West coast teams can’t blame jet lag tonight

by | Nov 28, 2008 | NFL Gambling, NFL Random Thoughts

Earlier this season there was briefly discussion about the NFL considering mandatory late starting times for games played on the East coast by West coast teams. The argument was that a 1 p.m. eastern start mentally was a 10 a.m. start for those West coast teams, teams that have struggled to be competitive that far from home the past few years.

Zoneblitz.com did a post on the subject. And it got some play on the radio and in the media. I’m starting to think there’s more to the struggles than jet lag, however, as the Philadelphia Eagles crushed the Arizona Cardinals Thanksgiving night.

The Eagles win brings the East coast team’s record to 14-0 against West coasters this season – this leads me to believe the biggest issue is that most of the West coast teams just aren’t any good.

These are the records:
Arizona 0-4
Seattle 0-4
San Diego 0-3
Oakland 0-3
San Francisco 0-1

Arizona was 7-4 heading into the game and it’d take a shocking collapse coupled with a stunning turnaround by a division rival for them to not win the NFC West division. And they are improving. But if that’s the best of the West and they’re going 0-4 on the East – and getting crushed by an Eagles team that was reeling?

Go ahead and consider the mandatory late-start times, NFL. But the bigger picture here is that anyone looking to win some money in Vegas should take the mortgage and bet it on the East coast team as soon as Arizona has to go on the road in the playoffs.

It’s as close to a sure bet as you’ll find.

Lions don’t make case for staying on Thanksgiving

by | Nov 27, 2008 | NFL Random Thoughts

I heard it the first time on the Dan Patrick show on Wednesday and I heard it again today. Terry Bradshaw during the postgame show after Tennessee pasted Detroit said “The Lions usually have pretty good bite on Thanksgiving, but not today.”

This isn’t to single out Bradshaw – my brother heard one of the Westwood One radio guys say something similar. But the results – both this year and over the last eight – just don’t bear that out. The now 11-1 Titans collected a turnover and turned it into a score during the first couple minutes of the game and then toyed with the Lions, taking a 35-10 lead into halftime.

And this means that during the last eight Thanksgiving day games, during which the Detroit is 1-7, the Lions have been outscored 242-123.

There’s been talk lately of revamping the Thanksgiving day slate of games and, frankly, both of the early games today were boring and void of suspense. The Lions have yet to win a game and by the five minute mark of the first quarter the only mystery left was by how much they would lose today. In the afternoon game it wasn’t necessarily Dallas’ fault that Seattle comes in beaten up and strugging. But again, other than a brief period in the third quarter when the Seahawks held Dallas on a couple drives in a row, there really wasn’t much doubt that the Cowboys were well in control.

The NFL Network night game looks to be a fairly decent matchup with a desperate Philadelphia team hosting an Arizona Cardinals franchise eager to win its first division and host its first playoff game since the mid 1970s. While I have no issue with the tradition of Dallas and Detroit hosting the games it certainly wouldn’t bother me to actually see games with some playoff implication.

Flex scheduling? That’d be an option, albeit hard for selling tickets. Alternating hosts such as is done during the preseason games hosted internationally or the Hall of Fame game? Another compelling option.

It’s not a major issue with me. I’ll watch either way. But it would be nice for my Thanksgiving nap to be brought on by the overconsumption of comfort food rather than the boredom associated with many of the NFL games played on Thanksgiving this year and in many other years in the recent past.

Lions play like kitties on Thanksgiving

by | Nov 26, 2008 | NFL Random Thoughts

I heard it – I knew I would hear it eventually but I thought it’d be some cliche-spewing television announcer during the Titans/Lions pregame show. Hell, I predicted it about an hour ago in the Best Bets.

But it happened on the Dan Patrick Show this morning on the radio. There has been some discussion of ending the tradition of having both Dallas and Detroit host games every season on Thanksgiving. While Patrick was discussing the issue, someone named Tom called defending the traditional Detroit Thanksgiving game.

He said because the Lions are so bad it’s usually the only time he gets to watch them on television. And when further question by Patrick about whether or not he enjoyed watching bad football, Tom responded that the Lions generally put up a decent fight on Thanksgiving no matter how bad they are.

I have no strong feeling either way on the Cowboys/Lions debate. As long as there is football on Thanksgiving I’ll watch no matter who is playing. It’s part of the fabric of my favorite holiday.

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Turkey Day weekend Best Bets

by | Nov 26, 2008 | NFL Gambling

Well, the hot streak came to a crashing halt with a 1-3 week. That takes me to 9-9 since I started this thing. So it goes. It’s Thanksgiving week. It’s my favorite holiday, which is anchored by my favorite sport. I’ll catch the first half of the first game before we have a big, turkey dinner. Then I’ll curl up on the floor in the basement in front of the television, watch the end of the Titans’ whoopin’ of Detroit. The Cowboys will kickoff against Seattle. I’ll watch the first five minutes and then fall asleep through the end of the first half.

It’s a beautiful thing – and it could only be matched by a four-for-four week on my Thanksgiving Weekend Best Bets (again, using the Caesar’s-Hilton line at Vegas.com).

1. Tennessee (-11) at Detroit – Thanksgiving Day
Inevitably, one of the commentators will talk about what a great fight the Detroit Lions always put up on Thanksgiving, no matter how good or bad the team is. Don’t get fooled. It’s crap. The Lions have lost six of the last seven it has played on my favorite holiday, including last year’s shellacking at the hands of Green Bay – when, believe it or not, the Lions actually entered the game with a 6-4 record. In fact, in the 20 games since the Lions started 6-2 last year, they are 1-19. And margins of defeat during those six Thanksgiving losses during the 2000s have been 11, 17, 20, 32, 8 and 2. This is a historically bad team that has quit written all over it. And they are playing a Tennessee Titans team rededicated to the run (which the Lions can’t stop) angry from coming off of its first loss of the season. Tennessee should cover the 11 points in the first five or 10 minutes and make it a cakewalk from there. (more…)

NFL moving Pro Bowl to Super Bowl week, venue

by | Nov 24, 2008 | NFL Random Thoughts

Item F in Peter King’s Ten Things he Thinks he Thinks this week was that the NFL plans to move the Pro Bowl to the venue of the Super Bowl, playing the all-star game as part of the build-up to the game played for the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

The Pro Bowl, played in Honolulu, HI since January 1980, has become irrelevant for many reasons, including the lack of star power due to players bowing out of participating and ridiculous rules, such as not allowing blitzing, which make football games lesser football games.

I think the NFL is reaching for solutions here. All-Star games in general just don’t have a lot of appeal these days, I don’t think. I’m not convinced that making the game part of Super Bowl week, which means no players from the participating teams will play, will add any interest to the game at all.

In fact the league could make the Pro Bowl a Powder Puff game featuring the best looking cheerleaders from each team as voted by the fans and I’d be only slightly more likely to watch. … Well, maybe more than slightly more likely. But not because the game would be played at the Super Bowl venue in the week leading up to the big game.