Let’s give Baker a bit of a break here – Week 9 NFL TV Schedule

Yeah the Browns are in bad shape.  Not as bad as the Hue Jackson era but still pretty bad considering the talent they have there.  Baker Mayfield has been pretty bad so far this season and most of the rest of the talent hasn’t been much better.  It almost feels like the pressure put on this franchise for the first time since they came back to Cleveland was too much.  A lot of that has to fall on Mayfield.  And he isn’t taking it well as we have seen from some of his bouts with the media.  But let’s give him a break here: at least he is showing some passion.  Nothing is worse, in my opinion, than cliche-riddled pressers that tell everyone nothing.  It tells me that the person talking isn’t intelligent in the slightest.  But many in the pro football media hang on their every word like it’s super important.  News flash: you will get nothing out of a Bill Belichick press conference, I can guarantee it.

Alright here is the NFL schedule in all its glory.  Glory may be too strong a word but at least it looks pretty, no?  Don’t answer that.

Sunday Early

Houston vs. Jacksonville (in London) (9:30 AM)			All affiliates	TSN1
Indianapolis at Pittsburgh	All affiliates		BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Northern Ontario, Montreal		All affiliates
Tennessee at Carolina
NY Jets at Miami
Chicago at Philadelphia
Minnesota at Kansas City		Minneapolis, Boston	Winnipeg, Atlantic
Washington at Buffalo		Buffalo, Rochester, Burlington	Kitchener, Toronto, Ottawa	TSN3

Sunday Late

Green Bay at LA Chargers	All affiliates (except Cleveland)		All affiliates (except BC & Atlantic)		Atlantic
Cleveland at Denver	Cleveland
Detroit at Oakland		Detroit		TSN3
Tampa Bay at Seattle		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane	BC

Sunday/Monday Primetime

New England at Baltimore	Sunday, 8:30, NBC, TSN 1/3/4/5, CTV Two
Dallas at NY Giants	Monday, 8:30, TSN 1/3/4

Random Analysis

• So we have 10 games during the day on Sunday and three of them aren’t being shown up here in Canada.  That’s pretty good.  And let’s be honest: other than seeing if Mitchell Trubisky and the hapless Bears and their terrible kicking game do you really want to see the Bears and the Eagles?  Forget the other two, especially the Jets-Dolphins game since you would have to be a masochist to want to watch that game.  Now watch it be exciting.
• People in Cleveland might end up missing one of the early games of the year.  A great Green Bay team and an underperforming Chargers team clash in the big late game.  Anyone who gets their CBS out of Cleveland will not see this game as they will get the Browns and the Broncos.  Well at least you have CTV to watch it.
• There is a Sunday morning London game.  All CTV stations and TSN1 are showing this game.  As well, you can see this game on the NFL Network.  I might have to make sure I am up for this one (or at least most of this) since this looks like a pretty important AFC South tilt.
• TSN3 getting an early and late game.  For the next few weeks we will have to expect this.  With the CFL going into the playoffs, TSN tends to ignore the NFL because the CFL has their games on Sundays.  Come December, TSN should go back to a fuller slate of games.

We are at the halfway point of the season.  So why not throw out some updated playoff standings right now?

#1 – New England	#1 – San Francisco
#2 – Indianapolis	#2 – New Orleans
#3 – Baltimore	#3 – Green Bay
#4 – Kansas City	#4 – Dallas
Wild Cards:	Wild Cards:
#5 – Buffalo	#5 – Seattle
#6 – Houston	#6 – Minnesota

Buffalo?  HOUSTON?  My god the AFC, beyond the Patriots really, looks like a gongshow.  Which means the rest of the season will be very entertaining.  I can’t see the Bills winning more than 10 games so the Patriots have basically clinched the division.  The NFC, on the other hand, is a much different story.  Every team, other than maybe Dallas, has a legitimate shot at this point of representing the NFC in the Super Bowl.  And remember there are some teams who have seriously underperformed so far like the Rams, Eagles, Chargers and Bears.  Finally, even though there is not a single win between them, the Dolphins and Bengals are not officially eliminated yet.

Alright, hope the weekend turns out well for all of you.  Enjoy the games everyone.

Seriously, Richard? Week 6 NFL TV Schedule

Look.  Richard.  You lied.  Plain and simple.  And you thought you could get away with it.  Which if there weren’t like 10,000 cameras watching everything you probably could have.  Baker Mayfield shook your hand.  Just admit it and let it go.  Don’t double down.  And don’t say it doesn’t change your thoughts about Mayfield surrounding the whole thing.  Just shut the fuck up.  For once.  Normally you are the smart guy in the crowd.  So how about let us fans still believe that, OK?  Anyway…I mean if Sherman had just said something along the lines of “Mayfield is a bit of a prick” many probably would have agreed.  Alright I’m done with this now.  Schedule time!

Sunday Morning

Carolina vs. Tampa Bay (in London)

9:30, NFL Network, CTV

Sunday Early

 

Houston at Kansas City	All affiliates (except Spokane & Cleveland)		Northern Ontario, Kitchener, Toronto, Ottawa, Atlantic		Vancouver Island, Alberta
New Orleans at Jacksonville	Spokane			TSN5
Cincinnati at Baltimore	Cleveland
Philadelphia at Minnesota		Minneapolis, Detroit, Rochester, Burlington	Montreal, Winnipeg		Ottawa
Seattle at Cleveland		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane, Buffalo, Boston	BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan		London, Toronto, Atlantic
Washington at Miami

Sunday Late

 

Dallas at N.Y. Jets	All affiliates		All affiliates (except Atlantic)	TSN5	Atlantic
Tennessee at Denver
San Francisco at LA Rams
Atlanta at Arizona

Sunday/Monday Primetime

Pittsburgh at LA Chargers	Sunday, 8:30, NBC, TSN 1/3/4/5, CTV Two
Detroit at Green Bay	Monday, 8:30, TSN 1/3/4/5

Random Analysis

• I feel bad for the people who somehow get their CBS feed out of Cleveland.  Bengals-Ravens?  That could be the worst game on the early schedule.  No wait…Redskins-Dolphins is but at least that is the Tua Tank Bowl and might mean something.  Bengals-Ravens feels like punishment.
• TSN is only going with Chan(n)el Number Five this Sunday.  At least they are picking up the Saints-Jaguars game early.  Should be a decent game and almost no one north of the border is getting it.  Good job guys!
• Lions-Packers could honestly be a great Monday nighter.  The Sunday night…that’s a different story.  The Chargers are OK so far and should be better but the Steelers are atrocious so far and have lost their top two quarterbacks.  Then again the AFC North kind of looks like shit so far so who knows…they may be in it come December.
• Four games can’t be seen here in Canada (if you are DAZN-less).  Three of them are late!  Never seen a disparity like this  Everyone is getting Cowboys-Jets in the late game whether you like it or not.
• Second London game of the season.  This one, however, is a 9:30 one (at least in my neck of the woods).  After watching college football all day and night on Saturday (for the most part) I don’t even know if I will be up by 9:30 in the morning.  Actually I am a liar.  I’m 41.  I will have to get up and take a shit at like 7:30 and not be able to go back to sleep because it’s 7:30.  It’s the way things are as you get older.

Alright let’s hope for a good weekend of football and some close games…maybe some overtime…last-second field goals…a tie even.  Not asking much.  Enjoy the games everyone!

Time for the ol’ NFL Draft recap (like anyone cares)

We got through it.  At times it was fun and exciting.  At other times it felt like slogging through knee-deep mud.  I think I whipped through the third day in about 90 minutes and even then it felt way too long.

So instead of my normal draft recap where I go through every team and put them on the Mayock Scale (TM), I will do things differently.  I’m just going to go through some of the draft goings-on and the highs and lows and maybe some winners and losers.  That’s about it.  I can’t bring myself to evaluate every team.  I think I would go nuts doing that.  Her we go!

• The highlight of the draft, in my opinion, was Ryan Shazier walking to the stage to announce the Steelers’ first round pick.  He has come a long way since that scary injury last season.  And for people who were pissed off that some of the announcers and Roger Goodell were letting the cat out of the bag early so to speak, just give it a rest.  It was a nice moment.  Not everything has to be a complete shock to the system.  That’s what the Cleveland Browns at the NFL Draft are for.
• And that pick that Shazier announced?  Terrell Edmunds, brother of Tremaine who had been drafted earlier.  So two brothers going in the first round.  That’s also insane.  That’s a lot of cool stuff for one pick at the NFL Draft.  Made up for a lot of the mundane bullshit that happens there.
• Baker Mayfield going number one I can handle.  I don’t think that’s too big of a stretch.  He won a lot in college so that has to count for something.  I still would have went Sam Darnold but whatever.  The Johnny Football comparisons for Baker are way off-base and just people trying to stir the pot for attention and page views.
• As for the Browns next pick, I don’t think it was a good one.  Not saying Denzel Ward isn’t good because he is.  But the chance to draft Bradley Chubb was right there and they passed on it.  Not a good look.
• To be honest (hindsight being 20/20), if I had been the Browns I would have drafted Barkley first and probably still would have got Mayfield at #4.  All of a sudden, the Browns would have been hailed as instant draft winners.  Now, not so much.
• David Akers trolling Dallas fans is this year’s Drew Pearson taunting Eagles fans.  I hope this doesn’t mean that the Cowboys will win the Super Bowl this year because none of us can handle that.
• I see Lee Corso donned a Mel Kiper head during College Gameday.  I thought he was supposed to pick winners (Hi-yo).
• I thought the NFL Network did a pretty good job with their coverage.  The foursome of Rich Eisen, Charles Davis, Daniel Jeremiah and Mike Mayock is about as good as they come.  Nothing seemed overdone or gimmicky.

Winners

• Let me preface both the winners and losers list with this one indisputable fact: it’s really too early to tell.  So this is off of what many people observed so far with these picks.
• Baltimore – The Ravens did quite well.  They got Lamar Jackson with their second pick of the first round.  They also picked Orlando Brown and Mark Andrews far below where they probably should have gone.  I don’t think any of their picks were reaches so they, by all accounts, had a good three days in Ozzie Newsome’s final draft.
• Buffalo – I know I will get flak for this but I think the Bills did a pretty good job.  I know Josh Allen wasn’t a popular pick but a good one in that spot since the Bills need a quarterback whose name doesn’t rhyme with Dathan Meterman.  Also, getting Tremaine Edmunds and Harrison Phillips will be huge additions to an already stellar defense.
• Denver – They somehow got Bradley Chubb at the five spot.  I still don’t get how.  Then they got Courtland Sutton, Josey Jewell and TWO good running backs.  I say Elway grabbed a good haul there.
• NY Giants – Saquon Barkley and Will Hernandez?  That’s all you have to say there.

Losers

• New Orleans – I don’t care what anyone thinks: trading that many draft picks for Marcus Davenport?  It’s the same as the Mitch Trubisky situation last season.  Unless Davenport has a good first year this will look like a dumb move from Saints’ management.
• Seattle – This will be another extremely unpopular pick.  But other than drafting Shaquem Griffin (a feel-good story who should have been drafted about a round earlier), they didn’t quite hit the bullseye on most of their picks.  Rashaad Penny is huge risk-reward here.  If he ends up killing it in the league the Seahawks will look like geniuses but they could have had them with their next pick probably easily.
• Kansas City – Part of this is them parting with picks to move up to get Patrick Mahomes last year.  So can’t totally fault them for that.
• Detroit – Funny how everyone is lauding the Frank Ragnow pick in the #20 spot considering I saw almost no mock drafts having him that high.

Which brings me to mock drafts in general.  Almost no mock had Mayfield #1 until like a day or so before the draft when that seemed to be the consensus.  Then everyone’s mock had it.  What bullshit.  I am going to cut down my mocks to three (at most) next year if not less.  It’s a fruitless endeavour and I sometimes feel it is a complete waste of time.

So yeah there were other winners and losers (I guess) from the draft and other cool things happening but I think I have put too much effort towards it now.  For doing this in my spare time it felt like I put way too much of myself and my time into it.  Don’t get me wrong, I liked live-tweeting it.  I love live-tweeting during actual college football season.  Keeps me engaged.  This, on the other hand, was great at the start but by midway through the first round I was getting tired.  In general and of being on Twitter.

Again, this is about making this blog better but also about doing the things I like and enjoy and want to spend time on and less on the stuff I am liking less and less.  It’s a work in progress.  I make it sound like some grand piece of gallery art when it’s absolutely not.

Anyway, soon enough it’s the most important games list meaning we are getting close to being only double-digit amount of days away from college football season (as of right now we are at a sad 117 days away).  Have a good week everyone.

The final mock draft? Yeah I think so.

Look I know there will be trades as the draft comes near.  Buffalo is almost certain to pull off another deal to move up at least one of their first round picks.  Other teams look to probably move up or down as well.  Should be interesting.

Saying that, this is my last mock draft.  Period.  I promise.  I am not going to go all Mel Kiper and do a new mock draft every hour on the hour until draft day.  That’s insane.  Even for a guy who’s job it is to analyze the draft to the point he’s checking the prospects’ fibre in their shit.  Anyway, let’s get to my last list followed by possibly inaccurate rantings afterwards:

FIRST ROUND

1		Sam Darnold, QB (USC)
2		Josh Rosen, QB (UCLA)
3		Josh Allen, QB (Wyoming)
4		Saquon Barkley, RB (Penn State)
5		Denzel Ward, CB (Ohio State)
6		Bradley Chubb, DE (NC State)
7		Minkah Fitzpatrick, CB (Alabama)
8		Quentin Nelson, G (Notre Dame)
9		Tremaine Edmunds, LB (Virginia Tech)
10		Vita Vea, DT (Washington)
11		Baker Mayfield, QB (Oklahoma)
12		Roquan Smith, LB (Georgia)
13		Derwin James, S (Florida State)
14		Marcus Davenport, DE (UTSA)
15		Orlando Brown, T (Oklahoma)
16		Connor Williams, T (Texas)
17		Leighton Vander Esch, LB (Boise State)
18		Mike McGlinchey, T (Notre Dame)
19		Joshua Jackson, CB (Iowa)
20		Rashaan Evans, LB (Alabama)
21		James Daniels, C (Iowa)
22		Mason Rudolph, QB (Oklahoma State)
23		Harold Landry, DE (Boston College)
24		Isaiah Wynn, G (Georgia)
25		Will Hernandez, G (UTEP)
26		Maurice Hurst, DT (Michigan)
27		Billy Price, C (Ohio State)
28		Malik Jefferson, LB (Texas)
29		Calvin Ridley, WR (Alabama)
30		Taven Bryan, DT (Florida)
31		Sam Hubbard, DE (Ohio State)
32		Kolton Miller, T (UCLA)

SECOND ROUND

33		Carlton Davis, CB (Auburn)
34		Derrius Guice, RB (LSU)
35		Jamarco Jones, T (Ohio State)
36		Isaiah Oliver, CB (Colorado)
37		Brian O’Neill, T (Pittsburgh)
38		Ronald Jones II, RB (USC)
39		Jaire Alexander, CB (Louisville)
40		Lamar Jackson, QB (Louisville)
41		Da’Ron Payne, DT (Alabama)
42		Sony Michel, RB (Georgia)
43		Chukwuma Okorafor, T (Western Kentucky)
44		Dorance Armstrong Jr., OLB (Kansas)
45		D.J. Moore, WR (Maryland)
46		Ronnie Harrison, S (Alabama)
47		Courtland Sutton, WR (SMU)
48		Terrell Edmunds, S (Virginia Tech)
49		Oren Burks, LB (Vanderbilt)
50		Dallas Goedert, TE (South Dakota State)
51		Arden Key, DE (LSU)
52		Kerryon Johnson, RB (Auburn)
53		Harrison Phillips, DT (Stanford)
54		Da’Shawn Hand, DT (Alabama)
55		Mark Andrews, TE (Oklahoma)
56		Anthony Miller, WR (Memphis)
57		Rasheem Green, DE (USC)
58		Justin Reid, S (Stanford)
59		Mike Hughes, CB (UCF)
60		Kyzir White, S (West Virginia)
61		Braden Smith, G (Auburn)
62		Martinas Rankin, T (Mississippi State)
63		M.J. Stewart, CB (North Carolina)
64		Anthony Averett, CB (Alabama)

Random Info

• Might as well give in and go with the QB top-heavy draft.  It feels like Darnold, Rosen and Allen will be the top three in some order.  The caveat here is that the three teams currently in the top three spots (CLE, NYG, NYJ) might not be the top three draft spots on draft night.  I could see Buffalo or even Denver moving up to get the quarterback they want unless they are OK with who I have them taking (Rudolph to the Bills, Jackson to the Broncos).  Lamar Jackson is intriguing and I could see him as a first round pick but he almost seems like a guy who has to be picked by the time Buffalo makes their first selection at 12 or he will wait until the next round.  As a Bills fan I honestly would be happy to get a guy like Lamar Jackson but I can understand the risks there.
• This all means the Browns may get a top QB AND Saquon Barkley for their first two picks.  Scary.
• Does anyone forgo getting a QB knowing one A-A-Ron Rodgers becomes a free agent after this season?  I could see a team basically balking at drafting a decent QB and making a serious run at Mister Rodgers during the 2018-19 offseason.
• If I had to go draft steals at this point, according to my mock draft, I would say the Bills getting Harrison Phillips, the Cards getting Courtland Sutton, Ronnie Harrison to the Bengals and the aforementioned Lamar Jackson to Denver.  Which means none of these will happen.

That’s it, that’s all.  The draft is 13 days away, Thursday night April 26th on like 400 channels or something.  I still will watch the NFL Network coverage.  I honestly believe they do a better job.  I have always found it amusing that the majority of people watch the ESPN coverage and then bitch about that same ESPN coverage.  Then turn the fucking channel, dipshit.

I will be live-tweeting the opening night I am sure (unless something comes up).  I will not live-tweet the rest of the draft.  Otherwise you would witness the clear breakdown of a man gone insane (in a series of like 200 tweets).  Would make for a fascinating TV-movie-of-the-week but not so fun to actually live through.

Soon enough (after the draft) I will do my annual draft review and talk about how shitty my picks were.  Then it’s on to the real meat and potatoes of my blog (and if you are vegetarian, find something else to eat.  I don’t make two separate dinners.)  The most important games of the season and then getting into some conference previews.  We are….oh god, 134 days away from the first official day of the college football season.  So.  Long.  Away.

A new mock draft after the Kreepy Kombine

I did not watch the Combine.  I saw a few tweets about certain players like Lamar Jackson (who is a QUARTERBACK) and Shaquille Griffin (who is a DEFENSIVE BEAST) among others.  Other than that, nope.  The Combine is just fucking weird.  I go to the gym and see people work out.  Because people work out there and I am also there to work out.  I would never watch those people work out on TV so there’s no way I would do the same for football players.  I get the idea behind it but a guy going up and down a draft board because of his speed in the 40 is ridiculous.  How often does someone go 40 yards, untouched, and in a straight line?  Maybe a few times a season?  Anyway, it’s bizarre.

What the Combine does do is allow me to do a Mock Draft V.3. since there would have been some movement afterwards because GMs and Assistant GMs and scouts need something to do.  So here’s the next iteration of the mock draft followed by some random info:

FIRST ROUND

1		Sam Darnold, QB (USC)
2		Saquon Barkley, RB (Penn State)
3		Bradley Chubb, DE (NC State)
4		Denzel Ward, CB (Ohio State)
5		Josh Rosen, QB (UCLA)
6		Josh Allen, QB (Wyoming)
7		Minkah Fitzpatrick, CB (Alabama)
8		Tremaine Edmunds, LB (Virginia Tech)
9		Quentin Nelson, G (Notre Dame)
10		Orlando Brown, T (Oklahoma)
11		Baker Mayfield, QB (Oklahoma)
12		Derwin James, S (Florida State)
13		Roquan Smith, LB (Georgia)
14		Marcus Davenport, DE (UTSA)
15		Connor Williams, T (Texas)
16		Derrius Guice, RB (LSU)
17		Leighton Vander Esch, LB (Boise State)
18		Joshua Jackson, CB (Iowa)
19		Vita Vea, DT (Washington)
20		Isaiah Wynn, G (Georgia)
21		Rashaan Evans, LB (Alabama)
22		Mason Rudolph, QB (Oklahoma State)
23		Mike McGlinchey, T (Notre Dame)
24		James Daniels, C (Iowa)
25		Harold Landry, DE (Boston College)
26		Maurice Hurst, DT (Michigan)
27		Billy Price, C (Ohio State)
28		Malik Jefferson, LB (Texas)
29		Courtland Sutton, WR (SMU)
30		Will Hernandez, G (UTEP)
31		Kolton Miller, T (UCLA)
32		Carlton Davis, CB (Auburn)

SECOND ROUND

33		Jamarco Jones, T (Ohio State)
34		Isaiah Oliver, CB (Colorado)
35		Ronald Jones II, RB (USC)
36		Sam Hubbard, DE (Ohio State)
37		Sony Michel, RB (Georgia)
38		Arden Key, DE (LSU)
39		Calvin Ridley, WR (Alabama)
40		Brian O’Neill, T (Pittsburgh)
41		Taven Bryan, DT (Florida)
42		Nick Chubb, RB (Georgia)
43		Chukwuma Okorafor, T (Western Kentucky)
44		Da’Ron Payne, DT (Alabama)
45		Anthony Miller, WR (Memphis)
46		Dorance Armstrong Jr., OLB (Kansas)
47		James Washington, WR (Oklahoma State)
48		Ronnie Harrison, S (Alabama)
49		Jaire Alexander, CB (Louisville)
50		Dallas Goedert, TE (South Dakota State)
51		Harrison Phillips, DT (Stanford)
52		Christian Kirk, WR (Texas A&M)
53		Trenton Thompson, DT (Georgia)
54		D.J. Moore, WR (Maryland)
55		Mike Hughes, CB (UCF)
56		D.J. Chark, WR (LSU)
57		Hayden Hurst, TE (South Carolina)
58		Terrell Edmunds, S (Virginia Tech)
59		Lamar Jackson, QB (Louisville)
60		Justin Reid, S (Stanford)
61		Mark Andrews, TE (Oklahoma)
62		Duke Ejiofor, DE (Wake Forest)
63		M.J. Stewart, CB (North Carolina)
64		Kyzir White, S (West Virginia)

Random Info

• Gone to two rounds!  I would say it means double the chances to get things wrong but that’s a lie.  It easily quadruples it.  Which makes me on par with Mel Kiper.
• I can’t see the Giants passing on Barkley now.  This means the Browns lose the opportunity to get a top QB and THE top RB in the first four picks.  It means, chances are, their pick at running back will come later in the draft (which I have them doing on their second 2nd round pick).
• This may now work out great for the Broncos.  They just got Case Keenum so whoever they draft at QB can at least sit and watch and be mentored for a season, which we know is definitely the way to go (most of the time).  See Rodgers, Aaron.
• I don’t put trades in at all.  I know they will happen but it’s difficult enough to pick two rounds of the draft let alone throw in trades.  But something tells me the Bills, after trading Tyrod Taylor to the Browns, will be moving up in the draft to get a QB.  As of right now I have them getting Mason Rudolph (which isn’t a bad pick at all) but they could move up to get one of Darnold, Rosen, Allen or Mayfield.
• Both Edmunds boys (Tremaine and Terrell) I expect to go in the first two rounds.  That should change I am sure since mock drafts, I realize once again, are a fool’s game.
• Yes the Saints just signed Drew Brees again.  But Lamar Jackson would do well to go there, watch a pocket passer like Drew who throws the ball approximately nine thousand times a game, and mesh that with his ridiculous athleticism.  This guy could very well be Michael Vick 2.0…without the bad shit.

So there you go.  Another mock draft.  Impressed, right?  Yeah, I’m not that impressed either.  And I still can’t believe the draft is like a month-and-a-half away.  Didn’t it always used to be early March/late April?  A quick online tells me the last time it was even as early as mid-April was the 2000 draft.  I must be hallucinating then.

Hey, remember my “I will try to post once a week” comment?  Yeah that got flushed down the toilet.  What else can I talk about without sounding like I am forcibly creating a post for no other reason than to create a post.  I will have at least one more mock draft…maybe two.  And perhaps another What-if post since they are SO popular (as in I assume they aren’t popular at all).  Other than that?   Crickets.

I am working on the college schedule now that it is out.  Mapping it out and such.  It takes a while so I never do more than a bit at a time because even I would get bored with it.  Once the draft is upon us, I should start getting back into things.  So let’s consider this a season finale of sorts.  Like on TV.  Except way worse.  Enjoy your week everyone!

SUPER MEGA HYPER OMNI POST!

This post…oh this post.  It’s gonna be long.

Instead of doing a full recap and then a full bowl projections post, I figured I would combine them into one insanely long post!  Why?  Probably because this past weekend was not that great as far as college football weekends go.  The top ten teams all won.  The only real “upset” (if you could call it that) was Kansas State beating Oklahoma State.  That’s it.  So nothing would have even changed in the rankings.  Also, I figured with the 35-year anniversary of The Play, I would do something not seen before really…at least on this blog.

So I decided, let’s take a different slant with this.  Not a recap.  It’s a bit of both past and present.  Let’s start with how the conference championships are shaping up.

Haha, just kidding.  The Sun Belt starts their conference championship next year…with divisions of five.  OK then.

Raise your hand if you had Florida Atlantic and North Texas playing in the Conference USA championship.  Put your hands down!  No one thought this.  What does this mean?  Lane Kiffin is gonna get PAID next year…and not by FAU if you didn’t catch my drift there.

The MAC title tilt isn’t set yet.  In the West, Toledo holds the tiebreaker over Northern Illinois so a Rockets win over Western Michigan means they play for all the marbles.  The Huskies need a win and a Toledo loss to go to Detroit.

In the East, Akron has a chance to wrap up the division tomorrow night during MACtion.  Win and they play for the conference title.  Lose and Ohio has a chance to clinch on Black Friday.

Boise State is in the championship.  Ho hum.  Fresno State is in the championship.  OK that is something.  They had been pretty bad for a couple years.  Jeff Tedford has done a masterful job in northern California.

Memphis is already in the championship awaiting the winner of the War on I-4.  UCF-USF winner plays the Tigers probably for the New Year’s Six spot.

It has felt like this has been set for weeks but Clemson faces Miami.  The U finally gets to the ACC Championship for the first time since they joined the conference.  Yeah, definitely what the conference was thinking when they invited them AND put them in the opposite division of Florida State.

Oklahoma has already clinched their spot in the Big XII Championship.  Who will they face?  TCU is almost a shoo-in to go.  The only team that could possibly catch them?  Iowa State of all teams.  A Horned Frogs loss coupled with a Cyclones win would put ISU in the spot of being the spoiler of all spoilers.

USC is locked in for the, uh, Friday night affair in Santa Clara starting at 5 local time?  Yeah this will go well.  Anyway, Washington State holds all the cards in the North.  Win the Apple Cup and go to the Pac-12 title game.  Lose and Stanford, who has completed their conference schedule, will go instead.

Ohio State and Wisconsin are locked into this game.  It looks like tOSU could play spoiler here with a win.

Georgia won the East which doesn’t seem like a big deal this year.  The Iron Bowl will determine the other participant.

So there you go.  Later on in the week I will do the normal massive American Thanksgiving weekend post and discuss all this and much more and which games are important and which games, quite frankly, aren’t.

Alright, on to my bowl projections as of this morning:

Sugar Bowl	CFP Poll #1 vs. CFP Poll #4	Alabama vs. Wisconsin
Rose Bowl	CFP Poll #2 vs. CFP Poll #3	Clemson vs. Oklahoma

No changes here.  I did switch Clemson and Oklahoma in terms of rankings because I think a Clemson win over Miami would keep them ahead of the Sooners.  Otherwise, nothing happened to this over the past weekend.  A lot COULD happen this coming weekend but that’s a different story.

Let us see if the New Year’s Six has also remained unchanged? (Full disclosure: kept this in from last post verbatim)

Peach Bowl	CFP At-Large vs. CFP At-Large	Georgia vs. Memphis
Orange Bowl	ACC vs. Big Ten/SEC/Notre Dame	Miami vs. Penn State
Fiesta Bowl	CFP At-Large vs. CFP At-Large	USC vs. Auburn
Cotton Bowl	CFP At-Large vs. CFP At-Large	Washington vs. TCU

All the same teams, except for one.  I have TCU instead of Oklahoma State now.  I just think they wouldn’t fall far enough even with a potential Big XII loss to Oklahoma.  A few changes in who plays who but everyone else is still there.  And yes, I still believe Memphis will beat the UCF/USF winner to get the New Year’s Six spot.

And of course now the rest of the bowl projections which is always a shitshow, nowadays more than ever.

Citrus Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten/ACC	LSU vs. Notre Dame
Outback Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten	South Carolina vs. Ohio State
Liberty Bowl	SEC vs. Big XII/American	Kentucky vs. Iowa State
TaxSlayer Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten/ACC	Mississippi State vs. Michigan State
Arizona Bowl	MWC vs. Sun Belt	Wyoming vs. Arkansas State
Music City Bowl	SEC vs. ACC/Big Ten	Missouri vs. Louisville
Sun Bowl	Pac-12 vs. ACC	Arizona State vs. Wake Forest
Belk Bowl	SEC vs. ACC	Utah* vs. NC State
Alamo Bowl	Pac-12 vs. Big XII	Washington State vs. Texas
Holiday Bowl	Big Ten vs. Pac-12	Northwestern vs. Stanford
Camping World Bowl	Big XII vs. ACC	West Virginia vs. Virginia Tech
Military Bowl	ACC vs. American	Virginia vs. UCF
Texas Bowl	SEC vs. Big XII	Texas A&M vs. Oklahoma State
Foster Farms Bowl	Big Ten vs. Pac-12	Iowa vs. Oregon
Pinstripe Bowl	Big Ten vs. ACC	Michigan vs. Boston College
Independence Bowl	SEC/Conference USA vs. ACC/American	UAB vs. Western Michigan*
Cactus Bowl	Pac-12/MWC vs. Big XII/MWC	UCLA vs. Colorado State
Quick Lane Bowl	Big Ten/MAC vs. ACC/MAC	Toledo vs. Middle Tennessee*
Heart of Dallas Bowl	Big XII vs. Big Ten	Kansas State vs. Indiana
Hawaii Bowl	MWC vs. American	Fresno State vs. Houston
Dollar General Bowl	MAC vs. Sun Belt	Northern Illinois vs. Troy
Armed Forces Bowl	Army vs. Conference USA	Army vs. Western Kentucky
Birmingham Bowl	SEC/ACC vs. American/ACC	FIU* vs. at-large 5-7 APR Champ
Idaho Potato Bowl	MWC vs. MAC	Utah State vs. Ohio
Bahamas Bowl	Conference USA vs. MAC	North Texas vs. Akron
Gasparilla Bowl	Conference USA/ACC vs. American/ACC	Florida Atlantic vs. USF
Frisco Bowl	American vs. Sun Belt	SMU vs. Appalachian State
Boca Raton Bowl	American vs. Conference USA	Temple vs. Marshall
Camellia Bowl	MAC vs. Sun Belt	Central Michigan vs. UTSA*
New Mexico Bowl	MWC vs. Conference USA	San Diego State vs. Southern Miss
Las Vegas Bowl	Pac-12 vs. MWC	Arizona vs. Boise State
Cure Bowl	American vs. Sun Belt	Navy vs. Georgia State
New Orleans Bowl	Conference USA vs. Sun Belt	Louisiana Tech vs. UL-Lafayette

A few notes for your perusal:

• I still have one 5-7 team going in.  I am not delving into the APR rankings yet so I don’t know who that would be at this point.
• I really seemed to mix things up here which is odd because not a whole lot of note happened.  But the few changes from my expected winners created quite the domino effect.  In the end it won’t matter since a few of the tie-ins won’t even be followed.  So why have them in the first place to this extent?
• Army is still the only team locked into a bowl game.  This is good and should stay this way at least until the evening of Conference Championship week.  I hope I didn’t just jinx it.

Other than those few items, not much to talk about specifically about the bowl projections.  It honestly felt like a bit of a week off.  That will change very quickly come tomorrow night!  Kent State-Akron is on the specialty pack tomorrow night at 7:00.  Then Wednesday, brace yourselves…there is no football.  I know, I know.  Calm down.  We will need the breather thanks to the footballgasm of American Thanksgiving!  I might post the college schedule Wednesday but we shall see if time permits.

A few other odds and ends from both the pros and college level:

• Baker Mayfield couldn’t get a handshake from the Kansas players at the start of the game.  Oh well.  Kansas is a basketball school.  Anyway, Baker had a fit after a TD in the third quarter and told the Kansas bench to fuck off or suck his dick or something and then grabbed his crotch.  A non-story but it isn’t because Mayfield is expected to win the Heisman.  Once he hits the NFL, no one will care.
• How about them Bills?  Nathan fucking Peterman?  Yep, this is the yearly implosion we all expect.  Worst part?  They are STILL tied for the final Wild Card spot in the AFC.  That’s how bad the AFC is.  It’s like the CFL Eastern Division, NBA Eastern Conference, or SEC Eastern Division: vastly inferior to the other half of the equation (except for one or two teams).
• And the Bills play the Chiefs next week in a game where the winner will finally get off the slide and the loser…well who knows but it turns into another possible lost season, especially if it’s the Bills who lose.
• Speaking of the AFC, will anyone catch the Steelers or Patriots?  Maybe the Jags but after that it falls off a cliff.  Quite sad really.
• Speaking of the NFL, finally we can start getting into some important football so that the action on the field may actually overshadow the off-the-field bullshit.  I hope I didn’t jinx it.
• How about the CFL?  I don’t know if I want the Argos to win the Grey Cup or not.  On one hand, them winning would show how much the CFL has fallen in recent years.  To have a team that can’t even sell out a playoff game win your league’s championship can’t be good.  On the other hand, the CFL would just twist the narrative to say that the Argos are back or some shit.
• Hey did you watch the USports semi-finals?  I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t.  Western scored EIGHTY-ONE FUCKING POINTS IN A NATIONAL SEMI-FINAL!  What a joke.

Alright that’s about enough of this.  Hoping to post on Wednesday as I mentioned but we shall see.  Either way you will get a big college football schedule post later in the week.

Bowl Recap #5 – Sponsored by Going 6 for 6

No, that’s not 30 for 30’s younger, dumber brother. It refers to the fact that, for the most part, the New Year’s Six bowls went six for six for being horrible.  Not a single one of the bowls had much drama at all.  You could say Florida State kept it relatively close with Houston and there was a bit of drama during the Fiesta Bowl but other than that it was relatively unwatchable football.  And this is coming from a guy who watches as much college football as he can.  Alright, let’s get to the recap starting with the College Football Playoff semi-finals:

ORANGE BOWL – Clemson 37 Oklahoma 17

So many complained that this game started at 4 on New Year’s Eve because many people were working that day. Understandable I guess.  Yet many of those same people didn’t complain that the other semi-final was on from 8 until midnight on New Year’s Eve.  Makes no sense to me.  Anyway, this bowl was the closer of the two semi-finals.  It was the Clemson D that stepped up in this one.  Mayfield, Perine, Shepard, et al just couldn’t do much.  Also, Deshaun Watson showed why he was a Heisman finalist.  Which leads us to the other semi-final…

COTTON BOWL – Alabama 38 Michigan State 0

Good lord this wasn’t even close. It did allow the Twitterverse to go crazy saying Sparty didn’t belong in the College Football Playoff at all.  Hindsight is 20-20 but it’s also annoying and sometimes very wrong.  Who knew Jake Coker would have the game of his life?  Who knew Connor Cook would have the worst game of his life?  Who knew Alabama’s defense would be that good?  OK I’ll give you that last one.  Bama has all the momentum going into the national championship now.

Now the other New Year’s Six bowls which weren’t a whole lot better:

PEACH BOWL – Houston 38 Florida State 24

Arguably the closest of the NY6 bowls. Terrible.  However it did show that Houston, much like Boise State in years past, is a cut above most of the rest of the Group of Five teams.  Not having Everett Golson or, really, a healthy Sean Maguire didn’t help the Noles in this one.  Honestly though they looked sloppy.  It’s like the put it all on the field against Florida so they could destroy their rivals and had nothing left for this one.

FIESTA BOWL – Ohio State 44 Notre Dame 28

Ugh, the targeting penalty rears its ugly head again. Joey Bosa’s Ohio State career ends on a targeting call that is technically correct but kind of goes against the spirit of the rule.  There were at least six other instances where targeting should have been called and never was in the past few days.  That has to be the NCAA’s number one priority in the offseason: getting the targeting call correct and locking down when it should be called.  I get that it’s still referee’s discretion but the variation on when it’s called is ridiculous.  I feel bad for the kid since there’s a possibility he will end up on the Browns next season.  Oh, as for the game, despite the fact the Irish acted like a rash that wouldn’t quite go away, tOSU seemed to be in control the entire time.  NEXT!

ROSE BOWL – Stanford 45 Iowa 16

This was also known as the McCaffrey Bowl since he was the single most dominating player on that field (as he was in a few other games during the season). He scored a touchdown a mere eleven seconds in and that ended up being a prelude to one of the greatest performances in bowl game history.  His 368 all-purpose yards broke the Rose Bowl record and he put the stake in the ground as the 2016 Heisman early frontrunner.  Iowa was never in this one and this seemed like more of a beatdown than what their Big Ten brethren Michigan State suffered the previous day.  I hope this, for now, shows people why a four-team playoff is better than an eight-team playoff.  As much as people said Stanford and Ohio State were reasons for playoff expansion, Iowa and Notre Dame showed that it shouldn’t be since they would have been two of the eight teams vying for the title.  Moving on…

SUGAR BOWL – Ole Miss 48 Oklahoma State 20

At this point I got fed up. Once Laquon Treadwell caught his third touchdown pass in the second quarter I put the rest of the game on the PVR (we will get to that in a later bowl recap).  I had had it with the New Year’s Six.  What a set of horrible games.  So New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, and (to a lesser extent) American Thanksgiving Saturday, the three biggest college football days of any season, were pretty shitty.  Not impressed as a college football fan.  I was right to check the game on the PVR later to see that, um, yes Ole Miss destroyed the Cowboys.

OK enough of these bowls, let’s get to the rest of the bowls from New Year’s Day and yesterday:

OUTBACK BOWL – Tennessee 45 Northwestern 6

Your 2016 SEC East Champion Tennessee Volunteers…is what many will now say for the next eight months. Don’t get me wrong, the Vols made Northwestern their bitch in this one but one game does not a champion make.  I will say this: Tennessee is set up well for the next season but more so for the fact that the rest of the SEC East doesn’t look too hot right now so really it’s an open competition (except for you Vanderbilt).  I assume this bowl game lost many viewers pretty early on.  That’s the con of a New Year’s Day bowl when other bowl games are on.

CITRUS BOWL – Michigan 41 Florida 7

See what I mean about the SEC East? Let’s be honest, the Gators overperformed this season.  They didn’t have the players to be a true CFP contender yet somehow they came within one poor game in the SEC Championship of going to a New Year’s Six bowl game.  They were exposed here by a good Michigan team that was probably one horrifically bad last-second play from also being in the New Year’s Six.  Jim Harbaugh has the Wolverines going in the right direction and Florida fans hope Jim Bob McElwain is doing the same in Gainesville.  Again, another bowl that lost plenty of viewers due to the game being basically over in the early third quarter.

TAXSLAYER BOWL – Georgia 24 Penn State 17

Hey a bowl game that was actually somewhat close. Saying that, the Dawgs had a 24-3 lead before the non-Hackenberg Nittany Lions made a comeback.  Christian Hackenberg is smart to declare for the NFL Draft despite the fact he won’t be a first round pick.  The one thing that kept Penn State from a better season was that brutal offensive line.  I wouldn’t want to play behind those guys another season knowing there’s a decent payday awaiting you instead.  Also, this game felt weird with no Mark Richt involved.

LIBERTY BOWL – Arkansas 45 Kansas State 23

I took a break from watching football (I know, insane right?) for the last quarter-and-a-half of this one. I was starting to get worn out from the craptastic games I had seen.  Yes, we get it, the SEC West is awesome, all hail the SEC West, whatever.  KSU making a bowl game was a miracle in and of itself and if my proposal would go through, we would never see teams like this in postseason play again.

ALAMO BOWL – TCU 47 Oregon 41 (3OT)

It feels like all the excitement that we could have had in all the bowls were concentrated here. And I nearly missed it.  Once Oregon went up 28-0, I put the game on the PVR (much like the Sugar Bowl) and stopped watching.  What I missed was Vernon Adams getting injured and Gary Patterson feeling the POWER OF THE PURPLE SHIRT.  Bram Kohlhausen’s only career start at TCU ended up being legendary as TCU came back from 31 down to tie the game.  I decided, for some reason, to turn it back on to see what was going on with it with about 3 minutes left in the game.  I was astounded at what the score was.  The Horned Frogs would end up winning in triple overtime, sending Phil Knight into shock and making Ducks fans wonder which of their ten million uniform combinations would have been the right one to wear in hindsight.

CACTUS BOWL – West Virginia 43 Arizona State 42

I put this one on the PVR, watched the first half, and went to bed. I put in a four-hour window just to be safe.  Yeah, not even close.  By the time the recording ended there was still seven minutes left to play.  Why are some of these games so damn long.  Now I am worried that the national championship will be six hours and I will be exhausted the next day at work.  Worst part is this was a great game and I missed the end.  Don’t know who to complain to but I am going to complain anyways.  No wonder the Pac-12 doesn’t want too many late-night games considering I stayed up until 2 (if not later) on too many Saturday nights to count (it was probably like seven of them).  What an interesting way to finish watching bowl season.

One game left and it’s for all the marbles. Clemson will face Alabama for the national championship and now Dabo Swinney can use the underdog tag properly since they will definitely be one for this game (as of right now it’s Alabama favoured by 7).  Also, the FCS title game kicks off at noon on Saturday if you’re interested (and have the specialty pack).  College football season is almost over folks and I type that with a bit of a tear in my eye.  Enjoy the national championship (and the NFL games today).