Divisional Weekend is upon Us

We have a few games that will be interesting, and for some really unknown reason, from the analysts that I watched on ESPN, NFL Network, Fox and so on and so forth, they have made some crazy projections. Views are down that much, huh?

Packers vs. Rams: Ask me to tell you about this game in the middle of the season, and I’ll tell you the answer in a heartbeat. It’s easy, the Green Bay Packers. But now, after the Rams upset the Seahawks, I’m not too sure.  Teacher vs. Student in this one: a confusing phrase in this case, but, Jared Goff idolized Rodgers as a kid. He even went to the same college as him, the University of California. He shined in college but burned out really quickly in the NFL, Aaron Rodgers is the flip side of the same collegiate coin. He wasn’t too snazzy in college, but he also wasn’t a bum, he was somewhere in the middle, never breaking 3000 yards and being a redzone scrambler, to the best of my understanding, posting 393 yards and 8 touchdowns in his two years at Cal, but he shined in the NFL, sneaking into the GOAT conversation in my opinion. The Rams defense, which is the best in the NFL, vs. the number three offense in the NFL, again, in my opinion, and the Packers defense, which is not amazing, against the sub-par Rams offense. This is going to be a good game in my opinion, but don’t count the Rams out, just the Packers offense is so fine-tuned that even the best, in this case, will not stop them. Player to Watch: Sorry, I’m going to do a matchup this one. One of the most highly-anticipated matchups this season: Davante Adams vs. Jalen Ramsey. A lockdown corner versus a guy that makes your head spin for days after guarding him, Adams. I think that Ramsey will win this one, leaving Rodgers to play without his right hand, theoretically. Ramsey is so much more physical and he can keep up with anyone, plus trash talk? It makes me shiver to imagine him up against me.

Ravens vs. Bills: Game of the weekend for me. The top of the 2018 Draft Class will face off here, Lamar Jackson, reigning MVP and sprouting young gunslinger, Josh Allen. Sports Illustrated made one of the best articles of 2020 in one of their issues, talking about the “Josh Allen Experience.” In a word, the Josh Allen Experience is the way Josh Allen plays, the rowdy, 6’5” behemoth with more speed and throw power than Patrick Mahomes and more behind the line of scrimmage athleticism and football IQ than Lamar Jackson. The only sad thing about him is his accuracy, but of course, that could be fixed with more experience in the NFL. Lamar Jackson and the Ravens offense played average last week, their defense was the saving grace, containing the freak of nature in the Titans backfield, Derrick Henry, and confusing Ryan Tannehill got the job done and created the win for the Ravens. Containing a great football mind in Sean McDermott and a great player in Josh Allen is going to be slightly harder than stopping Henry. The Ravens defense has to put pressure on Allen, make him crack, come up with a lot of different concepts to confuse the young kid. Make them run the ball, and force them out of their comfort zone. But most importantly, while you’re playing chess against the Bills, your offense must set the tone. Put the game into the capable hands of the reigning MVP, Lamar Jackson. My pick: Bills move on. Player to Watch: Lamar Jackson. He got an A on his first test, now let’s up the ante a little, we have the multi-dimensional Bills. By multi-dimensional I mean that they have a well-rounded offense and a really, really solid defense, match that with a good coach. And this test is an Algebra 1 test, I just took a test on exponents, and not 5^2 or 3^3, I struggled through (15x-6y^3/3x^9+2y^0) – 12x^7+7y^2. So, that, mixed with Algebra 2 and Calculus, is what Jackson has to trudge through. He’s capable - I believe in him.

Browns vs. Chiefs: Insurance Super Bowl. No, the game is not being played in Hartford, Connecticut. The game is being headed by the two captains of the offense, the QBs, Baker Mayfield and Patrick Mahomes. If you watch TV, you might see Mayfield starring in a Progressive commercial and you’ll see Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers starring in a State Farm commercial. More than three years ago, Patrick Mahomes and Baker Mayfield took each other on, both of them were still in college, but, boy, was that a good game. 54 points in just the first half, and both Baker Mayfield and Patrick Mahomes were trading shots, you get a 30+ yard pass, you get a 30+ yard pass, you get a 30+ yard bomb. Mayfield and Mahomes both had their favorite targets, Dede Westbrook and Mark Andrews for Oklahoma and mainly Keke Coutee for Mahomes, but Mahomes threw to 9 different receivers, again, just in the first half. Mahomes has the better team heading into this weekend, but again, don’t count Mayfield out, the Chiefs are an offensive-minded team, their defense is lacking, just watch Mayfield produce as much as he did in college. But, I think the Chiefs will come out of the trenches with this one, because they went 14-1 and because Mahomes is unstoppable. But, remember how Juju Smith-Schuster or “Tik Tok Boy,” said the “Browns in the Browns” and he lollygagged the whole game, yeah, look at the score of that game :) Player to Watch: The Browns offense. When OBJ went down, their offense took a hit. Who knows what could’ve happened if Baker went to the Chiefs. He’s a very capable QB, he could be just as good as Mahomes is now. So, if the Browns offense, especially their WRs and TEs, can get open and create space, Baker will find them. Watch their offense, and hope that they get open, because if they do, that’s a competitive game. 

Buccaneers vs. Saints: Want to see two old guys playing chess against each other and occasionally throwing balls? Head over to Central Park. Just kidding, this one’s going to be at the Mercedes Benz Superdome in New Orleans and the two old guys are Drew Brees and Tom Brady. Both are playing with teams that you would draft when you played fantasy football with your buddies. Their offenses are overpowering, their defenses are overpowering. You can’t stop these teams, just watch what’s going to happen on Sunday. Who has the edge at QB? For the sake of argument, let’s say tie. RB? Saints, Alvin Kamara plays the game like he’s not trying, and he’s the whole Saints offense. WR? Bucs, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and Antonio Brown are no match for a guy who the Saints pay $100 million to catch slant passes and be injured for the whole year (Michael Thomas). TE? Bucs, they do have the GOAT TE, Rob Gronkowski, and that gives you a bit of an advantage. Front 7? Saints, Cam Jordan, Marcus Davenport, David Onyemata, Kwon Alexander, and Demario Davis as the leaders of the Front 7 will clamp down any run, unfortunately, the Bucs don’t have much of a run game. Secondary? Saints again, I made this statement based on the safeties, Marcus Williams, Malcolm Jenkins, and CJ Gardner-Johnson are really good, while the Bucs have Antoine Winfield Jr. and Jordan Whitehead, I didn’t say them because they haven’t developed yet and we don’t know their full potential. The Bucs have Carlton Davis, Sean Murphy-Bunting and Jamal Dean at CB, the Saints have Marshon Lattimore and Janoris Jenkins, take Gardner-Johnson and put him at CB and you have a better secondary than before. The Wild Card? Saints, TAYSOM HILL will confuse you, because there’s nothing like him in the NFL, he kind of reminds me of my father in chess, his goal? Confuse me. The Bucs’ Wild Card is Leonard Fourtnette and Ronald Jones II, if they can get them going, the Bucs and Tom Brady could lean on the run game when the pass isn’t working, but I doubt it. Taysom Hill is a Swiss army knife, put him at TE, RB, QB, WR, and he’ll perform at his best, tell me how to stop that. I say Saints get this one, Brady sadly doesn’t get a chance at a 7th ring. Player to Watch: Saints defense. To make this game competitive, they need to step up, when the Bucs are playing with a Madden team, it’s impossible to stop them. Maybe, maybe not, I haven’t learned physics yet. But, if a weak and took a very aggressive grizzly bear’s food, then the bear’s going to stomp the ant. If the ant had a United States Navy warship’s defense system, then the grizzly bear would be stomped. So, the Saints defense needs to play a lot, a lot, a lot better than normal to stop the grizzly bear. I’m not too sure about the result, but when the Tampa Bay Bucs vs. the New Orleans Saints rolls around, sit down and laissez le bon temps rouler.