West Virginia vs. Pittsburgh

Mountaineers -3 1/2 vs. Panthers

In one of the best rivalry games of the weekend, Pittsburgh plays host to West Virginia as the bitter rivals renew acquaintances in the Backyard Brawl. The loss last season at home to the Panthers cost the Mountaineers a chance at the BCS title game and once again this game will be meaningful.

Both teams ride into the game at 7-3. West Virginia is in a better position than Pittsburgh, as the Mountaineers have a better conference record, but both teams are headed for a bowl game. The victor of this game will go on to a more prosperous and prestigious bowl game.

Due to their loss to Cincinnati 26-23 a few weeks back, West Virginia finds themselves on the outside looking in at the Big East championship. The Bearcats have a game lead and hold the tiebreaker. The Mountaineers did well to rebound from that tough loss to Cincinnati by beating up Louisville 35-21 last week. Quarterback Pat White threw for 122 yards against the Cardinals with two touchdowns, but really made his mark on the ground. The senior rushed 21 times for 200 yards with three more touchdowns. White will take his last regular season snaps in his brilliant career which has totaled 98 touchdowns both on the ground and through the air.

For Pittsburgh, the excitement and momentum of beating Notre Dame on the road in overtime and coming home to crush Louisville was lost when they were defeated at Cincinnati 28-21 last week. It was the Bearcats first ever win over the Panthers and it cost them any hopes at capturing the Big East title.

The Panthers will definitely regroup against their archrival. However, West Virginia has had more success in the series over the years. Prior to last year, the Mountaineers had taken seven out of the last nine. But Pitt hopes they have turned the tide with the stunning 13-9 road victory last season.

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LSU vs. Arkansas

Tigers -4 1/2 vs. Razorbacks

The program that Les Miles has brought to LSU is not used to losing four games per year. But that is exactly what they have done this season. The Tigers (7-4, 3-4) have had a down year by the new standards in Baton Rouge where winning is everything and nothing less than a trip to the SEC title game is accepted.

Alas Tigernation will have to accept it, for a year. The SEC was once again one of the top conferences in the nation and LSU stumbled a bit against the top teams-and some of the mediocre ones as well-to sputter to at best a .500 record in the SEC and they will have to get past Arkansas on the road this Saturday to accomplish that.

The story of LSU’s inconsistent season can be seen by the results of their games. The Tigers started the season 4-0, but when they got into the heart of their conference schedule, they could not sustain wins.  Starting on October 11 when the Tigers were undefeated, they played the Florida Gators. They lost that game 51-21 and have neither won two in a row nor lost two in a row. They have alternated wins and losses each week since then. LSU’s most recent loss was an ugly home loss to Ole Miss 31-13. The Tigers never seemed right on both sides of the ball and lost their third home game of the season, which was thought unfathomable.

North in Arkansas, things have not gone well for first year coach Bobby Petrino. The Razorbacks (4-7, 1-6) have fallen apart this season. They have won only twice in their last nine games and have lost two straight overall. Last week Arkansas also lost their third home game of the season to Mississippi State 31-28.

Saturday’s game will be a rematch of last year’s entertaining overtime game between Arkansas and LSU. The Razorbacks won that game 50-48 and were victorious for the first time since 2002, which was also the last time the Arkansas Razorbacks won at home.

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Bowling Green vs. Toledo

Falcons -1 1/2 vs. Rockets

I am sure you probably heard it. The joke that was making its way through the internet last week and making the entire state of Ohio shake with laughter. It appeared a few days before the annual grudge match between Michigan and Ohio State and went a little something like this:

Did you hear the Michigan-Ohio State game has been cancelled? It seems Michigan can not get past Toledo.

Funny perhaps if you are an Ohio State fan, troubling if you are a Michigan fan and perhaps a little prophetic as the Wolverines were drilled by their Buckeye rivals 42-7. But if you are the Toledo football program, how do you take that joke. On one hand it’s a complement that you were the first Mid-American team to beat Michigan, but on the other hand it is a bit of a slight that the lone highlight of your season was the win in Ann Arbor. Yet, at 3-8, it is truly hard to argue that it was the only highlight of the season.

Unfortunately for the Rockets (3-8, 2-5), any momentum the program gained by the 13-10 win against the Wolverines was quickly washed away when they lost four straight. They finally stopped the skid last week with a home win against Miami of Ohio and look to take a two-game winning streak into the offseason when they faceoff at home against Bowling Green.

For the Falcons (5-6, 3-4) they have not been the butts of nationally known jokes, but they have not really had a highlight that defines their season like Toledo. A win for Bowling Green would gain them bowl eligibility and a .500 record, but an actual bowl game is almost certainly not in the cards. The Falcons lost their final home game to Buffalo 40-34 in overtime last week which snapped their modest two game winning streak.

In their last matchup last season, Bowling Green beat Toledo 37-10. The victory was the Falcons first over the Rockets since 2003.

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Eagles vs. Cardinals

Philadelphia -3 vs. Arizona

It had been a long week for Donovan McNabb. After putting his foot in his mouth and being ridiculed for not knowing that an NFL game could end in a tie when his team tied the Cincinnati Bengals at 13. The tie was the first McNabb had been involved with since his career began in the NFL. He also achieved-or suffered a career first this past Sunday: being benched. His ineffective play in the Eagles destruction at the hands of Baltimore 36-7 caused the veteran to ride the pine while he watched Kevin Kolb take the snaps under center.

McNabb’s season has steadily deteriorated. Sunday he completed only 8 of his 18 passes for 59 yards and two interceptions. To be fair, his replacement, Kolb, did not fare much better, tossing two interceptions of his own and only passing for 73 yards. However, McNabb is turning the ball over at an alarming rate. The veteran has been responsible for seven turnovers in the last seven quarters.

The Eagles managed only 206 yards and 13 first downs and were 3 for 13 on third down conversions. Philadelphia had better have a more consistent offensive attack on Thanksgiving as they host their first ever Turkey Day contest and welcome in the powerful offensive attack of the first-place Arizona Cardinals.

Perhaps Kolb’s equally lousy play lead to coach Andy Reid’s decision Monday to rename McNabb the starter for the game Thursday night. The game will be the third contest of the day for the NFL after Tennessee-Detroit at 12:30 and Seattle-Dallas at 4 o’clock.

Arizona did not have a good week last Sunday either. The Cardinals had the NFC’s best Giants in their home stadium, where they had not lost this season. They allowed New York to score 30 points for the fourth straight time and came up just short 37-29. Arizona actually outplayed New York in many statistical categories, such as first downs (27-18), total yards (371-321) and passing yards (348-234), but they were unable to stop the Giants’ intangibles.

The Cardinals will look to reestablish themselves after their three game winning streak was stopped Sunday, but will face a tough challenge on the road. Arizona is just 3-3 away from the desert and 0-3 against teams from outside of its own lousy division. The Cardinals missed a chance to become the first team to clinch a post-season spot when they lost Sunday. If they can beat Philadelphia on Thanksgiving, the Cardinals will clinch their first playoff berth since 1998 and first divisional title since the franchise was located in St. Louis.

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Cowboys vs. Seahawks

Dallas -12 1/2 vs. Seattle

When the NFL scheduled this game, it probably thought Seattle (2-9) would be much better. After all the Seahawks had won four straight division titles in the usually putrid NFC West and truly appeared to be the class of the division. But perhaps the NFL did not expect that the NFC West would be worse than previously thought and that the Seahawks would be an unimagined mess.

In what may be the second blowout on the Thanksgiving slate, the hobbled Seahawks will jet south to take on the resurgent Cowboys (7-4) in their annual Turkey Day contest. Seattle lost their fourth game in a row 20-17 at home against Washington. Once a place of horror for NFL opponents, the Seahawks have lost their fourth straight game at Qwest Field and have fallen to 1-5 at home. Matt Hasselbeck was under center for the second straight game but was ineffective. Hasselbeck passed for 103 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

The Seahawks’ defense once again cost them in a close game. Though only giving up 20 points, Seattle allowed Washington to gain 386 total yards, 187 of that on the ground. That is music to Dallas’ ears as they continue to get Tony Romo tuned up after missing a number of weeks due to injury.

The Cowboys who were once 5-4 and facing doom when they went up against the Redskins on the road, a team who had beaten them earlier in the season in Dallas. The Cowboys won that close game 14-10 and geared up for two doormats from the NFC West at home the following two weeks. They did their part Sunday by beating up on the San Francisco 49ers 35-22. Romo is coming along just fine by throwing for 341 yards with three touchdowns while former 49er Terrell Owens had his best performance as a Cowboy with 213 yards and a touchdown.

After Seattle, it gets a whole lot tougher. The Dallas Cowboys have a brutal stretch against Pittsburgh, the Giants, Baltimore and Philadelphia. Those four teams boast a combined 30 wins and a .698 win percentage.

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Titans vs. Lions

Tennessee -11 vs. Detroit

In one of the bigger mismatches of the NFL season, the Titans (10-1) will travel to Ford Field to take part in the annual early Thanksgiving Day game in Detroit. Perhaps a bit of embarrassment for this matchup has gone away for the Lions (0-11). Certainly the media would be billing it as the battle of the unbeaten and winless. However for Detroit, who has let a pair of 10-0 and a 17-0 leads evaporate over the last two weeks, there is plenty of embarrassment to go around.

The chances of the Tennessee Titans becoming the third modern team to go undefeated in the regular season were long, and for two teams to do it in back-to-back years, astronomical, so they were bound to lose. Being perfect, Tennessee was clearly the hottest team in the NFL. But the second hottest team, with all apologies to the New York Giants, were the New York Jets. The Jets staked their claim to the hottest team, at least in the AFC with their 34-13 road victory over the Titans this past Sunday.

Tennessee’s offense seemed out of synch throughout the game. Kerry Collins was 21 for 39 for 243 yards and a touchdown, but the running game did not help the veteran. Chris Johnson had only 46 yards on the ground and Lindale White only received one carry for minus one yard. The Titans won 10 games in a row as a team and this was the case with their first loss. The defense surrendered 409 yards and allowed Thomas Jones and Leon Washington to gain 178 yards with Washington scoring twice.

Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks and the Titans can truly be thankful that Detroit is their next opponent and if they do what is expected, they will be 11-1 with 10 days to rest until their next game against Cleveland December 7. Tennessee will undoubtedly be able to get its offense on track against the Lions who are susceptible to big plays. Detroit fell to Tampa Bay at home 38-20 despite building a first quarter 17-0 lead. This was only one week after Carolina spotted them 10 points only to storm back and win 31-22. This has been the story of the season for the Lions, who have held leads in seven of their games this season.

Daunte Culpepper continues to struggle as he learns the offense. The veteran who came out of retirement prior to Week 10 has looked decent in certain drives, but has continually made key mistakes. Culpepper has completed just over 50 percent of his passes for 432 yards with two touchdowns and five interceptions in three games. Against the Buccaneers, Culpepper threw for 121 yards with a touchdown, but two costly interceptions, one which was returned for a touchdown and caused him to be benched in favor of Drew Stanton. Although with Stanton suffering a concussion late in the game, it appears certain Culpepper will start Thursday.

Detroit has never beaten Tennessee in two games since the team relocated from Houston. They last beat the franchise in 1995 at the Astrodome.

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