2020 NFL Week 13: The Kayfabe

 AFC:

1. Pittsburgh 11-1, see first tiebreaker below.
2. Kansas City 11-1, see first tiebreaker below.  Clinched playoff spot this week.
3. Buffalo 9-3
4. Tennessee 8-4, see second tiebreaker below. 
5. Cleveland 9-3
6. Miami 8-4, see third tiebreaker below.
7. Indianapolis 8-4, see second AND third tiebreakers below.
   

Pittsburgh-Kansas City:  Pittsburgh 8-0 vs. AFC, KC 9-1. 

Indianapolis-Tennessee:  The two teams have split their meetings in the last three weeks.  Tennessee 3-1 against the AFC South, Indianapolis 2-2.

Miami-Indianapolis:  Miami 5-3 vs. AFC, Indianapolis 4-4.

Indianapolis at KC, Miami at Buffalo, Cleveland at Tennessee.

NFC:

1. New Orleans 10-2.  Clinched playoff spot this week.
2. Green Bay 9-3
3. LA Rams 8-4, see first tiebreaker below
4. New York Giants 5-7, see second tiebreaker below 
5. Seattle 8-4, see first tiebreaker below.
6. Tampa Bay 7-5
7. Minnesota 6-6, see second tiebreaker below
   

LA Rams-Seattle:  Rams won the first meeting between the two, play again Week 16 

Giants-Football Team:  Giants have season sweep over Washington.

Minnesota-Arizona:  Common games, as explained in previous post this week.  Each team will have four this year, Minnesota is 2-1 with Detroit, Seattle, and Dallas, Arizona is 2-2.

Minnesota at Green Bay.  Tampa Bay at LA Rams, Seattle at NY Giants

2020 NFL Week 13 Scoring Report

• The last two byes were this week.  Barring any postponements, it's 16 games a week starting next week.
• 48.8 points per game this week -- more than the last couple, still down from earlier.
• Season average is now 49.495 -- 9503 points scored in 192 games.
• 64 games left in the season, and 2,460 points needed to break the record for most points in a season.  Average of about 38.5 or so.
• Home teams had a bad week:  5-10, and now it's only 96-95-1.  The NFL will probably be able to use this narrative that, once fans are allowed back in in any numbers...  "See what your cheering does for your teams?"
• Over was 5-8-1 for 94-93-5 for the year.
• Favorites were 6-9 against the spread this week, and 9-6 straight up.  Season:  79-107-3 against the number, 124-64-1 straight up.
• Team with more penalties was 9-5 this week, 77-89-1 for the year.
• 174 penalties for the week, 11.6 per game.  Season total for the 192 games:  2,215, 11.6 per game as well.
• 3 Cliffhangers this week for 36 for the season.
• 9 of the 15 games this week finished within a score for 104 for the year.
• 4 non-competitive games this week, including the scheduled Monday nighter and the Tuesday nighter.  57 for the year.
• 6 Last Chance Miss games this week for 62 for the year.
  

Day 270

• The Champions' League match between Paris Saint-Germain and Turkish side Istanbul Basakehir was stopped today after an assistant coach was sent off for Istanbul by the fourth official.  It is alleged, and with sufficient evidence that the teams walked off the pitch and the game was halted until tomorrow, that the fourth official used a racial slur in sending off the coach.  Good.  It is just as indefensible for an official to use that kind of language as it is for players or fans.    
• The Michigan-Ohio State game was cancelled today because of COVID positives in the Michigan program.
• Under Big Ten rules for this season, unless Ohio State can find another opponent in the conference this weekend, they will be unable to play for the conference championship (and quite possibly for the national title), because of insufficient games.
• Word out of Salt Lake City that the city has lost it's professional women's soccer team.  The team, and it's MLS counterpart, were owned by Dell Loy Hansen, who has been under investigation for racist comments.
• Dez Bryant is out of tonight's Tuesday Night Special -- he's tested positive for the virus.
• 
  

Example #2 of how it's getting way too chippy out there...

Not as severe as the first one in Texas, but this better get the league's attention:

This happens in the second quarter -- pardon the potato and you'll probably, if it stays up, have to go to YouTube anyway:

That's two ejections:  Miami's Xavien Howard and Cincinnati's Tyler Boyd were tossed -- and that came from New York.  That was a "non-football act ejection" initiated from the league offices in New York.

Boyd got a penalty during the play, and offsetting after it.  The penalty during the play took them out of meaningful field goal range.

But you knew there was going to be more...

Miami's Jakeem Grant gets illegally annihilated by Cincinnati's Michael Thomas.  Thomas is flagged but not ejected for the foul, and another fracas starts, and it appears the Miami coach wants to get in on it.

2020 NFL Week 13 Power Rankings, Part One

Yeah, a little bored and the like, and decided to go ahead and do at least a dry run of the Power Rankings this week.

Little has changed for my prospective Super Bowl matchup:  New Orleans has solidified it's #1 seed in the NFC after Seattle somehow lost...  TO THE FREAKING NEW YORK GIANTS!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

To a division which has only won six games outside itself?  And none of them to teams over .500 until today???

Well, we also have some news:

Four teams out, and two teams in!

Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints and Kansas City Chiefs.  Both have qualified for the playoffs today.

Conglaturations (and that is intentional) to the Jets (Raiders, how the fuck did it take a Cliffhanger to beat an 0-11 team???) Bengals, Chargers (Really, 46-0 to the Patriots???  That is only the tenth-largest shutout in the history of the league, and the biggest since 2012!!!), and Jaguars for being the first four teams out of the playoffs.

So at least a quick look here at both the current kayfabe and Power Rankings -- knowing that there are still three games left in the week:

AFC Kayfabe:

1. Pittsburgh 11-0 plays Monday  Kansas City takes the #1 if the Steelers lose (KC 9-1 in the AFC, Pittsburgh would be 8-1)
   
2. Kansas City 11-1, clinched playoff spot.
3. Buffalo 8-3 plays Monday
4. Tennessee 8-4, split with the Colts, 3-1 in the division vs. 2-2 for the Colts
5. Cleveland 9-3
6. Miami 8-4, 5-3 in the AFC
7. Indianapolis 8-4, 4-4 in the AFC

First out is Las Vegas at 7-5, then Baltimore at 6-5, the Ravens playing Tuesday.

NFC Kayfabe:

1. New Orleans 10-2, clinched playoff spot.
2. Green Bay 9-3
3. LA Rams 8-4 and a win over Seattle (play again Week 16)
4. NY Giants 5-7 (and they've WON four in a row to get there!!!! -- now the first three are Washington, Philly, and Cincinnati...)
5. Seattle at 8-4
6. Tampa at 7-5
7. Minnesota at 6-6, see below.
   

Right now, Minnesota and Arizona are 6-6, the Niners play tonight in Arizona against Buffalo at 5-6.

Arizona has the current tiebreaker anyway with San Francisco (they won the first meeting Week 1, they play again Week 16).  Both teams (Arizona and Minnesota) are 4-4 in the conference.    

But common games:  Detroit (MIN W and a second coming, ARI L), Seattle (MIN W, ARI split), Dallas (ARI W, MIN L).  So there will be four games common eventually.  Minnesota is 2-1 and a fourth coming.  Arizona is 2-2.

Now for the Power Rankings, how I see the NFL rigging things.  I'll keep this one quick and do a fuller one after Monday's and Tuesday's games:

AFC:

1. Kansas City.  All roads go through Kansas City unless Mahomes takes a massive injury.
2. Pittsburgh.  The league doesn't want them, but what other choice might be available at this rate in a month if KC goes down?
3. Cleveland:  Yeah, I'm going to go Cleveland for right now here, not that it really matters, end of the day.  That might even change Tuesday, for all I know.
4. Buffalo
5. (More like 4A) Miami.  Same thing I've said a couple weeks now, but don't look now...  Another win and we may have to put the Patriots somewhere on this list.
6. Tennessee
7. Indianapolis

NFC:

1. New Orleans.  Super Bowl XXXII Redux.  They'll do the job like the Raiders did.
2. LA Rams.  More because I'm not sold on anyone else in the conference.
3. Seattle.  Bad, BAD loss today.  That's one which will cost the 12th Man.
4. Tampa Bay, but their margin for error is rapidly approaching zero.
5. Green Bay.  Could move up on the basis of few other choices, but I don't see them beating the Rams, Bucs, or Saints in January. 

I am not yet prepared, because LOL NFC Least, to think of putting the 5-7 Giants on the list.  But four in a row can't be ignored.  They have Arizona, Cleveland, and Baltimore next.  Call me after those three games.

Days 268 and 269

• In a "GO COVID!" moment -- Rudy Giuliani now has it.  Look, I know a lot of people, from Debbie Gibson fans to conservatives, would openly cheer if I got it and died from it.  So I don't want to hear caterwauling about statements like this.    
• Interesting Week 13 in the NFL.  Again, score report delayed because of game on Tuesday.  And two games Monday.
  
• It appears as if we have hit a new normal for scoring -- instead of 51, 52, 53...  It's 47 and 48.  That said, we're still going toward records at frightening speed.
• Home teams, however, were only 4-8 today.
• We had a four-bagger in Minnesota today.  Minnesota and Jacksonville had a double-Cliffhanger and a double-Last Chance Miss.   Jacksonville tied the game at 24 with 1:08 to go in regulation (Cliffhanger #1).  Then Minnesota missed a 54 yard field-goal with 16 seconds left (LCM #1).  The danger of that was, one long run at least gave Jacksonville a 62 yard attempt at the gun.  Missed.  (LCM #2)  Minnesota then won with a field goal in overtime.  (CH #2)
• The Over, even with an average right now around 48.5, is 4-7-1 this week.
• The Gonzaga men's basketball program has now cancelled four contests due to COVID problems -- their next game would be December 19 vs. #3 Iowa...  Wait...  Number Three IOWA??????    
• Oh God, as if this Logan Paul boxing shit couldn't get worse.  Here comes Mayweather for an exhibition fight.  Fuck me running!!!   
• EDIT 9:40 PM PST:  But my anonymous friend comes up with a great idea:  Logan Paul is a dick, Mayweather is what he is...  Maybe they'll both hit the lottery punch and kill each other!  Didn't think of that angle.
  
• The 2020 Sports Illustrated SportsPEOPLE of the Year have been announced:  Five activist athletes share the honor, under the color of "The Activist Athlete".  LeBron James, Breanna Stewart, Patrick Mahomes, Naomi Osaka, and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif.
• James won for his continuing efforts against poverty of children of color, as well as his motivation to get young people to the polls to vote against Donald Trump.
• Stewart won for her continuing activism for the Black Lives Matter movement during the WNBA season.
• Mahomes won for his parlaying being The New Face of the NFL to many different activist movements.
• Osaka won for parlaying being the new phenom of women's tennis into activism for the BLM movement.
• Duvernay-Tardif won for trading his Super Bowl ring for a first-responder kit when the coronavirus crisis started.  He went on the front lines as a first responder.
• Time Magazine will reveal it's Person of the Year on Thursday.  Front runners appear to be The First Responders, Joe Biden, and Dr. Anthony Fauci.
• Am I reading this right??!??!?   Break Dancing is now an official Olympic sport, starting in Paris in 2024.  WOT???    
• Add Dick Allen to the list of the "Fuck 2020 For Those We Have Lost".  Close to getting in the Hall of Fame through the "Golden Years Committee" -- 15 years in MLB with five different teams.  Another victim of cancer. 
• And Chuck Yaeger -- the first pilot to break the sound barrier.  His wife announced his passing tonight at the age of 97.
• And the Steelers finally lost today - to the FOOTBALL TEAM...  I think it does change the kayfabe now that KC can be the #1 seed, but all this does is solidifies the current situation.     

 

Day 267

• That took only about 12 weeks:  Vontaze Burfict has been arrested on an assault charge in Nevada.  When they open this guy's brain when it's all said and done, he's either going to be exposed as one of the biggest thugs in NFL history, or it will be an indictment on football.    
• There is now word that at least four different strains of the coronavirus are circulating in the Ravens' organization.  End the damn season -- now.    
• And now the #1 team in college basketball, Gonzaga, has had it's game with #2 Baylor cancelled because of the virus.  Two members of Gonzaga's traveling party have the virus.