Phil Dowd’s decision to send off Ivanovic was beyond explanation
In their last two matches, Manchester United have scored late equalizers to earn draws and extend their unbeaten run to four games. Last weekend, they got a big helping hand from the referee (not for the first time, but it has become less common since Sir Alex Ferguson retired) when Phil Dowd awarded a questionable free kick to the Red Devils in stoppage time, then inexplicably showed Branislav Ivanovic a second yellow card and sent off the defender. Had Ivanovic still been on the field, he may well have been the one marking Marouane Fellaini for the free-kick, but instead the Belgian had a free header that was saved well by Thibaut Courtois, but fell to Robin Van Persie who drilled in the equalizer. On the balance of play, it was a fair result for United to get a point from the game, but they were fortuitous that Chelsea had only Didier Drogba available up front (though the Ivorian did score his first Premier League goal since March 2012), with both Diego Costa and Loic Remy missing the fixture through injury. Jose Mourinho’s men remain unbeaten and have a healthy five point lead at the top of the table, but a victory really felt like it might have ended the title race as a meaningful contest, even at this early stage.
A big reason for that was the fact that Manchester City were beaten the day before, 2-1 by West Ham at Upton Park. Sam Allardyce has done an impressive job with the Hammers this season – they currently sit fourth in the table, two points clear of Arsenal in fifth and just one behind the reigning champions, City – and they were once again propelled to victory by a goal from Diafra Sakho, who has scored in the last six Premier League matches. Manchester City were simply outplayed and find themselves slipping further behind Chelsea in their hopes of defending the league title, a quarter of the way through the campaign. Things got worse on Wednesday night, when they were beaten at home by an under strength Newcastle United team and eliminated from the League Cup, another competition in which they triumphed last season. To compound the defeat, David Silva was taken off injured and is now expected to miss the Manchester derby.
With the game being played at the Etihad, City will be considered huge favorites to beat United, but the visitors do come into the derby with an impressive array of attacking talent at their disposal, since Wayne Rooney returns from suspension to join Van Persie, Falcao, Juan Mata and Angel DiMaria as options for Van Gaal. However, the Red Devils still have a very shaky back line and Sergio Aguero could find himself with as much space, time and opportunity in front of goal as he enjoyed against Tottenham two weeks ago. Talking of which… Continue reading →
Fox used English Football style logos for the Wembley game
This week marks the midway point of the NFL season, so this is the time when we roughly know which teams are looking most likely to go deep in the playoffs, while one or two teams might put together a run in the second half that propels them into January with the sort of momentum that led the Ravens and Giants (twice) to recent Super bowl wins. Here’s a look at the main talking points from Week 8:
In the first game of 15 almost continuous NFL action last Sunday, Detroit came from 21-0 down at half time to beat the Falcons 22-21 at Wembley Stadium in London. The winning field goal as time expired was fortuitous for the Lions, who missed the original kick but were called for a delay of game and kicker Matt Prater made his second effort from five yards further away.
It was not so much the fact that Green Bay lost to the Saints that bothered me – New Orleans has a fantastic home record and they are hard to beat in the Super Dome – but the fact that during a first half drive, on a second and goal play the Packers put in defensive linesman Julius Peppers as a wide receiver, then Aaron Rodgers threw to him and the former Bears man could not catch a ball that hit his chest. Green Bay ended up getting just a field goal from that drive and did not score another touchdown until the contest was well beyond them.
Washington not only beat the Cowboys in Dallas, but also knocked Tony Romo out of the game for much of the second half with a back injury. Romo was able to come back to try to lead a drive at the end of regulation and in overtime, but Washington’s defense was fantastic all night and helped Colt McCoy enjoy a victory in his first start at quarterback in the NFL since 2011.
After their lopsided week 4 loss to the Chiefs, many were writing off the Patriots as a spent force; their 51 point tally against the Bears last week brought their total to 158 in the last four games, during which time they are 4-0. This weekend, it is Brady vs Manning XVI as the Broncos head to Foxborough to take on New England.
The Colts were considered to have one of the best defenses in the league, then gave up 53 points to the Steelers in Pittsburgh. Cincinnati overcame Baltimore and Cleveland defeated Oakland, so all four AFC North teams currently have a winning record.
In the battle of Missouri, the Chiefs beat the Rams in St. Louis, though the week continue so well for Kansas City, as the Royals lost in game 7 of the World Series to the Giants last night. Since I’m not going to write a separate MLB post, let me just say: Madison Bumgarner. Wow.
This year’s midterm elections are centered around the battle between the Republicans and the Democrats to have control of the Senate for the two final years of President Obama’s term. The GOP have been confident of their ability to gain control of the Senate this November, but that should not be taken as an indication that there is a significant shift to the right in the political thinking of voters, it is simply a matter of timing. The 33 seats that are being contested this year (plus 3 special elections, but I do not expect any of those – Hawaii (Dem.), South Carolina (Rep.) and Oklahoma (Rep.) to change hands) were last up for grabs in 2008, when President Obama won by a landslide and helped sway the vote in some states where Democrats have not traditionally done well. Also, at a time when Congress has a 14% approval rating, being an incumbent is not so much of an advantage anymore and 20 of the 33 Senate seats up for election have Democratic incumbents. This will all shift in 2016, when the seats that were last contested in 2010 – a year when the Tea Party movement was at its apex and helped the GOP perform outstandingly in a midterm election – will see 24 Republican Senators facing re-election contests, compared with just 10 Democrats. Since that will also be a Presidential election with no incumbent running for the White House, turnout is likely to be high, something that currently favors the Democrats – if you want proof of that, it is the GOP who are moving to disenfranchise people by limiting early voting and introducing barriers prevent some from being able to cast votes in several states, under the guise of preventing (virtually non-existent) voter fraud.
Here is what we know the 114th Congress will look likely come next January, before a single one of the 2014 Senate election votes is counted:
House of Representatives: Control will be maintained by the Republican party, regardless of how the actual vote goes. In 2012, Democrats won 201 seats to the GOP’s 234, despite the fact that they won a total of 1,417,278 more votes than the Republicans in Congressional ballots. That is thanks to the redistricting efforts from 2010, which led to huge gerrymandering – something that both parties are to blame for and is completely counter to the democratic process. If you do not think it’s a problem, I invite you to look at the following districts (out of many I could have chosen): North Carolina 12th; Illinois 4th; Pennsylvania 7th; and Texas 35th.
*Both current Independent Senators, Angus King (ME) and Bernie Sanders (VT) caucus with the Democrats, though as the pictured quote shows, Senator Sanders is open to changing that fact…but probably not.
2014 Senate Elections
Safe Democrats Seats
Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, Hawaii (Special Election) – Total = 11
Perhaps with the exception of Michigan, none of these have the remotest chance of switching to Republican, even with turnout being lower in a midterm contest. Senator Cory Booker won a special election in 2013 and the former Mayor of Newark – who one day soon could be on a Presidential ticket, perhaps as a VP candidate – should easily win a full term to represent the state of New Jersey.
Safe Republican Seats
Alabama, Idaho, Maine, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma (Special Election), South Carolina, South Carolina (Special Election), Tennessee, Texas, Wyoming – Total = 12
As you can see, both Oklahoma and South Carolina are having two Senate contests this November, as they replace Sen. Tom Coburn (OK – retiring) and Sen. Jim DeMint (SC, who left in 2013 to head up the Heritage Foundation) and the GOP will win all four of those seats. Alabama is going to be the least exciting contest in the nation, as Senator Jeff Sessions is running unopposed. In Mississippi, Senator Thad Cochran only narrowly avoided losing to even further-right candidate Chris McDaniels in the primary (McDaniels won 49.5% of the vote to Cochran’s 49% – but 50% was needed to avoid a run off) but a place that still has the Confederate flag as part of the design of the state’s flag, is not going to be won by a Democrat anytime soon.
Current Tally: Democrats + Independents 45; Republican 42Continue reading →
It seems like a long time ago now, but Tottenham’s first nine visits to the Etihad Stadium in all competitions brought them six wins, two draws and just one defeat. However, since 2011 Spurs have lost all five of their trips to Manchester City’s new(ish) home and last Saturday’s 4-1 capitulation was in fact a significant improvement on the 6-0 thrashing they suffered last season. There was plenty of action in the match: four penalties; two of which were correctly given (the second and third for City), two were just bad decisions (Lampard dived, Roberto Soldado was outside the box when he was fouled; two of them were converted (both by Sergio Aguero) and two missed (one by the Argentinian striker and one by the inept Soldado). A sending off; Federico Fazio for pulling back Aguero in the box and giving away the fourth penalty. Two fantastic goals by Aguero, one by Christian Eriksen which came about thanks to a brilliant challenge by Ryan Mason in the midfield. The one thing that the game did not have was any effort from the Tottenham players in the final quarter of an hour, something I think should have resulted in them being docked 15% of their wages, to see if they ever gave up on a match again.
Nevertheless, despite the poor performance it was still not the most lopsided scoreline of the weekend in the Premier League, as that honor went to Southampton for their 8-0 thrashing of Sunderland – a result that must have made the more than 300 mile return journey seem even further for supporters heading back to the North East. They will not have been cheered on that long trek had they been listening to BBC Radio 5 Live, as they would have heard their closest rivals, Newcastle, beat Leicester 1-0 to move within 1 point of the Black Cats, who sit just above the relegation zone. That win for the Magpies – their first of the season – was in a match that was delayed for an hour because a new big screen at St. James’ Park was swaying wildly in the wind and had to be secured before supporters were allowed into the stands, perhaps giving credence to members of the Toon Army who have felt like the sky has been falling on them during the reigns of Mike Ashley and Alan Pardew. Newcastle’s success means that Burnley are the only top flight club who have not yet registered a win this season, as they were beaten 3-1 at home by West Ham, who have lifted themselves up into fourth place in the table.
The most exciting game of the weekend – at least for from the 85th minute onwards – was at Loftus Road, as Queens Park Rangers fell to a 3-2 defeat to Liverpool in dramatic fashion. The Reds had opened the scoring through an own goal by Richard Dunne, who now has 10 in his career and more Premier League goals this season for the Merseyside club than Mario Balotelli; but the home side equalized with 3 minutes of the 90 remaining and looked to have earned themselves a valuable point. However, with the clock at 89:44, Philippe Coutinho put Brendan Rodgers’ mean ahead, only for Eduardo Vargas to pull Rangers level again. Four minutes of injury time had been signaled by the fourth official and 13 seconds into the fifth minute, a cross by Rahim Sterling was diverted into his own net by Steven Caulker, who now has more Premier League goals…etc and so forth. That result moved Liverpool up to fifth in the table, nine points behind the leaders Chelsea, who beat Crystal Palace 2-1 at Selhurst Park, with both teams being reduced to ten men before half-time. Elsewhere, Stoke made the most of a dubious penalty award to come from behind and beat Swansea 2-1, leaving the Welsh club without a victory since they opened the campaign by winning their first three fixtures; and Everton took three points at home for the first time in 2014/15, dispatching of Aston Villa 3-0 at Goodison Park.
The Continuing Rise of the 2-2
Last weekend, two games ended up with 2-2 score lines: Arsenal scored first, but then had to rely on an injury time strike to get a point against Hull (the fourth point of the eleven they have so far that has been earned with a goal in the 90th minute or later); and West Brom were unlucky not to get all three points against Manchester United, as they twice took the lead but ended up with a draw due to Daley Blind’s first goal for the Red Devils. Interesting games, sure, but what I was most interested in is the continued prevalence of the 2-2 scoreline in this season’s Premier League. Last month, I noted that there had been 8 such score lines in the opening 50 fixtures; that total has risen to 12 in the first 80 – a rate of once every 6.66 games (slightly down from where it was in late September, but still twice as fast as any other campaign in the last five years). Here are some stats (interesting only to me perhaps, but still) of the meteoric rise of the 2-2: Continue reading →
Peyton Manning surpassed Bret Favre for the record number of career touchdown passes on Sunday vs the 49ers
Before getting to my week 8 picks, here are some of the highlights from last weekend’s action, as well as a couple of notes about this Sunday’s games:
Peyton Manning. You know the rest.
St. Louis not only beat the defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks, they did so with some fantastic special teams plays. There was a 90 yard punt return for a touchdown where the Rams players acted as though the ball had gone one direction, fooling the Seattle defenders and giving Stedman Bailey an almost open path on the other side of the field; then in the closing minutes, St. Louis faked a punt on fourth down and avoided having to give the ball back to the Seahawks and give them a chance to win the game by getting into field goal range.
The Cowboys have more wins than anyone else in the NFL, as they sit at 6-1 following their defeat of divisional rivals, the Giants. I still have a feeling that Dallas is going to find a way to miss the playoffs and they are only a half game ahead of the Eagles (who had their bye in Week 7) in the NFC North.
Green Bay were 21-0 up on the Panthers by the end of the first quarter and have won four straight games to move to 5-2, but none of their five victories have come against teams who currently have a winning record (Carolina, NY Jets, Chicago, Minnesota and Miami).
Talking of the Lions, they managed to score two touchdowns in the final four minutes to overcome the Saints 24-23 in Detroit, leaving New Orleans winless in four attempts on the road.
Oakland are now the only winless team in the NFL, following their home loss to the Cardinals, while the Jaguars registered their first victory of the season as they beat the Browns 24-6 in northern Florida.
On Sunday, there is another game in London as the Falcons face the Lions at Wembley Stadium, with the game kicking off at 1:30pm London time, which is 9:30am Eastern and 6:30am Pacific time (the time difference is an hour less than usual for a week, since the United Kingdom puts their clocks back a week before the United States.) That means there are NFL games starting 11 hours apart on Sunday, with the Green Bay/New Orleans night matchup kicking off at 8:30pm ET/5:30PT – and also, the Atlanta/Detroit game goes head-to-head with the Premier League fixtures of Burnley vs Everton and Tottenham vs Newcastle (the latter being played just 12 miles from Wembley).
Both Washington and Buffalo had replacement quarterbacks come up big in Week 7: Colt McCoy replaced Kirk Cousins for the second half of Washington’s victory over the Titans, throwing a 70 yard touchdown to Pierre Garcon with his first pass; and Kyle Orton continued to start in place of EJ Manuel for the Bills and led the game winning touchdown pass to Sammy Watkins with just a second remaining on the clock.
The weekend that Premier League action restarts following an international break is one that is anticipated more than most, as it comes on the back of qualifying fixtures or friendlies between countries that simply do not mean as much as the club games. I love the major international tournaments, from the World Cup, to the European Championships or Copa America – basically anything that is not the Olympic Games, where football is an after-thought – but these two-year qualifying group stages are just irrelevant and boring. That has never been more true than now, as Euro 2016 will feature 24 countries – up from the 16 of recent iterations of the competition – and thus it will be very hard for the major nations to avoid qualifying for the finals. This past fortnight should have been exciting (except for the awful scenes that broke out in the match between Serbia and Albania): Poland beat the World Champions, Germany; Iceland defeated Netherlands; Slovakia won 2-1 against Spain; England overcame San Marino – so many unexpected successes, but still all the big guns will make it to France because nearly half of the continent will. With the hosts the only nation guaranteed a spot, that means that 53 countries are competing for 23 slots. Then consider this list of 20 nations:
None of these teams are going to qualify, so it basically means that 23 spots are being contested by 33 teams. Plus, I did not even put Scotland, Finland and Iceland in that grouping because I felt that it might be a little harsh on them, even though the latter two have never made it to a major tournament, while there are Scottish people who are legally allowed to drink who were not born the last time their home country made a European Championship or World Cup (Euro 96). When UEFA determined the seedings for the qualifying draw, Israel were ranked as the 23rd best team in Europe (thus expected to qualify for the 24 team tournament) despite the fact that they: a) are not in Europe; and b) last competed in an international tournament in 1968, when they came third in the Asian Cup, held in Iran. The whole system is a joke and it will get even worse when the tournament itself arrives and some crappy team gets three draws in the group stage and somehow makes it to the second round, because they’re one of the best third-place finishers, just like the 1990/1994 World Cups. Ridiculous.
Meanwhile, the qualifying for the African Cup of Nations was actually getting interesting, except for the fact that Morocco has pulled out of hosting the event due to ebola fears and now there may not actually be a tournament for which to qualify…still more interesting than the UEFA competition, however.
Premier League Recap and Weekend Preview
At least the Premier League is back this weekend and I get to watch Tottenham play…oh I actually cannot remember who they’re facing this weekend. Let me just check…Saturday early kick off, 12:45pm local time, that’s 7:45am Eastern and 4:45am Pacific, still there’s always coffee to help with the early start…and they’re playing…Manchester City away. Oh for fu…
Smithers, dismember the corpse and send his wife a corsage
Since my weekend will be ruined by Spurs before it even really starts, let’s have a quick look back at the action from two weeks ago – the highlights:
Chelsea maintained their unbeaten record with a 2-0 victory over Arsenal and also managed to get under Arsene Wenger’s skin once again as he reacted to a challenge on Alexis Sanchez by confronting and pushing Jose Mourinho, who clearly loved the whole incident.
Tottenham earned a win for Mauricio Pochettino against his old club, Southampton, holding on to win 1-0 thanks to a Christian Eriksen goal. Somehow that result meant that Spurs, who had not won since the second game of the season, have spent the last two weeks above the Gunners, who suffered their first defeat of the campaign in the aforementioned game with Chelsea.
Fans of 2-2 draws got to enjoy two more of them, as the matches between Leicester and Burnley, plus Swansea and Newcastle ended with that scoreline, bringing the season’s total to 10. In the latter match, Papiss Cissé once again scored both – as he had done against Hull – probably saving Alan Pardew’s job ahead of the international break.
Manchester United moved into the top 4 with a 2-1 home victory over Everton, with Angel DiMaria and Radamel Falcao both getting on the score sheet. This proves that Louis Van Gaal is indeed a genius and he can inspire his team to greatness…or, they were very lucky to get away with the three points, needing to rely on some stunning saves from David de Gea and Leighton Baines’ first ever penalty miss in the top flight.
Strength of Schedule Rankings
That one lucky victory is not the only bad sign for Manchester United supporters either. Since there were two weeks in between fixtures, I spent some time (okay I did it today at the last-minute, but still) looking at the strength of schedule each team has faced so far. I mapped out who each club has faced so far, giving their opponents a value from 1-20 based on their current league position – it looked something like this:
Position
Team
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
1
Chelsea
Burnley
Leicester
Everton
Swansea
Man City
Aston Villa
Arsenal
2
Man CIty
Newcastle
Liverpool
Stoke
Arsenal
Chelsea
Hull
Aston Villa
3
Southampton
Liverpool
West Brom
West Ham
Newcastle
Swansea
QPR
Tottenham
4
Man United
Swansea
Sunderland
Burnley
QPR
Leicester
West Ham
Everton
5
Swansea
Man United
Burnley
West Brom
Chelsea
Southampton
Sunderland
Newcastle
6
Tottenham
West Ham
QPR
Liverpool
Sunderland
West Brom
Arsenal
Southampton
7
West Ham
Tottenham
Crystal Palace
Southampton
Hull
Liverpool
Man United
QPR
8
Arsenal
Crystal Palace
Everton
Leicester
Man City
Aston Villa
Tottenham
Chelsea
9
Liverpool
Southampton
Man City
Tottenham
Aston Villa
West Ham
Everton
West Brom
10
Aston Villa
Stoke
Newcastle
Hull
Liverpool
Arsenal
Chelsea
Man City
11
Hull
QPR
Stoke
Aston Villa
West Ham
Newcastle
Man City
Crystal Palace
12
Leicester
Everton
Chelsea
Arsenal
Stoke
Man United
Crystal Palace
Burnley
13
Sunderland
West Brom
Man United
QPR
Tottenham
Burnley
Swansea
Stoke
14
West Brom
Sunderland
Southampton
Swansea
Everton
Tottenham
Burnley
Liverpool
15
Crystal Palace
Arsenal
West Ham
Newcastle
Burnley
Everton
Leicester
Hull
16
Stoke
Aston Villa
Hull
Man City
Leicester
QPR
Newcastle
Sunderland
17
Everton
Leicester
Arsenal
Chelsea
West Brom
Crystal Palace
Liverpool
Man United
18
Newcastle
Man City
Aston Villa
Crystal Palace
Southampton
Hull
Stoke
Swansea
19
Burnley
Chelsea
Swansea
Man United
Crystal Palace
Sunderland
West Brom
Leicester
20
QPR
Hull
Tottenham
Sunderland
Man United
Stoke
Southampton
West Ham
This is obviously not a perfect process, since it does not take into account home/away factor, nor does it necessarily reflect how good a team is – you would expect Arsenal to be a tougher opponent than Southampton, despite their current positions in the table. But what it does show is the form of the clubs that each team has faced, so when I then plugged in the values and worked out the average position of the opponent of each team, the rankings came out as follows (SOS = Strength of Schedule, AVP = Average Position of opponent, basically the higher up the list, the harder the fixtures have been for each side)
SOS
Club
AVP
1
Liverpool
8.43
2
QPR
8.57
3
Newcastle
8.86
4
Arsenal
9
=
Everton
9
6
Burnley
9.14
7
Aston Villa
9.29
8
West Ham
9.71
9
Swansea
10.29
=
West Brom
10.29
11
Chelsea
10.43
=
Man CIty
10.43
13
Tottenham
10.57
14
Southampton
11.29
15
Leicester
11.43
16
Sunderland
12
17
Stoke
12.29
18
Hull
12.57
19
Crystal Palace
13.14
20
Man United
13.29
So Manchester United have had, relatively speaking, the easiest fixtures thus far, yet they still sit precariously in fourth place, ahead of 5th and 6th placed Swansea and Tottenham on goal difference. As you would expect from looking at the league table, this also suggests that Liverpool, Arsenal and Everton are likely to move up the standings in the coming weeks as everything evens out (maybe not so with QPR, who have helped improve opponents’ positions by being rubbish and losing to them), while the likes of Hull, Crystal Palace and United have inaccurately lofty positions to this point. Or, I could just have had too much time to think about the Premier League with no games to watch, plus my desire to avoid this weekend’s likely massacre at the Etihad.
Weekend Action and Predictions
Following on from Manchester City’s demolition of Spurs on Saturday, Arsenal can reclaim their regular position of being above their North London rivals by beating Hull at home, two ever-presents in the Premier League meet at Goodison Park as Everton take on Aston Villa; there is an all-claret-and-blue affair between Burnley and West Ham; a London derby as Crystal Palace host Chelsea; Newcastle and Leicester will be the teams drawing 2-2 this week; and Sunderland have the longest trip of the weekend, as they head to the south coast to play Southampton. Last season, Tim Sherwood took over at Spurs following their home defeat to Liverpool and he could repeat the trick this campaign – should rumors have any basis in fact – at QPR, as Harry Redknapp’s position has come under increased scrutiny ahead of their meeting with the Reds on Sunday. Also that day, Stoke play Swansea at the Britannia, while the Monday Night matchup is between West Brom and the overrated Manchester United.
Mike Nugent’s sliced field goal attempt meant the Bengals and Panthers tied
Before getting to the predictions for this weekend, here is a quick look at some of the stories from Week 6 in the NFL:
The Bengals and Panthers played out the first tie of the 2014 NFL season. The final score of 37-37 was the highest number of points in a tied game since the introduction of sudden death overtime for regular season contests in 1974.
Denver’s win over the Jets in the stadium in which they lost the Super Bowl last February means they are 8-2 in their last 10 games, with the two defeats both coming against the Seahawks.
Green Bay should have been out of sight of Miami by half-time, but their victory ended up being really exciting as Aaron Rodgers faked a spike on the second-to-last play of the game, then threw a touchdown pass to Andrew Quarless with three seconds remaining.
Only two teams have been shutout so far in 2014: the New York Jets in San Diego in week 5; followed up by their fellow Jerseyites the Giants, who lost 27-0 in Philadelphia last Sunday night.
People are starting to believe that the Cowboys are for real, as they inflicted just the second home defeat on Russell Wilson’s Seahawks, winning 30-23 in Seattle. Their game this Sunday at home to the Giants looks like a foregone conclusion – so my guess is that it will be a huge letdown game for Dallas, with Tony Romo throwing multiple interceptions.
1 minutes and 3 seconds into the second quarter of their contest with the Buccaneers, the Ravens were 35-0 up with Joe Flacco having thrown five touchdown passes.
The Raiders and Jaguars lost their Week 6 games by a combined five points – with Oakland particularly impressive against the Chargers – but both teams remain winless at 0-5 and 0-6 respectively.
Rodgers found Jordy Nelson for a 66 yard touchdown pass against the Vikings
With just five weeks of the season in the books, there are no unbeaten teams left in the NFL and only two who are yet to record a victory – the Raiders and the Jaguars. Twenty-two of the league’s thirty-two teams have recorded either two or three victories so far, with only a couple of outliers to what looks like a very open year where any team who gets on a roll could make a deep run in the playoffs. Here’s a quick look around the league and how things went in Week 5;
NFC North 1. Packers/Lions 3-2; 3. Vikings/Bears 2-3
Green Bay took advantage of Minnesota’s quarterback problems to race to an easy Thursday night victory, with Aaron Rodgers able to sit the fourth quarter with the game beyond the Vikings’ reach.
It turned out to be a great weekend for the Packers as Chicago gave up an early lead to lose to the Panthers; while the Lions kicking woes continued and it cost them dearly against the Bills.
NFC East 1. Eagles/Cowboys 4-1; 3. Giants 3-2; 4. Washington 1-4
Philadelphia and Dallas both kept up their impressive starts by beating St. Louis and Houston respectively, though the Cowboys needed overtime to overcome the Texans. Still, the only team that has beaten either of them to this point is the 49ers.
After their 30-20 victory over the Falcons moved them to 3-2, there has been the suggestion that New York Giants could be surprisingly good this year. However, their three wins have come against Washington – who have only beaten the winless Jaguars – plus Atlanta and Houston, who had a combined record of 6-26 in 2013. I think the Giants are going to be 2014’s “good-bad team” – they will be able to beat other mediocre sides, but will lose against tougher opponents.
Outside of destroying an awful Jacksonville team, Washington had their best performance of the year on Monday night as they hung tough against the reigning Super Bowl champion Seahawks. In the second half, the Washington defense looked really pumped up and was holding Seattle, but the offense just could not put up enough points for them to draw level.
There might not be any good teams in the NFC South this year, even though the Panthers are disproving those (including me) who thought they would not be contenders to top the division again this season. Their two losses to the Steelers and Ravens were poor, though they did recover last weekend enough to come from behind and beat the Bears at home.
New Orleans required overtime to win at home over the Buccaneers and have yet to put in an impressive performance this year, as their offense as sputtered not exploded as we have come to expect in the Sean Payton/Drew Brees era. On a bye this week, the Saints will need to improve massively ahead of their next five fixtures which look very tricky: @Detroit; vs. Green Bay; @Carolina; vs. San Francisco; vs. Cincinnati.
Arizona lost for the first time this season last week, but it was in Denver against Peyton Manning and the Broncos’ potent offense, which destroyed the Cardinals’ previously strong defense. They are now down to their third string quarterback – Logan Thomas – so Arizona will need that defense to recover quickly in order to keep them in games over the next few weeks, until either Drew Stanton or Carson Palmer can return.
Seattle’s only loss so far was in San Diego against an impressive Chargers team and their victory against Washington on Monday showed they can still ground out wins when they are not firing on all cylinders.
San Francisco have managed to hang in there and are only a half game back after five weeks and they should improve in the second part of the season as they get more used to their new stadium and have players come back from suspensions. The 49ers also need Colin Kaepernick to get over a relatively poor start, though he did show signs of that in last weekend’s victory over the Chiefs, throwing for 201 yards and a touchdown, with no picks.
Despite only enjoying two separate five-minute spells when they were the better team in the North London Derby, Tottenham managed to leave the Emirates with a point last weekend following a 1-1 draw with Arsenal. For much of the first half, Spurs once again looked like a group of players who had never met each other before and were unable to put together any sort of passing move, but somehow they were able to make it to the break without conceding. Eleven minutes into the second half, Christian Eriksen caught Matthieu Flamini in possession inside the Arsenal half, gave the ball to Erik Lamela who threaded through a lovely pass that Nacer Chadli converted to give Tottenham a surprising lead. Any hopes of a smash-and-grab victory were dashed fifteen minutes before the end, when a mishit by Lamela – who, to be fair, worked hard defensively even though it is clearly not his forte – allowed Alexis Sanchez the opportunity to cross and Alex Oxlaide-Chamberlain lashed in the equalizer. Spurs held on for the final quarter of an hour and by one basic metric – an important one to us supporters – Mauricio Pochettino has already improved on last season. In 2013/14, eight matches against Arsenal, Chelsea and West Ham (our three biggest rivals) ended with no wins, one draw and seven defeats. So far this year, Tottenham have beaten the Hammers and got a point against the Gunners – there may be bigger aims in the Premier League, but these fixtures are the ones fans look to when the schedule comes out.
As for Arsenal, they cannot be too disappointed with a draw in the derby, as it maintains their unbeaten record in the league and they followed it up with a 4-1 thrashing of Galatasaray in the Champions League in midweek. It really looks as though the combination of Danny Welbeck (who grabbed a hat-trick in that victory over the Turkish side), Mesut Özil, Alexis Sanches and Oxlaide-Chamberlain is starting to click; the biggest weakness for the Gunners is the lack of a top-notch defensive midfielder in their squad. Flamini certainly does not appear to be good enough to dominate in that position against the better teams, while Wenger deployed Santi Cazorla there in the Champions League, but that would be very risky against other top-four sides. This weekend, Arsenal face their toughest challenge so far this season as they face the only other unbeaten side, league leaders Chelsea, who thrashed them 6-0 at Stamford Bridge in March. The Blues had a comfortable 3-0 win over Aston Villa last weekend to maintain their position atop the Premiership and with them having Cesc Fabregas in the lineup to haunt his old club, who were unwilling to break their wage structure to bring him back when he was leaving Barcelona in the summer, Sunday’s encounter is mouthwatering. I’m particularly excited to see Fabregas score and then not celebrate, leading to the commentators talk about how much respect it shows for his former club, ignoring the fact that he’s not exactly showing loyalty to the team that currently pays his wages. If Spurs ever played Real Madrid again (say, if they somehow ended up in the Europa League…) and Gareth Bale scored, I’d hope he did his stupid finger-heart celebration – I’m not going to be any less pissed off just because he stands there solemnly while being congratulated by his team-mate. You scored, enjoy it. Continue reading →
Ray Rice shows his support for women’s wellbeing on the field, if not in casino elevators
With approximately one quarter of the season gone, here’s what we have learned so far from the 2014 NFL season:
There does not seem to be any standout teams so far – the only two undefeated sides, Cincinnati and Arizona, have both only played three games and, although the Bengals have played better than anyone else overall thus far, neither has the aura of invincibility.
Green Bay are 2-2, but looked great on the road against Chicago and only have 5 games remaining away from Lambeau Field, so their early struggles could be behind them (speaks the ardent fan).
Teams that might be far better than I thought heading into the season: Dallas; Detroit; Kansas City; Cincinnati. Teams that might be much worse than I predicted: New England; New Orleans; Tennessee. Teams that look as bad as everyone thought they would be: Jacksonville; Oakland.
I’m not the first, nor will I be the last, to point out the hypocrisy that will be on show this weekend and for the rest of October as NFL players wear pink to show how much they care about women during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Perhaps if the Commissioner, Owners and players gave up some of their earnings to charities that help battered women, it might be more believable that they give a fuck.
Week 5 Picks
Last week, 7-6; Season, 34-27
Home teams in bold
Packers -9.5 over Vikings – Even though when I pick against Green Bay, they win and lose when i back them, Teddy Bridgewater is an injury doubt for this Thursday night NFC North matchup and I think even the Packers’ defense can contain Christian Ponder.
Falcons +3.5 over Giants – Okay, so the Giants won two games, I still do not think they’re that good.
Bills +7.5 over Lions – Buffalo won in Chicago, I think they will at least keep it close in Detroit.
Bears +2.5 over Panthers – Comeback game for Cutler who looked good for 29:59 against Green Bay, just missed a game-tying touchdown at the end of the first half and then went to pieces in the third quarter. Also, Chicago are 0-2 at home and 2-0 on the road so far this season.
Titans -2.5 over Browns – I still think Jake Locker is a good quarterback and is going to come good at some point this year.
Texans +4.5 over Cowboys – It would be vintage Dallas for them to have started so well this season, then disappoint their fans by losing a cross-state rivalry game.
Ravens +3.5 over Colts – Baltimore’s last road game was in Cleveland, the town the franchise left to setup in Maryland, replacing the Colts who had left two decades before. This does not mean anything for the game, but I’m picking the Ravens just because I think they’re playing better right now.
Rams +7.5 over Eagles – Starting to get a little worried that I’ve picked seven road teams in succession, but I think St. Louis’ defense will cause problems for Philadelphia, even if they do not have enough to win the game they should keep it within a touchdown.
Saints -10.5 over Buccaneers – Last chance, New Orleans. Lose this and I’m picking against you for the rest of the year.
Jaguars +6.5 over Steelers – Jacksonville spent the first half of last season being awful and losing by double digits to every opponent, then flipped it in the second half of the year and covered – then won – most of their games. I’m thinking a home fixture against Pittsburgh is exactly what they need to avoid an 0-5 start and they win this outright.
Broncos -7.5 over Cardinals – Really wanted to take Arizona and their awesome defense for this, but Denver has had two weeks to prepare (as have the Cardinals) and I think they will have too much for the leaders of the NFC West.
Chiefs +7.5 over 49ers – A battle between the two cities whose teams won the baseball wild card games – I’ll take Kansas City to keep this one close against San Francisco.
Chargers -7.5 over Jets – At least the Jets will not be losing in prime-time this week.
Bengals +2.5 over Patriots – Why would New England be favored?
Seahawks -7.5 over Washington – So the Kirk Cousins > RG3 debate is not necessarily over, but might just be irrelevant right now. Cousins looked awful against the Giants and against the best defense in the league, it is hard to see things getting better.
Political Footballs 