The Impending Sports Analytics Doom

How the latest obsession with statistics and data are sapping the drama from our sports world. Following the dramatic conclusion of the Super Bowl a couple of months ago, the sports world exploded into a frenzy of overreaction. Most notably, the final sequence of events, in which Seattle’s offense elected to throw the ball on […]

Week 16 Thursday Night Picks: The Implications of Winning

Jim Armstrong In this week’s Thursday night picks post, I’m going to focus less on the matchup and more on the short and long-term prognosis of each franchise, since no one really cares who wins tonight’s game (outside of Jacksonville and Titans fans). Despite the dismal matchup of two 2-12 squads, tonight’s game actually holds a ton […]

Weekly 14 Thursday Night Picks: Just What Dallas Ordered: Hapless Chicago

Jim Armstrong There’s no two ways about it, Jay Cutler is who he is at 31 years old – an erratic, turnover prone QB who has one career playoff win. Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson both are Super Bowl winning QB’s. Through nearly 9 seasons, Cutler sports 1 career playoff win and a ghastly 1-11 career […]

The Most Important GIFs of Week 13

After a week off for Thanksgiving, I’m back and ready more than ever for mediocre writing and more GIFs. Get excited. By the way, if you’re wondering what my emotional state was during the 49ers-Seahawks game on Thanksgiving night, just watch this on a loop and you’ll get the basic gist of it:     […]

The Most Important GIFs From Week 11

All Hail Chris Borland Edition   Before we go ANY further… Chris Borland. Just seeing his name typed gives me goosebumps. Since becoming one of the 49ers’ starting linebackers in Week 7, Borland has amassed 56 tackles in four games, adding two interceptions against the Giants last Sunday (we’ll get back to this). The dude’s […]

The Giants Steady Decline

I hate to sound unappreciative or short-minded but the Giants, winners of two Super Bowls in the span of five seasons, have fallen into disarray in an even shorter amount of time. Although a 4,000-word exposition could be crafted detailing the different reasons for the Giants slow and steady decline, I will instead focus on […]

Week 11 Thursday Night Picks: Realization that Football is in the Stretch Run

Jim Armstrong Of the 12 playoff teams that qualified for the playoffs last season, four of those teams (Green Bay, San Francisco, Carolina & San Diego) are currently on the outside of the playoff picture looking in. With that being said, all of these teams are within striking distance of a wild card spot or […]

The Most Important GIFs From Week 10

It’s insane to think that just a few weeks ago Geno Smith was a starting quarterback and Mark Sanchez was not. (Thinking…) Nevermind, no it’s not. You know what’s actually insane, though? It’s been more than two weeks without a J.J. Watt GIF, guys. And no one has even made a big deal about this. […]

Week 10 Thursday Night Football Picks & The State of the AFC North

Jim Armstrong Who predicted that the AFC North, with an aggregate 21 wins through week 9, would be the strongest division in the NFL. Heck the 2012 Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens (who still have 8 starters from that Super Bowl team) are in the cellar of the division, at 5-4, after dropping each of […]

The Most Important GIFs From Week 9

Similar to the 49ers performance against the Rams on Sunday, I decided to mail it in this week, so don’t expect too much effort. But before we begin I’d like to pose a question to you all. This comes courtesy of Green Bay Packers offensive lineman T.J. Lang: Has anyone ever blocked a punt in madden? […]