NBA Season Starts College Football Fall Out World Series Crazy.  The NBA Season started off with a Bang.  Maybe a whimper.  Guess it depends on your point of view.  Getting close to November the College Football season is always fun.  And this week did not disappoint seeing one of the top five teams go down in Oklahoma.  Michigan did the unexpected by taking down Notre Dame.  World Series moves to to nations capital for the first time since the 1930’s.  The fans there will have to wait a while longer for a World Series game win in their home.  All that and more in The Week That Was.

NBA Season rolls out the Ball

The NBA Season started off with a slew of games.  The Toronto Raptors got their rings.  Of course with two of the top players not there it seemed a bit strange.  But this kind of ring presentation is for the fans to see.  The Raptors went on to win the game beating the Pelicans 130 – 122.  The Pelicans did not have Zion since he will be out a bit but a win is a win.  Former Raptor Kawhi Leonard had a good night with his new team the Clippers.  He put up 30 points and the Clippers won 112 – 102 over the Lakers.  It is strange that both these teams call the same arena home at this point.  They won’t for long but knowing that does not make it less strange at this point.

The Start of the NBA Season also gives us an idea what the new look Warriors are going to look like.  The eye test says.  NOT GOOD.  Two games in and the Warriors are 0 – 2 and have a -23.5 point differential.  The only team worse is the Sacramento Kings with a -23.7.  Ouch.  I did not think that the Warriors were going to be good but I did not think they would be this bad.   It will be interesting to see if they can get anything going.  My guess is that they will not be able to.  Unless of course they make some serious trade or Klay and KD just appear out of the clouds.

Games did not air in China. With China still being upset with the mess that happened over the past two weeks.  I am sure that at some point it will be fixed.  The money is just too large for it to not be fixed soon.   Even a Communist country like China loves their money.  I am sure it will also happen with little fan fair.  Just all of a sudden the games will be back on there and everyone will forget what happened.  Well at least in the Unite States.

College Football Moving Along

It was a very interesting weekend for College Football.  Two of the top ten got destroyed.  Not just beat but destroyed.  Oklahoma was the only unbeaten to lose so we still have 9 teams without a loss.  The other team that lost big was Notre Dame.  I am sure there were people out there that thought that Michigan could win that game but I am pretty sure that no one though that they would win the way they did.  Completely tearing about Notre Dame.  This give Notre Dame two losses and they are out of the playoff for sure how.  They were out when they lost to Georgia this just puts the nail in it.  In the Coaches poll LSU Jumped Alabama.  I have had them ahead the last few weeks.  It will more than likely stay that way next week as well.  Then in two weeks will will find out which one is going to be correct when LSU travels to Alabama to see who is going to take the lead in the SEC West.

Five things of note in College Football

1. This is the latest I can remember there being this many teams that are undefeated this late in the season.  With nine teams still undefeated it looks like a mess at the top. Of the five at the top the only one that does not have to play is Clemson.  Minnesota plays Penn State next week.  If Penn State wins that themn Ohio State and Penn State will play in a few weeks to decide who will represent the Big Ten East in the Championship game.  If Penn State Loses to Minnesota then it could set up two undefeated teams playing in the B1G championship game with Ohio State and Minnesota.  LSU will play Alabama in two weeks.  So that will take away two of the undefeated teams.    The other undefeated team that could make some waves is Baylor.  The only ranked team they have left on their schedule is Oklahoma.  That game on November 16th could be a preview of the Big 12 championship game.  If Baylor can win both of those they will have a shot to get in the playoff.
2. The Pac 12 is not dead yet.  We had written them off a few weeks ago.  Ok we wrote them off when the season started.  Even with only two ranked teams there are some situations that could put one of those teams in.  Oregon is quietly having a pretty good season. Utah has recovered from their disappointing loss to USC with four straight wins.  Oregon and Utah would not play till the PAC 12 Championship game.  Utah would need USC to lose one more game.  That could come this weekend when USC and Oregon play.  Then if Utah wins out they would represent the South in the PAC 12 Chamionship game.  You would have two one loss teams that are both ranked.  Waiting to pick up the pieces of one of the teams ahead of them stumble.  LOL  It could happen but really chances are slim.  As Lloyd Christmas said in Dumb and Dumber “So you’re telling me there’s a chance?”
3. SMU is the real deal.  They have taken care of everyone that has been put in front of them.  The only real challenge they have in front of them is Memphis.  If they can win that then they should make it to the American Conference Championship game and play Cincinnati.  That would be a really good game.  Even if they win out including the Championship game they have ZERO shot at making the playoff
4. Chase Young should win the Heisman.  He is the best player in college football this year.  He will probably be the first pick in the NFL draft next April.  Chase Young is a complete football player.  He will be wrecking offenses for years to come.  I am pretty sure he will not win the Heisman.  That is fine but it is probably time to say it how it is.  The Heisman is an award for offensive stats.
5. My Top Four this week.  Oklahoma clearly is going to be dropping out of this list after their loss to Kansas State.  1.  Ohio State 2. LSU  3 Alabama 4. Clemson .  Clemson has been playing much better.  I had them on my Upset list last week.  They must have felt a presence in the force because they took Boston College to the Wood Shed.  With that beat down and the Oklahoma loss that moves them up to fourth.  Penn State is a 4b right now.  We will find out about Penn State very quickly.  They play Minnesota and Ohio State in the next three games.

 

NFL Fall out From some stuff new and some the same as it ever was

New England is doing things on defense that have not been done in decades.  The last two teams undefeated are still the 49ers and the Patriots.  Like last week. The Patriots you could see coming.  The 49ers are a huge surprise.  The Redskins and the Jets are BAD.  Really BAD.  The NFL is crazy this year and it may not matter who comes out of the NFC if the Patriots keep doing what they are doing.  The trade deadline is coming up this week.  We will see if the new NFL that likes to makes trades happens again this year.  There are a lot of moves that could be made to help some of the teams at the top.  The NFC West now has a better record than the NFC North.  The Cardinals are quietly having a nice season.  I really thought that they would only win four or five games this year and they already have three. If the Season ended today a 5 – 3 Rams team would be on the outside of the playoffs looking in.

Five biglakesports key NFL observations for the week

1. The Patriots and the 49ers are in rare defensive air.  The 49ers have only allowed 77 points this year in seven games.  The Patriots have only given up 61 points.  They have played eight games.  So the 49ers numbers look great but the Patriots numbers look even better.  The Patriots are only allowing 7.6 points per game so far this year.  The really strange thing here is that the Patriots do not have a Defensive coordinator this year.  I guess going directly to the source of Bill Belichick is the way to go here.  It will be interesting to see what they can do for the rest of the season.
2. The Texans losing J.J. Watt for the season is a huge bummer.  He is not the player that he used to be but he is pretty darn close.  He is also a huge leader on that team.  Going on with out him will leave a big hole.  Also the NFL is just more fun with players like him.  Hopefully he can recover from this alright can come back next year.
3. The Refs are still a problem.  This problem is probably not going to get fixed this year so we will just have to put up with it.  This week it cost Tampa Bay the go ahead touchdown when a ref blew what seemed to be a random whistle.  This all works out in the end.  Teams will get a call in their favor and then against them.  It does not make it less annoying.  I guess we will just have to live with ti for now.
4. I really though the Dolphins were going to be the worst team in the NFL this year.  We all know they have tried hard to make that happen.  The Bengals said “Hold my Beer and watch this”  Eight games in the Bengals have had one game they were close to winning.  That was week one against the SeaHawks. everyone was saying hey the Bengals are better than we thought they were gong to be.  Then they went on to lose another seven games.  We will find out who gets the first pick in the draft December 22nd when the Bengals travel to Miami to take on the Dolphins.  If these teams did not play that week there would have been a real possibility that there would have been two 0 – 16 teams this year.
5. At the half way point of the season I have the NFC Championship game being the Packers playing at the 49ers.  The AFC I have the Chiefs Playing  At the Patriots.

MLB World Series Two In One

The Astros started the World Series out with a resounding THUD.  Who could have guessed that they would come out and drop the first two games at home the way they did.  At least they got something right and decided to fire Brandon Taubman  after is strange outburst directed at some women about how happy he was that the Astros had signed a player that got suspended 75 games last year for domestic abuse.

After the first two games when the Astros laid an egg everyone was jumping on the Nationals band wagon.  There was no doubt in many peoples minds that the sweep was in and the Series would be over by now.  The Astros had different plans and took the next three games to now lead the series 3 – 2.  All the talk after the Nationals took those first two games was how this series was over.  How amazing a season it had been for the Nationals.  The Nationals players must have been listening to the hype.  Now the Series heads back to Houston and the Astros will have Justin Verlander on the mound for game six.  He has not done well in World Series games.  He has gone 0 – 6.  It is always interesting how things like that go.  One of the best pitchers in recent history but can’t get a win on the top stage.  I think that will change this week.  Verlander will get the win and the Astros will close out the series.

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