NFL Week 12: Let Them Eat Tri-Tip
Thursday was Thanksgiving, which is like a national Football holiday in our glorious U.S. of A. I went to my sister's house to spend it with my family. They had the traditional spread of turkey, mashed potatoes, yams, green bean casserole, but for me the star of the show (aside from the football players on the TV screen–Hi, Dak!) was my brother-in-law’s tri-tip. The man knows how to cook it to perfection. He sears the shit out of it on the grill and then wraps it in foil to finish it low and slow. My goodness. You’ve never had tri-tip like this. Juicy with a nice crust and a smoky, savory, taste-the-goodness-of-the-grill flavor. It is not a traditional Thanksgiving meat, but tradition can suck it when it comes to this grill master’s tri-tip. Some might say “All fine and good, but tri-tip has no place on a Thanksgiving plate”. To them I say, there are no rules when it comes to Thanksgiving dinner. Turkey is ok, ham is fine, but if you want some red meat, have some red meat. Even John Madden (God rest his soul) bucked the system with his giant Tur-duck-en, six-leg monstrosity. Sometimes you just gotta do you.
Unless you are a football player. Then you can’t eat whatever you want. At least not until the game is over. Pre-game, NFL footballers gotta eat their Wheaties. Especially the QB’s. Clearly there were some signal callers from week 12 who did not: From Jared Goff and his 3 fumble debacle on Turkey Day all the way to Joshua Dobbs and his 4 interception Monday Night shit show. And I do not use the term “shit show” lightly. The Bears tried their darned-est to gift Dobbs and the Vikings that game and Dobbs was constantly giving the ball back like it was a Thanksgiving leftover hot potato. Speaking of “shit”, I can take a guess what Goff, Dobbs, et al ate for breakfast in lieu of Wheaties. Can you?
Well, now that they are done with week 12 and have a couple of days off, maybe they’d like to come to my brother-in-law’s and have some of that delicious tri-tip. Josh, Jared, give me a call. While I wait by my cell phone for them to hit me up…
Week 12 Observations
*What’s Love got to do with it? Everything! Jordan Love followed up his 322 pass yard performance vs. the Chargers with a 268 yard, 3 TD dismantling of that vaunted Lions defense. And he added 39 rush yards. This week in KC will be another test, but so far he has beaten Justin Herbert and Jared Goff. Jake from State Farm—errrrr, Patrick Mahomes is next.
*Another week, another TD thrown from Dak Prescott to CeeDee Lamb. Dak has been on a tear (331 yards on Thanksgiving, 4 TD’s) and his roll is not going to stop this Thursday vs. Seattle. That poor secondary.
*Speaking of 300 yard passers, Sam Howell (300 pass yards, rush TD, INT) can lead my fantasy squad any time. It doesn’t always look pretty, but he can sling it. He’s cleared the 300 mark in 4 of the last 5.
*San Francisco had a rough few weeks before their bye, but they are all healthy and firing on all cylinders again. They are the team to beat. Period. Yes, I saw the Eagles and Bills game.
*George Kittle only caught 3 for 19. They can’t all eat every week.
*The black Friday game went as expected. Tyreke Hill (9-102-1) went bonkers. Tim Boyle was a step up from Zach Wilson. I mean, he threw a TD so the Jets fans gotta be pretty stoked. And Miami crushed them 34-13.
*C.J. Stroud (304 pass yards, 2 TD, 47 rush yards, rush TD) is in inning 1 of a super-happy-fun career for us fantasy footballers to salivate over. He’s got oodles of talent, Tank Dell (5-50-1) and Nico Collins (7-104-1) for years to come. Oh, and probably ROY.
*The Steelers are the worst 7-4 team in the NFL. Jake Browning almost beat them. Btw, if you are a Ja’Marr Chase or Tee Higgins owner, you can take your finger off of the panic button. Browning looks competent. If you are a Diontae Johnson owner, beware, it is confirmed that he is blind. A ball was fumbled and rolled right past him. He went about his day as if the ball wasn’t there. In a post game interview, when asked about it he said, “I didn’t see it.” Sure.
*Derrick Henry scored 2 TD’s for the first time this season. You love to see it. Getting LaDainian Tomlinson on the Jets vibes though.
*Carolina traded away their 1st round draft pick to the Bears. So you can’t say they are tanking for anyone. They just suck.
*Someone will win the NFC South. Falcons are currently in first place with the Saints. They are both 5-6.
*Baker Mayfield left the action briefly Sunday with an ankle injury. MRI was “encouraging”. Mike Evans (6-70-2) has already proven he is QB proof, so owners don’t need to sweat it.
*Jonathan Taylor (15 carries, 91 yards, 2 TD) has taken back the lead back duties with a 15/8 carry split with Zack Moss. Moss still totaled 70 yards from scrimmage FWIW.
*Definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Example:
*You have to take Denver seriously now. They stood up to Cleveland D and passed the test. Russell Wilson threw and rushed in a TD (his first of the season). Even Courtland Sutton (3-61-0) is having a good year, though he was quiet this week. Week 13 @ Houston should hold some bigger numbers for the Denver offense.
*For some reason, NFC West division games are like Ambien to me. Maybe it’s because they play in the afternoon after the Sunday morning excitement has worn off, but they are not easy to watch. Matthew Stafford lit up Arizona for 4 TD’s and I was like zzz… Maybe too it was the fact that Puka Nacua (4-27-0) and Cooper Kupp (3-18-0) were both quiet in the win. I suppose it would have been a little more yahoo-rific if I were a Kyren Williams (143 rush yards, 6-61-2 receiving) owner. He is back and is a must start going forward.
*I was facing Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs in my big $ fantasy league, so the marathon Buffalo vs. Eagles game was killing me. When it went into overtime, Josh Allen got to pad his stats some more. What should have been a classic, rainy, fall football slugfest was (for me) a constant phone refreshing, nail biting, fantasy killer. Allen ended with 339 pass yards, 2 TD’s, and 81 rush yards and a pair of rushing scores. I lost my matchup. FML.
*Jalen Hurts looked fantastic in that final drive where he rushed in the game winner. He had 4 total TD’s with 2 on the ground. AJ Brown (5-37-1) bounced back (slightly) from last week’s single catch effort.
*Raiders vs. Chiefs was like when you were a kid shooting hoops in the front yard with your big brother or dad or older cousin and they let you score a few points on them to make you feel good, then they crush you and destroy your soul to remind you who is the bigger, better player. Raiders were up 14-0, then the Chiefs started trying.
*I guess we know who drafted the better WR last April. Zay Flowers scored twice, Quentin Johnston had 1 catch for 7 yards. Although Zay needs to work on his end zone celebrations. Lamar Jackson was not impressed.
*Chargers had 2 bad calls in the beginning of the game that went against them (one an egregious late hit on a fair catch punt return), but Austin Ekeler and Keenan Allen also had key fumbles. This one isn’t on Staley.
*For 50 minutes it looked like nobody wanted to win Monday Night Football. Chicago couldn’t score, Joshua Dobbs couldn’t stop turning the ball over. In the end, Chicago sucked a little less. DJ Moore went off (11-114-0) and Justin Fields did just enough to win. Fun fact: Even if the Bears win outright ROS, they will still own the first pick in the draft, which was gifted to them by Carolina, unless Carolina somehow starts playing like a professional football team. In other words, Fields will be auditioning to keep his job for the remainder of the year. You keep firing up this offense. They should see more exciting days after their bye when they face the Detroit Lions.
Cheer Corner
Our weekly feature, where we highlight a cheerleader from a team of note to show our appreciation for the hard work they do for us fans and their squad.
Apropos of Jalen Hurts rushing in a walk off TD in the rain on Sunday, meet Makenna…
She is a rookie Eagles Cheerleader who earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from Villanova University. This little smarty-pants grew up watching Jeopardy with her family and loves going to trivia night. When she is not helping the Eagles fly on game day, she is an Immuno-Oncology Researcher. What that means is that if she was on a date with us, she’d most likely consider us boring dip shits. We’ll take “Words That Hurt Us” for $200, Makenna!