Old dude, we got to hurry to get this post up before we go on assignment to another port of call.
Technically, there is a port in St. Louis, so yeah.
In other news, the Twins clinched the Central crown last night after winning and having the Indians lose. It's a pretty good sports weekend so far. Will that continue?
'Fraid not. Those nasty Eagles made that clear.
Don't know why a guy who should have been ejected was still playing for those Eagles, but whatever. We gotta get busy. Time to watch me work.
Minnesota Golden Elite Rowers of the Boat (-1.5) vs. Purdon't Spoilermakers. The Gophers may very well be undefeated, but they have been dodging some major bullets in order to do so. They probably could have lost all three of their games outside of league play, but were bailed out by their defense each and every time. Purdue has taken a step back, but Rondale Moore is one of those players who is a very dangerous opponent. The good news for the Gophers is that if Fleck gets fired, he can go back to his stupid sayings that cover up his lack of attention to his actual job on the football field. Purdue 31, Row Row Row Your Boat Elitely 9.
Marketing is important, young fella. The Gophers are, well, enigmatic. I don't know what to expect, but I make a lot of wild guesses in this feature, so. . . Gophers 21, Purdue 17.
Northwestern Wildcats (+24.5) vs. Beloved Wisconsin Badgers. Ladies and gentlemen, the Badgers are for real. They looked amazing against Michigan and did whatever they wanted to the Wolverines. Even the most delusional Badger fans like myself could not have seen this coming. This game against Northwestern is going to be a tougher out than the line would tell you. Northwestern is the defending Big Ten West champion, and the Badgers are down two starters for the first half on defense because of targeting calls last week. I still like Wisconsin, but bet on Northwestern to cover. Wisconsin 28, Northwestern 16.
Thanks, Benster the Greek! Northwestern is down this year. Bucky rolls. Wisconsin 38, Northwestern 10.
Minnesota Vikings (+2) vs. Bear Down Chicago Da Bearz Still Suck. The Vikings righted the ship against the Raiders, and the Bears destroyed an easy opponent in the Gridlocks. As much as Vikings fans want to blame Daniel Carlson for missing the playoffs, the bottom line is that da Bearz beat them twice in important games last year. This game is important to both teams because they cannot be down in both the head to head and divisional record tiebreakers. Oh, and time for a Very Special Comment about the Vikings.
Sunday is the type of game that Kirk Cousins is being paid to win, and he quite frankly hasn't since he signed that mammoth contract. Before people come at me with the Rodgers contract, Aaron was a good investment because Aaron is a proven elite quarterback who has won a Super Bowl and multiple league MVP awards. Don't blame Cousins for signing the contract, the man has got to take care of his family. Blame Mike Zimmer and the front office. They are paying a lot of money for a quarterback and not even feature him on offense. But of course because Mike Zimmer can do no wrong and it's never his fault for failing to spend enough time in the offensive meeting room or going through offensive coordinators left and right. Poor Kevin Stefanski gets hired and can't even run his own offense. How would Zimmer like it if someone told him to switch from his beloved double A gap defense that he loves more than life itself? I think that Kirk Cousins needs to be featured more, and if I were the Wilfs that is what I would tell Zimmer, in addition to actually sticking with the coaches that he hires and letting them do their jobs. I like the Bears in this one because they are the desperate team at home. Bears 31, Vikings 0.
Shots fired! I think the Vikings are better than the Bears overall. Whether they can win in Chicago is another matter. They almost never do. Bears 18, Vikings 14.
Yeah, I went there. Someone had to. Ben out!
1 comment:
Well, Rodgers and Cousins are both .500 QBs since 2017. There, I said it.
Then again, NFL stats don't really track "wins" by a QB the way baseball does with starting pitchers. While Cousins hasn't been the gun-slinging assassin (unless it's assassin-of-dreams), his "prime time" record since joining the Vikes isn't as bad as its made out. He was not the reason for the loss to the Rams, or the tie with the Pack, last year. In fact, if those games had been wins, he would have received a lot of the credit. KC had an el stinko in Lambeau two weeks ago, but a lot of the big game issues against Chicago were attributable to his OL issues. Sure, A-Rod has to deal with some OL issues from time to time and seems to do alright, outside of the last two drives last night. As for salary, KC basically got the going rate for a veteran QB (actually, a little less than the going rate if you want to consider the Jets offer he turned down). He was highest paid for about five minutes, before other QBs passed him (justifiably). And, no, there really wasn't another QB available of his caliber then, despite what the Keenum elves might think.
As for Zimmer, he's the head coach - he made his desires for the offense explicitly known last year. I'm sure it was voiced internally long before it was expressed publicly. If you don't do what your boss wants, you're gone. Perhaps Flip shouldn't have been hired, but heck - I think even Doug Pedersen's gardener was being offered a coaching position after the 2017 Super Bowl. Maybe there's something to this running business; certainly Denver and Philadelphia saw what Dalvin Cook did against the Packers and thought, "Heyyyy...".
Post a Comment