Pittsburgh Steelers get “Tebow’d” 29-23 in Wildcard Overtime

At the end of the first quarter it actually looked as if Pittsburgh was going to have no problem winning the game having two field goals and moving the ball pretty well.  Denver seemingly could not do anything in the first quarter.  Then the second quarter came which had the Broncos scoring 20 unanswered points including a 30 yard touchdown pass and an 8 yard touchdown run by Tim Tebow.   Ironically the Denver Broncos and Tim Tebow spent most of the game starting their drives from at or behind the 25 yard line so its not like they were getting great field position or anything.   Tim Tebow outplayed Ben Roesthlisberger by mile and I really cannot wait to see what Skip Bayless has to say tomorrow on First Take.  I would venture to say that Tim Tebow had the best game of his career tonight with a QB rating over 125.  To top it all off he broke John Elway’s record for passing yards in a playoff debut.  Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Elway!

On a lighter note, the Giants made the Falcons look stupid beating them 24-2.  Yes, that means there has now been an NFL team score 2 points in a playoff game.  This also means that every single home team won their playoff game.  This is the first time that’s happened in at least a decade.  The Giants end up having to play the seemingly unbeatable Green Bay Packers.  Don’t worry though, the Broncos are not getting off that easy.  There next game ends up being the New England Patriots at Tom Brady’s house.  Needless to say, the playoffs pretty much got boring all the sudden.  If you notice, there really arent any teams left in the playoffs that aren’t putting up major numbers.  Let’s just hope. And pray…

2011 Texas High School Football State Champions

So I have been getting quite a few emails for lists of all the Texas High School State Champions this past year.  I personally watched both Lake Travis and Aledo win their state championships this season.  For Lake Travis I believe they beat a national record for 5 straight State Championships.  For Aledo it meant Jonathan Gray breaking the national record for number of rushing touchdowns in a high school career. I never thought I would say that Jonathan Gray was a disappointment but he only had 1 touchdown (which was consequently all he needed to break the record).  Aledo, however, was not a disappointment throwing all over the Alvin Manvel secondary.  As for the others, here is a list of all the State Champions from this past season of High School football in the State of Texas.

5A Division 1 – Southlake Carroll High School
5A Division 2 – Spring DeKaney High School

4A Divsion 1 – Lake Travis High School
4A Division 2 – Aledo High School

3A Division 1 – Tyler Chapel Hill High School
3A Division 2 - Wimberley High School

2A Division 1 – Melissa High School
2A Division 2 – Refugio High School

1A Division 1 – Mason High School
1A Division 2 – Tenaha High School

6Man Division 1 – Throckmorton High School
6Man Division 2 – Richland Springs High School

North Dakota State upsets Sam Houston State in National Championship 17-6

Just down the road from the Cowboys Stadium in good old Frisco, Texas, Sam Houston State was almost sure to win the Division II National Championship having averaged nearly 40 points per game the entire season.  I mean they hung 66 on Lamar University, 49 on Montana State, and 48 on FBS school New Mexico (that is Division 1).  That is impressive no matter how you look at things.  However, they scored 33 points less than their average and ended up losing the game 17-6.  They literally only scored 6 points total.  Sam Houston State endured one of the roughest schedules of any team at their level.  They played a lot of Top 25 teams along with some FBS level schools.   All in all, it was a very disappointing end to an excting year for Sam Houston State fans.  And for those fans who made the trek to Frisco, Tx I really do feel bad for you because I know you wanted at least something exciting.  If you had been watching all the bowl games that have been on I have a feeling that you would really be shocked at how this game ended.  

2011-2012 NFL Playoff Bracket

We have come out with our playoff bracket the same day that the playoffs start.  I know this seems counter productive but the holidays have really taken a toll on the staff.   While the playoffs did not really go as we had planned them at the beginning of the season, we feel as if we were pretty close in our predictions (minus ever voting for the Cowboys for anything ever again).  I think that the Cowboys are going to take a few drastic measures in the next few weeks.  I am not sure what is going to happen but I have a feeling they are going to undergo a mini-facelift.  Anyways, we have not put our predictions on there yet as we are going to create an article specifically for that.  The down side to this years playoffs in my opinion is that the Philadelphia Eagles/Dallas Cowboys are not participating at all in this years playoffs.  I would have told you this is bad news for Michael Vick but I am pretty sure he kept his job at the end of the season when they finished it off with four straight wins.  

Why NFL teams should forget about Jeff Fisher

With the regular season over teams are starting to get rid of their head coaches.  Raheem Morris and Steve Spagnuolo have already found out what it feels like to lose their jobs after having a horrible season with their team (Bucs go 4-12 after starting the season 4-2; Rams go 2-14 which was a tie for the worst record with the Colts).  That being said, a lot of the talk these days has been about Jeff Fisher. This is the guy who was coaching the Tennessee Titans from 1997-2010.  While this is a lot time to be coaching a single team (I believe it was the longest during his era) if you take a look at his records, you can see that his style of coaching is already run its course.  It is outdated because its not motivating anymore.  He is going to have to step into a situation at St. Louis where the players have not been playing for the coach for a few seasons now.  He has had success in the past at Tennessee, but lately the only success he has had was when he was using Vince Young at quarterback.  We all know how he felt about Young the entire time.  Had Young been mentored by a better head coach, I have no doubt that he would be a superstar right now.  Instead he had a mental break down of sorts and is now backing up Michael Vick (which you can bet is a much better position for him to succeed).  He has not gotten a team to the Superbowl since they lost to the Rams back in 2000.  He has had very little success with some very successful quarterbacks.  He has had 6 winning seasons, 6 losing seasons and 5 dead even seasons (8-8) in the 17 seasons that he has been a head coach of a football team.  I realize that he transitioned over from the Oilers to the Titans and that might have had an impact on a lot of their losing seasons, but with one Superbowl appearance in 17 seasons, I cannot understand why an NFL team would want to have him as a coach.  He is 5-6 in the playoffs and he successfully managed to run Vince Young out of town even though it pretty much cost him his job.  After a year off of football sources are reporting that he wants to come back to coaching now?  That he is supposedly ready for coaching again.  I think that any NFL team who looks at him and decides they want him as their new head coach has got to be very desperate.  They must be needing to fill the position as soon as possible.  With St. Louis and Tampa Bay having vacant seats at the moment, I am sure Fisher is licking his chops to get back into the game.  I just really feel that both of these teams would be better served with a coach that has a positive impact on players (especially with Sam Bradford struggling the way he is).

2011-2012 Week 17 Picks NFL

So we have ended up doing pretty well considering all of the set backs that we have faced here.  I have a feeling we are going to have another good week.  I think picking games at the end of the season can tend to be an easier job than those at the beginning of it.  For one, you have seen all the teams play the entire season so one would think that it would be pretty easy to pick the winners at this point.  The second reason I like picking them now is that a lot of teams have already solidified their spots in the playoffs and therefore will probably only play their starters for a quarter, or maybe even just a series.  Its the final week of the season and everyone is scrambling to make the playoffs.  Probably the key game of the entire weekend is going to be the Cowboys/Giants game which will come down to who has the better offense.  I have a feeling that the Giants are going to be able to pull it out in the end.  The Cowboys have done pretty much everything in their power this season to try to stay out of the playoff hunt and I really do not see anything changing today.  So here are our Week 17 Picks:

Detroit Lions @ Green Bay Packers – Detroit Lions
San Francisco 49ers @ St. Louis Rams – San Francisco 49ers
Carolina Panthers @ New Orleans Saints – New Orleans Saints (High Scoring Game)
Tennessee Titants @ Houston Texans – Houston Texans
Kansas City Chiefs @ Denver Broncos – Denver Broncos
Dallas Cowboys @ New York Giants – Dallas Cowboys