Here are 5 matchup battles to keep an eye on during Super Bowl XLVII.

No. 1 – Smith and Rogers

This is probably a key matchup for Super Bowl XLVII.  Keep an eye on Torrey Smith, as he has become one of the biggest deep threats in the NFL. In his second year in the league, Smith totaled 855 yards and eight TDs on 49 catches. He burned the Denver Broncos in the divisional round of the playoffs, going for 98 yards and a pair of touchdowns on just three receptions.

Carlos Rogers will probably get this job of trying to keep Smith in check. It hasn’t been an easy job for anyone during the postseason, but Rogers will have to try to keep Smith in front of him at all times.

No. 2 – Bowman and Rice

The number 2 Super Bowl XLVII matchup will be NaVorro Bowman trying to keep Ravens running back Ray Rice in check.  Bowman has speed but it’s tough to keep up with a back that can run and catch like Rice can.

Rice wrecked opposing defenses by racking up 1621 total yards. During the playoffs, it was 316 yards and a pair of TD in only 3 games.

Bowman is a linebacker who is really fast but it will be fun to watch and see if he can stay up with and contain Rice.

No. 3 – Smith and McKinnie

Playing with an injury, Smith needs the path that will keep the attention of the offensive line of the Ravens —predominantly Bryant McKinnie—on him.  When he’s playing healthy, the defense fails to focus on other players – such as Aldon Smith who leads his team in sacks with 19.5 for the season.

If Justin Smith is not able to get an extra blocker besides McKinnie to focus on him, then Aldon Smith also gets locked up, and this gives Flacco lots of pocket time.

No. 4 – Flacco and Goldson

Joe Flacco has only gotten better, so now he wants to lead his Ravens to a victory in Super Bowl XLVII.

But, Flacco has a small problem with interceptions, like 10 this season.  During part of the season, he threw 6 in 6 games, but he was fine during the playoffs.  He is going to have to deal with Dashon Goldson the ball hawk in the secondary. Goldson leads the 49ers with three interceptions and has 11 pass deflections.

No.5 – Ngata and Staley

Joe Staley may not be blocking Ngata on each play, but someone better because this matchup is all about Haloti Ngata. Ngata is able to rush the backfield on every single play, and that will agitate Colin Kaepernick if Ngata finds the path back there on a basis that is steady.

It’s going to be a Super game! Ravens vs. Cardinals!

The “SEC” hasn’t won a thing.

Alabama, Auburn, LSU and Florida have won recent crystal footballs. South Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Missouri, Kentucky, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt have won SQUAT. (And yes, I forgot and had to look up that last SEC school Vanderbilt, because they are so far off the radar that I don’t think I’ve heard them mentioned since I got my drivers license 20 years ago). Yet, fans from these schools clamor around, talking mass trash to everyone who will listen, that they are the big, bad SEC, and they are untouchable. Unbeatable. Well let me ask you fans a question: Why are you talking so much smack about a CONFERENCE? Nothing to say about your own team?

Let’s put everything into perspective for a second, and look at a fact of this week’s SEC Championship game: Georgia is in the SEC Championship after beating non-BCS MAC school Buffalo, Missouri (5-7), non-BCS Sun Belt school Florida Atlantic, Vanderbilt (8-4), Tennessee (5-7), Kentucky (2-10), Florida (who had 6 turnovers and still almost beat you), Ole Miss (6-6), Auburn (3-9), non-BCS Southern Conference school Georgia Southern, and Georgia Tech (6-6). You got SLAUGHTERED by 4 touchdowns to South Carolina. Wow, what a gauntlet. How would lowly ND survive that week in and week out? You played 4 BCS bowl-eligible teams. You have ONE WIN over a BCS school with more than 6 wins. Think about that for a second. And you have the audacity to attack Notre Dame’s schedule?? ND goes 11-1 against that schedule this year. Yet every Arkansas fan in the country is hitching their ride to your wagon. “If we can’t win it, and we never have, our CONFERENCE will! YAY!!!”

And what if ND wins the BCS title this year? What then? They come in #1 in the BCS and #1 in graduation rates in the same year? Unprecedented. SEC fans might spontaneously combust.

Another topic for another time (January 8th we’ll pick that one up). Now where’s my “INDEPENDENT” golf shirt?

In place of Jon Favreau is director Shane Black, who had worked with Robert Downey Jr. in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Black’s roster of credits includes work on movies such as The Last Boy Scout and The Long Kiss Goodnight. While it can be expected that the story integrates fittingly with its two predecessors, there are several other elements to look forward to.

 Darker, More Intense Tony Stark

“Nothing’s been the same since New York.” Tony Stark says this in reference to the epic battle scene on The Avengers. In this film, our protagonist seems to be plagued by hellish nightmares and fears of losing the people he cares about. In the movie’s first official trailer, Tony is heard saying, “Honestly, there’s a hundred people who wanna kill me. I hope I can protect the one thing I can live without.” Is he referring to Pepper? You’ll just have to wait and see.

Bad Ass New Villains

“Heroes, there is no such thing.”

In Iron Man 3, a new antagonist is in town and he appears to be Stark’s most powerful foe yet. Named The Mandarin, Sir Ben Kingsley’s character is the leader of a terrorist organization. There is still much speculation about how Chen Lu (played by Wang Xueqi), Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) and Firepower (Ashley Hamilton) are portrayed in context with the film. More importantly, how does the plot revolve around the “Extremis” virus?

Expecting Fresh Twists on Returning Characters

Virginia “Pepper” Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Col. James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) return to reprise the roles they played in the first two movies. But it seems that as the franchise evolves in Iron Man 3, their lives with respect to that of Stark’s have also taken some interesting turns.

Questions abound. Will Col. Rhodes suit up again as War Machine? How does Pepper react to the transfiguration of Iron Man? With the cryptic trailer and production photos, fans are simply left in utter suspense. So, is Iron Man 3 one of the movies you want to see next year? Let us know what you think.

Size Matters

Apple is known to always push the envelope when defining what is amazing. The iPad mini is no different such that its 7.9 inch frame encloses a dual-core A5 chip (similar to iPad 2) and an iSight camera (similar to iPad with Retina display), which means that apart from the traditional FaceTime camera, you also get another camera on the rear part of the device.

With ample functional navigational real estate of 1024 x 768 pixels, it is also supports 1080p HD video recording. While many of these details might seem completely irrelevant (Who needs HD on a tablet anyway?), it’s important to point them out for you to assess the multiple facets of the iPad mini features in relation to its size.

Intuitive Software

More than the physical aspects of the miniaturized iPad, in this iPad mini review, the built-in iOS 6 (same one that is on the iPhone 5) is also taken into account. The software is a work of art, among the iPad mini features, despite the small conundrum with the iOS 6 Maps, holds great potential. It has seamlessly integrated social media functionality for Twitter and Facebook, enabling users to post directly via a notifications bar.

 Competitive Cost

Does the iPad mini price maximize the value your bucks? If anything, this smaller iPad is a relatively new contender in an already congested market of paperback sized tablets competing for the attention of fastidious book lovers. However, the device is a rather timely answer to die-hard Apple fans who have been asking, “Will they ever create a reader sized iPad?”

Cost-conscious shoppers are bound to take a second look at its price tag, but the iPad mini features are right up there on the ladder of quality. Apple never skimps capital on their products which is why apart from the actual functionality of the device, you are paying for luxury. You have to admit, many of the tablet’s competitors look like its poorly made clone. With its sleek, smooth exteriors and dependable software, the iPad mini price is an amount well spent.

Duck Dynasty’s CEO is Willie Robertson. Like his brother Jase, who also happens to be the COO, he wants to enjoy most of his time by doing what he thinks he does best like fishing, hunting and doing a lot of other wild things. If they work, they become distracted easily with what many would say as unimportant endeavors. They surely love to procrastinate, which is one of the most common reasons why they get frustrated in the end. But despite this, Willie tries to cement everyone’s thoughts that the family must be given higher regard than their business. Anyway, it seems that the whole family believes that success shouldn’t get to their heads.

The Robertsons try to retain all of their usual happy go lucky family activities despite their growing multi-million dollar business. Jase, being COO is in charge of the manufacturing aspects, but he appears to be more laidback despite the demand that is being placed for his position. One of Jase’s best Duck Dynasty quotes was, “When you don’t know what you’re doing it’s best to do it quickly.” Willie, on the other hand, is easily recognizable for having said, “Nothin makes a dad happier than seeing his daughter with a smile on her face and her boyfriend with fear in his eyes.”

Phil Robertson, Will’s father, was the originator of the Duck Commander. He’s already regarded as a legend in Louisiana because of how he revolutionized the duck call industry. He does not embrace modern technology that much. A funny Duck Dynasty Quote he said in the show was, “The more make up a woman wears the more she’s tryin to hide. Make up can hide a lot of evil.”

Last but not the least is the notorious uncle Si, Phils younger sibling. He is probably the definition of being wacky and, as what some viewers might say, plain stupid. But perhaps, just perhaps, the show won’t have much color with Si out of the picture. Si mentioned some of the show’s funniest and most memorable Duck Dynasty quotes. One of which was, “This snow cone is giving me a brain sneeze. It’s when your brain needs to sneeze, but it can’t cause it’s a brain so it just hurts.”