Tag: pitch that game

Pitch That Game: NFL Week 7, 2015

Hello everyone and welcome to America’s favorite game show that… has never actually happened before and no one has heard of it… it’s Pitch That Game!

Here’s how it works. As your host, I have one sentence to pitch a sporting event. If, after my pitch, you’re interested in watching, I get a point! That’s it! Usually I do this in podcast format, but I’ve got a cold this week and no one wants to listen to me cough and sniffle over a microphone, least of all me. So, the pitches will be in written form only this week.

In this episode, I pitch you, the reader, all of the NFL games this weekend, on Sunday October 25 and Monday October 26. If you want to know which games will be available on your TV this weekend, check out 506 Sports NFL. If you need help figuring out how to make sense out of what you see there, use my explanation of how to use 506 Sports NFL here.

Enjoy the show!

Sunday, October 25, 2015 9:30 a.m. ET

Buffalo Bills at Jacksonville Jaguars

All of the NFL games in London are part of an experiment to see how global American Football’s reach is. This game takes that experiment one step further in a particularly interesting way: it will be broadcast only online. It’s the first NFL game in memory that won’t be available on television, it’s only streaming on Yahoo!. This means that it will be completely free to viewers and totally global. Depending on the response, we might be seeing the first step toward a television-free or at least blended future of entertainment.

Sunday, October 25, 2015 1 p.m. ET

Cleveland Browns at St. Louis Rams

This is my choice of the week for being the game between two kind of crummy teams that turns into the most exciting, high scoring, close game of the week. The Browns have had surprising success on offense this year, thanks to much-traveled quarterback Josh McCown and a slew of underrated receiving weapons. The Rams took a big gamble during the offseason by trading quarterbacks with the Philadelphia Eagles and the jury is still out on new quarterback Nick Foles. He’s looked good at times and bad at times but so far, he’s always been on the field, competing, which they could not say for their last quarterback.

Minnesota Vikings at Detroit Lions

The Lions finally won their first game of the season last week and they did it by embracing who they really are this season: a somewhat crummy team with one absurdly prolific wide receiver. Quarterback Matthew Stafford stopped trying to play in a controlled way and just started chucking the ball to Calvin Johnson and it worked. We’ll see if they stick with this new-found devil-may-care attitude this week. The Vikings, on the other hand, play exactly the way the Lions thought they should play. They run the ball and make safe, careful throws. Unlike the Lions though, it’s working for the Vikings. They’re 3-2 and looking to pick up another unremarkable but effective win.

Houston Texans at Miami Dolphins

The Dolphins came into the season with high expectations, based largely on the perceived strength of their defense, started the season poorly, got to their bye week with a losing record, and then fired their coach. In their first game under new head coach Dan Campbell, they looked better by several degrees of magnitude and won. The Texans came into the season with high expectations, based largely on the perceived strength of their defense, and started the season poorly. Their bye week is the week after this one, and given what just happened in Miami, you’ve got to wonder if Houston’s coach feels like he’s playing for his job in this game.

New Orleans Saints at Indianapolis Colts

The Saints and Colts have both been like high performance cars with bad spark plugs this season. Both teams have great quarterbacks who are used to being able to score, almost at will, but who have struggled this year. Both Drew Brees for the Saints and Andrew Luck for the Colts have also been dealing with shoulder injuries. Both teams play their home games in domes on artificial turf. What is going on here?!? The parallels are uncanny. Here’s one big difference – both teams are coming off games last week against their team’s arch-rivals but the Saints won their rivalry game against the Atlanta Falcons while the Colts lost theirs against the New England Patriots.

Pittsburgh Steelers at Kansas City Chiefs

The Steelers will be playing with their third string quarterback because of injuries to their first and second. The Chiefs will be playing with their first string quarterback, but fans are close to the end of the rope with him. Quarterback Alex Smith has long been thought of as someone who succeeds despite lacking the arm-strength that most NFL quarterbacks have. That deficiency seems to have gotten to his head. These days, he’s not even attempting any long throws. This fact has been seized on by opposing defenses who now focus on taking away the only thing they know Smith will do. It’s a bad situation and one that doesn’t seem like it’s going to get better any time soon.

New York Jets at New England Patriots

Last week’s Patriots game was the ultimate game in terms of emotional and off-the-field plot-lines. This week’s game may be even more interesting, but all the intrigue is on the field. The Jets have one of the league’s best defenses, thanks in part to cornerback Darelle Revis who is usually able to take the opposing team’s wide receiver completely out of the game by himself. The Patriots best wide receiver is Julian Edelman, but their best pass-catcher is tight end Rob Gronkowski. If we assume Revis will nullify Edelman, than it will be up to Gronkowski to carry the Patriots to a victory and up to the Jets to figure out how to stop him. It’s an intriguing game of cat and mouse and cheese and elephant.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Washington Redskins

It’s the rapist vs. the racists. Let’s move on to the next game.

Atlanta Falcons at Tennessee Titans

The Falcons got off to a hot start this year with five wins in their first five games. A loss last week to the New Orleans Saints, a divisional rival, took just a single petal off the rose. A loss to the titans this week and the entire bloom will be off. A suspicious or pessimistic Falcons fan will have spent the past week noticing that all their team’s wins came against NFC East teams, who seem generally bad this year, and the Houston Texans, who are definitely bad this year. The Titans are no great shakes, so Falcons fans shouldn’t have too much to worry about, but the bulk of them will be worrying nonetheless.

Sunday, October 25, 2015 4:05 or 4:25 p.m. ET

Oakland Raiders at San Diego Chargers

The Raiders and Chargers are two of the three teams rumored to be moving to Los Angeles next season. If that’s true, this intrastate rivalry will deepen to new subterraneous levels of interest. As it is, they provide an interesting contrast. The Raiders are an up-and-coming team trying to take the next step and the Chargers are an established but slightly over-the-hill team trying desperately to hold on for another season of success. They’re like two ships passing in the night except they have to stop and play football against each other.

Dallas Cowboys at New York Giants

If you took away any concern about the quality of the teams, this matchup would be consistently the number one draw in the league. The Cowboys are the most loved and most hated franchise and the Giants are their biggest rival and not far behind in terms of notoriety. The mammoth character of this game in principle helps boost it up even during years like this one, when the two teams aren’t actually all that good at playing football.

Sunday, October 25, 2015 8:30 p.m. ET

Philadelphia Eagles at Carolina Panthers

The Panthers defend their undefeated record this year against one of the most confusing teams in the league. When the Eagles offense is clicking, they look unstoppable. Why they can only get it to click once every other game for about a quarter is the primary question their fans are struggling with. You get the feeling that if it could click steadily for a whole game, it might jumpstart the team and launch them into Super Bowl contention. The Panthers defense has been rock solid this year, propelling their team to five straight victories despite the team’s offense being as under-the-radar as any team’s in this era of easy name recognition. Seriously – ask a football fan to name four players on the Panthers defense and see if they can do it.

Monday, October 26, 2015 8:30 p.m. ET

Baltimore Ravens at Arizona Cardinals

Uh oh. The Cardinals have one of the league’s best passing offenses and the Ravens have one of the league’s worst passing defenses. This could be a catastrophe of colossal proportions. It could be bird on bird violence unlike any we’ve seen before. It’s truly difficult to imagine a tactical path that would allow Baltimore to slow Arizona’s offense down enough to win.

 

Pitch that game: NFL Week 6, 2015

Hello everyone and welcome to America’s favorite game show that… has never actually happened before and no one has heard of it… it’s Pitch That Game!

Here’s how it works. As your host, I have one minute to pitch a sporting event to someone who is not a sports fan. If, after my pitch, they’re interested in watching, I get a point! That’s it! Why would we play such a game? Well, it’s a good way to quickly learn about a set of games to see if you’re interested in following any of them. It’s also a great way for me to learn from you about what may or may not make a sport interesting to a layperson.

In this episode, I pitch you, the listener, all 14 of the NFL games this weekend, on Sunday October 18 and Monday October 19. If you want to know which games will be available on your TV this weekend, check out 506 Sports NFL. If you need help figuring out how to make sense out of what you see there, use my explanation of how to use 506 Sports NFL here.

Enjoy the show!

Sunday, October 18, 2015 1 p.m. ET

Cincinnati Bengals at Buffalo Bills

We’re in the midst of a major league baseball playoffs that guarantee a World Series winner who hasn’t won since somewhere between 1993 and 1908. No matter which of the four remaining teams wins, it’s going to be a great story. In the NFL, it’s far too early to guarantee anything, but the Cincinnati Bengals, who have never won the Super Bowl in their 46 year history are undefeated so far and playing like a run-away-train on offense and a brick wall on defense. They take their 5-0 record into Buffalo to play against a Bills team whose promising start has been hampered by injuries. The Bills and their fans are always tough at home, especially when it’s cold and windy and maybe even snowy like it’s supposed to be on Sunday.

Denver Broncos at Cleveland Browns

While we’re on the subject of weather, let’s talk about the next game, the Denver Broncos at the Cleveland Browns. Weather is usually an overrated factor in football games. Rain and snow don’t seem to have much of an impact. The only thing that can effect the game in a major way is wind. Wind makes it harder for quarterbacks, especially those like the 38-year old, nerve-damaged Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning, who don’t exactly have the strongest arms anymore. Every game Manning plays is like watching a real-life battle between mind and matter. This one will pit mind vs. matter and wind.

Chicago Bears at Detroit Lions

After three weeks, these two teams had a combined record of zero wins and six losses. From that moment, one team has continued its downward slide and the other has scrabbled up with all its might. The Chicago Bears have been rewarded for their determination with two close wins, one by two points over the Raiders and one by one point over the Chiefs. The Lions have just lost and lost. If the Bears can beat the Lions, a divisional rival, in this game, they’ll complete their climb back to .500 with three straight wins after three straight losses.

Houston Texans at Jacksonville Jaguars

The Texans and Jaguars are both in the AFC South division, which has been dominated by the Colts over the past fifteen years. The start of this year provided a glorious opportunity for the other teams in the division because the Colts have struggled with injuries and performance issues. Alas, none of the other teams could seize the day. The Texans and Jaguars are both 1-4 and looking for a win to salvage any hope of competing for the playoffs this year. I favor the Jaguars in this game. In watching the Jaguars, you can see some of the elements of a good team emerging from the muck.

Kansas City Chiefs at Minnesota Vikings

Unusual for today’s NFL, both of these teams intended to build their season around powerful rushing attacks led by two of the best running backs in the NFL, the Vikings Adrian Peterson and the Chiefs Jamaal Charles. As spectators, we’re robbed of an opportunity to see them go head-to-head this weekend because Charles tore his ACL last weekend. Instead, we’ll see two replacement running backs with great names, Knile Davis and Charcandrick West, try to step into Charles’ giant shoes. On the other side, the Vikings will continue to play the good, conservative football that’s led them to a 2-2 record so far this year.

Miami Dolphins at Tennessee Titans

The Dolphins have been the disappointment of the season. So much so, that two weeks ago they became the first team this year to fire their coach. It’s hard to replace a coach in the middle of the season because of football’s complexity. There isn’t enough time to meaningfully change what the team knows how to do. Instead, new coach and former tough-guy tight end Dan Campbell will look to make an attitudinal difference. The question on the other side is what the Titans actually have in rookie quarterback Marcus Mariota. Mariota came out of the blocks fast with a record setting performance in the Titans week one win but has been less successful since. We’re starting to hear whispers that Mariota may not be versatile enough in how he thinks and reacts during a game to win.

Washington Redskins at New York Jets

Normally when Washington travels to New Jersey to play football, they’re facing their divisional opponent and arch-enemy, the New York Giants. This week they play against the New York Jets, the team in the other conference that shares a stadium with the New York Giants. That’s a weird little tidbit that makes this game unusual. What makes it compelling is how much better both teams have played this year than they were expected to. Both teams won only four games last year. The Jets are only one win away from equalling their tally and the Redskins are already half-way there.

Arizona Cardinals at Pittsburgh Steelers

These two teams have been connected since 1944 when, due to player shortages during World War II, they merged to play a season as a single team. That joint venture went winless, leading critics to call them the “carpets” a play on Cardinals and Pittsburgh and also the household object you tread on. More recently, they played each other in the 2008 season’s Super Bowl, one of the most entertaining in recent memory. During that game, the offensive coordinator of the winning Pittsburgh team was none other than Bruce Arians, now the head coach of the Cardinals. All of this is to say that in addition to this being a matchup of two of the most talented teams in the league, and a potential preview of this year’s Super Bowl, it’s also a game with great recent and distant history.

Sunday, October 18, 2015 4:05 or 4:25 p.m. ET

Carolina Panthers at Seattle Seahawks

I don’t know if it’s been a conscious or unconscious thing on the part of the Panthers management, but it certainly seems like they’ve spent the last several years trying to model their team after the Seahawks. The Panthers are almost like the East Coast branch of the Seahawks. Built around magician quarterbacks who escape pressure to make plays, patient running games, and stifling, physical defenses, both teams try to win games in similar ways. What that means for this game, is that its winner will likely be the team who executes the plan the best, not the one with the best plan.

Baltimore Ravens at San Francisco 49ers

It’s hard to believe that these two teams met in the Super Bowl only three seasons ago. This year, both teams are only a shell of what they were during that season. Both teams’ elite defensive units have been disassembled by free agency, retirement, and injuries. Both offenses have lost many of their supporting characters. San Francisco’s offensive line is missing in action and Baltimore’s starting wide receivers actually both play for San Francisco now. Both teams are 1-4 and facing the certainty of a lost season if they fall to 1-5. Realistically, both are likely to have a lost season no matter what — it’s not a coincidence that they’ve lost four games out of the first five — but another loss will really shut the door in their faces.

San Diego Chargers at Green Bay Packers

If the pinnacle of sports is about achievement in the face of challenges, this game fits the bill to a T. Both teams have wonderful quarterbacks who have difficult tasks. In the case of the Chargers quarterback, Phillip Rivers, he’ll be up against a solid Green Bay defense without a strong offensive line — the most essential support for any quarterback. Packers quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, on the other hand, will be playing without his best receiver, Jordy Nelson, who is out for the year with a knee injury, and with his two next-best receivers hampered by shoulder and ankle injuries. I suspect both quarterbacks will be up to the challenge but only one can win.

Sunday, October 18, 2015 8:30 p.m. ET

New England Patriots at Indianapolis Colts

The Patriots have been waiting for this day ever since last Spring when the Colts started the giant shit-storm called Deflategate by reporting the Patriots to the league for having used improperly inflated footballs in the playoff game between these two teams. Although quarterback Tom Brady was eventually vindicated in court and escaped suspension, the Patriots want to beat the Colts more than Bernie Sanders wants to bring down Wall Street, more than Jeb Bush wants to be president… even more than Donald Trump wants you to pay attention to him. This game is the most highly anticipated passion play of the season. I hope it lives up to expectations.

Monday, October 19, 2015 8:30 p.m. ET

New York Giants at Philadelphia Eagles

The NFC East, which is the division the Giants and Eagles are both in, is the biggest, most popular, most watched, and most talked about division in football. That’s true even in years when the division doesn’t have any truly great teams, like it appears not to this year. The Giants are in first place right now, with a record of three wins and two losses but the other three teams are all only a game behind with two wins and three losses. The chance for all four teams remaining relatively close to one another throughout the year seems to be good, which makes every game between teams even more important.

Pitch that game: NFL Week 5, 2015

Hello everyone and welcome to America’s favorite game show that… has never actually happened before and no one has heard of it… it’s Pitch That Game!

Here’s how it works. As your host, I have one minute to pitch a sporting event to someone who is not a sports fan. If, after my pitch, they’re interested in watching, I get a point! That’s it! Why would we play such a game? Well, it’s a good way to quickly learn about a set of games to see if you’re interested in following any of them. It’s also a great way for me to learn from you about what may or may not make a sport interesting to a layperson.

In this episode, I pitch you, the listener, all 14 of the NFL games this weekend, on Sunday October 4 and Monday October 5. If you want to know which games will be available on your TV this weekend, check out 506 Sports NFL. If you need help figuring out how to make sense out of what you see there, use my explanation of how to use 506 Sports NFL here.

Enjoy the show!

Sunday, October 11, 2015 1 p.m. ET

Buffalo Bills at Tennessee Titans

Back in the good old days on the NFL, quarterbacks were expected to spend several years on the bench, learning from coaches and more established quarterbacks before getting their chance to start. In the past fifteen years, that practice has broken down in favor of high-profile college quarterbacks who come straight out of college and start from their first professional game. This game offers a chance to compare models. The Titans quarterback, Marcus Mariota, is one of those highly regarded rookies starting right away. The Bills quarterback, Tyrod Taylor, is a rare modern example of a quarterback who spent his first four years in the league as a backup and is only now getting a chance to start. Both players have played very well this year and I expect that to continue today.

Cleveland Browns at Baltimore Ravens

If you’ve followed the NFL even casually over the last fifteen years, you probably think of the Cleveland Browns franchise as the epitome of ineptitude and the Ravens as a model franchise. What you might not know is that the Ravens came into existence in 1996 when the then owner of the Cleveland Browns decided to move his team to Baltimore. As part of a settlement with the league, the city of Cleveland got to keep the Browns name and was promised a new expansion team to take the old Browns place within a few years. The Browns returned to Cleveland in 1999 but have seemed star-crossed ever since. It’s no wonder that fans of the new Browns love to hate the Ravens.

Chicago Bears at Kansas City Chiefs

This game features a pair of tragic figures at the quarterback position. The Chiefs quarterback, Alex Smith, has football figured out. He knows where and when to throw the ball and who to, but he often doesn’t have the arm strength to deliver the ball the way it needs to be delivered. The Bears quarterback, Jay Cutler, is the exact opposite. He once claimed to have the strongest arm in NFL history. He might, but it’s paired with a lack of awareness, both about football and his own ability, that leads him to make costly mistakes all too often.

Seattle Seahawks at Cincinnati Bengals

It’s sometimes said that the NFL stands for “not for long.” This clever backronym describes how difficult it is to maintain consistent excellence. The Seahawks have been to the last two Super Bowls and made the playoffs in all but three of the last dozen seasons. That’s an almost unprecedented stretch of success. It looks like it may finally have caught up to them this year. They’re fighting the drop-off though. After starting 0-2, they won two close games to even their record at two wins and two losses. They’ll face a tough battle in this game against the undefeated Bengals who look as unbeatable as their record would suggest.

St. Louis Rams at Green Bay Packers

The Rams traveled to Arizona last weekend and gave the then undefeated Arizona Cardinals their first loss of the year. They’ll be trying to do the same thing to the Packers in this game. The Packers are 4-0 and seemingly invincible, thanks to the quarterbacking mastery of Aaron Rodgers. The best way to neutralize a great quarterback like Rodgers is to get in his face from the very start of the game, something the Rams may be able to do thanks to their excellent defensive linemen, and to keep him off the field. The way to keep him off the field is to run the ball effectively on offense, another thing the Rams may be able to do. Todd Gurley, a rookie running back on the Rams, made his season debut last weekend and looked, no joke, like the best running back to enter the league since Adrian Peterson in 2007.

Jacksonville Jaguars at Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Jaguars had a giant opportunity last weekend to announce themselves to the world as a respectable team by beating the Indianapolis Colts but they couldn’t do it. Now they’re 1-3 for the year and stuck in a swampy South Florida game against the Buccaneers, also 1-3 and going nowhere. That said, this could be a high scoring game – both teams are much stronger at wide receiver then they are at defensive back – the people assigned to keep the wide receivers from catching the ball. I expect both teams to be able to move the ball down the field in big, thrilling chunks.

New Orleans Saints at Philadelphia Eagles

These have been two of the most exciting offensive teams for years. They both base their play around frequent safe but crafty short passes which get athletic skilled wide receivers and running backs the ball with space to run around and make defenders look silly. It’s a good strategy but it hasn’t been working so far this year. Both teams have only won one game out of the four they’ve each played. A 2-3 record in the first five games isn’t the end of the world but 1-4 is. Therefore, the fate of the world, for both of these teams, rests on this game and this game alone.

Washington Redskins at Atlanta Falcons

The Atlanta Falcons are 4-0 so far this year, so you think everyone on the team would be thrilled. Not so. Veteran wide receiver Roddy White went public with his profanity-laced frustration about having a reduced role this year. It sounds unsporting to be upset when your team is winning, but I can understand how he feels. Imagine you spent 10 years at a job and finally, just when the company start really succeeding -maybe it’s going to go public or something – your boss decides you’re not good enough anymore and starts phasing you out. Yikes. Often, after a player goes to the media with his frustration, his team will make sure he gets the ball a bunch in the next game. If that doesn’t happen, White should think about editing his resume and brushing up on his LinkedIN game.

Sunday, October 11, 2015 4:05 or 4:25 p.m. ET

Arizona Cardinals at Detroit Lions

It’s hard to sell a matchup between a 3-1 team, the Arizona Cardinals, and a 0-4 team, the Detroit Lions, as likely to be an even or close game. What I can sell you on is that there’s a good reason to root for both of these teams. The Cardinals are a lovable group — with their coach, who wears a kangol hat and speaks more honestly about his team to the press than virtually any other coach in the league and their quarterback whose excellent career has been sidetracked by injury every time it seems like it’s about to peak. The Lions, on the other hand, are coming off one of the more brutal losses this season. Their best player had the ball and was lunging into the end-zone when an opposing defender knocked it out of his hands. That’s bad luck and a good play by the defender, but the controversy started when another defender seemed to intentionally bat the ball out of play. That’s not allowed and the Lions should have had another chance to score, but the referees seemed to momentarily forget the rules and the Lions lost the game.

New England Patriots at Dallas Cowboys

If you’re a Patriots fan, you’re either from New England, or you enjoy watching one team thoroughly out-smart another. The Patriots are coming off their bye week which means they’ve had an extra week to think of devious ways to win and, as a bonus, make the Cowboys look stupid. I can’t wait to see what they’ve cooked up.

Denver Broncos at Oakland Raiders

This was once the most hotly contested rivalry in the NFL. Then the Raiders sank into a twenty year-long slump and it lost a little of its luster. This year, for the first time in memory, the Raiders look like they may have improved enough to bring interest back to the game. On the field, the Raiders will have a tough time surviving the Broncos aggressive defense who sacked their opposition’s quarterback seven times last week.

Sunday, October 4, 2015 8:30 p.m. ET

San Francisco 49ers at New York Giants

No one expects the San Francisco 49ers to win this game on national television. They’re widely considered one of the worst teams in the league, their once promising quarterback is struggling, and their defense is missing most of its best players. They haven’t won a game since the very first weekend of the season when they were… hey, wait a minute… they were on national television, they were considered one of the worst teams in the league, their quarterback was struggling, and their defense was missing most of its best players. Hmm. Maybe this game will be closer than we think.

Monday, October 12, 2015 8:30 p.m. ET

Pittsburgh Steelers at San Diego Chargers

Football is an extremely complex game. Every player on the field is responsible for knowing and reacting to a slightly different set of data. Only the best players truly master their own positions. That’s why it’s so extraordinary for a player to have a command of their position and their teammates and act on it. That’s what Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers was doing last week. So many of his offensive linemen were injured and missing, that he was doing the seeing and reacting for the replacements. Before every play, Rivers would put himself in the lineman’s position, see what an experienced player in that position would see, and shout out the reaction they would have. Then he had to do the calculations for his own position and start the play. It was a virtuoso performance and one that had a lot to do with his team winning their game. Watch for him to do the same in this game.

Pitch that game: NFL Week 4, 2015

Hello everyone and welcome to America’s favorite game show that… has never actually happened before and no one has heard of it… it’s Pitch That Game!

Here’s how it works. As your host, I have one minute to pitch a sporting event to someone who is not a sports fan. If, after my pitch, they’re interested in watching, I get a point! That’s it! Why would we play such a game? Well, it’s a good way to quickly learn about a set of games to see if you’re interested in following any of them. It’s also a great way for me to learn from you about what may or may not make a sport interesting to a layperson.

In this episode, I pitch you, the listener, all 14 of the NFL games this weekend, on Sunday October 4 and Monday October 5. If you want to know which games will be available on your TV this weekend, check out 506 Sports NFL. If you need help figuring out how to make sense out of what you see there, use my explanation of how to use 506 Sports NFL here.

Enjoy the show!

Sunday, October 4, 2015 9:30 a.m. ET

New York Jets at Miami Dolphins

This game is novel just for its location and time. It’s in London and because of that, it starts at 9:30 a.m. ET. This makes a very civilized way to start the day if you’re on the East Coast. Sit down with your breakfast and morning paper or head out for bottomless Bloody Marys and brunch! Either way, it’s kind of fun to watch football in the morning. Of course, if you’re on the West Coast, this game becomes something else entirely. If you wake up at 6 a.m. to watch the Jets play the Dolphins, you’ve got a serious problem. As for the game itself, no team has been more disappointing this year than the Dolphins. The word trickling through cyberspace is that the players don’t like their coach, Joe Philbin. If the team loses today, he could get fired on Monday.

Sunday, October 4, 2015 1 p.m. ET

New York Giants at Buffalo Bills

Bills fans and even just generally pro-Bills observers are waiting to exhale once they get a sign that these promising Bills are different from other years. The Bills often get off to fast starts only to wilt. This year seems different. This team beat the Colts and Dolphins, two teams we thought were good but that have not played well yet this season. The Bills only loss was to the Patriots, who seem like they might not lose a game this year. If this version of the Bills is really good, they’ll beat the Giants and you’ll hear a lot of exhalations of relief around the country.

Carolina Panthers at Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston is probably hoping his career will turn into the kind of redemption story that Cam Newton’s has. Both were maligned for “character flaws” coming into the league. The difference is — Cam Newton’s character flaws were over whether he and his family had been paid for his college football career. Winston’s? Winston’s are over the likely sexual assault in his past. Different stories with, I hope, different endings. It may not make you want to watch the game, but I’m going to keep bringing it up and rooting for the Buccaneers to lose until Winston is out of the league.

Oakland Raiders at Chicago Bears

Similar to the Giants vs. Bills game, this game should provide final confirmation of an up-and-coming team’s legitimacy. The problem with the Raiders seeking legitimacy from beating the Bears is that the Bears may actually be too bad to provide any feedback at all. The Chicago Bears are such a mess this year that their general manager started trading players to other teams for future draft picks. That kind of thing happens frequently in other sports but almost never in the NFL, especially not after three weeks. This puts the Raiders in an awkward position. No one will pat them on the back if they beat Chicago but people will certainly make fun of them if they don’t.

Kansas City Chiefs at Cincinnati Bengals

Kansas City has been enjoying a minor sports renaissance over the past few years. For the Chiefs, it started with the arrival of coach Andy Reid from Philadelphia and quarterback Alex Smith from San Francisco. It may be over. Last week’s loss to the Green Bay Packers had all the signs of a team that’s about to cycle through a vicious cycle of blame. The way that works in football is that the quarterback gets blamed first and then the coach and then the general manager. Quarterback Alex Smith will be the first to go and perhaps he should be. His play last week had people scrambling to their computers to see who the team’s backup quarterback was. Another clunker this week and we might all get to know Chase Daniel, college star at Missouri and long-time New Orleans Saints backup, very very well.

Houston Texans at Atlanta Falcons

The plot of this game should be all about the matchup between the incredible Falcons offense and the impenetrable Texans defense. Those units are certainly where the star power on both sides is. Alas, the Texans defense haven’t really shown much impenetrability this year as the team’s 1-2 record reflects. It’s probably safe to assume the Falcons, who have been great on offense, will score some points on the Texans. That pushes the pivotal element of the story over to the other side of the ball where a struggling Houston offense that may improve with the return of their leading rusher, Arian Foster, faces a young Falcons defense that is likely to improve as the season goes on.

Jacksonville Jaguars at Indianapolis Colts

This game could be the most meaningful game of the weekend. The Jaguars are a relatively new franchise, only about 20 years old, and for almost all of their existence they’ve been tortured by the Indianapolis Colts. First the Colts had Peyton Manning, a near unbeatable quarterback, and then, as soon as he left, they got Andrew Luck, another near unbeatable quarterback. In that time, the Jaguars have cycled through many, many quarterbacks, most of whom turned out to be… uh… eminently beatable. The Jaguars franchise, except for a brief blip in the late 1990s, have been a laughingstock — an example of futility. Well, this year, they have been showing signs of earning respectability at least. If the Jaguars could beat the Colts, which seems unlikely but possible to me, it would be a potentially franchise changing win, at least in how people view the Jaguars.

Philadelphia Eagles at Washington Redskins

This game has a variety of interesting sub-plots. First – Philadelphia’s coach, Chip Kelly, and their press department, seem to have decided this week not to refer to the Washington Redskins by their name. This is a hot-button issue because many people, including a majority of Redskins fans, I believe, think the name is racist and should be changed. Washington’s team owner disagrees and so far has refused to consider it. Second – there may be a hurricane hitting the East Coast just as this game begins. Football prognosticators often warn that bad weather doesn’t change a game as much as one would think but I don’t think a hurricane fits into that description. From my perspective, there’s nothing better than watching football in bad weather… from my couch. As for the stakes of the game, they’re pretty big. With the other two teams in the Eagles and Redskins’ division struggling, it seems like an 8-8 record might get a team into the playoff. When you’re expecting so few wins in a division, it magnifies every victory, especially one like this where a victory for you means a defeat for another team in the division.

Sunday, October 4, 2015 4:05 or 4:25 p.m. ET

Cleveland Browns at San Diego Chargers

One of the greatest fallacies in sports is that the better the teams involved, the better the game will be. It’s simply not true. Sometimes you have two great teams that play each other and it’s completely boring. That won’t be a problem in this game. These two teams are bad. But they’re interestingly bad. The Chargers have a very good quarterback in Phillip Rivers but literally four of their starting five offensive linemen didn’t practice on Friday because they’re all injured. A great quarterback can be made to look pedestrian if he plays behind a bad offensive line. Rivers might just look like he’s scrambling for his life. The Browns on the other hand… well, basically their entire team reportedly isn’t happy with their coaches decision to go with the, perhaps more competent, but certainly less exciting quarterback on their roster, Josh McCown instead of Johhny Manziel. As long as McCown is in the game, the Browns are aiming for a solid B-. With Manziel, they’ll either get an A or an F with no in between. Who knows, perhaps Manziel will get a shot in this game — it will certainly be interesting to watch if he does.

Minnesota Vikings at Denver Broncos

The Broncos defense, one of the best, if not the best in the league, will present Vikings sophomore quarterback Teddy Bridgewater with his biggest test yet. I enjoyed watching Bridgewater in college — he has a calm, in control way about him that’s easy to root for, so I hope he passes the test with flying colors. As for the Broncos side of the ball, this is the fourth time we get to see quarterback Peyton Manning play for coach Gary Kubiak. Manning has spent most of his career in charge of every element of what his offense is doing. That’s unique in today’s NFL. This season, he’s had to adjust to a coach who wants to do their own thing on offense and has the support of management to make it happen. It’s been totally fascinating to watch the offense evolve each week as the theoretically collaborative power struggle between coach and quarterback continues. My guess is that they’ll find a happy and winning middle ground.

Green Bay Packers at San Francisco 49ers

If you want to see evidence of the great influence a coach has in the NFL, look no farther than the dramatic change in the plot of a matchup between these two teams. Just a few years ago, the 49ers were the team that frustrated the Packers like no other. The 49ers traveled to Lambeau Field in Green Bay and knocked the Packers out of the playoffs. 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick was the next big thing – a player with limitless potential. Now the 49ers are 1-2 and people are openly wondering whether the team will bother to pick up Kaepernick’s option for next season. Meanwhile, the Packers remain one of the most stable and successful teams in the league. There’s very little doubt about the outcome of this game but very little doesn’t mean none. It’ll be worth watching, even just for the visual spectacle of seeing the 49ers traditional red and gold opposite the Packers even more traditional green and yellow.

St. Louis Rams at Arizona Cardinals

Virtually no one thinks the Rams have much of a shot in this game. The Cardinals have burst out of the gate this season and look like one of the best three teams in the league. They’re undefeated and tough to play at home in Arizona. The Rams, on the other hand, are 1-2 and looking classically shabby, like the Rams often do. I won’t deny any of that… but I just have a feeling that we could be missing the boat on this one. The Rams often play well in divisional games, which this one is, no matter how bad they are and how good their divisional opponent is. For evidence, we need look no farther than their Week One victory over the Seattle Seahawks. The Rams are also best at exploiting what the Cardinals are worst at. The Rams have a scarily good defensive line and the Cardinals are ever so slightly questionable on offensive line. The Cardinals would never do this, but if I were them, I’d be tempted to pull injury plagued and essential quarterback Carson Palmer out of the game at the least provocation.

Sunday, October 4, 2015 8:30 p.m. ET

Dallas Cowboys at New Orleans Saints

This is not what the NFL schedulers had in mind when they put this game on national television. They couldn’t imagine that the Cowboys would be without their best two players on offense or that the Saints would be winless on the year. On the other hand those losses amplify the importance of this game. It’s virtually a playoff game for the Saints and in Week Four, that is actually about as compelling as a scheduler could imagine. Talk about tripping into success. Nice job NFL schedulers!

Monday, October 5, 2015 8:30 p.m. ET

Detroit Lions at Seattle Seahawks

This game seems like a tough sell. An 0-3 team playing a 1-2 team? Ugh. Forget about the records though and it has all the component needed for an exciting game. The Detroit Lions have one of the most fantastic offensive players in NFL history in wide receiver Calvin Johnson. 6’5″ tall and as fast as a gazelle, he’s a potent weapon. Standing across from him on virtually every play will be Richard Sherman, the leader of a daunting Seattle Seahawks defense, and himself one of the most smotheringly frustrating-to-play against defensive players in the league. That one on one matchup, best against best, will be worth the price of admission. Okay, just looked at StubHub and the cheapest seats available are around $160. So, maybe not worth that, but worth turning your TV on and watching, for sure.

Pitch that game: NFL Week 3, 2015

Hello everyone and welcome to America’s favorite game show that… has never actually happened before and no one has heard of it… it’s Pitch That Game!

Here’s how it works. As your host, I have one minute to pitch a sporting event to someone who is not a sports fan. If, after my pitch, they’re interested in watching, I get a point! That’s it! Why would we play such a game? Well, it’s a good way to quickly learn about a set of games to see if you’re interested in following any of them. It’s also a great way for me to learn from you about what may or may not make a sport interesting to a layperson.

Our guest for this episode is Corinne Boet-Whitaker, a farmer and instrument and furniture maker. I pitched the five NFL football games available to people in the Boston area during the second weekend of the NFL season on Sunday September 20 and Monday September 21. For my thoughts on the other games, read on below the audio player.

Enjoy the show!

Sunday, September 27, 2015 1 p.m. ET

San Diego Chargers at Minnesota Vikings

Even though the two quarterbacks in this game, Phillip Rivers for the Chargers and Teddy Bridgewater for the Vikings, are on opposite sides of their careers, they’ve played quite similarly so far this year. Each has thrown the majority of their passes quite close to the line of scrimmage. Shorter passes are safer passes. The interpretation for Bridgewater, who is near the start of his career, has been that his coaches are sheltering him from the risks that he’ll learn to take as he grows into the job. Rivers, on the other hand, has spent most of his career slinging the ball all over the place, so this newfound conservatism is puzzling. It doesn’t seem like he’s lost any arm-strength, so maybe it’s simply a tactic that he or the coaches decided would work. I’ll be watching to see which quarterback, if any, gets more aggressive in this game.

Oakland Raiders at Cleveland Browns

Fans of the Raiders and the Browns have been watching their team’s anxiously for the past decade, looking for any signs that they might soon climb out of the NFL’s cellar, where they’ve been stuck for so long. The Raiders are coming off a big win last week over the Baltimore Ravens. The Browns are coming off an equally convincing victory over the Tennessee Titans. One of these teams will take a second step up the basement stairs this weekend. The other will hit their head on the ceiling and fall back down.

Cincinnati Bengals at Baltimore Ravens

The Ravens are one of several playoff teams from last year that have started this season with two losses. Of those teams, the Ravens are the one that have engendered the least worry among fans and prognosticators. This is because they started with two road games and they have such a stable recent history of winning that it seems inevitable for them to turn things around. All that may be true, but a loss in this game to Cincinnati would really get those alarm bells ringing in Baltimore. A Bengals win is not so far-fetched. The Bengals have played like an elite team so far this year. They have a solid defense, two excellent running backs, and a couple of great pass-catchers in wide receiver A. J. Green and tight end Tyler Eifert. Even their long-mocked quarterback, Andy Dalton, has played like an all-star this season. The Ravens will have to play their best to beat the Bengals.

New Orleans Saints at Carolina Panthers

A loss to the Panthers this weekend could signal the end of an era for the New Orleans Saints. The long-time partnership between coach Sean Payton and quarterback Drew Brees seems like it’s on its last legs. Brees has been battered and ineffective so far this season. He’s suffering from a seriously bruised rotator cuff and is questionable to even play in this game. Payton just doesn’t seem like the same kind of innovative coach that he did five years ago. A Saints loss would drop the team to 0-3 and severely damage their chances of salvaging this season. Carolina is always a tough place for the Saints to play — it’s outside and the Panthers have a brutally efficient defense — but it will be even tougher this weekend because Panthers fans and players would like nothing more than to be the camel that broke the football team’s back.

Atlanta Falcons at Dallas Cowboys

The Cowboys and Falcons are both 2-0 heading into this game, but the Cowboys seem to have made some kind of deal with the devil for their victories. Each win has come with a long-term injury to one of their best offensive players. Wide receiver Dez Bryant broke his foot in the team’s first victory and quarterback Tony Romo broke his collarbone in the second. If I were a superstitious Cowboys player, I might think twice about trying to win this game. I mean, really, at what cost? All jokes aside, it will be very difficult for the Cowboys to keep winning without their two best offensive players. If any offense could do it, it might be Dallas’ though, since it’s built around one of the strongest offensive lines in football. Even a relatively bad backup quarterback like Brandon Weeden should be able to complete throws if his line can keep all the defenders away from him.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Houston Texans

Tampa Bay Buccaneers rookie quarterback and probable rapist Jameis Winston said this week that he was looking forward to playing against Houston Texans fearsome defensive force of nature J. J. Watt. I am looking forward to watching Watt destroy Winston and make him look foolish.

Indianapolis Colts at Tennessee Titans

The Indianapolis Colts are another 0-2 team that was in the playoffs last year. They’ve been physically dominated in their first two games by the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets. It’s unclear whether Tennessee has the oomph and the athletes to do the same to them, but if they do, they have a clear blue print to follow. My guess is that the Colts win big in this game but there’s just enough suspense and certainly enough interest for me to want to watch and see how it turns out.

Pittsburgh Steelers at St. Louis Rams

This might be my favorite game this weekend. The Pittsburgh Steelers have looked like one of the best teams in the league this year, thanks to their balanced and dynamic offense. They’ve scored 71 points so far this season!! They’re one of the best teams in the league so far at running the ball and they might be even better passing. The only thing that can slow down their type of offense is exactly where the St. Louis Rams are best — an overwhelming defensive line. The Rams have a trio of defensive linemen, Robert Quinn, Chris Long, and Aaron Donald that basically all need to be double-teamed in order to keep them from tackling the opponent’s quarterback or running back. I am truly looking forward to seeing if the chaos caused by the Rams defense is enough to throw the Steelers off their game.

Philadelphia Eagles at New York Jets

If you judged teams by the number of words written about them during the offseason, the Eagles would be on their way to the Super Bowl and the Jets would be winless. In fact, it looks a little bit like the opposite is true. The Jets have surprised everyone and won their first two games in solid fashion. The Eagles have barely been able to get anything started on defense and have been profoundly vulnerable on offense. The vultures have already started circling around Philidelphia coach, Chip Kelly, and a loss this weekend could conceivably cost him his job.

Sunday, September 20, 2015 4:30 p.m. ET

Chicago Bears at Seattle Seahawks

Yikes. The winless, desperate, and generally pissed off Seattle Seahawks get to host the dysfunctional Chicago Bears. To make things worse for the Bears, their starting quarterback is out with an injured hamstring, so backup Jimmy Clausen will start the game against the Seahawks stellar defense. I guess the benefit of watching this game is that it will probably be decided conclusively in the first five minutes and then you can switch to another game? I will say, if the Bears can keep the game close, each minute that goes by will increase the pressure on the Seahawks tenfold.

Pitch that game: NFL Week 2, 2015

Hello everyone and welcome to America’s favorite game show that… has never actually happened before and no one has heard of it… it’s Pitch That Game!

Here’s how it works. As your host, I have one minute to pitch a sporting event to someone who is not a sports fan. If, after my pitch, they’re interested in watching, I get a point! That’s it! Why would we play such a game? Well, it’s a good way to quickly learn about a set of games to see if you’re interested in following any of them. It’s also a great way for me to learn from you about what may or may not make a sport interesting to a layperson.

Our guest for this episode is Sonja Boet-Whitaker, a graduate student in City Planning, accomplished baker, aspiring driver, and also my partner. I pitched the five NFL football games available to people in the Boston area during the second weekend of the NFL season on Sunday September 20 and Monday September 21. For my thoughts on the other games, read on below the audio player.

Enjoy the show!

Sunday, September 20, 2015 1 p.m. ET

Detroit Lions at Minnesota Vikings

Ah, the Lions and the Vikings. Both of these franchises have proud histories, but you have to be over the age of 35 to remember them. For the past twenty years or so, both teams have been lovable at times and laughable at times but always, always, losers. Sure enough, both teams lost in embarrassing fashion in the first week of the season. The Lions gave up 30 straight points in their loss to the San Diego Chargers and the Vikings were embarrassed against the San Francisco 49ers on national television. A win in this game will give their fans hope that this season might be different. A loss, and it’s going to feel like the same old shi…..ndig.

Arizona Cardinals at Chicago Bears

This game has all the makings of a win for the Cardinals. Arizona’s very good offense against Chicago’s bad defense and Chicago’s talented but questionable offense against Arizona’s potentially dominating defense. That said, even if things worked out that way, it could be a highly entertaining game. Chicago has enough talent and pride and desperation having lost their first home game to the Green Bay Packers, to fight for this one tooth, nail, claw, and fur — they are Bears, after all.

Tennessee Titans at Cleveland Browns

This game is going to be the second game in Tennessee Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota’s career. It will also be the second game in a row that he’s faced a heisman trophy winning quarterback. Mariota won the heisman trophy, given to college football’s best player, last year. A worthy candidate on the field, his record was augmented by the fact that he seems to be a good person off the field. That’s different from the previous year’s winner, Tampa Bay quarterback Jameis Winston, who has been accused of sexual assault and it’s different from Cleveland Browns quarterback Jonny Manziel whose problems with alcohol have been well documented. Mariota looked amazing in last week’s big win over Winston and the Buccaneers, and it should be fun to root for him again against Manziel and the Browns.

Houston Texans at Carolina Panthers

The quarterback of the Carolina Panthers, Cam Newton, is 6’5″ tall, 250 pounds, and such an incredible athlete that he’s simultaneously the team’s best quarterback and best running back. Even he may not be able to survive the onslaught of the Houston Texan’s defensive line. The leader of that line is J.J. Watt — who’s such a force that his nickname is simply J.J. Watt — and he’s supported by underachieving but still full of potential Jadaveon Clowney and long-time Patriots defensive leader Vince Wilfork. I, for one, will be tuning in hoping to see the three of them harass Newton throughout the afternoon.

San Francisco 49ers at Pittsburgh Steelers

It wasn’t just the fact that the 49ers won their first game, that made it the single most surprising part of the NFL’s first weekend, it was the way they won. Everyone was expecting the 49ers to be a shell of their former selves this year after losing their head coach, two best linebackers, best defensive end, best wide receiver, long-time running back, and two members of their offensive line over the summer. Turns out that doubt can be a powerfully motivating factor. The 49ers came out and physically dominated their opponents in their first game. Whether that same formula will work against the Pittsburgh Steelers who lost their first game to the defending champion Patriots, is another story.

San Diego Chargers at Cincinnati Bengals

If Phillip Rivers, quarterback of the San Diego Chargers, had the type of skilled players surrounding him at the running back and wide receiver positions that his counterpart on the Cincinnati Bengals, Andy Dalton has, the Chargers might never lose another game. On the other hand, if the Bengals had a quarterback three quarters as good as Rivers, they might never lose another game. This matchup provides a clear example of a perennial problem. If you can’t have a great quarterback and great players surrounding him, which do you choose?

St. Louis Rams at Washington Redskins

This game has a wonderful plot. Three years ago, the Washington Redskins traded a slew of draft picks to the St. Louis Rams in order to move up in the draft and choose a player when the Rams ordinarily would have. That pick was quarterback Robert Griffin the third, who has not worked out for the Redskins. Since that time, the Rams coaches and players have seemed to live only to beat the Redskins, to show them that team matters more than a single star player. It’s a nice message, and one that continues to provide motivation for the Rams, even long after anyone would argue that the Redskins got the better of the deal.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at New Orleans Saints

It’s the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and I recently read a wonderful article by Wright Thompson about the city’s efforts to recover and how important a role the Saints played. If that weren’t enough to have me rooting for them, their opponent in this game is the Buccaneers, a hapless franchise that gave away its lovable loser element when it drafted Jameis Winston, who was accused of and is almost definitely guilty of rape. Go Saints.

Sunday, September 20, 2015 4:30 p.m. ET

Baltimore Ravens at Oakland Raiders

The Ravens are who the Raiders should aspire to be. They are a defense first, highly adaptable team that seems to be able to continue to win no matter what players they lose because of free agency or injury. Unfortunately, the Raiders insist on trying to be the Raiders — a team that takes risks on other team’s cast-away players and tries to throw the ball way down the field more than any other team. It’s a formula that worked in the early 1980s but it hasn’t worked in this millennia and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be working any time soon.

Miami Dolphins at Jacksonville Jaguars

Football “experts” have all been assuming that Miami was a team on the rise and Jacksonville a team on the… well, I guess you’d say the float? A terrible team that’s not getting much better. Miami won their first game and Jacksonville lost, which you’d think would confirm that suspicion, but Miami looked so bad in winning and Jacksonville showed just enough oomph, even in a losing effort, that the so called experts will be on the edge of their seats to watch this one. If you like chaos and comeuppance, root for the Jaguars.

Pitch that game: NFL Week 1, 2015

Hello everyone and welcome to America’s favorite game show that… has never actually happened before and no one has heard of it… it’s Pitch That Game!

Here’s how it works. As your host, I have one minute to pitch a sporting event to someone who is not a sports fan. If, after my pitch, they’re interested in watching, I get a point! That’s it! Why would we play such a game? Well, it’s a good way to quickly learn about a set of games to see if you’re interested in following any of them. It’s also a great way for me to learn from you about what may or may not make a sport interesting to a layperson.

During this episode I’ll be pitching the fifteen NFL football games that will take place during the first weekend of the NFL season on Sunday September 13 and Monday September 14. Our guest is Max Nisenbaum, a New York City resident, rock climber, and cognitive behavioral therapist.

Enjoy the show!