Emptywheel’s Christmas Trash Talk
Well, Trash is harder to gin up for without the regular season college games in action. And, no, the Royal Purple Bowl was not enough to overcome that fact. The only bowl game even halfway interesting between now and next weekend is Boise State versus Oregon State in the Hawaii Bowl on Christmas Eve. Take Boise.
The NFL game that most interests me is, of course, the Packers and Steelers on the Frozen Tundra of Lambeau. The Cheese has won two in a row with Matt Flynn at the helm, but have looked shaky doing so. At least they are scoring points, which is good because their defense is atrocious. The Steelers have rebounded to be very respectable. Pittsburgh’s defensive secondary is pretty good, so Green Bay will have to hope for a huge game from Eddie Lacy. Big Ben and the Stillers will score on the Pack, and I will take them in only the mildest of upsets.
Probably the best game today is Baltimore hosting New England. The Ravens have won four in a row and seem to be on a playoff run that seemed unlikely mid season. And the Pats always have a tough time in Baltimore. Plus Brady is throwing to the midget brigade again. Oh, and Justin Tucker has not missed a field goal since the second week of the season. Kenbrell Thompkins and Nate Solder have been downgraded to OUT & will not play. I am trying to find the positive note here that points to Brady and Belichick winning this game, because I think they will. But I sure don’t see it on paper.
The ‘Boys at Skins could be a fascinating game to see which sad sack team manages to pull out the win and how. Mostly, it will be interesting to see how Kirk Cousins plays in his second straight start. Take the ‘Boys I guess but, really, who cares? Colts at Chefs also interesting. Colts are sliding and Trent Richardson has been none of the help he was brought in to be. Chefs on the other hand are starting to open their offense up for Alex Smith and still have that great defense. Chefs smoke some horsehide.
Bears are at the Iggles and Giants at the Lions. This weekend really seems to favor the Lions. Both the Pack and Bears have to play tough games, and the Kittehs draw the hapless Giants and Bad Eli Manning’s ever more contorted dour face. At home in Deetroit. Card and Squawks would be a great game….if it were anywhere but Seattle. A hellish place to play. Cards are a pretty solid team, but no way they will win in the Squawk Palace. Which will probably put an end to the Cards’ playoff hopes for the year.
The final Monday Night game of the year is also the final game ever in famed (or infamous as the case may be) Candlestick Park. Cleveland may talk about their Mistake By The Lake, but, damn, they got nuthin on San Francisco and the Stick. The old story was that the only real site survey was done at a time of day when all was calm there, and no one ever told Horace Stoneham and the other poohbahs that it was a swirling wind hell during afternoons and nights when most games would be played. Ooops! At any rate, take the Niners big over the hapless Falcons (sad end for Tony Gonzales’ storied career). Here, thanks to PJ Evans, is a great photo history of the Stick.
Roll Tide: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/22/small-alabama-town-accidentally-hires-black-drag-queens-to-dance-in-christmas-parade/
@Jim White: “Accidentally”
@Jim White:
Someday they’ll catch up to the 21st century – but it may take them another couple of generations.
Belichick in motivation mode?
He took all his players to an advanced showing of Lone Survivor on Friday.
Here is something positive: The FCC may drop its blackout rules thus opening up tv viewing of the NFL.
Lambeau may be THE frozen tundra, but Arrowhead is pretty rock hard today as well. Last night we had about 1/4 inch of ice and sleet, then it switched over to snow and put 2-5 inches on top of the ice. Nasty driving last night and this morning, but by now most of the main roads have been plowed and treated.
Still, the temps aren’t going to get above 25 F today, so anything that melts has a strong likelihood of refreezing when the sun goes down and the temps go down with it to a low of 5F tonight.
Brrrr.
@bmaz: Cui bono? Buffalo is blacked out at home today but, then again, no one cares.
@Peterr: I suppose it would be quite rude of me to mention that it’s 80 degrees here in North Florida today. Ooops. Looks like I already did.
Seriously, though. Be careful. Sounds like a mess.
@Peterr: Brrrrr! Maybe we can call Arrowhead “The Big Icee” or something. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
@Jim White: A fair number of churches canceled services today, and those that didn’t had much lower attendance — especially from their older members.
The tailgaters, however, seemed to be quite happy about the whole thing. The Arrowhead crews worked as hard to clear the parking lot as they did the field, and the hardcore folks brought two firepits — one to cook on and the other to gather around.
Last time I was at Candlestick was for a Metallica concert. Summer Sanitarium tour. The other bands were ok, Metallica’s list was too short. Lotta hot women; needless to say I became a big fan of the skin tight leather pants most of them were wearing
@bmaz: Although I’ve got cable, there’s a problem with the television signal for the Chefs game, with lots of snow on the screen. (It’s the same on all the local over-the-air channels, but not the national channels [ESPN, CNN, etc.]). I have to keep looking out the window every so often to check that it isn’t really snowing again.
@JohnT: I think the last part there would be obvious.
Okay, this is absolutely hilarious
w00t! colts kick chefs.
ah, the ‘Stick.
* first Stones Concert (1981 – Tattoo You tour).
* huddled around a tiny coin operated tv in the Honolulu airport with hundreds of fellow SF bound tourists feeding quarters in until “The Catch”
* turning on my little TV at work to watch the World Series when the Quake hit, then waiting anxiously for word on all the friends at the game.
* watching the fog bank creep over the upper deck then descend down until you could barely make out the players on the field.
good times.
@scribe: Actually felt bad bc I KNEW the Fins would lose–Bills ought to get to see their team play spoiler.
Looks like Biebs came to play today.
How my Stillers doin’? I’m getting the NE-Crows game.
@scribe: Packers up 14-10 early 3rd quarter
Boise! Ya gotta be kidding!
OSU all the way!
Congratulations to Scribe and the Stillers. The Pack should have signed Favre to play the second half of the season. Instead, they went with JR Tolkien and then Matt Fucking Flynn. Ugh.
[Flynn just threw a pick 6]
@bmaz: Don’t get ahead of yourself there, BMAz.
@scribe: Kitties look to be playing for the tie.
Well, shit. What a disaster. The Pack had a chance and blew it with a penalty with no time outs left which caused ten seconds to be run off the clock and cost them a great chance to score. Bleech.
Season depends on the Iggles…Go Iggles!!
Fire Schwartz.
@Linnaeus: Linnaeus! Long time no see. And, yeah, the Lions should have dumped Swartz long ago. Have to now.
@bmaz:
I’m hanging around, but just haven’t commented much. Hope you’re well.
If the Lions fire Schwartz now, they’ll owe him $12 million. May even be worth it.
@Linnaeus: Tough call. But they are wasting a boatload of money on all their talent too. It is no good with the current coaching.
@bmaz: The Kitties are arguably the most talented team out there. It’s their indiscipline that’s keeping them out of the running for something post-seasony. And talent is a wasting asset.
And discipline comes from coaching – from the top.
As to the Cheese: heh. We Stillers need some help, but we’re still alive.
And, in other sports, the 10th Circuit has denied Utah’s request for a stay. Again.
More photos from the Stick, before tonight’s game.
I have to say that Rice looks like he could suit up and play tonight.
And the ‘Niners say goodbye to the stick with a win.
Mays and McCovey were there, too. Mays was a quarterback in high school, and could throw 70-yard passes. Still knows the routes he used, too.
@scribe:
Just a flesh wound?
(testing 1 – 2 – 3 testing)