Category: Following Sports

On Mondays during in the fall, the conversation is so dominated by NFL football that the expression “Monday morning quarterback” has entered the vernacular. The phrase is defined by Google as “a person who passes judgment on and criticizes something after the event.” With the popularity of fantasy football, we now have Monday morning quarterbacks talking about football from two different perspectives. We want you to be able to participate in this great tradition, so all fall we’ll be running NFL One Liners on Monday. Use these tiny synopses throughout the day:

Week 5

Sunday, October 5, at 1:00 p.m. ET

Buffalo Bills 17, at Detroit Lions 14

The first of a series of extremely close games this week. The Bills beat the Lions on a last minute 58 yard field goal. That’s an incredibly difficult feat. Kickers are not totally accepted in the football fraternity but when you need them, it’s good to have a good one.
Line: I guess benching quarterback EJ Manuel was a good idea for the Bills.

Baltimore Ravens 13, at Indianapolis Colts 20

Two good teams played a pretty good game. One won but they’ll both be fine in the long term.
Line: When in doubt, go with the better quarterback. Andrew Luck on the Colts is better than most.

Chicago Bears 24, at Carolina Panthers 31

The Bears continue to torture their fan base by looking like a supremely talented team… and then losing. Meanwhile, in an attempt to prove how crazy football players really are, Panthers quarterback Cam Newton had four wisdom teeth taken out in the last week and played professional football on Sunday.
Line: Can you imagine having four wisdom teeth taken out and then playing football a few days later?

Houston Texans 17, at Dallas Cowboys 20

The battle of Texas was won by big-brother Dallas but little-brother Houston really made them work for it. The whole “battle of Texas” thing is probably more of a media creation than a real rivalry because the two teams play in different divisions and conferences but it sure made for a good game anyway.
Line: Love them or hate them, the Cowboys do seem to play in an inordinate number of exciting games.

Pittsburgh Steelers 17, at Jacksonville Jaguars 9

The Jaguars fall to 0-5 making them one of only two unvictorious teams left. They’re really just not as good at football as the rest of the teams.
Line: The Jaguars will probably win a game at some point but it’s hard to imagine when.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31, at New Orleans Saints 37

The second overtime game of the day, two weeks ago the Buccaneers had just been humiliated on national television and were winless. Now they’ve won one game and taken another good team to overtime. Although, really, how sure are we that the Saints are good? Not very.
Line: This game says more about the Saints (in a bad way) than it does about the Buccaneers (in a good way.)

Atlanta Falcons 20, at New York Giants 30

This game was a microcosm of the Giants’ season so far. They fell behind 20-10 just like they started the year 0-2. Then they seemed to get their act together and came back to score the next twenty points just like they’ve won the last three games to get to 3-2.
Line: When Eli Manning retires from football he should go right to his next career as the villain in a zombie movie. Every time you think he’s down, he rises back up.

St. Louis Rams 28, at Philadelphia Eagles 34

The fate of the Rams seems to be to scare teams but not to beat them this year. The Eagles, on the other hand, are specialists this year in finding ways to win without looking all that dominant.
Line: The Eagles look like the weakest 4-1 team I can remember seeing.

SUNDAY, October 5, AT 4:05 and 4:25 P.M. ET

Arizona Cardinals 20, at Denver Broncos 41

This game exemplifies the current era of the NFL. A good offense beats a good defense every time. The Broncos have a great offense and the Cardinals have a very good defense. It wasn’t close.
Line: A good offense beats a good defense every time.

Kansas City Chiefs 17, at San Francisco 49ers 22

A couple years ago, the 49ers decided to move on from Quarterback Alex Smith and go with Colin Kaepernick. Smith went to play in Kansas City and Kaepernick took over the starting job in San Francisco. Since then, both quarterbacks have played extremely well. Today, Smith’s old team beat his new team but there’s no shame in that.
Line: Football is a team game. It’s too simple to make it into Smith vs. Kaepernick or any one player against another.

New York Jets 0, at San Diego Chargers 31

Whoa. Uh oh. The New York media was out for struggling Jets quarterback Geno Smith after last week’s poor performance and slight misbehavior (he cursed at some fans.) I can’t imagine how hard their going to slam him this week.
Line: Smith’s time as a starter in NY might be done.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 5, AT 8:30 P.M. ET

Cincinnati Bengals 17, at New England Patriots 43

The NFL stands for the National Football League but people often say it stands for the No Fun League or the Not For Long league. This game was an exhibition of why people call it the Not For Long league. The Bengals were undefeated coming into the game an the Patriots had just spent a week in an existential crisis over old-age and poor performance. Not for long!
Line: I guess Tom Brady and Bill Bellichick still remember how to win.

The NFL season has started but how do you know which games to watch and which to skip? Ask our favorite police duo with their good cop, bad cop precaps of all the Week 5 matchups in the National Football League this weekend. To see which games will be televised in your area, check out 506sports.com’s essential NFL maps. If you’re worried about watching too much football or if you’re negotiating for a little break during the weekend, read our weekly feature, Do Not Watch This Game.

Week 5

Sunday, October 5, at 1:00 p.m. ET

Buffalo Bills at Detroit Lions

Good cop: The legendary Kyle Orton comes off the bench to lead the Bills against the Lions!

Bad cop: He’s legendary for his neck beard, not his football prowess.

Baltimore Ravens at Indianapolis Colts

Good cop: Baltimore takes on the team that Indianapolis stole from their city! It’s the ultimate revenge game!

Bad cop: The Colts left Baltimore 30 years ago — do you really think people are still angry?

Chicago Bears at Carolina Panthers

Good cop: Two good teams with high hopes for the year face off after crushing defeats last weekend! I want to see which team can bounce back!

Bad cop: More than just crushing, those defeats last week were revealing of flaws that neither of these teams are going to be able to overcome this year. Let’s move on.

Houston Texans at Dallas Cowboys

Good cop: It’s the battle of Texas! The lone-star state! Everything is bigger and better in Texas, especially their two 3-1 football teams!

Bad cop: You got me. I’m going to watch this game until Texans defensive lineman J. J. Watt eats and digests Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo. Which will happen within five minutes.

Pittsburgh Steelers at Jacksonville Jaguars

Good cop: Last week the Steelers lost to a winless Tampa Bay team! Will Jacksonville get their first win this weekend?

Bad cop: No.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at New Orleans Saints

Good cop: Avast there Matey! This game pits the two scurviest crews of scalawags in a contest of blood and guts! Yaaaarrr!

Bad cop:  You do know that Saints are not a type of pirate, right?

Atlanta Falcons at New York Giants

Good cop: The Giants are on a roll! The Falcons are on a roll! After this week, only one will remain on a roll!

Bad cop: First it’s pirates, now it’s sandwiches? You’re confusing. And making me hungry. 

St. Louis Rams at Philadelphia Eagles

Good cop: I’m fascinated by the Eagles! They’ve overcome injuries to almost all of their offensive linemen to make it to a 3-1 record over the first four weeks. How long can they keep this up?

Bad cop: I’m having trouble expressing why, but I just don’t want to watch this game. And I don’t think anyone else who isn’t a green-fonted lunatic would want to either. 

SUNDAY, October 5, AT 4:05 and 4:25 P.M. ET

Arizona Cardinals at Denver Broncos

Good cop: The 3-0 Cardinals and the defending ACF champion Broncos must have used their bye (or off) weeks to plan how to beat each other! This game is going to be a festival of tactics! 

Bad cop: Tactics you say? I’m going to go all the way out on the limb and say that the team with Peyton Manning is going to beat the team without Peyton Manning

Kansas City Chiefs at San Francisco 49ers

Good cop: Two teams on opposite trajectories! The Chiefs are springing back to the top of the heap after a bad first two weeks! The 49ers’ curve is like a U so far! Win, loss, loss, win!

Bad cop: Both teams are stumbling their way to winning half their games and losing half their games. That’s literally average. Could. Not. Be. Less. Interesting.

New York Jets at San Diego Chargers

Good cop: Is this the last chance for Jets quarterback Geno Smith? He’s exciting to watch but he makes lots of mistakes including cursing at the New York fans in New Jersey last weekend! 

Bad cop: Every disappointing, angry New Yorker should get a chance to go to San Diego. They just shouldn’t start at quarterback.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 5, AT 8:30 P.M. ET

Cincinnati Bengals at New England Patriots

Good cop: The day of reckoning is here for the Patriots! Tom Brady has had nothing but bad things to say all week! Bill Bellichick hasn’t really said anything but you can tell he’s not happy! They need to beat the Bengals to right the ship but the Bengals are undefeated!

Bad cop: Day of reckoning? I reckon the Patriots will find a way to win nine games this year. Which is probably all they’ll need to make the playoffs because their division is so weak.

MONDAY, October 6, AT 8:30 P.M. ET

Seattle Seahawks at Washington Redskins

Good cop: It’s… uh… umm… football! Hooray!

Bad cop: Do not watch this game.

 

For sports fans, the weekend is a cornucopia of wonderful games to watch. This is particularly true in the fall with its traditional pattern of College Football on Saturday and NFL Football on Sunday and Monday. As the parent, child, girlfriend, boyfriend, partner, husband, wife, roommate, or best friend of a sports fan, this can be a challenge. It must be true that some games are more important to watch than others but it’s hard to know which is which. As a sports fan, the power of habit and hundreds of thousands of marketing dollars get in the way of remembering to take a break from sports and do something with your parent, child, girlfriend, boyfriend, partner, husband, wife, roommate, or best friend. To aid all of us in this, and just because it’s fun, I’m going to write a weekly post highlighting a single game that is ideal for skipping. Use this to help tell yourself or someone else: “Do not watch this game!”

Monday, 8:30 p.m. ET, NFL Football, Washington Redskins vs. Seattle Seahawks. It’s on ESPN but do not watch this game!

If you enjoyed last Monday’s lopsided game between the New England Patriots and the Kansas City Chiefs, then you’ll probably love this game. It’s likely to be at least as lopsided as the 41 – 14 shellacking we just witnessed. Why? Let’s count the ways:

1. Washington is on their second quarterback of the year, Kirk Cousins, who just threw four interceptions against the Giants last week.
2. Seattle’s quarterback is Russell Wilson who has thrown four interceptions in his last ten regular season or playoff games.
3. Seattle won the Super Bowl last year. Washington last won in 1991, when Cousins and Wilson were three or four years old.
4. Vegas thinks Seattle will win by 7.5 points even though they are on the road and playing at home is usually the equivalent of a three point advantage.
5. Seattle has players and positional units nicknamed “Beast Mode” and “The Legion of Boom.” Washington’s nickname is so bad that announcers won’t even say it on television anymore.
6. Washington has lost their last six night games. Seattle is 10-1 since 2010.
7. Stats like that are pretty meaningless because it’s always easy to find counterpoints: Washington has won the last six regular season games against Seattle.
8. The truth is that Washington and Seattle don’t play that often. Those six games have been played over fourteen years. In that same time, the two teams have played three times in the playoffs and Seattle has won every time.
9. Football Outsiders thinks Seattle has an 80% chance of making the playoffs. Washington? 6%.
10. Washington themselves doesn’t think they have much of a chance in this game. The Washington Post got offensive lineman Trent Williams on record as saying, “Can we beat them? Yeah,” Williams said, nonchalantly. “At the end of the day, they’re not robots. They’re human beings and nobody’s perfect. Nobody plays perfect every Sunday. They have been beaten before. It’s not like they’re unstoppable. They’re a great team, no doubt about it, but anything is possible in the NFL.”

There’s ten ways of saying roughly the same thing: Seattle is very good at football and Washington is pretty bad. I’m not going to bother giving an alternate game this weekend because really, even if you are a Washington or Seattle fan, I think you can do without this game. Go for a hike. Read a book. Play some bridge.

On Mondays during in the fall, the conversation is so dominated by NFL football that the expression “Monday morning quarterback” has entered the vernacular. The phrase is defined by Google as “a person who passes judgment on and criticizes something after the event.” With the popularity of fantasy football, we now have Monday morning quarterbacks talking about football from two different perspectives. We want you to be able to participate in this great tradition, so all fall we’ll be running NFL One Liners on Monday. Use these tiny synopses throughout the day:

Week 4

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, AT 1:00 P.M. ET

Buffalo Bills 17, at Houston Texans 23

The Texans played less worse than the Bills and snuck away with the victory.
Line: The Texans won but I don’t think either team’s fans are all that happy with how their team looked.

Carolina Panthers 10, at Baltimore Ravens 38

The story will be Steve Smith’s great play against his former team but the story should be how the Panthers have now been blown out in two straight games.
Line: I’m worried about the Panthers. If they don’t turn things around fast, they could lose most of their games this year.

Green Bay Packers 38, at Chicago Bears 17

Close at half-time, the Packers shut out the Bears in the second half while scoring 17 points of their own.
Line: I guess Packers Quarterback Aaron Rodgers was right when he told the Packers fans to “relax” this week.

Detroit Lions 24, at New York Jets 17

The Lions are very quietly 3-1 this year and have winnable games against the Bills and the Vikings coming up in the next two weeks.
Line: Don’t look now, but this could be the Lions’ year.

Tennessee Titans 17, at Indianapolis Colts 41

The Colts lost their first two games by a combined 10 points. Since then, they’ve won two games by a combined 51 points. Losing close games and winning big are often the sign of a good team.
Line: Through four games, the Colts look like they can play with anyone.

Miami Dolphins 38, at Oakland Raiders 14

This was the first of three games this season to be played in England. There’s already news suggesting Raiders coach Dennis Allen may be fired following this big loss.
Line: If I were the Raiders coach, I might just stay and do a little sight-seeing in London.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers 27, at Pittsburgh Steelers 24

After a humiliating loss last week on national television, the Buccaneers won a dramatic game in Pittsburgh. The motivational and emotional swings are one thing, but having ten days between a Thursday game and a Sunday one might have been the bigger factor in this game.
Line: NFL teams are all more evenly matched than people think. An extra three days of rest and preparation are a big deal.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, AT 4:05 AND 4:25 P.M. ET

Jacksonville Jaguars 14, at San Diego Chargers 33

The Jaguars, like the Raiders, remain winless after this loss in San Diego. Being 0-4 must be a helpless feeling for the players, fans, coaches, and everyone involved and invested in the team’s performance. The Chargers camp is the exact opposite — happy and excited.
Line: Doesn’t it just feel like the Chargers’ year? Not that beating Jacksonville is a sign of anything other than professionalism.

Atlanta Falcons 28, at Minnesota Vikings 41

The Vikings’ excitement over the performance of their rookie starting quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was muted when Bridgewater was carted off the field with an injured ankle. X-rays were said to be negative but a sprain so severe that it requires a cart is sometimes worse than a clean break would be.
Line: The Vikings can’t catch a bre

Philadelphia Eagles 21, at San Francisco 49ers 26

This was a weird game. The Eagles defense and special teams played so well in the first half that their team had the lead without the offense doing anything substantive. The offense were barely even on the field. This lack of rhythm came back to haunt the Eagles because when they needed the offense to do something in the second half, they couldn’t count on them.
Line: The Eagles defense and special teams players must be pissed at their offensive players.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, AT 8:30 P.M. ET

New Orleans Saints 17, at Dallas Cowboys 38

With the Saints’ ability to score quickly and the Cowboys penchant for blowing leads, I kept waiting for the inevitable comeback during this game. It never really materialized. After starting the year 0-2, people were describing the Saints as the best 0-2 team in the league and counseling patience. I’m not sure anymore.
Lead: Eventually, your record does define you as a team, that’s where we might be with the Saints now.