Rangers Can Salvage the Season With a Clutch Loss to Arizona Tonight

Wilbanks, ,

In the month that has passed since getting ritually massacred by Slam Diego and their four straight grand slams, the Rangers season has gone from doomed to straight up catastrophic.

They ended that Padres series at 10-14 and proceeded to trash up the joint over the ensuing weeks for a 3-13 record. Somehow, that losing streak was so great that the Rangers finished Labor Day within the grasp of the greatest beacon of hope this franchise has ever seen.

Standing at 13-27, the Rangers were a half game ahead (behind?) the Pittsburgh Pirates for dead last in the MLB and the rights to draft this guy…

Holy shit. Fuck winning. We’re still rebuilding anyway. We can make a run for this blindian sensation and get one of the most badass prospects I’ve ever seen!

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Not so fast, says Lance Lynn as he immediately spearheads a series win vs Angels and a split with the freakin 1st place Athletics.

What the hell, man? We had nothing to gain by winning and everything to lose! Why, whhyyyy did we have to start winning all of a sudden?

The worst part – we could have easily traded Lynn for a haul at the deadline. If it weren’t for Shane Bieber, he’d be in the drivers seat of a Cy Young race. He’s an ASSET and then some for prospective playoff teams.

1.93 ERA and .92 WHIP going into the deadline. A 4-1 record with our garbage ass offense. This is a bonified ace starting pitcher for chrissakes! What is he doing on our team still??

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Jon Daniels said the offers weren’t good enough, but that’s hard to believe and his seat has grown hotter than it’s ever been. This is a tough pill to swallow.

Anybody’s who’s read my baseblogs before will know that I’m a huge Jon Daniels apologist and that isn’t changing any time soon. I find it impossible to believe he’s as stupid as he’s seemed to look this year.

A more likely theory is that our sketchy-as-hell ownership group found themselves in a serious bind by building a new stadium (albeit after scamming the hell out of Arlington) and opening it in a fan-less pandemic season. On top of oil markets crashing all year, the owners are kind of fucked and need to sell tickets next year. They wouldn’t sign off on a tear-down.

It’s a much more sound theory than the idea that our god GM, who’s been among the smartest men in baseball for 15 years, would be so mind-numbingly over his head at the trade deadline.

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Fortunately, there’s still hope for 2020. We won’t be able to finish last place, but it looked like that was out of reach from the start because the Pirates are just so god damn awful that out-losing them was impossible. But we do have a shot at second to last…

And there’s another pitcher from Vandy that’s apparently almost as good as Kumar – Jack Leiter. Oh shit, that’s awesome!

We entered a two game series at Arizona last night, and the Rangers struck first with a clutch as hell blowout loss. D-bags over Rangers in a 7-0 drubbing. Love it.

If we lose tonight, we have a 3.5 game cushion over those fuckers with just four games vs houston remaining. The battle for Leiter would be all but won.

Come on Rangers – LOSE!!

We’re starting some shitty 27 year old rookie named Wes Benjamin.

D-bags -151. Lock it up.

Rangers Can Salvage the Season With a Clutch Loss to Arizona Tonight

Last Week of the Marlins Pennant Race – Magic Number 6

Wilbanks,

There are seven games left in the Marlins regular season and it’s time to clinch a playoff spot.

We went 4-4 against the Red Sox and Nats over the past week, which is somewhat weak for two bad teams but it doesn’t matter because we beat the piss out of philly in the much more important series beforehand.

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On deck to end the season is four games at Braves and then three games at Yankees. Best case scenario: sweep the Braves and leapfrog them for 1st place in the East.

If that doesn’t happen, we have to either (1) finish ahead of the phillies or (2) finish ahead TWO teams of either Cards, Reds, Brewers, or Giants.

The magic number with the phillies is SIX. They have four games at Nats followed by three games at Rays. If the Rays have the AL East locked up by then and rest their starters, then the Yankees would be doing the same thing in our last series. Advantage Marlins for sure.

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The computers give us about an 80% chance of clinching, but I think it’s more like 100%. We’ve got a nice week of relatively low stress but still important games coming up. As long as there’s not a total collapse, the Marlins are playing October baseball.

And once that happens, hoo boy watch out. Not only are the Fish undefeated in playoff series all time, but they’ve got a trio of aces – Sixto Sanchez, Pablo Lopez, and Sandy Alcantara – that could put the fear of god into any NL team outside of SoCal.

Not bad for year #3 of the Jeter rebuild. Let’s finish this season off and start making some RE2PECT The Process noise come October.

Last Week of the Marlins Pennant Race – Magic Number 6

NFL Lock of the Week: Washington +7 at Arizona

Wilbanks, ,

For most of the first half last week vs philly, the Washington Football Team looked as terrible as the redskins were back in the day. Then they flipped a switch and let loose some pure domination.

27 unanswered points (could’ve been 34 if they didn’t kneel out a garbage time goal-to-go series). Eight sacks. EIGHT!

https://twitter.com/TaeNToddPodcast/status/1305541217942413312?s=20

That defensive front I was talking about on season’s eve looks more than legit. Unfortunately, the offensive front looks bad. According to PFF grades, it’s like all time reeaallyy baaddd, especially in pass blocking. 

Haskins is gonna need to exercise this type of leadership on their offensive counterparts…

Until then, he can use his legs and the west coast scheme that worked very well last Sunday.

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Washington opened at +6.5 and is now at the key number of +7 vs Arizona this afternoon. This is my lock of the week.

Obviously, I’ve been a fan of Washington since preseason and expect their good play to continue. Arizona, on the other hand, seems to be the darling sleeper team amongst NFL fans and I disagree with that.

The first reason is coaching. As a native North Texan, I’ve seen enough Texas Tech to know how this road with Kliff Kingsbury goes. Coach Bro comes out all handsome and cocky looking, puts up a ton of points with an exciting young quarterback, and then loses a ton.

Kliff is the definition of ‘failing upward’. Every Tech fan and follower knew he needed to be fired and take a step down as a coordinator somewhere else in the college ranks. Instead, an NFL franchise hires him as head coach because…

Unbelievable. Not only the hiring itself, but also how oblivious NFL fans are to how bad it was is so unbelievable. 35-40 record at Texas Tech, including a 12-13 run over two full years with PATRICK MAHOMES as a starter.

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Now Kliff has a different QB, another young fan darling in Kyler Murray. I get the infatuation, kind of… He’s presumably a faster Russell Wilson, but he’s also a tinier Russ who will probably get hurt.

Kyler is another Texas product and anyone who’s been following him from the beginning knows that, with the exception of one year at A&M, he’s found himself in a golden situation every step of the way.

He never lost a game in high school, but he played on a team with 3rd stringers that were better than most starters in the state. There’s a reason Allen High School spent $60M on their stadium plus another untold amount in illegal recruiting of players like Kyler.

Kyler did win a Heisman in college after a sick year under Lincoln Riley, but who hasn’t done that these days?

This may be fairly subjective in analysis, but it’s one I’m pretty confident in it. I have a relative who played (started) on one of Kyler’s previous teams. This relative never says anything bad about anyone, ever. But he doesn’t have anything nice to say about Kyler. That’s enough for me.

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Washington +7 = LOCK

Give me the +275 money line too

NFL Lock of the Week: Washington +7 at Arizona

Is Cam a Beast Again or Does the Dolphins Run D Just Suck?

Wilbanks, , ,

New England rushed a whopping 62% on first down last week. That ranks them first in the league after week 1, with the next closest team being LA Rams at 48%. The Pats had 42 total rushing attempts and just 19 pass attempts (69% running, nice).

This flies in the face of most anal ytic pundits. They claim that failed runs stall drives more often than failed passes, especially when those failed runs come on first down and the defense gets to pin their ears back.

But Belichick puts zero stock in their studies. He doesn’t care, and it usually works out for him. He knows of the two key variables that throws wrenches into the nerd-speak.

One, obviously, is the fact that running well makes it easier to hold leads. Take time off the clock, rest the defense, etc.

The other is the X factor you get when activating a QB as a run threat. Forcing the LBs to key on an extra player and having RB lead blockers will flip the script in trench battles.

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When Cam is healthy, he’s one of those rare QBs that can throw (run?) the analytics playbook off the table. He had 15 rushes for 75 yards compared to 15 total pass completions. He also had double the amount of rushing yards that most anyone else in the game had (Miles Gaskin had the next most with 9/40 for Miami). He looked vintage on Sunday.

Well, kind of vintage. He wasn’t quite as explosive as his 2015 days, and he might have just benefited from the Dolphins horrid rush defense. The Miami Herald put out a fairly hilarious article on this after the game.

The Fins invested hundreds of millions into defense during free agency, but most of that was allocated to secondary and pass rushers. They had 11 draft picks, but only used one on a run defender – Bama DT Raekwon Davis in the 2nd round.

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So was this an opponent-based scheme by Belichick, or is this how the Pats are gonna go all season? We’ll have to wait and see. The upside with Belichick’s brain and Cam’s legs seems limitless, but there is a huge downside – health.

Norv Turner tried to turn the Panthers scheme into more short-passing based and less QB running to protect Cam. But Cam didn’t want to do that, so they stayed the course. The result? Cam got killed.

By the end of Cam’s tenure in Charlotte, he had to be pulled for hail marys, All or Nothing doc footage showed him looking completely fucked, and he was shot putting throws left and right (and up and down) all over the field…

Shoulder = SHOT

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But he’s had some rest now and is 100% fresh. Maybe it holds up for a whole season. If he was on any other team, I might even be cheering for that to happen.

Is Cam a Beast Again or Does the Dolphins Run D Just Suck?

Tulane and the U Can Carry Today’s College Slate Just Fine

Wilbanks, ,

Everyone is whining about the college football slate today, saying it’s boring and there’s only one ranked game etc. First of all, see above. Second of all, that ranked game involves The U. So as far as I’m concerned, today is going to be awesome.

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Tulane -6.5 vs Navy

Two words – triple option. Navy’s got the classic scheme; Tulane’s got the spread. Old school vs new school in football tactics that you’ll never see in the NFL.

Tulane -6.5 is the obvious play here. We’re on the up-and-up and should be in semi contention for the AAC this year. The new QB is a redshirt senior transfer from Southern Miss, Keon Howard. He’s pretty sick.

They struggled for a bit last week at South Alabama, but were lights out the entire 4th quarter in a comeback. It was probably just a case of rust and covid-practice-anxiety, as South Alabama had already played their first game a week earlier.

Speaking of covid-practice-anxiety, Navy had the worst training camp in all of NCAA. They didn’t have any spring or summer workouts, and the practices they managed to have were entirely non-contact.

Last Monday on ESPN, they got murdered 55-3 by the Mormons at BYU. Oof. They’ll get better by end of season, but it’s gonna take some time.

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#17 Miami +1.5 at #18 Louisville

This will be on during the Stanley Cup Finals so it will be intermission watch only for me, but I’m still pretty stoked. It is a quasi play-in game for the ACC championship vs Clemson.

The U has a stout defense as normal under Manny Diaz, but now they have themselves a King at QB. D’eriq King. I wrote about him last year when he was at Houston and saw his last game for the Cougars at Tulane. He’s fucking good.

One of the best Texas high school quarterbacks ever and has done nothing but make plays in the college ranks. Miami is the perfect home for him. For a good read on him, check out ESPN’s compelling feature from preseason.

All of his plays last week vs UAB are here. A little bit of jitters to work out, but very good overall.

Louisville on the other hand I don’t know much about. If they still had Bobby Petrino, I would be scared. But they don’t, so I’m not.

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North Texas +14.5 vs SMU

I wrote about these two Dallas area teams in my week 1 betting picks. I was hyped for both of them going into the season, but SMU eking out a win vs Texas State was unimpressive to say the least. UNT looked good though. Take them with the two touchdowns in points at home.

Tulane and the U Can Carry Today’s College Slate Just Fine

Flashback Friday: Falcons Have Never Recovered From Drew Pearson and the ‘Duel in Dixie’

Wilbanks

Next up for America’s Team this week is the Falcons, but my time on this Earth hasn’t seen any notable games between us.

There was the Chaz Green game a couple years ago when Jason Garrett had no clue what to do without Tyron Smith, but who cares about that.

There was also a pretty close SNF game back in 2012, but it’s not really that interesting. Just your standard run-of-the-mill Romo ‘almost beating but not actually beating a top team’ game.

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Instead, we’re gonna flash back to an era before my time – the 1980 Divisional Round ‘Duel in Dixie’ that my elders rave about to this day.

The reason we’re highlighting this game? Because it was one of the best performances of this man.

Some fucking bullshit. Iconic receiver for the most iconic franchise in the league. You can’t write the history of the NFL without him. FIRST TEAM ALL DECADE!

Ridiculous. Anybody involved in letting this atrocity happen should hang themselves. Fuck the east coast media.

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Anyway, this ‘Duel in Dixie’ must’ve been epic to live through. Danny White led a 14 point 4th quarter comeback to win and advance us to the conference championship.

I know it’s always been easy to mount playoff comebacks against the Falcons, but this one is still damn impressive. Super jealous of my elders who lived in the 80s and enjoyed a full decade with a quarterback who kept his cool in big games.

I’ve seen enough of this one to easily conclude that Danny White is at worst the 3rd best quarterback in Cowboys history.

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Drew Pearson on the other hand – top tier icon. Holy cow he was a beast, especially in clutch time. These may not be his famous Hail Marys, but they were still some pretty damn sweet (and historic) touchdowns. Both came in the final five minutes…

Touchdown #1

Those hands man! Incredible catch.

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Touchdown #2:

What. A. Body. That safety knocked himself out and Pearson didn’t even budge. 

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It’s astonishing that he isn’t in the Hall of Fame. Fortunately, the senior committee has grown tired of the media’s garbage and stepped up to save America’s icon.

Drew Pearson is the only player on the senior nominee list this year and is basically guaranteed a hall of fame bust in 2021. Thank god.

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PS – Too Tall Instincts

The wildest play of this game occurred in the 3-and-out defensive stand that we needed in between those two touchdowns. On 3rd and 3, Ed ‘Too Tall’ Jones jumps offside and takes himself way out of position. 

But it actually put him in perfect position to blow up the lead blocker and get us the ball back. Lucky as hell, but awesome.

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PPS – Danny White Punts

This is Danny White punting. Pretty cool. I wonder if he was skilled enough to handle other special teams duties, like catching and holding a routine field goal to not fuck up the entire season. The world may never know.

Go Cowboys!

Flashback Friday: Falcons Have Never Recovered From Drew Pearson and the ‘Duel in Dixie’

Flashback Friday: Comparing the Dream Crushing Hit Sticks of Sean Taylor and Jalen Ramsey

Wilbanks

As much as I hate getting screwed over by a pussy ass flop, I have to admit that Jalen Ramsey is an all time GREAT. He is worth every cent of that $100M deal and it showed on Sunday night.

He not only has a physical edge over every single receiver in the league, but he’s also leagues above the rest in the mental game. Listen to his immediate reaction after presumably getting beat on that sensational Dak to Gallup pass…

“Thank you. Thank you. Yeeeaaaahhh!!” Immediately after the play ends. 100% swagger. We haven’t seen a CB this brash since the days of his fellow FSU alum Neon Deion Sanders.

Unlike PrimeTime though, Jalen Ramsey has a hit stick…

Jesus what an incredible play. Goooood lord.

It’s reminiscent of a play from 15 years ago that haunts my dreams to this day. The culprit? The late, great Sean Taylor. So here is an impromptu Flashback Friday post to commemorate.

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Background:

Monday Night Football of Week 2 in 2005. The Triplets were inducted to the Ring of Honor at halftime. It was looking to be a great night for Cowboy nation, with our boys holding down a 13-0 lead that was much more dominant than the scoreline indicated.

Four minute drill for the skins. 35 year old Mark Brunell scrambles for 25 yards, and then throws 40 yard TD bomb to Santana Moss. 13-7.

Skins get a stop, and then first play after getting the ball back it’s another Brunell to Moss TD bomb, this time for 70 yards. 13-14. Oh fuucckk.

But we get a kick return past midfield and should have an easy field goal drive to bail ourselves out and save Triplet night.

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The Play:

Unfortunately, Sean Taylor was having none of that. (3 minute mark of the vid)

We lost. It cost us the playoffs (and we were good that year). It also revived Joe Gibbs’s career on the spot and the skins got good again until, you know, RIP in peace.

Whole video recapping the ending is worth a 5min watch if you hate the Cowboys. You’re welcome.

Flashback Friday: Comparing the Dream Crushing Hit Sticks of Sean Taylor and Jalen Ramsey

Tottenham Scrape by Some Dirty Bulgars in Europa League

Wilbanks,

Spursdays are back this year with Tottenham in the Europa league. Yesterday, they played a Bulgarian team (Lokomotiv Plovdiv) that they have some mutual history with in the form of Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov.

This dude played for Tottenham before my time (2006), but fans on the internet adore him. I looked up some highlights and I have to concur.

Tottenham fans weren’t the only ones to adore him. Five years before arriving there, Lokomotiv Plovdiv’s owner had his heart set on signing the kid. It was dangerous for Berbatov though, because Plovdiv’s owner was part of the Bulgarian mob and had him kidnapped.

From thesefootballtimes.co… 

in a remarkable story that would not look out of place in a Hollywood thriller, the youngster was kidnapped by the Bulgarian mafia. The man behind the kidnapping was Georgi Iliev, the owner of Bulgarian side Lokomotiv Plovdiv. His motivation was simple – intimidate the youngster, whose talents were quite apparent, into joining his club. Though Berbatov’s father resolved the situation, the younger felt he had been, even at this early stage, banished from Bulgaria.

What the hell, man?

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That owner is dead now, but it appears the team is still dirty as fuck. They took a 1-0 lead on us in the 70th minute (which would have been scary as hell if fans were allowed in), but blew it away ten minutes later with two red cards at the same time.

Or shall I say, spat it away?

The first was an intentional handball for the tying PK. The second occurred right before the PK took place, when one of their players spit in the face of crybaby Tanguy Ndombele.

Spitting in the face? What the fuck? That’s messed up enough in normal times, but in covid times? Damn that’s dark.

Spurs have had enough trouble with covid as it is, apparently not having any real preseason practices because all our players caught the rona. And now these Bulgars are trying to make the outbreak worse. Fuck that.

At least we won though. Crybaby Tanguy did something good for once and scored the winner. Sweet

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Overall a brutal start to the season for Spurs. No preseason, 0-1 loss to Everton, and now barely scraping by against these Bulgars. Not a good look and not living up to any hype from the the All or Nothing doc.

Am I worried though? Hahaha. Fuck no. I feel like a Cavs fan in 2014. This franchise is saved!

Tottenham Scrape by Some Dirty Bulgars in Europa League

Game 5: Stars Kill Off Knights for a Gentleman’s Sweep. Too! Easy!!

Wilbanks, ,

This is how easy it was to beat the trash ass Vegass Golden Knights in five.

What a trash hockey team they have out in that lame ass, fake ass city in the desert. Can’t believe how easy it was to beat such a stupid, arrogant bunch of overrated pricks.

It’s like they forgot that the reason their roster exists is because nobody else wanted to keep them. And that their division was easy as hell and they ran through a tissue paper schedule all season long.

Why were they so damn cocky? Whatever. Back to their families they go.

https://twitter.com/JesMolina/status/1306016763524640768?s=20

Gaawwww!

“Daddy, did you win?”

“No. But I’m home.”

Hahahaha. The Stars have other plans…

And also that stupid anthem chant is gone from the bubble for good. It’s a win for everyone.

The Lightning took an extra game and some OTs to finish off the Islanders, so we start the Cup on Saturday with four days of rest. HUGE for Dobby. Huge for all the other players too after going through 21 games over 42 days.

Sick.

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So how did game 5 go down?

The Knights fought as nobly as they could to stay alive, but we started dominating the second the 3rd period started. Literally. Almost tied it ten seconds in and then they got this lucky-as-fuck break to make it 2-0.

Didn’t matter. Our captain had other plans…

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And then our new wonder kid stepped up to the plate and did what he was born to do – score big time playoff goals…

Joel Fuckin Kiviranta. The best JFK to ever come through Dallas. I LOVE this fucking Fin!

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It went to OT, Vegass committed a stupid delay of game penalty early on because they’re not cut out for this shit. And then our badass Russian rookie stepped up to do his thing…

My god I love my Russkis so much. Top three plays of the series are…

(1) any save by Dobby. (2) Radulov’s OT banger to win game 3. (3) Sweet sweet Denis’s OT slapper to win us the Campbell trophy.

I LOVE MY RUSSKIS!!

Four more wins away from doing this again…

Let’s. Fucking. Go.

Game 5: Stars Kill Off Knights for a Gentleman’s Sweep. Too! Easy!!

Marlins Murder the Phillies 5-2 in Their Seven Game Mega Series

Wilbanks, , 1 Comment

Last weekend, the Marlins started the mega 7 game series against the phillies to essentially decide a playoff spot, and it was a beatdown of 5 games to 2.

Hahahaha, what a fucking joke the phillies are. So nice to be cheering for another team with a philly division rival. What a trash organization and trash city.

Bryce Harper’s annual salary – $26M. Marlins total payroll – $31M. God what a sick rebuild year this has become. It’s not just a rebuild year; it’s a PLAYOFF rebuild year.

Let’s see how these wins came down…

Thu 9/10: 7-6

Marlins looked tired until the phillies trash bullpen got in the game and we got to work. Starling Marte, the best trade deadline get in all of MLB, hit a three run double to tie the game.

In the bottom of the 9th, we stole third against the shitty catcher that we traded to philly last year (JT Realmuto). That runner was batted in by Jorge Alfaro, the supposedly failed catcher prospect that we got back from philly to replace Realmuto.

Oh the sweet irony. It was the third straight game that Alfaro batted in 2 RBIs.

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Fri 9/11: 5-3

This was the second game of a doubleheader and it was a bullpen game, which made things easy because philly’s bullpen sucks so much.

Lewis Brinson, the much hyped prospect from the Yelich trade and presumed bust, got a homer to start things off. He’s actually been having a huge month and looks like he doesn’t suck anymore. Fast as fuck centerfielder stud, here we come…

And again, the game winning RBI went to Alfaro on this infield hit.

It was the fourth straight game that Alfaro batted in 2 RBIs.

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Sun 9/13: 2-1

Sixto clock Sunday. Easy money! Man that Realmuto trade was so awesome for us.

What a fucking start for this kid. Can’t wait for everyone to see him in the playoffs.

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Sun 9/13: 8-1

The second half of the Sunday doubleheader was a thrashing. Braxton Garrett, a former #7 overall pick who had Tommy John, had an awesome debut. 5 innings, 6 strikeouts, 1 run.

The play of the game came on defense though…

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Mon 9/14: 6-2

The Monday matinee capper was another thrashing. Pablo Lopez, another sick young arm in the rotation, went 7 innings for 1 run.

Again, defense was on display. Which of these Willie Mays catches by Matt Joyce is better?

I vote #2

Defense wins championships! If you can’t hit a home run, you’re not scoring on the Marlins. Sucks to be philly.

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Start paying attention

Marlins Murder the Phillies 5-2 in Their Seven Game Mega Series