Happy Monday everyone! As always it’s a “Weekend Recap” to get the week started. Quite a weekend it was with the conference title games and another week in the NFL to get us through. College football was the big story this weekend as the playoff teams and the rest of the bowl games were announced yesterday. Before I give my thoughts on the CFP, lets chat a little bit about the conference title games.

Between the ACC and Big Ten championship games on Saturday night, we got two incredible showings when the stakes couldn’t be any higher. Clemson staved off a furious comeback attempt from Virginia Tech to claim the ACC championship and a place in the College Football Playoff. The Tigers jumped out to a big lead early on but finally put the Hokies away by forcing a turnover in the redzone to end the game.

Penn State was able to complete a furious comeback of its own against a tough Wisconsin team for the Big Ten championship. Nittany Lions quarterback Trace McSorley shined in the second half leading Penn State to victory. Trailing by 14 entering the second half, things could not have looked grimmer for Penn State facing a Wisconsin defense that had dominated early in the game.

Everything changed on the opening drive of the second half for Penn State. McSorley uncorked a deep strike to Saeed Blacknall for a 70-yard touchdown that flipped the momentum to the Nittany Lions. From there, it was all Penn State, outscoring Wisconsin 24-3 in the second half.

You want to see difference between the agony of defeat and the jubilation of victory? Being in a Philadelphia bar smack dab between a raucous Penn State crowd and a despondent Virginia Tech crowd reminded me of that how close those two feelings are. The game-sealing interception thrown by Virginia Tech and the final Penn State defensive stand happened within moments. You could cut the tension in the room with a knife just before it all went down.

Unfortunately for Penn State, the Big Ten championship was all that the Nittany Lions would get that night. The CFP committee left the Big Ten champs out of the third annual playoff in Sunday’s announcement of the national semi-finals much to the chagrin of the Nittany Lion faithful.

I talked last week about how I thought that while Penn State had the best chance to slip into the playoff, they were going to need help. The upsets they needed failed to happen and despite a worthy résumé it was not meant to be this year.

This brings us to yesterday’s announcement of the four teams that did make the CFP for this season. #1 Alabama will play #4 Washington in the Peach Bowl and #2 Clemson will face #3 Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl. I do believe that the committee got it right, but I am part of the group that questions the method in which it got to this decision.

Those four teams are deserving of a shot at the national championship but I don’t necessarily with the notion that the final spot was between Washington and Penn State. Ohio State only drops one spot? Come on. Three years ago, the committee dropped TCU from #3 to #6 for splitting the Big 12 title. Ohio State didn’t win its division or its conference championship this season.

There definitely seems to be a “best for business” mentality with these matchups, holding off a potential Alabama-Ohio State game until the national championship game. I’m not one for conspiracy theories but if the tin foil cap fits…well you see where I’m going with this one.

Regardless, Penn State got the rough draw this season. With only four spots in the playoff, there will always be teams feeling like they got slighted. It’s only the third year of the playoff so there will still be some fine-tuning to this process. You live and you learn as the saying goes.

Here is a silver lining for the Penn State fans that are feeling a bit raw about yesterday. At least your team had a chance to get into the playoff.#15 Western Michigan is 13-0 and didn’t even get considered for one of the four spots all year long. So it could have been a lot worse for the Nittany Lions.

Before I go too far down the rabbit hole with the college football talk, lets move on to the NFL. The game of the day yesterday easily had to be the thriller between Kansas City and Atlanta. Chiefs safety Eric Berry left a firm impression on this matchup of potential playoff teams. He had a pick-six to give Kansas City a lead at the end of the first half. Berry followed that up by running back an interception on a two-point conversion for two points to win the game for the Chiefs.

The win keeps Kansas City in the driver’s seat in the AFC wild card race and dropped Atlanta to a tie in the NFC South with Tampa Bay, who won a tough road game against San Diego. Speaking of the Buccaneers, I think it’s time to start taking this team seriously. They are now on a four-game winning streak and look like they are getting hot at the right time beating some of the best teams in the league (Kansas City and Seattle). This defense forced two second-half interceptions, returning one for a touchdown, and is looking much improved since getting demolished by Atlanta a few weeks ago.

We also might want to start treating Detroit with some respect too. The Lions might easily be a couple breaks from being 4-8, but they are sitting pretty at 8-4 with four games left to play. Matthew Stafford is playing his way into fringe of the MVP debate while the defense put in another impressive performance holding Drew Brees without a passing touchdown in the Superdome (which hadn’t been done in over 60 games for the Saints QB). Detroit has an effective offense despite the lack of a running game, which is a credit to Stafford and offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter.

On the AFC side of things, the surprise of the day had to be Baltimore’s drubbing of Miami. The Ravens and quarterback Joe Flacco turned in their best performance of the season and exposed the Dolphins in the process. Baltimore picked up a huge win for tiebreaking purposes (remember Miami crushed Pittsburgh earlier this year). The battle for the AFC North is going to be a great race to watch coming down the stretch especially with Baltimore and Pittsburgh playing so well lately.

I’ll save the rest of my reactions from Week 13 for tomorrow’s “No Huddle,” so let’s turn our attention to tonight’s game between Indianapolis and the New York Jets. The final game of Week 13 isn’t exactly a show-stealer but with the Colts in the thick of the AFC South race, there is a bit of playoff significance.

The return of Andrew Luck is the big storyline here. He’s clearly the most important player on this Colts team and his return is a much-needed addition for this game. The Colts will have to make sure that Luck stays in the lineup though because the strength of the Jets is the defensive front. Luck has been sacked the most out of any quarterback in the NFL this season.

We’ll see how this offensive line holds up against the Jets defense, because if they are able to keep Luck upright he will be able to attack downfield against a secondary that has been lackluster all season. T.Y. Hilton and Donte Moncrief are the receivers to watch tonight, they will have ample opportunities against the Jets corners.

For the Jets, it looks like the Bryce Petty experiment is officially over as Ryan Fitzpatrick will be the starting quarterback once again tonight. That is a big boost for this struggling offense that should be able to have some success against a weak Colts defense. Brandon Marshall will likely draw Vontae Davis in coverage for much of tonight’s game so look for Quincy Enunwa to see a decent amount of targets. I think Marshall will still have a big game despite having to deal with Davis.

As far as my pick for the game goes, I think the Colts have the edge in this one. A healthy Andrew Luck gives them a big boost tonight against the Jets and he should be primed for a big night. I’ll take Indianapolis (EVEN) against the spread to close out another great week for the Shooting the Moon picks. I’m 9-5 in the NFL going into tonight and went 4-1 in college football on Saturday. Not too shabby if I must say.

That’s it for me today. I’ll be back tomorrow with “No Huddle” to recap Week 13 and update my power rankings. Follow me on Twitter @thereal_jmooney and go like the Shooting the Moon page on Facebook.