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“NFL Playoffs-Put Your Big Boy Pants On”

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Now the real teams, the best teams, get ready to play.

It’s weekend two of the NFL playoffs, and the weaklings from Wildcard Weekend are gone.

The storyline heading into this weekend will be veteran quarterbacks, with lots of playoff experience, facing QB’s who have hardly ever played in postseason. But there are lots of other important number to pay attention to also.

Jacksonville at Pittsburgh
..Ben Roethlisberger has made 20-postaeason starts-Blake Bortels has made just one, and that one was not very impressive…this will be a classic chess match…the multi-talented Steelers offense, averaging (377YPG) vs a Jaguars defense that had 55-sacks and 33-takeaways this year….You can discount the early fall meeting where Jacksonville beat them-this is a different Steelers team now….Can Jacksonville deal with Big Ben…Le’Veon Bell…Antonio Brown-Martavis Bryant-JuJu Smith and ore…..Roethlisberger is (7-3) at home in post season…and in all home games (81-27). The Jags Cinderella season ends.

Tennessee at New England
..Speaking of numbers, those flashing neon lights about Tom Brady’s stats are amazing…(32TD-8 Int) this year….Brady 34-postseason starts….Marcus Mariota just one, last week…Brady (107-18) in home games….(17-3) in playoff games in Foxborough….the Pats offense is averaging (394YPG) this year…How are the Titans going to account for Gronkowski-Cooks-Amendodla-Hogan and the 3-backs who catch passes…Tennessee looks in trouble.

New Orleans at Minnesota..
..Now this is really interesting….Drew Brees, for all his accolades, is just (1-3) on the road in the playoffs….his Saints are (3-13) all time in Minnesotal….Brees has made 12-postseason game starts…Case Keenum-none……Vikings have not won in the playoffs since 2009…….The Saints are averaging (391YPG)….but Minnesota is giving up a league best (275YPG)….Can the Purple defense stop Marc Ingram and Alvin Kamara, and at the same time put a lid on Brees? ….Can these two nameless WRs the Vikings have, Adam Thielen and Stefan Diggs continue to average (14YPC) this weekend?..Picking Brees the made bomber to be the difference.

Atlantan at Philadelphia….The Eagles season is in jeopardy because there is no Carson Wentz at quarterback….Nick Foles has come back down to earth with turnovers and sacks over the last couple of weeks…The Falcons lockdown secondary was superb in their win last weekend in the wildcard game…..All the attention in Atlanta goes towards Matt Ryan, but the Falcons defense is giving up just (318YPG)…..So the big question, can Jay Ajayi and Garret LeBlount pound the ball enough to open up the passing lanes for Nick Foles to find his receivers….Ryan has a Super Bowl start among his 9-postseason games…Foles has played just once in the playoffs…. This will be some battle….No Wentz-no chance for Philadelphia.

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“Raiders-What Are They Getting?”

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Oh are they happy in Oakland right now, those lifetime passionate Raiders fans.

Jon Gruden has come home to coach the Raiders again, this after having been out of coaching since 2008.

He had success, briefly in the NFL, at the tail end of his stay with the Raiders, and in the beginning after he went to Tampa Bay.

But in terms of a sparkling career, more so on television as an analyst rather than on the sidelines as a head coach.

The ledger shows a career record of (95-81), decent. It also shows his getting axed in Oakland and then fired in Tampa Bay. Nothing unusual there, for Al Davis went thru lots of coaches, and the Bucs have a dismal history of franchise problems.

Oh they love Gruden on television, his Monday Night Football work, and his NFL-Quarterback School features on ESPN.

But what are the Raiders getting this second time around? A really strong personality, yes. A really strong football man, I don’t know.

In his long run as a head coach, he won with just 2-journeyman quarterbacks. Rich Gannon arrived, and flourished for two years after bouncing around a lot. Older guy, system fit him, a driven competitor..

Brad Johnson had been lots of places, and won for a couple of years after Gruden’s arrival in Tampa Bay.

But Gruden did nothing of importance with all the other QBs he inherited. Names you have probably forgotten, Chris Simms, Bruce Gradkowski, Jeff Garcia, Brian Griese.

And the Super Bowl ring he got with the Bucs, was with Tony Dungy’s great program that he inherited, when Dungy went to Indianapolis.

In fact, Gruen has had just 6-winning seasons in 11-years as a head coach. And his resume included seasons of 9-11 and 12-losses.

Raiders fans get excited about lots of stupid things. The Black Hole. Mount Davis the empty Stadium, and Raiders history.. The teams of yesteryear because more recently the franchise has been in disarray.

Current owner Mark Davis thinks his late father would be proud of what he did, paying Gruen a reported 10-year-100 million contract. Truth is All soured on Gruen in a nasty personality clash, that led to his Oakland exit. A power struggle between the fiesta kid and the old man-you always know how that winds up, especially in Oakland.

So much for revisionist history about Gruen-Raiders-Davis et al.

He does inherit a great thrower in Derek Carr, and an off-injured great athlete in Amari Cooper, a strange mix of personalities in Marshawn Lynch and Michael Crabtree and a really poor-but young-needs to be developed defense.

The glaring number about Gruen is the fact he went (57-55) after he won with Dungy’s players in Tampa and really failed the last group of years.

Are the Raiders getting a great coach, or just a TV personality to be their coach?

Raiders fans always buy a bill of goods in Oakland, so maybe it doesnt really matter.

But NFL people are really skeptical about this guy, that hire, and what the end results might be.

Gruden talks a good game, but that’s on TV, not on the sidelines in game action.

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“Lakers-Enough is Enough”

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If only cease and desist orders worked in the real world, this would all go away.

But they don’t especially in the White House, and surely not in the sports-world.

So everytime LaVar Ball opens his mouth, somebody in the media needs to feel that they have an exclusive, and a responsibility, to report ‘junk’.

People are tired of what LaVar Ball thinks, says, does. Why they keep covering him is beyond belief.

It’s like CNN-Fox running to cover every stupid tweet in the middle of the night that comes from the President you voted for.

You know the history of the Worst Mouth in the West. LaVar says this, LaVar feels that. LaVar wants you to cover it and react to it. The running totals show:

..Lonzo Ball can save the Lakers.
..Lonzo Ball can be better than Michael Jordan.
..Lonzo Ball will workout only for the Lakers.
..Lonzo Ball can be the next Magic Johnson.
..Lonzo this, that and some of the other.

The kid doesn’t speak out, nor stand up. He’s too busy being overwhelmed by trying to be a teammate and an NBA player.

The latest sludge spilled out of LaVar’s mouth from Lithuania, that the coach, Luke Walton, had lost the players, lost the lockeroom, couldn’t coach the team.

Of course the father never named names, so he must have felt all the players feel the same, including his son.

But Lonzo never responded specifically, saying generically, ” I can play for anyone”

LaVar’s latest rage came weeks after the team met with him, asking him to tone down the constant stream of criticism directed at the young coach, with an event younger roster.

How to respond. The kid can say publicly his father’s opinions are only his father’s and not his. Or the kid could say, we roll with Coach Walton.

Or Magic Johnson, who said he would control all this, should go on the offensive, take it to the basket, and slam dunk the old man by saying “his comments are unfair to the kid, the team, the organization”.

Around the NBA, reaction came quickly. Golden State coach Steve Kerr says the Ball Family soap opera to all things Kardashian and reality TV.

Dallas coach Rick Carlisle went after ESPN for giving the loudmouth father any type of platform.

Detroit’s Stan Van Gundy ripped the network too for having no standards of journalism for creating a story with no source accept the old man.

I am anxious to hear the response from the always opiniationed, super-intellect, Greg Popovich out of San Antonio.

Maybe it would take a superstar, soon to be free-agent, LeBron James to say he’d never consider a franchise, where there is turmoil, inferring about the LA situation.

This entire soap opera began the day after Lonzo Ball ended his 1-year, 1-and-done season at UCLA, with his father’s pronouncements.

It worsened opening night when LA Clippers players ripped into Lonzo, and beat him down on the court, and continued the tirade postgame heading to the lockeroom…’where’s your daddy now’.

So now we await the next chapter, involving Team Ball. The aftermath of the China shoplifting shopping spree, has sent LiAngelo and his brother, LaMelo, to go play in Lithuania. How do you think that will go?

And Lonzo is just halfway thru what shapes up as another terrible Lakers losing season. Too many kids on a roster, getting drilled too often, with lots of games to still play.

As if LaVar doesn’t have enough to deal with, now this lawsuit for non payment of bills from the company that helped rollout his athletic shoe-sports merchandize business on behalf of the Lakers rookie.

LaVar blew off the China incident by saying, ‘I’ve seen a lot worse on the streets of LA. Hey loudmouth, pay your bills, now that the Better Business Bureau gave his company a letter grade of “F” for its start.

Why do I get the feel, LaVar is as bad as the last overbearing father we had to deal with?

Anybody remember Marv Marinovich, and his passing quarterback son Todd? And how did that work out?

The father from hell, LaVar, about to make his basketball star son, go thru a season from hell.

LaVar, stop bawling. Let your kid start balling.

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“Roll Tide Whether You Like It or Not”

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You may not like Southeastern Conference Football.

You may be tired of Nick Saban.

You may be worn out from Alabama history and football dating back to Bear Bryant.

But you have to say this, about last night’s Alabama overtime win over Georgia, the football factories in the SEC develop lots of great players, and that was as good a game as you could ever want, topping last year’s Clemson win over Alabama.

So here we sit, lots of the nation cheering on Georgia in a dominant first half. Rooting for Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart , the student, to beat his teacher, Nick Saban, and they were.

But football is a 60-minues game, or in this case, a 65-minute game, and it’s a game of adjustments.

After watching his star QB-Jalen Hurts stagger thru a (3-8) 21Y-passing first half, and getting outplayed by Dogs freshman QB-Jake Fromme, Ssaban had no choice.

He went with Hawaiian freshman QB-Tua Tagovailoa to start the 2nd half. It changed the chemistry of the game, it led to TD’s, and an explosive come from behind victory.

He threw 3-TD-passes, led Bama to four scoring drives, passed for (205Y)…ran for some, and ignited every aspect of the Red & White offense. And then the defense, pushed all over the field early , came alive and took over the game.

Outgunned (223-94)….facing a (47-24) deficit in snaps, Alabama owned the 2nd half, and then got it done in overtime. The QBs 41-yard TD pass, trailing by 3-points, right after he had taken what looked like a death blow 16-yard quarterback sack, is like the closing chapter in a thriller novel.

Bama earned this win. Georgia lost the game.

Alabama got some gifts too. They played poorly, and then got the benefit of no-calls from officials. There was a 12-man on the field flag, unusual for a Sasban team.

There was a near fight on the sidelines between 2-Bama players and a coach.

An unsportsmanlike personal foul flag….and a roughing the passer call.

But the Big 10-refs missed a lot.

A Bama player throwing a punch. Missed 2-Bama players illegally moving on a snap on a punt that was blocked, that was called a Georgia offside. A facemark flag that should have been thrown on a Bama tackle. A blow to the back of the head to a downed Dogs receiver. Lots of late arriving Christmas gifts.

6-championsihips in 10-years for the treasure chest of talent in Tuscaloosa.

Georgia played great. Alabama played better, especially at the end.

The whole country is probably tired of all things SEC football, probably worn out by Nick Saban’s dominance, probably upset at the structure of the college football system.

But if you loved the fireworks you get in college football,, you’d sign up to watch another SEC game like that, for the national title.

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NFL Playoffs-Good-Bad-Ugly-Exciting”

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It was a little of everything this weekend, NFL wildcard weekend.

KANSAS CITY….Lots of questions now being asked around Arrowhead Stadium. Have they gone as far as they can with Andy Reid, who is a disappointing (1-4) in postseason games? What becomes of Alex Smith, coming off a spectacular season, with another disappointing result, and with one year left on his contract? Who are the real Chiefs, the quick starting team, the strong finish, or the erratic mid season and post season bad showing? An ugly finish to what many thought would be a great season.

TENNESSEE…You saw the cup half-empty and the cup half full, you saw failure and then potential. The Titans can be an enigma with Marcus Mariota, though his heroics in the second half, led by a power run game with Derrick Henry, and a tough guy defense got them the win. Consistency has not been part of the makeup of the Titans, but they won, and they will be better..

RAMS….A spectacular season even with the disappointment in the playoff game. There is so much to build on. Jared Goff is growing up on the job, and making more big plays than bad plays on a game by game basis. Credit to the organization for making 4-key acquisitions, left tackle, center, and the two big play wide receivers. The future looks bright in a city they have now recaptured emotionally.

ATLANTA…It’s not the same team that was in the Super Bowl, but it’s still really good. A great show by that secondary in choking off big passing plays, while slowing down the run game. Some games Matt Ryan and the receiver corps and their two headed running back group, look special. Other games they look out of sync. Still very good, but not great.

BILLS….Give them credit for getting as far as they did with a very limited offense, and lots of new pieces on a tour defense. To be decided, this 18M contract decision they have to make with Tyrod Taylor, or is it time to grow and develop Nathan Peterman. Hey a 9-win season when you consider where the Bills have been for nearly 2-decades but lots of work to do still on that roster. Yes they got there, but they don’t seem to be very good.

JAGUARS….Can you trust Blake Bortels, will he ever be a stud, or was the Sunday up and own performances him being him?. He may be playing his final games with the Jags. The defense is something special, and it should be considering all the free agent money they paid for talent and high picks. But they should not be confused with an AFC-power yet, till they get better quarterbacking.

SAINTS…No one could ever imagine a day where it would be okay to have Drew Brees throw for just 222-yards, and get a win. He can still air it out, witnessed by what he did against Carolina, but the strength of the run game, and a more physical defense means New Orleans is dangerous and very different than the years where Brees had to throw for 399-every Sunday just to be in a game.

CAROLINA….Cam Newton against the world on offense. He is asked to do so much, and he often does, it’s just too bad they don’t have enough firepower around him. Luke Kuechly and that defense is rugged. They proved a lot, even in the loss, and maybe being in the NFC South has actually made them a very good team. More good years going with this group.

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