Saints Report # 1 - September 11, 2017

Baby, baby, where did our pass rush go?

After a pre-season of promising blitzes, the defense failed to get a pressure, much less a sack as the Saints continued their patented “slow start” trend.  This opener was a 29 – 12 Monday night dud, and with Tom Brady and Cam Newton up next, it looks like the same old 0-3 thud.  If Sam Bradford can make our defense look this bad, just think.

To make matters worse, the Saints offense was uninspired.  Adrian Peterson and Mark Ingram barely carried the rock, while rookie Alvin Kamara got the majority of the action.  It didn’t really matter as both the offensive and defensive lines were overmatched and dominated. 

The Saints receivers weren’t impressive, although Tight End Coby Fleener had his best game as a Saint.  The lack of a deep threat was obvious

The slow start the schedule threatened appears well within reach.  Get me to October. 

I just can’t take it.

I’ve got that burning, burning, yearning

Feelin’ inside me

Ooh, deep inside me,

And it hurts so bad.

 

NFL Preview

February 10^th, 2018 -  After a one week postponement, the 2018 Super Bowl was finally played, (on a Saturday night, no less because a Tractor Pull scheduled for Sunday refused to be moved) and it was the MVP Runner Up Jameis Winston who outdueled NFL MVP Derek Carr.  The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won a rare Super Bowl rematch over the Oakland Raiders 45 – 41.  Tampa Bay, already having missed 3 field goals on the day, passed on a game tying field goal that actually would have been shorter than an old extra point and Doug Martin pounded it in from the one to gain the victory with one second on the clock.

Minnesotans who had successfully delayed the game with their “Minnesotans Matter” marches and boycotts in protest of their portrayal on the TV show “Fargo” finally reached a truce to allow the game to be played.  It was the FX channel’s agreement to produce a rebuttal show called “Juicy Lucy” showing the positive aspects of Minnesotans that broke the ice (and there was plenty of it around the stadium as the sudden advent of “global cooling” had temperatures under zero outside.) 

After the game, Roger Goodell, who had been the last person on the planet to realize the Super Bowl should be played on Saturday night, admitted that it was all "cool."

The highest scoring game in Super Bowl history was a complete surprise after a low scoring NFL regular season.  It set records that will probably never be broken for offense, including the amazing absence of a single punt.  The explosion came as the NFL seems to be leaning toward banning the football helmet completely next year, in an effort to cut down on concussions.

So that’s how this season will end, and once again nobody will remember my astute prognostication.  Most play it safe and say just put New England in there.  Not me.  I say Tampa upsets Green in the NFC Championship, and Oakland knocks off Tennessee in the AFC.  Noticed how I just saved some “bays.”

What about the Saints?  They’re more unpredictable than a hurricane trajectory.  The Saints fans have high hopes because the defense seems to be improving.  We’ll know for sure by Monday night at midnight, but my guess is that Dennis Allen has the defense moving up to a middle tier defense.  Even more encouraging is the apparent commitment to the running game with the addition of Adrian Peterson.  He got the Saints to one Super Bowl, and maybe he can do it again.  The rookie Alvin Kamara, who pronounces his name differently from the way his mother does, and appears to be risking a significant nose injury with that piercing he sports, looks like a great third wheel, and I boldly predict that the Saints coaches will see what the fans saw, and Adam Bighill will be the starting middle linebacker by game 8.  If the running game can keep the defense off the field, Drew Brees is still Drew Brees, and they don’t dig themselves the early season hole they have in the last few years maybe they can leapfrog the Haunted/Hated Falcons and finish second in the division.  I think the Buccaneers are going to be the surprise team in the NFL this year, despite the “Hard Knocks” curse, and take the division, but I also have no luck at predicting hurricane paths.

I’m thinking 9-7.  What are you thinking?

At the Cinema - July 2017

Dunkirk – 6

Director Christopher Nolan may as well be Nolan Ryan.  His latest epic is so brilliant in its construction that it whizzed past me like a Nolan Ryan fastball.  I appreciate it, but I stand no chance of hitting it.  Nolan tells the story of the evacuation after this early World War 2 battle in which 300,000 British soldiers are pushing to the sea, then must be transported across the English Channel.  The Germans are winning and it is about to be a slaughter.

Nolan cuts back and forth between several stories as if they are occurring simultaneously, but the trick is that they are not.  Much like Inception and Interstellar, Dunkirk plays with time, but here the result is confusion.  Coupled with the extreme volume, at least in the IMAX setting, your head is pounding after 107 minutes.  My basic reaction to the sensory overload was “what just happened?”

The Big Sick – 9

Here’s all you need to know about the state of film.  Nolan can tell the story of Dunkirk in 107 minutes, but it takes Judd Apatow and company 124 minutes to tell the story of a girl in a coma.

Like any Apatow production, this one could have used some scissors.  I can honestly say that he just doesn’t understand the business side of movies.  Theaters only make money selling outrageously sized and priced concessions, but I am learning rule number one.  Don’t take a large soft drink into one of his movies. You may burst.

Having voiced that “word of warning” let me say that The Big Sick may be the best romantic comedy of the year.  It’s the true story of star/writer Kumail Nanjiani (Dinesh of HBO’s Silicon Valley – a great comedy) and his cowriter/now wife Emily Gordon.   He’s a standup comedian of Pakistani heritage whose instant chemistry with a member of his audience turns into something deeper. There are a lot of missteps along the way, not the least of which is a painful breakup with Emily, followed by her falling into a coma,  He meets the parents, played brilliantly by Holly Hunter and Ray Romano, and decides he’s going to stay by her side. The story is both funny and touching.

In praise of Zoe – Zoe Kazan, who plays Emily.  She is simply brilliant, and the story hinges on her portrayal of Emily, because if we didn’t buy her feelings for Kumail, the movie collapses.  It’s not the kind of acting that wins Oscars, but in many ways she carries the film even when she is asleep.  She will be underappreciated, and that’s a shame, because I think she’s an Annie Hall.  I put her supporting performance up there with Ronee Blakely (Nashville – yes I watched it again to be sure), Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone), and Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinnie.)

Director Michael Showalter pulls it all together, and the best part of the movie is the last 10 minutes where he deviates from the standard way love stories have been told for 100 years on film.  I won’t give it away, but see if you catch it.