NFL power poll
Well there are two weeks left. Positioning for playoff spots, first week byes and home-field advantage are starting to take shape.
Let’s explore:
In the AFC, the Patriots and the Steelers are each 11-3 and each have secured their division. Of course if they finished tied, the Pats hold the tie-breaker and would welcome all comers to Foxboro in the playoffs. Jacksonville is 10-4 and has an outside shot at getting home-field advantage. The Jags clinch the South with one more win. The Chiefs have a scant one-game lead on the Chargers in the West, the closest division race in the AFC. That lead actually is a 1.1 game lead since the Chiefs swept the Chargers and own the tie-breaker too.
There are three teams – Bills, Titans, Ravens – at 8-6 fighting for two wildcard spots, and the Chargers are next at 7-7. The rest of the AFC is under .500.
In the NFC, the South is clearly the best division in football. Atlanta is 9-5 and that ranks third, a game back of co-leaders Carolina and New Orleans. If Atlanta wins out, the Falcons win the division, because they have the Saints and Panthers the next two weeks.
The Eagles are 12-2 and have clinched the East. The Vikings are 11-3 and have clinched the North. The L.A. Rams are 10-4, two clear of Seattle, and can clinch the West with one more win.
The Seahawks, Lions and Cowboys are each 8-6 a game behind the Falcons for the final wildcard spot. But each of those teams has lost to the Falcons, so Atlanta holds a ton of tie-breaking edges and its next win clinches a postseason spot. The Seahawks-Cowboys game this weekend is a complete elimination game.
Powerful
1. New England. Patriots fatigue is understandable and some of their fans can be insufferable. And yes, the checkered history of SpyGate, DeflateGate, Rusty Gate, Antonio Gates, you name a Gate, is an easy target too. But to be fair here, at some point, we have to tip our collective visor to how well the entire team handles themselves in winning moments. It simply happens too many times. Moments in games with huge meaning coming down to the very end and the Patriots are always under control, always prepared, always the more mentally tougher team, and almost always prevail. At Pittsburgh on Sunday. The Super Bowl against Atlanta. The Super Bowl against Seattle. The list is immense and impressive. And yes those teams stumbled and struggled and even gagged. But if your opponent routinely does that over and over again, then some of that is because of either stuff you are forcing them to do, or because you are simply better in pressure situations. And oh yeah, Gronk is an absolute manimal, and his polar bear-like antics are completely ending that “Well, other than those two years with Moss, Brady never has had a go-toe receiver.” Gronk is a total monster and the biggest mismatch in the league as we speak.
2. Los Angeles. Is this an over-reactionary springboard jump because of the way the Rams throttled Seattle? Maybe. But know this: The Rams have legit weapons on offense with Robert Woods and Sammy Watkins stretching the field. Tackle Andrew Whitworth may have been the best free agent signing of the offseason. (Side note: This is a cool story of Whitworth buying bikes for an entire L.A. elementary school.) Todd Gurley is so good we’ll actually start calling him Todd Gurley II, which is even on the back of his uniform. And their best player is Aaron Donald, the former Pitt defensive lineman who is better at his position than just about any other player at every other position.
3. Pittsburgh. If Antonio Brown returns, the Steelers will be a tough out. Without Brown, who partially tore his calf muscle in the loss to New England, Ben Roethlisberger, who has been decidedly mediocre this year, could find some tough postseason sledding.
4. Philadelphia. The Eagles survived the Giants’ best shot last weekend and secured a first-round bye. A Philly won or a Vikings loss clinched home-field advantage through the NFC playoffs. That’s the good news. The bad news is Nick Foles will be taking the snaps for the Eagles either way.
5. New Orleans. Yes, that leaves an 11-3 Minnesota team out of the top five and a red-hot Panthers bunch who can beat anyone when Good Cam shows up. But the Saints may have the deepest collection of skill guys in the league, paced by the running back duo of Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara. (Side note: Ingram has adopted the “Boom and Zoom” tandem nickname, which is way better than the tired “Thunder and Lightning” in this view.) Seriously, what Zoom and Boom are doing is bordering on history. Each has more than 1,200 yards from scrimmage and there are only five pairs of running backs on the same team in modern NFL history who each topped 1,300 scrimmage yards in the same season. And only one pair of tamales – Cleveland’s Ernest Byner and Kevin Mack in 1985 – who each topped 1,400 yards from scrimmage in the same season.
Powerless
28. Chicago. Now seems to be a fair time to check in on Mitch Trubisky, the Bears rookie QB. Trubisky will forever be judged against Deshaun Watson, the Houston rookie who was lighting up the league before being injured. In 10 games, Trubisky is completing 59.8 percent of his throws for 1,822 yards with seven TDsand seven picks. In seven games, Watson completed 61.8 percent of his throws for 19 TDs and eight picks. Hmmmmmm.
29. Tampa Bay. Man, that’s a team that should be better than 4-10, and every time you turn around, the Bucs training staff jumps into action. Watching Monday night as the Bucs snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, every third dead ball, here came the Bucs trainers. It’s like they were a M*A*S*H unit for Col. Potter’s sake.
30. Indianapolis. You have to believe walking coach-speak Chuck Pagano is going to get the ax soon, right? Yes, this team is without franchise quarterback Andrew Luck, but the development everywhere else is staggeringly stunted. Side note: With Luck back healthy next year, here’s a bet that the Colts will be really tempted to replace Frank Gore, who got his first NFL carry from a hand-off from Johnny Unitas, with Saquan Barkley, the Penn State star. Yes, Luck would like to have a tackle, but Barkley’s skill set will be tempting. We love the draft. You know this.
31. New York Giants. A disastrous season that was completely sacked when both starting wide outs – Odell Beckham Jr. and Brandon Marshall – were lost for the year in October. Yes, the Giants fought against Philadelphia on Sunday, but this 2-12 bunch now faces the tough QB question of what happens with Eli Manning. Manning threw for 434 yards and three TDs Sunday. He has more than 3,000 passing yards, 18 TDs and only 10 interceptions throwing to a collection of scout team wide outs and running backs and future star tight end Evan Engram. But he will be 37 on Jan. 3 and the No. 2 pick will have either Josh Rosen or Sam Darnold available.
32. Cleveland. Speaking of clinching spots, the Browns need one more loss to secure the No. 1 overall pick in next year’s draft. It would be so very Cleveland for the Browns. The continued implosion of the Houston Texans also is encouraging news for Cleveland, which owns the Texans first-round pick. Right now the Texans (4-10) are one of four teams tied for the fourth-worst record in the league.
More to come?
That seems to be a very fair question with the quick and somewhat surprising announcements of two supremely powerful dudes in the world of sports stepping aside.
ESPN president John Skipper announced his resignation Monday morning because of substance abuse.
As TFP ace columnist Mark Wiedmer expertly wrote today, Jerry Richardson, the founder of the Carolina Panthers, has already been replaced atop the organization and is looking to sell the team. Weeds rightly asks who could be the next owner of the Panthers, considering it seems each passing day another round of upsetting stories comes out about another powerful dude abusing his power.
And let’s be clear, to buy an NFL team – here’s betting the price will start around $3 billion, even with the NFL numbers trending in the other direction for the first time in more than a generation – you have to have some serious heavy hitters.
But Weeds’ query about who’s next for the Panthers can wait. What about the question of more to come?
In the world of powerful owners of sports teams, you have to believe there are so many more skeletons in the closets of that billionaire boys bunch, right? ‘
And in terms of Skipper and Richardson in particular, it’s completely fair to wonder if more will come out.
Richardson quickly and voluntarily announced he was selling his team, his pride and joy and a big source of his identity, rightly or wrongly. (Have you seen the statue of himself Richardson put in front of the stadium? Yep.)
It took the NBA prying the Clippers from Donald Sterling’s hands and that was caught on video. Yes, we can debate whether that was the best decision by the NBA all day, but for that fight to be that dramatic and Richardson to willingly and quickly step aside makes you wonder if the worst stories have not been told yet.
As for Skipper, let’s offer the caveat that we all are sympathetic to people who fight and battle substance abuse issues. It’s a hard obstacle to overcome, for the person and their families. But it’s also fair to wonder if there’s not more to come in that deal as well, considering there are a lot of companies – especially monster operations like Disney – who would be more than willing to work with employees – especially ones that have had a tenth of the testimonials that Skipper has had given for him in the last 24 hours – to battle these issues.
Those are normally dubbed leaves of absences rather than straight resignations. And who knows Skipper’s exact situation. Dude could be set for life. The pressure of that job may add great stress to the fight against the abuse problem.
But it’s fair to ask if there’s more to come.
And it’s been our experience that when that question is fair, the answer normally is not if but when. (And how bad.)
Kobe Bryant
OK, we always thought the nickname “Black Mamba” was kind of silly.
We also felt a little robbed that he and Shaq could not make it work in L.A. to see how many more titles the Lakers would have claimed. Seriously, they won three in a row, and were contributors to stars on three more title teams apart. It’s fair to wonder if they could have won five straight back in the early 2000s, right?
Well, Kobe Bryant was honored by the Lakers last night in a ceremony that somehow fittingly had the team retire both his number 8 and number 24.
That’s completely Kobe. But the career of Kobe Bryant may actually be the last of its kind.
Think of what that guy survived, career-wise.
The rape charges in Colorado. The break-up with Shaq. The fights with Phil, who is one of the worst GMs but one of the most successful coaches in professional team sports. The forced trade after the draft.
His timing – both on and off the court – really worked out, good and bad.
The 2003 rape allegation in today’s world would have been the biggest story since O.J. Seriously.
Kobe’s on the court game – long jumpers, low percentages, but high totals – worked exactly opposite to today’s efficiency, 3s and lay-ups game.
This is not doubting Kobe Bryant was an all-timer, and his numbers are pretty awesome.
He had a month in 2006 in which he averaged better than 43 points per game. Yes, that included his 81-point game, but still. That’s Chamberlain-esque.
Five titles. More than 33,000 career points, which ranks third all-time.
But if you pause and wonder, “Where does Kobe Bryant” rank among all-time NBA players, he’s hard to place.
Is he a top 10 player, which means you would assume he’s better than LeBron, Bird, Shaq, the Big O or Magic, Hakeem, Dr. J., or Moses Malone right? (For Kobe to be top 10, those five are right there too. And there’s no touching the super four of Wilt, Russell, Kareem, Jordan.)
Thoughts?
This and that
– Wow, what a needlessly stressful game for the Falcons, right? Of course their 24-21 win did not cover the line, so want to guess where our NFL picks finished this week? Yep, Chuck Worley. Two-and-2.
– After the power outage and airport nightmare Sunday night, we saw this on social media: Around 9:40 p.m. Sunday, the announced average wait time when calling Delta customer service was 3 hours and five minutes. Wowser.
– Here is an interesting preview of the early signing period for the top 10 class in the country. Of those 10, there are three SEC teams with Georgia (3rd), Alabama (7th) and Auburn (9th), two Big Ten teams with THE Ohio State (1st) and Penn State (5th), two Big 12 teams with Texas (2nd) and Oklahoma (8th) and rounded out by Miami (4th), Notre Dame (6th) and Washington (10th).
Today’s question
True or false, there’s more to come on the Richardson and/or Skipper stories.
True or false, you’d take the Patriots over the field in the AFC.
True or false, Kobe is a top-10 all-time NBA player.
As for today, Jake Gyllenhaal is 37. Alyssa Milano is 45.
Magician Criss Angel is 50.
Reggie White would have been 56 today.
On this day in 1843, Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” was published. Side true or false: Scrooged with Bill Murray is wickedly underrated.
Let’s stay there, and as we get ready for Christmas, let’s go with the Rushmore of the worst Christmas songs ever.
Go.