A brief musical interlude:
With that out of the way, this week’s TMQ (which you won’t be able to read in its entirety unless you subscribe to “All Predictions Wrong”, which is the actual title of Gregg Easterbrook’s Substack) after the jump…
Vikings 3, Raiders 0, and Hell’s Sports Bar is back. What happened to last week’s Chargers 6, Patriots 0?
Placekicking has gotten better. 222 words down.
So has punting. So have quarterbacks. 504 words down. (We do think that TMQ underplays the role of NFL rule changes in improving completion percentages, though.)
Speaking of banging the drum, once again, TMQ complains that the Heisman only goes to quarterbacks or running backs. 371 words down, with extra bonus complaining about “stupendous hypocrisy” because Reggie Bush’s Heisman hasn’t been reinstated. You remember Reggie Bush, don’t you? “…he admitted taking gifts from sports agents and boosters while at USC.”
There’s a coming Tuesday Morning Quarterback on why the NFL should switch to a seeded postseason.
Speaking of banging on the drum all day…
Stats. We wanted to call this one out:
Stat of the Week #3 Sam Howell is on a pace to be sacked 82 times. The NFL record-worst is David Carr sacked 76 times in 2002 (a 16 game season).
And you know who David Carr was playing for that year? Yes, that was the first year of the Houston Texans franchise. Also: Carr was a draft bust? We never really thought of him as a great player. But a draft bust? He was never on the Ryan Leaf or JaMarcus Russell level, and frankly we think most of his problems were the people he was surrounded by.
(Also, it’s been 21 years? We feel old.)
(Also also: please feel free to drop your own “this makes me feel old” or “this should make you feel old” example in the comments.)
“Sweet Tight End Downs of the Week”: Cleveland, Denver. Sour: Detroit. Mixed: Cincinnati-Indianapolis.
“Delta V Play of the Week”: Buffalo. “(TMQ calls the Tush Push action the Delta V, a term from rocketry.)” We sometimes get berated by other people for our desire to do things differently, so we are slightly sympathetic to TMQ. But really, there’s a perfectly fine term for the “tush push”.
TMQ’s “Good Less Bad” quarterback rankings (touchdown passes minus interceptions). Yes, there are quarterbacks with negative ratings.
(Also: doesn’t this system imply that a quarterback who fumbles the ball a lot, but doesn’t actually throw interceptions, could have a high ranking?)
I wear my sunglasses at night, but only for the cameras, and take them off when the interview is over.
Tuesday Morning Quarterback contends of the modern, pass-wacky NFL that this rule obtains: There is having a franchise quarterback, then there is everything else combined.
And the Jets spent a lot of money signing a franchise quarterback. So did Carolina. How’s that workin’ for you? (TMQ blames the Jets dysfunction for their struggles. We think that’s a dubious argument.)
How much do you care about the Bills? More to the point, how much do you care about revisiting the 2022 Bills-Chiefs game? We agree. 431 words down.
569 words on “filler words” (“frankly”, “to be…honest”). Judge Judy does this better.
Pass-wacky: Miami. (Though TMQ is apparently calling this “Bad Situational Football” rather than “pass-wacky” now.)
“Single Worst Play of the Season – So Far (Runner Up)”. Bradley Chubb’s failed sack for Miami, and the resulting penalty.
“Who has the best football name?” The choices this round are:
- “Stone Smartt”, which we kind of like, as it reminds us of Dave Ryder.
- “D’Artagnan Martin”, which we also kind of like because it is a good classical reference.
- “DeMeco Ryans”, which we’re kind of meh about.
- “Dick Butkus“, which is our choice for reasons.
Go Army. Plus football gods. The boo birds were flying in New Orleans and Kansas City.
More pass-wacky “Bad Situational Football”: Buffalo, Dallas.
Let’s hope Travis Kelce knows what happens to guys who break up with [Taylor Swift].
They end up in a woodchipper? Seriously, can someone explain this to us? Actually, can someone explain Taylor Swift to us?
Stupid Ivy League presidents. (Admit it, you heard that in Homer’s voice, didn’t you?)
Keep your eye out for the Pop Tarts Bowl and the Famous Toastery Bowl.
Okay. TMQ got one over on us. We thought these were joke bowls made up by TMQ. But no, the Pop-Tarts Bowl (formerly the Camping World Bowl and the Cheez-It Bowl) and the Famous Toastery Bowl (which is the old Bahamas Bowl, and will be the Bahamas Bowl again in 2024) actually exist.
(Famous Toastery. We’d never heard of them, either.)
(“…Kellogg’s announced the winning team will receive a giant, edible Pop-Tart, making it the first-ever edible mascot.” Well, thank Ghu it is an edible Pop-Tart. Though we have a family member who would question the edibility of Pop-Tarts in general, giant or not. Actually, enough time has passed, and we think the statue of limitations has run out, to where we can tell our Christmas “Pop-Tarts” story. That is, if there’s enough demand in comments.)
“Who Looks This Stuff Up?” As always, Gregg, the answer is Elias Sports Bureau.
The X37b. And SpaceX.
Officiating: Indianapolis-Cincinnati. Did you know there was such a thing as a “leveraging” penalty? Actually, neither did we. Also, that Chiefs-Bills thing that everyone was talking about.
“Single Worst Coverages of the Season – So Far” (not “play”, “coverage”): LA Rams.
And that’s a wrap for this week, folks.
Friday in All Predictions Wrong. What it means to be a Christian agnostic.
“jumbo shrimp”, “military intelligence”, “Christian agnostic”.
I remember when the Lions had Rodney Peete as their quarterback. He did a decent job, with injuries causing him problems throughout his entire career with various teams. The thing that I remember most about him was that he came of the bench for a couple of teams to take over for an injured starting QB.
He always did a good job when doing that. The announcer at the time mentioned that once a quarterback in the NFL “got it” meaning understand just how to look at defenses and to look for second and third routes to pass to, it was not as much about their athletic ability but more about their mental ability. That is why we see so many quarterbacks playing into the later years, yet many other players retire much younger.
While this is not sports related, one thing that always makes me feel old is being able to say things like ” I remember 50 years ago” and know that I was a teenager at the time. It is not like saying “I remember 20 years ago”.
One reason that the Heisman goes to the skills positions is that they have stats, while the linemen and even defensive linebackers and safeties don’t really have such weight given to stats.
I know that I played football for 9 years, was offered a couple of college scholarships, one being a full scholarship for the first year, and I never scored a single point.
One other thing, Todd Rundgren is a favorite of mine. I had a tape of a practice session of his, I don’t remember where I got it from. But it was certainly a neat insight into his mind and his manners, which at that time at least, was a very intelligent musical mind and manners that allowed him to be kind to everyone in the session, from his musicians to his backup singers to what I assume to be either recording help, or other assistants.
Things like that probably are able to be found online now, but back when I was playing music, in the early 90’s, such a thing was fairly rare. I have no idea what happened to it, likely it was left with the band’s equipment when we broke up.