Recap Plus El Boxeo!

Let's get right to the football, then we'll talk a little boxing, eh?

Redskins over Bears, 24-16
My Pick: Redskins over Bears, 28-17

Man I absolutely nailed this one. Jason Campbell going down means there's no real reason for me to hope the Skins go to the playoffs anymore, but if the rest of the NFC keeps crapping the bed, why shouldn't the Skynards be the team to get flattened in round 1? Todd Collins played a great game and it was nice to see Gregg Williams dial up a few blitzes for a change. Though the Skins only finished with two sacks, they managed a pair of picks and generally stayed on top of the Chicago signal-callers. Why is everyone acting like an eighth loss is the end of the season for Chicago? As if there won't be an 8-8 team in the NFC playoffs? Please!

Jaguars over Panthers, 37-6
My Pick: Jaguars over Panthers, 27-13

Yikes. Nothing to say about this, other than that it was ugly and the Jaguars are in a groove right now. Ok, wait, one more thing: Del Rio is still an ass. I could have told him a year ago that Reggie Williams would be his best receiver and best red-zone target, but he insisted on demoting the guy in the offseason. I'm not going to criticize ol' Jack too much, but this is another case of the rest of the world being utterly clueless about his criteria for starting or sitting someone in his passing game.

Giants over Eagles, 16-13
My Pick: Eagles over Giants, 34-20

Ok, I was way off on this one. I'm feeling a little betrayed by this lack-of-collapse in New York. No, not by the Giants, but by the rest of the league, for not holding up their end of the bargain and allowing the collapse. The Giants have done as little as possible to win their last two games, but their opponents have just rolled over and handed it to them. Don't they know the league and it's fans are missing on of the best modern holiday traditions? Seriously, just because the Giants have notched a couple of W's doesn't mean they aren't collapsing. It's a reflex, it's there, you just can't see it. Just you wait until the playoffs.

Bengals over Rams, 19-10
My Pick: Bengals over Rams, 38-31

Didn't watch it, don't care.

Texans over Bucs, 28-14
My Pick: Texans over Bucs, 23-17

Pretty close, no? You just had to figure before too long the QB situation would jump up and bite the Bucs. Ernest Graham was a beast in this one, but the Bucs failed to secure their division, and with a Saints win on Monday night, they'll have to put it off another week. They need Jeff Garcia healthy, this is not one of those situations where they can wait until the post-season. The odds are heavily in favor of them winning their division no matter who plays, but do they really want to play it out until the final week? Do they want the Giants or the young Vikings in the first round? Actually . . . who do they want in the first round? Is this a calculated measure to stick the sissy-fied Seahawks with a tough-as-nails Vikings bunch while the Bucs mop up a butter-soft, tenderized Giants team in round 1? Wow . . . actually, they might consider sitting Garcia the rest of the way. Holy hell. I'm onto you, Gruden.

Bills over Dolphins, 38-17
My Pick: Bills over Dolphins, 21-16

Yuk. The Dolphins will not be winning a game. They get the Ravens next, that's their final chance. I won't be picking them. By the by, this game was the end of J. P. Losman's time in Buffalo.

Packers over Raiders, 38-7
My Pick: Packers over Raiders, 28-14

In my picks, I mentioned this could be a letdown for the Packers, a trap game coming off their ugly loss to the Cowboys with a banged up Favre. Well, I was wrong about that.

Cowboys over Lions, 28-27
My Pick: Cowboys over Lions, 45-20

The Lions did all they could in this one . . . to give it away. If they'd managed just one or two more first downs in the second half, they'd have had this one in the bag. Instead, they crapped it away. In the end, that's the difference between the Lions and a playoff team. Next year, Detroit! As expected, the entire sports media is busy fellating Tony Romo.

Chargers over Titans, 23-17
My Pick: Titans over Chargers, 17-14

Man, I had this one. I so had it. Why oh why couldn't the Titans just burn some clock and end it? Because they're not there yet. Sorry, Tennessee. Your team does not belong in the playoffs. Vince Young is not yet the kind of quarterback that can burn clock, orchestrate a long end-game drive, make key throws in the middle of the field, and reliably salt away a victory, especially not against a good defense like San Diego. As for the Chargers, this is one of only a few quality victories on their 2007 resume, and Philip Rivers still looked like utter garbage. I feel bad for this team, they get to slink away with the worst division in football and get flattened at home in the opening round of the playoffs by a wild-card, probably the Browns. Nice.

Vikings over 49ers, 27-7
My Pick: Vikings over 49ers, 37-10

Ok, so the score was closer than I predicted, but the game was not. Who wants to face the Vikings in the playoffs? Nobody, absolutely nobody, that's who. Why? Because they have a dominant, DOMINANT offensive line, two (count 'em) STUD runningbacks capable of carrying the ball infinite times, an impenetrable run defense and an emerging, playmaking pass defense, and Tarvaris Jackson is coming around. On the road or at home, they could put a scare into ANYBODY, including the Pats. In fact, I love this team.

Seahawks over Cardinals, 42-21
My Pick: Cardinals over Seahawks, 34-20

The Seahawks put together their best, most complete performance of the season on Sunday. They played a great game and totally dominated the Cards from the opening kickoff, finally taking their division and actually earning it. Now they'll get a disappointing loss or two in their final three games and shit the bed in the playoffs. Sorry, that's just who they are. They suck. Even if they get to the Super Bowl, that'll be just another indictment of the NFC rather than any indication of their strength.

Browns over Jets, 24-18
My Pick: Browns over Jets, 42-24

Go Browns! They made it look harder than they needed to, but they got the job done. They managed to overcome an early turnover, they moved the ball and played stout defense, and dammit, they're just good. They're one of the few consistent offensive groups in football and their defense is improving. Fucking GO BROWNS!

Patriots over Steelers, 34-13
My Pick: Patriots over Steelers, 35-31

If I insisted the 1 and the 3 were mistakenly reversed in my pick, would you believe me? I wish I'd hit those buttons wrong and picked this one 34-13, I'd be gloating like hell right now. The Steelers were so not up to the task at all. Offensively, they moved the ball but couldn't score, and defensively, they couldn't get off the field for shit. That's all I have to say about this one, another boring Patriots win. They had two straight interesting games before this one, though!

Broncos over Chiefs, 41-7
My Pick: Broncos over Chiefs, 20-17

Funny how the Broncs manage to get a huge, good-looking win just when they don't need it anymore. What does that tell me? This young team doesn't know how to play under pressure yet, and Mike Shanahan, while more than able to call a solid offensive game, is not doing enough to supplement the general lack of veteran leadership on his team. Also, John Lynch is a crappy player with no locker-room influence. Booyah. Eat it, Lynch.

Colts over Ravens, 44-20
My Pick: Colts over Ravens, 24-9

The final score does no justice to how one-sided a blow-out this one was, and that's saying something. The best and only thing the Ravens had going for them was Troy Smith, and that was for the last five minutes of the extended garbage time in this game, also known as the second half. Everything after half-time was like a pre-season exhibition, with Jim Sorgi carving up the Ravens back-up defense and John Doe throwing it to whoever-the-hell-is-running-around-out-there for the Ravens. Baltimore needs to pull it together for just one more game before these coaches and players can do what they've been waiting to do all season, which is mail it in and blame the league and officials for a lost season. If they lose to the Dolphins on Sunday, there will be wholesale changes in every part of the Ravens organization.

Saints over Falcons, 34-14
My Pick: Saints over Falcons, 30-16

I seem to have nailed this one, too. I felt a little bad for the Falcons, they actually seemed to give an honest effort in this game, but they still got obliterated. As for the Saints, let me just say it now before a million other people say it after next Sunday, the Saints are playing better football without Reggie Bush. Aaron Stecker is a decisive, downhill runner with more effective open-field elusiveness than Bush. That's right. He's more effective in space because he makes a quick cut and gets upfield, whereas Reggie makes long, dramatic moves and tries to go the distance on every play. Here's a stat: the longest run of Reggie Bush's NFL career is a whopping 22 yards. He's averaging less than 4 yards per carry this season. With his speed and explosiveness, he should be ripping off more yards per carry and at least the occasional home run, but apparently Reggie never learned how to run north and south. How's this for a comparison; Pierre Thomas, a rookie tailback on the Saints bench, has a longer carry this season and averages more yards per carry. Without Bush, the Saints have two all-business runners who hit the hole and get downfield, and that's perfect for taking advantage of the respect given to the Saints passing game. Anyway, enough of that. The Saints aren't making the playoffs, but if they do it'll be because of that change.

Now for a look at Saturday's PPV boxing extravaganza:

There was no way I wasn't going to order and watch the welterweight showdown on Saturday night. I'll keep my recap short, but let me start by saying that there were too many televised undercards on this telecast, and because none of them were important or especially interesting, it really sucked the life out of the whole affair. It certainly didn't help that the majority of fans, who were in fact from England and here to support home-town hero Ricky Hatton only, didn't even attend the early undercards and had no interest in the final undercard even after they'd arrived. Nothing happened that needs mentioning. As far as the headliner, I might be in the minority, but this fight entertained the hell out of me, I felt it was worth every penny. Yes, in retrospect it was one-sided, but from the opening bell, you had the sense that Hatton was getting to the distance he wanted to fight from and the Mayweather was having to adjust. If anything, that aspect of it only stood to further demonstrate how impressively skilled Mayweather is. The fact that he didn't come in with an overt strategy for keeping Hatton away from him, but rather to fight in close and just do it better, was really something. It was one of those deals where as the fight went on and you thought neither guy was really hurting the other, one guy starts to wear down from all the banging and the little, tight punches you don't get a good look at on TV. To my surprise, it was Hatton that started to get the little nicks and bruises and started to look frustrated. That's not to say I was expecting a Hatton victory, but when I saw that the entire fight was unfolding up close and tight, I went with Lampley and Steward and assumed that it was because Hatton was having success at controlling the tempo of the fight. With that in mind, I expected to see signs that Hatton was having his way, but the opposite was taking place. I know Hatton has a history of cuts, but he was fighting the fight he wanted, just getting beaten to the punch and out-classed. The check-hook left that put him down was an amazing shot, so fast and tight you almost couldn't see it, it just looked like Hatton stumbled forward into the turnbuckle and went down. On replay you could really see the brutal efficiency of it, uncoiled and short and right on the jawline. My wife and I both jumped and pulled a face, and you just knew Hatton was toast. He tried to come forward after Cortez restarted the fight, but his legs were gone and he was dazed badly. It was only a matter of time from there. There's nothing left for Mayweather to prove, serously. No, seriously. People will say he should fight Miguel Cotto or Shane Mosley or any number of other guys between lightweight and welterweight, and those would certainly make great fights, but Mayweather doesn't need 'em. There will always be new guys and new champions that climb the ranks and become elite fighters. Should Mayweather make a personal quest to top them all, even as his love of boxing fades and he ages further? He's clearly beaten all the best of his time in boxing, from sluggers to boxers and every combination in between, and he's proven there's nobody better. The only thing left to prove is that there's nobody better than a 31 year old Mayweather, then a 32 year old version, and so forth. He's the pound for pound champ and has been for some time. If he wants to hang 'em up, he's more than earned it.

Picks for week 15 should be out later today. That's right, I'm sticking with the picks through the end. In case you're counting, I went 12-3 through Sunday this week. Most of America probably did the same, but hey, I'll take it.