NFL Beginnings and Endings. Two teams both loaded with talent going in opposite directions. After a three game losing streak. Jason Garrett of the Cowboys is looking for anything to motivate his team. Some things that coaches come up with are very interesting. College Basketball does not seem to have any great teams this this year. Already this year the number one ranked teams has lost to unranked teams. Twice. Yes twice the top ranked teams has laid an egg. The number one team has not had a good run so far this year. That is actually a good thing for college basketball lovers.
This should be an indicator of a very interesting season. Awards are being tossed around for college football. Of course that brings out all the hoots and hollers about how unfair they are and how so many players got snubbed. Yes indeed they do. Teams too. It is just the way it is. For each award there can only be one winner each season. Golf has kicked off and Tiger saved the Presidents cup. I don’t even really know for sure what the presidents cup is. It was on and I saw some results but did not watch any of it. Baseball is throwing around money like they are printing it. You would think that they are the top rated sport out there.
NFL Two Weeks to go What we Know
NFL Beginning and Endings abound this time of year. Of course it all depends on your point of view. An ending for one team might actually be considered a beginning. Five teams clinched a playoff spot this weekend. The Packers, Bills, Seahawks, 49ers and Chiefs all clinched a spot. That makes eight of twelve spots taken for the playoff. The last four spots will be deiced between ten teams. That is pretty impressive that with only two games left to go there are ten teams in the hunt for four spots. There has been some talk in the NFL of expanding the playoffs. I am not for that at all. Six teams in each league works very well. I think it should be kept that way. But what do I know. I am sure at some point they are going to expand. Both the length of the season and the number of teams that make the playoffs.
Five biglakesports key NFL observations for the week
- Jason Garrett is at or past a breaking point. He is trying everything he can think of the get the Cowboys pointed in the right direction. This week he showed a highlight reel to try and remind his players of success. The Cowboys have been a team of streaks this year. They have has two three game losing streaks and one three game winning streak. I was going to make fun of Garrett for the highlight reel but it worked. After Garrett doing that the team responded by beating the Rams 44 – 21. Dak played a very efficient game. He did not have to throw a lot since the Cowboys running game was hitting on all cylinders. By that I mean the four legs of Zeek Elliott and Tony Pollard. Between the two of them they 248 yard rushing compared to 20 for the Rams Todd Gurley. Granted the Rams are not the team they were last year. But it is still impressive that the Cowboys played the way they did. It is difficult to say if the Garrett highlight reel had any impact. I say who cares. He should make another one for this week. With the Eagles winning and both teams now as 7 – 7. Next weeks game between the Cowboys and the Eagles will be for the NFC East. At least we now know for sure that the worst the NFC East winner can finish is at .500. So we will avoid having a team with a losing record in the playoffs.
- There are nine teams that have double digit wins. There are another four that are in position to possibly have double digit wins. If they all get there then at least one team with double digit wins will not make the playoffs. It is not unprecedented for a double digit team to miss the playoffs. Two double digit teams missing the playoffs does happen but it only happens about once every five years. This could be one of those years.
- Currently there are twelve teams that have five or fewer wins. The teams with five wins are the Jaguars, Falcons, Panthers, Broncos, Charger and Jets. Not all those teams are going to lose their final two games. They are not in a spot to get the top pick anyway. The Bengals with one win are in that spot. With games against the Dolphins who have three wins and the Browns who are a mess but have managed six wins. The Bengals should slide into the top spot. So that should technically put them on the draft clock around 4 PM on December 29th.
- Who should be the first pick in the draft? I see only two players at this point that should be considered. Chase Young and Joe Burrow. While I think that Chase Young is a generational player. Joe Burrow has shown that he can adapt and push a team. Chase Young might be able to do that too but the Bengals really need a Quarterback. Burrow is from Ohio Cincinnati is only a few hours away from where he grew up. It would be a great place for him to have a pro career. To bad the Brown family still owns the team.
- The Detroit Lions are a complete mess. The Browns are a mess and get talked about. The Lions are a mess and no one is really saying anything. Both teams have some talent. The Lions had some bad luck losing Matt Stafford for the year. The common thread here is that the head coaches both seem to no know what is going on. They both have a far off look in their eyes like they are not sure what is going on. With the way the teams have played it shows. Both teams should have been better. Both teams are bad but the Lions are worse.
College Awards and Games Coming Up
With the end of the regular and College championships we have moved on to talking about the bowls, playoff and awards. There are a lot of college awards that are given out. With the number of players that is a good thing. Of course the most talked about on is the Heisman. They Heisman is a cyclical award moving between running back and quarterback. That gets some peoples feathers ruffled but it just is what it is. I have no problem with that. It is not always going to go to the best player but then we know with things that the general masses get to vote on sometimes you don’t get the results you expected. That is fine. I really can’t think of a player that won it that did not deserve it. The argument some people have about the pro career of the Heisman winner is just way off base. It is a college award so how a player does in the pros really just does not apply.
I also hear the complaints about the number of bowls out there. We get that crazy argument every year. The truth is there is exactly the right number of bowls out there. If there were too many and the bowl did not make money. That would be correctly very quickly. If a bowl makes money it is going to continue. It is that simple. I know there will be players that sit out a bowl game. Those are only going to be the ones that are going to have a shot at a pro career. There is no player that knows the bowl is going to be their last game that is going to sit out.
Five things of note in College Football
- Joe Burrow deserved to win the Heisman and showed what kind of class act he truly is. His speech was real and genuine. He could have taken a different tone and said something like look what you missed out on Ohio State… He is not that kind of guy. He was humble and concise. He accepted the award with the same confidence that he shows on the football field. He is an example of how the transfer portal is a good thing and works. With out the transfer portal none of this happens. If the Bengals were paying attention they should have him on speed dial after the College Football Playoff is done.
- Players are staring to announce bowl games that they are going to skip. Alabama defensive stars Terrell Lewis and Trevon Diggs have announced that they will not play in the Citrus Bowl. Any one that has a problem with this should just be quite. Any of these players that are going to get drafted should have the ability to sit out if they want to. Especially in a game that for them is nothing but another game. There will be other players that this could be their last game ever. They will play in it. To the ones who are going to move on. You really have to respect their decision. The risk of injury from their point of view is just too high. If they were in the playoff they probably would play but even if they sat that out. I would not have a problem with that. If the players in college are ever successful in getting paid. That choice would change then.
- The first Bowl game is only a few days away on December 20th in the Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl Buffalo will take on Charlotte. I don’t watch all the bowls anymore but I do keep track of them. Like I have said all along I am all for as many bowls as the money will support. What this shows is that we have the time to expand the playoff. Once the award week is done. There is space for games. Lets quit messing around and make it happen.
- The top heavy problem we have been talking about in college football has shown again. LSU and OSU have each placed three players on the All American first team. I am not sure that this is a problem but just puts an exclamation point on the teams that have been able to recruit so well. I do not know for sure if it is a bad thing but it would be nice to see some of that passed around.
- I know this is already hashed out but here are are top five 1. LSU 2. Ohio State 3. Clemson 4. Oklahoma 5. The playoff committee for not putting in Alabama.
Baseball $$$$$
I am not sure where baseball is getting all its money but wow are they chucking out some cash for the players they think are the top players. Last week there was almost a billion dollars worth of contracts signed. With MLB contracts that means that all that money will be paid out. It is not like the NFL where the contract can be terminated. Gerrit Cole signed a 9 year $324,000,000 contract. Anthony Rendon and Stephen Strasburg signed 7 year $245,000,000 contracts. For a sport that has declining ratings the money is still there. There were 19 other players that singed five figure deals. I am all for the owners putting out the money. The players are the ones putting every thing on the line to bring in the viewers. It is right that they get it. I would like to see it passed around a little more. I know that is not how it really works but it would be nice. You get to a certain point and what are you really going to do with that amount of money.
I think it is extremely interesting that the money in baseball is still so high. It really just shows that the owners were hording it all before. If the money is that big I would rather the players get the much bigger portion of it. It will also be interesting to see how long this is sustainable. At some point if the viewers keep going down the money will have to go down as well.
2019 Presidents Cup – Golf Before the Season
Not really sure when Golf season really starts. It seems like is it in a beginning state right now I really did not know a lot about the Presidents Cup. Even though I did not watch much of the Presidents Cup I did keep track of it. It is similar to the Ryder Cup but with the United Sates against the rest of the world minus Europe. The United States staged an amazing come back to win. With what Tiger did in the Presidents cup. Going 3 – 0 in his matches and leading the United States to the come from behind win. The rest of the golf world should be a bit worried. If Tiger is on his game for the season like he was for the Presidents Cup. You could see some history being made this year. It does not matter if you love or hate Tiger. The golf world is better off when he is playing well and winning.
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