Week 13 football picks recap:the after-Vegas bloodbath

When the crew of TCGS left Vegas on Sunday, you can be certain that Lady Luck wasn't on the flight home. How do we know this? Check out the sea of teams in the right column that are lit up in red: nine picks, only two of them right. Ouch.

With no further ado, here's how the loser's bracket shapes up:

MAUREEN: Just brutal… there's not much more we can say. We already knew it wasn't going to be a good day for her when she picked the undefeated Colts to lose, or when she picked a one-win St. Louis team to win. The final insult came when two old warhorses—Brett Favre and Kurt Warner—played each other: one played well, the other played terribly. The terrible one just wasn't the one you (or Maureen) expected. Hey, at least there are still only two teams out there with better records than the Vikings.

LINO: We'll give him a pass for picking the Bills over the Jets, but we guess he didn't get the message that the Steelers have been in a tailspin lately. So that's, what… seven weeks in a row that you've lost? And you started out the season with such promise. You should've stayed in Vegas a little longer… you were doing better there.

LOU: When will you learn that the Cowboys are not your friend this year? Or that the Patriots are incapable of winning on the road this year?

So at the risk of repeating ourselves again, that leaves Fr. Rob Keighron and Mark Hart as this week's contenders. Fr. Rob, fresh from Vegas and brilliant as usual, went 3-for-3. Mark is 2-for-2 so far with one game left on Monday night. If the Ravens win, we have another tiebreaker to be settled later in the week. If the Packers win, Fr. Rob wins outright. We'll check in after tomorrow's game with an update, and after that it's sayonara until Thursday.

UPDATE 12/7: The Packers won 27-14 over the Ravens, so Mark Hart misses his pick, and Fr. Rob Keigron is this week's winner!

Lino on "The Catholics Next Door"

Greg and Jennifer Willits checked in with Lino this morning during the last hour of The Catholics Next Door. Click on the audio slideshow above and listen to Lino recap the trip... including stuff that'll be mentioned live on TCGS later today!

TCGS: Broadcasting Live from Venice!

Well, that's sorta true... Lino and crew (and Fr. Rob) are actually broadcasting live from the "Seven Deadly Sins Suite" at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. If The Catholic Channel can't afford to send you to Italy, go for the next best thing: a scaled-down, compressed version of an Italian city that Lino doesn't really care much for. Hey, at least there's gambling! And we wouldn't bet on Lino being up $16 for very long.

So tune in all this week to hear Lino, Lou, Maureen and Fr. Rob (if he's not busy at the sports book) celebrate the third birthday of The Catholic Guy Show, with pithy commentary from us if/when we deem it necessary. Buon Compleanno, guys!

Programming alert: Vegas, baby!

No live Lino today, as the crew of TCGS and master football picker Father Rob Keighron wing their way toward Sin City for three days of live broadcasts celebrating the show's (and the channel's) third birthday!

In the spirit of Vegas, we are now taking bets as to what episode of TCGS will be replayed this afternoon as today's best-of. Considering recent events, we believe that the show from October 14th is the odds-on favorite.

UPDATE @ 4:00pm ET: And we start the best-of with a beautiful rendition of "Ave Maria". Somewhat un-Catholic-Guy-like, don't you think?

UPDATE @ 4:05pm ET: We transition from "Ave Maria" to some groovin' Gospel music, then get the beginning of the show played over it for a few seconds before going into it full tilt. Anyone who bet on October 21st as today's best-of is a winner! Tell 'em what they won, Lou! Uh, right... nothing.