With the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beating the Indianapolis Colts last night, I managed to pick 13 winners (out of 16) for my NFL pick the winner contests. Still no pizza…and I like pizza.

We’ve got your football right here – today I talk about my rowdy friends, the undefeated, the winless, the Big 12, the Big Sky, the Frontier, the NAIA, and a very special homecoming queen! 

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE

If you are a fan of the Ravens, Browns, Cowboys, Dolphins, Rams, Redskins, then you get a week off as the “Bye Weeks” start in week five.   Bye weeks go from week five through week nine and skip week ten (for some reason) and then the final bye week is week eleven.

Hank Williams, Jr.

ESPN decided to play politics with free speech and pulled the promo song “All My Rowdy Friends” after Williams “made controversial comments about President Barack Obama” on Fox News Monday morning supposedly comparing Obama to Hitler.

Should he have said that?  Nope.  But ESPN has some bigger problems with their current Monday Night team (the studio and the announcing team) and they should stay out of policing speech.  Besides, hardly anyone knew about the comments until ESPN suspended Williams.

Ironically, Optimum Cable (the cable company in Montana) played an advertisement to get people to advertise on Monday Night Football with Williams in it.

Undefeated Teams:

If you picked the Green Bay Packers to be one of the two remaining undefeated teams in the NFL that was a pretty easy pick.  If you picked the Detroit Lions to be the other undefeated team, then you are super fan of the Lions or a freaking genius.  Guess what?  They are in the same division and get to play each other twice this season with the Packers visiting Detroit on Thanksgiving Day.  They also play each other in the final game of the season in Green Bay – and that could be very interesting.

Winless Teams:

My Kansas City Chiefs won the O-Four bowl beating the Minnesota Vikings to send them to 0-4.  The Vikings, Colts, Dolphins, and the Rams are all winless. The Chiefs play at the Colts on Sunday.  The Colts are not that bad and the Chiefs have played well in Indy, so this will be a tough pick.

If you are fans of the Rams or Dolphins, then you have to live a week longer without a victory because you have a bye week.  The Vikings host the Cardinals so their chance of winning a game is pretty good.

Of Note:

Chicago Bears RB Matt Forte carried 25 times for 205 yards and a touchdown in the Bears’ 34-29 win over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.

Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers completed 29 of 38 passes for 408 yards.  He threw for four touchdowns and rushed for two more in the Packers’ 49-23 win over the Denver Broncos. Incredible.

MAJOR COLLEGE FOOTBALL

The top five teams according to the Associated Press are: 1. LSU, 2. Alabama, 3. Oklahoma, 4. Wisconsin, 5. Boise State.

Four of the top five teams from last week played on Saturday and the closest score was winning by 20 points.

Big 12:

The Big 12 takes a big step in staying a Conference today if the remaining nine schools sign off on a TV revenue sharing deal.  Nebraska, Colorado, and Texas A&M have left (or will leave) the conference.

Like I have written before, everything was going fine with the Big 8 until the Texas schools joined.

To replace the three schools that have left, I suggest inviting Iowa, Minnesota and Arkansas to the Big 12.

Nebraska:

Speaking of Nebraska, welcome to the Big 10 and here’s your 31 point defeat from Wisconsin as a welcome gift.   It is always good to see Nebraska lose.

Looking Ahead:

#3 Oklahoma plays #11 Texas on Saturday in Dallas.   That is about it.

Football Championship Subdivision:

Both the Montana Grizzlies and the Montana State Bobcats won their homecoming games on Saturday.  The Bobcats are ranked #3 in The Sports Network (TSN) and the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) coaches’ poll.  The Griz are ranked #16 in TSN and #14 in FCS polls.

Georgia Southern and Northern Iowa are ranked one and two in both polls.

Bobcats:

Bobcat QB DeNarius McGhee found his passing arm and was a respectable 15/25 for 242 yards and two TDs and when he was not passing, he handed the ball to RB Cody Kirk, who carried it 25 times for 134 yards and two TDs.

The Bobcats (4-1, 2-0 Conf.) next big test happens this Saturday as they travel to Portland to take on Portland State (3-1, 2-0 Conf.).   Portland State runs the ball very well.  They piled up 436 yards rushing last week against Idaho State. They only attempted 11 passes.

Grizzlies:

The Montana Grizzlies (3-2, 2-1 Conf.) beat Northern Colorado 55-28 and everyone had fun.  Griz QBs Nate Montana and Gerald Kemp both had fine days sharing the duties.  Combined they were 14/18 for 250 yards and three TDs.  Kemp also rushed for two TDs.  The Griz travel to Idaho to play the Bengals of Idaho State (2-3, 1-2 Big Sky) next Saturday.  Former Montana State Bobcats head coach Mike Kramer now leads the Bengals.  Don’t look for this game to be easy for the Griz.

By the way, 0ne would think the Bobcats and the Griz schedulers would work on having one team play in Montana each week – for the economy.

NAIA:

With Rocky Mountain College beating Eastern Oregon 51-17 last Saturday, the Frontier Conference is wide open for the taking.  Eastern Oregon beat Carroll earlier in the year.  Carroll beat Rocky Mountain earlier this season, too (they play again Oct. 15 and Carroll plays Eastern Oregon Oct. 22).

Carroll is ranked #3 in the NAIA poll.  Eastern Oregon #17.  Rocky Mountain is #23.

HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL

Congratulations to Brianna Amat.  She kicked a 31-yard game-winning field goal on Friday night for her football team.  She was also crowned homecoming queen during the game.  Read more about it HERE.

Follow The Western Word on Twitter @TheWesternWord.