Topic: American Sports

Man, the Vikings went from playing for the number 1 overall seed to clattering out in the wild card in ugly fashion. There have been talks about changing how seeding works for future playoffs, and I feel like once you start pulling on this thread, the entire set up of the NFL sorta doesn't make a huge amount of sense.

Like if you are a Vet QB, the Brady move was the right move. Why would you want to go to the AFC North or East, when you can go to the NFC South, and host a home playoff game with probably about four or five less wins needed, and a guaranteed easier schedule cause all of your division opponents are all terrible. Like you have zero advantages if you end up in a strong division, it is entirely downsides.

We had three teams this Wild Card hosting a home playoff game this weekend with a worse record than their opponents. And I'm not sure it would have saved the Vikings if they had played at home, but it is still the principle of a 14 win team needing to go on the road like what are we doing here.

Given actual location sorta doesn't seem to mean anything in the divisions cause teams can relocate, I kinda wonder if a European style system is needed, so divisions aren't static, so you don't end up with divisions where all the worst teams or all the best teams are bunched together. I know salary caps and draft order is sorta meant to achieve this same purpose, but I don't think it really works. Cause just cause one team in a bad division might strike gold, that doesn't mean all the other teams in that division level up equally, and if fact if that one team does strike gold, it just highlights the inequality of the system, cause now you can just bully your way around a very small pond.

And the opposite of that of course is something like the Tomlin Steelers. Because of how static the NFL is, being a mid tier team is sorta worse than being a bad one. Under Tomlin they seem forever destined to win 9 or 10 games, make it into the wild card and then get blown out because the Steelers are always like two or three tiers below the genuine post season teams with real chances to make a run. Unless the Steelers intentionally tank, they are never going to be bad enough to amass enough draft capitol to push their team into the next tier and be competitive in the post season, so you are doomed to just live out the same season for the rest of time.

Merry first day of the divisional round day. People call this the best weekend in football, I am not sure if I necessarily agree with this, but outside of Chiefs Texans which kinda has no juice to it at all, unless the Texans win which I feel is super unlikely (but I would have said the same in the Chargers game too, so who knows), all the other games have a lot of intrigue.

I am kinda looking at the Rams as a team of destiny. All the ***** going on in LA, this roster is very well coached and weirdly stacked on both sides of the ball. Eagles are an absolute mountain to overcome, but I don't see the Eagles as immortal. And if the Rams can win, and the Commanders lose, it is a Goff Stafford revenge rematch in the Championship round, and like narratively, whoever overcomes who to make the SB, I mean it is one they could make movies about.

If the Rams aren't the team of destiny, then the Commanders probably are. And I feel like for neutral fans, that Commanders game has to be one of the most emotionally confusing games all season. Do we root for the rookie phenom to carry on what would be a historic run to round out this incredible story. Or do we root for the Lions, the loveable team that has kinda felt like every body's team for the whole year.

And then of course Bills Ravens, which is basically the MVP Bowl and kinda highlights to me how lopsided the AFC / NFC divide is. Where it feels like SB ready QBs potentially could even go out in the wild card just cause all of these generational QBs are all in the AFC and are playing at the same time. Whoever loses this game, they will absolutely treat it like a referendum and I don't think that is fair. The crazy reality is a lot of these guys may just never make the SB, and it says way less about them as players or teams, and way more about how absurdly stacked the AFC is.

What an upset by the Commanders. Chiefs went full villain mode. Henry wasn't the big difference maker that was gonna let the Ravens make a deep run like I expected. Given the conditions they played in, the Rams and Eagles was probably one of the cleanest games we've seen in these playoffs. Feel like almost every other game was defined either by three or four disaster level mistakes or just a full QB meltdown, and I kinda feel like this game was the only one that didn't really have either (or at least none that couldn't be explained by the conditions).

Lions gotta feel the worst out of any team, right? Super Bowl windows probably aren't real, but if a window does exist, it feels like this one has well and truly closed. The roster will still be excellent going into next year, but you just come off a playoff loss where Goff was the worst player on the field, you've now lost Ben Johnson, you're probably gonna lose Aaron Glenn too. Like is there a world where the Lions are barely even 500 next year? Especially if they run it back with Goff, as I don't think any OC will get more out of Goff than Johnson did, and even with Johnson it wasn't enough.

@Pizzamorg @PorkChopExpress I’ll be interested to see if Buffalo can seal the deal. They are a little bit like Detroit with their successes in the regular season and then choke somewhere along the way toward the Super Bowl. Detroit has only been doing it for a couple of years, Buffalo has been teasing their fans like this for the better part of a decade. 😅

Up until recently, the Detroit fanbase was having to go underground with their many years of mediocrity.

But that is a good point about the window of opportunity. It does seem to close quickly with rare exception (Chiefs, Patriots). The good players and coaches get wooed away by large money and bigger opportunities.

As far as Washington, I think it’s lightning-in-a-bottle to be at this stage. I fully expect Philadelphia to squash them this week. They are the Green Bay Packers from last year — great young QB who’s likely to be in over his head before long.

So we’re likely looking at Phili-KC Super Bowl, and I do think that has some intrigue. The old genius Andy Reid facing his former team in a Super Bowl rematch.

Yeah looking forwards, it is like it would be cool to see KC get the threepeat, be a part of history, but it feels more like a wrestling storyline than a sports one, with the Chiefs barely scraping by and bending the rules to eek out victories. It is like a heel wrestler who can't win clean, so has a manager distract the ref so he can win every match with a lowblow when the ref's back is turned. While I don't think the noise would go away, I think people would be less loud about the KC Laundry thing if this was like early era Mahomes where he'd make multiple miracle plays a game and they were actually winning definitively.

As such, while maybe not as important to sports history, Bill's finally conquering their demons and utterly blow KCs doors off is the outcome I'd like to see. But I just don't know whether I see it, even in a world where somehow KC Bills ends without controversial calls, the Bills offence hasn't really been all that explosive lately. And you could argue it simply hasn't needed to be cause they've been pretty good with winning on the ground and in the trenches. But I think KC is gonna demand a higher gear, and it'll be interesting to see if the Bills can reach it, and also hang around in it, as that Allen who throws the dumbest interception you've ever seen still exists in there somewhere. He has just been very well protected this year by the scheme around him.

Feel like the Eagles / Commanders game has less juice. I get that Barkley is maybe one of the best free agent signings in like a decade or whatever, but beyond that, I just don't have a lot of intrigue around the Eagles. The most interesting part about this game to me, kinda like with Texans KC, is the world where the Commanders win.

@Th3solution I was going to message you after the first quarter of Boston v Dallas and vent that the Celtic's starters play such lazy uninspiring basketball when fully healthy, to see what you made of it all. But then they altered the rotations and they got going so it didn't really matter in the end. But, oooh boy, the start was so bad, and indicative of recent bad form 😅

Wondering about the opinion from the outside looking in, though. KP, for example, has been playing pretty nicely, averages up and he affects the games well. But the other 4 when he starts just stand around looking at him 😂 it is really quite strange. They also seem to play 5 out a lot with that lineup, and when nothing is on they simply throw it at the big man and hope he can score over someone. It is kind of like JT and JB forget how to play for a while and are really passive.

Not sure if it is a trend that will continue, as they have only played about 14 or 15 games togehter this year, but something for opposing teams to look out for.

The weird thing is, D White and Holiday both play the low dunker spot as Guards in other line ups, but when KP is out there they seem to forget how to space around him. Maybe it's because they feel like the 5th option at that point, but they don't seem the type to care. So I genuinely think it is because Tatum and Brown can get lured into expecting KP to be the cheat code bail out option, that the overall team play deteriorates and the urgency in the first quarter is off.

I know you like your stats: so our starters were about -14 or worse plus/minus since we became fully healthy, which is totally bananas, right? Haha.

Also, I've fallen off NFL so far that I don't even know if the playoffs have been this weekend. So yeah, who's going to the superbowl?

@Ravix Yeah, I saw some of the game and was surprised it was close for the first half, given the Mavericks hampered roster — I think like 5 rotation players are down. (3 of their 4 centers are now injured, 2 with foot fractures 😬) Boston ended up pulling away and making it a blow out though once the 3’s started falling and they got their energy back up. KP is probably a big key to them this year though. From what I saw, he facilitates a lot of the offense and he changes up shots in the paint on defense. I saw even wide open layups missed by the Mavs just because they were throwing the ball up awkwardly due to the threat of him blocking it, even when he wasn’t even in position to do so. It’s strange, because the team did most of their damage last year without him, so you’d think they could play fine without him. We’ll see. Can he stay healthy the rest of the season is the question. I honestly don’t think they are too worried about being the top seed in the playoffs, but they do need to be a little more in sync come playoff time. Their points in the paint and rebounding really is where they are needing improvement.

As for the NFL, the Super Bowl will be KC vs Philadelphia, most likely. Which we’ve seen before, like 2 or 3 Super Bowls ago, so it’s not all that exciting if you’re not a fan of either team or are not a Swiftie. I think maybe this time the Eagles might win it though. Mahomes Magic has to run out sooner or later, right?

@Th3solution my point is kind of that we do play better (the starting unit, anyway) without KP. Even though KP himself is the best player on the court when the starting line up is playing together since his return. JT and JB seem to play better when the rotations begin, so when Pritchard, Horford, Hauser or Kornet are in. Luke Kornet actually plays really well with Tatum and Tatum really cooks when some of the subs are in.

It's a weird mentality thing where when KP is there with the full starting lineup they rely on him too much and forget they also have to start games attacking the rim and opening up the floor for everyone. Star players can never be too passive, even if someone is the go to match up, they still need to affect the game early in the shotclock.

With reps maybe the starters will click again, but if not I'd not mind if they changed the lineups some nights to have someone unexpected coming off the bench. It seems weird, but maybe it's something a coach like Mazzulla could dare try if the starters together stay at a low plus/minus. You can't go in to the playoffs with a starting unit that has a negative rating when all on the court together 😅

It didn't take long for subs to come in last night though, maybe 5 or 6 minutes and Payton Pritchard was subbed in because the starters were just so passive. I just don't like the idea of them starting slow and having to change it, when they could simply start much faster and not play 5 out lazy basketball just because KP is really tall and can shoot it from 30 feet 😂 when they play fast, attack the rim and KP is still really tall, that's when they build big scores.

Last year we'd hit 65/70 points by half time genuinely regularly with and without KP. This year it has been more like 50/58 with KP starting, which is crazy. But, like I say, he's doing his job, just the others seem to be passive and watching him rather than starting the attacks themselves.

But it was a 3-1 road trip, so record wise it's decent. Just something to watch out for if they suddenly lose more games you'd expect them to win, because this is why it's been happening. And White had been slumping bad, which kind of kills the team and makes every game closer than it should be.

Also, as for stats 3-1 road trip looks good. But we literally only won one of those games because Jayden Springer came out of nowhere as a sub and stole the ball 5 times in a row and hit a ridiculous 3 while James Harden was screaming in his ear from the sideline 😂 I hope he develops with the Celtics, as he has a real eye for defense and momentum plays.

Ah, so the SwiftBowl it will be. I guess it'd be kind of nice to see that not happen, right? Would her fanbase break down and cry if KC don't win? It seems like the kind of thing people would be blubbering about on social media 😁

Will any playoff games be in the snow? 😅

@Ravix I think all 4 teams left are cold weather teams, actually. Certainly Buffalo, Washington, and Philadelphia. KC has snow with regularity also. But both games show 0% chance of precipitation. Ironically, the Super Bowl site in New Orleans was devastated by a winter storm last week, which never happens there. The whole city shut down. You may have seen the videos of people ice skating on Bourbon Street.

As for the Swifties, I’m pretty sure they will follow whatever Taylor does as far as emotional response, should the Chiefs lose. If she breaks down then they all will. 😅 I don’t think she will though. She’ll probably be supportive of her guy Kelse if they lose and the internet will be gushing about it. 🤮

I feel like a KC / Eagles rematch is like the least interesting outcome here, but also feels like the most inevitable outcome here. I feel like the only one with really any real "upset" potential is maybe the Commanders, because how many times do they need to slay giants with clutch final plays before we just accept that is who they are. It should be in their favour too as Hurts has that knee injury, but then Washington seem to be accumulating a lot of key injuries on their own, and Eagles have undeniably the better roster, so kinda like how the Lions flamed out in the end, I guess its a test of just how valuable a QB is, and whether they can push a weaker roster over the top of a stronger one, that might have an injured QB at the helm.

I feel like maybe the only hope for the Bills, is the anger to how that KC game was officiated felt like it truly reached boiling point in that Texans game and I wonder if, even if its just mentally, it causes the Bills game to be officiated differently. Cause there were at least three drives by KC in that Texans game which were extended by ticky tack or straight up bad calls by the refs that weren't overturned and resulted in points. You take even one of those away, and you wonder if that six point difference might be enough to get Bills over the top.

Welp, we ended up with the most predictable outcome. A blowout of the Cinderella Commanders, and a Mahomes magic squeaker to completely demoralize the already heartbroken Bills fanbase.

I do think this time around the Eagles will take care of business in the Super Bowl. Just my gut feeling.

We got the most predictable, most boring, outcome. Now its whether you cheer for KC making history, or cheer for Eagles playing spoiler.

It all kinda played out like I expected though. The Eagles are a super roster, and the talent divide between the two teams became increasingly more striking as the game went along. Daniels did all he could to keep the game close, and they were well in it right until late in the 3rd quarter thanks to him, but a few big mistakes and then the Eagles started to pull away, and eventually the Commanders just didn't have the horses to catch back up.

Meanwhile, again, it felt like KC were outplayed by their opponents, but four or five ticky tack or just straight up incorrect calls went in their favour, turned into points, and those points ended up being the difference in the end.

You would expect the Eagles to utterly blow KC out of the water, but if KC are getting a free 14 points ever game, while the refs kill their opponent's drives even though they clearly converted, I sorta don't know how any opponent wins.

@Pizzamorg Yeah, for all the parity in the NFL, there seems to be a lot of the same ol’ matchups in the end.

Saw this crazy stat:
Teams with 4+ TD and 0 turnovers are 21-2 in the playoffs since 2020

The two losses:
Bills at Chiefs, 2024 AFC Championship Bills at Chiefs, 2021 Divisional Round

What do you think the Bills should do? At some point you have to think they are tempted to blow the team up and do a reboot. They did some changes this last offseason, but this is getting to be ridiculous how they keep falling short. Controversial officiating aside, I don’t know another team that has been so close so many times and just seem to be jinxed. Josh Allen is on the verge of joining the Dan Marino, Tony Romo, Jim Kelly, Drew Bledsoe club of underachievers. He’ll be 29 next year and there’s a stat out there about hardly any QB ever gets to their first Super Bowl after age 30. Once they turn 30, they are who they are at that point.

The NFL really wanted the SwiftBowl, then? And, I refuse to say the manufactured phrase, KC's three titles in a row. 😛

It doesn't take a genius to know that a dynasty and stories of legends and records sell better than regular match ups. But it sounds like they have carefully made sure KC get there by giving a helping hand where possible.

Is there a reason to take the sport seriously any more? 😂 bare in mind I've not seen it, just going off what you've all been saying, but I trust you haven't been exaggerating. Because, in closely contested games, all that really seperates teams is foul calls and the momentum gained and lost from them, or individual f*** ups by the ball handler. And that really is about it 😅

Kind of makes it feel a bit trivial. You either get blow outs when the talent gap is obvious, or whoever is favoured by the league or refs on that occasion, barring huge player errors.

Yeah it is funny @Th3solution cause as Brady leaves the AFC, a collective sigh of relief must have been heard around the conference. Only for in that same time, not just one, but multiple QBs all popped up in that conference that would each be very best of their own respective era if they each existed in a vacuum, except they all exist on top of one other. This means by the very nature of the playoff design, there can only be one, and so they are destined to just keep running into each other and eliminating each other forever. I guess you could argue that if this NFL parity thing is real, they should be handing the baton to each other every year, and they do at least in the early rounds, but somehow 9 times out of 10 it is somehow the Chiefs left standing. I think the Bengals got by them once, only to lose in the SB anyway, so massive wasted opportunity for them as that might not happen for another decade.

@Ravix I used to think that the NBA had the biggest referee conspiracy issue because the foul calling is so inconsistent and there’s a clear “star treatment” for the select few who seem to always get the phantom calls. But the more I watch, the more I wonder if the NFL refereeing is the more egregious. You could probably call pass interference and holding on 90% of the plays, but an ill timed holding of PI call can completely swing a game. Having watched many teams lose in a controversial call has definitely made me jaded.

That said, I think the KC ref conspiracy stuff is probably overblown. There’s something of a witch hunt going on because everyone is sick of seeing them win. In honestly the missed calls are probably on par with the rest of the league. Dynasties do sell, as do the new audience brought by Taylor Swift, but Mahomes is absolutely unflappable. And I can’t imagine getting a large market team like an LA team, a Chicago team, or NY team to the Super Bowl wouldn’t set the world ablaze with revenue.

@Pizzamorg It has to be frustrating for these guys.

Nevertheless, hope springs eternal as every team feels like they have a chance next year after seeing teams like Washington and Houston turn it around so quickly.

@Th3solution the NBA does have a problem, the refs don't consider JT and JB stars so when they drive to the hoop and get smacked nothing happens. Which is, partly, why I think sometimes they give up trying to do it, because a drive and getting fouled and not scoring multiple times is kind of demoralising, and makes it a lower percentage move than it should be 😂

There was one moment this season vs Toronto. Scottie Barns was being a clown and seal clapping at Tatum, who absolutely blew past him, went up for a monster dunk, got slapped on the arm and missed the dunk... no fouls, play on, let them break out.

It doesn't take much to understand the psychology of why Toronto made that foul, they were stopping an all time highlight of embarrassing nature being made on them. But for the refs to not call the foul? Like, you could shut your eyes and call a foul if the dunk was missed in that situation, and 99% of the time you know it'd be right, and if not then the defending team can still challenge it. But to no call, it defies logic.

Star player misses blow by dunk, maybe, just maybe, there's a reason they missed the dunk 🙄

Would have been such a cool highlight if they hadn't fouled, so I'm still salty.

But, yeah, yhe NFL 😂 I don't really think it's fixed, probably more just refs are more likely to be swayed subconsciously by a narrative that can't be denied. KC and Mahomes are a modern dynasty and living sensation, so the desire to see the foul or turn a blind eye is kind of part of that, and is hard to go against.

The problem with NFL officiating is just how antiquated their tool kit is. They have microchips that can go inside jerseys to track all sorts of data on players, to help design plays and all sorts. Plus there are probably like a million other data tags, drone cameras, and another thousand pieces of active pieces of tech processing and capturing a game.

Yet when it comes down to a vital play call, a catch, a conversion, whatever. The refs use an eye test, they use some flag thing on a chain, shrug their shoulders and make a call. They tell us these higher power being up stairs also takes a look at the replay too and feeds a decision down to them, but I feel like this is often said just to shut people up, because the broadcast will seconds later find 12 different angles that show the call was wrong. Like it just feels so utterly absurd.

I get they don't want to slow the game down, I get that we have to trust the refs on the ground to do their job (although even this is weird, cause I am pretty sure no NFL ref is full time, they have other jobs like a billion dollar industry and we can't have full time refs?!) but I don't care about slowing the game down, I care about the calls being right. I care about games coming down to the people on the field, not down to people in black and white squinting into a pile and just deciding the fate of a team's season.

Simply using stone age technology to decide these vital, game swinging, moments where the tech exists to solve this, is actively being used elsewhere and quite often proves the refs using some sticks and rocks to make the decision got it wrong. It is like how can conspiracy theorists not look at this like its a farce.