Turkey Week is the go time. LOL Go time. Not sure what that means but it sounded good when it popped into my head. Turkey Week is the point where a lot of things in football are decided.
Three games on Thanksgiving
The three games on Thanksgiving all had playoff implications and all involved only NFC teams. Since Detroit and Dallas always have a home game on Thanksgiving that makes sence for the first two games. The last game I guess it just worked out that way. Not sure how often it works out that all 6 teams are NFC teams. That is the only way it can happen all from one conference. No way it can happen with AFC teams because of the Detroit and Dallas part.
Turkey Week Winners
The teams that came out on top Turkey Week were The Bears, Saints and Cowboys. For each of the teams that won the win either kept them on top of their division or put them there. The Lions had every chance to win the game against the Bears. The Lions were in position to win that game till Stafford threw an interception in the 4th quarter. If they had won they would have only been two games out of the lead in the NFC North. I am not sure that the Lions have not decided that this is a throw away year. Trading away Golden Tate was a little strange when they decided to do it and it took away Stafford’s favorite and most reliable target.
The Cowboys were able to grab a share of the NFC East by beating the Redskins. This is not a surprise. After the Redskins lost Alex Smith to that horrible leg injury last week. It will be a struggle for them to go .500 the rest of the season. More than likely they are going to finish third or fourth in the East now. They were having a good year but the injuries are going to take them out. The thing they do have going for them it that none of the NFC East teams are really that good this year and it is possible that a 9 – 7 record will win that division.
The Saints are just pulling away in the NFC South. They also want to keep pace with the Rams for the over all top seed in the NFC. If you look back at last year. Having to play in Minnesota is probably what cost them their season. They really want to have home field advantage though the playoffs. At this point the Saints look like the best team in the NFL. Unless they just happened to peak at the wrong part of the season they are going to go far. The scary thing here is that I do not think that they have peaked yet. There is still room for them to get better.
Things Looking Down
Teams where Turkey week was not so good to them. The Green Bay Packers are in a free fall. They have some significant injuries but that does not explain how far they have fallen. There seems to be no desire or urgency in their play. They are wasting the last part of Aaron Rogers prime. It is the same thing that they did to Brett Favre. There is only so much that one player can do. After a while even they can’t do it anymore. The Packers made a mistake last year when they kept Mike McCarthy after cleaning house in the front office. They really should have just moved on. McCarthy does not have a the ability to move this team forward. It is a mess.
Nothing shows that more than in the third quarter of the game Sunday night. The Packers had a third and one close to mid field. They ran up the middle for no gain. They then decided to go for it on fourth and one. That is fine. At midfield it is a push. If you make it you are in a good spot. If you miss the Vikings have good field position but your defense has been playing ok. The problem was not going for it.
Packers Offense Stuck in the 2000’s
The problem was that you ran the same play that did not work on third and one. The Vikings knew you were going to do this. They went right to the spot and stuffed Jones. Game over. A few weeks earlier the Packers Traded Ty Montgomery for making a mistake that took the ball out of Rogers hands. In this game McCarthy made a conscious choice to take the ball out of Rogers hands. Which one is worse? To me it would be the choice to take it out of his hands. The Packers more than likely will not make the playoffs this year. Most of the reason for this is poor coaching choices. It is time for a change.
The other team that is in a crazy mess is the 49ers. Last year it looked like they were building to something. It looked like their decision to hire John Lynch even though he had no GM experience was going to pay off. Then they signed Jimmy G to a huge contract. Understandable, he had a good run but then he got hurt. The decision that is really coming back to bite them though is sticking with Reuben Foster after he had shown that he is not capable of controlling himself.
That really came back to bite them this weekend when he was arrested on charges of domestic violence the night before their game against the Buccaneers. The 49ers were not expected to be a very good team this year. They were not expected to be the worst team in the league either. It looks like they are headed in that direction.
College Football Rivalry Week
The Rivalry games were mostly pretty good. Except for the one that is supposed to be the best rivalry game in all of sports. The Ohio State Michigan game has become as one sided as the Globe Trotters against the Washington Generals. At times the Wolverines play on the field has looked like the play of the Generals. It is hard to believe that this has become such a one sided game. What ever the mental block is that Michigan has. They have to figure it out soon or this will become just another game that is played at the end of the regular season.
Alabama, Notre Dame and Clemson all took care of business. Notre Dame has assured themselves a spot in the playoff. Alabama has as well unless they lose to Georgia 70 – 0 and you know that is not going to happen. I don’t see Clemson losing either so those three teams are going to be in. That leaves on spot for either Georgia, Oklahoma or Ohio State. One of those three teams will be the final choice. If Oklahoma and Ohio State lose then they are out. If Georgia wins or loses a close one they are going to be in. That will leave out three of the five conferences. That will be a huge problem for the playoff. For us that could be a good thing. It could lead to change which will make the playoff better.
College Basketball What is the Deal
Tiger Vs. Phil
It turns out that you did not have to decide if you were going to pay to watch Tiger and Phil. Due to technical errors they ended up giving away the stream for free. How does that happen? They only had months to figure out how to do this. What a costly mess. At least the golf was pretty interesting. It went a few extra holes. Who knows if that part was real or staged. Does it really matter? I don’t know. I see more events like this happening over time. That is fine after all sports is just entertainment anyway.
So if you like it and it keeps you entertained for a few hours then no harm. Even with the stream being free. I did not watch it. I was watching the college football games that were on. Periodically I did check on who was winning and how the match was going. I did not see the final numbers but I am sure they were pretty good. Even with it ending up being a free stream they were probably not much different than what they would have been if people had to pay.
Confusing TV Choices A Turkey Week Fail
Spoilers Follow for the Walking Dead. If have not watched the mid season finale you may want to skip this till you have watched it. In the mid season finale of the Walking Dead. Rather than develop one of the most interesting characters on the show. They decided to kill him. After introducing Jesus in an amazing chase between Rick, Darrell and Jesus the Walking Dead writers failed to include Jesus in a lot of the show.
His scenes were sparse and extremely limited. This year they had started to give Jesus a larger roll. I did not like that they made him a reluctant leader of the Hilltop. He has a lot of natural leadership skills. They did get us thinking that finally Jesus was going to be more involved. Then in the Mid Season Finale they killed him. Yes it was unexpected. It was also a spectacular way to die.
What it really did was piss off a lot of people. They lost about half their audience when they killed Carl. Before then they lost a large section of their audience when they Killed Glen. More left when the wrote Rick out of the show. We know they did not kill him they just took him out. Now with Jesus they disappointed more people. Will this kill the show? Probably not but I am sure they will come up with something else that will. Turkey week provided a lot of entertainment. Just not with the Walking Dead.
Loading ...
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Recent Comments