Cheer Up??/Football Picks for This Weekend

Greetings everyone, except for you Rapey P. McForehead. Last night, after I had posted my last blog, I was told by someone who I wanted to talk with to cheer up. Cheer up. You know, nothing could be more insulting to someone who has been through the ringer a time or ten the past twenty-thirty years to "cheer up." Quite frankly, it pissed me off to where I didn't feel like talking to her today. I only asked her if she still wanted to see me, because just over a week ago she said that it would be nice to see me again. No reply. Of course. So, either she really doesn't care, or her professional wrestler bf isn't allowing her to. Hunch tells me it's the latter, but I doubt it. And of course, I'm crippled as far as what I can do in part because of family. But just know, I'm awfully disappointed. Why has this year been so cruel to me?

Anyway, since it Friday and it's the end of September (someone wake up Green Day), I may as well dispense my not-so-spectacular football picks for this weekend. I lost again last night, no thanks to the Dolphins' idiotic medical team. So, my September picking pro games was terrible. To the college games tomorrow (and Sunday because of Ian):

#21 Minnesota over Purdue
Army over Georgia State
Air Force over Navy
Louisville over Boston College
Illinois over Wisconsin (upset)
#4 Michigan over Iowa
#18 Oklahoma over TCU
Texas Tech over #25 Kansas State
#7 Kentucky over #14 Ole Miss
#12 Utah over Oregon State
East Carolina over USF (in Boca Raton)
#23 Florida State over #22 Wake Forest
#11 Penn State over Northwestern
North Carolina over Virginia Tech
#9 Oklahoma State over #16 Baylor
Appalachian State over Citadel (by the way, kudos forApp State for pulling an Atlanta Falcons last week in blowing a 28-3 lead to James Madison)
#2 Alabama over #20 Arkansas
#3 Ohio State over Rutgers by at least 50 (my opinion of Greg Schiano is about as low of that of T****).
Mississippi State over #17 Texas A&M
Duke over Virginia
#5 Clemson over #10 NC State (ugh)
#1 Georgia over Missouri
#24 Pitt over Georgia Tech
#6 USC over Arizona State
#13 Oregon over Stanford
Florida over Eastern Washington (Sunday)

Now for the NFL:

Minnesota over New Orleans in London
LA Chargers over Houston
NY Giants over Chicago
Detroit over Seattle
Jacksonville over Philadelphia (you already know why I'm picking the Jags)
Pittsburgh over NY Jets
Cleveland over Atlanta
Tennessee over Indianapolis
Dallas over Washington
Baltimore over Buffalo (upset)
Carolina over Arizona 
Las Vegas over Denver
Green Bay over New England

Kansas City over Tampa Bay (what happened to me last night MAY have influenced this pick somewhat)

LA Rams over San Francisco.

Those are my picks for this weekend. Enjoy.

CT

Post Hurricane Thoughts

 Hello again everyone, except you Lara Trump. Seriously, where's DCF when you need them? I wrote earlier about how damned lucky we here in the northern reaches of Tampa Bay in my last post, and since I have been triggered by my crush's goofball of a boyfriend (yuck) on social media, so therefore I'm in one of THOSE moods, so folks, get your popcorn ready because I'm here to dispense some post-Ian thoughts.

First off, for as much devastation as Ian brought, at least it could have saved its punch for one particular building in the Orlando area. Unfortunately, that did not happen. 

If not that, then it could have blown my crush's dingbat bf to the other side of the state, or better yet Jacksonville.

Yeah, you can tell I'm still having trouble processing that. Now I may have nobody to shop for Christmas this year. 😒

Oh Lord my sister was on one yesterday, because the internet was out until this afternoon around noon. She was very unhappy that she wasn't able to watch "The Masked Singer." Well guess what? Fox 13 in Tampa didn't air it to begin with because WE HAD A NEAR-CATEGORY FIVE HURRICANE IN OUR BACKYARD!!! She ought to thank her lucky stars we had power throughout, although I am curious why Spectrum interrupted cable service to Hernando County.

Lizzo is a national treasure, and quite possibly the most popular flautist ever.

Aaron Judge finally hit his 61st home run. Of COURSE, it would be on the night that I had no cable...

Speaking of sports, my pro picks flopped last week, as I went a remarkable 5-11. I'll have the rest of this weekend's picks tomorrow, but for tonight, I'll pick Miami over Cincinnati and cross my fingers.

The only other unbeaten? The damned Eagles. You know why I dislike them especially this year, and I'm hoping like hell Jacksonville pulls off the upset this week.

Along those lines, this year really has been shitty from a romance standpoint. Every woman I have had a crush on (except one) wound up with someone else this year. I don't know if the Universe is trolling me harder than usual or if everyone gets offended if I like someone more than just as a friend. I honestly don't get it. The only crush that hasn't found someone is vegan and may be moving to Paris (which is the nickname of a crush I had a few years ago that no longer speaks to me because I don't drink the MAGA Kool-Aid).

Speaking of which, I wonder which day this year was worse, February 2, or July 17...

However, this is one woman on the mark...hold up, I'm now being told it's (checks notes) Marjorie Taylor Greene. Excuse me while I jump out a ten-story window (not really).

Speaking of tomorrow, time permitting because I may have to help put things back from hurricane prep, I should have my flashback segment back on here. For now, I kind have ran out of things to rant/talk/write about. So in the meantime, take care, and stay safe.

CT

We Got Lucky...VERY Lucky

Hello everyone, except you Hurricane Ian. As many of you know, Southwest Florida was heavily devastated from a vicious near-Category Five hurricane yesterday. Naples and Fort Myers are virtually underwater. Cities and towns from Sarasota to Naples devastated. If anyone remembers Hurricane Andrew in 1992, this is just as bad if not worse.

Fortunately, the immediate Tampa Bay region was, for the most part, spared (again) from the brunt of the hurricane's wrath. South of the Bay, a tragically different story lies in wait.

I wish I could tell you more, but to be honest here in Hernando County we've been without internet service since yesterday morning, before the storm even hit. Why I have no idea, but for some reason Spectrum kinda left us in the dark. My eldest sister of course went on a rampage. She ought to be lucky we have power, shelter, and quite frankly the privilege of being alive right now because for folks in Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee, and Collier Counties, that sadly isn't the case. 

When I do get internet service back, whenever that is, I'll be more able to write about this. For now, I have to deal with a somewhat spotty cell service to write this entry, which is better than nothing.

But we here in Pasco and Hernando Counties got lucky...VERY lucky.

CT

September 23-26 Football Preview

 Greetings everyone, except for the government of Iran. You can't get any lower than a morality police to make sure your citizens adhere to a strict religious doctrine. One reason why I'm not very religious anymore, if at all. 

Anyway, another big weekend of football is upon us. Before I get to that though, I have to touch briefly about Tropical Depression Number 9. It's in the southern Caribbean now, but the long-range forecast has it on a collision course for Florida, and the WRONG part of Florida at that. Something to definitely keep an eye on for the next week or so...

Now onto the football picks. I made my picks for three college games and the TNF game on AMazon Prime yesterday, and I missed on that game. So I need to cue up that video of Morty telling Summer to get her stuff together.

On a somewhat related note, I have to check out the new season of "Rick & Morty" sometime. But on to the picks. As always, 506 Sports has your hookup as far as what you'll see and when. As for tonight and Saturday (34-14 so far this season)

Syracuse over Virginia

Air Force over Nevada

Boise State over UTEP

#4 Michigan over Maryland

Duke over Kansas (both teams are 3-0 in football, not basketball)

Iowa State over #17 Baylor

#24 Pitt over Rhode Island

Louisville over South Florida by a billion

#14 Penn State over Central Michigan

#5 Clemson over #21 Wake Forest

#11 Tennessee over #20 Florida (hate to say it, but after the Gators' performance last week, they don't deserve to win this week)

Appalachian State over James Madison

Notre Dame over North Carolina (ugh)

#25 Miami over Middle Tennessee

#22 Texas over Texas Tech

#15 Oregon over Washington State

UCF over Geogia Tech

#16 Ole Miss over Tulsa

East Carolina over Navy

#10 Arkansas over #23 Texas A&M

#3 Ohio State over Wisconsin

#2 Alabama over Vanderbilt (bonus pick: Vandy covers the -41 spread)

#12 NC State over UConn

#6 Oklahoma over Kansas State

Florida State over Boston College

#7 USC over Oregon State

#19 BYU over Wyoming

#18 Washington over Stanford

#13 Utah over Arizona State

Now for the rest of the NFL slate (15-17-1 so far):

TAMPA BAY over Green Bay

Detroit over Minnesota

Baltimore over New England

New Orleans over Carolina (at this point, Panthers fans wish they had Mercedes Ruhle instead of Matt Ruhle)

Chicago over Houston

Kansas City over Indianapolis

Philadelphia over Washington (ugh)

Buffalo over Miami (and to cover, the Bills are that damned good)

Cincinnati over NY Jets

Las Vegas over Tennessee (upset special)

LA Chargers over Jacksonville

Seattle over Atlanta

LA Rams over Arizona

San Francisco over Denver

NY Giants over Dallas (hot take: these Giants are for real)

Again, I hope to better this Sunday than in Sundays past. In the meantime, enjoy your weekend of football watching.

CT

Football Weekend In Review

 Hello again, everybody. Did you enjoy the insane (once again) weekend of football? I know I did, even if my picks to win were an absolute disaster, more on that in a second. First off, I wanted to touch on one of the more incredible endings I have ever seen. For those of you who missed it, Appalachian State (fresh off an upset of Texas A&M the week prior) was facing (cowboy) Troy University in Boone. Late in the fourth quarter with Troy clinging to a four-point lead, App State faced a fourth and goal situation from just outside the two-yard line. The pass to the endzone fell incomplete, so Troy took over on downs. However, Appalachian had two timeouts left despite only 1:13 being on the clock. Fast forward to third and seven for Troy with only 1:09 left. They call a run up the middle that gains five yards which wound the clock down to 25 seconds, where they called time out. On fourth down, instead of punting from their endzone, Troy took an intentional safety, making it 28-26, and setting up a free kick at the 20 yard-line. Here's where I don't get what Troy tried to do next; they SQUIB KICKED the free kick instead of booting it deep. As a result, Appalachian was near midfield and had four opportunities to get some positive yardage. The second attempt could have been intercepted, sealing the Troy win. Instead, this happened:

\

Crazy finish, huh? You can bet that after this weekend there wasn't any moonshine left in western North Carolina (College GameDay broadcast from there earlier on Saturday). Anyway, I had a rather mixed bag picking college games. I went 0-2 on Friday, but Saturday was much better:

W Virginia Tech over Wofford
W #4 Michigan over UConn
W #9 Kentucky over Youngstown State
W #6 Oklahoma over Nebraska
W Army over Villanova
W #1 Georgia over South Carolina
L Purdue over Syracuse
W Virginia over Old Dominion (barely)
W Notre Dame over California (barely)
W Appalachian State over Troy
W #25 Oregon over #12 BYU
L Auburn over #22 Penn State 
W #20 Ole Miss over Georgia Tech
W #19 Wake Forest over Libbity Bibbity (barely)
W East Carolina over Campbell
W Duke over NC A&T
W #15 Tennessee over Akron
L Texas Tech over #16 NC State (upset special)
W UCF over FAU
W #18 Florida over South Florida (barely, the fact they won by three over freaking USF in unacceptable)
W #21 Texas over UTSA

Among the games I didn't pick, Arizona State somehow lost to Eastern Michigan. A loss so humiliating that it cost Herman "you play to win the game" Edwards his job. So including Friday's games, I went 18-5 on the weekend to bring my total to 31-12 so far.

The pros were mental again this weekend, three blown leads (and nearly two more), fights, and a major beatdown Monday night. I want to turn my attention to the Cleveland-NY Jets game this weekend. First off, there were these rather ugly scenes outside FirstEnergy stadium before the game (which happened to be the Browns' home opener). Then the game, in which it appeared the Browns had in the bag when Nick Chubb scored a touchdown to make it 30-17. One problem in hindsight that tends to get overlooked when the score happened because football players have an instinct to score unless it's discussed by the head coach; the Jets were out of timeouts, but it was just before the 2:00 warning, and the line to gain was the one-yard line. So, theoretically, Chubb could have ran out of bounds after reaching the line to gain, the Browns could have kneeled down for the rest of the game and salted away the win. That wasn't quite what happened. A missed extra point, an egregious blown coverage that led to one Jets touchdown, and a recovered onside kick later, and the Jets somehow were back in the game, and they wound up scoring the touchdown and the winning extra point for a 31-30 win. Was it incompetence on the Browns part? Possibly, was it karma from what happened before the game that I mentioned earlier in this post? Probably. Anyway, Browns fans were bent after the game, so much so one fan attempted to recreate the 2001 Bottlegate scandal. However the fan wound up striking Browns owner Jimmy Haslem and was later arrested. Cleveland, when will you ever learn?

As for my picks, they stunk as bad as durian. Anyone ever try durian? Seriously I don't know how people find it a delicacy. Anyway, here's how I did:

L Pittsburgh over New England
L Baltimore over Miami
L Cleveland over NY Jets
L Indianapolis over Jacksonville
L New Orleans over TAMPA BAY (this one I was glad to get wrong)
W NY Giants over Carolina
W Detroit over Washington
W LA Rams over Atlanta
W San Francisco over Seattle
L Cincinnati over Dallas
L Las Vegas over Arizona
W Denver over Houston
W Green Bay over Chicago
W Buffalo over Tennessee
L Minnesota over Philadelphia (should have known that Kirk Cousins sucks out loud in primetime)

TNF 1-0
Sunday early: 2-5
Sunday late: 3-2
SNF: 1-0
MNF: 1-1
-------------------
Week 2: 8-8

Total: 15-16-1. Still under .500. I have to turn it around next week, which I hope to do unless I get sidetracked with family coming down from North Carolina. Anyway, have a good rest of your Tuesday!

CT


Oh, check out JaguarGator9 on youtube. Lots of informative stuff about college and pro football!

Flashback Friday: 9/20/1985

 Hello everyone. As promised, I have returned for this week's Friday Flashback after a week's hiatus. This week, I thought I'd return to Springsteen and Madonna, way before Nirvana. That's right, we're going back to the future 1985 tonight. So, without further ado, here were the top 40 songs for the week ending September 20, 1985:

40. Communication by Power Station. Power Station was a supergroup consisting of Robert Palmer, John and Andy Taylor of Duran Duran fame, and Tony Thompson from the band Chic (remember "Le Freak?"). Anyway, when this song was popular, I would play a little game with the small radio I would listen to. There was an old-timey gospel station just down the dial from Q98 in Fayetteville, NC and every time the song in question would say, "communication," I would quickly flip it to the gospel station for a few seconds, then flip it again at the time "communication" was said again. To me it was hilarious.

39. And We Danced by The Hooters. No, they weren't a band full of hot waitresses serving wings and beer. Instead, this Philadelphia outfit's founding members got their first success from arranging, writing, and performing on "She's So Unusual," Cyndi Lauper's debut album.

38. You Belong To The City by Glenn Frey. Did you know? On this date in 1984, the TV show that this song came from debuted? Yes, "Miami Vice" made its groundbreaking debut on this day thirty-eight years ago. And there have been quite the list of guest stars during its run on NBC.

37. Smokin' In The Boys Room by Motley Crue

36. You're Only Human by Billy Joel

35. Summer of '69 by Bryan Adams. Alas, it wasn't a summer of 69 for me. Maybe I can make up for it this autumn and winter...

34. We Built This City by Starship. Remember when every radio station in a major market did their own voiceovers to the interlude of this song? Tampa's was kind of lame tbh...

33. I Got You Babe by UB40 and Chrissie Hynde. Rather forgettable remake.

32. Freeway Of Love by Aretha Franklin. Timeless classic. When Real Radio 104.1 in Orlando was in their infancy during the summer of 1993, this would be a staple of their weekend music selection.

31. Be Near Me by ABC. The message is perfectly simple, the meaning is clear. Unless I'm saying it, then for some reason said person acts like they're confused, isn't that right, T****? Yes, I'm still a little bitter about that.

30. One Night Love Affair by Bryan Adams. At this stage of my life, a one-night love affair would be a vast improvement over what I have now...

29. Four In The Morning by Night Ranger. In ither words, my bedtime.

28. I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down by Paul Young. Nope, don't remember this one on radio.

27. The Wat You Do The Things You Do by Hall & Oates et al. This was recorded live at the historic Apollo Theater in Harlem.

26. Sunset Grill by Don Henley

25. Invincible by Pat Benatar. On the soundtrack for "The Legend of Billie Jean" starring Helen Slater. Also made a brief comeback as a meme on YTMND a few years ago.

24. Head Over Heels by Tears For Fears. Funny how time flies...

23. Every Step Of The Way by John Waite

22. Lovin' Every Minute Of It by Loverboy. Outside of "Working For The Weekend" and "This Could Be The Night," this I think wa their biggest hit.

21. Miami Vice Theme by Jan Hammer. See #38.

20. Dare Me by The Pointer Sisters

19. The Power Of Love by Huey Lewis & The News. Whoa Doc, this is heavy.

18. C-I-T-Y by John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band

17. We Don't Need Another Hero by Tina Turner. We could use some more actually.

16. Cry by Godley & Creme. Yuck

15. I'm Goin' Down by Bruce Springsteen. Something I wanted to say this summer. But I didn't want my emotions to feel that way dammit!

14. Pop Life by Prince

13. Part-Time Lover by Stevie Wonder

12. Fortress Around Your Heart by Sting. Apparently, there is one around mine, because nobody wants to storm it. At least not the women I do like...

11. Dancing In The Street by David Bowie and Mick Jagger

10. Saving All My Love For You by Whitney Houston. I remember slow dancing with a girl I liked at the St. Pauls, NC town scout hut for someone's birthday. She went to a private school and I lost contact with her. She's now married to someone else. Such has been my fortune.

  9. St. Elmo's Fire by John Parr

  8. Lonely Ol' Night by John Cougar Mellencamp. I've spent about a million of them...

  7. Oh Sheila by Ready For The World

  6. Freedom by Wham!

  5. Cherish by Kool & The Gang

  4. Don't Lose My Number by Phil Collins

  3. Take On Me by A-ha. Not too long ago, this was popular on TikTok for an effect they used that was in the video of said song, but it didn't include that girl with the tie-dye shirt dancing.

  2. Dress You Up by Madonna 💓💓💓

and the number one song on this date in 1985 was...

  1. Money For Nothing by Dire Straits.

This took entirely too long, and I wanted to get some drawing of my crush done. So I'll see you towards the beginning of next week.

CT

Weekend Football Picks Blog. 9/16-18/2022

Hello again everyone, except for you Brett Favre. Seriously, people in Mississippi can't drink water and you're out here trying to get a new facility built for your daughter's college team. SMH. Anyway, we've made it to the weekend, finally. It's been a trying week for some of you, I know. Hopefully this weekend's slate of college and NFL games aren't too stress inducing. 

So, here we go with some college picks for Friday and Saturday. Hopefully, it won't be as chaotic as it was last weekend (record 13-7)

Friday:

Louisville over Florida State
Air Force over Wyoming

Saturday:

Virginia Tech over Wofford
#4 Michigan over UConn
#9 Kentucky over Youngstown State
#6 Oklahoma over Nebraska
Army over Villanova
#1 Georgia over South Carolina
Purdue over Syracuse
Virginia over Old Dominion
Notre Dame over California
Appalachian State over Troy
#25 Oregon over #12 BYU
Auburn over #22 Penn State 
#20 Ole Miss over Georgia Tech
#19 Wake Forest over Libbity Bibbity
East Carolina over Campbell
Duke over NC A&T
#15 Tennessee over Akron
Texas Tech over #16 NC State (upset special)
UCF over FAU
#18 Florida over South Florida
#21 Texas over UTSA

NFL: (8-8-1 after last night's KC win)

(to see which games you're getting in your area, click here)
Pittsburgh over New England
Baltimore over Miami
Cleveland over NY Jets
Indianapolis over Jacksonville
New Orleans over TAMPA BAY (Bucs have lost seven straight games in the regular season to NO, and the injury report looks like a MASH unit)
NY Giants over Carolina
Detroit over Washington
LA Rams over Atlanta
San Francisco over Seattle
Cincinnati over Dallas
Las Vegas over Arizona
Denver over Houston
Green Bay over Chicago

and we get TWO games on MNF:

Buffalo over Tennessee
Minnesota over Philadelphia (upset, because reasons...)

(the catch from last Sunday night)

Hopefully I can improve on last week's slate. Well, sis is complaining again so I have toi cut this short. I hope to have my flashback blog up later this evening. In the meantime, take care.

CT