Happy Guy Fawkes Day, everyone. Let’s just get into it, shall we?
This week’s TMQ, after the jump…
Will the Colts, even without Reggie Wayne, emerge as the best NFL team?
TMQ does have a valid point when he says:
The problem we have is that TMQ seems grandly impressed with the Colts 4th quarter comeback over the Texans, but he completely ignores a major factor in that comeback. We hate to sound like Texans apologists, but we believe that, for at least 31 out of 32 NFL teams, having your head coach collapse on the sidelines during the game is a major issue. The kind of major issue that tends to throw off your game and contribute to 4th quarter comebacks by your opposition.
(In the case of Tampa Bay, we suspect that having their head coach collapse on the sideline during a game would spur them on to a win.)
Chicago goes for it on fourth down and wins.
And now the Bears have the football gods on their side, which I for one would not want to mess with.
But the football gods are so busy chortling, we doubt it will make any difference.
Sweet: Cleveland. (Noted: the Browns currently have a better record than the Texans.) Tampa Bay. Sour: Minnesota. Mixed: Washington – San Diego. (Plus more of TMQ’s creepy obsession with cold cheerleaders.)
Yes, this is TMQ’s excuse to shoehorn in a total of 1,232 words (out of a total of 7,796, or almost 16% of his column) on how unrealistic “NCIS” and “NCIS: Los Angeles” are.
Look, we don’t have a problem with TMQ’s occasional tangent. We don’t even have that much of a problem with his attacks on television shows for being unrealistic; we personally think TMQ lacks understanding of dramatic conventions and the business of television, but that’s just our opinion. But when TMQ spends that much space on attacking a television show in what is, ostensibly, a football column, we think an editor needs to step up and say, “No.” No, Gregg, you can have 250 words on the NCIS franchise, not 1,200.
This somehow seems especially grating when you consider that TMQ has had nothing to say about either Grambling State or the Incognito/Martin situation in Miami. We’re not the kind of jerks that would demand TMQ write about the things we think are important; but both of these stories concern topics TMQ has written about extensively in the past, so it seems a little surprising he hasn’t addressed them.
(Lord knows, we’re not defenders of “NCIS” or “NCIS:LA”. We haven’t seen a single episode of the latter. As for the former, the very few episodes we have watched stand out in our mind for disappointing writing.)
Yeah.
- We’ve never heard anyone suggest that a good reason to oppose “open carry” is possible confusion over who is and is not law enforcement. Indeed, can anyone give an example of that kind of confusion in an open carry state?
- That, and TMQ’s general ignorance about guns aside, he does make a good point about using holsters. One that’s also been made by other smart people, too.
Actually, when the State of Texas finally gets around to drawing our winning lottery numbers, a drone of our own is high on the shopping list. We’re not committing to the Fury 1500; we do want to look at some of the options from other manufacturers. But we’ll certainly consider the fine products of Lockheed Martin, especially given their emphasis on the customer experience.
Houston coaches could not have prepared for Gary Kubiak suffering stroke-like symptoms as the first half concluded, which put the sideline into turmoil.
Again, we don’t want to sound like Houston apologists, but we really do think TMQ is way understating the impact of Kubiak’s collapse on the team and the game. The sentence quoted above is his only mention in a 528 word segment about “How Indianapolis Came Back”.
This must be the week for TMQ’s 1% basketball coverage.
Really? We admit we’re not basketball fans, but the claim that “many teams enter the season knowing they are certain to stink” sets off alarm bells for us.
… the Chiefs haven’t faced a starting quarterback since September. Opposition quarterbacks in Kansas City’s past five games have been second string, second string, second string, third string and fourth string.
“Let’s Pile on Chip Kelly While We Still Can”. What, is TMQ giving Schiano a week off?
Indeed there are, at least 118 with ununoctium the latest added.
Highly technical point: ununoctium is actually the temporary name for element 118. Copernicium (element 112) is the highest numbered element that has a permanent name; all the elements between 113 and 118 still have temporary names assigned by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. As we said, a highly technical point, but we don’t want people thinking “ununoctium” is an actual element name.
…a 30-foot-high beach ball came loose from an advertising display and started bouncing through traffic.
History shows again and again how nature points up the folly of men.
Bobby Three Sticks:
(cough) (cough) (cough) (cough)
Sorry. Something went down the wrong way. Where were we?
But he did’t have “a banged-up knee” a year ago. Doesn’t that make him a different person? In a philosophical sense, are any of us really the same person we were a year ago?
Mmmmmm. Chocolate wall. Peak wine. Why do college football coaches have security guards? Actually, we can sort of see good reasons to provide some level of security for coaches. But:
The University of Alabama has a police department. We would be willing to bet that pretty much every Top 25 university has a separate university police department. Ohio State’s police department even has an armored vehicle. Heck, our old school had a separate police department, and it didn’t even have a football team. Why aren’t the university police departments providing whatever security coaches feel like they need?
(Granted, in Saban’s case, the AUPD wouldn’t be providing security for away games. But as far as we know, the Alabama Department of Public Safety lacks enforcement authority outside the state, so they’re probably not much more useful.)
(Also: if I’m running the Alabama DPS, I’m having second thoughts about my guys guarding Saban on the road. All it takes is one of my troopers busting a cap on some deranged LSU fan out of state; even if it is a righteous shoot, it will still be a mess.)
J-E-S-T, Jets. TMQ finally got his wish for a football game to end on a safety. (And “Genetically Engineered Surimi” is still nonsense.) Creep. TMQ thinks the Patriots generated bad karma by leaving their starters in the game. But they were playing the Steelers, who have their own bad karma. Do two bad karma fields cancel each other out? Or do they reinforce?
The 500, 600, 700, and 900 Clubs. Leslie Frazier is done. (Who goes first: Frazier or Schiano?)
“Adventures in Officiating“: Minnesota, Jets, Buffalo, New England, Baltimore, Indianapolis.
John Carroll 63, Wilmington 3. One guy beat an entire city?
Tampa Bay?
“Single Worst Play of the Season – So Far“: Buffalo throwing the ball instead of running on third-and-goal on the Kansas City 1. Yeah, this play did end in an interception and a return for a touchdown, but we’re not convinced calling a run pass in this situation was “the worst play of the season – so far”.
That’s a wrap, folks. Anyone have a penny for the old Guy? (And be careful with the fireworks.)