Okay the first game of the 2019 regular season goes down as an overtime loss for the Horseshoe. The homeboys ran into a highly motivated Charger team in LA and gave it a good shot, but were let down by the foot of one man. It certainly wasn’t Jacoby Brissett. The 4th year signal caller was 21 of 27 for 190 yards and 2 TDs. He was calm, cool and effective. It was not running back Marlon Mack. He had 175 rushing yards on 25 carries including a career best 63 yard touchdown run in the 3rd quarter that was a thing of beauty. He also scored on a two point conversion. TY Hilton? Nope. TY caught 8 passes for 89 yards and 2 TDs. Was it the offensive line, No. They gave it their all in both pass blocking and run blocking, particularly the latter. Was it the defense? Well the defense is a “work in progress.” Let’s just say they didn’t play at the level of the offense. It pains me to report this friends and neighbors, but it was the foot of Adam Vinatieri, the Colts’ venerated Hall of Fame bound kicker. Automatic Adam missed on 7 points in the game, two field goals and an extra point. If he had converted these kicks the Colts would have won. He had his worst game as a pro. Hopefully it was just an off day because if it’s an indication that time has finally caught up with Mr. V then the team is in a world of hurt. Speaking of hurt, wideout Devin Funchess broke his collar bone. He is likely out for the season. Funchess is the latest receiver to be signed to play across from TY Hilton. Maybe there is some kind of a curse on that position.
The Chargers are a tough team who will contend for the AFC championship. Their quarterback, Phillip Rivers is the best active player in the league who has never played in a Super Bowl. Maybe that will change this year.
As for the rest of the AFC South, Jacksonville got hammered 40-26. More than that they lost quarterback Nick Foles for the season with a broken collar bone. A bad weekend for collar bones. The Texans lost to the Saints on Monday night. How about the Tennessee Titans? Well all the Titans did was hang a humiliating 43-13 smackdown on the Cleveland Browns. The Browns had been a trendy preseason pick to win the AFC North and go deep in the playoffs, but it looks like they’re the same old Browns. The Titans are our next opponent, in Nashville.
2019 Brickyard 400
The NASCAR boys ran the Brickyard Sunday for the 26th time at IMS for the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard and Kevin Harvick took the checked flag to win his second Brickyard. Joey Logano was second and Darrell Wallace Jr. was third. This was the last event before the Race for the Monster Energy Cup Playoffs start.
Harvick started on the pole. At stage one (50 laps) Logano was in the lead, but from then on it was Harvick all the way. Landon Cassill hit the wall as did Kurt Busch. Kyle Busch’s car engine blew up on a tire change in the pits. The sad news was that Jimmy Johnson was involved and eliminated in the Kurt Busch crash and thus was unable to win the points necessary to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in fifteen years.
Kyle Busch still leads in total points going into the playoffs and Ryan Neuman and Clint Boyer qualified for the final two playoff spots.
The attendance numbers were improved from the last few years but there were still a lot of empty seats. IMS and NASCAR are trying to pump up interest in the event. Let’s hope they succeed because if it continues to slide, the race will disappear from the schedule.
SDN