Weekend Watchers

The NCAA season is wrapping up and surprisingly Week 11 of the NFL season started yesterday with the Dolphins and Panthers. Here are a few games to look at over the weekend:

NCAA
#10 Ohio State @ Michigan-This game isn’t on most people’s radar. Ohio State has dominated this game, winning five in a row. The importance about this game however is, if Michigan loses 42-7 again, will Rich Rodriquez be there to try and win next year. The exit strategy has already begun with the NCAA investigating possible practice violations. Rich Rod seems to be more worried about getting one more win to become bowl eligible, than beating Ohio State. Stay tuned on the Rich Rod saga. Noon, ABC

#25 California @ #17 Stanford-California Coach Jeff Tedford is having a difficult time trying to figure out how to stop Stanford’s offense. At the same, with RB standout Jahvid Best still out to injury, he needs to fine a way to score points as well. Stanford has been playing their best football recently. They have beaten then-No.7 Oregon 51-42 and just last week upset No.11 USC 55-21 to move into second place in the Pac-10. In order to go to the Rose Bowl and face Ohio State, they need to win out and have Oregon lose one of their final two games. This is an intriguing match up. 7:30pm, Versus

NFL
Atlanta @ NY Giants-This game is the battle of two struggling teams. The Falcons have lost three out of their last four games. More importantly the Falcons may be without RB Michael Turner, who sprained his ankle last week. The Falcons rushing game has been struggling even with Turner in the lineup. They have the seventh-worst rushing defense in the league. On the other side, the Giants own the seventh-best rushing attack. Despite that, they have lost four in a row. Coughlin gave the team four days off during their bye week, and hopes that that extra time did the team some good. Tune in Sunday to find out. 1pm, FOX

Indianapolis @ Baltimore-We all know by now what happened in the Colts last game. They remained undefeated and Peyton Manning looked great. This week they will face a Baltimore team that has struggled this season. Baltimore is coming off of a game that was totally opposite to the one the Colts played, but they did win. The Ravens need QB Joe Flacco to play like he played earlier in the season. This would be a huge win in the right direction for the Ravens. 1pm, CBS

NY Jets @ New England-Coach Belichick was the talk of the NFL this week regarding his decision in last week lost against the Colts. What was he thinking? Does he have confidence in his young defense? All those questions can be erased if his Patriots shut down the Jets this week. The Jets seem to be a long way away from their win over the Patriots earlier in the season. The Jets are 2-5 since that week two win and are giving up a ton of rushing yards for a Rex Ryan run defense. The last six opponents have averaged 126 yards rushing. Along with their defensive struggles, QB Mark Sanchez as looked a lot more like a rookie and less like the Sanchize, which is what they were calling him earlier in the season. With a record of 4-5, the Jets need this win to even consider going to the playoffs. 4:15pm, CBS

San Diego @ Denver-This should be a good game, it’s the “Battle for first place”. San Diego has recovered well since their slow start, winning four straight games and looking good doing it. On the other side, the Broncos have looked not so good losing three straight games after starting 6-0. With a fourth straight loss on Sunday, Denver would fall in the division standings and come closer to missing the playoffs four straight season’s. The Broncos could be without to major players, WR Brandon Marshall and QB Kyle Orton. If Chris Simms has to start, it would be difficult to win. Simms hasn’t started a game since Sept. 24, 2006 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Stay tuned to that injury report. 4:15pm, CBS