Picks for NFL's massive divisional round matchups; remembering Bob Uecker; UFC 311 preview

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🏈 Good morning to all, but especially to …

THE NFL DIVISIONAL ROUND TEAMS AND THEIR FANS

Divisional round football is nearly here! We have superstars. We have storylines. We have potential weather at all three games that are being played outdoors.

And now we have picks. We’ll go straight to Sunday night’s Ravens-Bills showdown (6:30 p.m. on CBS/Paramount+). It’s the best of the bunch, as ranked by Tyler Sullivan, and Lamar Jackson vs. Josh Allen is the quarterback battle of all quarterback battles. Tyler predicts …

• Sullivan: “The combination of Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry as a rushing duo in the backfield was built for playoff games like this. It’s also a favorable matchup with the Bills allowing 4.5 yards per rush this season, which ranks in the bottom half of the league. While Jackson and Henry rightfully take the lion’s share of attention, do you know who the No. 1 scoring defense, total defense and third-down defense has been in the NFL since Week 11? Baltimore. Projected scores: Ravens 27, Bills 23 | The pick: Ravens -1“

I’m really intrigued by whether Buffalo can make enough big plays offensively. Both teams had top-10 offenses in terms of down-to-down success, but Baltimore had the highest percentage of plays that gained at least 10 yards this season. Buffalo was 15th.

Commanders-Lions also figures to be a ton of fun. And while Detroit is a well-rested, well-oiled machine and a big home favorite, Washington matches up well in some aspects, and one of our writers has the visitors pulling a shocker.

Pete Prisco | Will Brinson | John Breech | Tyler Sullivan | Jordan Dajani

Here’s more:

👍 Honorable mentions

👎 Not so honorable mentions

🏈 College Football Playoff championship: Who finishes redemption arc?

When Notre Dame lost at home to Northern Illinois early in the season, it was hard to envision the Fighting Irish as a playoff team, much less one that could compete for the national championship four months later. Similarly, when Ohio State lost to Michigan late in the season, the Buckeyes instantly became the unhappiest playoff team in history. Was Ryan Day‘s job on shaky ground?

Now, they’re here, and Brandon Marcello details their turnarounds.

• Marcello: “A win Monday would make Notre Dame the most unlikely national champion in the modern era of the BCS and CFP, which began in 1998. Only one team has won the national title after losing as a three-touchdown favorite earlier in the season (Florida in 2008). … Though Marcus Freeman mostly shied away from discussing the loss publicly, he used it to light a fire in the locker room.”

If there’s one player most emblematic of Ohio State’s redemption, it’s Will Howard. The offensive stars around him and a loaded defense have received most of the attention, but Howard’s game-ending error against Oregon and dud against Michigan have given way to some excellent play in the CFP. It’s the remarkable closing to a wild journey, Dennis Dodd writes.

⚾ ‘Mr. Baseball’ Bob Uecker dies at 90

Bob Uecker, the iconic baseball broadcaster and World Series-winning catcher who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003, died Thursday after a battle with small cell lung cancer. He was 90 years old.

• Uecker called Brewers games for 54 seasons and also acted in the “Major League” movies as well as the sitcom “Mr. Belvedere” and a series of popular Miller Lite commercials. Johnny Carson, the longtime host of “The Tonight Show,” once dubbed Uecker “Mr. Baseball” and the handle stuck.
• As a player, Uecker spent six seasons as a catcher, debuting with the Milwaukee Braves in 1962. He won a World Series with the 1964 Cardinals and also played for the Phillies before finishing his playing career with the Braves, who by then had moved to Atlanta. He began broadcasting for Milwaukee in 1971.
• Uecker entered the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003 as the Ford C. Frick Award winner, and the Brewers dedicated statues to him in 2012 (outside the stadium) and 2014 (in the upper deck).
• “Ueck was the light of the Brewers, the soundtrack of our summers, the laughter in our hearts, and his passing is a profound loss,” the team said as part of a statement. “He was the heart and soul of Wisconsin and a dear friend.”
  
• Wisconsin native J.J. Watt was among several sports figures who paid tribute.

A legend in every sense of the word, Uecker’s death is an immeasurable loss for the sport. Matt Snyder honors a baseball lifer who lived life to the fullest.

• Snyder: “There’s no need to worry about pointing out the less-than-stellar career. He mocked himself far more than anyone else did. This level of self-confidence and being able to playfully laugh at himself paved the way to his life as an immortal baseball personality — landing him in the media wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame. … Mourn, but also cherish. We had the pleasure of watching the public portion of an extremely full life, one which was rooted in, yet extended far beyond, baseball.”

🥊 UFC 311 preview, picks for two title fights

UFC is opening 2025 with a bang with two title fights on the UFC 311 card at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.

We start with the bantamweight title fight between Merab Dvalishvili — making his first title defense — against Umar Nurmagomedov, the cousin and student of retired legend Khabib Nurmagomedov. Dvalishvili has felt disrespected in the lead up to the fight, and his confrontational demeanor is nothing new, Brian Campbell details. Don’t be surprised if there are some post-fight fireworks, too.

There will certainly be fireworks after that, when lightweight champion Islam Makhachev looks to defend his title against Arman Tsarukyan. It’s a rematch of Tsarukyan’s UFC debut on short notice way back in 2019. Tsarukyan is a very different fighter from the one in that first fight, Brian notes, but there’s a reason Makhachev is considered the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter. That’s why in his best bets, Brent Brookhouse goes with …

• Brookhouse: “Islam Makhachev via decision (-120) — Both men have only been stopped once in their career, so it’s likely that the fight does go the distance. Add in that we saw how complicated the fight was for both men the first time around and there’s no reason to expect either man to have an easy night. Makhachev was the better man the first time they met and, as good as Tsarukyan is, seems to still be the better fighter. Makhachev via decision in a fight he takes over after a tense round or two.”

Here’s everything to know:

📺 What we’re watching this weekend

Friday

🏀 Magic at Celtics, 7 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 Unrivaled, 7 p.m. on TNT
🏀 Grizzlies at Spurs, 9:30 p.m. on ESPN

Saturday

🏀 No. 4 Alabama at No. 8 Kentucky (M), noon on ESPN
🏀 No. 10 Houston at UCF (M), noon on CBS Sports Network
🏀 Creighton at No. 14 UConn (M), noon on Fox
🏀 No. 1 Auburn at Georgia (M), 1 p.m. on SEC Network
🏀 Kansas State at No. 9 Kansas (M), 1 p.m. on CBS
🏀 Unrivaled, 2 p.m. on truTV
🏀 No. 17 Purdue at No. 13 Oregon (M), 3 p.m. on NBC
⚽ USMNT vs. Venezuela, 3 p.m. on TNT
🏈 Texans at Chiefs, 4:30 p.m. on ABC/ESPN
🏀 No. 21 Ole Miss at No. 15 Mississippi State (M), 6 p.m. on ESPN2
🏈 Commanders at Lions, 8 p.m. on Fox
🏀 No. 3 Duke at Boston College (M), 8 p.m. on ESPN

Sunday

🏀 No. 19 Illinois at No. 12 Michigan State (M), noon on CBS
🏀 No. 4 USC at Indiana (W), noon on NBC
🏀 No. 5 LSU at Florida (W), 1 p.m. on SEC Network
🏈 Rams at Eagles, 3 p.m. on NBC
🏀 No. 13 Oklahoma at No. 2 South Carolina (W). 3 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 SMU at No. 3 Notre Dame (W), 6 p.m. on ACC Network
🏈 Ravens at Bills, 6:30 p.m. on CBS/Paramount+
🏀 Lakers at Clippers, 9 p.m, on NBA TV