Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend. I’m keeping today’s “Weekend Recap” short and sweet so let’s get right into it. The big story of the weekend was rivalry weekend in college football, highlighted by the Ohio State’s double overtime victory over Michigan in “The Game.”

It was an amazing contest between two bitter rivals with so much on the line. The Buckeyes should keep them at the #2 spot in the CFP rankings for now, however it sets up an intriguing situation going into conference championship week but I’ll get to that in a second.

First let’s talk about the actual game which somehow lived up to the insane amount of hype that surrounded it. Throughout the entire contest, you had the feeling that Michigan was going to finally break the losing streak in Columbus against its arch nemesis despite the backbreaking mistakes that quarterback Wilton Speight kept making. I hate kicking a guy when he’s down, but if there is anyone to hang the blame on it’s the Wolverines’ quarterback with coach Jim Harbaugh coming in as a close second.

Speight threw a terrible pick-six  while backed up in his own endzone on a questionable play call from Harbaugh. Then later in the game, Speight fumbled a snap at the goal line, which cost Michigan a chance at a touchdown. Just those two turnovers alone cost the Wolverines 14 points on both sides of the scoreboard. Credit Ohio State for hanging in there and capitalizing on the mistakes of a tough Michigan team. In a rivalry game, it’s always going to come down to those crucial moments.

Ohio State now sits in a very precarious position following the win. Despite its 11-1 record, the Buckeyes won’t be playing in the Big Ten championship game due to the head-to-head loss to Penn State. This opens up an interesting conversation about how much a conference championship means to making it to the College Football Playoff.

The Big Ten title game features the #5 and #6 team’s in the most recent CFP rankings (Wisconsin and Penn State), so the winner will have quite the case to make to be one of those four teams. We’ll have a much better idea of how the committee is going to answer that question tomorrow night and I’ll break down all of the scenarios on Wednesday.

Quickly let’s talk about tonight’s game between Green Bay and Philadelphia on Monday Night Football. This one has a playoff feel to it with both teams needing a win to stay in the wild card race with six games left to play. The Packers come into this one riding a rare four-game losing streak, while the Eagles enter having lost three of its last four games.

I’m keeping an eye on how Philadelphia’s defense matches up against Aaron Rodgers and his talented receivers. In my opinion, this game rides on the success or failure of the Philadelphia pass rush. Rodgers is a master of improvisation and if you give him time to throw, he will make you pay dearly. The Eagles don’t have the secondary to allow for that so the crux of this game will fall on the pass rushers. Green Bay may be struggling, but Rodgers is going keep the Pack in just about every single game.

I think the most important aspect of tonight’s game is that it is being played in Philadelphia, where the Eagles are undefeated this season. Philadelphia has been a different team at home, defeating teams like Pittsburgh, Minnesota, and Atlanta. That bodes well for the Eagles and rookie quarterback Carson Wentz. He’ll be able to be comfortable in front of the home crowd and try to pick apart a Packers defense that has allowed 30+ points in four consecutive games.

As far as the outcome tonight, I like the Eagles tonight at home but the line for this one is way too high for my liking. I’ll take the Packers (+4.5) against the spread tonight, but Philadelphia wins the game 27-24.

That’s it for me today, I’ll be back tomorrow with “No Huddle” to recap Week 12. Follow me on Twitter @thereal_jmooney and go like the Shooting the Moon page on Facebook.