Friday’s Den: Looking ahead to a football weekend……..

Bills 31, Dolphins 10
Buffalo had three TD drives: 37-85-49 yards.
Bills are 10-3-1 ATS in last 14 games as a road underdog.
Buffalo is 14-3-1 ATS in last 18 games with spread of 3 or fewer points.
Bills are 20-9-3 ATS in last 32 games on natural grass.

Awful night for Miami; bad loss, QB Tagovailoa left with a concussion.
Before he left, Tagovailoa threw a horrific pick-6 that made score 31-10.
Under McDaniel, Miami is 4-6 ATS in games with spread of 3 or fewer points.
Buffalo won 11 of last 12 series games.

— Tagovailoa’s concussion looked fairly severe; Miami’s other two QB’s are Skylar Thompson, Tim Boyle, who have a combined seven NFL starts (1-6). Not good.

Dolphins haven’t won a playoff game since 2000; this year isn’t looking too good, either. 

— Arizona State 31, Texas State 28
Texas State outgained ASU 400-347, but they turned ball over three times (minus-2)
Game was tied 21-21 at halftime.
Texas State QB McCloud threw for 268 yards and four TD’s in a losing cause.

Pac-12 is back in business, kind of; Oregon State, Washington State hung around, will now be joined by San Diego State, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State. More teams are on the way; there are murmurs that UNLV/Nevada have to be a package deal, but the Pac-12 might not be interested in adding the Wolf Pack.

Memphis, Rice, Tex-San Antonio and North Texas are rumored to be in the mix, further screwing up every kid’s grades in Geography. (do they still teach Geography?)

Cal/Stanford/SMU in the ATLANTIC Coast Conference
Memphis and two Texas schools in the PACIFIC-12.

Oy.

Famous birthdays, September 13:
Jacqueline Bisset, 80
Rick Wise, 79
Kathleen Lloyd, 76

Rick Dempsey, 75
Jim Cleamons, 75
Mike Pagel, 64

Brad Johnson, 56
AJ McCarron, 34
Troy Reeder, 30

One quick question for every NFL game this weekend:
— Chargers @ Carolina- Panthers lost their last three games by a combined score of 82-10; they were down 30-3 at halftime last week. Would they ever bench QB Bryce Young?

— Buccaneers @ Lions- Detroit won a playoff game LY for first time since 1991; is this the year they get to their first Super Bowl?

Lions won NFL titles in 1952, 1953, 1957, but that was before there were Super Bowls.

— Saints @ Cowboys- New Orleans scored five TD’s last week, averaged 8.0 yards/pass attempt; Cowboys held the Browns to 2.7 yards/pass attempt last week, can they shut down the Saints’ offense this week?

— Jets @ Titans- Tennessee lost last week without giving up an offensive TD; they had a punt blocked for a TD and their suspect of a QB threw a pick-6. Jets have a good defense; will they score more points than the Jets’ offense?

— Seahawks @ Patriots- All three of Seattle’s TD’s last week were on plays of 23+ yards; New England held Cincinnati to one TD. Will the Seahawks be just as explosive in their road opener?

— Giants @ Commanders- Minnesota’s defense outscored the Giants’ offense 7-6 last week; at $40M a year, how much rope does QB Daniel Jones get, before backup Drew Lock gets a look?

— 49ers @ Vikings- QB Sam Darnold played really well last week; what happens if Darnold has a great year and Minnesota makes a run to the playoffs? Would they keep rookie JJ McCarthy or look to pick up some draft capital and trade him? 

— Colts @ Packers- Jordan Love’s injury is the big question here; Malik Willis, Sean Clifford are the backups. Green Bay is in a position very close to Miami’s right now unless Love can get back on the field fairly soon.

— Raiders @ Ravens- How much is Baltimore going to use RB Derrick Henry? 13 carries for 46 yards doesn’t seem like a lot. 41 passes for Lamar Jackson seems like a lot.

— Browns @ Jaguars- The whole Deshaun Watson debacle is a huge ??? for the entire league. You see Tua Tagovailoa get knocked silly (again) and you understand why teams don’t want to have guys with fully guaranteed contracts.

— Steelers @ Broncos- What went on between Sean Payton/Russell Wilson in Denver? Seems like they didn’t get along too well. Wilson won’t start for Pittsburgh this week, but he must have a pretty good handle on the Broncos’ offense, right?

— Bengals @ Chiefs- Carson Wentz has one of the best jobs in America; he is Patrick Mahomes’ backup. Wentz has already banked $128M in his career, has a Super Bowl ring. Now he gets to learn from the best. Will he ever get another shot at being an NFL starter? 

— Rams @ Arizona- Sean McVay’s offensive line has a lot of injury concerns; can they keep Matthew Stafford in one piece? Pretty important question for this week; they get LT Alaric Jackson back next week.

— Bears @ Texans- Rookie QB Williams didn’t do too well in his NFL debut; how will he do in his first road start, against a playoff team from last year?

— Falcons @ Eagles- Atlanta used the 8th pick in the draft on QB Michael Penix; how long before they give him some playing time? Falcons gained 226 yards last week; they lost without giving up a TD (Steelers kicked six FG’s). How much patience do they have? 

Author: Armadillo Sports

I've been involved in sports my whole life, now just write about them. I like to travel, mostly to Las Vegas- they have gambling there.