to the Steelers in the final quarter. While not a season-ender like the Redskins loss, this certainly forces dallas to make a run in the next 3 games to get in. And it won't be easy because they face the Giants and Ravens at home before traveling to Philadelphia for what could be a potential playoff play-in game.
  

Just a quick note about the MMBBQ today. It's going to be put up later this evening. I was concerned the links wouldn't make it up today, but they did (lunch hour!). I'll do my best to get my Petey rant up before day's end and sooner rather than later.

• A flury of baseball activity: With the winter meetings in vegas in full swing; The Reds traded pitcher Homer Bailey to the White Sox for Adam Dunn replacement Jermaine Dye, The Tigers acquired the Rangers' catcher Gerald Laird, The Yankees are in discussions with Mark Teixeira, Rafael Furcal rejected the A's, The Mets are talking with Frankie Rodriguez, And uppah-dehk-Tek has turned down the Red Sox Arbitration offer.
• AA has the update on the "On-Air Dong" seen on Fox last night.
• Randy Wolf - MLB Whore.
• PFT has the info on Jerruh Jones calling out Marion Barber. Barber missed yesterday's game with a broken toe, to which Jones said (directly from PFT): "He can play with that injured toe. He can play with the soreness and a combination of those things. I see nothing that led us to believe he couldn’t.”
• Again, PFT lets us known that the speculating for the Flex schedules the Sunday before Christmas has begun.
• DCProSportsBlog has begun the petition for actual Football minds to make decisions in the Redskins front office. Specifically, they want some drafting for the lines. Makes sense to me, but I have to say, their fans still suck ass.
• And finally, 10 fascinating facts about the NFL you probably didn't know...and will waste time reading.