The Peach State troika allowed their opponents to go on huge runs. The Falcons gave up 37 straight points to the Panthers. Heartless Georgia Tech was steamrolled for the first 20 and the last 18 points of their 38-10 loss to a 6-5 Utah team. Georgia permitted West Virginia to go ahead 28-0. Unlike the Falcons or Tech, the Bulldogs at least went down swinging, slowing down the Mountaineers highly productive running game and generating some offense themselves before going down 38-35. Tech’s Chan Gailey and Jim Mora of the Falcons aren’t exactly the most popular guys in town right now.

Incidentally, all those people claiming that the Big East was in jeopardy of losing their BCS status and that West Virginia’s win is keeping the conference’s berth safe are vastly overstating the perceived “danger”. Starting next year, there will be an extra BCS game, so there will be 10 BCS berths up for grabs. The new system is designed to offer more BCS opportunities, not fewer, and pulling away the Big East’s berth just won’t be in the cards.

Virginia Tech quarterback Marcus Vick was given a third chance by after being convicted on charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and getting nabbed for pot possession in a separate instance. Vick skated by earlier in the season when he popped a West Virginia assistant coach in the back of the head and flipped off the Mountaineer crowd in separate incidents. Vick took things to another level by stomping on the knee of Louisville’s superstar pass rusher Elvis Dumervil on Monday.

If you were disgusted by the classless Hokies, and turned off by Vick’s actions, you weren’t alone. Here are the comments of the Gator Bowl referee, who was tracked down by David Teel of the Hampton Roads Daily Press. Teel reports:

“Steve Usecheck, a Big 12 Conference official who led the crew for Monday's game, called Tech's first-half taunting and late hits the worst he's seen in his 22 seasons. He said that no official saw Vick stomp the back of Elvis Dumervil's leg while Dumervil was down on the turf late in the second quarter.

"We missed that, and I'm sorry we did," Usecheck told the Daily Press from his Colorado home. "The TV, everybody saw it but us. I wish we had the opportunity to talk to (Vick) because that was complete (expletive). ... You bet I would have thrown his ass out."

There are some holes that can be poked in the actual levels of achievement of the AFC Wild Card contenders this weekend. The Jaguars have won 8 of their last 9 but all 8 wins were against teams that were out of playoff contention with 3 or more weeks left in the season, with none having a record better than 6-10. But other than their big win over the Buccaneers a couple of weeks back, who have the Patriots really beaten during their homestretch run? The Bengals and Steelers split their season series. Other than each other, those clubs each have exactly one win on the season vs. a playoff foe, with both having beaten the Chicago Bears. There were a lot of bad teams in the NFL this year and beating those bad teams is how these AFC clubs earned their postseason berths.

The Chicago Bulls entered Friday night’s game vs. the Bucks on an 0-8 run both straight up and against the spread. Despite this, the Bulls will be at best a very small dog on Saturday night against the visiting Memphis Grizzlies. The Grizz need solutions at point guard after the season ending patella tendon injury to Damon Stoudamire, but this is a resourceful team that plays particularly well on the road, covering 60% of their road games again this season. Home court no big edge for the Bulls as they are 0-5 both straight up and against the spread during their losing skid. With both having played Friday night and both nicked up, we’ll simply go with the better team. Take the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday night.

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Have a great weekend. Good luck and be careful.