What is happening in Buffalo? And the Week 11 NFL TV Schedule

As you probably know, Ken Dorsey was fired as offensive coordinator of the Buffalo Bills earlier this week. Was it a surprise? A bit of one, sure.

Despite the stats that say the Bills have one of the best offenses in football, you can also honestly say they are wildly inconsistent. Josh Allen has one of the best completion percentages in the league yet the throws that aren’t complete are what take centre stage. Overthrows by 10 yards, throws into double and triple coverage constantly, leading the league in interceptions. He has become one of the biggest risk-reward quarterbacks in recent memory. He either does amazing things or does stupidly shitty things and there seems to be very little in-between.

Also, the Bills running attack has been non-existent for years. And when it did show up it was usually Allen running the ball, almost daring to get injured. This past Monday night, they showed they can run the ball when they need to…with their running backs. They aren’t great but they can be good enough when needed.

So putting this all together, Dorsey has to be responsible for some of this. His playcalling is not good. Period. The results may a lot of times end up being great but it’s not because of him. The talent on the field is there. Saying that, he does feel like a bit of a scapegoat. He was promoted when Brian Daboll left to become head coach of the New York Football Giants and who knows if he was truly ready for the job. He has no say in the personnel he has to work with and who knows how much influence Sean McDermott has over the offense. McDermott has to take some of the blame, as does general manager Brandon Beane, for all of this. It’s a bit of a mess right now as a team that was supposed to contend once again is failing to do so.

Will firing Dorsey help? It remains to be seen. Sometimes change for the sake of change can be a good thing. Either way, something has to be done. This is a franchise that feels like it has been broken twice in the past two seasons. The unbeliveable loss to the Chiefs in the playoffs in 2021, followed by Damar Hamlin’s on-field heart attack last season seem to have partially destroyed this team. They aren’t excuses: it just feels like the franchise isn’t what they were or what some thought they would become. As a fan of the team, I hope they can turn it around but at least for this season, it doesn’t look promising for them.

OK that’s enough Bills talk. Let’s go to this week’s schedule which…OK it does have the Bills on it but they aren’t the feature this week, make no mistake about that. Well, that’s not entirely true either. A lot of the country will be…let’s just get to the damn schedule.

American Networks

Pittsburgh at Cleveland	1:00	All affiliates
Dallas at Carolina	1:00		Tacoma, Seattle, Boston, Presque Isle
LA Chargers at Green Bay	1:00		Minneapolis
Chicago at Detroit	1:00		Detroit
NY Giants at Washington	1:00		Buffalo, Rochester, Watertown, Burlington
Tampa Bay at San Francisco	4:05		Spokane
NY Jets at Buffalo	4:25	All affiliates (except Seattle & Spokane)
Seattle at LA Rams	4:25	Seattle, Spokane

Canadian Networks

Pittsburgh at Cleveland	1:00	All affiliates
Chicago at Detroit	1:00		All affiliates (except Vancouver Island)
Dallas at Carolina	1:00		Vancouver Island	TSN2
Las Vegas at Miami	1:00			TSN+
Tampa Bay at San Francisco	4:05			TSN2
NY Jets at Buffalo	4:25	All affiliates (except Vancouver & Alberta)
Seattle at LA Rams	4:25	Vancouver, Alberta

Primetime Games

Cincinnati at Baltimore	Thursday, 8:15, Amazon Prime, CTV2, TSN 1/3/4/+
Minnesota at Denver	8:15, NBC, CTV, TSN2
Philadelphia at Kansas City	Monday, 8:15, ABC, TSN 1/3/4/+

Potentially Important Notes and Things And Trash and Such

• What did people do to deserve the Giants-Commanders game? Upstate New York always seems to get stuck with these shitty games but it’s rare for western New York to get them as well. Hopefully who gets their FOX affiliate from that area has Sunday Ticket or RedZone. Otherwise, ugh.
• Speaking of Sunday Ticket and RedZone, here are the games not being shown in Canada if you don’t have one of the two, at least:
  • Tennessee at Jacksonville
  • Arizona at Houston
• Finally done with the morning games. Thank god. I sincerely hate them. As you can tell, I am not a morning person. At all.
• The Grey Cup is this Sunday. This is why only TSN2 is being used for the NFL. After this weekend, though, it should open up quite nicely the rest of the way.
• So yeah the Bills are in a prominent spot since most of the country will get their game with the Jets. And, fair enough, it is an important game in the AFC East since the loser is going to have a very tough time making the playoffs.
• Finally, look at the primetime slate. Now that’s what I’m talking about. The worst team of the bunch, by far, is Denver and they have started to turn things around. This is always what the NFL was looking for when primetime football started decades ago and, unfortunately, they have gotten away from that. I understand that it’s nice to see your team in a primetime, standalone game. But it also means you have to shut your trap when we are stuck with the Panthers and the Bears. Can’t have it both ways.

Alright now let’s get to the playoff picture which is still pretty AFC North-heavy:

AFC	NFC
#1 Kansas City (AFC West)	#1 Philadelphia (NFC East)
#2 Baltimore (AFC North)	#2 Detroit (NFC North)
#3 Jacksonville (AFC South)	#3 San Francisco (NFC West)
#4 Miami (AFC East)	#4 New Orleans (NFC South)
Wild Cards:	Wild Cards:
#5 Pittsburgh	#5 Seattle
#6 Cleveland	#6 Dallas
#7 Houston/Cincinnati	#7 Minnesota

You have three teams half-a-game out of the final Wild Card spot in the AFC and three more teams only one game out. Realistically, the Patriots are the only team truly out of it in the conference. Imagine typing that any time this century. As for the NFC, there seems to be a gap between the top teams and the teams either trying to claw their way into the playoff picture or coming close to tanking to get a better draft pick. That’s why it already sucks when two teams who have combined for a 6-14 record so far this season is the game in your area.

A reminder that next week is one of America’s football celebrations: Thanksgiving (south of the border)! So if you want to partake as well, go ahead and make a 40-pound turkey for four people, enough mashed potatoes to drown a rhino and that fucking disgusting green bean casserole that could be used as a weapon in ground warfare. I will try my best to get the blog post out next week in time for you to have all the information you need. As for this week, just enjoy the games everyone! And if you want to make a turkey this weekend as well, have at it.

Sure, let’s do a bit of a draft recap

I will get to this man a bit later since he went through quite the night.

As usual, the draft was a fun time…well, the first night was fun then it got steadily less fun until the final rounds when other than NFL Network’s Stump The Truck, almost nothing was really all that fun. But I watched most of it. What can I say, I am way into football. Probably too much but soon enough I will be on my own a lot more so football may be the only thing that keeps me company. God, that’s sad. Let’s move on.

First of all, I will take a look at my mock draft and compare it to the actual draft results and…yep, I got basically nothing right. I couldn’t even get the first two picks right. I had C.J. Stroud going first followed by Bryce Young. I think Carolina made the right pick out of the two but I was sure they had their sights set on Stroud. Funny enough, though, I got two picks exactly right: Zay Flowers to the Ravens at #22 and Wanya Morris to the Chiefs at #92. That really doesn’t make any sense but it’s the truth. Other than that, everything else wrong and some were REALLY wrong.

Reaches

It’s always too soon to look at this but there seem to be picks that were universally thought of as reaches: as in a team picked a player way earlier than they probably would have gone. I know some teams absolutely want a specific player and worry about not getting them that much that they either take them too soon or trade up to get them when they didn’t need to. Still doesn’t mean it wasn’t a stretch for that player. Let’s look at a few that felt obvious.

Darnell Wright (#10 overall to Chicago) – I, along with most others, had Wright pegged as a late-1st round/early-2nd round pick at best. The fact that the Bears also passed on Peter Skoronski, from Northwestern (supposedly Chicago’s Big Ten school) is the real headscratcher here.

Jahmyr Gibbs (#12 to Detroit) – Speaking of headscratchers, it’s like Detroit brought back Matt Millen and his new focus wasn’t wide receivers but running backs. Detroit did not need help at running back but took Gibbs at this point anyway. I had figured he’d end up on the Bills which didn’t thrill me but Gibbs is better than what they have at this point. Anyway, Detroit ended up trading D’Andre Swift to the Eagles because of this pick. I don’t get it.

Deonte Banks (#24 to NY Giants) – Did the Giants need a cornerback? Absolutely. Was Joey Porter Jr. still on the board? Absolutely. Was Kelee Ringo still on the board? Absolutely. Was Cam Smith still on the board? Absolutely. I could go on and on but Banks wasn’t a first rounder and I’d be shocked if he plays like one.

Derick Hall (#37 to Seattle) – The Seahawks didn’t exactly need a defensive end but they decided to pick one anyway. OK, that’s fine. To pick Hall when there were a few other guys on the board who were rated way higher made no sense. Hall was barely a second rounder in most mock drafts.

Steals

On the other hand, we have our draft steals. Every draft has their steals and yes I know Tom Brady was a “steal.” Actually, no, at the time, no one thought he was a steal of a pick. No one. At all. If you say you did, you’re a dirty fucking liar. Again, this is way too early so by the time the next draft occurred, yes, Brady was considered a massive steal. Hell, he would have been a steal as a late second rounder.

Christian Gonzalez (#17 to New England) – The biggest steal of the draft in my opinion. I had him going third overall and many mock drafts had him in the top seven picks. Did the Pats need any help in the secondary? No, but how do you pass on a guy that has dropped approximately 10 spots or so in the first round when you don’t have a huge need? Once again, Bill Belichick is playing 4-D Parcheesi while everyone else is playing Snakes and Ladders.

Dalton Kincaid (#25 to Buffalo) – I was not happy when Bijan Robinson was off the board super early. Man did he go from not even a first rounder like a month ago to Top 10 pick. Anyway, the Bills did the next best thing (that they needed) by getting the best tight end in the draft in Kincaid. Josh Allen could make the guy…well, not a star but a very dependable receiver.

Joey Porter Jr. (#32 to Pittsburgh) – How did the last into the second round? There were easily six different teams that should have taken him and passed. Yeah I’m looking at you New York Football Giants (or GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-Men in honour of Chris Berman). He may make a couple of teams pay for passing on him this coming season.

Jalin Hyatt (#73 to NY Giants) – So the Giants make one of the worst picks of the early part of the draft and then somehow snag Hyatt in the third round. Hey, whatever works. I could have also put Hyatt’s Tennessee Volunteer teammate Cedric Tillman here as he went one spot later to the Browns.

Alright let’s get down to the Will Levis situation. ESPN did this man (and his family) dirty. Well, most of them. I think the girlfriend loved the attention. Still though, to spend four-plus hours in that room and not get your name called has to suck. And ESPN loved it. You know they did. Most people had him going in the #7-#13 range. I had him going to Washington at #16. Then someone on Reddit (I think) tweeted that the Panthers were considering him for the top pick. All of a sudden, people became a lot more interested in him. It also meant that every draft pick that wasn’t him would make him look worse. And yes I know there are others that suffer the same plight but he is, by far, the most hyped of anyone who has had that happen. Also, why didn’t Tennessee move up into the first round to get him? Now they lose a potential option year if he ends up being good. Poor management by the Titans there.

Best Draft

Again, this is way too early but you can kind of tell when a team probably had a good draft (unless one of their top picks is a flop). Here is my list of the top three teams from draft day.

Philadelphia – It feels almost unanimous among experts (which I am not one of) that the Eagles had the best draft. Not only did they continue their Georgia Bulldog-riffic defense picking Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith, but they also drafted Bama’s Tyler Steen who could potentially anchor the offensive line soon enough and somehow had Kelee Ringo (another Bulldog) fall into their lap in the fourth round. Finally, Detroit’s stupidity made it so the Eagles got D’Andre Swift in a trade with the Lions. An all-around great few days for possibly the NFC favourites.

Indianapolis – No, this isn’t all about the Anthony Richardson pick although that is what much of the Colts’ draft will hinge on. They had a great draft otherwise, though, with a huge value pick in the fourth round, nabbing Adetomiwa Adeboware. Really, it’s Richardson and Adeboware for the Colts. If they both hit then this will end up being the number one draft crop in hindsight. Otherwise….yikes. Huge risk-reward for a team that feels the time is right to make huge moves.

Pittsburgh – The Eagles’ cross-state rival also had quite the good, if not underrated, draft, looking like the smartest team coming out of the draft. They filled pretty much all their needs in the first three rounds and then got some great value late. Porter is a steal and teams may regret not picking him.

Worst Draft

Very rarely does a team get selected having the worst draft and then it ends up that everyone was wrong in hindsight. So yeah, this is not a good group to be in.

Jacksonville – Third worst on our list is the Jags with a bit of a perplexing draft. Things were looking great for a team that looked like it may run away with the AFC South over the next few years. That may not be the case anymore, and this draft didn’t help matters any. Unfortunately, the Cam Robinson situation forced them to pick O-line early but Anton Harrison may not have been the guy. Tank Bigsby was a pretty bad pick and could have been got two rounds later. And for a team that needed a tight end as another weapon for Trevor Lawrence, getting Brenton Strange isn’t it with other guys on the board. Just weird all around.

Minnesota – Look, they did pretty well with the Jordan Addison pick. Beyond that? Woof. Every other pick was a reach and they really didn’t do anything to help Kirk Cousins beyond getting Addison to hopefully pair with Justin Jefferson. Cousins is in the last year of his contract and this felt like the year the Vikings really had to try and go for it or start building for the future and they did neither.

San Francisco – Just like Philly, it’s a pretty unanimous vote on the other end of the draft grades. The ass end, if you will. The 49ers did a deplorable job this time around. Lucky for them, as long as Brock Purdy and/or Trey Lance are ready to go, this team is ready to battle for the NFC title at the very least. But holy shit, you’d think you would draft one guy that would help the team this coming season. Especially on the offensive line, where they needed help and drafted nobody. But hey, they drafted a kicker. Before the 100th pick. For fuck’s sakes what a joke.

Finally, a quick look at the two networks showing the draft. Most people seemed to be watching ESPN, as per usual. The NFL Network picked up the rest of the viewers. Problem was, the amount of complaints I heard about ESPN were staggering. Yet, these same people obviously outright refused to just, oh I don’t know, turn to the other network with draft coverage. I get that hearing the old NFL Primetime music is great (it really is) but if the coverage sucks then change the channel. My opinion, as you may know, is that the NFL Network has always had better coverage since they started showing the draft. I mean, that’s their whole thing: the NFL. ESPN suffers from trying to put in as many horrific stories about the draftees and too many people involved in the production. At least a quarter of the people involved could have been axed because they sucked at their job on this night.

I think that’s the first draft recap I have done in a long time. I don’t feel like looking. I’m not really a recap kind of guy but I figured what the hell. We are now 107 days away from the college football season and the posts will start coming along more frequently once again. We are getting close to true football season, folks! Not that I’m minding the XFL since it has been pretty good. The USFL, on the other hand, ugh. Have a great rest of the week everyone.

It’s my second bowl recap of the season…wait, don’t leave!

Alright I will level with you.  Has bowl season been fantastic?  No.  There have been a few good games but a few duds as well.  Can’t win em all right?  The hope is always that the bowl games are relatively close because when they aren’t (or if some sort of record isn’t being set) it can be tough viewing.  I will admit there have been some games I haven’t watched all of.  Hell, there are some games I have watched maybe a quarter of.  Christmas is a busy time and unless it captures my attention I can’t give a ton of time to it.  And this is coming from a college football fan whose fandom approaches what some might say is sheer insanity.  But enough about my issues (since that is a post that would be way too long).  Let’s get to the recap alright?

Bahamas Bowl – Ohio 41 UAB 6 (My pick: UAB 35-31)

UAB had a great season.  We have all heard a lot about it.  Bill Clark should have got some Coach of the Year consideration.  Then the Bahamas Bowl began (on the Friday before Christmas at 12:30 in the afternoon) and all that was forgotten.  Ohio won in front of a few thousand fans and it wasn’t even close.  Worst part is there were probably still about a million people in the States watching this game live.  There’s your reason why bowl season won’t be altered in the near future.

Idaho Potato Bowl – Wyoming 37 Central Michigan 14 (My pick: Wyoming 39-28)

This was one of the worst bowl games of the season according to my very accurate ranking system.  And it sure delivered in that regard.  Again, a game that starts at 4 in the afternoon on a weekday before Christmas better be a good game.  This wasn’t.  Craig Bohl sure has done some good things in a short time in Laramie though.  They will miss Josh Allen, or as the announcers wanted to make us think, “sure-fire Top 10 pick Josh Allen.”  Not saying it won’t happen but man that was pretty much the entire narrative during this one.

Birmingham Bowl – USF 38 Texas Tech 34 (My pick: USF 55-21)

This game was a lot closer than I thought it would be.  Good thing because Legion Field only beats Tropicana Field when looking at the worst fields hosting bowl games.  Also, close bowl games are fun no?  Anyway, Kute Kliff Kingsbury’s trip to the hot seat area starts now.

Armed Forces Bowl – Army 42 San Diego State 35 (My pick: San Diego State 38-21)

Two great bowl games in a row.  This is awesome!  And I will say, I do love watching option football.  Probably because normally with college football we see the Air Raid or RPO or something along those lines.  It’s a lot of passing to set up the run.  So the scarcity of option football makes it fun to watch.  Army played in two straight fun games and it’s nice to see them be successful after so many years of being, well, not.

Dollar General Bowl – Appalachian State 34 Toledo 0 (My pick: Appalachian State 43-40)

Well all good things come to an end.  My hope for a three-for-three for great bowl games for the day went down the shitter quickly.  App State sure does look good though and will be an early favourite to win the inaugural Sun Belt Championship next season.

Hawaii Bowl – Fresno State 33 Houston 27 (My pick: Fresno State 27-21)

Normally the Hawaii Bowl is good background noise when I finish wrapping presents.  This year I had the presents pretty much all wrapped before the game started so I could actually pay attention to it.  Good thing too since it was a great game won by one of the most improved teams in college football history.  Let’s hope this would continue after a break on Christmas Day.

Heart of Dallas Bowl – Utah 30 West Virginia 14 (My pick: West Virginia 39-33)

Nope it didn’t.  Boxing Day started with a lacklustre bowl game played in some FOOTBAW weather in front of not very many fans in the cavernous Cotton Bowl.  Just looking at the stadium during the aerial views or shots from the pressbox makes me believe one day the stadium could come crumbling down at any point.

Quick Lane Bowl – Duke 36 Northern Illinois 14 (My pick: Duke 26-20 and attendance <15,000)

I figured this would be closer.  It wasn’t.  Two-for-two in the crap column so far.  The reported attendance was 20,211.  Bull and shit.

Cactus Bowl – Kansas State 35 UCLA 17 (My pick: Kansas State 33-28)

Well this wasn’t bad for like two-and-a-half quarters.  Still though.  A poor set of Boxing Day bowl games.  Luckily Canada played their first game of the World Juniors that day as well.

Independence Bowl – Florida State 42 Southern Miss 13 (My pick: Florida State 39-13)

Now that is a close prediction.  Other than the first few minutes of the game, where the Noles looked like the shitty middle-of-the-road ACC team they had been all season, Florida State dominated.  This was not close.  This is how most figured FSU would be this season.  Noles fans are hoping with Willie Taggart coming in that things turn around and fast.

Pinstripe Bowl – Iowa 27 Boston College 20 (My pick: Boston College 29-28)

I knew this game would be close.  I figured somehow these two teams, who I wouldn’t normally want to watch on their own, would get together and have an exciting game.  And they did.  Also, Yankee Stadium was a skating rink for this one with horrible footing for the players.  Sounds like this has been an issue every year this bowl game has existed.  But who gives a shit right?  It’s Yankee Stadium!  What a cool backdrop.  To be honest, the novelty of this game has worn off.  But watching football in FOOTBAW weather is usually fun (Heart of Dallas Bowl notwithstanding).

Foster Farms Bowl – Purdue 38 Arizona 35 (My pick: Purdue 44-38)

This, so far, had been a good day for predictions for me.  And this game was a ton of fun to watch.  Now I am glad FOX picked this game for the main network and the Holiday Bowl to go to FS1.  I don’t remember as dominating a performance in a loss as Khalil Tate had.  Five touchdowns and the Wildcats still lost.  That’s college football for ya!

Texas Bowl – Texas 33 Missouri 16 (My pick: Texas 36-35)

Mizzou’s offense never really woke up and this game turned into a bit of a bore.  Going up against one of the best bowl games of the season so far didn’t help.  The biggest issue from this game was Tom Herman mocking Drew Lock’s touchdown celebration late in the game.  Man people get all upset about nothing in 2017.  Who cares about this?  Oh that’s right, everyone has to put in their two cents (or more like a nickel in Canada).  Gets tiring at times.

Military Bowl – Navy 49 Virginia 7 (My pick: Virginia 27-17)

Wow was I ever wrong about this one.  Navy looked like a team that has been to bowl games pretty much every season of the last decade and Virginia looked like a team that hasn’t been to a bowl game in years.  It was equal parts Navy being overwhelming to Virginia’s defense and Virginia looking out of place.

Camping World Bowl – Oklahoma State 30 Virginia Tech 21 (My pick: Virginia Tech 41-35)

Well at least I figured this would be a close game and it was…kind of.  It was supposed to be the Irresistible Force vs. the Immovable Object.  OSU’s highly powerful offense up against Bud Foster’s Lunch Pail Defense.  In the end, it was the Fighting Gundys that prevailed.  Mason Rudolph also showed why maybe some NFL teams shouldn’t overlook him as, at the very least, a good backup in the draft coming up this spring.

Alamo Bowl – TCU 39 Stanford 37 (My pick: Stanford 26-23)

Well I’m an idiot.  Why would I pick against TCU at the Alamo Bowl?  Remember two years ago they tied the largest bowl comeback in history.  They were down 31-0 to Oregon and ended up winning in triple overtime.  This time around they were down 21-3 and came back to win this one by two.  The Horned Frogs should just move their home games to San Antonio with this kind of luck.

Holiday Bowl – Michigan State 42 Washington State 17 (My pick: Michigan State 29-23)

You know how happy I am that this game ended up being a blowout?  Very.  Couldn’t see it do didn’t want it to be good.  And it wasn’t.  The end.

Alright my second recap is complete.  I will have one more bowl recap before the national championship game.

Since this is my last post of 2017, I want to wish everyone a Happy (and safe…and hopefully relatively warm) New Year.  Enjoy the college and NFL games everyone and see you all in 2018.

Finally…the Goff…has come back….to Los Angeles….to start at quarterback – Week 11 NFL TV Schedule

OK sort of.  More like Jeff Fisher decided to stop acting like a stubborn shitbag and get his top draft pick and, hopefully, starting quarterback for years to come to finally get a start.  I really don’t get Fisher’s mindset here.  Was he protecting Goff in some way because he knew his team wouldn’t make the playoffs?  Or was he not that happy in the first place to be drafting Goff and wanted another player back at the draft?  Or is it that he is Jeff Fisher…..yeah that’s the end of the question.  How this man keeps getting head coaching jobs is beyond me.  I understand when a guy has actually won something but really is only a mediocre coach he still has that cache of being a winner.  This is called the Tortorella Effect since he is easily the best example.  But Fisher hasn’t even won anything.  He took a team to the Super Bowl once.  That’s it.  Other than that, it has been steady as she goes…and by steady I mean below average.  The Rams front office does realize there are other coaches out there that might want a job in LA right?

OK, before I get to the schedule, I just want to point out my pick of Houston upsetting Louisville last night.  Hell to the yeah!  I have to hang my hat on something since most of my picks this year (including my preseason ones) have been atrocious.  Speaking of that, who did I pick to get to the Super Bowl?  Good lord.  Moving on….

Early

	CBS	FOX	CTV	CTV Two	OTHER
Baltimore at Dallas	Seattle, Spokane, Buffalo, Burlington, Boston		All affiliates		CKPR, CHEX, CITL, CKWS
Pittsburgh at Cleveland	Cleveland, Rochester
Tennessee at Indianapolis
Jacksonville at Detroit	Detroit
Chicago at NY Giants		Burlington, Boston
Arizona at Minnesota		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane, Minneapolis
Buffalo at Cincinnati		Buffalo, Rochester		All affiliates	CJDC, CFTK
Tampa Bay at Kansas City

Late

	CBS	FOX	CTV Two	OTHER
Philadelphia at Seattle	Seattle, Spokane, Minneapolis, Detroit, Rochester		Vancouver Island, Alberta, Ottawa	CJDC, CFTK
New England at San Francisco	Cleveland, Buffalo, Burlington, Boston		London, Toronto, Atlantic
Miami at Los Angeles		Detroit

Sunday/Monday Primetime

Green Bay at Washington	Sunday, 8:30, NBC/TSN1/3/4/5
Houston vs. Oakland (in Mexico City)	Monday, 8:30, TSN 1/3/4/5

Ramblings

• Why is there a regular season game in Mexico City? Does the NFL seriously think they can put a team there?  Have you heard of the list of things that the Houston Texans have warned their players and staff not to do?  To summarize, here’s a breakdown of that:
  • Breathe, but not too much
  • Eat and drink what we give you and nothing else
  • Stay in your hotel room but check for bed bugs and potential intruders every 4.5 minutes

That’s it.  Go.  Stay in the hotel.  Play.  Come home.  They even tell them to go to the bathroom in pairs.  Yeah sounds safe.  Hey Roger, maybe next year we can look into games in Rio, Baghdad, and off the coast of Somalia.

• Another reminder that the CFL is in playoff time. Which means TSN is ALL IN with the bigger football and wider field.  Ottawa hosts Edmonton early and Calgary hosts B.C. late.  If the Stamps somehow lose it will be like when the Pats went undefeated all the way to the Super Bowl and lost to a clearly inferior Giants team (who just played really well that one game).  By all rights, the 2016 Calgary Stampeders is one of the best teams ever.  Even better than those Argos teams of the mid-90s or Eskimos teams of the late 70s and early 80s.
• Because of the CFL playoffs, TSN will not show the NFL on Sunday afternoon for a second straight week. Not even on TSN2 which I am sure will show a lot of darts and poker.  Don’t worry, you still get the Sunday and Monday nighters there which have improved quite a bit over the past couple weeks.
• CTV is showing Baltimore-Dallas…and that’s it. No afternoon game.  I know for CTV Kitchener it’s because of the Santa Claus Parade so I assume it is that reason everywhere.  Is it just me or is the Santa Claus Parade way earlier than it used to be, say, a decade ago?
• Only two games not being shown anywhere in Canada unless you have Sunday Ticket or RedZone. And both are games that no one would really want to see although the Chiefs are looking like a probable playoff team.

Alright that’s it, that’s all.  An absolute shit-ton of football starting tomorrow, through the following weekend.  Noice!  Enjoy the professional football matches everyone!