{"id":5555,"date":"2011-11-02T14:19:57","date_gmt":"2011-11-02T19:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/?p=5555"},"modified":"2011-11-02T14:19:57","modified_gmt":"2011-11-02T19:19:57","slug":"tmq-watch-november-1-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/?p=5555","title":{"rendered":"TMQ watch: November 1, 2011."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The snark just isn&#8217;t flowing today. We might as well just jump right into <a href=\"http:\/\/espn.go.com\/espn\/page2\/story\/_\/id\/7175444\/tmq-says-defenses-solidified-slowed-early-season-nfl-offensive-explosion\">this week&#8217;s TMQ<\/a> after the jump&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->&#8220;My Week 2 column suggested that blown coverages caused by the lack of an offseason &#8212; secondaries take time to jell &#8212; were the primary reason for the initial high passing stats, and that coverages would improve by November. This seems to be happening.&#8221; All glory to the <a href=\"http:\/\/r33b.net\/\"><del>Hypnotoad<\/del><\/a> TMQ for the correct prediction. Go ahead and skip the first 571 words of this week&#8217;s column.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/espn.go.com\/espn\/page2\/story\/_\/id\/7175444\/tmq-says-defenses-solidified-slowed-early-season-nfl-offensive-explosion#cheer\">Michelle<\/a>. We like girls named Michelle. We like girls named Michelle very much. (We checked and were unable to find an Android version of the Eagles cheerleader app.)<\/p>\n<p>Sweet and sour plays: Detroit-Denver, Cleveland-San Francisco, Bengals-Seattle, Titans-Colts and Rams-Saints (blocked punts), Buffal0-Washington, San Diego-Kansas City (&#8220;Modern quarterbacks spend so much time in the shotgun they may be forgetting how to take the snap under center&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of <a href=\"http:\/\/espn.go.com\/espn\/page2\/story\/_\/id\/7175444\/tmq-says-defenses-solidified-slowed-early-season-nfl-offensive-explosion#sweet\">San Diego-Kansas City<\/a>, TMQ has some interesting commentary on the officiating, complete with an explanation of the new &#8220;receiver who had not yet re-established&#8221; rule. We find the rule troubling, as it seems to involve a great deal of subjective judgement as to whether a hit is &#8220;unnecessary&#8221; roughness.<\/p>\n<p>Creep.<\/p>\n<p>TMQ is harshly critical of the <a href=\"http:\/\/espn.go.com\/espn\/page2\/story\/_\/id\/7175444\/tmq-says-defenses-solidified-slowed-early-season-nfl-offensive-explosion#liftoff\">James Webb Space Telescope<\/a>. We are very much in favor of space telescopes (we think they make a lot more sense than building ever-larger Earth based telescopes), but yeah, the cost of the Webb does seem out of control. The best estimate we were able to find is that the Hubble cost $6 billion over the entire life of the project; according to TMQ, the Webb is up to $8.7 billion and won&#8217;t launch until 2018. And TMQ? The Saturn V was called that because it was based on the Saturn 1B. Frankly, &#8220;Space Launch System&#8221; doesn&#8217;t strike us as all that bad a name; it&#8217;ll probably pick up a nickname sooner or later.<\/p>\n<p>How did the Eagles beat Dallas? Philadelphia was coming off a bye week, and Andy Reid likes to mix things up after a bye week.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/espn.go.com\/espn\/page2\/story\/_\/id\/7175444\/tmq-says-defenses-solidified-slowed-early-season-nfl-offensive-explosion#women\">&#8220;Will Women Take Over the Sports World?&#8221;<\/a> Passing plays to linemen.<\/p>\n<p>TMQ has now run <a href=\"http:\/\/espn.go.com\/espn\/page2\/story\/_\/id\/7175444\/tmq-says-defenses-solidified-slowed-early-season-nfl-offensive-explosion#rocky\">&#8220;What Should Rocky Eat?&#8221;<\/a> into the ground. Though we did like &#8220;When you open the bag, you are greeted with the overpowering aroma of a Lake Erie shoreline littered with dead, bloated fish.&#8221; Pour it into a bowl and set it on fire for the complete Cleveland experience.<\/p>\n<p>(Yes, we are aware that it was the Cuyahoga River and not Lake Erie that caught fire. We call this &#8220;literary license&#8221;. Also, since we are from the Cleveland area and have family there, we are allowed to make these jokes.)<\/p>\n<p>Something something Ryan Fitzpatrick Harvard Fred Jackson.<\/p>\n<p>Christmas <strong>and <\/strong>Chanukah creep. &#8220;Good, bad, I&#8217;m the one writing the column.&#8221; Hell&#8217;s sports bar.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/espn.go.com\/espn\/page2\/story\/_\/id\/7175444\/tmq-says-defenses-solidified-slowed-early-season-nfl-offensive-explosion#houston\">Everything you ever wanted to know about the University of Houston&#8217;s offense, but were afraid to ask.<\/a> In brief: 18 seconds between plays, &#8220;[QB Case] Keenum is a 23-year-old sixth-year senior&#8221;, and Houston is just a very talented team overall.<\/p>\n<p>Stupid Cowboys. We don&#8217;t have a lot to say about TMQ&#8217;s meditation on Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday, but we will note that we&#8217;re really excited about Jeff Guinn&#8217;s new book, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B005M47TXA\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=stainles-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=217145&amp;creative=399373&amp;creativeASIN=B005M47TXA\">The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral-And How It Changed the American West<\/a><\/strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=stainles-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=B005M47TXA&amp;camp=217145&amp;creative=399373\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/>.<\/p>\n<p>Of all the things TMQ could use to fill column space not taken by basketball, we vote for &#8220;More cheerleader pictures&#8221;. &#8220;&#8230;makeshift groups of NBA stars stage barnstorming events&#8221;. Really? They are? We&#8217;ve heard nothing about these events. Which may go to TMQ&#8217;s point about &#8220;someone else makes the arrangements and takes the financial risks&#8221; when you&#8217;re playing in a league.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/espn.go.com\/espn\/page2\/story\/_\/id\/7175444\/tmq-says-defenses-solidified-slowed-early-season-nfl-offensive-explosion#blueprint\"><br \/>\nHow do you beat New England?<\/a> Ball control.<\/p>\n<p>Something about basketball. Blitzing. Blown coverages. Dolphins. Bad officiating. (There&#8217;s something called a &#8220;batman violation&#8221;? Awesome.)<\/p>\n<p>Good on the NCAA for allowing stipends and multiyear scholarships, even if the later did require a Justice Department investigation. The concussion outlook is getting brighter. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mininggazette.com\/page\/content.detail\/id\/522564\/Bittersweet-end-for-Lakes.html?nav=5009\">Good job, kids.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>California of Pennsylvania 28, Indiana of Pennsylvania 10. Monmouth of Illinois 69, Carroll of Wisconsin 14. Wisconsin Lutheran 35, Concordia of Wisconsin 28.<\/p>\n<p>And that&#8217;s a wrap for this week. Tune in next week when TMQ will asking for recommendations on what kind of mud to purchase for his turtle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The snark just isn&#8217;t flowing today. We might as well just jump right into this week&#8217;s TMQ after the jump&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,35,89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-clippings","category-nfl","category-tmq-watch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5555"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5565,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5555\/revisions\/5565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}