Jumping right into the football this weekend with a Best Day Ever (Bonus) under the YouTube Rabbithole.
NFL Divisional Round Week, ‘23
Warped Logic - Divisional Round ‘23
Off Peak Saturday
Jacksonville Jaguars @ Kansas City Chiefs
Jaguars
Evan Engram banking on himself on a one year contract to play in Jacksonville and Jaguars taking on the risk has produced great results. Engram, in his 6th NFL season, put up career highs in receptions (73), receiving yards (766), and has scored the most receiving TDs in a season since his rookie year. His 7 catches for 93 receiving yards and a TD score all seemed to be pivotal in last week’s comeback of the ages. Trevor Lawrence has an uncanny ability to turn the page. After making some terrible decisions that put the Jaguars in a hole, he dug them out of it with his unfazed attitude. My Jaguars fan insider mentioned some of the Jaguars celebrated the win over LA by heading to Waffle House, only in Duval!
Chiefs
People forget that Jerick McKinnon had more receiving TDs (9) than the following: Justin Jefferson, Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, Tee Higgins, DK Metcalf, Mike Evans, and Devonta Smith. (Source: @WyattB_FF) The Georgia Southern alum entering this season, his 7th in the NFL, had 7 career receiving TDs. An even crazier stat I found on ProFootballReference is entering Week 13 of ‘22, McKinnon had 8 career receiving TDs. He has scored a receiving TD in every game since Week 14 and even scored twice, twice. A 30 year old RB randomly going on a insane TD run like this is one of those unexplainable streaks you really only find in sports. Also the Jaguars give up a league worst, 68.61 receiving yards per game to opposing TEs (Source: CBS Sports) so I would expect Jacksonville, knowing this will overcompensate to not let Travis Kelce beat them which should give McKinnon some outlet opportunities.
Prediction: 31-27 KC (+8.5 Jax & Over 53)
New York Giants @ Philadephia Eagles
Giants
Hoboken’s own, Daniel Jones, became the first player in NFL history to reach both 300 passing yards and 75 rushing yards in a playoff game in last week’s win over the Vikings. Since 1990, the NY Giants have faced a #1 seed 6 times. They are a perfect 6-0 against the top seed. (Source: Giants) Could we be in the midst of another Giants playoff run that comes seemingly out of the thin Tri-State chilly air? Believe it or not, this bitter NY Jets fan is actually kind of rooting for this underdog Giants team. Them going on a run would only help the NYC bars recovering from COVID. All Hail the New York Giants!
Eagles
My Eagles fan insider is going to hate that last paragraph. Philadelphia has an underdog of their own under center. Jalen Hurts had a great quote in a Sports Illustrated feature from this week. Many sports fans, myself included, believe that Hurts has just arrived on the MVP candidate on a Super Bowl favorite territory, his response to skeptics was, “There is no arrival. The eagerness, the thirst, the desire to want more will always be there. I carry those scars on me everywhere I go. I began to find the thrill in it. I began to find the thrill in the hate, the disbelief, the doubt.” (Source: Sports Illustrated) To those who may not know all of Jalen Hurts’ background, in college he entered college as a run first QB with Nick Saban’s ‘16 Alabama squad that only lost to Deshaun Watson’s Clemson in the National Championship. Hurts then led Alabama back to the National Championship game of the ‘17 season, only to be benched in the 2nd half of the title game against Georgia for Tua Tagovailoa - who won the Championship and then effectively took Hurts starting spot in ‘18. Jalen Hurts, rather than make a fuss, transferred to the pass happy Lincoln Riley coached Oklahoma in ‘19, fixed some of his mechanical throwing issues, and was drafted by the Eagles with the 53rd overall pick in ‘20. While I’m still a bit skeptical that Jalen Hurts can get it done through the air in the playoffs, what the hell do I know? He’s proven doubters like myself wrong time and time again. I’m intrigued by this NFC East matchup.
Prediction: 28-24 PHI (+7.5 NYG & Over 48)
Standard Sunday
Cinncinati Bengals @ Buffalo Bills
Bengals
Last week Sam Hubbard’s 98 yard fumble return for a TD was the longest in NFL playoff history. Bengals LB, Logan Wilson, deserves a ton of credit for being able to not only jar out the ball, but make a perfect touch pass tip to Hubbard. I can’t even tell if that was intentional, but it sure looked smooth. Last week was Joe Burrow’s 4th career playoff win, no other QB from the ‘20 Draft class has yet to win one game. (Source: @NFLRookieWatxh) The #1 overall pick of ‘20 always seems to play at his best when the lights get brightest. Despite being sacked 23 times in his first 5 playoff games (the most was Wade Wilson who was sacked 25 times and he eclipsed Len Dawson being sacked 22 times), Burrow has had a knack for making the winning play or two that doesn’t show up in the box score. He’ll juke out a defender who just came flying in to take his head off and pick up 4 yards in the process. Little things like that and of course his poise to fit the ball right where Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins can get it, is what makes him so special.
Bills
Big Game Gabe Davis (@YouTheReader no relation if you’re wondering) has raised his game in the playoffs the past two postseasons. In the 3 playoff games that he has played in, he’s caught 16 passes for 355 receiving yards and 6 TDs. Buffalo’s Sunday weather forecast is “rain and snow showers in the afternoon. High in the mid 30s. Chance of rain 80%”. (Source: Weatherbug) Weatherbug is always right, so Josh Allen may need to use his legs a bit more in this one. The Bills should also feed James Cook rather than Devin Singletary, something that John from Rochester (Bills fan insider) mentioned to me last Friday. Could the weather affect the rythem of the passing game between Stefan Diggs and Josh Allen? Could this be a game where the Bills need to win by running the football and then airing it out with a big play action chunk play or two to Gabe Davis? I have no idea, we’ll see.
Prediction: 30-26 BUF (+5 CIN & Over 49)
Dallas Cowboys @ San Francisco 49ers
Cowboys
Here’s a stat I’d be shocked if you heard somewhere involving Cowboy TEs. Dalton Schultz caught 2 TDs last Monday Night against the Buccanneers. Did you know that those 2 playoff TDs are more than Jason Witten had in his whole postseason career with the Dallas Cowboys? Witten, despite playing on the Cowboys from ‘03 to ‘19, only scored 1 postseason TD in his entire career in Dallas. It is nice to see the Cowboys and 49ers are playing in the playoffs again. Last year left Cowboys fans in disbelief that Dak couldn’t spike the ball in time, but historically, Dallas actually has the edge over San Francisco in the postseason. These two teams have matched up 8 times in the playoffs, with Dallas being on the winning end of 5 of the 8. The Cowboys have also gone 3-2 on the road in San Francisco. (Source: WFAA)
49ers
I’m assuming all other sports media outlets have just been talking nonstop about Brock Purdy so I might as well join in on the action. Mr. Irrelevant (nickname to every last pick in the NFL Draft) of ‘22 was picked 262nd overall. He played at Iowa State with David Montgomery and Breece Hall as his RBs. 5 games into his freshman season, Purdy was thrown into game action as the 3rd string QB because their starter went down with injury and their backup was just so-so. He ended up never relinquising the QB1 role, startering in the next 45 games. He finished as the most winningest QB Cyclones history with a a 30-17 record and became Iowa State’s career leader in passing yards (12,170), total offense (13,347), touchdown passes (81), completions (993), passing efficiency (151.1) and completion percentage (67.7%). (Source: Des Moines Register) Here are some other nice stats from the Des Moines Register article that Purdy has set in the NFL - “he is the 1st NFL rookie with four touchdowns in a playoff game, joined Matthew Stafford, Aaron Rodgers and Kurt Warner as the only players with 300-plus passing yards and four-plus touchdowns in their first playoff game, and with at least two touchdown passes Sunday against Dallas, can break Justin Herbert’s NFL rookie record for most consecutive games with multiple TD passes.”
Prediction: 25-22 SF (+3.5 SF & Over 46)
YouTube Rabbithole
Last week while I was at Captains Bar having a pint, I mentioned there was a guy at the bar who I gave my on the house Jameson shot to. He wrote a script to a movie called Allan the Dog. He described it as something similar to Ted. Here it is!
Mac Miller Backstory
Mac Miller passed away at the young age of 26 in September of ‘18. He had his well-documented troubles with substance abuse which ultimately led to his unfortunate death. While his death was certainly a shocking one to people like me who grew up listening to him, unfortunately, drug overdoses are still on the rise every year in the U.S. (Source: National Institute on Drug Abuse)
While that is definitely not something that I wish to overlook, I still enjoy listening to Mac Miller from time to time because it brings me back to when I was a sophomore in high school. My friends showed me his music and we would listen to him when we were 15-16 years old. It was very cool to see this kid only a few years older than us living out his dreams through music.
This song in particular I heard for the first time in probably a decade at a late night at Green Rock with friends and ever since I’ve thrown it on shuffle.
In order to reach the skyscraper heights I look up to, I have no choice but to always be thinking about what’s next. For instance, I had this song picked out for this Friday, since the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I mentioned it back then that I heard this song at Green Rock and have given it a few plays a day ever since. It helps me turn yesterday’s page and focus on making today the Best Day yet. If you’re not waking up every day thinking about how it could be your Best Day Ever, then you’re sort of just letting time pass that you won’t get back. In terms of getting paid off with this, well, that’s the goal one day.
I could be wrong, but am I starting to make the doubters rethink what I’m doing? Don’t answer that, back to making sure every post I come correct.
Music always brings me back to a place and time. Without it, I don’t think I’d be able to remember the anecdotes.
Practice, practice, practice. That’s all writing really is. Pushing through to make my own self-imposed deadlines and constantly looking to adapt to improve.
Well, I still take the 126 Bus Route for sure. In the morning commute from Hoboken, I’m always business casual with a worn-out black JanSport’s backpack, partly scuffed-up dress casual shoes, and when there is seating I’m either writing something down on a pen&paper or typing on my laptop. Most guys on that morning bus are dressed to the 10s with freshly ironed suits. I’m assuming if they ever looked up from their phones they would think I look like some Village Idiot jotting notes down about sports. As I mentioned, they are always on their phones falling half asleep to the same sports writers they’ve been reading for decades. What drives me is to one day go on the bus to work and see somebody I don’t know have Week to Week Notes logo on the top of their phone as they scroll. I’m a homebody so boarding jets would never really interest me, but I would like to maybe sit first class for the first time. That would be a kind of cool goal for one day.
How I look at it, there is no sitting around waiting at an opportunity like this. If Week to Week Notes isn’t the next sports media publication of a generation, then someone else will be. If it doesn’t work out, I won’t let it be because I didn’t work hard enough for it.
All PG-13 content. I’m hoping to always make my family proud.
That said, @Mom&Grandma please scroll past the next lyrics and screenshots. This next line is for my main target audience…
@Instagram why do I get these “targeted ads”?
@Instagram What are you trying to insinuate?
@YouTheReader… hmm… it would be kind of a funny bit though, no?
How I somehow managed to make drinking pints of Guinness an integral part of Week to Week Notes’ growth is beyond me.
That’s a Snapple fact.
I’ll never be musically talented enough to create something, but if you can’t tell any song I use with Week to Week Notes inspires me with imagination. Trying to make Week to Week Notes a legitimate sports media publication will certainly take time and has already been a bit of a journey but I’m excited about it. I guess whenever anybody tries to do something a bit different than the curve, there is some paranoia involved. I’m just getting better at shaking off the self-doubts by turning up the music.
Just last night, I walked around Hoboken in the rain to have a couple of pints and pick up my Too Good To Go orders for dinner. @YouTheReader I don’t know about you, but I sometimes love a good cold rainy night. It makes the sunny days that much more appreciated, is obviously good for the trees&plants around us, and life shouldn’t always be sunshine - in fact, everybody knows you don’t get rainbows without rain. Sometimes I think I write best when I’m in a rainy zone.
Scaffolds build skyscrapers. They provide flooring different than the ground we were all given.
I have some pints to drink & football to watch… @YouTheReader have a nice weekend!