I will admit it. My picks to play in the Super Bowl were the Baltimore Ravens and the Seattle Seahawks. Mostly because of their quarterbacks — in the Raven’s case their head coach. Well you know where that prediction went. Having said that, it was really an exciting weekend for football fans. I am not even including LSC whipping Clemson for the NCAA National Title. I think most people will agree that the Kansas City Chiefs storming for 51 points against the Houston Texans after being down by 24 was a game for the ages. Right now Patrick Mahomes is possibly the best quarterback in the NFL. At least the Texans must think so.
The Baltimore Ravens got caught in the Tennessee Titans’ buzz saw. The Titans finally have a great head coach Mike Vrabel who has turned this team around by making some tough but needed decisions. The biggest one was benching the struggling Marcus Mariota and handing the keys to Ryan Tannehill. Tannehill wasn’t great but he protected the ball and used monster running back Derrick Henry much more effectively. Defensively they came together as a team. They totally shut down Lamar Jackson — something nobody else had been able to do. Henry shredded the Raven defense and led the Ravens to the win.
Green Bay came away with a big win over Seattle. The defense put constant pressure on Russell Wilson to shut down the Seahawk passing game and Aaron Rodgers had his way with the Seahawk secondary. The old master was his gun-slinging self as he took the win.
The San Francisco 49ers gave the Minnesota Vikings a rough way to go. The hard-nosed 49er defense was in Kirk Cousins’ face all day, and Jimmy Garoppolo played mistake free ball for the 49ers offense. Richard Sherman was his usual mean, dominating self in the 49er secondary.
Next weekend it’s the NFC and AFC title games. There will be some exciting football played.
It’s also time to announce four of my Weekly View NFL Player Awards. MVP —Lamar Jackson, Baltimore Ravens. Coach of the Year—Mike Vrabel, Tennessee Titans, Comeback Player of the Year —Ryan Tannehill, Tennessee Titans. Over-Hyped Player of the Year— Baker Mayfield, Cleveland Browns. Anyway, the Super Bowl is looming ahead and looks to be an exciting one.
Astro’s Cheating
In what some pundits are calling the worst major league baseball scandal since the 1918 “Black Sox” scandal, the Houston Astros have been outed as champions built on cheating and rule breaking. It turns out that the team dominated the last several seasons by sign stealing — that is, getting opponent’s hand signals so they knew what the others teams were going to do in key situations. The team has been fined $5 million which is the most allowed by the MLB rules and lost the first and second round picks in the draft for the next two seasons. The front office and coaching staff is going through an upheaval with just about everybody being fired.
There is probably more to come on this story but the loss of trust and goodwill will effect not only the Astros but Major League Baseball for a long time.
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