Observations from the World of Sports: Dec. 15

Well, yesterday was pretty boring basketball-wise. Two ranked teams played two teams that are below .500 in extremely weak conferences, so you can guess the results.

-Missouri rolled over Kennesaw State, 104-67, to stay perfect on the season and advance to 10-0. Mizzou shot an eye-popping 60% from the field, and four players scored double-figures, led by 18 from Ricardo Ratliffe (8-10 FG) and Michael Dixon, who provided 25 quality minutes off the bench. Delbert Love paced all scorers with 27 in the loss for the Owls.

-Wisconsin literally doubled up Savannah State, 66-33, to move to 10-2. Wisconsin flexed their impressive defensive muscles yet again, holding a team to either 31 or 33 points for the fourth time this season! Only in their two losses, against two very good teams in North Carolina and Marquette, did their opponents break the 60 point mark (60 and 61, respectively.) Wisconsin's leading scorer, Jared Berggren, had 13.

-The Racers of Murray State kept their undefeated streak alive, trouncing Lipscomb 89-65. Murray State is one of nine teams still unbeaten, and the only one left off either poll. (They're 24 on the AP Poll, and unranked on the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll, being snubbed by a weak Vanderbilt team.) Senior Ivan Aska put up 16 for the Racers.

-Oh yeah, and my Falcons won. Atlanta blitzed an extremely weak Jacksonville team 41-14. Roddy White hooked up with Matt Ryan for 2 TD's, with Julio Jones getting the other. Matty Ice only had 224 yards, but he was extremely efficient, going 19-26. Even ATL's backup, Chris Redman, went 5 for 6. Michael Turner had a weak day, only accruing 61 yards on 19 carries, totaling a tepid 3.2 YPC. Turner did punch in a touchdown, however; his 48th. That touchdown tied him with Falcons great Gerald Riggs for most rushing touchdowns in franchise history. Blaine Gabbert couldn't hold on to the ball, coughing it up twice deep in their own zone for easy ATL scores. In fact, Gabbert had -1 yard at halftime. Times sure are ugly in Jacksonville. Atlanta moves to 9-5 and secures yet another winning season. Next week is the real test; the Falcons travel to the Superdome to avenge a loss to New Orleans in overtime, which you may remember as Mike Smith's "D'oh!" moment, in which he went for a 4th and 1 around the 30 yard line and failed.