The Championship Games

Yeah, I know that I am at least three days late to the party on this, but I do want to put my 

worth in on this past Sunday's NFL Conference Championship games.  I will state that the doubleheader Sunday of the AFC/NFC Championship is one of my favorite sports days of the year, and in the 49ers v. Eagles and Bengals v. Chiefs, both games appeared to be attractive and exciting matchups.

Eagles 31- 49'ers 7

Well, as you have often read in this space, no sporting event ever comes with a guarantee, and never was that proven more true than in the NFC title game in Philly.

Only minutes into the game, on San Francisco's first offensive series and sixth snap, this happened:

Niners QB Brock Purdy, one of the better stories in the NFL this season, took an awkward hit on the elbow and was out of the game.  This put Josh Johnson, SF's fourth string QB into the game and, effectively, ended it.   The Eagles ended up winning 31-7 and would have probably won the game anyway, but here's something that probably wouldn't have happened. Down only 14-7 just before halftime and possessing the ball deep in there own territory, Purdy probably wouldn't haver fumbled, as Johnson did, seen the Eagles recover it, score, and take a 21-7 lead into the locker room at the half.

So, a highly anticipated game became a laugher and a blowout.  It happens, because as a wise man, or maybe a wise guy, always says, there are no guarantees when you buy a ticket to a professional sports contest.  Or watch one on television.

Chiefs 23 - Bengals 20

Unlike the NFC game, the Chiefs and Bengals delivered with a really good game in the nightcap.  Joe Burrow had a good but not a great game for him, and Patrick Mahomes, playing with a bad right ankle that severely limited his mobility and forced him to stay in the pocket, was excellent.  He proved that for all of the talk about Burrow and Trevor Lawrence and Jalen Hurts and Justin Herbert and Josh Allen, all of it justified, he, Mahomes, is the best quarterback  and might well be the best player in the entire NFL right now.

For all of that, though, the teams were tied 20-20, and it appeared that the game was headed into overtime when, with seconds remaining, Mahomes took off running and was forced out of bounds with :05 remaining when the Knuckleheaded gene that seems imbedded in the DNA of the Cincy Bungles (need I remind you of Vontaze Burfict and Pacman Jones in a similar circumstance in a playoff game with the Steelers a few years back?) kicked in in the form of linebacker Joseph Ossai that led to this:

Ossai pushed and shoved Mahomes to the ground when he was clearly, CLEARLY out of bounds.  Out came the yellow flags, and fifteen yards was tacked onto the play, and Harrison Butker kicked what was now a chip shot field goal to win the game for the Chiefs as time expired.  Ossai was devastated over his dumbshittedness, but he shouldn't feel too bad, because I'm betting that Butker would have nailed that field goal even without the fifteen yard penalty.

Thus, we had one game decided early due to a fluke injury, and another game decided, maybe, by a stupid and totally unnecessary penalty.  The Thrill of Victory and The Agony of Defeat encapsulated twice in the same day.

This now leads up to an interesting Super Bowl LVII in Glendale eleven days from now.  

These are some of the storylines that will be bandied about ad nauseam  between now and then....

• Andy Reid coaching against his old team, the one he took to a handful of NFC Championship games and one Super Bowl, that fired him.
• Two Black QB's starting in a Super Bowl for the first time.
• Two brothers, Travis and Jason Kelce, facing off against each other for the first time ever in a Super Bowl.
• Will Gronk really attempt to kick field goal in a Fan Duel commercial?
• Will Greg Olsen, now a dead man walking in the Fox booth now that Tom Brady has retired "for good", talk longer than Castro used to talk in one of his marathon speeches to the Cuban people back in the day?
• Rhianna

As I type this, the Eagles are 1.5 point favorites over Kansas City.  I think that the Eagles may be a better team than KayCee, but the Chiefs have an advantage in the most important position on the field in Patrick Mahomes at quarterback.  My inclination is that in what figures to be  close game, the team with the better QB is the one to pick, so I lean to the Chiefs at +1.5, but I'm not ready to put any cash on the line just yet.

Looks like a dandy matchup between two really good teams.  Can't wait.

Super Bowl and Other Sports Thoughts

 Some Sporting Thoughts on a Saturday afternoon.....

Tomorrow, of course, is Super Bowl Sunday.  I have not commented upon the NFL Playoffs in this space, not sure why that is, but over the three weekends of Playoff action, we have been treated to some terrific football, most notably during the weekend of the Divisional Round, which was culminated by that epic win in overtime by the Chiefs over the Bills.  It has now come down to the Cincy Bengals and the LA Rams.  An up-and-coming team that was the worst team in football just two years ago versus an older team that has mortgaged the future in an effort to go all out and win this game this year, a game that is being played in their home stadium.

I never thought that I would ever find myself rooting for the Bengals, but these are not the Bengals of Marvin Lewis, Pacman Jones, Vontaze Burfict, and the Soul Crushing Interceptions of Andy Dalton.  They are no longer the Cincy Bungles.  Instead, they are now a young and exciting team and are led by second year  QB Joe Burrow, a player who appears to be so good that he could become the next face of the NFL as the decade of the 2020's marches on.   He makes watching a game involving the Bengals Must See TV.

It is the defense of the Rams, led by Pitt's Aaron Donald, that has made them the favorite in tomorrow's game.  Indeed, it is that defense that could allow the Rams to prevail against a Cincy offensive line that is not among the best in the league.  That said, I am counting on the youth and all round brilliance of Burrow to win the Big One tomorrow.

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On the heels of the retirement of Ben Roethlisberger, Tom Brady announced that he is retiring.  Twenty-two seasons, ten Super Bowl Appearances, seven Super Bowl championships, and playing with a flair and skill to such a degree that I cannot summon the words to adequately describe.  If you doubt this, go back and watch a replay of the Super Bowl where he led the Patriots back from a 28-3 third quarter deficit to an overtime victory against Atlanta a few years ago.

He is, simply, the greatest quarterback of all time.

My grandfather saw Honus Wagner and Ty Cobb play baseball.  My Dad once saw Babe Ruth play baseball.  I got to see Tom Brady play football.

********

The 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing have now reached their halfway mark.  

I have yet to watch any of them.  There are a variety of reasons for that...the time difference, the difficulty in knowing which TV/Streaming/Internet platform to find which events, the fact that the Summer games were held just six months ago...all contribute my sense of ennui to one degree or another, although each objection can be overcome relatively easily if the desire was there.  I think that I made my decision to stay away  because of all that we know that goes on in China and with a government that has such a brutal disregard for basic and simple human rights.

I won't preach about it or tell you that YOU are wrong if you are fully into these Games, and I know that what I am doing here half a world away will make not an iota of difference in Chinese government policy, but somehow I feel a little better by not supporting these particular games.

Another reason to avoid these Games is to offer yet another negative vote toward the International Olympic Committee.  In a sporting world that includes FIFA and the NCAA, the IOC could be the dirtiest, most hypocritical, and most corrupt governing body of them all.  

Here's one example:  Because of their cheating by the rampant use of illegal doping agents and performance enhancing drugs, the nation of Russia was banned from participating in the Olympics.  Russian athletes, however, can continue to compete under the banner of the "Russian Olympic Committee", which, of course, is RUSSIA!!!  The IOC can trumpet how hard they come down on drug cheating nations all they want, but, folks, RUSSIA IS STILL COMPETEING IN THE OLYMPICS!  Why else would none other than Vlad Putin himself be in attendance at the Opening Ceremony last week?

Oh, and in the news this week was the reports of drug cheating among athletes from, wait for it.....Russia. Oh, excuse me, the Russian Olympic Committee.

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Baseball.  Major League Baseball.  It's February, the time of the year when Spring Training opens, and hope springs eternal for fans of their favorite teams.   Not so in 2022.  There is a lockout.  A new CBA needs to be negotiated and agreed upon.

Wake me when it's over.  At this point, I could not care less about how several billions of dollars will be apportioned between Owners and Players, especially when I know that the eventual outcome will be yet another middle finger to teams like the Pirates, or, more to the point, to fans and followers of teams like the Pirates.

Whenever they decide to come back and play, I will be in front of my TV watching and I will be at PNC Park for my normal share of ball games.  Baseball and the Pirates, for all of their ills, is too much a part of my sports fan DNA for me to ever walk away.  However, the current stewards of the game should be aware that people like me will someday all be, you know, dead, and there are not enough younger people out there to take our places.  By the middle part of this century, baseball will be what horse racing and boxing are today, just another niche sport that mainstream America just won't care all that much about.

Steelers 28 - Bengals 21

This is what did NOT happen to the Cincinnati Bengals this afternoon:

• They did not shoot themselves in their collective feet with cheap shot and downright dirty play.
• They did not have a running back fumble deep in their own territory when holding the ball would have assured a victory.
• QB Andy Dalton did not throw a soul crushing interception that cost his team the game.

Instead, Dalton played an error free game, didn't throw an interception, the Bengals didn't turnover the ball, they held the Steelers to field goals instead of touchdowns at critical moments, and Dalton led a beautiful two minute drill drive that put Cincy ahead 21-20 with only 1:18 remaining in the game.  And you know what?

THEY LOST TO THE STEELERS ANYWAY!!!!!

After the kickoff, the Steelers got the ball on their own 24 yard line with 1:12 left in the game.  How many times have I written in this Blog that the Steelers are never out of the game with Ben Roethlisberger at quarterback?  A couple of key completions later and the Steelers were setting themselves up for a field goal attempt to win the game when Ben hits Antonio Brown with :10 left on a slant over the middle that went for a 31 yard touchdown.  

A two point conversion later, it's 28-21, and the Steelers win.

In many ways, this was way more satisfying than all those other Bengals screw-ups over the years.  They played well, they had it almost in the bag, and they still turned out to be the Cincy Bungles.

What a satisfying win this one was.

Managed to grab a few pics from my TV set at the end...

Feel bad for them, don't you?  Nahhh.

Speaking of Sports....

It's been awhile since I've commented on the sporting scene, so let's play a little catch-up, shall we.....

Two weeks ago, the Steelers lost, badly so, to the Jax Jaguars, and were headed on the road to play the undefeated KayCee Chiefs.  It was looking grim, and a poor performance against the Chiefs could have sent the Steelers season in the wrong direction.  

What followed was convincing win against the Chiefs, and that was then followed with an even more convincing win over the Cincinnati Bengals.  Not coincidentally, both wins featured strong performances by this guy...

Le'Veon Bell

....who may very well be the best running back in the NFL.  Bell has shown knucklehead tendencies in the past, but it cannot be disputed just how good he is.

Both of these past two Steelers wins have also been highlighted by strong defensive performances, and now, just two weeks after that woeful game against the Jags, the team appears to be one of the strongest in the NFL.  Of concern, however, is the Steelers mystifying inability to turn First and Goal opportunities into touchdowns and settling for field goals instead.  It hasn't hurt them too much so far, but there will come a time, against a strong opponent, when I fear that that deficiency will bite them in the posterior.  Until then, though, let's enjoy the ride.

********

Is there anything that can cure Steelers Sluggishness more that playing against the Cincy Bengals?  Once again, the Bengals turned into the Bungles when playing the Steelers yesterday.  At no time was this more apparent than at the end of the first half.  The Steelers have the ball inside their own twenty-five yard line, under two minutes to play, and only one time out.  What happens? A Bengals penalty for having twelve men on the field gives the Steelers a crucial first down, and that was then followed up by a forty yard pass interference penalty that gave the Steelers the ball on the Bengals five yard line.  And all of that was followed by a Bengal second half where Andy Dalton and his mates redefined the term "hapless".

As I have often said, Death, Taxes, and Unbelievable Screw-ups by the Cincy Bengals.  Three absolutes in life.

********

Two weeks ago, I sat in Heinz Field and watched Pitt get thoroughly beaten by North Carolina State and fall to 2-4.  Really, there was nothing positive to take from that game.  Poor line play, which led to no running game and inept quarterback play.  It was discussed among my ticket group that it was possible that the Panthers might not win another game all season.

What happens?  Pitt travels to Duke and lays a beat down on the Blue Devils, a win that featured a 200+ yard rushing performance from Darrin Hall.  Go figure.

Pitt now has to go 3-2 the rest of the way to become bowl eligible.  Can they do it?  I suppose it is possible, but I give it a less than 50/50 chance unless some spark is lit at the quarterback position.  Makes you realize how good a college QB Nate Peterman was.

Anyway, bowl eligibility now becomes the Panther goal, but how good are you really going to feel about a 6-6 season?

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The World Series begins tomorrow night!  Once the premier sporting event in all of America, the World Series is still a pretty big deal to me, and this year's battle between the Dodgers....

Dodgers defeat Cubs

and Astros....

Astros defeat Yankees

certainly has the possibility to be an exciting one.  

Both teams won over 100 games, and the Dodgers, save for an inexplicable 20 for so game stretch game in late August, steamrolled through the regular season and the NL Playoffs.  Likewise, the Astros blew through the AL West in the regular season, and won a thrilling LCS in seven games over the Yankees.

(Before I go on, a word about the Yankees.  They are young and they are good, and unlike Yankees teams from the George Steinbrenner/Billy Martin Era, they are hard not to like. [With the exception of Aroldis Chapman; I can't see myself ever liking him.] With guys like Judge, Bird, Sanchez, and Severino, they have the makings of a team that we shall be seeing in the post-season for years to come.  They also have a really good manager in Joe Girardi. They'll be back.)

The Astros and Dodgers.  Both teams have terrific starting pitching and terrific hitting.  Both have deep benches.  The Dodgers have an absolutely unbelievable bullpen, and that is where I give them a significant edge over the Astros.  The Astros, given the depths that the team was in earlier in the decade, and given what the City of Houston has experienced this past summer, will be the easier team for which to root, but I think that the bullpen will be the edge that will give the Dodgers the ultimate victory.

In my Pirates preview post of April 2, 2017 (you can look it up), I ended with the following sentence:

The Los Angles Dodgers will defeat the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.

Okay, I had the AL team wrong, but I will stay with that original sentiment and call it a Dodgers win in seven games.  As always, watch but don't bet.

Steelers 24 - Bengals 20

Like I have said on this site before, there are three things in life on which you can rely: Death, Taxes, and the Cincinnati Bungles.

Four consecutive defensive penalties on a drive that allowed the Steelers to score the go-ahead (and winning) touchdown.  That was just so deliciously Bengals-like.

Bengals fans head for home on the Escaloser.

(Thank you, Tim Baker!)

Sunday Morning Kwick Komments.....

Kwickies for your konsideration.....

• The 2016 Pittsburgh Pirates are a good team, certainly one that could be capable of competing for a post-season spot.  That said, they look like the Sad Sack team of Sad Sack manager John Russell of 2010 when they play the Cubs.
• It was hopeful when the Bucs took a 2-0 lead against the invincible Jake Arietta in the top of the fourth inning yesterday, but then thoroughly demoralized to watch Jeff Locke spit the bit in the bottom of the fourth  y giving up an infield single, a walk, and a soul-crushing three run home run to the first three batters he faced after having been given a lead.
• Pirates now 0-5 against the Cubs this season.  Combined scores of those games: 37-11.  It is at a time like this that a true Ace needs to take control of a game and pick his team up and turn things around.  We shall see what Gerrit Cole does with just such an opportunity this afternoon.
• I take nothing away from the Cubs.  That is a very good team put together by Theo Epstein, who may well be the best baseball executive since Branch Rickey.  Their arrogant manner, a tone set by manager Joe Maddon, and the media's unbelievable slurping up to Maddon and the team that will ensue all summer long will make them one of the most disliked teams, on a national basis, in recent memory by the time the post-season rolls around.
• I am at the point where I am mightily tempted to skip watching games that Jeff Locke is scheduled to pitch.
• Did you see that the Pittsburgh Riverhounds lost their game against the Cincinnati Whatevers last night?  This was the game where Vontaze Burfict, Pacman Jones and other assorted Bengals Thugs served as honorary captains for the Cincinnati team.  That victory in a minor league soccer game must have been sweet revenge for those Bengals, whose thuggish and downright dirty play snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and gift-wrapped an NFL playoff win for the Steelers a few months back.  Maybe it made this lady smile again:

• Earlier in the week, Marilyn and I watched the 1967 movie "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner" on TCM.  I was surprised how well this movie has held up over all the years. Despite the fact that we don't use terms like "colored" or "Negro" anymore, the message sent by this movie is still absolutely spot on.  This was an absolutely fabulous cast in they movie headed by Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, and Sidney Poitier.  And I was surprised to see that spicy housemaid in this movie was played by Isobel Sanford, aka, Weezie Jefferson.

• And speaking of terrific movies, we once again watched last year's Best Picture Oscar winner, "Spotlight", last night.  The movie was even better the second time around.  Also, one of the extras on the Blueray disc featured a discussion of the actual Boston Globe reporters portrayed in the movie, and it was uncanny how perfectly the actors in the movie "got" the real life persons that they were playing.  If you still haven't seen it, you should.  Great movie.

Steelers 42 - Bengals 21, and Other Football Thoughts

There are very few absolutes in life - the sun will rise in the east, the Pope will always pray for peace, the Yankees will always spend vast amounts of money.  That's about it, but there is another one that you can take to the bank with as close to absolute certainty as there is in professional sports, and that is this: with rare, very rare, exceptions, the Cincinnati Bengals will almost always revert to being, well, the Cincinnati Bengals.

Facing the a home game against the Steelers wherein a victory would just about put a death knell on the Steelers playoff aspirations, and increase their own playoff possibilities, the Bengals took a 21-17 lead into the fourth quarter and proceeded to allow the Steelers to score 25 straight points in the space of about nine minutes.  That ain't easy, but if any team has shown a historical propensity for such happenings, it is the Bengals.  I don't want to sell the Steelers short here.  They thoroughly earned this victory in what, for three quarters anyway, was a close, hard fought, and pretty good football game.

The Steelers are a flawed team, especially on the defensive side of the ball.  They give up too many long plays, often for scores  - it happened twice today - but the offensive unit sure seems to be peaking at the right time of the season.  Ben Roethlisberger continues having one of his best seasons ever (despite some inexplicably bad games this season), Le'Veon Bell and Antonio Brown are having Pro Bowl seasons, and the offensive line appears to be among the best in the league.  Can they make a deep run in the NFL Playoffs?  Given the weaknesses of the defense, probably not, but the trick is to get into the Playoffs.  To do that they will need to win at least two of their remaining three games, with one of those wins coming in the season finale against the Bengals.  Once you get into the Playoffs, anything can happen, as the KayCee Royals can tell you.  I know, I know, different sport, but still a good analogy.

********

Because Marilyn and I went to a play this afternoon, I only watched the Steelers game via my DVR recording, beginning at around 4:45.  Did you realize that you can watch an entire NFL game in about ninety minutes or so this way?  Terrific.

Anyway, this circumstance meant that we listened to the radio broadcast of the game for the twenty or so real time minutes of the fourth quarter that transpired during our drive home.  It would take a writer much, much, MUCH better than I to describe just how incredibly bad the radio team of Bill Hillgrove, Tunch Ilkin, and, yes, Craig Wolfley is.   On the long incompletion  that Andy Dalton threw to A.J. Green with Cincy down 28-21, Hilgrove described it as, and I may not have it exactly here, but the gist is correct: "A guy came and knocked the ball away, pushed Green out of bounds and another guy almost intercepted the ball."  The two "guys" in question were, I might add, Steelers with whom, presumably, Hillgrove is familiar and should be able to identify by name.  I might also add that Tunch made no effort to step in a identify who those two Steelers defenders were.

Awful, and the Steelers and their broadcast partners should really move onto some fresh blood next season.  The glory days of "turn down the TV sound and listen to Fleming and Cope on the radio" are long gone.

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I see that the college football playoff committee has settled on Alabama, Oregon, Florida State, and Ohio State as the first ever college football final four.  I think it's a just line-up.  All the pre-weekend hype centered on whether or not TCU should be ranked ahead of Baylor if all teams held serve over the weekend.  All teams did hold serve, and all but still undefeated FSU won in blowouts, including fifth ranked Ohio State.  It seems to me, and to some knowledgeable football people out there, that as the season progressed, it became apparent that Ohio State, despite playing in a weak Big Ten, was certainly among the four best teams in the country, and maybe even the best team.  The advanced metrics crowd will surely argue that this is not the case, but they passed the "eye test" to me, and, apparently, the twelve person committee, so I like the line-up.

I also like that Alabama and Ohio State will be matched up in one of the semi-final games.  With two such cheerful, outgoing, and likable coaches like Nick Saban and Urban Meyer going head to head, gosh it's going to be tough to decide which guy you would like to win more.