There was NFL football on last night. I, however, didn’t bother to tune in. All week this felt like a game I could just catch the highlights of the next day.
There was no buzz around social media for this game. I mean, that’s why Taylor Swift was there, right?
The Broncos are an embarrassingly bad football team and it’s starting to make me think less of Sean Payton’s time in New Orleans. As some people are speculating about Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, it now feels like Drew Brees carried that team to a Super Bowl in spite of him.
The Chiefs play down to their opponents every game. They’re historically bad at covering double-digit spreads (they covered last night’s by half a point), but in the end you know they’ll always pull out the win. It’s starting to get a bit annoying, and it doesn’t help that Patrick Mahomes is constantly complaining to the referees over minor contact.
The last few prime-time games have been stinkers. On Monday night, we had a boring game between the Raiders and Packers; both teams that aren’t going anywhere this season. We lost Packers +2, bringing our record to 6-7, -0.7u, so I could just be projecting. However, I don’t find low-scoring games between wildcard teams (at best) entertaining.
Sunday night featured that abysmal Cowboys-49ers game, and last Thursday featured two teams that aren’t making the playoffs in the Bears and Commanders. This upcoming Sunday once again features the New York Giants, the most boring team in football year after year. I understand the goal for the NFL is viewership and the Giants, who won a playoff game last year, are in a huge market, but there’s absolutely no reason to have them in a prime-time slot 4 out of the first 6 weeks. Since they’ve reverted back to being the Giants this year, nobody outside of fans of the teams playing want to watch.
What hasn’t been boring, however, is playoff baseball. Three of my predictions were correct, with the exception of the Diamondbacks. The Dodgers and the playoffs go together like milk and orange juice. Clayton Kershaw continues to melt down every year in October, and another (non-COVID) regular season goes down the drain.
If you tailed my Phillies pick, you found yourself winning a nice chunk of change last night. They are the most fun team in baseball right now, and that pains me to say as a Mets fan who grew up in the Utley/Rollins/Howard era. Between Castellanos’s four home runs in two games, Bryce Harper staring down Orlando Arcia after his two home runs, and the atmosphere at Citizen’s Bank Park, it was an electric series.
The Rangers and Astros will be a fantastic series, but I believe Houston pulls through in the end. This is their seventh consecutive ALCS appearance, and that experience will prove to be important. The Diamondbacks have their work cut out for them against the rolling Phillies, but part of me thinks they come out on top. I’m a superstitious betting man, and the fact that every team that’s beaten the Brewers in the playoffs has moved on to the World Series makes me think that trend continues.
Tough Money Sports 