football
Talking about college and professional football daily. Chances are we hate your team.
XFL Week 5 Recap: Nobody's Perfect
It happened. It actually happened. The fifth week of the 2023 XFL season actually began with the Houston Roughnecks actually losing a game. The Roughnecks were in Seattle facing a Sea Dragons team who was coming off back-to-back wins, and the game got off to a very surprising start: Houston was shut out for the entire first half. The Sea Dragons led 15-0 at halftime, but I thought, "Well, Houston will get out of this." A scoreless third quarter made it look unlikely, but the Roughnecks offense finally showed up with a pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter, which sandwiched a Seattle score.
By Clyde E. Dawkins2 years ago in Unbalanced
XFL Week 4 Recap: Home Sweet Home
Hard to believe that four weeks of this XFL season have come and gone, but that is the case. Week 4 of this 10-week regular season began with the Orlando Guardians hosting the Houston Roughnecks, with the Guardians still searching for their first win of this season. They wouldn't come close. It was 20-0 Roughnecks after the first quarter! Yikes! Guardians managed to make some noise in the second quarter, but let's face facts, they were not winning this game. Roughnecks ended up winning, 44-16, maintaining their stranglehold over the league.
By Clyde E. Dawkins2 years ago in Unbalanced
XFL Week 3 Recap: Bet On It
Whether it's the NFL, the CFL, the USFL, or in this case, the XFL, Week 3 is usually the week that determines who the real contenders are. It's especially true in the 10-week XFL, as it has much less room for error than the 18-week NFL and the 21-week CFL. Two teams who definitely knew that for sure entering Week 3: the Seattle Sea Dragons and the Vegas Vipers. Both teams were 0-2, which meant somebody had to win this one--a factual statement, as the XFL has no ties.
By Clyde E. Dawkins2 years ago in Unbalanced
XFL Week 2 Recap: You Always Remember Your First
My anticipation for the Week 2 of the 2023 XFL season began as soon as the last game of Week 1 ended. Again, even when the incoming pandemic resulted in the 2020 season being cut short and paused, I knew we'd see this league back again. After one week of the league's latest return, my good feeling about the XFL increased. The league definitely has staying power now, especially with The Rock and Dany Garcia running things.
By Clyde E. Dawkins2 years ago in Unbalanced
XFL Week 1 Recap: 3rd Time's the Charm
As someone who loved the original XFL in 2001, I was so, so elated when the league was coming back in 2020. The XFL returned less than a week after Super Bowl LIV was played, and from what I saw, it looked good. It looked really good. I do admit that the 2001 version did have its problems, but I did love it and enjoy it. I mean, come on. Who wouldn't love the concept of watching professional football in the late winter and early spring months? And the rules were much different from what we saw in the NFL. But while the league looked very upstart-ish in 2001, in 2020, it looked like whatever mistakes were made 19 years prior were fixed. Nothing could stop the XFL this time.
By Clyde E. Dawkins2 years ago in Unbalanced
Pro Football is Year-Round Now, and I Am Here For It
The Super Bowl Champion has been crowned, and with that, another NFL season came to a close, thus beginning the longest offseason in sports. The NBA and NHL take the summer and the month of September off. MLB is off during the winter months, but when the Lombardi Trophy is awarded, the day after kicks off a seven-month offseason, with the NFL Draft being the only relevant blip between the final whistle on Super Bowl Sunday, and the opening kickoff of the following season. For the most part, that had been the case.
By Clyde E. Dawkins2 years ago in Unbalanced
Super Bowl LVII Recap: Back to the Top
Super Bowl Sunday. Those are the three sweetest words in the English language. Super Bowl Sunday is the holiest day of the sports calendar year, and it's by a big margin. I always look forward to this day, regardless of who is participating. Even during the many years that we were basically suffocated by the New England Patriots, I still enjoyed Super Bowl Sunday. This year, it was the Kansas City Chiefs against the Philadelphia Eagles in Glendale, Arizona, and there were three main storylines in play. One, Andy Reid was coaching against the team he coached for over a decade. Two, brothers Travis and Jason Kelce were facing each other in the big game, and three, this was the first time in Super Bowl history that Black starting QBs would face each other.
By Clyde E. Dawkins2 years ago in Unbalanced
18-1: 15 Years Later
So of course, we have to talk about the big news from this week. Tom Brady has retired. Again. He says it's for good, but we know what happened the last time he said that. In any event, it's a 23-year career that is now in the books. Now that it's finally over, I think it's about time I finally admit something about Brady that I've denied for so, so long. I feel like the time is right to finally say it. Here goes:
By Clyde E. Dawkins2 years ago in Unbalanced
A Look at Every Black Quarterback Who Has Started a Super Bowl
Super Bowl LVII features a number of intriguing storylines, but the biggest one is a historic moment that is long overdue. For the first time in NFL history, two Black starting quarterbacks will be featured in the Super Bowl. The NFL is over a century old, and this is the 57th edition of the Super Bowl, yet Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts are the first pair of Black starting QBs to headline the biggest game of the year. The ironic thing that came to me as this fact was stated: Super Bowl LVII is in Arizona, the state that infamously didn't recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a holiday.
By Clyde E. Dawkins2 years ago in Unbalanced
Divisional Playoff Recap: 99 Problems, and McCarthy is #1
I do love Divisional Playoff Weekend, and I have my reasons. For one, it's the last chance we have to enjoy Saturday NFL action, and secondly, it serves as a hotbed for surprising upsets. The Divisional Playoff once served as the opening playoff round when the leagues merged in 1970, but it has been the second round since 1978, when a second Wild Card was added and resulted in the debut of the Wild Card Playoff. It's the last stop before the Final Four, aka the Conference Championship, and regarding this year, it was quite tame following Super Wild Card Weekend.
By Clyde E. Dawkins2 years ago in Unbalanced
Super Wild Card Weekend Recap: The Comeback Reboot
This year's Super Wild Card Weekend marked the observed 30-year anniversary of "The Comeback." We all know about that by now; the infamous Wild Card Playoff contest between the Buffalo Bills and the Houston Oilers, which saw the Oilers up 35-3 during the midpoint of the 3rd quarter. However, in a span of a quarter and a half, the Bills' 32-point deficit disappeared, as after sixty minutes of game time, both teams had 38 points. The Bills won it with a field goal, completing what was the largest comeback in NFL history until the Minnesota Vikings came back from a 33-0 deficit on December 15, 2022. It still remains the largest playoff comeback in league history, but comebacks like that are rare.
By Clyde E. Dawkins2 years ago in Unbalanced
3 Teams I Want to Win Super Bowl LVII, and 3 Teams I Don't Want to Win
I absolutely love the NFL playoffs, always have. I remember back when ABC had Monday Night Football, they also had the Wild Card Saturday coverage, and back then, those games were on early in West Coast--at the same time as the Saturday morning cartoons. I loved my Saturday morning cartoons back then, but I also enjoyed that one day a year that I would wake up to playoff football back then. Of course, the playoff format and broadcasting schedule has changed since then. This is the second year of this current format, which will begin with six Wild Card Playoff games, followed by the Divisional Playoff (which will introduce the bye week teams to the fray). The Conference Championship is the last stop, and then it's the Super Bowl, and this year, Super Bowl LVII is in Arizona and will air on Fox.
By Clyde E. Dawkins2 years ago in Unbalanced
