Whipped Cream Difficulties

We hope all of our readers had a good Christmas, and that Santa or Krampus brought you everything you wanted. Sadly, Robot Santa Claus failed to bring us everything we wanted, as far too many of our enemies remain alive. Maybe in 2016. Or maybe we should submit our wish list to Morbo.

It looks like TMQ got what he wanted; a Panthers loss. Does this mean what we fear it means? After the jump, this week’s TMQ…

More missed point-after kicks this year, with the new rules.

But only 93 two-point conversions have been attempted, not hugely different from the 58 attempted in the 2014 regular season.

Huh? As one of the commenters points out, that’s a 60% increase.

With the final undefeated down in flames, surviving members of the 1972 Dolphins perfect team celebrate anew. Their heirs will be celebrating the annual moment when the final N.F.L. undefeated goes down.

No, they do not. TMQ’s own link in that item even says so. At least the NYT seems to have made Easterbrook ditch the auto-text, though.

Sweet: Arizona.

But what was Aaron Rodgers doing still in the game once the score was Arizona 38-8 and both Green Bay starting offensive tackles were out injured?

We’ll take “Keeping people like TMQ from saying the Packers had given up” for $600, Alex.

Sour: Miami.

This week in unrealistic movies: “Hunger Games”, “Star Wars”, and “Star Trek”. Spoilers within. And if you want to read a good economic analysis of the “Star Wars” universe, may we recommend “Overthinking It”: part 1. Part 2.

Stats.

The big-deal New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day bowls can be a thrill for players, plus a chance to finish in the top 10. That’s worth six more weeks of hard work. But by late November, large numbers of college players are worn down from months of contact, need a break, need to be in class, and know they will never brag to friends back home, “I played in the Marmot Boca Raton Bowl.”

Our heart bleeds for the poor college football players. Who, by the way, are probably on break anyway. (For example, the last day of classes at Texas A&M this year appears to have been December 16th, and classes don’t start again until January 19th.)

At least the CFR-length N.C.A.A. rules allow bowl participants to receive gifts in conjunction with the games. But heavens no, not pay — that would bring the stain of money into big-college football!

From what we recall in our reading of a book by some guy named Easterbrook, those gift bags the bowl participants get (depending on the size and prestige of the bowl) are actually pretty swell.

The SI cover curse. The Pro Bowl has too many quarterbacks and running backs. Duke sucks. Hell’s Sports Bar. (At least it’s not actual this week.)

This Pew Research Center poll found 72 percent of Americans consider holiday symbols of Christianity, such as crèche scenes, acceptable on public property in some circumstances. O.K., but then symbols of Islam must be acceptable, too — it can be one way or the other.

Yes, Gregg, you’re right: it can be one way or the other. People can think some religious symbols are okay, while others are not. TMQ might not agree – heck, we might not agree – but that’s certainly a position people could take. It is, at least, debatable whether public policy requires consistency. We prefer that it does, but that’s just our opinion.

At least the football gods aren’t chortling this week. We interpret the Boobie Dixon quote, not as empty boasting, but as stating “This game against the Jets is important for us, because they’re a major division rival, this is our shot at going .500, and we’ve already beaten them once.” Also: 7-8 is “awful”? What does that make San Diego?

Speaking of the Jets, why are they better? (Fitzpatrick, Marshall, and no Ryan.) Tight ends. Why are the Redskins better? No Bobby Three Sticks. And speaking of same…

T.M.Q. thinks Griffin will play well again once he is freed from Chainsaw Dan’s negative energy field…Griffin has potential to become the next Jim Plunkett…RG3 may do something special after slinking out of Washington.

Maybe. We hope so. But we won’t bet the family farm on it.

Authentic games. Need we say more? Why did Belichick kick? Plus: coin toss rules are overly complex. And TMQ goes on for another 522 after the “overly complex” point, lending credence to what he’s saying.

Chicken-(salad) kicking: Dallas. And that’s a wrap for this week. But it looks like TMQ just got a belated Christmas present, so we’ll be waiting impatiently for next week’s column.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 29th, 2015 at 8:08 pm and is filed under Christmas, NFL, Sports, TMQ watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.