My weekly review post of Sports and My Thoughts as they pertain to the "D" and Beyond for the week ending Sunday 10.26.15 . This was a week filled with all sorts of drama and ups and downs. In the "D":
Lions: The winning streak ended as quickly as it started. The Lions showed up for the 1st quarter of the game and then as usual the wheels fell off. Once again the Lions were out coached in this game. The Vikings made adjustments throughout the game and at halftime where as the Lions as has happened all season long can't make changes on the fly and never make the right adjustments at halftime. Play calling by OC Lombardi was atrocious and when the lions had a slight glimmer of making it a ballgame late int he 4th quarter with a 1st and goal from the 1, the calls were brutal and the Lions were stopped. I am not sure why the lions on the play that put the ball at the one yard line didst challenge the call for all replays seemed to conclude that C. Johnson caught the ball and broke the plain of the goal line. The defense was lit up like a Christmas tree by Teddy Bridgewater as Lions defensive players were out of position all afternoon. This games loss is owned by the Lions Coaches and no one else!!! For Caldwell to keep his job, He needs to fire Lombardi and the other offensive Coaches today and let Jim Bob Cooter run the offense. This late in the year he can't change the offense but can open it up and who better than the QB Coach who knows the strengths of Stafford.
Red Wings: The Red Wings just finished a road trip out West through Canada that didn't produce the outcome they wanted. They were thoroughly outplayed and injuries occurred and it looks like it will be a long season for this team. While the team shows glimpses of brilliance they defense is suspect and 80 -90 points will be the outcome.
Pistons: The
Pistons will be an interesting team this year. They drafted Stanley
Johnson and traded for Ersan Ilyasova and signed guard Reggie Jackson to
a huge contract even though He hasn't proven himself yet in the league.
Stan VanGundy resigned Jackson to this contract and it could be a great
deal or one that will come back and haunt the Pistons as did the
signing of ex Piston Josh Smith last year! Hopefully this team will
learn how to play defense this year and not live and die with the 3
ball. I look for the Pistons to win 35 to 40 games this year.
Tigers:
The Tigers finished the Season and for the first time in a few years
are sitting out this years Post Season. The Tigers were a huge
disappointment as the team displayed many glaring holes that need to be
filled during the off season. The Tigers often played uninspired and
lackadaisical. The were not fundamental sound as they missed cut off
men, were terrible on the bases, couldn't bunt or play short ball and
looked like they were just going through the motions in many games this
year. The Coaching was bad and I like many do not understand the
rationale of bring back Manager Brad Ausmus for another year, in his
second season he seemed to get worse instead of better and some of his
decisions cost the Tiger at least a dozen games this past season. Jeff Jones the Tigers Pitching Coach suddenly retired this past week, which makes one wonder was this a forced retirement or did Jones have enough of baseball and just wanted out?
Spartans: The Spartans won again going to 8-0 and winners of their last 12 games and 32 out of the last 35. MSU once again played a close games for the most part and played through injuries and adversity and bad officiating again but Mark Dantonio teams play with great resolve and for 60 minutes and even having more injuries to their starters than any other college team in the Top 25 this year, they are still 8-0 and the B1G Championship will all come down to the MSU-OSU game in 4 weeks.
Wolverines:A week after the Wolverines were stunned in the Big House by their rival MSU, they have a bye week which could be good or bad for them. The talk all week is that the Team must forget the game and move and concentrate on their next opponent which will be the Golden Gophers in Minnesota next Saturday. The question remains, will Coach Jim Harbaugh and his huge ego be able to put this game behind and move on with the team? Harbaugh has publicly said all the right things but the question remains to many, why did Michigan punt instead of running another play and letting their stout defense stop the Spartans and win the game. It is clear that Harbaugh made a bad call to punt the ball and it cost the Wolverines the game. The ending of the game between MSU and Michigan will go down as one of the most incredible finishes ever in a football game!!!
Sports beyond the "D":
NFL:
The NFL continues to have a Black Cloud over it, as once again the
Officials caused the outcome of a game to be called into question as
none of its officials in the game made a call that was suppose to be
called and it cost a team a potential winning touchdown. This has become
the norm as in a playoff game last season the Officials also blew a
call that cost a team a win. The NFL seems to do what they want when
they want for the NFL is a money making machine that makes the Owners
money hand over fist! The NFL also needs to stop being patsies when it
comes to dealing with the NFLPA and needs to put very detailed strict
consequences to an offesne or violations by players or teams that are
not negotiable! There needs to be a fair and just disciplinary agreement
that stops the NFLPA from going to Federal Court every time they want
to but also deals with the violations in a fair and timely manner! Johnny Manzel also was back in the news as He was pulled over in the Cleveland area for speeding and had been drinking and had also allegedly hit his girlfriend. Will be interesting to see if the Browns and the NFL do anything about this seeing h wasn't ticketed but was involved in another incident in regards to his drinking.
MLBaseball: The World Series is all set as the KC Royals will face the NY Mets in a best of seven series starting next Tuesday. The Royals return to the WS for the 2nd straight year and this is the first appearance for the Mets since 2000.
NCAA: The
NCAA seems to becoming more and more than nothing but the oversight of
college athletics that just collects money. The NCAA investigates
allegations and violations and hands down punishments and disciplines
which most of the time are against athletes for a team violation or
potential violation for taking money or making money and the NCAA
suspends the athlete at its will which is wrong.There needs to be a
defined detailed process for these issue. On the other hand a College is
charged with violations and it is stripped of scholarships and maybe a
playoff suspension depending on what the violation was, but then the
College usually challenges it and the NCAA backs down. SMU and its Coach
Larry Brown were handed down a punishment for violations of NCAA rules
and SMU is no stranger to NCAA wrong doings and now they want to
challenge the discipline. Syracuse and its head B Ball Coach Jim Boeheim
want to challenge his 9 game suspension because he now wants to have
his discipline compared to what the NCAA gave to Larry Brown even though
the suspension of 9 conference games for Jim Boeheim was nothing more
than a slap on the wrist for the transgressions that occurred under his
watch at Syracuse. He should of been suspended at least 1 year for what
happened! And now just this week it has come to light that an assistant
coach at Louisville under Head Coach Rick Pitino hires escorts to have
sex with players and recruits for 5 years. If this is true, the NCAA
should make an example of Louisville and show the other Universities it
means business and penalize the Basketball program for 3 years taking
away scholarships and give them a post season ban and possible removal
of the head coach as well. It is time to let everyone know that even as
athletics have taken over as big business at the college level the rules
and regulations have to be followed and if you break them they are
serious consequences that will be instituted.
NCAA Football: We are past the 1/2 way point of the Season and it has been a very interesting season so far! There has been some great accomplishments so far and also some major disappointments. I call it the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly! The Good so far has been; Pittsburgh and Michigan and Iowa all surprise teams winning more than expected. The Bad is; Auburn, Arkansas and USC, and Wisconsin playing themselves out of the Top 25 and being disappointing this year. The Ugly has been; Georgia Tech a Top 10 preseason pick underachieving and losing 4 straight games and in jeopardy of not getting a bowl bid. But the Ugly of the Ugly so far has been USC who not only has lost 3 games already but the firing of HC Steve Sarkisian and how bad it was handled by AD Pat Haden and the school. They knew when they hired Sarkisian, that He came with allot of baggage and a drinking problem but as it is nowadays in college sports when the team is winning, problems are pushed under the rug because winning is all the matters! But once the wheels started to fall off the Sarkisian bus, only then did USC and AD Haden decide it was time to fire their head coach. Officiating has also come under fire this year with bad calls and too many replays and missed calls and wrong calls that I hope each conference will look at these errors and fix whatever is wrong with the officiating this season.
NBA and NHL: The NHL opened up its season three weeks ago and the Montreal Canadiens have won their first 9 games.The NBA opens its season next Tuesday.
See
my weekly NFL Power Rankings and weekly NFL Picks and My weekly
CFBTop25 and CFB weekly picks at www.cupofjoeinthed.blogspot.com .
@cupofjoeinthed
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