Thursday’s 6-pack:
Passing yardage leaders in college football:
2,576— Michael Penix, Wash
2,573— Jayden Daniels, LSU
2,433— Brayden Schager, Hawai’i
2,420— Shedeur Sanders, Colo
2,280— Austin Reed, Western Kentucky
2,277— Caleb Williams, USC
Quote of the Day
“It’s silly, silly meaning my genuine feeling is that we have too many smart people that have looked at this and said we should be doing it and we haven’t taken the time to actually move it forward.”
LSU football coach Brian Kelly, on why the SEC hasn’t adopted headset communication between the sidelines and the QB, which would eliminate sign stealing issues
Thursday’s quiz
Which NFL team is the only one that hasn’t covered a spread (0-5-1) so far this season?
Wednesday’s quiz
Chris Paul has been in the NBA for 18 years; he played his college basketball at Wake Forest.
Tuesday’s quiz
Detroit Lions are the only NFC team that has never played in a Super Bowl.
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NHL trends (thru October 25)
I’ll try to post this once a week……..
Anaheim 2-4
— lost three of last four games.
— Ducks are 1-2 at home, 1-2 on road
— under 5-1
Arizona 3-3
— 1-0 at home, 2-3 on road.
— over 3-2 on road
Boston 6-0
— won all six of their games.
— under 2-0 at home, 3-1 on road.
— allowed seven goals in six games.
Buffalo 3-4
— 2-3 at home, 1-1 on road.
— under 5-2, 4-1 at home
Calgary 2-4-1
— lost five of last six games.
— 1-1 at home, 1-5 on road.
— over 4-3
— scored four goals in last three games
Carolina 3-4
— lost last three games, outscored 16-8
— 1-0 at home, 2-4 on road.
— over 6-1
Chicago 2-5
— lost five of last six games.
— 0-2 at home, 2-3 on road.
— under 6-1
— last three games, were outscored 12-3
Colorado 6-0
— Colorado won all six of its games
— 2-0 at home, 4-0 on road.
— over 3-3
— outscored opponents 28-12
Columbus 3-2-1
— 2-3 at home, 1-0 on road.
— under 4-1 on road
Dallas 4-0-1
— won four of first five games
— only loss was in OT
— 2-0 at home, 2-1 on road.
— under 4-1
— three of five games went to OT.
Detroit 5-1-1
— won five of last six games
— 3-1 at home, 2-1 on road.
— last four games went over total.
Edmonton 1-5
— lost five of first six games.
— 0-2 at home, 1-3 on road.
— over 3-1 on road
Florida 3-3
— won three of last four games.
— 2-1 at home, 1-2 on road.
— under 2-1 at home, over 2-1 on road
Los Angeles 3-2-1
— won three of last four games.
— 1-3 at home, 2-0 on road.
— over is 5-1, 4-0 at home
Minnesota 3-2-1
— 2-2 at home, 1-1 on road.
— last five games went over.
— allowed 6 goals in wins, 19 in losses.
Montreal 3-2-1
— 2-2 at home, 1-1 on road.
— over 3-3
Nashville 3-4
— 2-2 at home, 1-2 on road.
— under 4-1-1 last six games
New Jersey 3-2-1
— 1-3 at home, 2-0 on road.
— over is 6-0
— 4 of 6 games decided by one goal
NY Islanders 2-2-1
— lost last three games.
— 2-2 at home, 0-1 on road.
— under is 3-2
— allowed 2 goals in wins, 15 in losses
NY Rangers 4-2
— won three of last four games.
— 1-1 at home, 3-1 on road.
— under 5-1, 2-0 at home
Ottawa 3-3
— 3-2 at home, 0-1 on road.
— over 6-0
— allowed 5 goals in wins, 16 in losses
Philadelphia 3-3
— 2-0 at home, 1-3 on road.
— under 3-1 in their last four games.
— allowed 3 goals in wins, 13 in losses
Pittsburgh 2-4
— lost last three games, giving up 14 goals.
— 1-2 at home, 1-2 on road.
— under 2-1 at home, 2-1 on road
St Louis 2-3
— 2-1 at home, 0-2 on road.
— under is 4-1
— scored 11 goals in five games
San Jose 0-6
— lost their first six games.
— 0-4 at home, 0-2 on road.
— under is 4-1-1
— scored eight goals in six games
Seattle 2-5
— lost five of first seven games.
— 1-2 at home, 1-3 on road.
— under is 5-2, 3-1 on road
Tampa Bay 3-4
— 3-1 at home, 0-3 on road.
— over 3-1 at home, 2-1 on road
— 0-2 in OT/SO
Toronto 4-2
— 2-1 at home, 2-1 on road.
— under 3-1 last four games
— 2-0 in OT/SO
— scored 21 goals in wins, 2 in losses
Vancouver 4-2
— 1-0 at home, 3-2 on road.
— over 4-2
Vegas 7-0
— won their first seven games.
— 4-0 at home, 3-0 on road.
— under 4-0 home, over 2-1 road
Washington 1-4
— lost four of first five games.
— 1-2 at home, 0-2 on road.
— under 4-1
Winnipeg 3-3
— 2-2 at home, 1-1 on road.
— over 2-1-1 home, 1-1 road
— allowed 14 goals in first four games, 4 goals in last two games.
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One of my favorite movies was on today,
Searching for Bobby Fischer; Joe Mantegna is a sportswriter who is surprised to find out that his 11-year old son is a chess prodigy. It is a great movie: Mantegna, Ben Kingsley, Lawrence Fishburne, William H Macy.
Anyway, when I was in 8th grade 50 years ago, chess was a big deal. Bobby Fischer was a quirky chess grandmaster who was playing Russian Boris Spassky for the world title, and it got a ton of attention— for a couple years in the early 70’s, chess was a big deal.
A friend of my parents had taught me how to play; in May of 1973, there was a tournament of all the Catholic grade schools in Albany County, probably 50 or so kids on a Saturday morning. Two kids from our school went; I had never beaten the other kid. Ever.
So our 8th grade teacher picks us up at the other kid’s house to go to the tournament, but we played a game before he got there, and I beat him.
This had never happened before.
We get to the tournament, played in a ratty old gym, and the games begin. I won my first game, but the other kid, who seriously was a much better player than me, he got beat and just like that, he was eliminated. He very rarely played sports as a kid, and the competition apparently wasn’t his thing. I sucked at sports, but enjoyed playing.
Thinking about it, it was a lot like the scenes in this movie; just a bunch of nerdy kids hunched over chess boards, studying their moves.
While my parents’ friend taught me how to play chess, I had my own ideas, which weren’t better ideas, but I was incapable of grinding out moves, playing patterns, the way great players do.
I just played fast, got my queen out as quickly as possible, tried to do damage with the queen, and it often got people off their games, because it was different.
So I win two more games, and now there are a lot fewer kids in the gym; my 4th game, the board is set up with plastic chess pieces. My opponent requests that we switch to a wooden chess set, a classic Bobby Fischer mind game move, which I had no idea of at the time.
He crushed me, not even close and my teacher took the two of us home. I was happy that at least I won a few games— had never played in a tournament before.
The phone rings in our house and it is a nun from the chess tournament; I had lost, but I wasn’t done playing yet, there were still games to be played to determine who won the championship, so my father drove me back to the gym and he had to sit there watching his nerdy kid play chess.
I won two more games, and the whole event came down to this: I was playing this girl in the last game of the tournament. If she won, she won the championship and I finished 3rd.
If I won, the jerk who beat me won the championship and I finished 2nd. (don’t ask, I can’t remember how/why they ran the tournament like this, but they did)
Seriously, I didn’t like that kid after he beat me; I went over to look at the 2nd/3rd place prizes. If the 3rd place prize was good, I was considering losing on purpose so he wouldn’t win the tournament, but the 3rd place price was cruddy, and the 2nd place prize was this small plastic scroll that at least looked like a trophy, so I tried to win.
(This is where I realize that I was an over-thinker, even at age 13)
Anyway, we sit down and play the last game; my opponent was very nervous; her hand was shaking when she moved her chess pieces. It didn’t take long to beat her, and the jerk won the championship trophy.
50 years later, the small plastic scroll is still hanging in my living room. That was a fun day.
