I’ve abandoned the internets number one message board, Twitter. Now of course I am an addict so I will return at some point, but the past few weeks have not been kind to the mental and physical health of old Eric Jensen. So, I am on vacation, doctor prescribed vacation, I sort of hate it. I am a weird person, I like work. So in my downtime I find it’s likely time to write this annual blog.
Ah yes, the love letter to October and the pure joy it brings as a sports month. Baseball playoffs, the meat of the college football season, NFL coming into greater view and of course the beginnings of hockey and basketball.
Let’s begin with baseball
I have very little to say on the matter. I don’t track the sport closely enough and frankly don’t watch playoff baseball until the 7th inning. Here’s what I know though, the Dodgers robbed the grave of the crumbling Nationals at the deadline and added the best pitcher in baseball to their rotation.
If they lose it would be massively disappointing. As my number one rule is root for Maximum heartbreak, that is what I am planning to do. Anyone but the Dodgers, perhaps the surging White Sox, the Rays could make for another fun October storyline, or yes the villains the Astros knocking off the Dodgers for a second time. This time without cheating, now that, that would be poetry in motion.
College Football
I know three things about college football in the state of Utah. Here they are in order.
- Kyle Whittingham is placed with an impossible task. Keep a team that has just lost two brothers in tragic fashion over the course of nine months. Football is no longer important, you can read more about that (here), but the Utes are faced with an impossible task. Remain competitive with a semi flawed roster, while dealing with massive real-life tragedy that trumps all other struggles the team may have. To say I would be shocked if the Utes decide to play in a bowl game this year would be an understatement. This has been a hell year, no one would blame them for taking some time off focusing on themselves and moving on. That unfortunately is not how college football works though. What is important is for Ute fans to adjust expectations, which it seems they largely have and focus on the people, not the players.
- BYU is a top ten team in the nation and if they win against Boise this week could easily roll through a soft schedule undefeated. Who’s the biggest challenge left, defensively flawed Baylor? A USC team that is a week to week proposition at best these days? The Cougs will finish this season within the top ten of the nation and be in serious consideration to play in a new years six bowl as an at large team.
- It’s been a tough few weeks for Blake Anderson’s Utah State, but they remained competitive against BYU and the rest of the schedule is HILARIOUSLY easy. UNLV, Colorado State, Hawaii, New Mexico State, New Mexico. None of these teams are beating the aggies and that puts you at 8 wins. Give Anderson a year to recruit defensively and this is set to be a G5 power over the next five years, if Anderson even lasts that long before getting hired away by a power five position.
What we know nationally is very little. Alabama is a top contender, Georgia appears to be on the same level. The rest is a soup of mediocrity.
Oklahoma, a lousy offense. Iowa, who knows if the stellar defense can survive a painfully boring offense. Penn State, do they have any hope of keeping up with Ohio State, what exactly is Ohio State? Part of me thinks they’ll run through the Big Ten like a hot knife through butter but another part of me is totally unsold by CJ Stroud and a terrible defense.
Maybe it’s Cincinnati but do they stand any chance against SEC giants? No, the answer is no, that was a ridiculously stupid hypothetical.
The NFL
My favorite game pass note on my phone from the week reads, quote: “Holy (expletive (of your choice I went with something stronger than the typical holy non reversable word pairing) this Bills defense is so fast.”
And they are, Matt Milano is living in anyone who dares cross the middle of the fields nightmares. The front seven is getting tremendous pushing and ran poor Davis Mills into the ground. Not to mention one of the best secondaries in football, the offense doesn’t have to be special if this is what the defense is going to be.
There are exactly 6 quarterbacks in the NFL right now who make me physically swoon and verbally ooh and ah on a weekly basis, they are: Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady, Kyler Murray, and Aaron Rodgers.
Those are the guys that sit on the pedestal right now, a special shout out to Dak Prescott though who has won my heart. Not since my lord and savior Peyton Manning has a QB operated every aspect of an offense with such a ruthless efficiency as Dak has this year. Nothing you throw at the man phases him, he is special he is beautiful he is mind and body working in perfect harmony, a nightmare for defensive coordinators across the land.
Oh, and did I mention the Cowboys defense has two of my favorite players to watch right now, Trevon Diggs and Micha Parsons. I am falling in love.
If the Broncos are with Drew Lock they aren’t worth mentioning. It does not help they are the most injured team in football over the past three years.
Hockey
I always jump into hockey head first, with no information, just let it flow over me. My biggest question is what are the Colorado Avalanche, the team I root for. They let their Vezina caliber goalie walk for nothing and then traded a first-round pick for a goalie who only played 27 games last year.
As well as the fact they lost most of their depth. It feels like the window they have to win a cup is rapidly closing and if they don’t win it this year, well it’s going to get worse. Now is the time. Cease the moment. Deliver me some joy.
The rest of the NHL looks largely the same, in the East it will be the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Washington Capitals paired with an always spunky Islanders team and oh, of course, the Boston Bruins will be in the mix.
In the West it will be Vegas, Dallas, the bounce-back return of the Saint Louis Blues, and the ever-entertaining yet ultimately unthreatening Oilers.
Let the beautiful mystery unfold.
NBA
This is the most cynical I have been on the NBA. What’s the point? Why care until April? The NBA has the worst regular season product of all four North American sports leagues. I explain it like this. I live in Salt Lake, I watch the Jazz. That’s fun, I care about the Jazz but what’s the point of watching a random game between the Nets and the Wizards if I live here in Utah? Especially if half the league’s stars seem to miss a quarter of the season no matter what.
Not to mention that somehow, the most progressive politically active league in the nation’s players are now suddenly staunchly and vocally anti vaccination, while their employer the league is pushing as heavily as any in the country to be the solution and not the problem, but the players union lead by a conspiracy theorist and quite frankly wandering mind Kyrie Irving believes the vaccine is connected to the devil?
I can’t get on board with that. I can’t support players who pick and chose which items they want to be activists on. I will stop writing, before I get to sounding like more of a 67 year old white sports writer. Just get it together NBA, your messaging is entirely confusing, and your on-court regular-season product is not that good.
All that aside though, I am excited, oh so very excited. For the best sports month of the year, the month of October.