NFL Week 12 -- The Unbearable Weight of Caleb Williams

[Cosmo]

Thursday night
Buffalo (-6/43.5) at Houston, 815, PRIME

Sunday early
Pittsburgh at Chicago (-2.5/45.5), CBS
New England (-8/49.5) at Cincinnati, CBS
N.Y. Giants at Detroit (-10.5/49.5), FOX
Minnesota at Green Bay (-6.5/41.5), FOX
Seattle (-13.5/40.5) at Tennessee, FOX
Indianapolis at Kansas City (-3.5/49.5), CBS
N.Y. Jets at Baltimore (-13.5/44.5), CBS

Sunday's dog**** late slate
Cleveland at Las Vegas (-3.5/36.5), CBS
Jacksonville (-2.5/47.5) at Arizona, CBS
Philadelphia (-3.5/47.5) at Dallas, FOX
Atlanta at New Orleans (-1.5/39.5), FOX

Sunday night
Tampa Bay at L.A. Rams (-7/49.5), NBC/The ****

Monday night
Carolina at San Francisco (-7/48.5), ESPN

Byes
Denver, Miami, L.A. Chargers, Washington (thank God)

* That Seattle line was so jarring that it prompted me to do some research. It's historic. The largest road favorite the Seahawks had ever been was a 13-point favorite at St. Louis in 2013. They won 14-9. They were also an 11.5-point favorite in San Francisco in 2017 and won by three.
* The Bears could be 8-3 by midday Sunday. It's amazing the juxtaposition between the Bears and Commanders from year to year. A crushing loss in Washington sent Chicago's season into a spiral last year. A crushing loss to Chicago at home sent the Commanders into a spiral this year.
* The Chiefs HAVE to have this one, right? If they go 5-6 with a loss to Jacksonville, it'll be a long road to sneaking into the playoffs.
* I'm a little surprised that Philly line is so low, but the Eagles tend to play with their food and Dallas can score. We better hope that game is good because the rest of the late window is vomit worthy.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Three double-digit point spreads out of 14 games, and it might be four as bettors react to the Chase suspension, is amazing to me. So much for parity. The NFL has some seriously downtrodden franchises, but at least two of them play each other this week.

I don't mean this as a knock on the Patriots, they earned it by sucking bad last year, but the combined won-loss record of their 11 opponents is 41-71, and the record of their final six opponents (three division rivals are duplicate) is 23-39. I know they're way better than last season's wreck, but I find it impossible to judge how much better. Are they a Super Bowl contender, as has become gospel in these parts, or are they gonna roll over the first time they hit a stiff breeze in the playoffs? Beats me. How do you assess wins over the Browns, Jets, and Titans?

 

[Jake from State Farm]

TV Guide the night of the Heidi game

 

[BTExpress]

I love the Namath quote alongside the TV critics in a post-showing review of Heidi.

"...I didn't get a chance to see it, but I hear it was great."

 

[da man]

Three double-digit point spreads out of 14 games, and it might be four as bettors react to the Chase suspension, is amazing to me. So much for parity. The NFL has some seriously downtrodden franchises, but at least two of them play each other this week.

I don't mean this as a knock on the Patriots, they earned it by sucking bad last year, but the combined won-loss record of their 11 opponents is 41-71, and the record of their final six opponents (three division rivals are duplicate) is 23-39. I know they're way better than last season's wreck, but I find it impossible to judge how much better. Are they a Super Bowl contender, as has become gospel in these parts, or are they gonna roll over the first time they hit a stiff breeze in the playoffs? Beats me. How do you assess wins over the Browns, Jets, and Titans?

By wins over the Bills and Bucs?

 

[da man]

View attachment 21288
TV Guide the night of the Heidi game

Maybe if the game had been pre-empted by Land of the Giants, there wouldn’t have been such an uproar.

 

[BTExpress]

I was living in a bubble where the AFL was regarded about as highly as the UFL is today.

So I had no idea about the Heidi outrage at the time (well, I was 7) and couldn't possibly have understood it ("It's that stupid minor league. Big deal!").

 

[HanSenSE]

 

[TigerVols]

View attachment 21288
TV Guide the night of the Heidi game

I woulda totally been tuned in to watch the pole balancing act, the Trio Rennos, on Ed Sullivan!

 

[outofplace]

By wins over the Bills and Bucs?

Exactly. This stuff can get weird. The Steelers look very shaky, but they have victories over the Patriots and Colts. The Chargers kicked the Steelers asses two weeks ago, then got obliterated by the Jaguars. Those same Jaguars were blown out by the Rams and barely survived the Raiders not that long ago.

Don't try to make sense of it. It doesn't work.

 

[dixiehack]

Earl Hamner, who did the adaptation of Heidi, went on to create and narrate The Waltons.

 

[da man]

I was living in a bubble where the AFL was regarded about as highly as the UFL is today.

So I had no idea about the Heidi outrage at the time (well, I was 7) and couldn't possibly have understood it ("It's that stupid minor league. Big deal!").

I was also 7 but living in New Jersey, and we got all the New York TV and radio stations (in fact, the daily newspaper delivered to our house was the New York Daily News). We were watching the game, and we were among those outraged. I was all about the AFL and especially the Jets — Don Maynard is still my all-time favorite player. It was definitely a huge deal in our area.

 

[BTExpress]

I love "Heidi" trivia.

Heidi was the most-watched show of the week (31.8 rating/47% share) and became the most-watched TV film of all time up to that point.

Why not just delay the broadcast a few minutes, with a scroll telling viewers to hold on?

The show had a single sponsor --- Timex --- and the contract stipulated that the movie begin exactly at 7 p.m. Naturally, a reputation of punctuality was important to a watch-making company.

Nevertheless, NBC executives apparently did decide to delay the broadcast (and risk a lawsuit from Timex, I guess). But they couldn't get through to the control center because of jammed phone lines from people worried that the game was going to be cut off --- or parents worried that the movie was going to be joined in progress (or delayed, which meant problems for a child's 9 p.m. bedtime). Most of the "outrage" you read about is fans calling after the game was cut off. But the flood of phone calls actually began about 15 minutes BEFORE --- from both sides.

Other than the overtime 1958 NFL championship game, NBC had never broadcast a game that took longer than three hours. And with no overtime in regular-season games in 1968, there were few worries about Jets-Raiders going long.

Weeb Eubank's wife was watching on TV, thought the Jets had won, and called him in the visitors' locker room in Oakland several minutes later to congratulate him.

 

[Jake from State Farm]

Maybe if the game had been pre-empted by Land of the Giants, there wouldn’t have been such an uproar.

Sugar Ray Robinson played a jazz musician who befriended the little people in one episode

 

[DanOregon]

This was the Jets-Raiders from the year before. I'd pass a blow-up of this shot everyday in the hall when I worked at the Oakland Tribune.

And another one with Davidson.

 

[Chef2]

Raheem Morris should be thanking Penix he tore his ACL. Otherwise, he’s prolly out of a job. He will get a pass either way Cousins through the end of the year.
Morris is this years Vance Joseph. Very good DC. Not cutting it as HC.

 

[poindexter]

Raheem Morris should be thanking Penix he tore his ACL. Otherwise, he’s prolly out of a job. He will get a pass either way Cousins through the end of the year.
Morris is this years Vance Joseph. Very good DC. Not cutting it as HC.

The Rams have the Falcons' first round pick as a result of trading to the Falcons their first round pick this year (26 overall) and some other draft swaps.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

View attachment 21288
TV Guide the night of the Heidi game

“Lassie, what is it, Boy?”

“Bark!”

“Timmy has fallen into the Bering Strait?”

“Ruff.”

“Oh, Timmy has fallen into Mendenhall Lake!”

 

[Jake from State Farm]

I think our Canadian friends liked the Heidi post because those wacky Canadians Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster were on Ed Sullivan

 

[da man]

“Lassie, what is it, Boy?”

“Bark!”

“Timmy has fallen into the Bering Strait?”

“Ruff.”

“Oh, Timmy has fallen into Mendenhall Lake!”

Lassie is a girl. Hence the name.

Though I think I recall reading that the dog that played Lassie in the TV show was actually a male.