lordstanley

PBP yells. Sabres booed off the ice. A lot of talk this summer about which if any of Ottawa-Buffalo-Detroit would step forward. At the moment, the Wings are 7 pts up on Buffalo with 2 games in hand, and 11 points up on Ottawa having played 4 more games.

With wins in 5 of past 6 games, the Wings are off to a fast start tonight in Buffalo. Goals by Larkin and Fabbri make it 2-0 midway through 1st Fabbri has 8 goals in 12 games.

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2023/12/sec-championship-most-watched-alabama-georgia-fsu-acc-viewership/ For anyone inclined to believe that ratings influence the decision-making of the College Football Playoff committee, playoff-bound Alabama attracted the largest conference championship audience in five years, while snubbed Florida State played in the least-watched of this year’s “Power 5” games. Saturday’s Alabama-Georgia SEC Championship Game, the final edition of the “SEC on CBS,” averaged an 8.9 rating and 17.52 million viewers — marking the largest audience for any conference title game since the 2018 Alabama-Georgia SEC Championship. This year’s audience trails only that game and 2009 as the highest for any conference title game since at least 2000. (Keep in mind out-of-home viewing was not tracked in Nielsen final nationals until 2020.) Alabama’s win, which peaked with 22.35 million viewers, increased 58% in ratings and 61% in viewership from Georgia-LSU last year (5.6, 10.89M) and also increased 9% and 12% respectively from the previous Alabama-Georgia title game two years ago (8.2, 15.66M). For the season, the SEC title game trails only Ohio State-Michigan on FOX the prior week (9.0, 19.07M) as the highest rated and most-watched game on any network. See the full list of college football ratings this season here. Ranking a distant second for the weekend, the Michigan-Iowa Big Ten Championship averaged a 5.1 and 10.02 million — down 7% in ratings and 6% in viewership from Michigan-Purdue a year ago (5.5, 10.70M) and the least-watched Big Ten title game since 2020, when Ohio State-Northwestern averaged a 4.2 and 8.25 million in a Noon ET timeslot. The Wolverines’ win still ranked among the top five games this season (fourth or fifth, depending on whether one includes the Adobe Analytics audience for Ohio State-Notre Dame).

Portrait of the Artist as a Lions Fan

Which would give them the division title if the Lions topped out at 10 wins. It would still need 2 of Minnesota, Seattle and LA Rams to go 4-1 or better to knock the Lions out of the wildcard in that case.

Also, Anzalone might play against Chicago, McNeil likely won’t.

Like all of us, I'm "division title or bust", but when it comes to an actual playoff spot, you'd have to think that if the Lions win on Sunday to get to 10 wins they're all but mathematically in at worst the 3rd wildcard. Last year a 9-7-1 team and a 9-8 were the 2nd and 3rd wildcards (while the 9-8 Lions missed). Can't see three other non-division winners in the NFC getting up to 10. Dallas yes. But any NFC South non-division winner can't pass the Lions. So could two other non-division winners catch a 10-win Lions? Rams at 6-6 play the Ravens and Niners, Seahawks at 6-6 play the Niners and Eagles, and maybe one of 6-6 Minnesota/GB could get up to 10+ wins (and beat out the Lions for the division) but unlikely both would.

I think Georgia would be favored by Vegas over all four teams in the CFP. Ohio State would likely be favored over Washington and Texas. Keep in mind that FSU didn’t just lose out to one 1-loss team but to two. Texas was 3 spots below FSU going into championship weekend, and all they did win win more impressively over Oklahoma St than FSU did over Louisville. Oklahoma State was ranked 4 spots below Louisville going into the weekend though. Apart from Alabama, Oklahoma St is the only AP Top 25-ranked team that Texas beat (CFP added 4-loss Kansas State as 25 this week but that looks political). Texas beat 8-loss Houston by only 7, was taken to OT by 4-loss Kansas State, and beat 7-loss TCU by only 3.

Florida St. beats Georgia to finish 14-0 as ACC champion. Texas beats Washington, and Alabama again, to finish 14-1 as Big 12 champion.

C'mon, don't you know that all the Alabama players need ample time to submit term essays, study their notes, cram and write exams before a Christmas break.

Lions' Ragnow carted to locker room after suffering knee injury against Saints https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/nfl/lions/2023/12/03/lions-ragnow-carted-to-locker-room-after-suffering-knee-injury-against-saints/71792917007/ “Following the game, Lions coach Dan Campbell said the locker-room evaluation provided some optimism, but the team won't know more until Monday, after Ragnow undergoes an MRI in Detroit. At first, coming off, it was sounding like one thing, and then, after the fact, it sounded like something maybe a little bit different," Campbell said. "One, not as good, (the latter) one sounds more positive. I won't know until tomorrow."

I’m not too fussed about the lack of a DPI call on 4th down. But the one on 1st down was egregious.

Green Bay. Puts a bit of a wrinkle into the plan to clinch against adenver in 2 weeks. Green Bay would no need to first lose to NY Giants next Monday.

I’m impressed. That’s like me promising my wife a getaway to London and Paris but then taking her to London, Ontario off of the 401 then driving another hour to rural village Paris, Ontario.

KC losing to Green Bay, a team with a losing record, in the 4th quarter. Chiefs would fall to 8-4 with a loss. Their fans must be embarrassed and disgusted.

Patrick Kane was essentially the 3rd man in the booth for the first several minutes of the 2nd period last night.

Just as seriously as a guy named Boo.

And first time a non-SEC team has been #1 since Clemson in 2020, and first time a team outside the South has been #1 since Ohio State in 2015.

Or a Vikings loss against the Bengals in Cincy, as they play earlier on the Saturday that the Lions host the Broncos. This assumes GB loses tonight to KC (or less likely, next week to the Giants): although maybe the Lions win the tiebreaker with the Packers anyways, I don’t know.

The NFL might decide that the Lions aren’t the same team that started 5-1 and will keep them out of the playoffs.

So if the Lions do win the division (3 game lead), this all but ensures that they will be at least the #4 seed. 3 game lead over Atlanta (if they hang on vs the Jets) and New Orleans with wins over both.

Cripes that was risky. Lions win!

Given that it was going to be the 2 minute warning no matter what, that would have been a perfect chance to pass on 1st down.

That one second hurts a bit.

Lions still need a 1st down or two.