NFL power poll
Welcome to the penultimate week of the regular season. Good times.
So much at stake for so many players who have sacrificed so much to get to a place where they are on the cusp of clinching a spot in the dance. Whether that place is at the head of the table, like Dallas and New England are vying for, or just invited to the party like so many teams teetering on the line of 7-7 and 8-6.
Everything matter more note.
In that perspective, the NFL takes the turn that you are more - and less - than your record says. There are 10-win teams out there that do not deserve to be among the top five in the league.
Take the Kansas City Chiefs. They have managed to win 10 games with a bad offense (23rd in the league in yards) and an even worse defense (28th in yards allowed). They are leading the AFC Wildcard race - and just a game behind Oakland in the West - because they are exceptional in special teams and have beat teams with turnovers. You can't count on that - or quarterback Alex Smith for that matter - in the postseason, friends. Not when there's going to be a time when you are going to force a three-and-out or go 40 yards in 90 seconds for a chance to tie the game.
Power poll
1. New England (12-2). Want the ultimate definition on the powerful and powerless? Even with the acknowledge bettor's bias of name teams such as Patriots, Cowboys, Tide and Irish, New England has hammered Vegas' spread this year. And two of the worst teams in the league can't get enough points to cover. According to @SportsLine, if you had bet on the Patriots and against the Browns and 49ers this year, you would have gone 34-7-1. Not surprisingly, New England is giving 16.5, a season-high across all of the league, to the Jets this weekend.
2. Dallas (12-2). The Cowboys have the most complete offense in the league. Yes, the Patriots are more consistent and battle-tested. The Steelers have a better big three with Big Ben, Bell and Brown. The Raiders may be more explosive. But Dallas, with the NFL's leading rusher in rookie Ezekiel Elliott and a passing game with Prescott, Witten, Bryant and others get the undeniable pleasure of playing behind the league best offensive line. Period.
3. Oakland (11-3). If the Steelers have the best three at the big three offensive spots, the Raiders may have the three best young building blocks in the league with quarterback Derek Carr, receiver Amari Cooper and defensive end/linebacker Khalil Mack.
4. Steelers (9-5). Yes, this is ahead of two 10-win teams - we covered the Chiefs above, and the New York Giants - because of the three-headed beast that is going to be tough for any team to handle come January. Side note: How great and interesting will the NFL playoffs be with the traditional, high-powered names like Patriots, Cowboys, Raiders and Steelers in the mix.
5. Seattle (9-4-1). We believe in the Seahawks, even without star safety Earl Thomas. They are tested, and running back Thomas Rawls' return gives them an extra dimension.
Powerless
28. New York Jets (4-10). Yes, we moved Chicago out of the powerless portion despite having a 3-11 record. The reason, unlike a lot of the really bad teams on this list, is that the Bears have to feel good about the Matt Barkley experiment at quarterback. The rest, like the Jets, have a poo-poo plater taking snaps. Try these names on for size and raise your hand when you get to a QB you trust: Ryan Fitzpatrick, Geno Smith and Bryce Petty with the Jets; Jared Goff and Case Keenum of the Rams; Blake Bortles and Chad Henne with the Jags; Colin Kaepernick and Blaine Gabbert of the 49ers; RGIII, Cody Kessler, Kevin Hogan and Josh McCown of the Browns. Ouch-standing.
29. Los Angeles (4-10). Other than maybe Jacksonville, you can make the argument that the Rams had the worst overall season in 2016. They fired coach Jeff Fisher 72 hours after giving him an extension. They moved Heaven and Earth to get the No. 1 pick and Jared Goff has been awful, meaning that the Titans are in line to get a potential top-five overall pick next spring. (Maybe that was the final thank you for Tennessee from Fisher.)
30. Jacksonville (2-12). Even with the terrible records of the two teams below them, the Jags have arguably the worst situation around them. They have to find a new coach after firing Gus Bradley this weekend. They have to find a new quarterback as Blake Bortles continues to devolve into an unmitigated mess. They have no featured back or defensive identity. Other than that they are set.
31. San Francisco (1-13). After a season-opening win over Los Angeles - hi, Jeff Fisher's mustache - the 49ers have been dreadful. And here's how crazy bad the bottom part of the league is this year? San Francisco could lose 15 consecutive games and still not get the No. 1 overall pick.
32. Cleveland (0-14). You stay perfect Browns. Perfectly imperfect. Seriously, that's a die-hard bunch that continues to support this group. Want consistency? Cleveland is next-to-last in points (15.8 per game) and next-to-last in points allowed (29.1).
FILE - In this Dec. 29, 2015, file photo, LSU running back Leonard Fournette (7) hurdles tight end Colin Jeter (81) as he rushes against Texas Tech during the first half of the Texas Bowl NCAA college football game in Houston. Fournette will sit out the 19th-ranked Tigers’ match-up with No. 15 Louisville in the Citrus Bowl, a decision that ends Fournette’s highlight-filled college career. (AP Photo/Bob Levey, File) Should they stay or should they go?
Big news over the weekend circulated about two star running backs - LSU stud Leonard Fournette and Stanford star Christian McCaffrey - decided to skip their team's bowl games.
It's an interesting debate:
One side screams, "They quit on their team and this is terrible for college football. What happens if they decide to do this September? Blah, blah blah."
The other side counters with: "These games are meaningless, and they have to protect themselves. What happens if they get hurt? Blah, blah, blah."
This debate, like so many in sports and in society, this divide is measured by the volume more than the virtue of the discussion. Plus, we have become so polarized that we have completely embraced the fundamental belief that if you not 100 percent on side A you obviously are 100 percent on side B.
Looking at the facts and the mitigating factors make this an interesting discussion that is measured in degrees rather than dichotomies. No one is celebrating this decision, not even the players who made them.
We have a hard time calling someone a quitter, especially two guys who played through injuries all season long for their teams, who are deciding to alter their preparation for the biggest job interview of their lives in February known as the Combine.
We have a hard time believing that this will become a huge trend - and rarely would bleed into the regular season - because of the extreme variety in personal situations that cover all of college football.
We have a hard time judging the players more harshly when the multi-millionaire coaches who already have a set financial future pick up and leave all the time with a collective understanding from all levels.
We have a hard time putting our expectations on others when we seldom reverse the prism and ponder what we would do in a similar circumstance.
In grander terms beyond sports would you blame a kid on a chemistry scholarship for skipping out on everything else in his college life to prepare for the MCat to get into medical school and secure his and his family's future?
The talking points here are interesting, but as with most topics, the division is staggering.
We can understand and even appreciate the difficulty of the decision of Fournette and McCaffrey without celebrating it.
Tom ArthNew era at UTC
It's official. Tom Arth is the next UTC football coach.
We're cool with that for a multitude of reasons. We discussed some of them yesterday, and that's cool.
But we thought TFP ace sports columnist Mark Wiedmer's excellent column today summed it up perfectly that David Blackburn's track record gives Arth a wide arc of trust. So, we'll through this out there:
Is UTC going to lose Blackburn? There's nothing the Mocs can do to match UT's offer.
So it comes down to whether UT wants Blackburn, who is a UT alum and spent almost three decades there in the athletic department. Thoughts?
This and that
- Here's your 2017 induction class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame which includes Tupac, Pearl Jam and Journey among others. Janet Jackson was not elected.
- Cam Newton got hit helmet to hemet and made matters worse by flipping the ball at the offending player. That said, for the only penalty on the play you have all seen by now to be on Newton was bad. And it gave even more teeth to Carolina's complaints that Newton is treated differently than other quarterbacks.
- If you have not watched the golfer try to hit a shot off a frozen lake, well, take a moment and watch this. Trust me.
- Here's a detailed look at the history of the North Carolina bathroom bill, which is likely on its way to being repealed. It's a fair point to wonder how much political capital the Democrats got from this issue nationally and within the state since the timing of this is rather convenient considering the impact in the presidential election and the fact that a Democrat just won the state's race for governor. This
- We try to give 'entertainment' advice around these parts - and we hit another bowl pick last night, moving us to 2-1 on first round of Fab 4 bowl picks - but we do not have anywhere close to the pedigree of finding valuable 'entertainment' as Steven Eisman. Eisman, you will recall, is the dude who made billions betting against the subprime housing market and was depicted in "The Big Short" and his tip for the new administration. Go long with as many stock as possible.
- There have been a weird collection of 'words of the year' in 2016. That makes sense because 2016 has been a weird year. Miriam-Webster picked 'surreal' as it's word of the year. The Oxford dictionary picked 'post-truth' as the word of the year and it means "relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief." The Austria word of the year was "Bundespraesidentenstichwahlwiederholungsverschiebung," meaning "postponement of the repeat of the runoff of the presidential election."
Today's question
We got some good true or false Tuesday items today, and we we may try to get one in every segment of Press Row today.
True or false, David Blackburn will be the UTC AD in the fall of 2017.
True or false, Janet Jackson should have been voted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
True or false, you agree with the decision to skip the bowl games made by Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffrey.
True or false, you would personally risk millions of dollars to have play in the Citrus Bowl or the Sun Bowl.
True or false, Cam Newton is treated differently on the field than other quarterbacks by the referees.
Go, and feel free to leave your own true or false. Who knows, it could make the Press Row broadcast today.