Morning. Hope you had a Merry Christmas.
From the “Talks too much” studios, let’s do this.
Weekend winners
Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald (11) makes a catch as Green Bay Packers cornerback Casey Hayward (29) defends during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 27, 2015, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri) Arizona Cardinals. Take that. The Cardinals boatraced Green Bay to a point that makes you wonder if the Packers are a house of cards. (That’s a fair question, but one for a different time.) What should be appreciated is what the Cardinals are doing on each side of the ball and against all comers. Injuries? Forget ’em. Arizona has lost its top two running backs so it plugs in David Johnson and doesn’t miss a step. Defensive back and all-around playmaker Tyrann Mathieu tears an ACL, and in comes Jerraud Powers, who scored a defensive TD in the 38-8 rout of the Packers. Coupled with the Panthers’ first loss of the season, the Cardinals are now in the chase for home-field advantage through the NFC playoffs.
Julio Jones. OK, Josh Norman has been crowned the best cover corner, trash-talking king supreme poobah. And Jones absolutely took him to the woodshed. Yes, the 70-yard heave that became the game-changing score was a busted coverage that left Jones against a safety and a linebacker. But Norman was hooked on Jones for most of the day, whether he was going in motion or not, and Jones owned him. Whether it was across the middle or working the sideline, Jones was everywhere and was consistently open. If you take the long play off Jones’ record, he still had eight catches for more than 100 yards on 10 targets working against Norman. There are a lot of dudes who can make a hard claim as the best receiver in the game, but if we had to pick one, we’d start with Julio Jones.
Cassidy Hubbarth. She’s the ESPN reporter http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/12/espn-reporter-ends-interview-with-gregg-popovich-after-one-question-as-a-christmas-gift who elicited a smile from notorious Grinch Gregg Popovich during a sideline interview Saturday by letting him go after one question and wishing him a Merry Christmas. Well-played indeed.
Vegas. Again. We have said multiple times, but the reason Vegas can offer Celine Dion signing and five-star Lobster deals for affordable rates is because gambling is a very entertaining BID-ness for the house in the long run. The five teams favored by the public Sunday – the Panthers, the Steelers, Patriots, Packers and Giants – each lost straight-up and against the spread. Add in the Seahawks getting upset, and it was a good day to be the house.
Star Wars. Yes, Star Wars continues to win everything. When it comes to movie financials, if any question starts with, “What’s the first movie to earn (and then the blank with about any reference point)?, the answers is going to be the most recent Star Wars. Largest opening. Largest second week. Largest take on Christmas Day. Fast to top $1 billion (yes, billion with a ‘B’). It is believed “The Force Awakens” could be the first film to top $1 billion (yes, billion with a ‘B’) in North America alone. CHA-ching.
How about the career years for Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick and Washington’s Kirk Cousins. Each is in a contract year, and each has delivered mightily. In the Jets’ five-game winning streak that has propelled them into the driver’s seat of the postseason, Fitzpatrick is 131-of-203 for 1,525 yards with 13 TDs and just one interception. One agent told ESPN that the 33-year-old journeyman will likely get a contract offer in the $12-million-annually neighborhood, and that’s a very nice neighborhood. Cousins, too, has exploded and has led the Redskins to the NFC East title. In the last seven games, in which the Redskins are 5-2 have zoomed into the postseason, Cousins has been off-the-charts good. Check this: he’s 161-of-220 (73.2 percent) for 2,036 yards with 16 TDs and two picks. Dude is going to get something close to a nine-figure offer, whether it comes from Washington or Houston is up to Daniel Skins owner Snyder.
—
Weekend losers
Pittsburgh Steelers. Controlling their playoff destiny, all the Steelers had to do was handle the Ravens and Browns in the final two weeks of the season. Heck, the Steelers were generating all sorts of, “Team no one wants to face” rhetoric. The Ravens and Browns were a combined 7-21 going into Sunday, for Pete’s sake. The Steelers stumbled by playing arguably their worst game of the season Sunday against Baltimore, which was led by Ryan Mallett for crying out loud. Now Pittsburgh needs help. The Steelers are out if the New York Jets win next week or if the Denver Broncos win tonight or next Sunday. Sad.
Rick Pitino. Not a good look for a bona fide coaching genius who really has to be on thin ice all things considered right? Here’s a grainy clip of Pitino appearing to give the one-finger salute after Louisville’s two-point loss at Rupp http://sports.yahoo.com/news/louisville-s-rick-pitino-shows-ugly-side-after-loss-to-kentucky-215617608-ncaab.html. Seriously, Pitino’s legend aside, dude is part Teflon, considering he survived the adultery/extortion seediness from a couple of years ago and it really seems like the whole Whorehouse/recruiting scandal from the summers has all but vanished. Man, and Bruce Pearl got three years for lying about a Bar-B-Q, and Larry Brown returned to SMU’s bench after nine games after his staff was involved in high academic fraud, and Jimmy Boeheim is back in the saddle after more than a decade of NCAA sins that were overwhelming (except miraculously, they did not happen at all in that one season the Orange won the NCAA title). College hoops: For the love of the game. The lesson here is, as always, the NCAA stinks.
Cleveland Cavaliers. A sloppy and inefficient loss on Christmas Day to the Warriors (in a game that was much-anticipated and failed to live up to the hype aesthetically or dramatically) was followed by a collapse at Portland on Saturday in which the Cleveland LeBrons were housed byhttp://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/14441486/david-blatt-cleveland-cavaliers-says-blowout-reveal-bad-team 105-76 to a Trail Blazers bunch that was without its best player in Damian Lillard.
Big-name quarterbacks. Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger was shown up by Mallett. Aaron Rodgers looked more like Kenny Rogers, and assuredly did not know when to fold ’em. Cam Newton was pedestrian – although physically, dude stands out among peers like no one else in his sport with the possible exception of LeBron James. (Seriously, Cam looks big among everyone on the field, regardless of position.) Throw in the stinker form Eli Manning and, well, week 16 was anything but sweet for a lot of big-name QB stars.
—
FILE – This Aug. 9, 2014 file photo shows an NFL logo on a goal post padding before a preseason NFL football game between the Detroit Lions and the Cleveland Browns at Ford Field in Detroit. In a two-year content and advertising deal announced Monday, Aug. 10, 2015, Twitter is huddling with the National Football League as it tackles the challenge of attracting a broader audience to its short messaging service. (AP Photo/Rick Osentoski, File) NFL craziness
It’s a crazy time in the NFL, right?
How strange is it? Well, you can make an argument that Bill Belichick won the weekend and lost the weekend. (Maybe ol’ Bill reads the 5-at-10, and he liked our suggestion last week about potentially throwing the game against the Jets to put the pressure on the Steelers. Well, let the conspiracy theorists go nuts with the fact that Belichick told his captain that if they won the toss to start overtime they wanted to kick. Yes, kick. It was a request that forced the referee to double check the call. It also allowed the Jets the first crack, which became a game-winning TD in a 26-20 Jets win that gave them the inside track to the final playoff spot and put the Steelers on the brink. And without the Steelers in the mix, who in the AFC scares the Patriots? No one. Crazy like a fox. Or just plain dumb since it could cost them home-field advantage in the playoffs. We’ll see)
How surreal is it? Well, Peyton Manning is being accused by Al-Jazeera of using HGH. Yes, that Peyton Manning, the guy with the cleanest image around. And the report has already been recanted by the key witness, but Al-Jazeera is standing by the story. (And with that report from the Middle East news service, Donald Trump’s polling numbers just went up in Tennessee, Indiana and Colorado.)
How overblown is our feigned interest in player safety? Well, want to guess where “Concussion” – the supposed ‘gotcha’ movie about head injuries with an all-star cast and eight-figure promotion budget – finished in box office receipts on the busiest week of the movie calendar that also was the busiest Christmas week on record? Yep, “Concussion” finished sixth, well behind the monolith that is Star Wars and right behind “Road Chip” – which of course is the latest installment of the Alvin and the Chipmunks series. It’s growing more difficult for us to believe there really is a concern about this, when the teams AND the players do not really care. The teams and the league are worried about controlling the lawsuits’ the current players are worried about the game. The hand-wringing is coming from those outside of the game, and maybe that can illicit some quality-control changes that can help make the game is safer. No one is against player safety (well other than a lot of the defensive players), and the league’s main concern should not be in the next five years but the next generation of players and whether parents are turning away from football. Either way, if the “Concussion” movie is the litmus test, then there appears to be waning interest in the entire ordeal.
It leads us to a place where there is very little drama in Week 17. The final AFC wildcard position is up the air, with the Broncos and Jets holding the inside tracks (Denver can win its division by winning out and clinch a playoff spot by winning tonight or next week; if the Jets beat the Bills next week, New York is in.) The NFC North is in play as the Vikings and Packers face off next week. The rest is about positioning.
Well, yes, the Colts technically could still win the AFC South if the following things happen: The Colts beat the Titans, and the Texans lose to Jacksonville and the Bengals lose to Denver (tonight) and the Bengals lose to Baltimore (next week) and the Jets lose to the Bills and the Saints lose to the Falcons and the Browns beat the Chargers and the Dolphins beat the Patriots and the Raiders beat the Chiefs and the Steelers lose to the Browns. Good luck with that Indy. (Or to quote our boy Lloyd Christmas, “So you’re saying there’s a chance.)
That then leaves us to the question about tanking. If you are the Titans, don’t you need to lose to Indy this week. A win could cost you the No. 1 overall pick. And what about the rest of the league trying to position for a draft pick? And in that discussion, didn’t the Falcons and Rams actually hurt themselves in the long run by beating the Panthers and Seahawks, respectfully, this weekend? (Yes, we know, wins for coaches are huge and Dan Quinn and Jeff Fisher each needed those victories. Plus, young teams like Atlanta and St. Louis can use the experience and knowledge of playing with and beating some of the best teams in the league, conference and their divisions. And we were at the Dome and it was an awesome atmosphere. But you get the point.)
So what does that mean? Hard to know, but the story lines of the biggest monolith in entertainment (well, the biggest one in TV entertainment; Star Wars is making a hard push for the overall title) are crazy. And intriguing.
In other words, exactly what the league wants. (Cue the Roger Goodell shot with ol’ Rope-a-Dope Roger sitting on stacks of bags with $$$ on them laughing maniacally and lighting a Cuban cigar with a $10,000 bill. Moo-ha-ha-ha-ha!)
—
This and that
– Here’s a Christmas present for Braves fans http://deadspin.com/add-dan-uggla-to-the-list-of-hoverboard-related-injurie-1749788735?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_facebook&utm_source=deadspin_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow. Yes, that’s Danny Uggla falling off a hoverboard. Thankfully no one was injured. In a related story, it’s been reported but not confirmed that this was Uggla’s third swing – and miss – on the hoverboard, meaning our man can strike out on any thing. Ladies and gentlemen, Danny Struggla. (To be fair, Struggla was hardly the only one struggling to stay on the Christmas Day hot ticket item that was the hoverboard http://www.sbnation.com/2015/12/25/10665450/hoverboard-christmas-oh-no-oh-no-oh-no.)
– It appears that the 5-at-10 may be back in the running for the Auburn defensive coordinator position since everyone from George Halas to George Jetson has apparently said thanks but no thankshttp://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/12/25/penn-states-bob-shoop-declines-offers-to-talk-about-auburn-dc-job/?ocid=Yahoo&partner=ya5nbcs.
– Thought this was interesting http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/14449159/many-power-five-schools-step-pot-easement-trend, that a growing number of Power Five athletic programs are cutting back the penalties for marijuana use since the laws and public perception are changing in regard to pot use. Thoughts? (And back to the NCAA and its uselessness, should this be one thing that long ago was made uniform among schools competing for the same prize?)
– How good is Steph Curry? So good that he’s bad. At least that’s what Mark Jackson said http://sports.yahoo.com/news/mark-jackson-thinks-stephen-curry-is–hurting–basketball–warriors-don-t-agree-051804502.htmlduring the Christmas broadcast of the Warriors’ win over the Cavs. Jackson’s point – that Curry’s ability to hit crazy shots from everywhere and the ripple effect it has with high school players jacking 3s – is far-fetched, but is somewhat connected in a roundabout. Maybe. But without any level of statistical evidence – and the fact that Jackson coached the Warriors and left on bad terms before the Warriors won the whole thing last year – it sounds like either a) a hare-brained theory or b) sour grapes.
– Class personified: Tom Hanks writing a letter – a letter mind you, not an email – to Kenny Stabler’s daughters about how Hanks looked up the Snake. Here’s the letter http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2015/12/28/10673220/tom-hanks-letter-to-kenny-stabler-daughter-typewriter-raiders-alabama-nfl
—
Today’s question(s)
Who won the weekend? Who lost it?
Have you seen the Star Wars? Thoughts? (And please be careful with the spoilers.)
As for the rest, well, Adam Vinateri is 43 today. Yes, 43. Rushmore of NFL kickers? Go.