Bad Day at the Office, Charlie Brown

[redietz]

For those who haven't read my post, "Five Good reasons to Not Bet (Much) on Bowl Games," in Sports and Sports Betting, now might be the time.

I was considering pulling the trigger on Texas A&M, but of course a starting defensive tackle just went off last night, pointing a gun at people and telling them he'd shoot them. Oh well, at least he wasn't in a strip club. Meanwhile, the best wideout on Wash State just quit the team, after the second best wideout just quit the team. Well, I waited all year to take a stab at getting Michigan State, but now isn't the time. Taking a run-and-shoot team missing its top two wideouts, and favored, well, I may as well start sticking my foot in alligator mouths for thrills and profit.

God, I hate bowl games. Fortunately, nobody sticks a gun to your head. Unless, of course, you're in high profile contests. Then you have to pick something. Might be time to try hallucinogenics and a dart board.

[kewlJ]

Wait...I thought football season ended. Didn't it end yesterday, about 3:45 pm (vegas time) when Carson Wentz left the field?

I know it ended for me and a couple million other's dressed in midnight green "attire". (where is the damn crying emoji)

[redietz]

Bad break for the Eagles, although I've always liked Foles. He'll put up numbers.

My dad was the ultimate Eagles fan.

[kewlJ]

Bad break for the Eagles, although I've always liked Foles. He'll put up numbers.

My dad was the ultimate Eagles fan.

Officially won the division. Re-claimed the number 1 seed (for the time being). Season ended.

We (Eagles fans) are used to it. I dared to dream this year though. Not just because Wentz has quickly become far better than I ever thought he would/could. But the Eagles have a good team. Sound running game, strong tight end group. Good enough receivers...not great, but Jefferies made them all better. Decent defense, able to pressure the QB without blitzing, leaving 7 guys in coverage and very good kicker.

And most importantly, the NFC was wide open, with Rogers going down, Dallas's problems, Carolina and Seattle struggled through portions of the year. The Eagles, playing home playoff games had a real shot to get to the Superbowl. That is gone now. Foles will not be able to beat the likes of Seattle, Carolina, Minnesota or New Orleans, not even playing at home. Now the Eagles are another reason the NFC is wide open for other teams.

But, this season was special to me personally. The Eagles 'run' gave me something to look forward to each week and take my mind off my medical situation during a tough 4-5 week stretch for me. So, I am grateful for that anyway. And I introduced my brother to Eagles football, when we attended the Eagles/Bears game in Philly Thanksgiving weekend. He won't admit it, but I think I created a new Eagles fan.

[redietz]

Bad break for the Eagles, although I've always liked Foles. He'll put up numbers.

My dad was the ultimate Eagles fan.

Officially won the division. Re-claimed the number 1 seed (for the time being). Season ended.

We (Eagles fans) are used to it. I dared to dream this year though. Not just because Wentz has quickly become far better than I ever thought he would/could. But the Eagles have a good team. Sound running game, strong tight end group. Good enough receivers...not great, but Jefferies made them all better. Decent defense, able to pressure the QB without blitzing, leaving 7 guys in coverage and very good kicker.

And most importantly, the NFC was wide open, with Rogers going down, Dallas's problems, Carolina and Seattle struggled through portions of the year. The Eagles, playing home playoff games had a real shot to get to the Superbowl. That is gone now. Foles will not be able to beat the likes of Seattle, Carolina, Minnesota or New Orleans, not even playing at home. Now the Eagles are another reason the NFC is wide open for other teams.

But, this season was special to me personally. The Eagles 'run' gave me something to look forward to each week and take my mind off my medical situation during a tough 4-5 week stretch for me. So, I am grateful for that anyway. And I introduced my brother to Eagles football, when we attended the Eagles/Bears game in Philly Thanksgiving weekend. He won't admit it, but I think I created a new Eagles fan.

Wentz came into the league a made man. What people do not realize is that he played in arguably the best FCS conference, and was in playoff games every year with his team expected to do well. So he had to perform week in and week out against teams at his team's level, which is the best prep for the NFL, as opposed to having seven seconds to throw against overmatched secondaries as, say, all of the USC quarterbacks you can mention. Wentz surprised me, however, as he improved. His recognition/reaction improved to a degree I may have never seen. It was all going to be a crapshoot, however, once the playoffs began, as you had two second-year quarterbacks on the best teams.

[kewlJ]

It was all going to be a crapshoot, however, once the playoffs began, as you had two second-year quarterbacks on the best teams.

Agreed! I didn't say the Eagles were going to "waltz" to the superbowl. I said the had a shot to get there. A real shot. That's all any of us fans rooting for one of the teams that have been shut out of the superbowl for 50 years can ask for. And now that is gone.

Anyway, I don't want to hijack your post any further. Continue with you bowl season analogy and if you find a game that all off the sudden looks like something, remember the PM feature.

[manoftroy2525]

Bad break for the Eagles, although I've always liked Foles. He'll put up numbers.

My dad was the ultimate Eagles fan.

Officially won the division. Re-claimed the number 1 seed (for the time being). Season ended.

We (Eagles fans) are used to it. I dared to dream this year though. Not just because Wentz has quickly become far better than I ever thought he would/could. But the Eagles have a good team. Sound running game, strong tight end group. Good enough receivers...not great, but Jefferies made them all better. Decent defense, able to pressure the QB without blitzing, leaving 7 guys in coverage and very good kicker.

And most importantly, the NFC was wide open, with Rogers going down, Dallas's problems, Carolina and Seattle struggled through portions of the year. The Eagles, playing home playoff games had a real shot to get to the Superbowl. That is gone now. Foles will not be able to beat the likes of Seattle, Carolina, Minnesota or New Orleans, not even playing at home. Now the Eagles are another reason the NFC is wide open for other teams.

But, this season was special to me personally. The Eagles 'run' gave me something to look forward to each week and take my mind off my medical situation during a tough 4-5 week stretch for me. So, I am grateful for that anyway. And I introduced my brother to Eagles football, when we attended the Eagles/Bears game in Philly Thanksgiving weekend. He won't admit it, but I think I created a new Eagles fan.

Wentz came into the league a made man. What people do not realize is that he played in arguably the best FCS conference, and was in playoff games every year with his team expected to do well. So he had to perform week in and week out against teams at his team's level, which is the best prep for the NFL, as opposed to having seven seconds to throw against overmatched secondaries as, say, all of the USC quarterbacks you can mention. Wentz surprised me, however, as he improved. His recognition/reaction improved to a degree I may have never seen. It was all going to be a crapshoot, however, once the playoffs began, as you had two second-year quarterbacks on the best teams.

USC QB'S face a better secondary every day in practice than Wentz ever saw in college. Apparently the hallucinogenics kicked in.

[redietz]

That explains their unparalleled NFL success, then. Can't argue with that. (That was sarcasm, Sheldon).

By the way, I halfway agree with you. If practice stats were the basis for drafting NFL QBs, a lot of wasted draft choices on USC QBs could have been saved.

[manoftroy2525]

That explains their unparalleled NFL success, then. Can't argue with that. (That was sarcasm, Sheldon).

By the way, I halfway agree with you. If practice stats were the basis for drafting NFL QBs, a lot of wasted draft choices on USC QBs could have been saved.

As a USC season ticket holder for 32 years I heartily agree with you. Many have been vastly over ratted, Sanchez and Barkley heading the class. I actually think Darnold will be the best of the bunch, a lot less mechanical, a lot more heart. However, I do think he should come back to school for 1 more year.

[redietz]

That explains their unparalleled NFL success, then. Can't argue with that. (That was sarcasm, Sheldon).

By the way, I halfway agree with you. If practice stats were the basis for drafting NFL QBs, a lot of wasted draft choices on USC QBs could have been saved.

As a USC season ticket holder for 32 years I heartily agree with you. Many have been vastly over ratted, Sanchez and Barkley heading the class. I actually think Darnold will be the best of the bunch, a lot less mechanical, a lot more heart. However, I do think he should come back to school for 1 more year.

I think the problem with many USC quarterbacks is that they really do have seven seconds to throw against overmatched Pac 12 secondaries. Think Colorado or Oregon State. And even some of the better Pac 12 squads have useless secondaries, like Oregon or Arizona or Arizona State or Utah. And the USC receivers are so good, year in and year out, that the USC QBs have huge open windows into which to throw the ball. So they post eye-popping numbers and look wonderful, and then they try to transition to the NFL. No seven seconds. No receivers breaking free by three or four yards on every play. Whole different world.

I had a real good feel for USC this year -- saw most of their games. The only game I had wrong was when Cal backdoored them by converting a couple of long fourth downs (and I think I remember a 3rd-and-24 or something), but USC really didn't deserve to cover that game anyway. The Trojans played three good games all year -- the two Stanford games (the second one they managed to not cover, of course) and the Arizona State game. Their defense just couldn't be trusted to handle some of the inferior offenses, like Cal and Colorado. It wasn't talent -- some games the Trojans did more dancing on defense than tackling. The bowl game will be interesting. The Ohio State secondary is really not all that (check the Indiana and Oklahoma numbers). But on the flip side, the Ohio State offense most resembles what Notre Dame brings to the table, and that doesn't bode well for USC.

I think Darnold would benefit from another year. That seems to be the consensus. He had a streak where he tried to jam balls in against good but not great secondaries (like Texas) and did not do well.

[tableplay]

That explains their unparalleled NFL success, then. Can't argue with that. (That was sarcasm, Sheldon).

By the way, I halfway agree with you. If practice stats were the basis for drafting NFL QBs, a lot of wasted draft choices on USC QBs could have been saved.

Marijuanovitch comes to mind.

[redietz]

LOL -- one of my fave players.

The thing about USC -- when they prep for a game and really want it and they play (kind of like Alabama does every week), you see what they could be. They dominated Stanford twice. I said after the Notre Dame debacle that one of two things was going to happen -- either they would fold their tent or get it together and win the conference in a solid fashion. In fact, I took them versus ASU the week after ND because I was convinced they had the Sun Devils physically overmatched, which they did.