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Thanksgiving News and Notes

I’m taking a brief hiatus for the rest of this week to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family. But not to worry; I won’t leave you high and dry! Here are a few helpful things to know during this year’s family, food, and football fest.

Thanksgiving Games

Game 1: Packers at Lions, 12:30pm

What you need to know:

The Packers are playing without their starting quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, for the fourth (practically fifth, considering he was injured early in the Bears game) game in a row. The franchise that had started three quarterbacks in the past two decades (Favre, Rodgers, and Flynn) has now started four quarterbacks in the past five games (Rodgers, Wallace, Tolzien, and Flynn). Luckily, Packers offensive guard Josh Sitton has seen fit to add fuel to the fire for a Detroit team that has plenty of angst as it is. So that’s good.

I foresee my turkey coming with a side of tears tomorrow.

In all seriousness, this is a huge NFC North matchup. The Lions were unexpectedly dismantled by the Bucs last Sunday and beaten by Pittsburgh the Sunday before. They are tied with the similarly sliding Bears for the lead in the NFC North and need this division win to gain control of the NFC North. Green Bay, despite the loss of Aaron Rodgers and the 3-game losing streak, is only one game behind in the standings, so this win is critical (critical!) to their playoff hopes.

Game 2: Raiders at Cowboys, 4:30pm

What you need to know:

Oakland will also be playing without their starting quarterback, although in this case the backup, Matt McGloin, is playing well enough to usurp the starter and keep this position for the rest of the season.

It will be a tall order for him and the rest of the Raiders to upset the Cowboys, however, who are coming off of a big divisional win against the Giants and are used to playing these Thanksgiving Day games. But on the flip side, this is by no means a sure win for Dallas. Their defense has been less-than-stellar lately. If the Raiders offense can take advantage, we just might have a game on our hands.

Game 3: Steelers at Ravens, 8:30pm

What you need to know:

This AFC North matchup looked a whole lot prettier when the schedule was originally released before the season started. Now we know that the defending Super Bowl Champion Ravens are 5-6 and third in the division…as are the Steelers, who, after a woeful start, are on a 3-game win streak and have moved up to second in the division by merit of their in-division record.

Which means that this game has huge playoff implications in the AFC North – and, really, in the AFC in general, since a good percentage of the conference has decided that it’s cool to be 5-6. They are all in a massive fight for the last wildcard spot. In the AFC North in particular, the division leading Bengals aren’t that far ahead at 7-4. Should they falter and the Steelers keep winning or the Ravens rebound, this game could go a long way in deciding who takes first place in the division.

Helpful Hints

Need to brush up on your football knowledge before kickoff on Thursday? Read these posts in between turkey basting and pie baking:

The Basics of Offense

The Basics of Defense

The Basics of Special Teams

And then test yourself with this quiz to seal the deal.

Good on the football front but wondering how these Thanksgiving Day games came about in the first place? Check out this History Lesson post.

Need a quick point of reference to go to during game day? Keep the Glossary page open on your phone or laptop!

Most of all, have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your friends and family! I hope it’s your best one yet!

Today is the day!!!

Today is the day, people!!! If you are dreading the football portion of your Thanksgiving get together in just two short days, this is your answer. You’ll learn everything you need to know to watch a football game from start to finish and can impress/freak out your friends and family members with your newly acquired football knowledge on turkey day. It will be awesome.

If you haven’t signed up for the Understanding Football class over at the Influence Network tonight at 9pm EST, there’s still time! You can sign up here, but be sure to do so before 6pm EST!

Hope to see you all there!!!

At the Water Cooler : Week 12

Week 12: In which quarterbacks play special teams and one division sees zero wins and tight ends get off the turf untouched to run for pay dirt while defensive backs stand by and watch and a team comes back from a 24-point shut out at halftime to win.

Or, just another wild week in the NFL.

New Orleans Saints at Atlanta Falcons (Saints won, 17-13)

The Saints continue to roll; the Falcons continue to slide.

Pittsburgh Steelers at Cleveland Browns (Steelers won, 27-11)

It’s a quarterback! It’s a bumblebee! It’s Ben Roethlisburger punting just for the heck of it! And it was a good one, too, pinning the Browns to their own 1-yard line. Who knew?

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Detroit Lions (Buccaneers won, 24-21)

Thank you, Bucs, for going on a timely 3-game win streak to take down the Lions and keep the NFC North standings as-is.

Minnesota Vikings at Green Bay Packers (Stupid Tie, 26-26 OT)

I could (and likely will) write an entire post on why the NFL needs to do away with ties. Technically it’s a better outcome than a loss…but it’s so wholly unsatisfying. I had never personally experienced a tie as a fan before – the last one for the Packers was in ’87 – but now I feel like I understand firsthand why everyone hates ties so much. The game ends, the score is tied, and you feel…like you just ate a bucket of celery and cucumbers for lunch. It’s kind of healthy, and you’re kind of full, but you’re mostly annoyed that you just ate a bucket of celery and cucumbers for lunch. And you’re still hungry.

I don’t know when or why that would happen, but that’s what I felt like yesterday when the Packers game ended. Celery and cucumbers.

San Diego Chargers at Kansas City Chiefs (Chargers won, 41-38)

Phillip Rivers had a banner day: throwing for 392 yards and 3 touchdowns, including the game-winner in the waning seconds of the 4th quarter. The Chargers are now back amongst the legion of 5-6 teams in the AFC fighting for a wildcard spot.

Chicago Bears at St. Louis Rams (Rams won, 42-21)

The elder bested the younger in this sibling rivalry game between the Long brothers. It was a bit of a beat down.

Carolina Panthers at Miami Dolphins (Panthers won, 20-16)

Beware, NFC: the Panthers are a force to be reckoned with, and they are only continuing to gain momentum.

NY Jets at Baltimore Ravens (Ravens won, 19-3)

I think we can safely say the Ravens defense is back.

Jacksonville Jaguars at Houston Texans (Jaguars, 13-6)

This is just unfathomable. What a season in Houston.

Indianapolis Colts at Arizona Cardinals (Cardinals won, 40-11)

Since beating the Broncos in Peyton’s return to Indy in Week 7, the Colts have won two games by 3-points each and have lost two games by a collective 59-points. 59-points! On the flip side, the Cardinals have quietly snuck into prime wildcard contention in the NFC West.

Tennessee Titans at Oakland Raiders (Titans won, 23-19)

The Titans made their way to the top of that 5-6 pile in the AFC with Sunday’s win over the Raiders.

Dallas Cowboys at NY Giants (Cowboys won, 24-21)

This was my favorite play of the day.

Denver Broncos at New England Patriots (Patriots won, 34-31 OT)

The 14th Brady vs. Manning game wrapped up early this morning, around 12:30am. And it was worth every minute. In a nutshell: the Patriots fumbled on their first 3 drives of the first half, scored on their first 3 drives of the second half, and kicked an easy field goal to end it after a terrible mistake by the Broncos special teams in overtime. In case you missed it: this game was 24-0, Broncos at halftime. What a classic.

San Francisco 49ers at Washington Redskins (MNF on ESPN)

Surprisingly, the Niners would fall to 6-5 and 3rd in the NFC West with a loss tonight. They could use this win. But so could the Redskins, if for nothing more than a morale boost.

Bye Week: Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals, Philadelphia Eagles, Seattle Seahawks

Review and Preview : Week 11

Review

On Monday we reviewed the unpredictable world that is the National Football League.

On Tuesday I became Chicken-A-Little-Less-Little and posted a video blog. (AH.)

On Wednesday we learned what having a winning season actually means.

On Thursday I sent a deluge of new resources your way from the updated Resources page (any favorites, ladies?).

Preview

Normal Girl Game of the Week

Broncos at Patriots, SNF on NBC

I know, I know. You can roll your eyes all you want at how cliche of a pick this is…but in 20 years, you’ll thank me. How many opportunities do you get to see two of the best quarterbacks in the history of football play each other? And how many more of these matchups will we get to savor before Manning retires? This is a rare and wonderful occurrence, which means I fully endorse turning off your phone, locking the front door, ordering a pizza, stocking the freezer with good ice cream, and hunkering down for the night to bask in the glory of another Manning vs. Brady battle. That’s what I’ll be doing!

Also on the Radar

1. Will the one loss of the Chiefs 2013 season turn into two this week against the Chargers? Survey says no, but then again, who knows. See: Week 11. Anything can happen. The Chiefs will need to avoid the pitfall of being too preoccupied with the Broncos rematch next week, and the Chargers could really use a divisional win to save their playoff hopes after losing three games in a row. This game, like every game, could easily go either way.

2. Far be it from me to put an NFC East matchup on the radar…but this is actually a necessary game to put on the radar. Cowboys at Giants is a classic rivalry game, but more than that, this one could go a long way in deciding who wins the division should it all come down to divisional wins and losses. Dallas has the upper hand right now – 3-0 in-division as compared to the Giants’ 1-2.

3. The Lions will need to fend off the Bucs to regain control of the NFC North on Sunday. It might not seem like a tall order, but the Bucs are coming off of a 2-game winning streak after an 8-game losing streak. They have some momentum going. With the Packers at least having a shot at getting back in the race as they play at home against Vikings, the Lions could really use this win. (And, as a Packers fan, I’ll be the first to say that we could really use this loss. Go Bucs!)

Resources : Updated Resources

Now, I know you can all wander over to the Resources page and check out the aforementioned newly updated list for yourselves, but there’s just so much goodness here that I can’t help but bring it front and center. There are SO MANY great resources available to take your football knowledge and enjoyment one step further. Here are some of my favorites:

Websites to Stalk

MMQB has the best writing in all of sports – perhaps in all of anything. Everything (everything) here is good, but Peter King’s weekly column (Monday Morning Quarterback, hence MMQB) is an absolute must-read.

Quickish, now simply “the Q“ has long been my favorite quick-hitting resource for the best news in sports…and now there is a version just for the NFL! It’s like Christmas!

You can’t beat the statistical quality of the information over at Pro Football Focus. They do a “refocus” of each game every week, breaking it down by the numbers, which is tremendously helpful, and also award a PFF team of the week and “had a bad day” team of the week, both of which are just fun (and informative!) reads.

Helpful Apps

The Football Simplified app will help you break down the basics (and then some!) in short order. (For the Western New Yorkers in the crowd, there is also a hockey version of this app!)

I know from experience that the NFL Mobile app really does cure #FOMOF (Fear Of Missing Out on Football) because I traveled for the first 8 weeks of the season and often had to rely on radio broadcasts to catch games while driving. Much to the chagrin of the other drivers on the road, who must have thought I had severe road rage. Nope…just listening to the sound of Aaron Rodgers’ collarbone breaking. Nothing to see here.

I rely on Bleacher Report to send the first push notifications about breaking NFL news (somehow they are almost always the first to break news) and Packers news with the Team Stream app.

Educational Television Programming

My personal favorite is NFL Turning Point. Beyond getting an up close and personal look at the game, you also get substantial explanations of what happened, specifically, in several games each week that led to wins or losses. Airs: Wednesdays at 10:00pm and 11:00pm (NBC Sports Network)

Similarly, NFL Matchup is one of the most insightful football shows out there, and definitely the best football programming on ESPN, in my opinion. It’s impossible to walk away from an episode without learning 87 new things about football and having an intel edge on the upcoming games that day. Airs: Sundays at 6:30am (ESPN) and 8:30am (ESPN2)

Even if you aren’t a football fan, chances are you’ll love the A Football Life documentaries. Each focuses on a prolific person in football history (even current history, with players like Michael Strahan). The stories are so well-produced and beautifully told. Airs: Wednesdays at 8:00pm (NFL Network). You can also buy Season One and Two on DVD.)

Podcasts

I’m including this section to highlight the only sports podcast I listen to (though I’m sure there are many other good ones out there): Tuesdays with Aaron. As a Packers fan, this podcast really can’t be missed. Because how often do you a) have the best quarterback in the league on your roster and b) get to listen to him talk and be a real person for a half an hour every week? Admittedly…this happens more often for the Packers than it does for other teams. Green Bay has been extremely fortunate when it comes to high caliber quarterbacks. But the Rodgers era is a golden one for sure, and this podcast is a great way to savor it.

What He Said : A Winning Season

While watching games over the weekend I noticed that no one ever really explains what having “a winning season” actually means, even though it’s a term that is thrown around fairly regularly at this time of year. Does having a winning season mean winning the Super Bowl? Or is it merely winning your division? Do moral victories count?

What exactly do you have to win to have a winning season?

As it turns out, it’s not a question of what but of how many.

To have a season count as a winning season a team needs to win more games than they lose. Had a 12-4 regular season record? Winning season. Had a 9-7 regular season record and missed the playoffs on account of divisional losses? Still a winning season. Anytime a team wins more games than they lose – no matter which games they win or which stage of the post-season they make it to, if any – it’s a winning season.

This is also called being “above .500,” which probably sounds completely unrelated when taken out of context. But really, it makes sense! A team’s winning percentage is calculated by dividing the number of wins by the total number of games. Having an equal number of wins and losses would result in an 8-8 season, and 8 (number of wins) divided by 16 (total number of games) = .500 (winning percentage). Any more wins than that would result in a winning percentage above .500. For example, our 9-7 team from the paragraph above would have a winning percentage of .563. The 12-4 team has a winning percentage of .750. Both of those teams calculate out to “above .500” because they had more wins than losses and, thus, had winning seasons.

The opposite of a winning season is, of course, a losing season, which means that a team fell “below .500” and therefore lost more games than they won.

Here’s your interesting piece of NFL trivia for the day: a team can have a losing season and still make the playoffs. True story. In fact, it happened not too long ago to the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks, who won the NFC West to make it into the playoffs in the 2010 season back when the NFC West looked something like this season’s NFC East.

Which hammers home the point all the more that losing seasons and winning seasons have nothing to do with titles and everything to do with number of wins. Just another that-kind-of-makes-sense-but-wait-does-it? aspect of football.