The Weekend on Tuesday
Here are some random thoughts on a Tuesday of what stood out to me over the weekend.
Miami is No. 1 and they look like it. And they’re the first AP #1 team this year to look like it. Shoutout to that one AP voter who’s been placing Miami #1 on his ballot all year. Ironically—to this Cane at least—in Miami’s first game back as the nation’s #1 team they kicked off at noon, a time usually reserved for the weaker teams in CFB, just like they had for almost my entire college experience. That felt full circle in a way, as the thought of Miami climbing back to the pinnacle of the sport back in 2012 seemed as far off as undiscovered galaxies. And then 14 years later in their first game back on top, they get a nooner. Also, Hard Rock Stadium should’ve kept the seats orange, which works for the Canes and the Dolphins, following the latest renovation back in 2015. Also also, Malachi Toney is a 99 OVR and must see TV every time he’s on the field.
Outside of Miami, who’s actually good in college football? Teams ranked No. 2 have lost in back to back weeks. Texas was #1 three weeks ago but lost in back to back weeks before squeaking out a win against Ole Miss Saturday. Ohio State’s QB, Julian Sayan, is injured and out for the foreseeable future. Indiana doesn’t have a QB, either. Georgia, idle on Saturday, lost their first game as #1 last week. It’s a virtual mosh pit under Miami at the moment. But hey, at least we’ll have a 24-team playoff next year (eye roll).
Will the WNBA Finals see a primetime, weekend tip-off one day? Of course, the league has exploded in viewership and popularity over the past two years following the WNBA’s absorption of the Caitlin Clark-Angel Reese pseudo-semi-beef that started cooking in college. That beef has been all but reduced to a simmer, with Clark’s Indiana Fever yet to make a finals appearance while Reese has already been traded from the team that drafted her (she’s now a key player on the Atlanta Dream in the finals). But back to my original question…and my answer is hopefully. Any finals of any sport merits the biggest stage possible, and to that point, props to the WNBA for changing the Finals from a 5 game series to a full and proper 7 game series for the first time last year. But while I like the idea of a primetime tip for a championship round game, the W wouldn’t be doing itself any favors going head to head with college football on a Saturday in October, and so game 4 of the WNBA Finals between Golden State and Atlanta tipped off at 1 PM ET. If only that was the worst of it. The timing, primetime or otherwise, has been in question for each game in Atlanta, as well as the location. How is that even possible? Well, the Atlanta Dream’s current home arena seats just 3,500 people, and, apparently blindsided by the possible reality of the W’s Atlanta-based team making the finals, the WNBA did not have solid plans for the time or location for games 4 and 5 in Atlanta. By Monday morning, the league still did not know when or where game 6 in Atlanta would tip off on Thursday. That has since been figured out with the larger State Farm Arena playing host. But in what amounts to nothing short of an embarrassing self-own, tip off will be far from primetime and fans instead will be treated to a lunchtime game, with tip off set for 12:30 PM ET, in order to accommodate a Hawks game at 8 PM. That’s 9:30 AM for Golden State fans. Right. I don’t know what they should have done instead, but they shouldn’t have waited until the finals to figure it out.
Arch Manning? Speaking of not knowing who’s good…is he good? He’s a name brand but I’m not sold. Let’s check back in a few weeks.
Speaking of good, can we stop calling the Texans defense good? The NFL is a week to week league, they say. They, as in the experts and the analysts and the cliche masters that blow the hot air that condenses to steam and lubricates the gears of the Monday morning QB’s everywhere, until by Friday the gears are rusty from the recycled moisture of reheated takes from throughout the week. Well, if it’s true the NFL is a week to week league, an any given Sunday sort of affair, then we must stop calling the Texans defense good. They’ve already given up 30+ points three times and just surrendered 27 to the JJ McCarthy led Giants. McCarthy was riding the pine in Minnesota as a Viking only a month ago. Let’s cool it on the Texans defense until they earn it again, on a week to week basis.
The referees are bad. So bad, in fact, Fox prepared a highlight package in the fourth quarter of the Packers and Lions game for the officiating crews’ three most egregious blown calls. Not a highlight of athletic excellence, but of officiating ineptitude. I mean, when does a broadcast partner do that? It seems with every week there’s more and more to complain about with the officiating in the NFL. Sure, there’s always going to be a questionable call, such is the nature of human judgment or incomprehensible rule language, but there was a time when the refs pretty much got it right. Or, we at least didn’t notice them in the same way.
It was a spooky final Sunday before Halloween. The previously undefeated 49ers and Chiefs lost their first games of the season while the still undefeated Vikings escaped Indianapolis with a comeback win. The previously defeated Dolphins picked up their first win of the season against the Jets, who are always scary in how bad they are, leaving the Chargers as the only winless team in the NFL. More scary stuff came in the Packers game when they found themselves down to their 3rd string center due to injuries before the first quarter was even halfway over. Enter John Williams, who actually did a solid job in holding it down. If it’s Williams moving forward as the starting center, this Packers fan can only hope he earns the nickname “The Conductor” and helps anchor what has been to this point a highly suspect offensive line for years to come.
The outlier: Kiefer Sherwood and the Sharks veterans need to step up. And Sherwood largely has so far this year, popping off with a monster shorthanded goal against the Bruins on Saturday. His ability to provide a boost on offense and a physicality on defense the Sharks have been missing in recent years will be vital to their playoff hopes. But the rest of the mostly new-to-the-Sharks veterans also need to step up and play well consistently to support all the talented youth on the Sharks roster. That youth consists of 4 players drafted in the top-five (two drafted 2nd overall, one drafted 1st) a fifth drafted 11th overall and a sixth drafted 33rd overall. That is a lot of top end talent that figures to benefit from the stability of the five veteran offseason additions (six counting the trade for Sherwood last year), and the floor seems to have been raised from last season. Still, there’s too much volatility in the Sharks’ game. They went two weeks before winning their first game of the season in regulation.