Season ending for several teams.  With only two regular season games left.  The playoffs are starting to come in to focus.   The NBA is pushing their usual Christmas day games.  I don’t blame them just getting sick of the commercials.  The Bowl games have started.   Lower divisions of college football are finishing up their playoffs.   Seasonal shows are everywhere and another Season ending for Survivor.  Kind of fitting it comes as the survivors of the NFL are about to move into the playoffs.

NFL Some Teams Season Ending

Teams with a season ending with two games left to go.   There are eleven teams that have 5 wins or less this year.   Just over a third of the league.  On the flip side that means that two thirds of the teams are still in the hunt for a playoff spot.  I don’t really know what the stats are over previous years but would think that number is probably about average.   The worst teams have three wins.

Those teams are the Raiders and the Cardinals.   There are three teams with only four wins.  The 49ers, the Jets and the Jaguars.   Of these five teams at the bottom.  Four of them were expected to be there.  Once of them.  The Jaguars.  This is a huge surprise.   It just shows how a season can be an island.   Last year the Jaguars were flying high.  Almost making the Super Bowl.  This year they are at the bottom of the barrel just waiting for the season to end.

With two games to go in the season.  These teams have some choices to make.  What do you do to finish out the season?   Do  you play to lose out and keep or get a better draft pick?   There are players and coaches on these teams that will be trying to prove something for next year.  They are all going to want to put on the best show they can to either stay with the team or move on to a new job with a different team.   It is a sure balancing act.  What it best for the team may not be what is best for each individual player.

I don’t think that any team will openly try to lose.  But I can see them not trying their best to win.   High draft picks as we know can be very valuable to a team.  Either to make a trade or to get a game changing player.  In any given draft there are only a few players that will fit that and even those are not a sure thing.

Others The Ride Just Starting

Five teams have clinched playoff spots.  Two in the AFC and three in the NFC.  Strangely the two in the AFC are both in the AFC West.  The Chiefs and the Chargers.  The three in the NFC are the Bears, Saints and Rams.   The big surprise in these five teams is the Bears.   Almost no one would have been picking the Bears to start the season.  There may have been a few people but they were either Bear homers or just going out on a limb.  Of course the addition of Mack has made a huge difference for them.  Be interesting to see how that trade holds up over the next few years.  They did have to give up a lot to get him.  Of course if they can make a run to the Super Bowl then it will all be worth it.

With the Rams having a difficult few weeks.  It is possible that the Bears could pass them for home field.  But probably not since luckily for the Rams their last two games are against the Cardinals and the 49ers.  Two of the worst teams in the league.   They both also fit what we were talking about earlier.  Do they try to win and possibly hurt their draft position or do they just go through the motions to get these two games over.  The Bears have to play the 49ers and the Vikings.

They should win the first one against the 49ers but the one against the Vikings is going to be for a playoff spot.   If the Bears cannot pass the Rams it is possible that the Bears and the Vikings will play two weeks in a row.  That does not happen often but when it does it always makes for some very interesting games.

Strange Things

The NFL always has some interesting things happen.  This past week was no different.  The hottest team in the league over the last five weeks was completely shut down.  The Cowboys went into Indianapolis with dreams of keeping their streak alive.  The Colts has different ideas.  The Colts are a reasonably good team so it is no surprise that they were able to win the game.  The surprising thing is that the Cowboys were unable to score any points at all.  Dak did not play particularly well.  The rest of the Cowboys did not either.   Jason Garrett did not perform particularly well either.  This is probably a bigger concern than the players.

Garrett has made many questionable choices over the years as the coach of the Cowboys.   It will be interesting to see how they  react next week against the Buccaneers.   Since we know that the Buccaneers are not over all that good.  If the Cowboys lay an egg in that game we will know the truth.   Their last game is against the Giants.  Since the Giants will be playing for nothing but pride.  If they decide to go that route.  They may be able to completely ruin the Cowboys season.   Which with these two teams would be something that would take a bit of the sting away from a really crappy season.

NBA Some Interesting Things Happening

Don’t look now but the Lakers are only 2.5 games back in the West.  That is not for a playoff spot but for the top seed in the west.  The Lakers are 18 and 12.  The team leading the West is the Nuggets.  The Nuggets are 20 and 9.  At this point in the season the Rockets and the Spurs would be out of the playoffs.  The Spurs are probably not a surprise.  You can’t go on winning for ever.  The Rockets are quite a surprise since they are basically the same team that were in the Conference final last year.

Saying that the NBA season is a lot like an NBA game.   It really does not matter what happens in the first three quarters of the game or the season.  I am sure that at the end the Rockets will be in the playoffs.   The Lakers will make the playoffs but they will not be in the top half of the playoff teams.   It is still pretty interesting how the first half of the season is playing out.  It really is something that the NBA needs since many of the talking heads think that the off season is more interesting than the season.

NCAA the Rise of Contenders

Now that conference schedules are getting into full swing.  We will be able to get a hint how the season is going to play out now.  Kansas and Duke are looking like they are the two to beat this year.  With the long season though it will be interesting to see how the teams develop over the next few months.  The teams that are playing now are the what the teams will be after they have played together for a while.

In an interesting twist.  Guess it is not really a twist.  It has been somewhat expected.  The B1G has 7 teams in the top 25.   That is half of the conference.  Half…  Yes half of the conference.   This used to be expected in football.  Every now and then in basketball the B1G is good but seven teams in the top 25 is fantastic.   While the B1G will always be a football conference first.  They really are coming on strong.  Bringing in top coaches and getting it together in recruiting.

If the Big Ten can keep this up they will end up with 7 – 10 teams in the tournament.   Probably none of them will win it but they would have a chance to get a few teams to the elite eight and possibly one in to the final four.  If Michigan and Michigan State can keep it up then that probably not win it could turn into a very possibly could.

NHL Ups and Downs

Not season ending but getting to th end of 2018 so year ending for the NHL.  Streaks happen all the time in the NHL.  A streak at the beginning of the year or at the end of the year are more important than a streak in the middle of the year.   A few years ago the Blue Jackets had a win streak that came up one game short of the record.  This streak happened in the middle of the season.  The record held by the Penguins happened at the end of a season.  It set them on track to another cup.   The Jackets streak while impressive is not remembered much and did nothing to help them in the playoffs.

We say that because this year has been a year of streaks in the NHL.  Both winning streaks and losing streaks.    There seems to be a lot of teams that are getting hot and then getting super cold.   Tampa just came off of a 9 game winning streak.  They do look like a team that could keep that going this year.   Their loss in the last ten games was an over time loss so they still got a point out of it.

The Movie of Christmas

In the season ending of the cinema there is Aquaman.  Aquaman used to be one of the after though superheros.  This movie is aiming to turn him into a top money maker.  The transformation of Aquaman from his orange and green uniform to the look today is pretty amazing.   It probably happened in the comics a while ago but this is really the first I have seen it.  Apparently the public masses are pretty happy about the change as well.    The movie opened in the rest of the world last week and pulled in $266 million.  That is a pretty impressive haul.  It will be interesting to see what it does domestically.  Aquaman is looking like it has the potential to be one of the mega block busters.

Everyone likes to make a list of their top Christmas movies.  We are no different.   The debate is not what should be considered a Christmas movie but what we consider to be a Christmas movie.

1. Bad Santa
2. A Christmas Story
3. Christmas Vacation
4. Elf
5. Die Hard – Yes it is a Christmas Movie

Dont’ forget to check out last weeks post.