Last night was one of the more frustrating nights of sports in recent memory. The Bruins lost their third straight game, and all picks I made for last night’s NFL Conference Championships missed. It’s difficult to move foreword after an evening like this, but I am going to try my best.
Let’s walk through what happened in the games last night, some early Super Bowl predictions, and what will happen with the blog going forward.
Game One: Horrible End to 49ers Season, Eagles Still Yet to Prove Themselves. Under 45, PHI -3 Hit
Murphy’s Law hit the Niners with full force last night. Anything that could’ve gone wrong, went wrong, all at the worst time. On the second snap of the game, star linebacker Fred Warner was injured, allowing the Eagles to cruise down the field and score on their first possession.
On San Fran’s first drive of the game and on just his sixth snap, Brock Purdy injured his elbow making him unable to throw for the remainder of the game. He came back into the game late when fourth stringer Josh Johnson was knocked out, but he handed the ball off on nearly every snap, and only completed a couple of short tosses for minimal gain.
Along with this, the Niners were penalized seven more times and for 47 more yards than the Eagles. Personally, I felt like the penalties were more lopsided than they should’ve been. It seemed like the Niners couldn’t catch a break, and the Eagles were getting away with murder.
Lane Johnson looked like he could’ve been called for a false start on every snap, yet the call didn’t happen all night. However, because of the Purdy injury, in my mind this game doesn’t even come close to the ref show that occurred in the Chiefs-Bengals matchup.
The Eagles were never going to lose to a fourth string QB. They were also never going to lose to the fraudulent Giants. With that logic, Philly has yet to prove their worth in the playoffs, but they have landed themselves in the Super Bowl. Don’t get me wrong, they are a solid team, but they are also some lucky bastards.
Game Two: The Ultimate Ref Show, Under 47.5, KC -2 Hit
With the game tied 20-20, the Chiefs at the Cincy 47, and the clock at 17 seconds remaining, Mahomes scrambled right. When he stepped both feet out of bounds at the Bengal’s 42, Joseph Ossai boneheadedly shoved him to the ground, immediately prompting an unnecessary roughness call. This penalty placed the Chiefs at the Cincy 27, which was a chip shot off a kick for Harrison Butker to seal the game.
Ossai’s unnecessary roughness call seemed to be the one decent call of the game. #NFLRigged was trending on Twitter following the Chiefs victory, and rightfully so. I’m going to attach just some of the calls that went against Cincy, and you give me your thoughts in the comments:
While most of those videos are from Cincy fans, it’s hard to deny their point.
Sure, the Bengals had a chance to go down the field and score. And sure Mahomes was doing bonkers things all night, but I just feel like we got robbed of bonus football and a chance to see the new overtime rules in action.
Reviewing my Picks
The blog went into this game 2-2 all time on NFL picks, and now we come out of the semifinals 2-5. My worst nightmare has come true.
In the first game, I took SF +3.0 with confidence. When Purdy went down, all that confidence was stripped away and replaced with sorrow as I watched the disaster unfold in front of me. There’s really nothing I could do about the situation that occurred except feel worse for the Niners than I was feeling about myself. What an awful way to end a magical season.
As I said earlier, Murphy’s law crushed San Fran. So from now on, I’ll be naming the situation that happened last night “Purdy’s Law”: When the key player on the team you bet on gets injured, the bet will not hit.
In Chiefs-Bengals game, I took the over and CIN +2.0. If the Chiefs weren’t handed the game by the refs at the end of regulation, it surely would’ve gone to overtime. And with the new overtime rules, the over was bound to hit! All that was needed was a field goal and a touchdown, or just three field goals. With the new rules where each team gets a chance to score, either option seems entirely plausible, but unfortunately, the script had other things in mind. The same goes for my Cincy +2 pick. I’m not a Bengals fan, but if I were, I’d be spouting that Goodell was pushing his button and making calls in favor of the Chiefs all night.
With the under hitting in both games, the over has now missed in the past SEVEN NFL games. I pronounce the over dead for the season, so no matter what the line is for the Super Bowl, I’ll be taking the under. Then again, betting the under is for the weak, so you’ll probably see me falling into Vegas’ trap once more come two Sundays from now.
Future of the Blog
Now, lesser men would’ve deleted or edited their blog posts to make their picks correct, but not this guy. I could also tuck my tail between my legs and quit right now, nobody reads these stupid blogs anyways, right? Wrong! I’m staying, and I’ll be around for a loooong time. A2Z Sports may be dead today, but it’s resurrection is set for Sunday, Feb. 12th, at exactly 6:30 pm EST.
I hope that this starting record and these first blog posts will give readers something to look back on when I’m 546-5 by the end of the next regular season. Time will only tell how we’ll do in the future, but one thing’s for sure: Quitters never win, and winners never quit.