Tuesday Morning Quarterback: The NFL’s Authentically Good Teams

Authentic Games are those played against other teams that make the playoffs that same season, or were playoff-likely on the day the contest was held. In the latter category for 2017 would be wins versus the Green Bay Packers when Aaron Rodgers was starting, or the Houston Texans with Deshaun Watson under center.

TMQ also counts as Authentic Games some contests that I just have a feeling about. For instance, early-season wins against the LA/B Chargers, when they were losing by missing last second field goals, count as Authentic. On exactly what does and does not count as Authentic, I can’t reveal my methodology (because I don’t have one).

As December is about to commence and stuff is about to get real, here are the Authentic Games standings for teams in the playoff hunt:

AFC:

Kansas City 5-1

New England 4-2

Jacksonville, Pittsburgh 3-2

Buffalo, Tennessee 2-2

Chargers, Ravens 0-4

NFC:

Minnesota 5-2

Eagles 4-1

Atlanta, Carolina 3-2

Rams, Saints 3-3

Seattle 2-4

Packers, R*dsk*ns 2-5

Detroit 1-5

First you will note that Kansas City, mired in a slump, nevertheless has the best record in the Authentic Games standings. This suggests the Chiefs may assert themselves down the stretch. They’ve won big-deal, high-pressure games this season, then honked to the likes of the Giants and the Bills. Can they recover their mojo? (This is a technical term.) Just one touchdown versus the Giants and Bills combined—ouch.

Next you will note this metric places Minnesota’s 5-2 ahead of Philadelphia’s 4-1, though the latter is a superior percentage (.800 for the Eagles versus .715 for the Vikings). Playing in a lot of high-pressure contests is good for an NFL club. The team that has a lot of Authentic Games learns a lot, even if some are lost. This augurs well for the Vikes, who face Atlanta and Carolina next, and will conclude the regular season having played nine Authentic Games. The Nesharim face Seattle and LA/A next, for a total of seven Authentic Games in the regular season. By this way of thinking, Minnesota should go into the postseason with the edge over Philadelphia in terms of handling pressure.

I am ranking the Packers only because Aaron Rodgers may come back. I am ranking the Chargers because I gotta feeling: Their losses have been close, they’re tied for third in passing offense and seventh in passing defense, and it’s a passing league. I am not ranking the Raiders because they may charitably be described as a bunch of [what Rex Tillerson said about Donald Trump].

As professional football rounds the clubhouse turn toward the postseason, TMQ will update the Authentic Games standings weekly. As it is now, my metric predicts a Super Bowl IV rematch of Kansas City versus Minnesota. By next week I will have figured out some flimsy excuse for making the metric predict the Patriots or Steelers to win the AFC. Whether the Eagles or Vikings will win the NFC may be shown by the next two weeks, in which both face back-to-back Authentic foes.

Stats of the Week #1. Philadelphia is 10-1 for the third time in the Super Bowl era. The first two times, the Eagles reached the Super Bowl.

Stats of the Week #2. The Eagles have outscored their last four opponents by a combined 152-45.

Stats of the Week #3. Tennessee broke a 0-9 streak at Indianapolis.

Stats of the Week #4. At 5:06 p.m. Eastern on November 26, the Oakland Raiders defense recorded its first interception of the 2017 season.

Stats of the Week #5. The Chargers opened 0-4 and since are 5-2.

Stats of the Week #6. The Chiefs opened 5-0 and since are 1-5.

Stats of the Week #7. The Ravens are on a 10-0 streak in primetime. Hosting the Texans, they went for it twice on fourth down, converting both while gaining 51 yards.

Stats of the Week #8. Four quarterbacks were chosen in the first round of the 2012 NFL draft; Case Keenum was undrafted that year. In the 2017 season Keenum has more victories than all first-round quarterbacks from his draft class combined. (Details below.)

Stats of the Week #9. Tyrod Taylor has five interceptions in his last 16 games; a week ago his brief replacement, Nate Peterman, had five interceptions in the first half.

Stats of the Week #10. All NFC division leaders—Philadelphia, Minnesota, New Orleans, and the Los Angeles Rams—did not make the playoffs last season.

Sweet Play of the Week. Defending champion New England facing 4th-and-8 on its own 27 on the game’s opening possession, the Flying Elvii lined up to punt. Miami put eight players into the box, showing an all-out rush to attempt to block the punt. The Patriots snapped to upback Nate Ebner—one of two gents on the defending champion’s roster who played a sport other than football when they arrived at college—who ran for the first down. New England scored a touchdown on the possession and never looked back.

The decision to fake the punt might have come from the bench or might have been an automatic: a call the upback makes in response to seeing a particular front. In either case, it was sweet that Bill Belichick is the NFL’s sole head coach with sufficient job security that he doesn’t worry about what would happen if he went for it on 4th-and-8 deep in his own territory and the attempt failed.

Sour Tactic of the Week. Heinz Field in Pittsburgh is, owing to swirling winds, the hardest place in the NFL to kick a long field goal. This made it especially impressive that Steelers placekicker Chris Boswell won the Pittsburgh-Green Bay game with a 53-yard field goal as time expired.

In the third quarter, Packers leading 21-14, Green Bay had faced 4th-and-18 on the Pittsburgh 39. Packers head coach Mike McCarthy sent out his placekicker for a 57-yard field goal attempt, which sailed wide left. That would have been the longest field goal ever at Heinz Field, where the NFL record is from 53 yards. The Green Bay miss gave the home team possession at the 47 yard line. Pittsburgh took the ball the other way for a touchdown and tied the score.

Everyone in the NFL knows Heinz Field is unfriendly to long kicks. McCarthy’s sour decision to try from 57 yards gave the hosts great field position. Green Bay did not exactly have a huge range of attractive options on 4th-and-18. Trying a coffin-corner punt was the least unattractive in this case.

Had Pittsburgh missed its long field goal attempt at the buzzer, Green Bay would not have gotten great field position because regulation ended. Mike Tomlin’s calculation was very different because he knew time would expire during the kick.

Sweet ‘n’ Sour Play of the Week. Jets leading heavily favored Carolina 20-18 in the fourth quarter, Jersey/B had possession at midfield. Josh McCown fumbled under pass-rush pressure; Luke Kuechly did a scoop-and-score, and the Panthers never looked back. Sweet for Carolina. The protection call was a “max protect”: The Jets kept eight blockers in, to oppose five rushers, and yet allowed their quarterback to be hit. Sour for Jersey/B.

Just to show this was no fluke, scoring to pull within 32-27 with five minutes left, Jets head coach Todd Bowles did not onside, rather, had his charges kick away. Sweet for the Cats, who took over on their 25. Sour for the Jets, who did not get possession back until 21 seconds remained.

Sweet-and-Sour Bonus. Julio Jones delighted fantasy owners with 253 yards receiving: This was more than the total passing yardage of several NFL teams on Sunday and more than the total offensive yardage achieved by the Kansas City Chiefs on their home field. Jones made a sweet touchdown catch on a throw from fellow wide receiver Mohamed Sanu, a quarterback in high school, who had lined up behind center in a wildcat look. Later Jones turned City of Tampa cornerback Ryan Davis inside-out on a stutter-out move, causing Davis to fall down. That left Jones uncovered for a long touchdown catch. It was sour that the Buccaneers, knowing they would face the league’s best wide receiver, appeared to have no defensive game plan for Jones.

Everything That’s Ridiculous About NFL Coaching Explained in a Single Play. Giants at Potomac Drainage Basin Indigenous Persons on Thanksgiving night, contest scoreless, the hosts reached 4th-and-1 near midfield, and had been called for holding on the previous snap. Jersey/A head coach Ben McAdoo was given this option by the zebras: Accept the penalty, placing Washington at 3rd-and-11 on its 35, or decline the penalty, leaving the down-and-distance at 4th-and-1.

McAdoo declined the penalty—because he was utterly, absolutely certain his opponent would punt on 4th-and-1 from midfield. Which is what R*dsk*ns head coach Jay Gruden proceeded to do. Ye gods.

The Football Gods Chortled (Pro Edition). Visiting the Lions on Thanksgiving, the Vikings lined up to go for it on 4th-and-short. The plan was to draw Detroit offside. Quarterback Case Keenum barked a hard count—and the Vikings drew themselves offside.

Eleven quarterbacks were chosen in the 2012 NFL draft, including Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin going one-two, then Ryan Tannehill and Brandon Weeden also being tabbed in round one. Keenum was passed over entirely that year, entering the NFL as an undrafted free agent. At 8-2, the undrafted Keenum has more victories this season than all 2012 first-round-selected quarterbacks combined.

The Football Gods Chortled (College Edition). Hosting powerhouse Penn State and trailing 52-0, mega-underdog Maryland kicked a field goal. This was done so head coach D. J. Durkin won’t hear from the boosters, “We got shut out at home.” Hosting powerhouse Clemson, and itself ranked 24th going into the night, South Carolina, trailing 34-0 in the fourth quarter, kicked a field goal. This was done for the same reason—so head coach Will Muschamp won’t hear from the boosters, “We went into that game ranked, on national TV, and got shut out.” (It happened in the NFL, too: Trailing Philadelphia 24-0 in the second half, John Fox had the Bears kick a short field goal, so that management would not complain about being shut out.)

The Football Gods Should Have Hurled a Lightning Bolt. Or Maybe Hurtled. Recently TMQ noted Jacksonville defeated LA/B partly on the strength of a fake punt the Chargers were fooled by, even though Jax had run exactly the same fake earlier in the season. I wrote, “LA/B hadn’t scouted that play, despite having not one but two coaches who do nothing all year long except special teams.” Monday night, the Ravens ran a fake punt against the Texans, punter Sam Koch throwing to backup receiver Chris Moore for a first down. It was exactly the same fake Baltimore used earlier in the season for a first down versus Tennessee, with Moore even lined up in the same spot. Houston hadn’t scouted that play, despite having two coaches who do nothing all year long except special teams, and the two coaches having an assistant.

The retired number of former player O.J. Simpson #32 of the Buffalo Bills during an NFL game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Ralph Wilson Stadium on September 16, 2012, in Orchard Park, New York. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)

Simpson’s Name Is Still Honored at Taxpayer Expense. Two aspects of this autumn’s wave of sexual scandals are especially disturbing: the first that workplace harassment of women may be common, which indicates a significant problem for society and a significant indictment of men; the second that in a social-media-driven world, being accused is treated as the same as being guilty. Charlie Rose, for example, sounds like a really creepy guy, and perhaps the public now knows a shameful truth CBS and PBS tried to cover up. On the other hand Rose has not been charged with any crime, and anonymous accusations are impossible to refute. Rose said he “deeply apologized for my inappropriate behavior” while “I do not believe that all these allegations are accurate.” That’s neither a denial nor a confession, leaving many questions unanswered. Yet it’s assumed that because Rose is accused, he must be guilty.

We don’t want to live in a society that looks the other way on workplace sexual harassment. Do we want to live in a society that accepts anonymous accusations as instant proof of guilt? The court of public opinion is not a court of law, of course. But how long till the first woman faces anonymous accusations of sexual harassment, and is instantly assumed guilty and punished?

Almost immediately after being accused, Rose had journalism awards rescinded. As the pendulum swings from hushing up the mistreatment of women toward overreaction, let’s bear in mind that overreaction will be unfair for the 99 percent of men who treat women well. Okay, for the 90 percent of men who do so. In any event, overreaction will backfire.

As Rose instantly loses status and awards, the name O.J. Simpson remains in the NFL Hall of Fame, a tax-favored institution, and on the wall of New Era Field, the publicly funded facility where the Buffalo Bills play. Simpson was acquitted of murdering Nicole Brown, but convicted of armed robbery and found guilty by a California jury of the wrongful death of Ronald Goldman, and of battery against Brown. Yet New York state recently paid $130 million in tax dollars to subsidize a stadium where Simpson’s name prominently is displayed as someone to be admired. Parents who take daughters to Bills games have to say, “New York state thinks it’s okay to commit crimes and harm women so long as you’re a football star.” There’s no ambiguity regarding Simpson. Yet his publicly supported honors remain.

Kamar Jorden #88 of the Calgary Stampeders makes a diving catch against Rico Murray #20 of the Toronto Argonauts during the second half of the 105th Grey Cup Championship Game at TD Place Stadium on November 26, 2017, in Ottawa, Canada. (Photo by Andre Ringuette/Getty Images)

Hail to the Argos. A tip of the hat to the Toronto Argonauts, possessors of the best literary name in sports, and now possessors of the Grey Cup.

Mike Florio reports that in order to work out terms for CFL coverage on NFL Network, the Canadian league may shift its title contest from late November to mid-October. This would entail CFL play kicking off in late May; the goal would be fair weather, not blizzards, for the Grey Cup, in order to make the game a travel destination. Then again with global warming, it may not be long till it’s balmy in Canada in late November anyway.

Some NFL Players Disrespect the American Flag Spontaneously; NFL Owners Disrespect the Flag Systematically. Three weeks ago TMQ noted that the NFL’s self-hyped “Salute to Service” is almost entirely a cynical marketing gimmick. What about the NFL’s wrapping itself in the American flag?

Reader Jim Yrkoski of Silver Creek, Nebraska, notes, “In accordance with 4 U.S.C. § 8 (c), ‘[t]he flag should never be carried flat or horizontally but always aloft and free.’ And yet on many Sundays in NFL stadia, a huge U.S. flag is unfurled flat, or horizontally to the ground, while members of the U.S. military look on and U.S. military aircraft fly overhead.” Why is it wrong for NFL players not to stand for the flag, yet fine for NFL owners to violate flag standards? This could not possibly have anything to do with the players being black and the owners being white! And why does the military provide soldiers, sailors and aircrew to be employed as props when the flag is mishandled?

Often, NFL flag usage violates the Flag Code, which among others things specifies: “The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever.” Having an American flag flapping at stadia for audiences to face during the Star Spangled Banner is a fine tradition. The NFL laying gigantic flags on the field, in order to suggest that professional football has something-or-other to do with patriotism, is advertising, and violates the Flag Code.

Tis Better to Have Rushed and Lost Than Never to Have Rushed at All. Panthers leading 18-17, Jersey/B reached 1st-and-goal on the Carolina 1 early in the fourth quarter. Three tries for one yard—just run the ball! Instead, incompletion, incompletion, incompletion, field goal. Aye caramaba.

Unhappy Hour in Hell’s Sports Bar. Hell’s sports bar has an infinite number of flatscreen TVs, but certain blackout restrictions may apply. This weekend the Iron Bowl and Saints-Rams game were blacked out, but Browns versus Bengals—combined record 4-16—showed on endless loop. To attract clientele, Hell’s Sports Bar offered two-for-one specials on craft-brewed quicksand.

Stop Me Before I Blitz Again! Oakland leading 21-14 with 2:24 remaining, Denver had the Raiders pinned on their own 15 yard line facing 3rd-and-8. The Broncos don’t need a sack: The clang of an incompletion would do the trick. Instead it’s an all-out blitz, and while the unexpected blitz on a rushing down may be effective—see the Hidden Play item—the predictable blitz on third-and-long benefits the offense. Oakland completed a 54-yard pass, and the rest was kneel-downs.

A Cosmic Thought. Last week astronomers in Hawaii detailed the first interstellar object to be observed passing through the solar system: an asteroid given the Hawaiian name Oumuamua. Stupendous numbers of natural objects from elsewhere in the galaxy have passed through the solar system; this was the first to be tracked and measured. Its heft appears to indicate that the vastness between star systems isn’t empty. The “missing mass” problem of cosmology may someday be solved by discovery that the interstellar and intergalactic regions now considered voids actually are chock-full of stuff, just stuff we can’t see or detect from our pale blue dot.

Oumuamua is moving really fast for an asteroid at 58,000 miles per hour. Since that works out to about one-thousandth of one percent of the speed of light, it would take about 400,000 years for Oumuamua to reach the nearest star beyond ours, Sol—which offers some idea of galactic scale.

An artist’s rendering of Oumuamua, an interstellar pretzel stick hurtling through the Solar System in search of some onion dip. (ESO/M. Kornmesser)

The new Atlantic contains this fascinating article, by Ross Andersen, on how China has become the leader in SETI, or the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Making radio contact with another planet could be a major moment in human history, or may never happen. Yours truly wrote about the larger questions of SETI for the Atlantic in 1988, and on the larger-questions front, nothing has changed. What of China’s new interest? Perhaps pure scientific curiosity is at work. Perhaps China hopes for a prestige-building space spectacular that would cost a heck of a lot less than landing on the Moon.

I wrote in 1988, “A stock assumption is that the first question we would send to an extraterrestrial radio operator would be something like ‘How do you build a 10,000-megajoule charged-particle beam?’ Consider the ramifications if instead the question were ‘Have you seen God?’” Should China establish first contact, its message might be, “Please announce that the Galactic Council has ordered the United States Navy out of the South China Sea.”

Sweet Pair of Iron Bowl Plays. Alabama at Auburn scoreless, the Tigers faced 3^rd and goal on the Tide 3. Tailback Kerryon Johnson lined up behind center in the wildcat look that Auburn shows several times per game. He started to run straight ahead—then leapt into the air on a “pop pass” action for a touchdown to Nate Craig-Myers. The pop pass, beloved by Tim Tebow at Florida, is seen in college yet all but unknown in the pros. Why? In college the offensive line can go downfield before a pass is thrown—so to linebackers, the initial action really looks like a rush. In the NFL, blockers can’t run downfield, so linebackers know immediately that a pop-pass action is a called pass.

Now it’s early in the fourth quarter, Auburn leading 20-14 and facing 2nd-and-seven at midfield. Again Johnson sets behind center in a wildcat, with starting quarterback Jarrett Stidham as a wide receiver. Often in a wildcat the quarterback splits out and simply watches, drawing one defender away from the play-side. (When the Falcons used a wildcat look to score a touchdown against the Buccaneers on Sunday, Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan split wide and simply watched.) Utility back Ryan Davis comes in motion back toward Johnson, who takes the snap and hands off to Davis, who flips the ball to Stidham, the quarterback, who has come back toward the formation from the opposite side. In the confusion, Davis—the intended receiver all along—wheels into the space Stidham vacated and catches a pass for a 25-yard gain, setting up the touchdown that placed the hosts in command.

Sweet! This is an exemplar of the “series” call, in which a look early in the contest sets up the defense to be fooled by something similar late in the game.

Hidden Play of the Week. Hidden plays are ones that never make highlight reels, but stop or sustain drives. LA/A leading New Orleans 23-10 late in the third quarter, the Saints had 2nd-and-3. The Rams showed a regular front, suggesting a standard four-man rush. At the snap, an all-out seven-man blitz began, dragging Drew Brees down for a sack; New Orleans ended up punting. Brees is a poised quarterback who usually senses a blitz; this time he did not. The Rams’ defensive personnel has not changed much this season, but the addition of defensive coordinator Wade Phillips has led to many hidden plays in LA/A’s favor.

Phillips moving to Los Angeles is the hidden play of the Broncos’ entire season. Just two years ago, under Phillips, Denver had the league’s best defense, leading to a Super Bowl win. Even last season, with the Denver offense sputtering, the Broncos allowed the fewest touchdown passes in the league. This season, Denver has allowed the most touchdown passes.

Adventures in Officiating. For the second time this season, Jets tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins had a touchdown signaled by the official on the scene reversed by the replay office far away, and for the second time this season, IT WAS A TOUCHDOWN. (TMQ used caps for this the last time this happened.) What exactly was it about this week’s touchdown reception that caused the NFL’s we-are-not-amused reaction? Both at game speed and in slo-mo, IT WAS A TOUCHDOWN.

Just inside the two-minute warning at Kansas City, the Chiefs’ Charcandrick West caught a short pass and stumbled to the ground. Buffalo defender E.J. Gaines had West in his sights for a big hit, but once the player stumbled, Gaines pulled up and leapt over West, making no contact other than touching him to ensure he was downed. In other words, Gaines did exactly what the safety-conscious NFL now wants. Zebras threw a flag for unnecessary roughness! Had Gaines not touched him and West jumped back up, officials would have allowed the down to continue. Buffalo won, so the blunder had no impact on the outcome. But now it’s illegal to touch on opposing runner? Not clear what, if anything, the officials were thinking.

What’s the Story with Kansas City? In the last three games, Kansas City has lost to the collapsing Cowboys, to the woefully bad Giants, and to the low-voltage Bills, playing terrible offense in each case. Perhaps the clock has struck midnight and the Chiefs turned back into a pumpkin. Since the Bills hold the Chiefs’ first selection in the next draft, defeating them, thus making that selection higher in the round, was like a bartender getting a tip for serving a beer.

In the offseason, Kansas City traded a king’s ransom in draft picks to acquire quarterback Patrick Mahomes, with an eye toward replacing Alex Smith, who will be a free agent following the current campaign. Kansas City head coach Andy Reid was furious about the trade, made without consulting him, and angled, successfully, to get the general manager responsible fired. Reid feared a quarterback controversy—and now he has one.

Word is that Mahomes, a college phenom, has looked great in practice, and many Chiefs players think he should start. Smith, who lost his job with the 49ers to Colin Kaepernick when the latter was a young phenom, seems to fear that history is repeating, and has begun speaking openly about where he will play when he leaves the Chiefs after the season.

This is a recipe for a meltdown. Home fans booed loudly as their team left the field at the double-naughts. Early in the season the same fans were cheering lustily.

Head Coach Bret Bielema of the Arkansas Razorbacks on the sidelines during a game against the Ole Miss Rebels at Hemingway Stadium on October 28, 2017, in Oxford, Mississippi. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)

Hunting Season Begins for Weasel Coaches. TMQ’s Law of Weasel Coaches holds: When you hire a coach who’s only in it for himself, you get a coach who’s only in it for himself. Five years ago, Bret Bielema walked out on his promises to Wisconsin—including to his mentor Barry Alvarez, the Wisconsin athletic director who made Bielema into a coaching star—when Arkansas waved dollar bills. Bielema’s promises to his recruits and his claims of loyalty to Alvarez meant nothing compared to the raise Arkansas was offering, with the proviso that Bielema had to break his words. (Arkansas made a buyout payment to Wisconsin.) Having gone out of its way, at great expense, to hire a weasel coach, Arkansas would later profess itself stunned that it had hired a weasel coach. To top this off the Razorbacks owe Bielema a hefty severance payment—for which the University of Arkansas has only itself to blame.

Bielema should have been fired for making a mockery of Arkansas athletic academics. The graduation rate of African American players in his program was a pitiful 42 percent, and not because they were leaving early for the NFL. Did the alums, boosters, faculty, or trustees of the University of Arkansas care about this? They seem only to have cared about the lack of victories.

A year ago this time, Texas used the almighty dollar to entice then-University of Houston coach Tom Herman to become a promise-breaker. Herman had engaged in an unusually elaborate sham of claiming love for his recruits—when money was waved, his word meant nothing. (He had promised to stay at least till 2018, and weaseled out in late 2016.) Now alums, boosters, faculty, and trustees at the University of Texas are worried that they hired a weasel. What possible clue could there have been?

Head football coaches have been fired in recent weeks at Power Five programs Florida, UCLA, and Texas A&M not for poor graduation rates, not for ethical lapses, but for the unpardonable sin of not using the unpaid employees to win enough games. Kevin Sumlin was fired by Texas A&M despite a 51-26 career record at the school. His first season had coincided with the Johnny Football madness and Texas A&M defeating Alabama. Since then the Aggies have merely been good; the boosters’ reaction was, “What do you mean we don’t win every game by 30 points?”

Boosters and donors have been in continuous uproar at Florida: “What do you mean we don’t win a national championship every year?” The school just hired Dan Mullen, who broke his promises at Mississippi State, where he’d recently signed through 2021, telling recruits he had a long-term commitment to the school. The moment dollars were waved, Mullen’s word meant nothing. Florida, he broke his word before—surely he will keep his word for you!

With each passing year, Power Five college football functions more like a tax-exempt business, barely even bothering to maintain a pretense of having to do with education or amateurism. At the least, Congress should revoke the tax deductibility of donations to big-college athletic departments.

How Can the Browns Be So Bad? Cleveland has not won on the road since October 2015. Okay, they’re a crummy team. But they’ve had the greatest high-draft-choice bounty since Dallas in the Herschel Walker trade, and they’re still so bad they have not won on the road in more than two years.

The 500 Club. Honorary membership goes to East Carolina, which, versus Memphis, gained 466 yards on offense and lost by 57 points.

Obscure College Score. South Dakota 38, Nicholls State 31 in the Division 1AA playoffs. This contest matched the Coyotes against the Colonels.

Bonus Obscure College Score. Mount Union 45, Case Western Reserve 16 in an Ohio versus Ohio clash in the Division III playoffs. This all-Ohio Division III pairing was a much more appealing contest than the all-Ohio NFL pairing of Browns versus Bengals. Ohio was, till the late 18th century, the “western reserve” of American thinking, therefore the college’s name. Mount Union for its part is a perennial Division III powerhouse. Located in Alliance, Ohio, Mount Union University bases claims of student satisfaction on anonymous quotes.

Next Week. Suppose you hold tickets to next Sunday’s Cleveland Browns at Los Angeles Chargers or 49ers at Bears games. How much would you have to pay someone to take them off your hands? There needs to be a Reverse Stub Hub for Browns and 49ers tix.