Author: boom booms room staff

Ten Piece Nuggets-Sports

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Hopefully, you haven’t lost your sense of taste or smell.  Covid-19 can do that and worse to a human as you know.  We’re taking ten nuggets out of the oven this AM for you.  The disease has interrupted our fun as sports fans all over again and is unfortunately interspersed in the conversation below.

  1.  Notre Dame inserted itself squarely into the FBS playoff race conversation with its double-overtime thrilling win over Clemson in South Bend Saturday night.  There’s still work to do, but the two teams now appear on a collision course to meet again in the ACC Championship game.  Did you even know that Notre Dame joined the ACC for this season?  Covid times basically forced their hand as it’s regularly scheduled opponents were iffy on starting a season back then.
  2. Dabo Swinney, post-game, played the role of Dabo Swinney quite well.  “We’re 7-1,” coach Swinney said after the loss to Notre Dame. “Nobody was handing out a trophy tonight. Nobody was rolling a stage out there tonight. We got a ways to go. We have a lot of guys that have grown and learned a lot from this year. It’s obviously been challenging on everyone.”  His nasally whining, holier than thou, poor us, and we have work to do attitude is challenging on a lot of college football fans.
  3. The SEC has canceled three games this week due to cases sprouting up on teams and the inevitable tracing that knocks those immediately around the infected out for a bit too.  Gone are the games pitting Auburn v. Mississippi St., Texas A&M v. Tennessee, and Alabama v. LSU.  When and/or if they will be made up is up in the air.  The postponed games are piling up, and the SEC Championship Game is coming up, so some games may not get rescheduled at all.
  4. If you’re a competitor or a dyed in the wool fan, you’re disappointed in the cancellations.  If you’re a fan of Mississippi St., Tennessee, or LSU you might secretly be breathing a sigh of relief.  Miss St. started 1-0 with a big upset (at least we thought it was then) at LSU and faded very fast.  Tennessee started 2-0 and has slid to the point where they want Jeremy Pruitt to volunteer to no longer be the Volunteers coach.  LSU started poorly, leveled off briefly, then forgot to show up for its game two weeks ago v Auburn.
  5. A few other games for this weekend have also been postponed.  And, a few are teetering on the proverbial brink as well.  The season is wobbling.  Can it forge its way through?  The college game is tricky.  You can’t bubble them.  You think you can, but you can’t keep them from friends, bars, nor parties.
  6. The PAC 12 just started.  In hindsight, why did they wait?  They said it was for a lack of quick results in the then testing.  Now that we have quick response testing, we only find out faster what we already knew.  People will continue to spread this thing around until there is a vaccine in widespread distribution.  We have our fingers crossed Pfizer.
  7.  “Hello friends,” says Jim Nance.  Live from the Augusta National Golf Course tomorrow is The Masters on CBS.  It was postponed from its usual early April start.  They avoided the first wave of the disease and walked headlong into the second one with this date.  No fans (the club calls them patrons) will be allowed onto the Holy Grail of golf courses.  Former champion Sergio Garica won’t be allowed in either.  He announced that he tested positive for you know what earlier this week.
  8.  The laid back Wednesday traditional nine-hole par-three tourney is a no go today.  One of its trademarks is for the pros to attempt to skip a ball across the water on one of the par threes.  Jon Rahm, currently ranked no. 2 in the world decided to honor the tradition while practicing on the regular course yesterday.  How did he do?  If you haven’t seen it, you must.  It’s right here.
  9.  In the NFL the Pittsburgh Steelers reached the halfway point at a perfect 8-0.  Along the way they beat the Titans and the Ravens in back to back road games to get to that clean record.  No small feat.  But the AFC is loaded with good teams and the best record is far from secured this early.  KC is loaded and shows no signs of a Super Bowl hangover.  Baltimore has a strong D and a QB who can change a game by himself.  Tennessee has a tough run game and a solid D.  Buffalo is winning in different ways which is always a good sign.  And, don’t look now, but here comes Tua and the Miami Dolphins.
  10. New Orleans is the flavor of the week in the NFC.  They did to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay team on Sunday night what Tom Brady and the New England team used to do to the Jets twice a year.  The NFC has several good teams, but will they have a great one by regular season’s end?  Green Bay fits the mold of good, but not great.  Seattle can’t stop anyone.  Arizona is interesting but likely a year away.  Chicago thinks they’re good, but they aren’t.  The Rams are 5-3 but they’ve only beaten up on the woeful NFC East thus far.  Don’t look now, but the Vikings might have righted their ship (see what we did there?).

It’s hump day morning.  Soon it’ll be downhill from here.

 

Hanging Around

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Do you remember Chad?  Unknown prior, he hung around in the year 2000 from Election Day till December 13th.

Democratic nominee Al Gore, who had already invented the internet, insisted that he remain on the final stage until then as the presidential election results were in deep dispute deep in the state of Florida.

It was his right.  And, for a while, it was the right thing to do.  It’s better to wait and get it right than to rush and get it wrong.

George Bush waited in the wings.

Twenty years later President Trump has the very same rights.  Some recounts are available to him due to the close results in that particular state.  Some he’ll need to prove the need by providing lower, then higher, courts of law substantive evidence that Biden’s folks have been hiding ballots of his or stuffing ballots of their like.

Joe Biden is waiting in the wings.

It’s highly likely that at some time in the future the fighter that never quits will hear the final bell ring and realize that the gloves need to be cut off of his bruised hands.

When exactly will the right thing to do outweigh his right to dispute the results?  Time will tell.   It always does.  You see Time’s father, named Father Time is undefeated.

Donald J Trump was elected to be the anti-Washington DC President.   He filled that part of his role admirably.  And, Lord knows he did it his way.

He burned bridges on the way in, and he’s going to burn them on the way out.  We loved him lighting the fire on the way in.  We may or may not like it as much on the way out.

Hell hath no fury like an orange-faced President scorned.

Trump never loses.  Ask him.  We’re going to win, win, win he said over, and over, and over again.  He tweeted out Saturday that he got more popular votes (71 million and still counting) in 2020 than any other standing President.  He even wins in his mind when he loses.  It’s a character trait that is admirable until it isn’t.

Chad had no dog in the fight.  Chad was the dog in the fight.  He hung around for a while by a paper-thin thread until he didn’t.

Trump, too, is the dog in the fight.  And, there is a lot of fight left in the dog.

You hired him because of that.  And, he’s still doing his job he thinks.

Meanwhile, China is laughing all the way to the bank.

Till then.

Abby Takes Down Vegas, Year 3, Week 7

Posted on by boom booms room staff

The SEC, ACC, and BIG 12 football schedules are half done, the BIG 10 is in week two, while the PAC-12 is just getting started.  This reminds us of the state by state vote count, but we digress.

Abby, however, remains very focused.  Week six was another winner for her.  That brings the season-long total to 17 wins, 13 losses, and one tie.   She’s brought home a sterling 29 bones while leaving 18 behind.  Her hunch bet tried to shoot the moon that she normally howls at with a three-team parlay that came up one team short.  Her hunch remains out to lunch at 1-4.

  1.  Miami Fla at North Carolina St +10 1/2–  They’re still counting in NC. When it’s all done Miami wins, NC St covers, and Trump sues.  Two bones.
  2.  Pitt at Florida St -2 – They’re still counting in Pittsburgh, PA.  They’re done in Florida.  Florida St is done as a football team too, but rises from the ashes this weekend.  Is the wrong team favored here?  Abby likes to zig when others zag.  One bone.
  3. Washington St at Oregon St. -2 –  It’ll take sixty minutes to declare Oregon St. a winner in this game.  In politics, it took sixty seconds after the polls closed for Washington and Oregon to go into the Biden win column.  Is the wrong team favored here as well?  One bone.
  4. Michigan St at Iowa -6 – They got tired in Michigan and quit at 10:30 pm counting ballots on Tuesday night.  Iowa will make Mich St. quit in the fourth quarter of this one.  Two bones.
  5.  Texas A&M at South Carolina + 10 1/2 and Tennessee -2 at Arkansas –  The Donald carried all of the SEC states except Georgia which is pending.  This is our SEC two-team parlay special.  If Abby loses this one (or two) she’ll demand a recount.  One bone to win three bones.
  6.  Florida v Georgia under 53 and 1/2 –  There is nothing pending about Georgia’s D.  It’s good.  It’ll slow down Florida’s O a bit.  There’s nothing pending about Georgia’s O.  It’s average at best.  Florida’s D is as well, but it will be good enough to get a stop or two.  Two bones.

Abby’s hunch bet nearly got put in the dog house again this week.  She likes UGA the dog so much (as a friend of course), but she likes the Florida Gators + 3 1/2 as a live dog this weekend.

Woof!

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, and Friday

Posted on by boom booms room staff

A funny thing happened on Election Day.  No one got elected.

And a presidential race precedent or two was set.  We take a stab at those and give other random observations below in our Lucky 13..

  1. Has there ever been a contest so hotly contested that five or six states are too close to call getting on to 12 hours after the polls have closed?
  2. Has there ever been more lax voting procedures and subsequent vote-counting in our country’s history?
  3. Allowing ballots to be postmarked by midnight of the election night and counted in the several days and even into the next week is a dumb idea.  We repeat it’s a dumb idea.  It’s the further softening of America unfortunately.  Take your time, we’ll wait.  Deadlines are so yesterday.
  4. A few states haven’t fully counted early balloting yet, hence the hesitancy of the networks to call the state for one or the other candidates.  Does it make sense to count early balloting earlier than late balloting?  Asking for a friend.
  5. One state (we cannot remember which as this writer fell asleep on the job) stopped counting at 10:30 last evening.  They’ll be back at it this morning.  Hopefully they took their union-mandated coffee breaks along the way yesterday.  Um, come to think of it, why drink coffee if you don’t want to work late?  Pennsylvannia said they’ll pick it back up on Friday.  Friday!  Punxsatawney Pete must have seen its shadow again.
  6. What happened in Arizona?  Long a red state bastion, it skipped over purple and used a dark blue crayon at the ballot box.  The Senate seat flipped too.  Cindy McCain didn’t help the Republicans cause dragging Trump through the desert.  Trump didn’t help himself dragging John McCain’s legacy down either.  Trivia question- How many Californian transplants can move one state due east in four years?  Plenty.
  7. It took almost thirty seconds after the polls closed in the Pacific Time Zone for every cable outlet to project California, Oregon, and Washington for Joe Biden.  What took them so long?  At least there’s no mystery of early votes, lost votes, or absentee votes on the left voting left coast.
  8.  The countrywide popular vote counted thus far is 6 million more than the final tally in 2016 and we’re still counting, and counting.  It looks like both parties got their vote out.
  9. It looks like the House of Representatives will see a few (maybe six) more Republicans but not near enough to take the majority.  Madame Speaker Pelosi can continue her magical broom ride.
  10. The Senate seems safe for the Republicans.  A few races are yet to be determined, but the Elephants lead in enough of them.  The seats were 53-47 going in and might be 52-48 coming out.
  11. Why did Wall St rally yesterday and why are the futures up today?  Did they smell a split government- Biden wins and the Senate stays red? Maybe.  Why did the social media, internet heavy NASDAQ futures head up last evening?  Does the smart money think that Biden and the Democrats give them cover to continue their unabated monopolistic and censorship ways?  Is a repeal of the China tariffs in the offing for the country that gave us the China virus?  Will you miss Trump saying “Chii nah” if the outcome boots him from the White House?
  12. As we go to Al Gore’s virtual digital press, Biden leads by the slightest of margins in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada. Let’s assume Trump wins Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania as he leads each by a bit.   It’s a fluid situation to say the least, but if that holds up Joe Biden is President of the United States.  Someone once told us to “expect the unexpected.”
  13. Will Donald J. Trump take his fight all the way to the Supreme Court citing voter fraud, irregularities, and the like if he is deemed the loser?  Yes, he will.  It’s his right.  Would we expect anything less in this unprecedented, new normal, Covid pandemic, year of the never-ending Zoom meeting?

Can anyone find a tent big enough to cover this circus?

 

Today

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Today either marks the end of the wildest and whackiest four years in Washington D.C. or it begins the second and final four years of likely the same.  We have a few observations and a few points to ponder.

  1.  No one outworks The Donald.  His campaign stops (rallies) in the last 10 days have been far, wide, and far too numerous to count.  At the age of 73, he ended his last one last evening in Grand Rapids, MI at about 11:45 pm.  After an Air Force One ride back to D.C. he tucked himself into bed at 4:00 AM.  He’s already yapping this AM on Fox and Friends.
  2. The Biden campaign, or more accurately the strategy to minimize it, is the oddest in this writer’s 60-year memory.  And, second place isn’t close.  Trump in 2016 was unconventional.  Biden in 2020 was unseen.  Having a few cars show up while you pontificate into a microphone on a stage is, well, weird.  When he asks them to blow their horns if they agree is, well, very weird.  Could the contrast between the Trump rallies and the Biden hornblowers be more overt?
  3. Crystal clearly the DNC’s strategy has been to minimize Biden’s gaffes/weaknesses all the while consistently pounding on Trump.  It was the plan since the day he took office.  It will be written about for years to come.  And, it may very well succeed.  Trump’s words, more than his actions, around the COVID pandemic played right into the DNC playbook.
  4. Do people really understand that if Biden is elected, Harris could be President in the very near future?  All jokes Biden jokes aside, it’s a very real possibility, isn’t it?  Maybe that’s ok with the “get Trump out at all costs,” or “anyone is better than what we have” crowd.
  5. Polls can tell you almost any story you want to hear if you dig deep enough into the numbers behind the numbers.  No matter the side you favor, the results will be fascinating.  How many of the “silent majority” chose only to be heard today?  How many first time voters were there?
  6. It would be a major surprise if Trump won the popular vote.  He lost it by 3 million four years ago.  But, elections are determined by electoral college votes.  And that sets up major announcements tonight as state by state results roll in.
  7. It seems that Pennsylvania is the lynchpin.  Both camps have spent a lot of time there recently.  The path or paths to victory are for either side tighten dramatically with a loss there.  It’s not for his health that Biden is stopping in Scranton and Philly today on Election Day.
  8. Put California, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington in the Biden win column.  They are done deals and won’t be close.  That means Trump needs the obvious three of Texas, Florida, and Ohio.  If any of those three go blue Trump goes home to Mar-a-Lago, not Pennsylvania Ave.
  9.  Trump could win without Penn, but it’s very uphill.  He’d need the entire rust belt to fall his way.  And, Arizona, Nevada, and North Carolina are toss ups to boot.
  10.  Businesses in many major cities are boarding up then closing up early today for fear of civil unrest (read that as peaceful protests) in the streets this evening.  The White House is getting a scale proof fence surrounding it finished up early this AM.  Is anyone concerned what the populous might do if Biden wins?  Of course not.  It’s all about the hate for Donald J. Trump.  It has been since day one.

Get your popcorn ready.

And, buckle up.  It’s going to be a wild ride.

2020.

Tomorrow

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Tomorrow is Election Day.  You already knew that though didn’t you?

Have you already voted?   Good for you if you did.   It seems like it’s more than your right.  It’s your civic duty.

It is estimated that over 80 million mostly U.S. citizens have voted early in these unprecedented, Covid 2020 times.  In 2016 rounded numbers, Hillary Clinton garnered 66 million of the popular votes while now President Trump got 63 million.  So, have 2/3rds of us already voted, or will the 2020 turnout smash 2016?

We’ll mostly know that answer late Tuesday night.  But first, long lines are expected from sea to shining sea tomorrow as well.  Add six feet between us in the lines and, well, pack a lunch.

Experts, pundits, pollsters, news anchors, hired guns, and hacks will tell us who and where voted for whom and why.   Will you, Lionel Ritchie, and your party of choice be able to party all night long?  

For the 50-60 million who haven’t yet voted, we have a dozen sincere questions.

  1.  Why haven’t you?  If you haven’t made up your mind we’re tempted to criticize.  Have we ever been this divided?  Maybe the choice isn’t so clear to you.  If so, we would like to know why.
  2.  Is it because you feel like you’re choosing between the lesser of two evils?  We’d understand that to some degree.
  3.  Four years ago, the ultimate outsider was chosen.  Four years later he’s running against the ultimate insider.  Forty-seven years in one elected office or another is a long time.  If America wanted to drain the swamp four years ago, does it, in a pendulum-like manner, want to fill it back up again?
  4. Can you judge Trump only on his accomplishments?  If you are objective the list is long and productive.  If you can’t look past the bombastic, sometimes crude, sometimes acerbic way of 45, then Biden is your man.
  5. Can you envision Kamala Harris as President?  If you vote Biden, and you live in the real world, you have to know that this is a real possibility.  And, it’s very possible sooner than later, isn’t it?  Is that the plan all along?  It’s a conspiracy theory as crazy as 2020, which means it’s possible.
  6. Biden himself said that the number one qualification he needed in a VP running mate was that she be ready day one to assume the highest office. Is the bait and switch set to roll in 2021?  Hillary once famously uttered about Slick Willie, “if you elect him, you get me!”  If America elects Biden do you get Kamala in the Oval Office?
  7. If you are considering Biden tomorrow, are you willing to put someone in the office who very, very clearly has diminished and further declining faculties?  Do you honestly think that he is fit mentally for the office?  “Neither is Trump!” you scream?  Trump is a lot of things, but you won’t outwork nor outthink him.  Four hours of sleep is his norm.
  8. Speaking of work, does the contrast of the last three weeks mean anything?  Trump’s rallies are far, wide, well attended, and frequent.  Biden’s are few, far in between, and actually have people honking horns in their cars.   How long do you want to feel like the world is ending?  Enough already?  Trump.   More time in the mental basement?  Biden.
  9.  What about Covid-19 and Trump’s mismanagement of it?  Do you honestly think Biden has a magic potion?  What about more lockdowns, even a national mandate you scream?  What about it?  What did the first wave of lockdowns do?  Germany was supposedly a model for how to work through this.  It’s November and their country is raging with new cases as is ours.   It’s a virus.  You can slow its roll, but you can’t stop it.  A vaccine can and Trump is pushing hard.  Too hard?   Cases should not be the barometer, should they?
  10. How was the economy before COVID?  The honest answer from any corner is that it was roaring.  Trump should get some of the credit for that, no?  What is Biden’s plan to maintain, if not grow it?  Raise marginal tax rates?  Raise the capital gains tax?  End fracking!  Transition (his words) out of the oil industry?  None of that sounds like growth. It sounds like government intervention into our lives and the regulation of industries.  Maybe that is a good thing?  Biden is your choice.
  11.  Little has been spoken about foreign policy this cycle.  You know why?  Because on balance, the world is a quiet place.  Nope, it’s not perfect.  It never is.  North Korea is quiet.  ISIS is neutered.  Russia, Russia, Russia you say?  BS, BS, BS Trump says.  China (spreading the China virus aside) is on notice on trade and behavior.  Do you find it odd that China would strongly prefer Biden over Trump?  Do you see any problem at all with Hunter, his dad, and a compromised situation when it comes to interacting with China?
  12. How about our troops?  More are home out of harm’s way, meaning fewer are abroad in harm’s way.  Trump saber rattles, but he doesn’t want war.  Veterans are thankful as well.  Trump’s mandate to his staff was to greatly improve post-service medical care.  It wasn’t good when he took office.  There is work to do, but the progress is real.

Every poll predicts an outcome that is different from the other.   Most have Biden ahead.  Almost all of the 2016 polls were way off.  Most had Hillary ahead.

If America doesn’t like the outcome (assuming we have one) hopefully the protests will be, ahem, peaceful.

Tomorrow will be fascinating.

We’d expect nothing less from the year 2020.

 

 

Abby Takes Down Vegas, Year Three, Week Six

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Abby provided another treat for our loyal subscribers last week. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?  It’s Halloween and she’s expecting more of the same- treats, not tricks that is.  Hopefully, those darn kids ringing the doorbell won’t disturb her too much while watching the games.

For the season the w/l record is 14-11 with one tie.  She suffered a half-point bad beat on a parlay, yet the bones are running at a fine 60% win rate, 24 up, 16 down.  The hunch got crunched falling to 1-3.

  1.  Coastal Carolina v Georgia St +3 – Quick, name one player on either team.  No worries, neither can Abby.  That said she loves her some home dogs and Georgia St. has its best team in many (howling at the) moons.  One bone.
  2. Texas + 3 1/2 at Oklahoma St. – The Cowboys control their Big 12 destiny and are home.  Texas has been wobbly from week one.   But the Longhorns aren’t ready to be roped in just yet.  Two bones.
  3. Georgia at Kentucky +17 1/2 –  Spot is a great dog name.  This spot is a great one for a home dog.  Kentucky fell flat on its jowls last week. Georgia wins, but the Wildcats scare them for three quarters.  One bone.
  4. Kansas St at West Va -3 1/2 – Every week there is a line or two that makes no doggone sense to Abby.  This is one.  She thinks the wrong team is favored here.  Does Vegas have a flashlight to see what others in the dark night cannot?  We think so, so we’ll zig when others zag.  Two bones.
  5. UCF at Houston +2 1/2 – Dana Holgerson, skeletons in the closet aside, gets his biggest win as the Cougar’s head coach.  Expect more than a point a minute in this ping pong match, but watch the Cougars get a stop late.  One bone.

The hunch bet needs to get out of the dungeon.  It’s not too early to throw a Hail Mary.  Take Virginia + 7 1/2 over North Carolina, Iowa – 2 1/2 over Northwestern, and TCU/Baylor over 48 in a three-team parlay for a one to win six return.

Abby has a question.   “If candy corn is so good, why is it only for Halloween?” she growls.

Woof!

 

Sir Charles for President

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Yesterday while channel surfing we stumbled across an NBA TV show celebrating Sir Charles Barkley’s 50th birthday.   Ernie Johnson sat down with Barkley and recounted his upbringing, his NBA highs and lows, his life post NBA, etc.  Nevermind that the show originally aired in 2013, it was quite good.

Why was it quite good?  Barkley was a breath of fresh air.  Barkley is always a breath of fresh air.  He’s such a well-rounded person (pun unintended) overall, and he has three key attributes that we relish.   He is authentic, honest, and funny.  Those are three characteristics that are far too often MIA.

In today’s world don’t you yearn for more, plenty more, of all of that?

For example, there was nothing funny about Tony Bobulinski’s interview last night.  Well, at least he sure seemed honest and authentic.  Did you not see it?  Understandable.  CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, and ABC so far have refused to run any of this, in their words, “unsubstantiated” story on the Biden family profiting from Hunter selling access to his father to foreign and sometimes communist countries.

Is there a shred of honesty in those outlets calling themselves news organizations any more?  And, make no mistake, while Fox ran with it on Tucker Carlson’s show, they aren’t a bastion of authenticity in the media any longer either.

And, what about the subjects themselves?  There’s nothing funny about Hunter’s documented troubled personal life.  And where is he?  Shouldn’t he be screaming from the mountain tops about the travesty of it all and how honest he and his father are?

Patriarch Joe has repeatedly denied knowing anything about the pay to play ruse that Hunter and his cohorts ran in multiple foreign lands.  Now last evening comes and goes and in written and audiotaped form comes undeniable proof that Joe knew even when he said he did not.  We’ll stop shy of saying that Joe directly profited from these arrangements, but authenticity of that sordid transaction is only a checking account statement away it seems.

Say it ain’t so Joe, again.  Or, admit that it is so.  Honesty is always the best policy we’ve been told.

An authentic and honest media of days gone by always fact-checked a dishonest politician.  The Watergate story was dug up by very hardworking journalists who would stop at nothing to uncover the truth.  Now, the only mudslinging is done by a compliant media to cover up the hole that the side that they have chosen has dug for themselves.

Charles Barkley has considered strongly, on multiple occasions, pursuing an elected political office.  We so wish he would.

There’s nothing funny about what we’re missing.  Honesty and authenticity used to go a long way.

Would the media even cover his campaign? Actually, now that we think about it, Sir Charles is in the media.

Perhaps he could cover his own campaign accurately.  It’s about the only way to get it done these days.

Ten Piece Nuggets-Football

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Tender and tasty mmm, mmm.

Fresh from the oven to your email inbox comes Ten delicious Nuggets.

  1. The BIG 10 returned to action on the NCAA football fields and made us all feel a tad more normal Saturday. Three of their top four teams made positive statements right from the word go.
  2.  Wisconsin kicked things off Friday night with a 45-7 mauling of the not so Fighting Illini.  Freshman QB Graham Mertz (not the great-grandson of Fred and Ethel Mertz) was bold and very good.  He completed 20 of 21 passes with five going for six.  Friday’s fun turned into Saturday’s misery though.  Mertz tested positive for you know what and by BIG10 protocol cannot return to the field for 21 days if a second test confirms the first. Ouch. Could it be a “Saban like” false positive?
  3. THE Ohio St. worked Nebraska 52-17.  Their talent and coaching puts them on a short, shortlist to challenge Alabama and Clemson come January.  Nebraska has a long way to go to join the best of the BIG 10.
  4. Jim Harbaugh shut up the hot seat talk for at least one week.  His Wolverines went into Minnesota and dispatched the Golden Gophers 49-24.  You can “Row the Boat” all you want PJ, but you need bigger and better paddles to compete with the BIG 10 big dogs on a consistent basis.
  5. Penn St. was the lone rust belt surprise falling to a better than most understand Indiana Hoosiers team in an overtime thriller 36-35.  And, while it has nothing to do with the BIG 10 you must watch the quadruple doink Rice field goal overtime thriller.  Did you already see it?  Watch it again.  Crazy.
  6. Does Notre Dame belong in the conversation with THE, Clemson, and Bama?  Pitt thinks so.  The Fighting Irish took the fight to the Panthers in Pitt and cruised to a 45-3 beatdown. We’ll find out soon enough as ND faces Clemson on 11/7.  Does the PAC 12 have any fight in the dog to get a dog in the fight?  We’ll find out soon enough as they FINALLY begin to play on 11/7 as well.
  7. And then there was only one who has won them all so far.  The NFL Pittsburgh team went to Nashville to face a well-coached and tough Tennessee Titan team yesterday.  They held on by a 27-24 score.   With Seattle’s overtime loss to the quietly good 5-2 Arizona Cardinals, Pitt stands as the lone undefeated NFL team after seven weeks of league play and six games for the Steelers.
  8.  You remember the talk about Tom Brady and Drew Brees losing a few MPH’s off of their fastballs? “Not so fast my friend,” Coach Corso would say.  Both play very well yesterday in big wins.  Brady’s team gets Antonio Brown next week while Brees’ team should get Michael Thomas back.  The Bucs and the Saints have distanced themselves from the other two teams in the NFC South.
  9. One of those two teams is the Atlanta Falcons.   They somehow managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory for the third time this season.  Matt Stafford and the Lions went 75 yards in the final 64 seconds, played pitch and catch on the game’s final play, and won by one.  Unbelievable.  Falcons owner Arthur Blank stood on the sidelines with a blank expression on his face once more.  He was looking around for someone to fire, but realized that he had fired everyone two weeks ago.
  10.  Point differential is a good indicator of a team’s real strength as a season progresses.  It is simply the total points scored minus points allowed.  It’s kind of a measure of when you win how big do you do so versus when you lose how close are you.  Who has the best differential through seven weeks in the NFL? Nope, it’s not the undefeated Steelers.  It’s the 5-2 TB Bucs with +80.  The Chiefs and Ravens are plus 75.  Pitt is plus 65.
  11. (Lagniappe) By this measure which division is best in all of the fruited plains? It’s by far the NFC West where all four teams are on the plus side.  Seattle (+38) leads the division followed by Arizona (+57).  The Rams and 49ers bring up the rear at still very strong plus 38 and plus 45 respectively.  Their combined differential is an excellent +178.  Their combined w/l record is a robust 18-8.  Conversely, the NFC East is a putrid minus 174 with a combined record of 7-20-1.  Can you spell P U?

It’s work time.

Abby Takes Down Vegas-Year Three, Week Five

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Abby felt a bit hungover Sunday.  After a four week run, her picks last week tasted as fine as warm Mad Dog 20/20 wine.

The week brought reality back into the season-long results.  Wins are 11 v losses at nine.  One tie.  The most important bones wagered are 17 up v 13 down.  The hunch is 1-2 after a rare bye week last week.

A little hair of the dog to cure what ails you is below.

  1. Notre Dame at Pittsburgh +9 1/2 – Notre Dame enters week 5 undefeated and with high hopes.  Notre Dame is good, not great.  Pitt is not great but good enough.  It’s a simple home dog who gets up for the big game. ND wins, but it’s close.  Two bones.
  2. South Carolina @ LSU -6 –  This line opened at 6 and went quickly to 7 and 1/2.  It’s back to 6 as LSU will start a true freshman in place of the injured Myles Brennan.  LSU also self-imposed penalties for football recruiting violations this week.  At least a hurricane didn’t hit town this week.  Zig bet.  Three bones.
  3. Baylor +9 at Texas and under 61 – Parlays aren’t for everyone.  Dave Aranda’s D isn’t for everyone.  But, it’ll slow the high scoring Longhorns just enough to cover the points and the under.  One bone to win three bones.
  4. Oklahoma -6 and 1/2 at TCU-  This is a good spot for TCU.  But we think the next great NFL coach (ahem) builds on the quadruple OT win in the Red River Shootout somehow with a late cover.  One bone.
  5. Kentucky at Missouri +5 and 1/2 and Florida St. at Louisville – 4 and 1/2– What’s up with two parlays in one week?  It’s go time to gather some bones.  Kentucky travels back to back weeks and comes off of a big win at Tennessee.  Is Florida St capable of two big efforts in a row?  Nah.  One bone to win three bones.

The Big Ten opens for business finally in 2020.  Betting week one is dangerous.  Spotting 20 in week one is even more dangerous.  Badger happy hours for Friday games start about right now and are most dangerous.  On a hunch take Illinois plus 20 at Wisconsin.

Party on!

Woof!