Case of the Mondays: Ohio State's Disaster Results in Championship Rematch

by Ricky Dimon - 1/2/2017

There has been one championship rematch in the history of the NCAA Tournament. In the much shorter BCS/College Football Playoff era, there will also be one as of next Monday night. Alabama and Clemson are set to square off for the title after Washington and Ohio State, respectively, were reduced to nothing more than innocent bystander status in the semifinals. In fact, the Buckeyes did not score a single point against the Tigers.

Odds provided by BetOnline Sportsbook unless otherwise indicated.

Ohio State . Urban Meyer will have better days at Ohio State. That is a fact. Here is another fact: he won't have any worse days at Ohio State than this past New Year's Eve. What was supposed to be the more intriguing of the two College Football Playoff semifinals turned into a second consecutive laugher last Saturday. Following Alabama's 24-7 snoozer against Washington, Clemson humiliated the Buckeyes 31-0. Meyer's squad gained only 215 yards of total offense (less than half of the Tigers' 470) and turned the ball over three times. Clemson is a +7 underdog against Alabama next Monday.

Kirk Cousins . Thanks to Detroit's Week 16 loss to Dallas, the Redskins controlled their own destiny on Sunday. A win over the Giants would have gotten the 'Skins into the playoffs, regardless of other results. But they let it all slip away, and they did so in front of their own fans. Washington did well to battle back from a 10-0 halftime deficit, tying the score with eight minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. Cousins and company even had the ball with the game still tied-and again while trailing by just three points with more than two minutes remaining. On a first down in New York territory, Cousins got picked off to all but end his team's hopes. The Giants basically ran out the rest of the clock to eliminate Washington from postseason contention. They are +4 underdogs at Green Bay during this weekend's wild-card action.

Chip Kelly . Kelly has been changing jobs about as fast as his teams run plays. Since leaving Oregon in 2013 after four seasons with the Ducks, Kelly has gone through two NFL teams in four years. After a pair of 10-6 campaigns in Philadelphia, the Eagles went 6-9 in 2015 and Kelly got the boot. He lasted only one year with the 49ers, who just wrapped up a 2-14 effort. San Francisco won its opener against fellow cellar-dweller Los Angeles and promptly lost 13 games in a row. The team did not find the win column again until it had the pleasure of facing-you guessed it-the Rams for a second time in Week 16. Kelly was fired following this past Sunday's loss to Seattle. The Seahawks are +1200 to win the Super Bowl.

Rajon Rondo . Rondo's playing time has been limited of late. His time in Chicago could be limited as well. The veteran guard was a healthy scratch from his team's home loss to Milwaukee on New Year's Eve, one day after being benched for all of the second half of a setback at Indiana. "Absolutely," Rondo said when asked if he will seek a trade if the diminished role continues. Chicago is 16-18, including 3-8 in its last 11 contests. The Bulls are even money to beat visiting Charlotte on Monday night.

New Jersey Devils . The Devils are 2-9-1 in their last 12 game after getting blown out 6-2 by Washington this past Saturday. They are also a horrendous 5-14-4 since a five-game winning streak came to an end on Nov. 17. New Jersey is currently second to last in the Eastern Conference with 35 points, one ahead of Buffalo. Adding insult to injury, defenseman John Moore sustained a concussion against the Capitals and was placed on injured reserve. Moore has 13 points (five goals, eight assists) in 37 games this season.The Devils are +133 home underdogs against Boston on Monday night.

Grayson Allen . Duke suffered an 89-75 upset at Virginia Tech on New Year's Eve. Allen, of course, could do nothing more than watch from the bench. The star guard missed the first game of his indefinite suspension stemming from a series of tripping incidents. Allen also had his captaincy stripped by head coach Mike Krzyzewski this past weekend. "Right now, I don't want to talk about Grayson," Krzyzewski said following the Blue Devils' loss. "He was part of the loss today by not being there and…instead of tri-captains, we've eliminated him from being a captain of the team." Amile Jefferson and Matt Jones are Duke's remaining captains.Duke is a +300 favorite to win the National Championship (MyBookie.ag).

Manchester City . The Sky Blues had won three English Premier League matches in a row heading into a New Year's Eve showdown against Liverpool. They probably had to make it four in order to be in serious title contention at the halfway point of the season. Instead, a 1-0 loss left Man City 10 points behind first-place Chelsea prior to Monday's action. As such, simply finishing in the top four and earning a spot in next season's Champions League may be a more pressing concern for City than a possible EPL title. Manchester City is +1000 to win this year's Champions League.

Start:	November 23, 2024 @ 8:00 PM
Expert:	Scott Spreitzer
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