From Leslie
Do you answer fantasy football questions on your blog? If so, what in the world should I do to replace Deshaun Watson? Man that was a bummer.
Just thought I would ask an expert. And by the way, my husband loves your radio show. Listens everyday.
Thanks.
Leslie –
Thanks for the kind words, and losing Watson is tough for you, every fantasy owner, the Texans, and in truth the NFL. You can make a hard argument that the three best ‘young’ quarterbacks in the NFL are all on the shelf for the year now with Watson, Luke and Rodgers all done with injuries. (Yes, Rodgers is in his 30s, but considering he sat for the first few years of his career, he’s kind of football young, if that makes sense.)
As for your question, we take all sorts of questions around these parts, so yes we’ll take a fantasy questions or three.
(Side note: The NFL commercial in which the dude shows up dressed in some sort of half-man, half-horse get-up and says he got his fantasy nights mixed up is pretty funny. It’s no “Dilly-Dilly” for Bud Light, but it does the job.)
First the good news this week about losing your QB this week: Considering the teams on a bye – Pats and Brady, Chargers and Rivers, Steelers and Big Ben – there may be a chance your opponent is looking for a stop-gap QB too.
(In fact we picked up Josh McCown with the Jets last night to relieve Rivers this week. So there’s that. Editor’s note: That was our immediate advice when we received this Thursday before kickoff.)
If you did not get McCown, we’d offer this names as potential fill-ins: Eli Manning, who is owned i fewer than half the ESPN.com leagues, Jared Goff and the Rams and even look at Jay Cutler, who will be throwing it a lot on Sunday night against the Raiders.
Good luck, and since we’re here, let’s do the NFL picks, which had a strong 3-1-1 run last week to get back over .500 on the year. (Barely.)
NFL picks
Indianapolis-Houston under 48. A surging Texans offense that had been ignited by rookie Deshaun Watson’s record-setting play during the last seven games, now must go back to the drawing board. And that drawing board prominently features Tom Savage, so there’s that. Talk about value, the Vegas line went from Texans minus-14 to Texans minus-6 on news of Watson’s season-ending knee injury this week. And with that, we’ll settle under 48 and roll the dice.
Baltimore plus-4 over Tennessee. The Ravens defense is legit. Normally we side with the team coming off a mid-season bye, such as the Titans are this week. But the Ravens played 10 days ago – more than enough time for Joe Flacco to get through the concussion protocol. Side note: Why did we ignore such an excellent word like protocol until it got linked with concussions? You keep being you protocol and enjoy your time in the spotlight.
Atlanta pick ’em over Carolina. The much-maligned Falcons offense looked better last week, and that’s saying something in that driving rain-storm in the Meadowlands. This week, the test at Carolina and its stingy defense will be great, but here’s believing last week was the springboard of a run for this Falcons team that simply has too much talent not to be a playoff contender.
Seattle minus-7 over Washington. There is no home-field edge in the NFL – and maybe all of professional sports – as overwhelming as the Seahawks’ 12th man. Seattle is 3-0 at home this year and 29-6 in regular season games there since the start of the 2013 campaign. Now know that the Redskins offensive line is so beat up that some rookie names Tyler Somethingorother whp had never played left tackle before was playing left tackle in the fourth quarter against Dallas. That’s not a great combination against a strong Seattle defensive front and in that type of noise environment.
Last week: 3-1-1 against the spread (75 percent)
This season 15-14-2 against the spread (51.7 percent)
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While we are wrapping up our weekly stuff, let’s do the Rushmores from the week and today in history.
Rushmore of professional teams starved for a title: Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions and Philadelphia Eagles
Rushmore of card games: Poker, Bridge, Spades, Solitaire
Rushmore of Halloween candy: Reese’s, Kit Kats, Skittles, Dum-Dums(with input from the Lil 5-at-10s)
Rushmore of most famous boxing matches ever: Rumble in the Jungle, Tyson biting the ear (because it changed everything), Mayweather-McGregor, Boom Boom Mancini-Duk Koo Kim (with an honorable mention to the “Battle of Ol’ Smokey” that Vivatones mentioned this week).
On Nov. 3 through the years:
In 1620, a Great Patent was granted to form the Plymouth Colony.
In 1954, the first Godzilla film was released.
Bronko Nagurski would have been 109 today. Charles Bronson would have been 96, and still would have been able to kick your tail.
Larry Holmes is 68. Roseanne Barr is 65. Dolph Lundgren is 59, and is anyone else super stoked about Creed II, a Stallone vehicle in which Apollo’s son (played by Michael B. Jordan) fights Drago’s son. ‘Merica.
Colin Kaepernick is 29. So there’s that.
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From Scott
Man that was a crazy World Series. What will you remember the most about it?
Scott –
Great question. Mostly we’ll remember it as a great series with six thrilling games and rotten final act.
As for specifics, we’ll remember the following five things the most we suppose.
1. Clayton Kershaw could not hold a 4-0 lead and a 7-4 lead in a pivotal Game 5. Would winning that game meant the Dodgers would win the series? Not sure. But it will be forever on Kershaw’s ledger until he wins a title.
2. George Springer – the SI cover boy in picking the Astros would win this Series back in 2017 – hitting opposite-field homers and winning the MVP.
3. Carlos Correa proposing after winning Game 7. Sporting events marriage proposals, friend or foe? I mean how romantic can you get while wearing a cup?
4. The amazing grace Yu Darvish showed that defused a potentially Series defining offensive gesture. (And yes we did notice that Gurriel tipped his cap to him in Game 7. And dude, Gurriel has a mop of hair up there.
5. Gambling, with three different betting items here: One the mysterious, unnamed bettor who nailed the first six games of the series and built up a bankroll of $14 million. He reportedly was going to let it ride on Game 7, before cooler heads prevailed and he walked away with the dough. Two, a Houston area mattress dealer lost almost $10 million with the Astros championship. During a promotion sale, the dealership offered to refund the better than $3,000 price if the Astros won the whole thing. They did, and they did, refunding almost $10 million. (The mattress dealership took out insurance for the loss with premiums that cost them more than $1 million, and the owner went to Las Vegas and put that million on the Astros to win the Series to hedge his bets. That’s one smart mattress dude.) Finally, speaking of hedging, ticket brokers hedged and lost millions on the Astros in Game 6 to make tens of millions with Game 7 tickets in L.A. Good times.
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BUTCH RELATED QUESTIONS
From Mark
Wasn’t there a Butch “code red” incident in Year 2, I think, that involved some players and possibly KPD?
Mark –
Yes, there were allegations of such. It involved Drae Bowles, who transferred to UTC after the 2014 alleged event. Also of note, we thought TFP UT beat ace Dancin’ David Cobb’s social media post was interesting that if UT fans were as upset at the rape and sexual assault allegations made then as they are about the performance of the last year, then they would have been able to fire Butch for cause back then. So there’s that.
From Bill
How did the Gators drop their baggage before the Vols?
Bill –
Not sure, but major credit to Scott Stricklin, who identified Florida’s situation with Jim McElwain simply was not going to work. He got out in front of it and made moves.
From C.S.
Here’s the skinny. Last year, South Carolina and Vandy. Losses because of no discipline, no motivation. More talent, lost both. This year, three instances. John Kelly does the gator chomp after scoring. Game changer penalty. Rashaan Gaulden double bird show. Should have been punished right then. Ty Chandler scores after 16 quarters. Does arms across chest saying look at me, I’m great. NO DISCIPLINE. Butch has no control and cannot coach players up. Can you imagine these things happening in a Saban coached game? No, I can’t either.
C.S. –
Nope, not really. In fact, it’s hard to remember the last time a Saban-coached team did stupid stuff like that. (Now a lot of that is the universally accepted fact that at Alabama, no matter how many stars are on your recruiting profile, if you embarrass the program or fumble or jump offside or use the wrong salad fork, there are three five-stars chomping at the bit to take your job.)
As for the rest of you folks who wrote about Butch and Currie, well, we’ll see how many show up tomorrow and what happens this weekend.
Until Monday, friends.
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This week’s “Not exactly Fan Mail”
I had to respond to your column. We now have to apologize for Halloween because people have now made it a demon and devil thing. If you celebrate Halloween you are praising the devil. I can assure you I never thought that when I was a child. Also, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Merry Xmas have been around since I was a child and I’m sixty-nine years old. I always thought Happy Holidays just meant you were wishing someone Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Nothing more, nothing less. Why does everyone try to make something out of NOTHING! Lighten up!
Wait, there’s more
I must quit reading your crap. Your rants are a waste of my time.
Getting close
Did you rent a costume for Halloween or did you just dress up like a jackass?
Good talk friends.
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