Tuesday’s 6-pack:
Interesting spreads for this week’s NFL:
— Buccaneers @ Buffalo (-8)
— Saints @ Indianapolis (-1)
— Jaguars (-1.5) @ Pittsburgh
— Texans (-3) @ Carolina
— Eagles (-6.5) @ Washington
— Patriots @ Miami (-10.5)
Quote of the Day
“In anger, we should refrain both from speech and action.”
Pythagoras
Tuesday’s quiz
What is the only NFC team that has never played in a Super Bowl?
Monday’s quiz
Hall of Famer Dick Vermeil coached the Philadelphia Eagles, the first time they played in a Super Bowl.
Sunday’s quiz
The first Super Bowl was played in the Los Angeles Coliseum; Packers 35, Chiefs 10.
*****************************************
— Giannis Antetokounmpo signed a 3-year, $186M contract with the Milwaukee Bucks, meaning he will earn $62M a year, which works out to $756,097 per game.
Antetokounmpo averaged 32.1 minutes/game last year; if he does that this year, it works out to $23,554.44 per minute played.
— NFL Films and HBO also hit the jackpot; Miami Dolphins will be the featured in-season team for
Hard Knocks this year, it was announced
Monday. Coach Mike McDaniel should be interesting to see in action.
Colts/Cardinals were the in-season teams on
Hard Knocks the last two years. Dolphins were last featured on
Hard Knocks in the summer of 2012.
—
Vikings 22,
49ers 17
Kirk Cousins was 35-45/378 passing, with two TD’s.
Vikings on their first six drives: 52 plays, 377 yards, 22 points.
Minnesota converted 8-13 third down plays.
All seven Viking games have been decided by 8 or fewer points.
Both teams turned the ball over on their first possession.
49ers were outgained 786-540 in their last two games.
McCaffrey carried ball 15 times for only 45 yards.
49ers are 0-5 SU/1-4 ATS in last five visits to Minnesota.
— College football conference trends:
AAC— home favorites 4-10 ATS, home underdogs 2-7
ACC— home underdogs 8-3 ATS
Big X— home underdogs 8-3 ATS
Big 14— home favorites 7-9 ATS, home underdogs 2-10 ATS
C-USA— home favorites 5-6 ATS, home underdogs 2-5
MAC— home favorites 6-7 ATS
Mountain West— home favorites 4-7 ATS
Pac-12— home underdogs 6-3 ATS
SEC— home favorites 11-7 ATS, home underdogs 4-8
Sun Belt— home favorites 7-8 ATS
— NFL divisional trends:
NFC East teams are 12-9-1 ATS outside the division
NFC North teams are 9-11-1 ATS outside the division
NFC South teams are 4-14 ATS outside the division
NFC West home teams are 5-2 ATS outside the division
AFC East home teams are 6-4 ATS outside the division
AFC North home teams are 6-2-1 ATS outside the division
AFC South teams are 11-5-1 ATS outside the division
AFC West teams are 6-12 ATS outside the division
— Saturday afternoon, the 4:00-7:00 window, I’m watching four games on one screen on my YouTube TV account; one game each from the Big 14, Big X, SEC, Pac-12.
Big 14— Minnesota-Iowa— Both teams should’ve punted on first down.
Big X— Texas-Houston— Teams that jumped from AAC to the Big X have some catching up to do.
SEC— Ole Miss-Auburn— Rebels are lucky to have Lane Kiffin as coach; he’s been a head coach in the NFL.
Pac-12— Washington State-Oregon— Wazzu QB Ward threw for 438 yards in a losing cause.
Interesting contrast in styles between the leagues.
— Utah declared that QB Cam Rising is out for the year with a knee injury; Utes are 6-1 with backup QB Barnes under center.
— When baseball free agency starts, obviously Shohei Ohtani will be a big topic, but there is another Japanese pitcher, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who is expected to draw lot of interest from teams with lot of $$$ who need pitching.
— Word of the Day: Focus— the ability to concentrate attention or to sustain concentration.
If you’re easily distracted, you lack focus.
— Long time ago, there was a 2B named Nellie Fox; he is a Hall of Famer who played 19 years in the major leagues. In his career, Fox struck out only 216 times in 10,351 plate appearances.
This season, Kyle Schwarber struck out 215 times in 720 plate appearances.
— Outside Camden Yards in Baltimore, there is a statue of the great 3B Brooks Robinson, who passed away recently. It is a pretty normal statue of Robinson playing the field, except that his glove is gold, as it should be.
— Last week was the 50th anniversary of the day when Rams’ DE Fred Dryer got two safeties in the same game, a 22-5 win over Green Bay. Both safeties were in the 4th quarter and it was two different QB’s he sacked for the safeties (Scott Hunter, Jim Del Gaizo).
— What bowl game is going to get stuck with the Iowa Hawkeyes? Iowa is 6-2, but their offense is putrid; they’ve gained 300+ yards in only one game this year- they lost 12-10 to Minnesota Saturday, gaining a total of 127 yards, on 56 plays. Not good.
Former Rams’ coach Mike Martz is out there somewhere; why wouldn’t Iowa call a guy like Martz and hire him to jazz up their offense? Iowa’s last two games were 15-6/12-10; if they hired a real offensive coordinator like Martz, 15-6/12-10 would be a thing of the past.
— Monday was the first time since 2004 that the baseball playoffs had a Game 6 and a Game 7 on the same day.
—
Diamondbacks 5,
Phillies 1
Arizona scored three runs in top of the second inning.
Pham and Gurriel hit back-to-back home runs.
Merrill Kelly tossed 5 IP, giving up a run; they took him out after 90 pitches.
Game 7 is tonight in Philadelphia.
—
Rangers 11,
Astros 4
Adolis Garcia homered twice; he hit five home runs in the last four games.
Texas scored 20 runs in winning Games 6-7 of this series.
Road team won all seven games in this series.
Rangers host the World Series, starting Friday night.
— Baseball is a fascinating business; on February 10, 2021, the Rangers designated Adolis Garcia for assignment and cleared a spot on the 40-man roster for P Mike Foltynewicz.
All 29 of the other teams let Garcia clear waivers, and on February 13, 2021, Texas invited him as a non-roster player to camp. Lucky for them they did.
