I’m back from South Florida, visiting relatives and law school roommates. It was warm. The food and company were excellent. Even the United flights out of Newark, a notorious late departure airport, to West Palm Beach, left early and arrived early. And now there is snow and cold.
The irony of the trip was that it was a day after my wife and I endured a half of miserable football from the New York Jets, who hosted South Florida’s own Miami Dolphins. Actually, it was nearly two halves, as we hightailed it out of Met Life Stadium with the home team trailing by a score of 24-7.
We were home with little traffic on Route 3, the Garden State Parkway and Interstate 78. In time to see much of a scoreless third quarter and all of the final stanza. The result was an overwhelming 34-10 win for the Dolphins.
It wasn’t that the Jets didn’t try hard. They did. The first quarter punt return by Isaiah Williams resulted in a 78 yard scamper to pay dirt. That was the highlight of the game for the home faithful.
Otherwise, with an injury to backup QB Tyrod Taylor in the first quarter, NYJ was forced to bring in undrafted free agent Brady Cook, a University of Missouri product, to direct the offense as best he could. Which really wasn’t too great and Cook was injured late but he made it through to the end. Cook will be this week’s starting quarterback when the Jets face AFC South leader Jacksonville on the road this Sunday. Good luck, kid. Just don’t get re-injured.
New York has to play out the schedule with three of the four remaining games away from East Rutherford. Only New Orleans isn’t playing for a playoff spot. Buffalo and New England are, and they tangle this Sunday in Foxboro.
Whether the team remains with 3 wins this season or somehow reaches the lofty heights of 4-13, New York will have a good chance to find its QB of the future. Speculation that NYJ will trade up to do that is just that; with the plethora of first round picks they can do that or sit tight and build a real foundation if the draft selections in the next two years are well-thought out. Could it be Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza from Indiana the Jets crave?
I want to briefly talk about Miami. The Dolphins began the season almost as bad as the Jets. Losers of six of the first seven contests, the only thing which prevented Miami from going 0-7 was that they came away winners over the Jets on the last Monday in September.
But after a loss in Cleveland, the Dolphins started to turn the season around. Except for a loss to Baltimore, the Dolphins have won five of the last six games they have played.
The remaining schedule isn’t daunting: at Pittsburgh on Monday night, a team currently leading its division with a 7-6 record, has lost its top pass rusher, T.J. Watt, to a collapsed lung which required surgery and which has been inconsistent in its playing with 42 year old Aaron Rodgers at quarterback; Cincinnati, a below .500 team in turmoil, with its star quarterback Joe Burrow not necessarily wanting to remain in town; Tampa Bay, which is also on a losing streak that included a dud at home versus Atlanta on Thursday night when Kirk Cousins, the overpaid backup QB, led the team to a comeback victory, prompting mild-mannered Tampa Bay Head Coach Todd Bowles to go on a f-bomb tirade about his team; and a finale on the road against the current AFC East leaders, New England, which has a critical game on Sunday when it hosts Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills—if the Patriots win they will clinch the division, but if they lose, the finale could still be meaningful.
I am not predicting that the Dolphins will win out nor that they will make the playoffs—which mathematically they have a chance to do if they continue to win. They have to catch the Los Angeles Chargers, Buffalo, Houston and free-falling Indianapolis, which lost its signal caller Daniel Jones to an Achilles tendon injury and has imported retired 44 year old Philip Rivers, whose name is among those presently under consideration for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, to keep its dreams alive to either win the AFC South or snag a Wild Card berth. Plus if Baltimore and/or a woe begotten Kansas City can get their acts together in these final four games, they have a better shot to make the playoffs than Miami.
What is notable is that the Dolphins never gave up, despite the losses and injuries. Those who think that wunderkind Mike Mc Daniel can’t coach should think again. I am not saying that the Yale grad will survive the season and be on the Miami sidelines next year.
I am simply stating that the guy can flat out coach. Which showed against the Jets, with the Dolphins scoring touchdowns on tier first three possessions, all but ending the competitiveness of the game.
While the Jets will likely lose to Jacksonville, a legitimate AFC Super Bowl threat, my attention will be for the 4:25 EST game from the West Coast. My daughter will be in beautiful So Hi Stadium in Inglewood attending the Detroit-Los Angeles Rams game which is the FOX doubleheader game televised nationally.
It is an important game for both teams in their particular quests to reach the playoffs. Detroit is 8-5 and in third place in the NFC North, behind Green Bay and Chicago. Currently the first team outside of the post-season, a loss for the Lions will put their hopes to continue playing in January in real jeopardy. It might come down to the final Sunday when the Bears host the Lions to decide the Wild Card and maybe the division.
For LAR, they are in a tie with Seattle for first place in the NFC West. San Francisco is one game back of both teams. The division may well be decided on Thursday when the Seahawks host the Rams. Seattle first has to overcome the drama surrounding the return of Philip Rivers and a good Indianapolis team fighting for its playoff life. Or if San Francisco keeps on winning and Seattle trips up, the season closer in Northern California between the Niners and Seattle may be quite meaningful.
I saved my last bit of NFL commentary for you Philadelphia Eagles fans. Stop ranting and raving over the performance of your team. Things will straighten out. Your team has two games with 3-10 Washington upcoming and the Birds host 2-11 Las Vegas. A trip to frigid Buffalo right after Christmas is the only real bump in the road to the playoffs. Once they get there is another story.
College football has been in the news this week. The CFP Committee excluded Notre Dame from the 14 team field, setting off a firestorm of protest over Alabama and the University of Miami making it in and not the Irish.
That Notre Dame gets extra-special consideration to begin with is appalling. The fact that its schedule is littered with five ACC teams and they lost to the Hurricanes early in the season didn’t help. Nor did then 7-5 Duke defeating Virginia in the ACC Championship Game help the Notre Dame cause.
The ACC is a weak conference for football. It has gone downhill for basketball, too. To fill out their schedule, Notre Dame agreed to play all other sports as ACC members and to meet 5 ACC schools in football annually.
Moreover, if Notre Dame wanted to embellish its chances by joining a prestigious conference like the Big Ten or SEC, it can’t. Not until 2036—when its binder to join only the ACC is no longer.
I feel no pity for the superiority of Notre Dame or the whining when they don’t get what they want. I applaud the CFP having the courage to exclude the Irish this season. It was the right thing to do and can really only be remedied with expansion of the playoffs to 16 teams—which I don’t think the participating conferences are in favor of.
So when Notre Dame took its football with them and said they would not play in any bowl games as a consolation—I say good riddance. Sore losers are not tolerated well in college football.
The final story is a very sad one. The University of Michigan fired Head Coach Sherrone Moore for cause after it was determined that he was having a relationship with a staffer. That kind of stuff is not permitted and was supposedly a known thing for the past two years. Moore is now under arrest for domestic violence assault when he allegedly carried a knife to the staffer’s residence and broke in. He had been described as suicidal.
Nothing is going to come out of this that will be good. Lives and a family have been ruined. The players who trusted him have lost that bond.
Michigan will be in the hunt for a new football coach. That may impact other schools and players and coaches. All because of a series of bad decisions.
I don’t root for the Wolverines. Nonetheless, I hope that those who make the decision on the next Head Coach get it right. Michigan is a top tier school in academics and athletics and the administration needs to set a new direction that is unmistakable in ethics and morality.
I hope that Moore and the young lady can move forward from this. Unfortunately, this kind of thing won’t stop—Rutgers AD Pat Hobbs acted irresponsibly when he entered into a relationship with the school’s gymnastics coach, which led to Hobbs’ leaving his job.
At least Michigan doesn’t have to play Notre Dame until 2033 and 2034. Until then, football will continue to evolve.
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