thependulumswings

In cold enough way down yonder to consider a big ole pot of gumbo for dinner this evening.

Gumbo is a whole bunch of “stuff” blended smartly over a long cooking time.  As are the sports nuggets below.

If you’re a health nut what’s better than 10 Piece Nuggets early and gumbo late?  No need to answer that one.

1.  But, if you were in an NFL survivor pool going into yesterday are you still in one coming out?  A scant few early season upsets prior turned into a blood bath yesterday.  Buffalo scores only six and loses 9-6 at Jacksonville.  Dallas got run out of Jerry’s playground by Denver.  Atlanta beats New Orleans who last week tattooed Tampa Bay.  The New York Giants took it to the Raiders.
2. Last night Tennessee also took it to the LA Rams.  Vegas had the Rams as the favorite.  No Derrick Henry, no problem for the now 6-2 Titans.  Could the Titans secure home field throughout the AFC playoffs with Indy, Jacksonville, and Houston in their division? You bet.  They play physical ball for sixty minutes every sixty minutes that they suit up.
3. The New England Patriots are now 5-4 after three straight wins.  They played Tampa Bay and Dallas tough in close losses.  Is their best football ahead of them?  It needs to be as they face their division-leading 5-3 Buffalo Bills twice in the coming weeks.   If they manage to get a leg up on Buffalo they close out the seventeen week schedule with the woeful Dolphins and hapless Jets.  It’s never too early to look ahead, is it?  Two words.  Bill Belichick.
4. Odell Beckham Jr. is looking ahead as well. He will be a free agent this time tomorrow now that the Browns said enough already.  He’ll take his “talents” and his cancerous attitude to some team hopeful of the good outweighing the bad.  It will soon be marriage number three for OBJ and some desperate team.  Ditto the Raiders as DeSean Jackson is apparently headed there.  There is a reason why some talented players play for more teams than you would think they should.  Jackson started his career with the Eagles, then theRedskins, Bucs, Eagles again, and Rams.  The next stop is Vegas baby.  What could go wrong there?
5. The Browns might have added by subtracting.  With OBJ gone they lambasted the Bengals 41-16 in Cinncinatti.  Their defense is good enough to make a run.  Will Baker Mayfield and the offense find a new identity?  Yesterday was a great start. He still held a perfect quarterback rating of 158.3 in the third quarter as the Browns became the first team since 2012 with three touchdown plays of 60 yards or more.
6.  It’s a different league, but maybe it’s the same result.  In the NBA the Philadelphia 76ers, who are dealing with a star sidelined for a different reason, have risen to the top of the East as Ben Simmons continues to be away from the team.  Ben is troubled.  The 76ers suddenly are not.  We’ll leave it at that for now.
7.  In MLB, fresh off of their World Series loss to the Atlanta Braves, the Houston Astros offered Carlos Correa a 5-year deal valued at about 32 million a year.  Sounds like good work if you can get it.  But, for Team Correa, it will be adios amigo as some team (Yankees?) will nearly double the years which effectively doubles the money guarantee.
8. Correa is one of many, many free agents available as the Hot Stove League kicks in gear.  At the shortstop position alone in addition to Correa stands Javier Baez, Trevor Story, Marcus Semien, and Cory Seager on the newly unemployed line.  Assuming baseball doesn’t lock out the players in a labor dispute, the comings and goings will be quite interesting this offseason.
9. One way to extend your shelf life as an NCAA head football coach is to blame your assistants when your team struggles.  After three consecutive losses, Florida’s Dan Mullen fired DC Todd Grantham and offensive line coach John Hevesy on Sunday.  South Carolina embarrassed them Saturday.  The Washington Huskies fired OC John Donovan.  The decision comes a day after a loss that drops the Huskies to 4-5 overall and 3-3 in the Pac-12.  And, Oregon State DC Tim Tibesar was fired yesterday as the Beavers defense sunk to the bottom of the PAC 12 after a decent start.  Make them the bad guys even though you hired them in the first place.  It buys you a year and quiets the opposition some on the recruiting trail.
10.  Georgia is #1 and second place isn’t close as the jockeying for the four playoff spots hits the far turn.  A very valid argument could be made for about eight teams to fill the final three spots as of now.  But, “that’s why they play the games,” someone once famously said. It’ll sort itself out.  It always does.  One thing is certain though.  Alabama is #2 because of its history, not its play on the field this year.  Still, they control their chances as they will face Auburn in the Iron Bowl in two weeks.  If they pass that test, Georgia looms in the SEC Championship in the Georgia Dome.  The committee wouldn’t still put them in the top four with two losses, would they?

Pass the rice.