The Seasons They Are A-Changin’
As Bob Dylan once sang, “The Times They Are A-Changin”. I will put a small variant on this, saying The Season they are a-changin’. This past week and weekend marked the beginning of the NFL season with one game still to go tonight, when the Minnesota Vikings will take on the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field. To a lot of people this marks a national holiday weekend where we have the first game on Thursday going into Sunday’s games and finishing with Monday’s game. This will all culminate with what has basically become another national holiday in the Super Bowl in February.
For some, this marks optimism where your team has a chance to challenge for the Vince Lombardi Trophy. For Chris, Kevin and I, we are definitely not in that group. If what happened on Sunday is any indication, it is going to be a very long season for Giants fans. They could only muster six points against the Washington Commanders and show barely anything on offense. They would rush for 74 yards in the game and 44 of those yards came from their quarterback, Russel Wilson. The defense did not look much better. Although they only gave up 3 scores in the game, it wasn’t so much the points they gave up, it was they way they played defense. Having your secondary sit 7-10 yards off of wide receivers like Terry McLaurin and Deebo Samuel, your defense is basically giving the offense a first down on quick slants.
This is the third straight year the Giants have not scored a touchdown in their opening game of the season. This has not been done since 1941-42 by the Detroit Lions. As one can image, this is certainly not a stat you want to be associated with, but in the last few years the Giants have been associated with a lot of stats that no team wants to be associated with. This does not bode well for Brian Daboll. Most people thought he should not be back as the head coach of this team and he is not helping himself with the way the offense is playing.
Things will not get any easier for the Giants, as it has been well documented that they have one of the hardest schedules in the NFL this season. There are some who thought they could pull off the upset in Sunday’s game but not it looks like they may not have a chance for their first win until week five when they travel to New Orleans and play the hapless Saints, although New Orleans has never been a kind place for the Giants to play. If you look at their next three games, they play the Cowboys, who almost pulled off an upset of the Eagles on Thursday, the they play the Chiefs and Chargers who played each on Friday. At this point, if the Giants end up with four win on the season, they will be lucky.
Now off to something a little better in the football world. My fantasy football team!! I had a draft the other night and Yahoo rated my draft a D+, so this means I should have a decent season. As our friend of the podcast and fantasy football guru, Brian Drake has told us when he was on the podcast last week, don’t draft a QB too early. I went with that strategy and got Bijan Robinson, Malik Nabers (who even though he’s on the Giants will still get his touches) and Kyren Williams with my first three picks. My league went QB happy very early so I forced myself to take one in the fourth round and drafted Michael Penix Jr., who Yahoo said I drafted too early. He had a great day on Sunday, so we will see if that is the case. I followed the same strategy still going with point makers.
When your team of rooting interest is not very good, fantasy football may be all you have at that point, so I will really need to hold out hope my team does well. The interest will not wane but it will certainly be a lot easier to watch what is going on in the league if the team I drafted can continue to play well.
On the other hand, there is still baseball going on and the second season is right around the corner. Thankfully for right now, I still have the Mets to also keep my interest why the dumpster fire which is the New York Giants keep losing, although after losing two of three to the Cincinnati Reds this past weekend, I am not sure how much longer they will be able to keep me occupied.
Will the Mets make the playoffs? It will be very tight coming down the stretch with the Giants and Reds breathing down their neck with both being four games back. The Mets are only two games back of the Padres for the second wild card and five out of the first wild card.
So, although fall has not officially arrived, the seasons are changing and there is a lot of optimism for fans of their teams in the National Football League and Major League Baseball.