Alabama is about all there is to say in college football. Really who else has a chance here. I guess it could happen but don’t count on it. The Saints make what should be a good move for all those involved. Winter has arrived and this make Football so much more interesting. There is nothing quite as exciting as a football game in the snow.
Well that is not true there are a lot of things that are as exciting but really I just said that for effect. Snow football is super fun to watch. The Warriors had one thing to do this regular season. Avoid injury and it seem like they have not been able to do that. Will it make a difference. Guess we will see.
NFL – Moves sometimes they work sometimes they don’t
The Saints made a big move last week by beating the Rams. Then they went out and got Dez Bryant. The signing lasted less than one day. I was really bummed when the news game out that he tore an Achilles on the last play of his first practice. Injuries seem to happen quite a bit to players that are off for a while.
They can’t ease themselves into it and sometimes over do it to prove a point. We don’t know that is what happened. At this point it does not matter. He is out. It would have been really interesting to see what would have happend on November 29th when the Saints travel to Dallas to play the Cowboys. It looks now like the Saints will sign Brandon Marshall. Not sure that he will have the same potential impact that Dez would have had but at this point they really have no choice.
How things look in the NFC
If the season ended today. In the NFC Washington, Chicago and Carolina would be in the playoffs. Be honest. Who out there had all three of these teams being in the playoffs. You could have had one of them. At the best two. There is almost no way that anyone had all three of these teams in the playoffs. The biggest surprise here is the Bears. I thought that the Bears would be a bit better this year but had no thoughts that they would be in contention for a playoff spot.
The Redskins are about the same team that they were last year. With the big change coming at quarterback. Changing out Cousins for Smith is really about a push. Smith has a little more experience so maybe a better choice. Not sure. The Chiefs have definitely improved by moving on from Smith to Mahomes. Of couse not every team can have things work out that the quarterback they drafted really might be then next generation of amazing quarterbacks.
How Things Look in the AFC
The top three teams in the AFC are wehre they were expected to be. The Patriots, Steelers and Chiefs. The Patriots had a huge let down against the Titans this week. Who saw the Titans beating the Patriots by 24 points. In the NFL it happens. Not a reason to panic. If you are not a Patriots fan not a reason to get to excited either. This is just one of those crazy games that played out exactly how it had to for the Titans to win. Vrabel had something to prove. Beating the team he played for. It was a nice win for the Titans but just don’t read too much into it.
The Steelers are looking like the team to be weary of now. News has been coming out that Bell is probably not going to report. For the Steelers that is looking like a good thing. If he does not report then it makes their decisions much easier. James Connor may not have the exact same skill set that Bell has but he is close enough that it does not matter. Bell not showing up is actually the help that the Steelers needed this year.
The last three teams that would make the playoffs in the AFC are the Texans, Chargers and Bengals. The Texans and Chargers are both in contention to stay in the playoffs. The Bengals are on a long slow slide out. They started out the year on a roll and since then the wheels have fallen off. It is difficult to figure out who is going to fill that last playoff spot. It could be the Dolphins, Titans, Ravens or Colts. What we can be pretty sure of is that it will not be the Bengals. After
College Football Playoff – Deserving Vs. Best Teams
Not sure why those things have to be mutually exclusive. How do we decide who the best team is on any given day? By who scores the most points. If we did it another way then it would be possible for a team that scores fewer points to win. We don’t do it that way. In ever game the team that scores the most points is the winner.
College game day was saying that especially for Alabama it really does not matter if they lose any of their last few games. They have already shown tha they are one of the best teams. So they are in. This may be true but then still leaves too much to subjective opinions. What this really does is make the conference championships irrelevant. They always want to talk about how College Basketball has made the regular season irrelevant yet they embrace it here.
The Rest are playing for second
The rest of College Football are all just playing for second place. After Alabama there is no team that really matches up with them. Of course it is possible that a team could come up and beat them in a one time game. The teams that are playing for that do not want to be the fourth seed. They want to be the second or third seed.
It would be better to lose to Alabama in the championship game rather then in the semi finals. Even though I do think that Alabama is the team to beat. I do not agree with that thought process. The problem is that the system is wrong. It needs to be fixed. It needs to be fixed soon. To eliminate the subjective part of the playoff we need to get the Five Conference champions in. It has nothing to do with what is fair or who is deserving.
The Goal is A clear Champion
Lets face fact you can not achieve either of those things. The goal is to get a champion. A champion that creates an interesting and inclusive set of teams. The only way to assure that the whole country is represented is to get the five conference champions in. If you go with the wild card model. Five champions and three wild cards. Then not winning your conference does not eliminate you.
Winning one of the power 5 conferences should count for something. To the people that say the team that wins is not always the best team. You are right. It is the team that won in the parameters laid out of how to win the conference championship. If it does not mean anything. Then why do it. Really that should mean something.
That is also why you would have the wild cards that get in. The five plus three becomes the perfect play off for college football. One of the teams could be the best of the rest of the conferences. Then when there is a team like Boise State or UCF they would be abel to get in and see how they stack up. It would also then protect against one of the really good teams like Alabama from having one bad day that keeps them out of the playoff.
NBA – Rockets Anthony problems LOL no one saw this coming
In the off season. Big news for the Rockets. Carmelo Anthony decided to sign with them. This was going to be the thing that took them over the brink in the West so that they could finally beat the Warriors. To me this was one of those head scratching moves. Really you think that this, yhis signing is what is going to be the difference? When it happened I was thinking about it. I could come to no real reason that this would be a good thing. Anthony is not a roll player that will be able to fit in with any team. He did ok in Oklahoma City last year. It was not a smooth and painless union though.
At this point in his career he seems to be mainly trying to collect point to move up the all time scoring list. If you want to pay him to do this then more power to you. This is not something that I would do. He was never going to be the missing piece to a puzzle for a championship. He was never going to fit in with what ever plan a team had for him.
Rockets Free Fall
With the Rockets in a free fall. They are tying to decide what Anthonys roll is with the team. I do not believe that Anthony is the cause of all the Rockets problems. I do believe that they would not be worse off with out him. My answer to what his roll is with the team is to not be on it. It looks like soon he will not be on the Rockets. It was an odd move that had almost no chance of working out.
The other big thing that happened in the NBA this week is that the Timberwolves traded Jimmy Butler to the 76ers. This trade has a much better chance of working out than the Rockets Signing Carmelo but this could also upset the balance of a pretty good team. Butler has not been the most content player when things don’t go as planned so it will be interesting to see how this plays out. It will still be a challenge to make it out of the East. If they do make it out of the East then they will have to play the Warriors. Then you will have the debate about is it better to make the finals and lose or to never make the finals. No matter what anyone else says the answer is – it is better to make the finals and lose than to never make it at all.
My One sided Feud with ESPN E:60
ESPN and their programming choices have been a problem for me for a long time. I cannot figure out how they decide certain things. It has been like this as long has they have been around. They move shows around with no notice. ESPN picks hosts that few people seem to like. They pay them crazy gobs of money. Maybe I am just disgruntled because they do not give be some of those crazy gobs of money. The main feud I have with ESPN is centered around The Sports Reporters and Outside the Lines.
I am talking about the half hour versions that ran on Sunday Mornings. The Sports Reporters started back in the late 80’s. Outside the Lines in the 90s. They were scheduled from 9am – 10am. I started watching both of them from the beginning. Sometimes randomly they would change the time and or channel that they were on. I don’t recall ever getting any notice that they were going to change. That is fine I delt with it as much as I could. In 2017 the Sports Reporters was cancelled.
OTL rolled into E:60 on Sunday Morning
The half hour OTL that ran was rolled into an hour long version of the ESPN show E:60. ESPN does the same thing to E:60 that they did with the other shows. They will randomly be either on a different channel or at a different time. Again fine I can mostly deal with that. It seems to be the way ESPN rolls. Still not the Sports Reporters but at least parts of OTL. The problem is that they replay the stories over and over. I have made the time to watch your show. I will put up with the time changes.
A lot of people will put up with changing it to a different network. I need there to be some unique content. I know you can’t always do that. Sometimes you will have to re run a story. How ever showing the same story three times in less than two months is not acceptable. ESPN you make a butt ton of cach. Chuck out the change and do better. Really come on. I pay a lot on my cable bill for your network. You need to do better.
The TV Rundown
The Walking dead continues to underwhelm with the story they are deciding to go with. The series has rebooted several times in the last two seasons. Strangely they have managed to not really wrap anything up. I guess that takes some writing talent to have all this time put in and not really do much to answer any of the questions us true followers have. We tend to stick with shows when we start them. Which is a bit odd since the networks do do the same for us. They cancel shows we want to watch all the time. This week we got to see what they are going to do with Judith. It took for ever for her to grow up and now due to the time hop she is the same age that Carl was when the show started. With how she welcomed the strangers in it looks like they just decided to make her the female Carl in what looks truly like a reboot. The first half of the season is almost done so it will be interesting to see how they end it.
Food Network Schmear
The Food Network is also a channel we spend a lot of time watching. Chopped Guys Grocery games and all of the seasonal cooking competitions. We love them all. In watching all these shows we see a lot of interesting dishes put together. One of the things that bothers me and has bothered me for a long time is the schmear that every chef seems to want to do on every plate that they make. I never understood that. It does not make the plate look more refined. Most of the time it makes it look like someone slipped and made a skid mark on the plate. I want to know where this started and why everyone does it now.
Really it has ran its course. It is time to move on. I think that for every chef that does this to their plate they should be docked points. Most of the time it ends up looking like a skid mark on the plate. I will let you decide that that means to you. Do you think that looks good? I know I would rather have a pile of sauce that I can dip my stuff in. Or if you are going to do a sauce that is supposed to cover something. Then cover it.
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