The Truth and the tooth

A precursor, test post, for when the Celtics finish off George's Wiz in the second round of this year's NBA playoffs, a series we have a friendly blog challenge regarding. Remember those? So a little practice for my fait accompli brag post. So did you see Isaiah Thomas (Jr) have a tooth knocked out and make like a hockey player and keep playing? That's a brag. Did you see the Celts let the Wiz start out with a 16-0 lead before beating them? Brag again. And Paul Pierce retired. He played 19 seasons in the NBA. Doesn't that make you feel old? Not a brag. The Truth is not one of the all-time greats but he is a Hall of Famer and one of the great finishers all time. Brag! I will try to get back in circulation. It's pretty said when I didn't even blog about a Super Bowl win in the greatest comeback of all time. And I must owe you at least one attending games blog. I can't even follow my own rules. I'll post about seeing the Bruins in Dallas and look to see where else I've been negligent.

Wot? A Blog Challenge Missed?

I'm used to seeing a handful of regular users on the forums, so imagine my surprise this morning when I learned we have a Jets fan in the group. If I had remembered this last week, we could have had a spirited blog challenge this weekend between two teams that may fight for a playoff position in December.

Yes, you read that right. Both the Jets and the Raiders fighting for a playoff position. Don't worry, peeps. I'm not used to reading phrases like, "Raiders in the thick of the AFC playoff race" on sports web sites like Fox Sports in November either.

It's been awhile since I've celebrated a Raiders win here, and from all accounts I should get used to it. I didn't have TV coverage where I live, so I depended on Twitter to keep up with the game action. From all accounts, it looks like the Raiders receivers have greatly improved. As a group, they are now gaining a lot of yardage after the catch and making Derek Carr look like a Pro Bowl-caliber quarterback. This has helped the Raiders jump out to big leads in the first half, something we have not seen in over a decade.

The Raiders defense briefly knocked both Jets quarterbacks out of the game, but part of that can be blamed on Geno Smith's lack of awareness. There was at least one run where he should have gone out of bounds, but instead absorbed a big hit while running along the sidelines for extra yardage. Even though he was injured during the first series, Ryan Fitzpatrick was forced to come in for a few plays while the Jets worked on getting Geno ready for another beating.

It was nice to see Charles Woodson get another INT. I don't know how many more years he's going to play, but it would be a crime not to have him in the Pro Bowl this season. He is playing his best football in years.

I'm not used to seeing the Raiders in second place in the AFC West division so late in the season. At the beginning of the year, I would have been happy with the Raiders finishing 7-9 knowing they would improve in the coming years. Now, I have to change my way of thinking. The Chargers have a terrible defense, injuries, and possibly the worst punt return team in NFL history. The Chiefs also have key injuries. Can the Raiders become a playoff team this year? They just might, and ironically it may depend on how the Jets do the rest of the season.

If there's good news for the Jets today, it's that they have no interest in Ryan Mallett. Hopefully for their sake, they can find a decent quarterback soon. That is the one position that's going to hold them back this season.

The NFL Team in Washington Might Be On To Something

Well, week 7 is over of the NFL. This is starting to become embarrassing. I have had to write a blog posting that put the Oakland Raiders in a good light and now, I have to do the same for the Washington NFL Team. How is it that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers can give away such a big lead to Washington with Kirk Cousins at QB? How is it that the Washington team is still in the NFC East race? My hypothesis: The talent of the team is overcoming the lack of leadership from the Owner on down.

Showing Love To The Cretins Of The Left Coast

Yes, the title is making fun of the fans of the Raiders. But our fraternity of piss poorly-run teams has to make fun of each other, so the title remains. If you take a look at the standings in the AFC, you see an unfamiliar team at 2-1 in the West. For most of us, seeing Oakland having a winning record is something you thought about in the 70's and 80's. Otherwise you expect them to maybe win 5 or 6 games a season. And lord knows that some fans of the Silver and Black aren't what your would call mentally stable because they pick the Raiders to win the West each and every year.

But something is happening in Oakland. I will give credit to Mark Davis. Even though the Raider Nation wanted Reggie McKenzie's head on a silver platter for the past year if not 2, he stuck with the GM and it looks like there is a plan that will bring winning back to O-Town. (Remember that sucky Boy Band?) Anyways, look what Reggie has done for the team.

He has a QB that can man the position for the next decade. Derek Carr looks like he will develop into a better than average QB at the very least. He has the respect of the veterans, at least according to Justin Tuck and Charles Woodson. The Raiders drafted Amari Cooper who looks like he can turn into a good pro. To help the receiving corps, they brought in Michael Crabtree who has been on good and bad teams and could help steady the ship. A smart move was letting Darren McFadden go to Dallas and drafting Latavius Murray in 2013, I believe. He was the 16th RB taken in that draft. You find a player like that late in the draft, develop him, and have him shock people with his play. That is how the successful franchises stay on top. Now if they can find more stability on the Offensive Line and get a top flight TE, you could have an offense that will score in bunches.

On defense, it is slower going to build. Khalil Mack looks like a monster. I am a Ray-Ray Armstrong fan. Justin Tuck and Charles Woodson bring the veteran leadership.There are still some upgrades that need to be made to get the defense to the next level, but the one thing that it does have going for it is that the team ranks in the Top 15 of rushing defense. That is going to keep the Raiders in games that the offense might be able to steal.

The AFC West is up for grabs this year. The Broncos are 3-0, but is anybody really scared of that offense? The Chiefs are 1-2 and finding ways to lose. The Chargers are also 1-2 and both lines are a weakness for the team. Why not the Raiders? The young stars aren't afraid of anything. And if the bounces go their way, they could pull out 9 or 10 wins. There weren't many people that were looking at the team winning that amount this year. In fact, I read a publication that had them saying that the Raiders had the least amount of talent in the NFL.

So to R.J. and the rest of Raiders Nation: The rebuilding plan that you have is looking good. You can also look at it this way. Your team is better now and probably will be better in the future than Cleveland, Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, Tennessee, Miami, Washington, Chicago, and St. Louis. That means that you are better than 25% of the league already. Continue with the improvement and the Raiders can get back into a position of prominence. But don't go crazy and think Super Bowl for the next couple of years at the very least.

2014 NFL Pick 'Em Challenge Winner

The 4th Annual BoSox Tavern NFL Pick 'Em Challenge is in the books!  And the winner is Aaron!  Each year the gang endeavors to see who can pick the most winners each week of the NFL season.  It actually stayed pretty close through the first eight weeks, but Aaron's prowess in pigskin prognostication proved particularly potent, providing the pride of participants with pundit perfuse proficiency!  (whew!)

 
1.  OVERALL WINNER:  Aaron 175 correct picks (65.9%)

BLAIR: 170 wins

JAMES: 170 wins
ZEB: 169 wins
RICK: 166 wins
ROBBIE: 163 wins
GEORGE:  160 wins
ELLERY: 160 wins
BRENT: 162 wins
MIKE: 144 wins
TOM: 77 wins

2.  TOTAL WEEKS WON:

ROBBIE: 4
AARON: 3
BLAIR: 2
GEORGE: 2
ZEB: 2
RICK : 2
JAMES: 1
BRENT: 1
MIKE: 0    
TOM: 0
ELLERY: 0

3.  TOTAL WINS DURING THE PLAYOFFS:

BLAIR: 8
ZEB: 8
AARON: 7
RICK: 6
ROBBIE: 6
JAMES: 6
ELLERY: 5
GEORGE: 5
BRENT: 3
MIKE: 0
TOM: 0

4.  WINNING PERCENTAGE (AS A GROUP): 58.8%.....(eeeh!)

Taking A Long Walk Off A Short Plank

At 3-7, it is going to be another losing season for the Washington D.C. Football franchise

For the 2nd time this NFL season, I have been challenged because my team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have played the favorite team of another member of the message board. And I am 2-0 in those challenges. The Bucs went into Pittsburgh and proved that the Steelers were just a rusted curtain. Then this past week, we go into Washington and show that the feathers on the logo should be painted pure yellow because there was no fight back coming from Daniel Snyder's favorite team.

The sad thing about this game is that the Buccaneers didn't even use their best QB. We played Josh McCown who should be the backup with the way that he has played this year. But Lovie is being stubborn again. Mike Evans went off for over 200 yards in receiving against Washington. McCown threw for less than 300 yards, so you would think that sometime after half, the Washington team would figure out that #13 of the Buccaneers might need to be covered more closely. Apparently that was a foreign concept.

The Bucs defense caused many problems for the Washington offense. 6 sacks. 2 Interceptions and a defensive TD. Man, if we played this game 10 times, the Bucs would win 8 or 9 of those games. We are starting to see Tampa starting to come together as a team. The offensive line isn't great, isn't even good, but the team did a good enough job against an average Washington defense.

I say good luck to the Washington team because your QB is way overrated. The receivers don't do enough to help the QB. The offensive line looks bad. And let's not talk about the defense. The owner is a putz who likes picking fights over some things that are so stupid. The nickname being the most talked about one. Change the nickname and go after making as much money as you can.

As for the Bucs, we are 2 games out of 1st place in the NFC South. We can still win the division. We have the building blocks of a great defense. The offense needs a QB to guide it (Glennon, anyone). I am still not sold on Lovie being the coach that will get us to the promised land.

We proved on Fed Ex field, that the team that has pewter in their color scheme was the better team. Any true Bucs fan does not like the Washington franchise and there is lots of partying for the victory. Now it is time to stop hoping that we can beat the dregs of the NFL and move up to possible playoff teams and start beating them. Beat us while we are down. We showed that we can beat the bad teams and teams that overlook us. Now it is time to start beating others and take our rightful place on top of the NFC South for years to come.

The Buccaneers will roll on Sunday

There will be no celebrating in Pittsburgh on Sunday. The overrated Steelers will fall to the Buccaneers. The Rusted Curtain will fall once again! I challenge anyone to a blog challenge on this game.

Who was the better team?

This is an unexpected tone for this blog post.  RJ was even more certain than I that his Raiders stood no chance against my Patriots today.  So I agreed to the rare point spread blog challenge.  I can tell you that even if we didn't agree to the point spread, I'd still feel the need to post as the loser of our bet.
Given the level of expectations and talent, the Vegas spread of 14 points should have easily been overcome by the Patriots.  Well honestly, the Raiders played up to and above their talent level, and the Patriots did not.  The Patriots were luck to survive this game as the winner, say nothing about covering the spread.
I really have nothing positive to say about my Patriots and unfortunately this is becoming a theme of reality...they're not as good as anyone expected.  On a brighter note, I bought a new bottle of Macallan 12 year old single malt and enjoyed it with Blair.  This was the most enjoyable part of my early Saturday afternoon.
Hail to the Raiders.

Week 1 Pick 'Em Results

I promise not to defile this blog site with discussion or news about that team from the City of Washington, DC, but since I'm a "homer" born and raised in DC (thus "DC Homer"), you're gonna have to listen to a smidge of my grousing.  So, for me, Week 1 was a total disaster, but not totally unexpected.  RGIII ain't it; and if the Houston game is any indication, The Team, and our rookie coach, are facing a pretty typically horrible season.   Here's my summary of the game:

 

  - "...and Griffin throws it away..."

  - "...and Griffin is sacked!"

  - "...and Griffin throws it away..."

  - "...and the point after touchdown is....BLOCKED!!"

  - "...Morris runs up the middle to the 30, the 20, the 10, the...FUMBLE!"

  - "...and the punt is BLOCKED....picked up for a score!"

  - "...and Griffin is sacked!"

  - "...and Griffin throws it away..."

 

 

(...sigh...at least we ain't Dallas!)

 

I'm officially on the Curt Cousins bandwagon!!!!

Here are the Week 1 results of our Pick 'Em Challenge:

1.  Overall winner:  Jim Randall with 12 wins.  Jim wins in the tie breaker (48 pts) with Ellery (56 pts).

2.  Results:

JIM:  12 wins (75%)
ELLERY: 12 wins (75%)
BLAIR:  11 wins (69%)
ZEB:  10 wins (63%)
AARON:  10 wins (63%)
GEORGE:  9 wins (56%)
RICK:  9 wins (56%)
BRENT:  9 wins (56%)
MIKE:  9 wins (56%)
TOM:  7 wins (44%)
ROBBIE:  5 wins (31%)

3.  Overall group performance:  103 correct picks (59%)

It’s Fiesta Time For San Antonio

The better team won this first round matchup, but the Dallas Mavericks put up a bigger fight than I expected. Congrats to them for almost pulling off the upset. I’m happy the Spurs only needed five players on the court to finish them off this afternoon.

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, I thought it was fitting to post a picture of the “Fiesta” colors the Spurs had back when David Robinson asked you, “Can you say ‘kick some butt?’” in his shoe commercials, and Larry Brown was forced to make amends for his infamous guacamole dip remark.

You know what would really hit the spot? Make Mark Cuban drink a glass of that “muddy ugly-ass River Walk” water.

Go Spurs Go! Hopefully back to the NBA Finals.

Nobody Beats The Wiz...

...except themselves!   I'm very happy our perineal loser team won a series, but it was absolutely NOT an impressive game.   In fact it was damned sloppy!  If it weren't for the fact that the Bulls played much worse, I'd have been screaming at the screen in disgust!  In fact I did just that!  These dudes have got to get serious if the plan to beat the Hawks.  

I'll write more this weekend, gotta get up early, but complying with the blog rule!

And BITE ME, Zeb for trying to steal my mojo!  In fact, you "steeled" it!!  HAHA!!  

A Challenge

I will lose this, but I don't care. Anytime you can make fun of the Sprouts, you do it. Huntress, you have been challenged.

Off To Anaheim To Face Arizona

The San Diego State Aztecs are on their way to Anaheim for their second Sweet 16 appearance in school history. In the 2013 tournament, they were upset by Florida Gulf Coast and Coach Fisher learned how to channel that experience into the team this year and got the team to understand that they are better than the mid majors that SDSU have had problems with in the past. They had to scratch and claw to get out of the first round this year, but had an easier time in the second round.

Coach Fisher says that this team could become elite. He should know. He coached elite teams in Michigan. He has a very good team that bought into the belief that the defensive end of the floor should be where they dominate. You cannot argue with the facts. Teams shoot abysmally against them. They can play real physical on defense. And the fact that during the year they had over a 12 point difference in scoring just shows you how well they play defense.

The team is great on the defensive end, but the Achilles heel of the team is the offense. If they cannot find somebody besides Xavier Thames to score more than a dozen points, the tournament will become tough real quick for them. Only Thames and Winston Shepard averaged double digits in the regular season. Josh Davis is the board cleaner for SDSU. He averaged 10 boards a game.

The Aztecs might not be favored for the rest of their games, but they can win them. The key is the stifling man-to-man defense that they have shown. I believe that the team that takes down the Aztecs will be one that runs and guns. If SDSU plays in a half court game, then they should be able to steal a victory over a team that is more talented.

Coach Fisher has the Aztecs being relevant. He is starting to transform the school into a basketball power. It is an exciting time for Aztec nation. The tell tale sign is that the Aztecs feel like they belong in the Sweet 16. Now it is time for them to continue to learn from the 2013 NCAA Tournament and the loss to Florida Gulf Coast and learn how the underdog can slay Goliath. They just need to look at things from the view of David instead of the view of Goliath from this past weekend.

Blog Challenge!

Fourth-seeded #AztecMBB will play 12th-seeded North Dakota State at 3:10 p.m. PT Saturday on TNT. The winner moves onto the Sweet 16.

— GoAztecs.com (@GoAztecs) March 21, 2014

It's on, Brent!

2013 NFL PICK 'EM CHALLENGE CHAMPION

The 3^rd Annual BoSox Tavern NFL Pick ‘Em Challenge is in the books and the 2013 Champion is the main, hairy mane Mainer from the Great Republic of Maine—Zeb Pike!  Over the 17 week season, Herr Pike tallied 165 points, or 165 correct game picks.  He didn’t run away with it, however, there was stiff competition from Brent and Mike, who came in close 2^nd and 3^rd with 163 and 161 wins, respectively. 

 

The rest of the field included Robbie with 148 points for 4^th place, George with 144 (5^th), Aaron with 142 (6^th), and Rick and Tom pulling up the rear, both tied for 7^th with 140 points each.

 

We also decided to take the challenge into the playoffs with each participant picking the winner of each round, through the Super Bowl, up front—we didn’t pick each week.  We added Ellery to the playoff mix, and the winner in a tie breaker was Aaron with 6 wins.  Both Aaron and Zeb had six playoff wins, but Aaron wins in the tie breaker, for successfully picking the Seahawks to win the Super Bowl. 

And like the true New Englander he is, Zeb picked the Boston Patriots to win every week during the regular season, and again throughout the playoffs!  (Either this guy is a true “homer” or he thinks he had some inside dope that he didn’t share with his buds!) 
 
While we turn our “Pick ‘Em” attention to the Olympics, we look forward to next year!!!

NFL Pick 'Em - The Playoffs

The first round of NFL Playoff Picks are in and George is in the lead.  No bragging at this point--not yet, we still have several games to go. 

2013 NFL Pick 'Em Champion: The Zebster

The gang has concluded yet another year of successful team pick 'ems, with our host, Zeb, from outer Mainegolia, coming in as the 2013 champion with overall points (total correct picks for the season) totaling 165!  Zeb unseats Rick who was last year's champ:



  Zeb:  165 pts             RJ:  148 pts
  BK: 163 pts                George: 144 pts 
  Mike:  161 pts           Rick:  140 pts
  AA:  154 pts               Tom:  140 pts
  
Our Week 17 summary found Zeb with a near perfect 15 picks:

  Zeb:  15 wins
  Mike:  14 wins
  Rick:  13 wins
  BK: 12 wins
  AA: 12 wins
  RJ:  11 wins
  George:  11 wins
  Tom:  0 wins

Total Weekly Wins:  We have a tie between BK and RJ, both with 4 weekly wins.  We will use the first round of the Playoffs to determine the tie-breaker in this category.

  BK: 4 wins

  RJ: 4 wins
  Zeb:  3 wins
  George: 2 wins
  Rick 1.5 wins
  Tom:  1 win
  AA:  1 win
  Mike:  .5 win

Week 9 NFL Pick 'Em Results

This week’s Pick ‘Em winner is Rick, who joins RJ and BK in the “Deuce Club” with two wins. 

1.  WEEK 9 Results:

  - Rick – 9 wins

  - RJ – 8 wins
  - Everyone else had 7 wins!

2.  Group Standings:

  - ZEB: 82 pts

  - BK: 82 pts**
  - Mike: 81 pts
  - Rick: 81 pts
  - Tom: 80 pts
  - AA: 77 pts
  - RJ: 76 pts
  - George: 73 pts

(** This total does not include two missed picks)

3.  Here are the WEEK 10 match-ups:

  - WAS vs. MIN (Thursday)

  - JAX vs. TEN
  - PHI vs. GB
  - PIT vs. BUF
  - NYG vs. OAK
  - STL vs. IND
  - SEA vs. ATL
  - CIN vs. BAL
  - DET vs. CHI
  - CAR vs. SF
  - ARZ vs. HOU
  - SD vs. DEN
  - DAL vs. NO
  - MIA vs. TB (Monday)

Week 9 NFL "Pick 'Em" Results

This week’s NFL "Pick 'Em" challenge winner is RJ, in a tie breaker with BK.   He and BK both had 12 wins and it went down to the MNF tie-breaker with RJ picking 47 pts, and BK picking 56 (total score for the game was 23):

                   - RJ:  12 wins
                   - BK:  12 wins
                   - Zeb:  11 wins
                   - George:  10 wins
                   - AA:  10 wins
                   - Mike:  10 wins
                   - Rick:  9 wins
                   - Tom:  9 wins

The total points standing:

 

BK: 75 pts - (2 wins)

Zeb: 75 pts - (1 win)

Mike: 74 pts - (1 win*)

Tom: 73 pts - (1 win)

Rick: 72 pts - (1 win*)

AA: 70 pts

RJ: 68 pts - (2 wins)

        George: 66 pts - (1 win)

 

(* Split tie)

 

 

WEEK 5: PICK 'EM WRAP-UP

DENVER vs. DALLAS:  What Defense??

In my humble opinion, a low scoring game is more of a tribute to a well-disciplined, focused team defense.  Of course,  this doesn't necessarily mean the offensive game plan was a poor one, but a well-focused defense will reign in even the best offense.  But when a team scores points in bunches, it's not as if every offensive play is like an IED to a defense, catching it off guard and exploding for score after score.  More likely than not, that "big run/catch/scoring play" is the result of a lapse (mistake) in the defensive scheme.

A "shoot out" (such as the Broncos' 51-48 win over the Giants), as opposed to a blowout (e.g., 49ers' 34-3 annihilation of the Texans), is merely a poorly played game and thoroughly indicts the defense, and makes meaningless the hundreds of yards gained by either offense--such yardage are hardly "earned."  And by "not earned," I mean it's like a 40-yard sprint footrace where the opponent slips and falls down at the starting blocks, and the winner crosses the finish line before his opponent can make 20 yards.  There was no competition--it wasn't a real race, so what was proven?  Nothing. 

The NFL (likewise for the NBA and the NHL) has created rules that handcuff the defense, and are designed specifically for high scoring events, because that's what they think we want to see--the 60-yard TD pass, the 50-yard run up the middle, the foot chase to the goal line.  I know up front that I'm on an island and few will share my opinion that shoot outs are not what the fans want, it's what the League and its sponsors want, and it's what fantasy players want.  An undefeated (5-0) team like Denver "allows" 48 points to be scored against it--in fact, they had to catch up and relied on an unlikely interception with 2 minutes left in the 4th quarter, bringing the game down to a last second field goal to win. 

Really?  I think that's just pitiful.

In the Denver game, both the Broncos' and Cowboys' defenses were equally and totally sorry.  Both teams' offense ripped through each other like the defense was standing still.  Defense wins championships.  Good defenses limit yards and points.  A lot of people want the excitement of high scoring shootouts in professional sports--tons of homers, bomb passes, 3-pointers, and blue line spinnerammas.   Well, not me, I appreciate a pitcher who can force a batter to hit into a DP, or a goalie with quick eye and defensemen who sacrifice the body.  Defense is the game in my view.  

51-48?  Great Jehovah, I hope we don't see too many more games like that.

RJ Wins Week 5 Pick 'Em:

  - RJ:  9 wins (winner by tie breaker – 47 pts)

  - Tom: 9 wins (tie – 35 pts)
  - Rick: 8 wins
  - BK: 7 wins
  - Zeb: 7 wins
  - AA: 7 wins
  - George:  6 wins
  - Mike:  4 wins

STATS:

  - Wins:  (George, RJ, Tom, Zeb, BK)
  - Total Points:
     - Tom:  48
     - Mike:  44
     - Zeb:  44
     - BK:  43
     - Rick:  43
     - RJ:  42
     - AA:  41
     - George:  40