A fun note on how standard deviations break on things like top NBA point totals in a game: There have been 92 games of 60+ points in NBA history.
51/92 of those games have had point totals ending in a 0 or 1.
75/92 have had point totals ending in a 0, 1, 2, or 3.
It technically won’t have taken more than 17, but it all but did because Miami scoring drained the clock.
Really good CFP game!
NOPE
Oh no is this going to come down to Mario kicking to go up 6?
Probably going to take more than 17! And Mario might’ve kicked away his best chance of getting there.
Ohio State has 150 yards on its last 2 drives. You can’t just play the score when you’re a sizable underdog, especially when your opponent seems to be finding its footing.
It worked out there, but Mario has absolutely been coaching this (as is his norm) as if it’s a race to 17.
Miami up 14-0 at half was a smaller favorite than Ohio State was pregame. Your 14-0 lead is only about a 70% chance to win when you’re that big of an underdog that early.
If you’re an underdog of over a touchdown, there is no lead big enough in the first half that you should be “protecting.” You have to know the run is coming and you need a cushion big enough to cover for it.
There is nothing quite like watching your team roar back from a huge deficit for a monumental win. They’re rare and agonizing at first but are all-time memories for me.
Saints-Dolphins 2009
Saints-Washington 2017
Pelicans-Lakers 2022
Bama-OU tonight
It is an unmatchable rush.
Saints gonna benefit from the worst rule in football?
Just want to remember the 18 play, 11:29 march by Brees and Mike Thomas in the 2018 playoffs against the Eagles. Saints had to gain 112 yards on the drive to score the touchdown thanks to a litany of penalties.
(Ratings here via FEI)
If your argument is that the games on the field should matter, Alabama was pretty easily the correct choice at #9, and then you could take your pick of the litter of Miami, BYU, and Vandy. Notre Dame was probably pretty easily the best of the group in the end, but the resume was comparatively trash
Bucks fans (and it's not just them; every fanbase, including the Pelicans, does this) thought it was a win that Giannis wanted to stay, and they could eek out some .500 years a few more times.
But those years aren't fun, and you just make your next stage harder by not maximizing return.
I've said it with the Pelicans, and it was true with the Bucks. People love to tell themselves they would be happy with a likeable team that wins 40-45 games.
If your highest goals are going .500, it is basically NEVER fun long-term because those teams are boring and uninteresting.
@nolaanalytics.bsky.social and I would KILL Pete Carmichael for his tendency for incessant 1st down runs.
Kellen Moore is doing the same shit…
…with a 3rd string RB.
Get this dude outta my face.
Last year, the final CFP Top 15 lost a combined 15 games to teams outside the top 15.
This year, the top 15 teams will have lost a combined 5 games to teams outside the top 15.
There are 15 good, deserving teams for 12 (really 10) playoff spots. It's tough.
Side note on this: I can’t imagine the catharsis Pistons fans are experiencing from their start to the season combined with watching Dumars and Weaver run a different franchise into the ground.
Props to people like Shamit and Scott Kushner for bringing things like this to the forefront of the conversation.
Guys like Derik Queen and Tyler Shough are seemingly nice little distractions in the meantime, but there is so much rot at the top of the Nola sports franchises dooming them long-term.
Labaron Philon is such a killer
And the 3-7 Falcons are slated to be bottom 10 in cap space.
They're in a better spot long-term than the Saints still though because they will move on from the guy driving them into the ground while the Saints will not.
Fontenot in particular has essentially mimicked the Saints over the last 5 years. He took over a 4-12 team in need of a rebuild, traded up 5 times vs 1 trade down, signed an injured mediocre QB to a huge contract, and went 29-39 in his first 4 years which was never enough for a top pick for a QB.
Ryan Pace and Terry Fontenot combined to trade up 15 times vs 5 trade downs in the NFL draft en route to leading their teams to a combined 0 playoff wins in a combined 12 seasons.
The Mickey Loomis tree looks a lot like Mickey Loomis.
Almost every Bama underachieving season/one where they miss the Playoff involves a loss like this:
2019 vs Auburn: 94% PGWE
2024 vs Vandy: 98.5% PGWE
2025 vs OU: 95.2% PGWE
Initial take: Fears has the juice. Queen looks pretty good, but this team's future would look so much cleaner and better if the Pelicans just did the simple thing and took Fears at 7 and held onto that 1st for next. Oh well, fun game watching the rooks.
I haven’t watched any Pelicans this year in regular season, preseason, or summer league, but I got invited to the game tonight so I’m excited to see Fears and Queen for the first time after reading some good things about them!
Here is the complete list of QBs the Saints have beaten in the nearly 4 years since Sean Payton left:
Two of the more underrated pieces of every rebuild are the bad coach and bad QB who get you the opportunity to draft a franchise QB and hire a good coach to go along with him.
Moore and Rattler/Shough are performing admirably in their roles thus far.
I had to stop my set at the gym just now laughing at this part of the pod.
