Tagged: football
Carnell Knowledge 2013 : NFL Week 1
Quiet here on the blog lately but NFL season gets my butt back in gear. Doing NFL picks started on the radio show in 2008 and then I moved it over to the blog. The name came from a listener who asked if I’d ever thought of using “Carnell Knowledge” as the name for a segment. Works for this so I’ve used it the past few seasons.
On Twitter, I picked Denver over Baltimore on Thursday. I’ll use Twitter to make the Thursday picks since that game is so much earlier than the majority of the week. For those new, I just pick winners. No point spreads. I list the games, then my pick followed by any comments I might have.
OAKLAND AT INDIANAPOLIS
COLTS
Indy made the playoffs last year at 11-5. However they were outscored by opponents by 30 points. Huh? No wonder many people like me picked them to lose in that playoff game. They were beat by the eventual Super Bowl champions 24-9. Meanwhile the Raiders are the Raiders.
MINNESOTA AT DETROIT
LIONS
Vikings made the playoffs thanks to Peterson but Ponder is still their QB. Lions I think is an 8-8 team who will surprise Minnesota in Week 1.
MIAMI AT CLEVELAND
BROWNS
2 teams who should be better than last year, just going with the Browns on a whim.
CINCINNATI AT CHICAGO
BENGALS
Quietly the Bengals have made the playoffs 2 years in a row. Even I forgot about that until the pre-season. Chicago has Jay Cutler and I’m never sold on him.
SEATTLE AT CAROLINA
SEAHAWKS
Super Bowl contender against one of the most overrated QB in the league, easy pick for me.
KANSAS CITY AT JACKSONVILLE
CHIEFS
Andy Reid now coaching KC with Alex Smith. A QB who has won a Super Bowl, well he lost his job to the guy who got them to the big game but a ring is a ring. Jaguars are airing the NFL Red Zone channel on their jumbotron during home games. All you need to know about that franchise.
TAMPA BAY AT NY JETS
BUCS
Neither team I have much faith in this season. A pick em.
ATLANTA AT NEW ORLEANS
SAINTS
Sean Peyton back as head coach after his suspension, New Orleans had one of the worst defenses ever last season. So they can’t be that bad again.
TENNESSEE AT PITTSBURGH
STEELERS
Who do the Titans have at quarterback? Jake Locker or Ryan Fitzpatrick. Dog’s breakfast there.
NEW ENGLAND AT BUFFALO
PATRIOTS
Pats usually pound the Bills so that’s enough time on this one.
GREEN BAY AT SAN FRANCISCO
49ERS
49ers spanked the Packers in the playoffs last season and this game is San Francisco so I’ll go with them.
ARIZONA AT ST. LOUIS
RAMS
Carson Palmer now in Arizona. Cardinals were in such bad shape that Palmer is a big upgrade. In one of the strangest stats of 2012, what team in the NFC West had the best division record? It wasn’t Seattle or San Francisco, it was the Rams who were 4-1-1. Go figure.
NY GIANTS AT DALLAS
COWBOYS
Early season big games, Dallas likes to show up. End of the season is a different matter altogether as we’ve seen many times.
PHILADELPHIA AT WASHINGTON
EAGLES
My team is the Redskins but I don’t know what to expect in Week 1 with RGIII. And the Eagles a re a mystery too since new coach Chip Kelly has kept things under wrap. Flip a coin and I went with Philly.
HOUSTON AT SAN DIEGO
TEXANS
Chargers finally fired Norv Turner and GM A.J. Smith. Too little, too late for the Chargers. And it is now 10 years ago when they traded Eli Manning to the Giants and got Phillip Rivers. Eli wasn’t going to play for them so can’t blame them too much for that. However San Diego later on letting Drew Brees leave and going with Rivers? Not the best decision.
Houston is a team I never believe in. Last year was that comical Monday Night game against the Patriots. Where they showed up all wearing custom made Letterman jackets like a high school team, and proceeded to get their ass kicked 42-14. Playoff time they get the Patriots again and lose 41-28.
They did make the playoffs however, so this week I’ll pick them over San Diego.
Carnell Knowledge 2013 : Divisional Weekend
Divisional Weekend, which doesn’t have the same ring as ‘Wild Card’ Weekend. We’re stuck with the name though.
Baltimore at Denver
RAVENS
Peyton Manning’s playoff record, 9-10. Cold weather playoff games where the temperature is below 40F, 0-3. Amount of times he’s been ‘one and done’ in the post season, SEVEN. That`s a lot for one of the so-called greatest quarterbacks of all time. Heck, Eli has twice as many Super Bowl rings as him.
Denver is on an 11 game winning streak, however how many of those wins against winning teams? Two. And by the end of the year the Broncos had the 2nd easiest strength of schedule in the NFL. Colts last week came in with 11 wins, and Baltimore beat them pretty soundly.
Houston at New England
PATRIOTS
No chance I`d put money down on Houston after not showing up earlier in the season against the Pats. And barely beating the Bengals last week. Not much else to add.
Seattle at Atlanta
SEAHAWKS
It`s Matt Ryan and the Atlanta Falcons. If you’ve read the blog during the season you know I’m no fan of them. Seattle playing great and this is a road game in a dome. Which negates a lot of home field. Falcons had Green Bay at home couple seasons ago, didn’t help them any.
Green Bay at San Francisco
PACKERS
Aaron Rodgers against the team he grew up rooting for, and who ended up drafting Alex Smith over him. Smith is on the bench right now by the way. Rodgers is a guy who holds a grudge very easily as the 60 Minutes piece on him showed. So now he gets one of his BIGGEST grudges in the playoffs. Not a recipe for good things.
Also San Fran’s defense hasn’t been that good lately. Giving up 34 points to New England, then 42 points against Seattle. Ended the season with a 27-13 win over Arizona, a team whose coach and GM were fired the following day so not exactly a good team. A shootout with Green Bay is not a good idea.
Carnell Knowledge 2013 : Wild Card Weekend
Almost typed 2012 in the title. Back to picking NFL games after a 2 week absence.
Bengals at Texans
BENGALS
After all these years it is time to pull out a saying. Houston, we have a problem. Had a chance for a bye and lost to the Colts last week. Had a chance to be 1st seed in the AFC and pissed that away over the course of December. Had a chance to prove critics wrong against the Patriots on national TV, lost 42-14. I can’t pick Houston against the Bengals.
Vikings at Packers
PACKERS
Minnesota beating Green Bay 2 weeks in a row? Their quarterback Christian Ponder did play well last Sunday. Odds of that happening a week later I’d say is slim.
Colts at Ravens
RAVENS
Former Baltimore Colts vs Baltimore’s current team. Head coach of Indy, Chuck Pagano vs the team he was a coach with the previous 4 seasons. Neither team I believe in. Ravens do have a lot more playoff experience so I’ll pick them.
Seahawks at Redskins
REDSKINS
Which team on a streak do I go with? Washington, just because they are home. Seattle 2-5 on the road, I don’t count the Toronto win against the Bills as a road game. That was neutral site as anyone here in Ontario would tell you. It was a game they were trying to sell tickets to by the fact a one hit wonder was playing halftime.
And I’m not picking against Robert Griffin III and Alfred Morris. Seattle can win, however that road record is just not good enough for me to pick them.
September Update
Only one update for August seemed about right. Wasn’t much going on with the radio show, quiet end to summer. In a college town once Labour Day hits, summer is done. Queen’s students back in town and football broadcasts begin.
Couple of changes soon. Doing technical producer on the 1st two games then taking most of the season off. Might be back for that Friday night game in Toronto. But won’t be in the chair for the Saturday games. Was too much on my plate this fall.
As for the radio show on September 19th it will be back to the old 60 minute length. Still on Fridays around the same time 7-8pm. So we lose the first hour. Schedule crunch in the fall so that explains the change. Thought better to stay on same day then go to another timeslot. Program was an hour, the first year and a half, so it isn’t something that different. Can’t play 3-4 songs from a CD like I do in the 2 hour format, but that is the only major difference I can think of.
Could change again in winter or spring schedule. For now I’ll have a relaxing fall with going back to the old days. Starting out the show filling out an hour was tough when you are starting from scratch. Mentioned before that back in 2007 CFRC only had one Great Big Sea album. Have 3 now just to show how it’s increased.
After doing 2 hours for two years 60 minutes will seem easy. 🙂
NFL Picks Week 3 : Carnell Knowledge
Some East Coast football content today with Touchdown Atlantic in Moncton. Home game for Toronto vs Edmonton. And from all accounts this will be the Argos’ home game with the most revenue. Shows how much support there is in Atlantic Canada. I’ll write more after the fact.
7-9 last week, so I’m going backwards this season. Not as in depth as before, writing this very early on a Sunday. Maybe that will help since I left it later than usual.
San Francisco at Kansas City. CHIEFS.
Kansas City surprising this season in a good way, 49ers in the opposite direction.
Detroit at Minnesota. LIONS.
Brett Favre 0-3, could be after Sunday. He pushed his luck by one season too many.
Buffalo at New England. PATRIOTS.
Pats played one good half and one bad half last week in that lost to the Jets. Bills are the Bills.
Atlanta at New Orleans. SAINTS.
Saints scratched out a 2-0 record. Being at home I’ll give them the edge.
Tennessee at New York Giants. TITANS.
After Sunday night’s beatdown against Indy I will go with another AFC South team to beat New York.
Pittsburgh at Tampa Bay. STEELERS.
Pittsburgh defense pulling them through so far. Tampa Bay 2-0 as well. Haven’t really paid attention to those wins.
Cincinnati at Carolina. BENGALS.
Cincinnati coming off a victory against Baltimore. I think they have 8 division victories in a row. Which is just weird.
Cleveland at Baltimore. RAVENS.
Talking about AFC North, Ravens should rebound here.
Dallas at Houston. TEXANS.
If Cowboys lose to their cross state rivals it will be big for both sides.
Washington at St. Louis. REDSKINS.
Redskins scored a lot last week and still lost. As a Skins fan it’s been years since I’ve seen an offense.
Philadelphia at Jacksonville. EAGLES.
Vick in as QB which is the good move. Especially with a guy coming back from a concussion who is not a proven starter.
Indianapolis at Denver. COLTS.
Don’t recall these teams playing very often. After Peyton smacked NYG around I’m going with them.
Oakland at Arizona. RAIDERS.
Wow, some poor schmucks have to broadcast that game. Good luck.
San Diego at Seattle. CHARGERS.
Seahawks were great in Week 1 and horrible in Week 2. They’re probably somewhere in the middle.
New York Jets at Miami. DOLPHINS.
Lost in the Jets-mania during the offseason was they were beat twice by Miami last year.
Green Bay at Chicago. PACKERS.
Strange to think this might be a shootout. More sold on the Packers then the Bears.
NFL Week 17
The always hard to predict Week 17. Mainly for which teams will feel like giving its all this week. At least we know Indy will mail it in.Colts decision last week to throw in the towel during the second half was dumb for several reasons.
– The “keep the players from getting injured” excuse makes no sense. You can get hurt in the first half. The week before they had another game that meant nothing in the standings to the Colts. In that one they played the entire game on the road against a division opponent in Jacksonville. Hmmm, on the road play everyone but piss off the home fans against the Jets.
– Doing it at home. I’m sure they thought they’d get a free ride at home from the fans. Weren’t they surprised? I’m not a fan of Indy but kudos to their fans for booing them last week. You pay season ticket prices and to see them pull that must’ve been beyond annoying. We know they’re not giving the fans a discount although the coach/gm sent them the message “this game doesn’t matter”.
– Being undefeated is something big in football. And Bill Polian’s own words from his radio show in December have come back to bite him. If he was a guy that doesn’t care about records that would be one thing but….
“The most wins in a decade is really something. To me, that’s more impressive than the 22 straight, although, really both of them are equally as impressive.”
“When you think about how infrequently you can get home-field advantage throughout the playoffs – that in itself is an incredible achievement. To do it in the AFC, which is by far the tougher conference, is an equally incredible achievement. To put yourself in the history books with 22 straight victories . . . all records are made to be broken and somebody will come along and break that, but it may be a while before anyone does. It’s really nice to be part of that.”
He cares about the decade wins and the regular season winning streak but not going undefeated? Especially strange since that regular season streak happened with not winning a championship. One and done last season against San Diego. Ya, that’s a memorable streak Bill.
And they don’t realize if they do win this season, it will be remembered now for “What if???” At least other teams have tried to go undefeated, more honour in trying and failing then giving up. Queen’s tried to win the last game of the regular season even though it meant nothing in the standings. But at least they gave an effort.
– One SuperBowl. You can’t be team of the decade with one trophy. An undefeated season which New England couldn’t do would be a big thing. But Indy joins Baltimore, Tampa Bay, New York Giants and St. Louis as teams who won once in the 2000s. Team of the decade argument is Patriots vs Steelers. That’s it. Heck, the Giants even got to 2 SuperBowls this decade. Imagine that.
– As pointed out many times you know who the ’72 Dolphins are. 1971 SuperBowl Champs? Ummm.
Found a quote from Eddie White, co-host of an afternoon drive-time sports-talk show on 1070 The Fan.
“The fans felt cheated on a chance for history. What struck me is that numerous callers said they work two jobs, and the second job was to help them pay for season tickets. What’s also become apparent here in recent years is Indiana and Indianapolis have officially become a football town and football state. The love the Colts. They wanted their team to make history.”
“I think they would have accepted losing 31-30 on a great throw by Mark Sanchez at the gun if it had come with the starters on the field. But the way it happened, they viewed this as the Colts taking the towel and throwing it into the ring. The odd thing now is if they win the Super Bowl, some of the fans will be even more depressed because they felt they could have been perfect too, and that chance was ruined.”
Onto the picks.
Indianapolis at Buffalo. Look who it is. Bills with a win, because of the weather and Indy playing the B Team.
New Orleans at Carolina. Saints have tried to win the last 2 games. Just not playing well. Brees is not playing so pick Carolina.
Jacksonville at Cleveland. Browns have played well lately but I’ll pick the Jags. Jags still have a shot at the playoffs. Technically anyway. They need a win and a tiny bit of help.
1. Jacksonville win + Pittsburgh loss + Baltimore loss + Denver loss + Houston loss OR
2. Jacksonville win + Pittsburgh loss + Baltimore loss + Denver loss + Jets loss OR
3. Jacksonville win + Pittsburgh loss + Baltimore loss + Houston loss + Jets loss OR
4. Jacksonville win + Pittsburgh loss + Denver loss + Houston loss + Jets loss OR
5. Jacksonville win + Jets loss + Denver loss + Houston loss + Baltimore loss
That won’t be hard.
Chicago at Detroit. Bears I guess.
New England at Houston. Patriots even with resting guys. Texans can get in too.
1. Houston win + Jets loss or tie + Baltimore loss or tie OR
2. Houston win + Jets loss or tie + Denver loss or tie OR
3. Houston win + Baltimore loss or tie + Denver loss or tie.
Pittsburgh at Miami. Going with Steelers. Dolphins have one chance to get in.
1. Miami win + Jets loss + Baltimore loss + Houston loss + Jacksonville loss or tie.
Pittsburgh has 3 chances.
1. Pittsburgh win + Houston loss or tie + Jets loss or tie OR
2. Pittsburgh win + Houston loss or tie + Baltimore loss or tie OR
3. Pittsburgh win + Jets loss or tie + Baltimore loss or tie + Denver loss or tie
NY Giants at Minnesota. Vikings falling apart but does NY even care at this point? Minnesota with a win in a horrible game.
San Francisco at St. Louis. Rams [1-14] are the worst team of the last few seasons but keep flying under the radar of most fans with how putrid they are. Lions put up more of a fight in their season when they won nothing. 49ers win here.
Atlanta at Tampa Bay. Bucs, why not?
Now the 4pm games. Philadelphia at Dallas. For the Eagles if they win in Dallas they win the NFC East and a first-round bye. Tie with the Cowboys they win the division. If Vikings lose or tie, Eagles also get the first-round bye. For Dallas if they beat the Eagles, they win the division. If Vikings lose and the Cardinals lose or tie, Dallas get the first-round bye, too. Go with Philly for no real reason. They’re both in the playoffs.
Green Bay at Arizona. Cards can still get a bye? Wow. An Arizona win combined with Minnesota and Philadelphia losing means they get a week off.
Kansas City at Denver. Chiefs with the win, I picked the Raiders to beat Denver recently so have to go with KC. However, even with a loss Denver can get in. Get ready to have a headache after this list of ways the Broncos can get in.
1. Denver win + Jets loss or tie + Baltimore loss or tie OR
2. Denver win + Jets loss or tie + Pittsburgh loss or tie OR
3. Denver win + Jets loss or tie + Houston win OR
4. Denver win + Baltimore loss or tie + Pittsburgh loss or tie OR
5. Denver win + Baltimore loss or tie + Houston win OR
6. Pittsburgh loss + Baltimore loss + Houston loss + Jacksonville loss or tie OR
7. Pittsburgh loss + Baltimore loss + Houston loss + Jets loss OR
8. Pittsburgh loss + Baltimore loss + Jacksonville loss or tie + Jets loss OR
9. Pittsburgh loss + Houston loss + Jacksonville loss or tie + Jets loss OR
10. Jets loss + Baltimore loss + Houston loss + Jacksonville loss or tie
Baltimore at Oakland. Ravens win, they’re in. Lose and they’re not. That’s it….. surprisingly simple. If the Raiders QB was healthy might go for an upset but Gradkowski isn’t. And the game is blacked out in Oakland since they didn’t sell enough tickets.
Washington at San Diego. Chargers in a game that doesn’t matter.
Tennessee at Seattle. Titans, ditto. Unless they’re trying to get Chris Johnson to 2000 yards.
The Sunday Night game [none on Monday by the way] Cincinnati at NY Jets. Jets win they’re in. Last game at Giants Stadium and they’re not selling alcohol. Cranky New Yorkers. Bengals could be playing for a higher seed, but they will know if they can move up with a win by the time the game starts. So they might play the B Team.
Last season Favre and the Jets lost the last game of the season at home when a win would get them in the post-season. NY wouldn’t do that again would they? Oh yes they would, they are the J-E-T-S after all. Bengals win the win.
December 4th Episode
Both hours from Friday night are now online.
http://www.archive.org/details/SaltWaterMusicDec4th2009Hour1
Hour 1 with brand new music from Teresa Ennis’ CD Stars. Then Amelia Curran’s album which is up for some ECMA awards. Including a song called The Mistress, which made for an obvious Tiger Woods reference. End the hour with some songs from Jenn Grant’s recent concert in Kingston.
http://www.archive.org/details/SaltWaterMusicDec12th2009Hour2
Hour 2 we move to pop/rock side of things with In Flight Safety and Hey Rosetta!. End the hour with a chat with Neate Sager about the Queen’s Golden Gaels Vanier Cup winning season.
November 1st
OUA playoffs started on Saturday, I saw none of it. First time I’ve had a full amount of sleep before working in 7 weeks. With a week off for Queen’s thought I’d pass along how my Saturdays have gone.
7am – Get off from work. Which explains why I’ve been taping Salt Water Music during the week. Saturdays are a long day.
7:45am – Get home after taking the city bus home. Very quiet on Saturday mornings, sometimes even more quiet than Sundays.
8am-11:30am – Watch TV and try and relax. Thought I could do a nap in between that and leaving for football. But after one week I gave that up. Knowing you have to wake up in a couple of hours doesn’t help trying to have a nap.
11:30am-12pm – Leave for the station. Game doesn’t start till 1pm but I try and get there a little bit after noon.
12pm-4pm – At CFRC until the football game is over. Luckily this season they games haven’t gone long that often.
4:30pm-5pm – Get home around that time. Get some food in me then head to bed.
5-10pm – Hopefully getting a good 5 hours of sleep.
11pm – Back to work on Saturday night.
7am – Off work on Sunday morning, but no city bus till later in the morning. So I walk a few blocks and call a cab home.
Get to bed a couple of hours later. Even after all of that I can’t get to sleep right away. You get home from work you probably don’t go to bed that quickly either. Same thing.
It’s November now? Thought the Queen’s students just got back. 7 Saturdays in a row of that crazy schedule makes the time fly by.
Does mean I’ve only caught the Sunday Night NFL games this season. Oh well, the better games are starting. I will be able to watch Packers-Vikings Sunday afternoon.
Back to sports, Queen’s will be hosting McMaster next week here in Kingston. 1pm kickoff on CFRC. The Golden Gaels beat McMaster earlier in the season and in the playoffs 3 years ago.
However the last 2 seasons the number 1 seed in the Ontario has lost their first playoff game. Queen’s was the team last year when they were undefeated.
Neate Sager pointed out to me in 1997 they also had clinched “home field till the Vanier Cup” and didn’t win the OUA either. Last Vanier Cup for Queen’s in 1992 they had to go on the road.
Last week’s loss could be a good thing though. I thought they hadn’t been challenged much at the end of last year which cost them in the playoffs. One of the Golden Gaels agreed. Quote in the paper from centre Dan Bederman about what happened last year.
“Last year, we were 8-0 and I think we kind of thought we were the cock of the walk. We know we have things to improve on the next two weeks to be ready for the playoffs.”
McMaster won on the road Saturday in Ottawa in a game with wet conditions and high winds. Queen’s beat the Marauders 8-7 in September in a game I’ve hopefully erased from memory. Defensive struggles aren’t exciting to hear on the radio as you can imagine.
Onto the NFL Week 8. Almost halfway through the season? And for quite a few teams they wish it was already over. Start the picks with the a game to watch if you are a glutton for punishment.
Rams [0-7] at Lions [1-5]. Detroit can win this one. Would make the Rams the losers of 16 in a row by the way. Thinking of the TV crew working on this one, they pulled a short straw this week.
Broncos over Ravens. Watch I finally pick Denver and they’ll lose.
Bills over Texans. Both teams are Jekyll and Hyde so flip a coin.
Bears over Browns. I can’t see picking Cleveland at all this season.
Dallas over Seattle. Seahawks decimated with injuries…. it’s their 2008 season all over again.
Colts over 49ers. Last time San Fran went to Indy was historic. Not for the game but the post game press conference from Colts coach Jim Mora. Someone asked if the Colts would make the playoffs. Yes that game was the reason for the infamous, “Playoffs? Don’t talk about playoffs” rant. I don’t think Manning will throw 4 INT like he did in that game.
Dolphins over Jets. Beat them on Monday night so I’ll go with Miami.
Giants/Yankees over Eagles/Phillies. Going with both New York teams to win on Sunday.
Chargers over Raiders. Although Oakland played them very tough in Week 1 on Monday Night Football. 10:30pm EST start that night so you probably didn’t see it.
Jags over Titans. I would’ve picked the Titans but now Vince Young is the starter again.
Vikings over Packers. Main part I took away from the earlier game was Green Bay’s offensive line not showing up. Rodgers has been sacked 25 times in 6 games. He’s on pace for 67 sacks this year. If he’s not injured between now and the end of the season.
Cardinals over Panthers. Arizona won in Giant Stadium on a Sunday night game. I saw it and still didn’t look right.
Saints over Falcons. New Orleans keep the streak going on Monday night. By the way no Sunday night game due to not wanting to compete with the World Series. I’d rather watch football.
Halloween is over for another year. Never been a big fan. Even as a kid I wasn’t that into it. Probably because I never had a sweet tooth. Candy? Eh. Liked getting chips and chocolate bars but not many houses gave them out. Now I just see the day as lame. Not if you have kids of course, that makes sense. But seeing drunk grownups the last 2 nights in costumes in downtown Kingston just backs up my opinion. Yep, they were out on Friday and Saturday night at the bars. You can’t stretch it to 2 nights. Don’t even do that for Christmas. LOL.
Spent most Halloweens growing up just being a “chaperone” for my younger sister as she went door to door. She’s the opposite. Loved candy and would go out for a long time if she could. Since my Dad was in the army, every year I did the laziest costume. Grab some army gear from him and I’m a soldier. Piece of cake.
Since I just passed 1000 words I should stop for the night. It’s 1:55am and it will be again in an hour since the clocks go back in 5 minutes. No extra hour of sleep for me as I’m at work. 🙂
NFL Week 6/Golden Gaels
Queen’s got the win over Western. Didn’t tweet during the game since the playoffs are more important. Playoff record in the last 4 playoff games for the Golden Gaels, 1-3. Worked on all those games so while beating Western was a big win which gives them a 1st round bye, I’m not that excited.
That one playoff win was on the road in Hamilton. Their 2006 victory over McMaster was the first time they’d won in that city since 1975. Followed that up with a great effort in Ottawa but lost to the Gee Gees.
As for the last 2 home playoff games, you probably know about them. 2007 Western came in and beat Queen’s in the first round. 2008 the Gaels had a first round bye and a week off, but lost at home again this time to Ottawa.
The win Saturday also means next week’s game is rather meaningless. Clinched 1st in the OUA so a win or a loss versus Laurier doesn’t affect the standings. I’m not going to pump it up like the Whig Standard has on their website. This is the opening line from the story.
“The road to the Vanier Cup goes through Queen’s University after the Golden Gaels posted a thrilling come-from-behind victory Saturday at Richardson Stadium.”
How about getting to the Yates Cup first? Call me crazy, but you might want to focus on the championship for winning the province first.
After that is the Mitchell Bowl, which this year in the rotation is being hosted by the OUA Conference. However they will be hosting the winner from Quebec. Tough game there.
Finally after all of that is the Vanier Cup, November 28th in Quebec City. So calm down people a regular season win doesn’t mean a whole lot with that long road ahead.
We remember the 8-0 Queen’s getting beat by the 4-4 Gee Gees last year. I recall it the most since I predicted Ottawa would win the night before on my show. Yep, going on CFRC and picking the opposition. I’m not a homer and if I think you’ll lose I’ll say so.
Onto the NFL picks.
Bengals over Texans. Division leaders against Houston, nuff said.
Lions over Packers. Yes, I’m picking the Lions to win a game. Only 1 win but they’ve put up a fight each week. Unlike the Jaguars, Raiders, Bucs, Rams, Panthers, 49ers, Redskins, Browns…. long list.
Jags over Rams. Ugh.
Vikings over Ravens. Baltimore looked really good until the last 2 games. Minnesota is well balanced so I’ll go with them.
Giants over Saints. If it was in NY I’d pick the Saints, but it’s in New Orleans so I’ll pick the Giants. Eli Manning is much better on the road than in Giant Stadium.
Steelers over Browns. Shouldn’t even waste time on the Browns.
Panthers over Bucs. Ugh, part 2.
Chiefs over Redskins. Yes, every team Redskins have played this season has had zero wins. But that’s a bit silly since people keep counting Week 1 vs the Giants. When the season is starting you can’t have a win since you haven’t played a game yet. Picked the Panthers to beat Washington so I’m going with the Chiefs.
Eagles over Raiders. Oakland blown out again.
Seahawks over Cardinals. Different team with Hasselbeck at QB.
Patriots over Titans. Like I said last week, the Titans are bad. Pundits need to get over it.
Jets over Bills. After the Bills/Browns joke last week I can’t pick them.
Bears over Falcons. Sunday Night game which seems a bit strange. Chicago-Atlanta doesn’t come to mind as a big game.
Chargers over Broncos. Think San Diego can get the upset, but this pick is also a protest against those Bronco uniforms from last week. Good lord.
All Live Edition
Taped the show yesterday morning. All live music for the 2 hours. Long sets from Jeff Healey, Coco Love Alcorn, Teresa Ennis and Jenn Grant.
Queen’s Football Saturday afternoon at 1pm as the Golden Gaels host McMaster.
Falling further behind in uploading the shows. I’ll try and catch up a bit on Tuesday, my next day when I’m not working. 🙂
Queen’s vs Guelph Recap
Good thing about using Twitter during the game yesterday it saves me typing a long recap. From Labour Day, my live Twitter updates during the game. Including two surprise phone calls I got during the game.
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Queen’s vs Guelph on CFRC, kick-off at 2pm. http://www.cfrc.ca 101.9FM I’ll either be working on it with little or no sleep. Should be fun. 🙂
During halftime today on CFRC….. no clue. Might be something from the stadium, but could be me reading some scores and playing music.
Just helped a caller from Halifax connect to CFRC online. Yep, Halifax. I tell people the station has a wide reach. 🙂
Broadcast has begun. Think the audio levels of the the two guys have evened out. One headset can’t hear what’s on air. Oops.
Brannagan throws an early INT, Guelph had a 1st goal and scored. Under 2 mins in and Guelph up by a TD.
7-0 Guelph, 13:07 to go in the first quarter….. not a good start
Dunk fumbles in the red zone and Queen’s recovers the ball.
Golden Gaels return the favour by fumbling the ball back to Guelph. Sloppy contest early on.
Dan Brannagan’s grandfather called in, trying help him to listen online. Computer issues. 😦
11-0 Guelph by the way, got busy with the phone call.
11-7 Guelph after Queen’s gets their first TD of the season in the 2nd quarter
Jimmy Allin with a 61 yard punt return for a TD. Make it 14-11 lead for Queen’s. That was quick.
TD Queen’s, Morrison with the catch makes it 21-11. 21 unanswered points.
Player slow to get up so the PA system plays “Don’t Worry Be Happy” as he’s attended to. LOL.
Another punt return for a TD by Jimmy Allin near the end of the 1st half. Damn. 28-11 Queen’s. 2 mins left till halftime.
Make that 29-11 Queen’s. Typed it before the extra point.
Don’t know how but I timed 2 Jeff Healey songs quite well at halftime. Only 2 ads to play after them before the 2nd half started.
29-18 Queen’s in the 3rd quarter, sounds like the game is slowing down a bit.
Things changing a bit, Guelph closing the gap Queen’s up 32-26
But then Guelph decides it to kick it to Jimmy Allin again?? Bad move, his 3rd return for a TD today. 105 yards this time. 39-25 Queen’s
46-25 Queen’s as the Gaels pull away again from Guelph.
46-32 Queen’s and Guelph has the ball with 9 minutes to go. Still some fight in the Gryphons.
TD Guelph which makes the lead 46-39 for the Golden Gaels. 7 minutes left in the game.
Jimmy Allin returning the ball again, but this time fumbles it. Guelph deep in Queen’s territory. Uh oh.
Guelph held to a FG so it’s 46-42 Queen’s. A TD by Justin Dunk was called back due to a holding call.
FG by the Gaels make it 49-42 with 1:45 to go. Lack of sleep hasn’t affected me at all with this type of game.
1st and goal Guelph, crazy game. 1:08 to go. Overtime maybe?
Touchdown Guelph with 42 seconds to go…… tied at 49. I’ll never be getting out of here. LOL.
Queen’s lining up for a FG, 37 yards……. and it’s good. 52-49 win for Queen’s….. good lord.
Time to get some food and get some sleep after this long day.
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The back up kicker who got the winning field goal is Mike Petranovic by the way. Didn’t want to spell his name wrong during the game.
This evening going for “Take 2” of the interview with Allison Crowe. Not exactly sure if the studio is back to normal but I’ll find out a little after 6pm today if it is. Taping of this Friday’s show will happen later in the week.
Might play a lot of live stuff this week. Idea came after playing some of the new Jeff Healey disc during halftime of the football game. “Songs from the Road” is from Stony Plain Records and is endorsed by his family. Jeff passed away in March 2008 and there was a company that released an unauthorized disc after his death. But this one is an official release.
Think I’ll play a bit of that disc on the show Friday. Played “While my Guitar Gently Weeps” at halftime which is a great version. Even has the crowd singing along with it.
Also have some songs from a concert Jenn Grant did. If I can find enough stuff I might do an all live edition for Friday.
Football Preview
Another article on the upcoming OUA Football season.
http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/690909
One sentence in particular summed up last season.
“Scored most points and allowed fewest in 2008 OUA league, then lost first playoff game.” Ouch.
Which I predicted by the way. Long time listeners might remember the night before Queen’s hosted Ottawa I picked the Gee Gees to win. 8-0 Gaels hosting a 4-4 team and I picked Ottawa. I was right. Why did I pick them?
One big thing in football I’ve seen over the last few years is momentum going into any playoffs. Ottawa HAD to win near the end of the season to get in. Queen’s had it wrapped up early. Too soon I would say. I saw Ottawa win the week before and thought they looked good.
Other main reason was Mike Giffin’s injury and how it was handled. Last regular season game and Queen’s had the starters in the game. Which is always dangerous especially with your star running back. He hurt his knee early on and doesn’t return. Matt Bisson was calling the game and said he was obviously hurt.
Then the strange thing started to happen. Queen’s denied he was hurt that much. Which they kept saying for 2 weeks up until the playoff game. That doesn’t scream a confident team to me. You don’t go 8-0 on the back of one guy, so just say he’s hurt and might not play. Plenty of players to pick up the slack on both sides of the ball.
But they didn’t think like that. Kept up the charade. Did he end up playing any part of the game against Ottawa? Of course not.
With that out of the way, I’ll throw in my prediction for this season. Stuck between 6-2 and 5-3. Mainly because of the last 2 games and whether or not the teams have clinched a spot by then.
Monday against Guelph
Sept. 12th host McMaster
Sept. 19th at Ottawa
Sept. 26th hosting York
Oct. 3rd at Windsor
Oct. 10th at Waterloo
Oct. 17th host Western
Oct 24th at Laurier
Western/Laurier/Queen’s could all be close to clinching a playoff spot at the end of the year. If you might play that team again in 2 or 3 weeks do you try that hard in one of those games? I’d say rest the starters for the last on. Lesson hopefully learned after last season.
I’ll say 6-2 for Queen’s. Might be better if they have to play a first round game this year.
Later in the week I’ll start my NFL picks. Did it last year on the radio but I should make some blog posts out of them. Already picked the Steelers against the Titans for Thursday’s game.
There was one week in 2008 I only got one game wrong. Lot of luck but it was fun to see them all those games line up. If you’re wondering, yes I picked Detroit to win once during the season. Had to try it one week for an upset.
Kickoff of Queen’s vs Guelph is a special start time of 2pm on Monday.
http://www.cfrc.ca or 101.9 FM in Kingston
Crazy Saturday
Story about football on Saturday, Queen’s Golden Gaels beat York 80-0. But getting the game on air was a hectic day.
First off, York never responded to emails during the week about whether or not they had a phone line for us. So we had a cell phone for back up. Saturday get a call 40 minutes before the game from Matt Bisson our play by play guy. There is a phone line, but INCOMING calls only.
What’s the problem with Incoming only? Long distance charges. Queen’s phone set up doesn’t allow for LD calls without using a phone card. Offices are locked so I had to run to a corner store and buy a long distance phone card myself. Jogging over thinking “this is not a good start to the broadcast”.
Got back at 12:40pm so no problem there. I did have the programmer before the game play a Great Big Sea CD while I was gone to fill something on air. Got to keep the East Coast Music going.
So I got the phone card. Matt was setup outdoors with some bees around during the game, thanks York for not letting us in the press box. I’d say Karma got back at York with an 80-0 loss didn’t it?
Things are OK for the rest of the game? Oh no.
In the 1st quarter the line all of a sudden drops. So off to a commercial break then I explain “tech. problems” and play some muic. Thought it was the phone line so I phone back 3 times but nothing. Phone the cell phone to see what’s happening. The Zircom box where the headsets plug into…. stopped working. It won’t power on. Uh oh.
We figured out that I could give him the Phone Card information. Then he can phone me on the cell to get him back on air. Cheaper to make a local call with the cell in Toronto then won’t get hit for LD charges on a cell phone. Which meant the rest of the first half was a broadcast of a his cell phone.
Did I mention I had two brand new volunteers with me during the game? I’m showing them how the broadcast works and they get this game. And I’m the one going to put them on the radio for the first time ever at halftime. Other than that a normal day at the station.
Got them to read some out of town scores. Would’ve just had them read it off the computer in the studio. But…. you know how this day is going. The computer couldn’t connect to the network or internet! Out of all days. The other computers at the station were fine, so I got one of them to go and write down some scores.
Finally some good luck at halftime. I phone Matt and the Zircom box all of a sudden powered up again. So I phone him on that and the 2nd half runs smoothly. No problems at all the rest of the game. END SCENE.
Salt Water Music 