Back with a few thoughts after another week of football + the finish of the World Series, and the start of the offseason for baseball:
Leading off, so to speak with the finish of the World Series. Props to the Giants for finishing things off; the better team did win that series and Bumgarner is an October legend amongst mortals. Two wins, plus a five inning save for the first win by a road team in a World Series game 7 in over three decades. Of course, knowing the Giants, this is an every other year thing so we'll probably see them again in 2016.
As far as the Royals are concerned, it would have been a storybook ending to win that seventh game, but honestly, the better team won the series. I do think there may have been a thing or two that could have been done differently (namely, not having Escobar bunt in the fifth inning plus they could have used Willingham at some point), but bottom line is after the fifth inning, they weren't hitting Bum.
I did see that the Royals declined the 12.5M option on Billy "Country Breakfast" Butler. I would blame them for not picking up the option, but I really can't. I honestly watch Butler and he's a good hitter, but I'm not sure he commands that much money on the market. He is mainly a DH and nothing more than that. The Royals do however need to get James Shields signed, he is arguably the heart and soul of that team.
As far as a super-early prediction for 2015, my gut hunch is that the Cardinals are a good bet to at least make the World Series next year. Much like the Giants go to the World Series or win every other year (they've won every time), the Cards at least go every odd numbered year. Plus they have a lot of salary cap space to spend on signing their players, plus picking up a major free agent.
On to football. First order of business, Auburn/Ole Miss; as far as that game goes, I felt really bad for Ole Miss fans when that Auburn/Ole Miss game ended on Saturday night. If my team lost a 35-31 game to a team on the level of Auburn, at home, and my team lost Ameer Abdullah to that type of injury on the deciding play at the goal line that lost the game, I would be crushed. I have nothing against Auburn, after all, Ameer grew up an Auburn fan in Birmingham and I like Gus Malzahn, but I still felt really bad for Ole Miss Saturday night.
Speaking of #8 on Nebraska, talk about a huge scare on Saturday and a collective fanbase holding its breath, that was Nebraska fans as the team had to deal without Ameer against a scrappy Purdue outfit. 35-14 win, but obviously the bye week could not come at a better time for the Big Red. A good time to get rested up and ready to go for the stretch run because starting when we go to Madison, every game is important.
On the Texans, not a new revelation but Fitzpatrick still sucks. He sucked at the beginning of the season and he sucks now. You can tell that Andre Johnson is frustrated; he spoke with the media Monday and insinuated he wanted to get as far away from here as possible during the bye week. I am glad that Andre has voiced his support for Ryan Mallett, at least according to Ian Rapoport. We need to get Mallett in there and see what he can do.
The worst part about that game is that we made Jets castoff Mark Sanchez look like a really good quarterback. The fact that Clowney isn't playing regularly isn't exactly helping matters on the defensive front.
On Broncos/Patriots, I have said this all along; if Gronk is healthy, they're a Super Bowl team period because you can't stop their offense with him in there. The problem is, he's not always there, but when he is they are near unstoppable offensively. Sorry, Broncos fans, but if Gronkowski is healthy I don't see anything keeping the Patriots out of Phoenix for the Super Bowl.
Watch for the Saints to be 7-4 after the next three weeks with a struggling Niners team, the Bengals and the struggling Ravens in the next three. The big key here is, all of them come to New Orleans. The Saints might well be ready to make a playoff push.
Once 6-1, the Dallas Cowboys are now 6-3 and facing serious issues; namely, that their offensive line that I've been touting all year has been springing leaks and the obvious one, that Tony Romo has back issues and will be out until at least after the bye. Dallas faces a very important game Sunday against Jacksonville to at least get to the bye at 7-3.
Hard to figure out what's going on with the Niners and Chargers; the first one has been to three straight conference championship games and a Super Bowl yet sits 4-4 and going to New Orleans, and the other one has lost three straight and got blasted 37-0 by the Dolphins.
One last NFL note; the only division in the National Football League with every single team above .500 is...
the AFC North.
On the college football playoff poll, one thing I notice is that for the most part, one loss teams are ahead of two loss teams. That is fine, as long as the committee sticks with that. If you're going to establish that precedence, fine, but stick with it.
Until next time....
