Happy Monday everyone! I’ve got a lot to cover today from all corners of the sports world. As usual I’m going to hold off on recapping Week 4 of the NFL until tomorrow once Monday Night Football is in the books. That still leaves plenty to talk about from a fantastic sports weekend. I’ll be talking about the USA winning the Ryder Cup, a crazy weekend in college football, and the end of the MLB regular season with a look at the postseason matchups. As always, I’ll finish with a preview of Monday Night Football. So without further ado, lets jump right in.

USA Wins the Ryder Cup

 If you didn’t watch the Ryder Cup then you missed out some of the best TV of the weekend. Team USA brought the Ryder Cup back to the United States for the first time since 2008 in impressive fashion, winning the event 17-11. Some experts will say that Brandt Snedeker was the MVP for the Americans this weekend with his 3-0 record over the weekend. However, I don’t think there was a more important player than Patrick Reed, who was on fire all weekend with one of the heaviest workloads playing in all five sessions.

His round during the afternoon session on Saturday will go down as one of the best ever in the Ryder Cup. Reed absolutely carried Jordan Speith, who struggled all weekend, in a tough matchup against Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose. You could make the argument that Reed defeated the team of Stenson and Rose by himself. Reed finished the day with seven birdies and an eagle, feeding off of a raucous home crowd.

How did Reed follow up his legendary Saturday you ask? Well, he went out and played in the match of the tournament against Rory McIlory. Reed and McIlory went at each other like prizefighters all round long, with Reed coming away victorious in a matchup of the two best players from either side of this tournament. Reed’s victory set the tone for the Americans on Sunday, giving them the momentum to win the Ryder Cup, ending a run of three wins by the Europeans.

The win also produced the best picture of the weekend in my opinion. Rickie Fowler must have had one hell of a night yesterday. Congrats guys, you earned this one.

Crazy Finishes and Top-Ten Battles Dominate College Football

While the Ryder Cup stole the weekend, Saturday gave us a wild day of college football. #4 Michigan outlasted #8 Wisconsin 14-7 in the Big House to earn a hard fought victory. The Wolverines looked to be in control of this game, but couldn’t put the Badgers away until the final moments of regulation. I don’t think they could have done it in a more spectacular fashion. The game-winning interception by Jordan Lewis will be one of the top-plays of the season.

Not to be outdone, the primetime matchup between #3 Louisville and #5 Clemson lived up to the hype. A duel between Heisman candidates Lamar Jackson and Deshaun Watson proved that the Cardinals and the Tigers would be squarely in the playoff discussion at year’s end (barring upset losses). Clemson certainly benefitted from playing at home, but you can’t take anything away from either team here. A loss is a loss to the playoff committee, but Louisville didn’t hurt their postseason chances too much in a losing effort, only falling to #7 in this week’s AP Top 15. Clemson moved up to #3 this week trailing Alabama and Ohio State in the polls.

The other top-ten matchup, which took place Friday night, produced the most surprising result of these three games. #10 Washington clobbered #7 Stanford 44-6 in the definition of a “statement game.” The Huskies have the best, and maybe only, chance for a Pac-12 team to make the playoffs at the end of the year. They previously showed they have the speed to matchup with elite teams, but against Stanford they showed the toughness in the trenches that can win in January. The preseason hype so far has been real for Washington, who will have a tough road game this week at Oregon. The voters agreed that the hype was real this week, voting the Huskies as the #5 team in the polls.

While these huge matchups were the talk of college football coming into the weekend, a pair of wild finishes took away some of the spotlight. North Carolina stunned Florida State in Tallahassee 37-35 on a last second field goal. The Tar Heels squandered a 21-0 lead, and then found themselves down one with 23 seconds left in regulation after a late FSU touchdown. North Carolina was able to move the ball just into field goal range after a pass interference call against Florida State. Then Nick Weiler booted a 54-yard field goal for the win. The Tar Heels improved to 4-1 while the Seminoles dropped to 3-2, possibly crushing any postseason hopes for Florida State.

As impressive of a finish as the North Carolina-FSU game proved to be, the finish to Tennessee-Georgia was the best of the year so far. The Volunteers entered the second half down ten on the road at Georgia. Tennessee fought its way all second half to take a 28-24 lead with just under three minutes to play following a defensive touchdown. The Bulldogs got the ball back and took a 31-28 lead with a 47-yard touchdown pass. However, Georgia received a 15-yard celebration penalty on the touchdown and was forced to kick-off from the 20-yard line with ten seconds left in regulation. Tennessee took the return back to midfield with just enough time to run a Hail Mary for the win. I’ll let the video speak for itself, but what a win for Tennessee, who moved up to #9 in the polls with the win.

MLB Postseason is Set

I’ll talk more about this more in depth as the week goes on, but I have to set the stage for the MLB postseason. October baseball is finally here, and while there wasn’t much drama on the final day of the season like previous years, these playoffs will make up the difference. The Wild Card games will feature matchups between the Giants-Mets and the Orioles-Blue Jays with the winners playing the Cubs and Rangers respectively in the divisional round. Boston will take on Cleveland in the other AL divisional series while Los Angeles will square off with Washington in the NL.

Unfortunately there are too many storylines to get into here, but all will make for a compelling run towards the World Series. It all gets started tomorrow night with the Orioles and Blue Jays so set your DVR folks.

Monday Night Football Preview

Tonight features a matchup between the 2-1 Giants and the 3-0 Vikings on Monday Night Football. Minnesota is coming off of a huge road win against Carolina and is playing the best defense out of any team not named Denver in the NFL. While New York has some serious firepower on offense with the receiving trio of Beckham/Cruz/Shepard, the injuries to the running backs could make them too one-dimensional against this ferocious Vikings defense.

The Giants will have to fight fire with fire tonight. This $200 million defense will have to earn its pay against Sam Bradford and company to keep this game close. I don’t know if the Giants have enough to go into Minnesota and win though. I’ll take the Vikings to win tonight (-5).

That’s it for me today. Stay tuned to Shooting the Moon for plenty of football coverage this week. I’ll be talking MLB Postseason as the week progresses as well. Follow me on Twitter @thereal_jmooney and go like the Shooting the Moon page on Facebook.