A Hearty Portion of What's Stewing on my Mind

Apologies for being away from the blog for the past three weeks, and apologies in advance for being away for the next three week, as the finals season of the law school life kicks into full gear and I become a recluse to the world. As a little something to relieve stress for myself and to provide a little light reading for y'all, here are a couple thoughts and predictions that have been floating around my noggin the past couple days.

• NFL Thoughts and Playoff Predictions

As a Cowboys fan from a family based in Michigan, Thanksgiving has always been a great family day for me as my entire family would sit together and watch their team and my team both play on Turkey Day. This year, I finally expected two good games for the first time since Barry roamed the ol' Silverdome. Unfortunately the games were meh and the storylines from the day were the Suh Stomp and Harbaugh Brother Bash. But this brings me to a big point I wanted to make: Best thing that could have happened for this Cowboys team was to get a win and be forgotten about, and that is exactly what happened. Now for the next ten days, while the Cowboys practice for the Cardinals, all the talk will be elsewhere. The Cowboys can work their asses off and set themselves up to be 8-4 going into that primetime match-up with the Giants and that's all they can ask for.

Now my playoff predictions with 5 weeks left in the season:
AFC:
1. Baltimore, 2. New England
6. Cincinnati @ 3. Denver
5. Pittsburgh @ 4. Houston

NFC: (this conference has a distinct mid-90s feel to it)
1. Green Bay, 2. San Francisco
6. Detroit @ 3. Dallas
5. Atlanta @ 4. New Orleans

• CFB Thoughts and BCS Predictions

This past Saturday, the Michigan Wolverines beat Ohio State for the first time in 8 years. After the game though, I was conflicted. Was I happy that we won? Yes. Was I ecstatic? No. And here is the reason why: that puts us at 1-7 the past 8 years. That's worse than John Cooper was, percentage-wise. So as great as it was to watch us win, it means nothing if we can't insure that this stays an annual possibility moving forward. In this regard, I truly hope that Brady Hoke and his staff look at the win and say, "not enough". I hope they look at the win and say, "Good stepping stone, now let's take another step and win a BCS bowl, and continue taking those steps to returning to Big Ten Champions next year, and finally bursting into a full out sprint towards our first undisputed national title since 1948" (bleeping Tom Osborne...but that's for another day). This is what I want, I don't want to hear any more talk, just results. And that is my wet blanket speech on this season (by the way, I predicted UM to go 10-2 before the season, so don't think I'm a pessimist). GO BLUE!

Now my BCS Bowl Predictions:
NC: LSU v Alabama
Sugar: Michigan v Houston
Orange: VaTech v Cincinnati (I'm sticking with my preseason prediction, Cincy QB woes be damned!)
Rose: Wisconsin v Oregon
Fiesta: Oklahoma v Stanford

• CL Thoughts and AC Milan Dream Scenarios

I went into this season hoping the Rossoneri could regain their former form on the continent and prove to everyone, once again, they are world beaters. Then the group draw put Milan in with Barcelona and I immediately became apprehensive, knowing that Messi and company could easily annihilate Milan if our boys in red and black gave up possession to easily and weren't stout in the back. Instead, Milan showed up and forced a draw at Camp Nou, then played Barcelona in the most fiercely fought match I've ever seen when the result didn't matter. While Milan did lose to Barca at San Siro, they showed to me as a fan that they are capable of going toe-to-toe with the Spanish giants. If my excitement was high entering this season, it's been increased exponentially with the recent play in Serie A and the aforementioned group play in CL. The attack has been stupendous, with Ibra looking as good as ever, Robinho playing great, Nocerino stepping into the old Gattuso role perfectly, and Abate, Aquilani, Pato, and others showing how much great youth ready and able to contribute the Rossoneri have accumulated as of recently. Finally, of all the players mentioned above, none have carved out a place in my heart quite as large as the crevice in which Kevin-Prince Boateng has settled into. My favorite player on this squad, his play this season both in Europe and Italy has been simply superb and he is just a joy to behold. I can honestly say KPB is number one in this blogger's heart. Now hopefully, Milan can continue their strong push towards the top of the table in Serie A and get a dream draw in CL.

AC Milan Dream Draw (this requires predictions for the final days of matches)

The Rossoneri will be in the unseeded pot after Barca claimed the top spot in their group. This means that Milan will be drawn against one of the top teams from the other groups. I see those 8 teams as being the following: Bayern Munich, Inter, ManU, Real Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Arsenal, APOEL, Barca. If those are the eight, then that leaves Milan with 6 possibile matchups (following the removal of Barca and Inter, due to fellow group member and fellow countrymate). From those six, I see three tiers of teams: yes please, oooo this should be interesting, and WHY DO WE ALWAYS GET SCREWED IN THE DRAW.

Under the yes please tier: APOEL and Bayer Leverkusen.
APOEL are the Cypriot minnows who are playing above themselves. Anybody who draws them will be cheering...please be us! Bayer Leverkusen are a German side who are playing good, but not great ball this year. They are 6th in the Bundesliga and only are going to get the top spot in their group because they didn't grab any draws while Chelsea/Valencia each had at least 2 and face each other in the final match. I would be fine with drawing them as well.

Under the oooo this should be interesting tier: Arsenal
This is one matchup that I think would be a blast, if only because of the Twitter war of letters Goddeeris and I would have rooting for our players in RVP and KPB, respectively. Also, this would be a blast because Arsenal is a team that I believe Milan could beat more times than not, but all matches would be close, hard fought matches filled with beautiful soccer.

Under the WHY DO WE ALWAYS GET SCREWED IN THE DRAW tier: ManU, Real, and Bayern Munich
Yeah yeah yeah, I know that I put half of the available teams under this category, but this is only because Milan was drawn against the top team in the world for the group stage, just to be turned around and drawn against the second best team in England and Spain or the best team in Germany this season (I know they are third in the table right now, but c'mon). So, if we get drawn against any of these three, I will immediately be expecting to continue our terrible run of being knocked out in the first knockout round of European competition that has persisted since winning the CL in 2007 (losses to Arsenal, Werder Bremen, ManU, and Tottenham).

In my dreams, we are lucky and get drawn against one of those first three to make for an easier road. If not, at least this team has shown me that I can have confidence they can go punch for punch with these heavyweights and maybe, just maybe, run a gauntlet of heavyweights to win our 19th international title. FORZA MILAN!!