COLUMN: Second place, but I may win our bet

     Thank you to the two friends that let me know I lost my fantasy football championship game. I appreciate both of you for pointing that out! And I thank you for reading and following my season through my column.

     Yes, I did lose a close one and it happened just as I predicted last week. The Monday night game between the Bills and the Patriots couldn’t have gone any worse for me. The Bill’s QB, Josh Allen, had a great game, scoring 32 points even though he didn’t play the fourth quarter.

     My kicker, also from the Bills, scored eight points. Trading off six points (QB touchdowns) for one point (K extra points) did not work in my favor. I did have one field goal but that didn’t help. I lost 119-115. My only hope was the Bills’ backup QB would get the team downfield and the Bills kicker would kick a 50+ yard field goal scoring me four points.

     If that happened, I would have won 119.62 to 119.60. All in all, it was a good season and made watching football all year more interesting.

     Bowl game predictions. It looks like Pete and I are tied 14-11 in our bowl game pick ‘em bet. I have Alabama to win, he has Clemson to win so we could end up tied at 14-12 or I could win at 15-11. I’d be okay losing the Alabama game against Ohio State. Not a Crimson Tide fan.

     Iowa State fans can thank me for picking against their team as they defeated Oregon 34-17. I caught the second half and was impressed with their victory. Now the big question will be if Coach Campbell sticks around or jumps to the NFL or a blue blood program. I’ll predict he stays (sorry fans). NFL coaches are dropping like flies as I write this week’s column.

     It's playoff time. Watching the Packers play a meaningful end of the year game was awesome. For most of the game I thought the Bears might beat them. Two dropped potential interceptions by the Bears probably did them in and Green Bay flexed their muscles in the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach.

     I hope Aaron Rodgers sticks around for a while. He just keeps getting better with age. I think he deserves the MVP award this season.

Should I predict the NFL playoffs is my next biggest question. I feel Green Bay has a good enough team to win it all but I fear jinxing them. Well here goes nothing as I predict Wild Card Weekend.

     The Saints over the Bears, the Seahawks over the Rams and the Buccaneers over Washington.

     The Bills beat the Colts, the Browns over the Steelers (first upset) and the Ravens over the Titans (second upset). I’ll tackle round two next week.