Above the fold

Ten Piece Nuggets-NFL

By: boom booms room staff on

It’s the beginning of a long holiday week.  People are dashing around from shopping malls to shopping malls.  Amazon Prime trucks are dashing from address to address.  The BBR staff is having it’s annual holiday golf tournament today.  So we’ll keep it short with a quick, NFL Ten Piece Nugget served five from the NFC and five from the AFC style.  It will be good to get something in your stomach before the eggnog and bourbon take control.

  1.  The NFC side of the playoff picture is as clear as a bell and as foggy as England.  Huh?  Five of the six spots are spoken for, with the sixth a Philadelphia  and Dallas mess.  Dallas controlled it till yesterday’s loss to Philly.  Now if Philly wins against the New York football Giants they are in.  If they lose, Dallas is in with a win over Washington.  Winner is division champ.  Loser goes home.
  2. If the loser is Dallas, Jason Garrett is going home too.  Jerry Jones said he was very disappointed in his team’s performance yesterday. Duh. They failed to score a touchdown against a banged up, but hungrier, Philly team.  With Cooper, Prescott, and Elliot as your big three on O a lot of money isn’t getting a lot of production.  Prescott was asked post game, “what’s the problem?”  His answer was profound.  “I don’t know.”
  3. The other five spots are sealed while the order and bye’s are anything but.  San Francisco, Green Bay, New Orleans, Seattle, and Minnesota are in.  Only N.O. is for sure the division champ and therefore a host of a wild card at a minimum.  But home field is at stake as are the top two seed spots.  There are too many “if’s” to detail them.
  4. One thing is for sure though.  There are too many “if’s” by team to consider anyone of them a prohibitive NFC Super Bowl favorite.  New Orleans inexplicably lost to Atlanta a while back.  San Fran did the same yesterday to lowly Arizona.  Green Bay is much better at home than the road.  Minnesota and Seattle might both need to win three in a row on the road.  But, they are both very live wild card teams, if they wind up as wild card teams, built for post season play.
  5. New Orleans lacks weapons outside of one who is nearly unstoppable this year.  Marvin Harrison’s NFL record of 143 catches in a season stood for 17 years, and no one came within even six catches of it.  Sunday New Orleans Saints receiver Michael Thomas broke Harrison’s mark with one game to go.  Thomas already has 145 catches on the year after he caught 12 passes for 136 yards and a touchdown in Sunday’s 38-28 come-from-behind victory over the Tennessee Titans.  Can a wide receiver win the MVP award?  Well, Thomas is 66-1 while Lamar Jackson is 1-30.
  6. Speaking of Thomas as we swing into the AFC, the QB and his Baltimore Ravens now have to be considered a strong favorite to take home the Lombardi Trophy in Miami regardless of who the NFC rep is.  Baltimore is winning big weekly and dominating in all aspects of the game.  After a 2-2 start, they are winners of 11 straight.  Eleven straight wins in the NFL is called domination.  In an AFC Conference loaded with really good quarterbacking, this just in, Lamar Jackson is good.
  7. But, as usual, don’t count out New England just yet.  Their yearly trip to the biggest game of all got a shorter route thanks to Saturday’s gut check win against a gutsy Buffalo Bills team.  A win this week against Miami in New England will give them a first round bye.  This just in, Tom Brady is good.
  8. Perched at # 3 is KC.  If you fell asleep Sunday night you missed a 26-3 Chiefs snoozer over the somnambulistic Chicago Bears 26-3.  They need a win and a week 17 loss by NE to have a bye.   This just in, Patrick Mahomes is good.  The Bears are not.
  9. Don’t sleep on the Houston Texans.  They clinched the AFC South for the fourth time in five years Saturday.  They can score and they can play decent defense.  If KC loses and Houston wins they could move up to the all important #2 seed and gain the all important bye week as well.  This just in, Deshaun Watson is good.
  10. Buffalo has won ten games and counting this year and are in as the fifth seed.  They are a dangerous wild card team.  They’ll scrap you for a ball anytime, anywhere.  This just in, Josh Allen isn’t good yet, but he’s moving in the right direction.  The Tennessee Titans could still get in.  They drafted Marcus Mariotta in round one a few years back.   Miami did the same with Ryan Tannehill.  Tennessee looks to have given up on MM like Miami did on Tannehill.  Miami’s loss is Tennessee’s gain for now.  Pittsburgh needs lots of help to get in.  Oakland needs lots and lots of help to get in.

Enjoy a few lousy NCAA Bowl games that no one really cares about and a few NBA early season games that no one really cares about till the weekend.  Then it’s the NCAA playoffs and the final regular season week in the NFL.

A little sprinkle of cinnamon on top of the eggnog is just the right finishing touch.