Florida Accountant Hayley Makes Her Debut, Steve Belichick Vs. Hot Pockets & Spirit Engine Up In Flames
Sunday observations after a day spent watching football
• The Buffalo Bills should have the AFC East wrapped up by Thanksgiving. Now I know everyone is soooooo excited over Mac Jones and his performance in a showdown against Tom Brady -- 31 of 40 for 275 yards, two touchdowns and one INT -- but let's stop and realize the Patriots had MINUS ONE YARD RUSHING against Tampa. That's right, MINUS ONE YARD ON THE GROUND.
The Patriots play the Bills twice in December. I'm not sure Mac Jones has ever thrown a football in below-freezing conditions in his life, let alone in Buffalo, New York on December 6 or Foxboro on December 26.
Meanwhile, Buffalo has the 31st easiest remaining schedule (.365 winning percentage) with its hardest games being against Tampa and Kansas City. The Titans, who just lost to the Jets after having a chance to tie via the foot of Fat Randy Bullock, have the easiest remaining schedule based on winning percentages (.346).
• Speaking of the Titans, they're going to make this difficult on Clay and all the new Nashville transplants from California and New York, right? Vrabel's team will be 8-8 heading into the final week of the season with a must-win in Houston. You can just feel it. The Colts will figure out a way to be 8-8 heading to Jacksonville on January 9 for Urban's final home game and will go to overtime. That's just how this AFC South has to end this year.
• Can the Chiefs overcome a bad defense that just gave up 30 to the Eagles? Yes, if Patrick Mahomes can manage to drop 42 on the opponents. Only the Falcons have given up more points on defense -- 125 to 128 -- than the Chiefs. Keep in mind, the Chiefs have the No. 1 hardest remaining schedule -- .653%.
• The big question in Cleveland is whether Baker Mayfield's non-throwing shoulder is banged up or if he is just a 15 of 33 for 155 yard and no touchdown quarterback. The good news for Bake and the Browns is that the defensive front is excellent, Kirk Cousins isn't, and the Vikings will most likely be firing Mike Zimmer at some point this season.
• Stop and think about this path that Aaron Rodgers has to navigate to win the division. The Vikings will be firing their coach. The Bears are trotting out the rookie QB, and the Lions will be lucky to win two games. In case you've been in a coma for the last two decades or more, it's really good to be a HOF quarterback in a garbage division.
• Big Ben might as well announce his farewell tour and collect some rocking chairs and shotguns from opposing teams. The guy can't throw the ball accurately more than seven yards. It's going to be a long, dark winter in Pittsburgh, and I'm going to love every moment of it. As a Bengals fan, hopefully, this is the beginning of a very dark period for the Steelers. May they not get lucky and draft four HOF offensive linemen and a 15-time Pro Bowl quarterback any time soon.
• Was it really surprising that Tom Brady told the Patriots he didn't want to stop the game when he surpassed Drew Brees' all-time passing yards record? Uh, no. Tom's 44, has his hands full of Super Bowl rings and has started 303 NFL games. He should own the record. He outlasted everyone and has 17 more career starts than Brees.
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• Moving along to emails sent in. Let's get caught up on a few that have piled up. First up is Chris B. on the topic of Idaho. Pretty sure I'll be getting a rebuttal email from Mike in Idaho over this one:
Hey, Joe — We went to Sweitzer Mountain a couple of summers ago (not a skier with these knees) and while it’s lovely, it’s not a place to go if you don’t ski. If you do visit, you’ll want to stay in CDA or in a condo on the mountain itself. Sandpoint, as we learned, is a major railroad intersection, and the whistles go off every 15 minutes all night every night. I actually bought some earplugs the second day.
After giving up on relocating west ($$$$, smoke, not enough water, and too many Californians), we spend our summers on Beech Mountain, NC, TN line about three hours north of Charlotte. You can still buy a place around here if you’re a regular person, and the summers are spectacular. Hiking, golf with rich guys if you can swing it, and all kinds of river sports (and we’re about a half-hour from App State for your Big South football needs). It was 69 (nice) degrees today at 3,000’ and will be that way for another couple of weeks as the leaves turn and the Floridians migrate south. Cold as hell from Halloween until Easter, but apparently there are those who like that kind of thing.
https://www.beechmountainresort.com
Thanks for the ,
Chris B.
• Beau in Toledo wrote in Friday night with his own dad story:
You wanted us to share Dad Stories. Mine is Satellites. We would sit in the backyard and look for satellites when I was a kid. The peace and quiet was refreshing, even for a kid my age then. Now they sort of flood the sky, but it's still fun to look for them while enjoying the night. To this day, we call/text each other when the International Space Station flies over Toledo at 17,000 mph.
I wanted to share these links: ISSTracker ~ Real-Time Location Tracking of the International Space Station
Toledo, Ohio, United States | Sighting Opportunity | Spot The Station | NASA
Headed back outside to check out the Space Station, which is scheduled to pass over at 2033 hrs.
• And Tim G. in Ohio has his own father-son experiences to share:
I love the stories about the father/son road trips. Here's a few of my experiences:
My father taught at Purdue and we grew up just a few miles from campus. He took me to my first game in 1972 when Purdue beat Wisconsin and Otis Armstrong returned a kickoff for a TD and ran right at us seated in the end zone the entire way. I was hooked!!
Over the years we have seen many Purdue football games. We have worked the leader boards at 20 or so Memorial Tournaments in Columbus. A Packers fan since before Vince Lombardi, we bought him a share of the Packers in 1997 and have made several trips to Lambeau for a few games and the annual Packers Shareholders Meeting. Three years ago, we rode our Harleys up through the UP of Michigan and down to Green Bay for the meeting.
We have played all 10 Big Ten golf courses. (NW and NE don't have a course and MD and RUT were not in the league then.) He was my best man at both of my weddings.
Here are a few pics of some of our excursions.
Keep the stories coming. Keep the drink suggestions coming. Remember, you're my eyes and ears to the United States. The local news and the nightly news are worthless. It's up to you guys to show what's really going on in your neck of the woods.
I need to see what's new in the world of patios. Crazy Halloween decorations in your neighborhood. People who've already put out there Christmas lights. Etc.
Email: joekinsey@gmail.com