Don’t let your kids grow up ...

I think that all of us have come to realize lately that the world we live in is a crazy place. I suppose that if we look back thru history it’s always been like that. Tragedies take place on a daily basis, people are uprooted from their homes, lives are lost in a blink of an eye. It’s often hard for anyone to explain or rationalize the situations we see around us but I think in the long run we all try to maintain a sane perspective and keep things as rational as possible. It’s not always easy to do but it’s definitely a goal that’s achievable, you just have to work at it every day. It also helps if you watch a ton of football.

Sports of course is our collective form of escapism. Those two or three hours of watching our favorite teams play our favorite games give us a small reprieve from the insanity around us. It may be for a few hours, it may be for an afternoon or even the whole weekend but in the end it helps us deal with the more important things in life, the day to day tribulations that we see all around us. In the end you have you ask yourself where we would be without sports? Frankly I have no idea but I’m glad we have the games to fall back on and I’m sure you are too, as long as you’re not a 49ers or Eagles fan!!

Speaking of the Philadelphia Eagles (defeated by the New York Jets) and The San Francisco 49ers (losers to The Cleveland Browns) let me say here emphatically that both are no longer undefeated. I’m not surprised. Both I feel have been playing overrated and maybe a bit flat. Both teams are lead by quarterbacks that I define as system QB’s. They lack innovation and dynamic development. They’re both ridiculously overrated. If you defeat the system you defeat the team. When you have them on the ropes they fold like a house of cards. Niether team does well in a comeback situation as we saw this weekend. That being said the season isn’t over after just one loss but both teams have some soul searching to do along with some injury losses that will plague them in the coming weeks. We’ll have to wait a see how San Francisco Wonder Boy Brock Purdy plays when he doesn’t have Christian Mcaffrey or Deebo Samual for an easy five yard dump off pass. Maybe he’ll end up being irrelevant after all because many are comparing him to a glorified Zack Wilson. Brock Purdy and Jalen Hurts can both play but niether are elite, just paid well to play a game. Go Figure.

Don’t look now sports fans, but Zack Wilson and The The York Jets defeated The Philadelphia Eagles with a walking-throwing Arron Rogers in attendance!! Do I smell a resurrection in the making here? Will modern medical science save the Jets season?                

Several teams in The NFL managed to save at least the first part of their season this weekend. The Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals, Jacksonville Jaguars and The Houston Texans all walked away with a solid win. The Dolphins, Lions and of course the Kansas City Chiefs continue to bolster their records in the win colum although the Bills were just able to squeeze by The New York Giants on a game ending incompletion. Then there are several teams that continue to dig themselves into a deeper hole like the the Bears, The Broncos and The Panthers.The only thing exciting about these teams are the brawls in the stands. I myself would find it difficult to motivate myself when my team is winlesss but then again a few million in the bank wouldn’t hurt either. Imagine if players and coaches didn’t get a game check if they lost!.

I always leave a little bit of space at the end of my NFL rant to write a few lines about Monday Night Football. It’s not always easy because often times the games can be a late start and besides, who wants to stay up till midnight on a Monday right? This time however a tense matchup between The Dallas Cowboys and The San Diego Chargers was enough to keep me occupied until the witching hour with Dallas pulling out a win 20-17. Dak Prescott seems to be redeemed for another week and Jerry Jones is acting like the Super Bowl is within his grasp but someone needs to remind him that it’s Holloween, not April Fools Day.

Upsets continue to make the College Football Championship hard to predict yet more and more intriguing. I once thought that USC was going to rule over the national picture but a sound beating at the hands of Notre Dame and Touchdown Jesus in South Bend pretty much killed that notion. Last years Heisman winner Caleb Wilson’s three interceptions contributed to The Irish winning 48-20 and ruining my parley picks as well as my hopes for a national championship for the Trojans.

College Football is now 7 weeks into the 2023 season with several teams undefeated and several of them are the teams we thought would dominate back at the beginning of September. Texas, North Carolina, Michigan, Ohio State, Georgia and Florida State are all firmly in the mix for the National Title and undefeated. Considering we are still on a four team playoff format I feel that it will be difficult for a one loss team to slip into contention but you never know. The College Football Playoff Committee has been known to make strange and unpredictable decisions before. The first list of top teams comes out Holloween Night so we’ll have to see what scary mixture we get presented with! Will we get a trick or will we get a treat?

For the first time this season we got to see several teams fall in a loss when their place kicker failed to make a game winning field goal. Oregon(loosing to Washington, San Francisco(loosing to Cleveland) and Colorado (In a loss to Stanford in double OT) all had victories denied by place kickers that choked. It’s both painful and comical to watch sometimes but memorable none the less! Maybe this Holloween I’ll dress up as a place kicker, scary!!

Finally it’s important that we give Major League Baseball it’s due. The two teams who won over 100 games this season and were a shoe-in to be there at the end have been eliminated. Both The Los Angeles Dodgers and The Atlanta Braves are contenders no more. The defeat of The Minnesota Twins and The Baltimore Orioles over in The American League left us with four teams vying for the two spots in this year’s World Series. The Houston Astros versus The Texas Rangers in The American League and Arizona Diamondbacks versus the Philadelphia Phillies with red hot Bryce Harper in The National League square off this week in an effort to give us a fall classic just as it’s getting cooler and Holloween is approaching. Let’s hope that the weather and the candy holds out! Play On I Say!!

Kev

Kev's Corner Our Staffs Weekly Sports perspective

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