1. For the past decade, the NFL’s emphasis on parity has led to a point in which 70% of games are decided by two or three plays (many of them flukes, but we’ll save that discussion for another week, or every other week). Still, everyday, people who appear on mid-day basic cable shows furrow their brows in a vain attempt to understand how Team A With Good Win-Loss Record could lose to Team B With Worse Win-Loss Record. In light of that, an exercise in nostalgia:
Join me on a journey through time, to one year ago today: Dec. 5, 2020, the day before Week 13’s Sunday action. Perhaps you’ll remember Dec. 5, 2020. A little after sunset, Saturn was 4.0° to the upper left of 56 Sagittarii. Forty-eight hours earlier it had been Dec. 3. And that loved one? They were exactly one year younger than they are on Dec. 5, 2021. As for the NFL, the standings, in part, looked a like this:
• The Steelers were 11–0—in other words, two games better than any team in the NFL at this point in the current season.
• The Saints led the NFC at 9–2, followed by the 8–3 Seahawks, winners of two straight.
• The Bucs sat at 7–5 after losing three of four—each of those three losses nationally televised de-pantsings, in their own building, at the hands of the Saints, Rams and Chiefs.
• The Giants led the NFC East.
• The Dolphins, winners of six of seven (and on the verge of becoming winners of seven of eight), were 7–4 and one game behind the Bills in the AFC East.
Especially with the 17th regular-season game tacked on, how much wisdom is there in banking on a Cardinals-Ravens Super Bowl? Or proclaiming the Patriots infallible after six straight wins? Or writing off the Rams after three straight losses, or the Colts based on their 6–6 record?
There’s a lot of season to go, so maybe everyone just shut up for now. Anyway, here’s a bunch of bad football takes…
