The Utah Jazz may have put up the worst franchise loss in the last seven years against the Detroit Pistons. The issues are as follows. The team somehow refuses to play defense and hasn’t done a good job of surviving when Rudy Gobert isn’t on the court.
The Jazz have also been wrecked by COVID over the past few weeks. Missing players almost every night due to the new Omnicron variant. The play on the court has just not been good enough over the past three games. With that being said though, it is important to remember that this is not March John Rothstein, this is January. A lot can change from here to the playoff push, struggles like this are not to be cause of major concern.
Every team faces adversity, the next month will tell us how the Jazz plan to deal with theirs. Will Danny Ainge make a trade? Will a fully healthy lineup realize they are a top caliber western conference team? This is all in the cards for the next two months of Jazz basketball. As I have preached all year, as long as you remain a few games above five hundred it simply does not matter until late February/ early March.
This is where Donovan Mitchell will need to step up. The Jazz, now more than ever, need leaders. 45 can be that.
Quick Hitters
Utah State
A tremendous win for the Aggies in the Pit coming back from a major first half deficit to beat New Mexico in OT. Headlined by the stellar play of Justin Bean and Steven Ashworth who hit key free throws down the stretch to secure the Aggie victory. For a team whose end goal is to prep to make a deep Mountain West tournament run, Wednesday provides a key test. Colorado State coming off a loss by thirty to San Diego State will be a massive test for the Aggies.
This is a Rams team geared toward revenge after being knocked out by the Aggies in last year’s Mountain West conference tournament. Niko Medved’s team will be ready after an embarrassing loss Saturday, the Rams are still clawing to prove they are indeed the kings of the Mountain West conference.
NFL
The playoffs are upon us. Some brief thoughts now on each matchup:
Bengals Raiders: This is Joe Burrow’s moment to become a god and end Cincy’s decades-long playoff loss streak. The Raiders have so much fight though, this is by far the toughest game for me to pick. I still don’t have a concrete answer but I think I lean what I want to see happen, Bengals in a tight one.
Bills Patriots: When in doubt, pick Belichick in the playoffs. The Bills offense is not playing their best football right now, a late beat down of the Jets didn’t convince me. Josh Allen has struggled mightily the past two weeks, but it is notable his best game of the season came against the Patriots in Foxboro just weeks ago.
Buccaneers Eagles: Tom Brady should be the MVP, I get Rodgers only has four ints but the numbers and performances Tom Brady has put in week in and week out are absolutely bonkers. This is really the only matchup I feel confident in predicting, I don’t care about the Eagle’s turnaround against subpar opponents the Bucs will be blowing the doors off this team Sunday afternoon.
Cowboys Niners: There are few things I enjoy watching on television more than a playoff game in Jerrah world. This is an incredibly tough matchup for the Cowboys though. Their defense has been a strength all year but in the playoffs, Kyle Shannahan just has some sort of a secret sauce with him. I like the Niners here.
Kansas City Pittsburgh: I look forward to laughing at the demise of Big Ben. Steelers can’t stop the run, can’t run the ball. Donezo season.
Rams Cardinals: Such a tough matchup to pick, so many factors. Kliff Kingsbury and his relative lack of coaching experience, does that out way Matthew Stafford’s increasingly shaky play over the past month? Or what about Cooper Kupp against an inconsistent Arizona secondary? So much to take into consideration with this one, but I go with quarterbacks over all else and I trust Kyler Murray right now more than I do Matthew Stafford.