- 10 Reasons Mr. Brightside is the Pub Anthem of My Generation
- Week 10 NFL Preview
- YouTube Rabbithole
Alright @YouTheReader,
We’re returning to the well with Mr. Brightside by The Killers in Week 10 of ‘23 after going there in Week 10 in ‘22 because this needs revisiting…
For a bit of context for readers who may not be subscribed to the Our Town, this time last year Week to Week Notes weren’t being posted every day on an Instagram account called @You_The_Reader. Every Friday, I was posting a story with a link on my personal Instagram which sorta capped out my potential readers. My hometown has a “Parents at Play” Facebook Group, which back in my day always used to serve a good bit of banter so I figured I throw the link in there to see if it could drum up more readers. Of course, I went with the tongue-in-cheek approach. I guess my alternative could have been:
Hello PR Parents,
I’m Tom Davis! A former Pirate from the Class of 2013! Here is a link to my sports blog called Week to Week Notes where I write about sports!
Please subscribe, thanks for reading!
…but I just don’t think that would’ve worked. I could be wrong but that alternative approach would have gotten chewed up and spit out even from America’s Town of Friendly People. While it might not have necessarily been my target audience, how could I ever possibly think of getting Week to Week Notes read in New York City if people from my hometown wouldn’t bother clicking the link? Anyway, this is all just to say that my options for online growth seemed limited and I tried something outside the box.
I write all this useless stuff just to give you some of my perspective. I don’t know if you’ll find it interesting but it sorta worked at the time. Well, enough of this time last year, it’s time to once again address some Boston College nerds…
Top 10 Reasons Mr. Brightside is the Modern Pub Anthem of My Generation*
*I don’t know if I’m the youngest millennial or old-ass Gen Z. Can I claim a bit of both?
10. Everybody can relate in some way to the song. Whether you think of this song as a Sad Song Sunday or Off-Peak Saturday, it’s tough to be indifferent about this tune.
9. The Killers are an elite band.
They got hits besides Mr. Brightside such as When You Were Young, Dustland, Smile Like You Mean It, All These Things That I’ve Done, and Read My Mind to name a handful.
8. Everybody knows the words.
7. If you don’t sing it or at least give a head nod/toe tap at the bar you’re a jerk.
6. The intro electric guitar and muffled “I’m coming out of my cage and I’ve been doing just fine” is so distinct.
5. If you don’t like this song or make fun of it, you’re living a lie and should seek help. Seriously, it’s about to be ‘24, being an edgy hipster about this song is grotesque. Grow up.
4. Every guy you know from ages 25 to 45 at one point in his life has had a night out with friends, ventured away solo to the bar, heard this song being played in the background, looked down, chugged the drink he had in his hand and then said to himself “f’ it, I’m buying two more.”
3. This song gets played once a night (as it should). Did you really drink at an establishment if it wasn’t played?
I’ve been to over 500 pubs this year… Trust me… It plays….
2. It brings you back to the early 2000s. No phones, everybody just living in the moment.
1. Who objects to this?
Hey, it’s just my opinion, I’m the one willing to put it out there. Disagree with it? Please sound off in the comments, debates are embraced.
Now let’s talk ball….
Thursday Nighter Recap
Carolina Panthers 13 | Chicago Bears 16
That was a real doozy. With 2 of the worst teams in the NFL facing off against each other, we got what we signed up for. The last time that a primetime game featured 2 teams .250 or below at least 7 games into the season was in ‘20 when the 1-6 Giants played the 1-4-1 Eagles. (KillerSports) If Mike Francesa put a gun to my head, I’d say Da Bears are in a much better position at going on a run like Philly has since that ‘20 game.
Rather than just look at this totally from a negative lens, Chicago’s undrafted free agent Division II starting QB just defeated the NFL #1 Overall Pick and former Heisman Trophy winner from ‘Bama with Bryce Young. He didn’t necessarily outplay him by much, but Bagent got the job done. Another element to Chicago’s win was their newly acquired pass rusher Montez Sweat, who made Bryce Young’s life a nightmare by pressuring him 8 times.
I had the Panthers winning 26-25 (+4 CAR & Over 39) so at least they kept it close enough that we’re 1-1 heading into the Week 10 weekend.
7 AM in Germany
The modern-day Colts vs Pats, sheesh, the NFL certainly ain’t sending Frankfurt our very best. Back when Mr. Brightside was released, this would have been a much different story. The Colts and Patriots were once the premier rivalry in the NFL because of Peyton Manning vs. Tom Brady. Now we have a former Frat Star QB going up Mediocre Mac and the wild part is the frat brother from Alpha Sigma isn’t the pervert in this scenario. Back to Manning and Brady, their first playoff dual took place in the ‘03 AFC Championship Game where Peyton had a below 50% completion percentage and threw 4 INTs in a loss up at Foxborough. The NFL actually had to change their rulebook defensive holding and pass interference calls because the Colts and Manning complained to them about this game specifically. The Colts and Patriots would meet again in the AFC Title Game in ‘06, this time with Indianapolis pulling through en route for Manning’s 1st Super Bowl Ring. As for the current teams, RB Jonathan Taylor seems to have taken over all of the previous workload share from RB Zack Moss. Santana Moss’ cousin still is 2nd in the NFL in rushing yards for the year with 615. As for the Pats, this is their 1st trip across the Atlantic since ‘12, let’s hope Mediocre Mac can keep his hands to himself.
Prediction: 22-19 IND (-1.5 IND & Under 43.5)
1 PM Slate
The Texans and Bengals played each other in the AFC Wild Card Round in back-to-back years in ‘11 and ‘12, with Houston’s QB TJ Yates winning both games over Andy Dalton. Fast forward to last week, Texans QB CJ Stroud has revitalized the Texans playoff hopes. Stroud in Week 9 set the NFL rookie record for passing yards in a game with 470 as he also threw 5 TDs and led the game-winning drive with 46 seconds left. It wasn’t only Stroud who stepped up for Houston, their RB Dare Ogunbowale became the first non-FG kicker or punter to make a field goal in a game since Wes Welker did so for the Phins in ‘04. Ogunbowale stepped up when their kicker, Ka'imi Fairbairn, suffered a quad injury. As for Cincinnati, they are rolling, winners of 4 straight. QB Joe Burrow has thrown 10 TDs with 0 INTs during this stretch. The Bengals WRs ended up on the injury report this week with WRs Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins sitting out of practice. I’ll take the Bengals because it hasn’t just been their offense, their defense has not allowed more than 20 points in the last 4 games and should be another test for the impressive Texans rookie QB.
Prediction: 28-21 CIN (-6.5 CIN & Over 48)
Wow, another head-to-head matchup between teams with playoff history. These two teams have faced off in the postseason 5 times with the Vikings winning 4 of them. The most famous Saints and Vikings playoff game was the ‘17 NFC Divisional Round where Minnesota’s Stefon Diggs caught a walk-off TD on a Minnesota Miracle. These Saints come marching into Minnesota on a 2 game winning streak. New Orleans’ defense leads the NFL with 62 pass defenses this season, the 1st team to have 60+ in the 1st 9 weeks of the season since Kansas City (64) and Denver (63) did so in ‘13. (@SaintsPR) The Vikings play are winners of 4 in a row and 5 of their last 6, after starting their season 0-3. After their QB1 Kirk Cousins tore his Achilles, rookie QB Jaren Hall was the 1st to take over. The Mormon Missle couldn’t last a quarter before he got sidelined with a concussion. For the 2nd time this year, QB Josh Dobbs entered a game with less than a week of preparation with his new team. Dobbs was so new to the offense that head coach Kevin O’Connell had to tell him not only the plays but the WR routes in between plays. I’ll take the Saints’ defense this go around.
Prediction: 18-15 NO (-2.5 NO & Under 41)
The Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers faced off in Super Bowl XLV with Aaron Rodgers defeating Big Ben in a tight one. The Steelers had beaten the Jets in the AFC Championship Game which still haunts me to this day, while the Packers dealt with a ton of adversity as 31 different players on that team missed at least 1 game due to injury. The Jets should have won that Super Bowl. Sad. Anyway, the Packers today are coming off a 20-3 victory over the Rams backup QB. The Packers’ QB Jordan Love was on fire in the 2nd half of their winning, completing 12 of 13 passes for 160 yards and a TD. The Steelers are coming off a Thursday Night win and in their Mike Tomlin era, they are 12-5 with extra rest. One thing to monitor with the Steelers is their WR George Pickens being the latest WR diva to ask to “be freed.” Pickens is annoyed that in Diontae Johnson’s return, his targets have decreased (18 compared to 23 in the previous 3 games) and he’s coming off back-to-back games with only 1 catch. HC Mike Tomlin gave the perfect response to the media when asked about this saga, “I know it's a cute story for you guys. But it is a pebble in my shoe.” Tomlin dealt with Antonio Brown for nearly a decade, he’ll handle Pickens just fine. I think the Steelers defense will handle Jordan Love, as I can assure you he will not be as comfortable in Pittsburgh going up against TJ Watt & Co.
Prediction: 16-12 PIT (-3 PIT & Under 39)
Titans’ head coach Mike Vrabel announced that rookie QB Will Levis is officially the team’s QB1. It marks the end of the Ryan Tannehill QB1 era in Tennessee. Tannehill took over for Marcus Mariota back in ‘19, leading the Titans to the playoffs from ‘19 to ‘21. This is the right decision for the franchise as the Titans are currently in last place in the AFC South and they might as well see what they got with the mayo-in-coffee man. The next conversation to be had is whether Tennessee will turn their RB duties over to rookie Tyjae Spears more often as Derrick Henry is in the last year of his deal, but nobody wants to have that conversation because Henry is the football King of Nashville. Tampa Bay’s WR Mike Evans came as close as somebody can come to scoring a TD without scoring a TD as he was touched down an inch away. The 10-year Buc veteran now just needs to average 45.1 receiving yards per game in order to get to 1k yards for the 10th straight season. We keep track of this every week because I find the Bucs boring. To be honest, I find both of these teams boring this year and I haven’t had a good feel with either in terms of the picks so I’ll indifferently go with Tennessee.
Prediction: 20-20 TEN (+1 TEN & Over 38.5)
The San Francisco 49ers are broken. After appearing invincible with their squeaky clean 5-0 record, the Niners have lost 3 straight. Prior to their losing streak, QB Brock Purdy had envisions of starting his career 16-0, which would’ve broken Big Ben’s record of 15 straight wins to start a career. Now Purdy’s 10-3 record doesn’t have the same aura to it and neither did their defense in Week 8 when Joe Burrow sliced them on 28 of 32 passes for 283 yards with 3 TDs. The Niners QB spent his bye week on a farm in Iowa with his girlfriend and the team brought in defensive reinforcement as in walks edge rusher Chase Young. Jaguars QB Trevor Sunshine Lawrence made an appearance on Monday Night Football’s Manning Cast. For a laugh, the simulcast got a picture of what Sunshine would look like without his flow and it turns out he’s got a forehead just like Peyton. Sunshine in response said, “I’ll let the natural aging process take place,” which is kinda funny since Peyton Manning has had the exact haircut since he was playing for Tennessee. Back to the hard-hitting analysis, Nick Bosa and Chase Young will assuredly bring back the San Francisco aura as will Purdy going back to his Iowan roots.
Prediction: 27-23 SF (-3 SF & Over 46.5)
Last week the Cleveland Browns were quarterbacked to a win by Deshaun Watson for the 1st time since Week 3 in September. It’s too bad the Browns were playing Arizona and probably didn’t even need their $230 million arm to beat the Cardinals. They need Watson to have one of his vintage Texans’ performances if they want a win in Baltimore. This game features the #1 and #2 ranked statistical defenses in terms of yards & points allowed per game. You’d have to be a madman to take the over in points in this one. When playing in November or later, Lamar Jackson has gone 11-3 against opponents with a winning record. When the Ravens played the Browns in Week 4, Cleveland lost 28-3 as they were without Watson and had to start Dorian Thompson-Robinson. This go-around, expect it to be tighter, but signs still flock to Baltimore.
Prediction: 14-7 BAL (-6 BAL & Under 37.5)
4 PM Slate
Week to Week Notes is calling for the firing of Arthur Smith. I don’t like to talk about another man’s job, but in fairness, he is the son of a billionaire. His father founded FedEx and he’ll land on his two feet. I’m sure Arthur is a nice guy, who means well, but it’s not working. I mean sure the Falcons are in 2nd place and only a game behind the Saints but what he is doing to Bijan Robinson, Drake London, and Kyle Pitts is unjust. Bijan Robinson has touched the ball 1 time inside the 5-yard line all year. 1 TIME! These young men are immensely talented players that he is purposely holding back because he doesn’t like fantasy football. Look at this face, the man is defeated. The Cardinals’ franchise QB Kyler Murray will be making his season debut in his return from his ACL from a year ago. Murray at least makes Arizona somewhat interesting, but don’t let that distract you from the fact that the Cardinals allow 352 yards (9th worst) and 26.7 points (6th worst) per game while only gaining 290 yards (7th worst) and scoring 16.8 points (5th worst) per game. Look I’m just saying Arthur Smith should be relieved of his duties, nothing crazy like we should eat the rich, we’ll save that for when Atlanta doesn’t score 30 points this week.
Prediction: 31-13 ATL (-1.5 ATL & Over 42.5)
The Detroit Lions are coming off a bye week and at 6-2 are now only 2 games up in the loss column over Minnesota who they still have to place twice this year. At one point it looked like the Lions were going to sleepwalk through to an AFC North title, now they have some competition. One thing they have going for them is that their RB duo is back to full strength. David Montgomery is back to practice after dealing with rib injuries and their rookie Jahmyr Gibbs is coming off a career-high of 26 carries for 152 rushing yards. San Diego is coming off a win in New York where somehow their QB Justin Herbert threw for his least amount of completions (16) and passing yards (136) to go with no passing TDs, yet they still won by 3 scores. One of the highlights of Herbert’s quiet passing game was hitting WR Keenan Allen for his 10,000th career receiving yard. Allen is now the 54th player in NFL history to reach this mark and is now 54 yards from passing Shannon Sharpe as the next name on the list. Since the Chargers offense didn’t have to do much last week, they’re due to explode this week.
Prediction: 32-30 LAC (+2.5 LAC & Over 48.5)
Ladies and gentlemen of the greater New York area, here is your new New York Football Giants starting QB, Tommy DeVito. He was seen rocking a TD chain over the offseason. Gotta love the Jersey kid spunk, my TD chain is in the mail. The last time the Giants played the Cowboys was infamously this season opener when the GMen lost 40-0. This win has largely inflated Dallas’ margin of victory average, which is 3rd in the NFL at +9.0 per game, the bad news is that the game also weighed down the Giants’ margin of victory average which is an NFL worst -12.9 points per game. It kills me to go against a fellow TD so I predict he will score his 3rd career NFL TD in a closer loss.
Prediction: 29-8 DAL (-16 DAL & Under 38.5)
The Commies WR Jahan Dotson has awakened the past two weeks for a total of 12 catches for 177 yards and 2 scores. I’m manifesting his hot streak gets halted this weekend as Seattle’s defense will seek revenge after they were throttled by the Ravens last weekend. The ground game was what did Seattle in last week and lucky for them, Washington has the 7th worst rushing attack in the NFL at only 90.1 yards per game. This game will also serve as a rebound game for Geno “They Wrote Me Off But I A’int Write Back Though” Smith who just last week played his worst game in his time as a Seahawk (13 of 28 for 157 yards and 1 INT). Washington has gives up the 6th most passing yards per game (252) so due to these factors I think the Seahawks get right in Seattle.
Prediction: 24-17 SEA (-6 SEA & Under 46.5)
Prime Time
Sunday Scaries
I’m sure many would think after Monday Night Football, the vibes would be low, but it’s the Goddamn Jets, and we’re back again on Primetime once more. This time New York will fly out to Las Vegas. Am I concerned that they’re a young team with a ton of guys who’ve never been to Vegas before? A little bit. I’m also kind of nervous about Robert Saleh against Antonio Pierce. Part of Saleh’s main schtick as head coach is the intimidation factor that the Jets head coach can stare across the field at the opponent’s head coach and you know that Saleh can kick that guy’s ass. With Antonio Pierce, I don’t know about that. As for the players, we get a primetime matchup involving Davante Adams against Sauce Gardner. This is a game where I don’t care what kind of scheme they want to call it, Gardner needs to be matched up with Adams on nearly every play. Thus far this season, the Jets have done a pretty good job against the run, you can’t let the best WR in football beat you if you have an All-Pro CB and don’t match him up with him. The Raiders are starting the young and inexperienced AOC (Aidan O’Connell) who will be making just his 3rd career start. Offensively the Jets need a spark. I would give rookie WR Jason Brownlee some reps over all the multiple TE packages that clearly aren’t working. They should also really consider activating Trevor Simien onto the 53-man roster. I’m not saying Simien is a savior, but after the Giants game and then last week’s Monday Night Football debacle, they can’t start Sunday night with 5 straight possessions of punts and turnovers. I’ll take the Jets in an ugly one.
Prediction: 6-3 NYJ (-1 NYJ & Under 36)
Moody Mondays
I could not find a nice picture of the Broncos and Bills with a MNF promo so I had to make my own using Google Images. It ain’t much but it’s honest work. If I weren’t going to use the team mascots, I would’ve promoted this game as the Von Miller game. Bills pass rusher and future Hall of Famer, Von Miller, was the Denver Broncos’ Super Bowl 50 MVP. Miller’s 2.5 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, and 2 QB hurries were enough to drag Peyton Manning’s football corps over the finish line for one last Super Bowl. With Denver, Von Miller set the Broncos record in sacks with 110.5 in 9.5 seasons before being traded to the Rams and winning another Super Bowl in LA. The Texas A&M alum then signed with the Buffalo Bills in ‘22 and after a productive 8-sack season with them last year, he is still seeking his 1st sack in ‘23. The Broncos had a bye last week, are on a 2 game winning, and coming off a win over the Chiefs, but I still don’t buy them going up against the Big Bad Bills up in Buffalo.
Prediction: 45-0 BUF (-7.5 BUF & Under 47.5)
YouTube Rabbithole
County Kerry Bar Sings “Mr. Brightside” to Remember Lost Friend