Steelers 24 - Colts 17 and the Updated Grandstander Power Rankings

 

Benny Snell Scores the go-ahead (and winning) TD

That the Steelers bumped their record to 4-7 by beating the crummy Indy Colts last night came as no surprise, but raise your hand if you had two of the stars of the game for Rooney U being Benny Snell and Anthony McFarland.  Didn't think so.

The biggest take-away for Steelers fans on this one, as it has been and will be for the remainder of the season, was the learning and development of Kenny Pickett as the team's quarterback of the future.  Pickett's stats were not flashy, and there were a couple of possessions where the Steelers settled for field goals instead of touchdowns, but the Pickett led offense did build up a 16-3 lead at halftime, a lead that was squandered thanks in large part to the special teams horrid coverage on kickoff and punt returns.  Then, Pickett achieved a significant career milestone:  he engineered his first fourth quarter comeback of his pro career, a 75 yard, 11 play drive, which included three third down conversions and culminated in a Snell TD and a gorgeous Pickett-to-George Pickens two point conversion.  More significantly, this was the third game in a row in which Pickett did not throw an interception.

The growth continues.

Oh, and a tip of the cap to Colts Head Coach Jeff Saturday for some bewildering clock (mis)management  in the final minutes of the game.  With possession and a chance to tie the game and all three time outs remaining, the Colts took none of them until it was way too late to do them any good.  Time expired and Saturday ended up with two time outs still in his pocket.  I can only imagine how he will be roasted on Indy sports talk radio all week.

Time now for what you have all been waiting....

Circumstances prevented me from watching any football on Sunday afternoon (yes, we DO have a social life!), but I did watch the Sunday night game and the Eagles 40-33 dismantling (score not indicative of Philly's dominance) of the Packers.  That is one damn good football team and Jalen Hurts has to be the lead candidate for MVP right now.

Through Week 12:

1. Eagles (10-1)
2. Chiefs (9-2)
3. Cowboys (8-3)
4. Vikings (9-2)

Knocking on the door: 49ers 7-4, Bills 8-3, Commanders 7-5, Dolphins 8-3, Ravens 7-4, and Titans 7-4.

"Just Shoot the Ball, Willya!" and Other Soccer Thoughts

During a Penguins game last week, one of the Penguins, and I must confess that I can remember neither the specific game nor the specific Penguin, took and awkward looking shot from about 45 feet out, with an opponent draped over him that somehow found the back of the net for goal.   Penguins announcer Bob Errey then said words to the effect that it may have been an ugly looking goal, but that you can never go wrong by just winding up and shooting the puck on the net.  Who knows what might happen when you just put the puck on the net?  Errey also talks about "puck volume" and the need to just make shots on goal.

This comment of Errey's came to mind as I watched the the USA and Wales play to a 1-1 draw in their opening game of the World Cup.  The final stats showed that over the course of the entire match, a match that lasted over 100 minutes with stoppage time, Team USA managed a grand total of 1, as in ONE!!!, shot on goal.  Now if you are a glass-half-full kind of guy, you can say, "Hey, the made 100% of their shots", but really, one lousy shot over 100 minutes?  

In discussing the game on PTI last night, Tony Kornheiser said that he watched the game and kept yelling at the TV "shoot it shoot it" but hey never did.  In fact, the strategy in soccer seems to be to not shoot, but rather to continually pass the ball, pass it, pass it, pass it in the hopes of setting up the "perfect" shot.  Something that almost never comes, so you end up with the USA taking one shot, blowing 1-0 lead and probably punching their ticket out of the World Cup once group play concludes. 

And in the For What It's Worth Dept., two of the three games played today, Denmark v. Tunesia and Mexico v. Poland, ended in 0-0 draws.  Those four teams registered a total of twelve (12) shots on goal among them.

Were they even trying to score?

History, or at least history as I remember it, lesson.  I may be fuzzy on some of the details, but I think I am correct in the overall picture.....

Back in 1966, the World Cup final match between England and Germany, was televised live on ABC's Wide World of Sports.  England won the match, and ABC, which had no such expectations, was astounded with how well the ratings in America were for the game.  The ratings were so good that American sporting magnates launched, in 1967, not one, but two professional soccer leagues...

...Pardon the interruption, but as I have been typing this piece, I have had the match between Australia and France on the telly.  France had been enjoying a 2-1 lead in the second half, but over the course of about ten minutes of actual time, French star futboler Kylian Mbappe had taken not one, not two, not three, but four shots on the net.  The fourth one tickled the twine and France now leads 3-1.  Bob Errey was right.  OH, THIS JUST IN....as I was typing THIS aside, Mbappe  just sent a perfect cross pass in front ot the net which a team mate headed into the net.  4-1 France......

Okay, where was I?  Yes, two professional soccer leagues, the North American Professional Soccer League and the National Professional Soccer League, arrived on the scene in 1967.  What Pittsburgh sports fan doesn't remember the glory days of Co Prins and the Pittsburgh Phantoms?  High schools which had no soccer teams, started one, and youth soccer became a thing here in the USA.  This would lead, we were assured, to soccer becoming a dominant sport in the USA and the USA to becoming a dominant power in the game upon the world stage, and all of this would happen within two, maybe three generations.

That was over fifty years ago and what has happened?  Soccer has become a thriving sport in America.  It is played adjust about every high school.  I have six nieces and nephews who have played it and played it well on the high school level, and two of those nephews have played on the collegiate level.  "Youth Soccer" has become a thriving industry, and according to some pundits, "Soccer Moms" have become a real political demographic.  The NASL and the NPSL no longer exists, but Major League soccer, the MLS, has taken root and thrived (as I wrote back in 2020 HERE).

And the USA has indeed become a dominant soccer power.  That is, the USA Women have become the dominant power.  FIFA began staging a Women's World Cup in 1991 and the US Women's National Team have won four of the eight tournaments contested.  Brandi Chastain, Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, and Megan Rapinoe are athletes that are known by American sports fans, not just American soccer fans.

It has not happened for the US Men's National Team.  The team seems to exist on the fringes of international soccer.  They failed to qualify for the World Cup in 2018, and after snatching a tie from the jaws of victory yesterday, there's a good shot that they will not advance beyond group play this year.  In international competition, they continually lose to nations like Costa Rica and Panama, nations with a tiny fraction of the population the United States.  Is it because the best athletes in America still prefer football, basketball, or baseball?  That seems to be too simple an explanation.

Anyone else have a theory?

Betting the Process with Jeff Ma

Okay, I know that many of you may be asking, "Who is Jeff Ma?"  Some background.

If you have not read the 2003 book by Ben Mizrich called "Bringing Down The House", you should.  It tells the story of six MIT math students who formed a "blackjack team"and then proceeded to, well, bring down the house at various Las Vegas casinos using an expert knowledge of mathematical probabilities and an ability to count cards to their advantage.  What they did was not illegal, but the casinos didn't like it, and all six have been barred from ever entering those casinos again.  It's a great book.  One of those six students was Jeff Ma.

Ma now co-hosts a podcast called "Bet the Process" and for the last several years, he has been a weekly guest on the Tony Kornheiser Podcast where he picks five games each week with the point spreads.  Tony always likes to say that "if you're betting with Jeff Ma, your'e making money."  This season, I decided to test that theory.

I would listen to Jeff make his selections each week, and I would then bet one unit on each game.  Okay, a "unit" in my particular case is $1.  I'm not crazy.  The season is now ten weeks old and Jeff has made fifty such bets, a fair sample size, for the TK listeners.  How has it worked out?

Through three weeks of the season, if you bet with Jeff Ma, you were up 14%, 19.2% through four weeks, and 18.5% through five weeks.  Jeff then hit a rough patch and four of the next five weeks his picks posted losing records.

Through ten weeks, Ma's record is 25-23-2, and you are in a virtual break even position, but six tenths of one percent in the red nonetheless.

What does this prove?  Does it prove that analytical analysis isn't all that much better than just flipping a coin or going with the team with the coolest uniform colors when you decide what teams you're going to wager on any given weekend?  Probably not, but who knows?  In my own football wagering this year, I am 24-28-1 on NFL games and 33-26 on college games, 57-54-1 overall.

I will continue betting with Jeff Ma through the remainder of the season.  If it does prove to be profitable, maybe next year I'll go nuts and bet two or maybe even three bucks on his games.

The Latest GPR and Some Other NFL Thoughts

Week 11 of the NFL season kicks off in less that two hours, so I thought it would be a good time to release the Week 10 Grandstander Power Rankings.

1. Vikings (8-1)
2. Eagles (8-1)
3. Chiefs (7-2)
4. Dolphins (7-2)

• Knocking On The Door.....Bills 6-3, Cowboys 6-3, Giants 7-2, Titans 6-3

The Bills, whom I think may still be the best team in the NFL, fall from the top 4 following two straight losses, and the Vikings, who notched one of those wins over the Bills, rise to the top based upon that quality win and a tied-for-the-best record in in the League of 8-1.  The previously undefeated Eagles fall to number two based upon their loss to a so-so Washington team.

Some movement could be anticipated in Week 11 with some key match ups including the Titans-Packers tonight, Bills-Browns, Eagles-Colts, Giants-Lions, and, in what could be the Game of the Week, Cowboys-Vikings on Sunday, and Chiefs-Chargers on Monday night.

Other thoughts from Week 10....

• Prior to the Steelers-Saints game, I posted on Facebook: "Looking forward to seeing Andy Dalton throwing his trademark Soul Crushing Interception afternoon. The #bengalsdna will show itself."  The Red Rifle didn't let me down and he threw not one, but two such interceptions that afternoon, and the Steelers won their third game of the seasons.
• How about the Colts?  After being ridiculed all week for hiring Jeff Saturday out of his chair at ESPN to be their interim coach, they pull off a 25-20 win over the Raiders.  The Colts aren't any good, they appear to be tanking this year, and Saturday could be back at his post in Bristol next season, but for one day, anyway, that had to be a pretty sweet win.
• As for the Raiders, wow.  A playoff team last year with high expectations for 2022, they are now a 2-7 dumpster fire.
• I never got around to do it, but after Week 9, I wanted to write a piece talking about the decline of quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady,  Not so fast, my friend.  Rodgers rebounded last week with a strong performance and a win over the Cowboys.  As far as Brady goes, watching him lead a sixty yard drive down field in 35 seconds with no timeouts and touchdown to beat the Rams, I will say this:  his skills may have eroded this season, but as they say in the old country song "I'm not as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was."  With a game on the line with two minutes to go in the fourth quarter, is there any other QB in the league that you would want instead  of Tom Brady?  Patrick Mahomes, maybe, but I can't think of anyone else off the top of my head.
• What if someone came to you before the season began and said "After ten weeks of the season, the Steelers would have the same record as the defending Super Bowl champion Rams.  I hope that Steelers fans would have read the fine print before signing on for that, because the Steelers and Rams are indeed tied with records of 3-6.  The Rams put all of their eggs in one basket last year to go for a Super Bowl, and they succeeded, but right now, Rams fans and even the Rams themselves have to be asking....

• I don't know about you, but I am very much looking forward to tonight's Thursday night game between the Titans and Packers.  Tennessee could stake a real claim to inclusion in the GPR Top Four with an impressive win, and how that plays out will depend on which Aaron Rodgers shows up at Lambeau tonight, the one who engineered that upset of Dallas last week, or the guy at the controls through that five game losing streak that preceded that Cowboys game.

#greatsportsweek

The genesis of what turned out to be one of the coolest sports experiences of my long life of sports watching came in September when Linda gifted me with two tickets to the November 13 Steelers-Saints game at Acrisure Stadium.  Then about three weeks ago, Linda made mention of having never been on a road trip to see her beloved Penguins play.  A check of the schedule, a few clicks on the inter webs and BAM! we had ourselves tickets to see the Pens play the Capitals in Washington on Wednesday, November 9 and room reservations in the Chinatown section of DC, a three minute walk to the Capital One Arena.

Following your hometown team on the road is something that I have never done, and I found it to be an incredibly cool experience, and we were not alone, far from it.  The proximity of Washington to Pittsburgh makes a game at the Cap One Arena a virtual home game for the Penguins.  We met a couple of Pens fans from Harrisburg who said it's closer for them to come see the Pens play in DC than is would be in Pittsburgh.

That the Pens won 4-1 was a bonus, and when the victory became apparent, we got a text from our friend Tim Baker who said "Now you have to head over the The Steps."  In a tradition that began during one of the Pens' Cup years, Penguins fans head across the street the steps of the National Portrait Gallery to cheer for the victory and harass - in a good natured manner - the Caps and their fans.

Here's Linda as the crowd begins to gather....

...and coalesce into a full scale mob.... 

Then the rhythmic cheers begin...."Let's Go Pens"......"This is our house"....."You can't beat us"....."We've got five Cups"....and my personal favorite "Crosby's better".

It's hard to explain, but it turned into one of the coolest experiences I've ever had at a sporting event.  And the Caps fans who walked by were cool with it too.  Oh, there were a few middle fingers thrown to the Pens' crowd, but there were smiles as they were flipped, and most Caps fans just walked by and smiled at the scene.

As we were standing in line to get into the Arena for the hockey game, I said "I wonder when the Wizards are playing next?".  A check of the schedule showed that they would be at home the very next night playing the Dallas Mavericks.  Again, a few clicks on the phone, and we had tickets to see the Wizards go up against the Mavs and their superstar player, Luka Doncic.

We had really nice seats for the game, and the home team Wizards won 113-105, but the disappointment of the night was seeing Doncic held to only 17 points and, in fact, play pretty poorly.  Three nights later, Doncic put up 44 points and had a triple double.  Oh well, even superstars can have off nights, and as I always say, nothing is guaranteed when you buy a ticket to a sporting event.

Both the Caps and the Wizards games were played to crowds of 18,000 plus.

Before that basketball game on Thursday, we did some sightseeing that included seeing Hamilton (the statue of the first Treasury Secretary, not the musical). the White House, Washington Monument, World War II Memorial (a must see), the Viet Nam War Memorial, and one of my favorite spots, the Lincoln Memorial.

Linda decided to count the steps that you need to climb to get to see Abe sitting in that chair, and it came out to 87 steps.  Considering that we were there to see the Penguins play, that was a pretty serendipitous number.

You can't do the Nation's Capital in a day, can't even come close.   Perhaps a four or five day trip needs to be planned.  Going to have to check that Pirates schedule for '23 to see when they visit the Nationals and then plan for a longer stay.

So in the space of 24 hours, we had seen an NHL and an NBA game, and two days after getting home, we went to an NFL game.

I had not seen a Steelers game in person since I passed my season tickets on to my nephews back in 2003, and as easy and comfortable and hassle free as it is to watch on your TV set in your living room, I was very much looking forward to it.  I was not let down.  We had nice seats as you can see from the photo above, I got to experience the player introductions, including the crowd going berserk when T.J. Watt was introduced, got to see something called "Here We Go", which is an apparent pregame fixture about the Terrible Towel,  saw the Pittsburgh Steel Line, a drum line that plays at home games, and maybe best of all, got to experience the playing of "Renegade" early in the fourth quarter.   None of these things existed back when I attended my last Steelers game in the flesh.

And, oh yeah, the Steelers won, 20-10.  Life was good.

Unless someone comes through with airplane tickets to Qatar and primo seats for the World Cup later this month, I don't know how this past sports week can be topped.

Farewell to Twitter

 

I have been on Twitter for several years now, but to be honest about it, I never much cared for it, never got comfortable following this athlete or that political figure, and used it mainly just to post my Grandstander blog entries.   As you know, the entire Twitter business has recently been purchased by a multi-billionaire narcissist, so I figured it was time to cut myself loose from a platform that has done so much to cause the divide and division that now pervades our country. Twitter also voice to a tyrant that used it to help get himself elected President back in 2016.  So this weekend, I deactivated my Twitter account.   

Twitter isn't going to miss me, and I sure as hell am not going to miss it.

Random Thoughts.....and an Absent Friend, Jerry Lee Lewis

Cleaning out the Mental In-Box.....

Quick hit football thoughts:

• Another rough day at the office yesterday for Steelers rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett.  His stat line through five games: 67.9% complete rate, 2 TD's, 5 INT's.  How much of this is Pickett's fault, how much is the O-line's fault, how much is it the game plan's (ahem, we're looking at you, Matt Canada) fault?
• (Speaking of rookie QB's stat lines, how 'bout this one: 14 games, 38.1% completion rate, 6 TD, 24 INT.  Steelers fans will instantly recognize the 1970 season of Terry Bradshaw.  That turned out alright.)
• Steelers entering their bye week, so they have two weeks to try and figure something, anything, out.
• Myron Cope always took the position on his talk show that he "never fires coaches", and he knew more about that kind of stuff than I do, so I won't either, but, man, it sure seems apparent that something  just ain't right with the Steelers offensive way of doing things. (We're looking at you, Matt Canada)  By just about any metric that you care to use, this year's Steelers are the worst offensive team in the NFL.  It becomes more apparent when you watch other NFL games and see those teams throwing downfield to fast and talented receivers.  You know, like how Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown undressed the Steelers yesterday.  I watched Kenny Pickett for five years at Pitt, and I KNOW that he can throw the ball downfield.  Why won't the Steelers let him do that to guys like Chase Claypool, Dionte Johnson, and rookie George Pickens, who may be better that both of the first two guys?
• Speaking of things the Steelers don't do that other teams do, how about running backs who can rip off gains of 7, 8, 10, or more yards several times a game?  Watching Green Bay play Buffalo last night and seeing their RB's in action made me want to cry.
• No one was more enthusiastic about the drafting of Najee Harris last year, but be honest now, who has been better (and this is damning with faint praise, I realize) at the position thus far, Harris or Jaylen Warren?  It can't ALL be the fault of the linemen, can it?

As to non-Steelers thoughts....

• How much fun is it watching the Buffalo Bills?   Josh Allen surely is the leading contender for MVP after eight weeks of the season, unless....
• ....the leading contender is Jalen Hurts of the Eagles.  The Eagles are undefeated, and Hurts and Company sure laid an ass-kicking on the Steelers yesterday, which, to use the phrase a second time, may be damning with faint praise.
• And how about the performances of Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers so far?  Plenty of season left to be proven wrong, of course, but it seems that these two have all of a sudden "gotten old" and are approaching the end.

All of these thoughts lead to the return of.....

I know you've all been waiting for them, so here we go, through Week Eight.

1. Eagles 
2. Bills
3. Chiefs
4. Cowboys

In my heart, I think the Bills are better, but that may be only because I've seen them more that Philly, but an undefeated team can't be anything less than #1.

Now, on to Baseball.

The third game of the World Series will be played tonight, and if you are surprised that The Grandstander has not written one word about the MLB Post-Season, well, I can tell you that I too am astonished by this fact.  In actuality, I watched some, but very little of the first three rounds of the Playoffs.  (As an aside, I will say that I do like the Three, Five, Seven, and Seven format that MLB has instituted for the first time this season.)   I can attribute this to a couple of factors.  One, the fact that Baseball has begun a descent into the lower tiers of importance in American professional sports; there are reasons for that too numerous to go into right now.  Two,  the level of excellence that both college football and the NFL has been providing this season has overshadowed MLB.  Three, too much other stuff going on in my own life right now.  Four, the Pirates have succeeded in lessening, if not killing, my enthusiasm for Major League Baseball.

Still the World Series is the WORLD SERIES, so attention must be paid.  I watched the first game of the Series with rapt interest.  The Astros staked Justin Verlander to a 5-0 lead which the Phillies overcame and fashioned a 6-5 win in ten innings.  It was an interesting and most entertaining game and a lot of fun to watch, despite it lasting over three and a half hours.  It was a game that reminded you of why you like baseball in the first place.

I skipped Game Two, won by the Astros, in favor of the Pitt football game, wherein Pitt "Pitted" and lost convincingly.  Bad decision on my part.

Tonight the Series moves to Philly, where a no doubt raucous scene will unfold.  The Phillies were the sixth seeded team in the NL and are actually an easy team to root for.  They hit the ball, score a lot of runs, and have good starting pitching, and a bullpen that can be, ahem, adventurous.  Hard to believe that Boy Wunderkind Bryce Harper turned thirty years old this past season.  Perhaps through reasons not entirely his fault, Harper has always been kind of unlikable.  A guy you like only when he plays for YOUR team, but for me at least, and maybe this will last only through this Playoff Year, he seems to have moved beyond that, and I find myself rooting for him and the Phillies.  The Astros are a better team, or they were over this past 162 game season, but we are now down to a best of five series with Philly having the home field advantage, so who knows?  I am looking forward to the remainder of this Series.

Finally, and Absent Friend....

Jerry Lee Lewis

1935-2022

The last of the true pioneers of Rock 'n Roll, Jerry Lee Lewis, died last week at the age of 87.  The first two paragraphs of Lewis' obituary on the pop culture website Vulture describes Lewis far better that I can:

Jerry Lee Lewis was known as the Killer, and it wasn’t a casual sobriquet — a schoolmate called him that after he tried to strangle a teacher. He once shot his bass player in the chest; just about all of his seven wives, including one who was a child, said he beat them; and there’s a lingering suspicion that he murdered wife No. 5. He was the very model of a high-functioning sociopath and somehow defied hard living, drug and alcohol abuse, and serious health problems to make it well into his ninth decade.

The pianist, singer, and showman, who was one of the three or four people who decisively ushered in the rock-and-roll era — and utterly personified an unbridled and dangerous part of the music — died today, his family announced. He was 87 and, after the death of Little Richard in 2020, the last man standing from the dawn of rock and roll.

On his podcast today, Tony Kornheiser said that while Lewis wasn't Elvis, he may very well have been on the next step below him.

A few years ago, I saw the musical "The Million Dollar Quartet" which tells the story of a time when four legends, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Lewis, all recoded together at Sun Studio in Memphis on the same day.  The show's curtain call had each actor perform one song as the performer they portrayed.  I said at the time that during that curtain call, and in fact throughout the entire show, the actor that played Lewis stole the show.  Maybe it wasn't just the actor, but perhaps the energy of Lewis himself that stole that show.

If you've never seen him, here's a clip of The Killer in action on the Ed Sullivan Show back in 1969.

RIP Jerry Lee Lewis.