The 28-12 win, Saturday, of the Titans over the Ravens--and in Baltimore, yet--must surely have sent shock waves across the NFL. After all, the Ravens are certainly the best team in professional football. But the Titans may well be the hottest. As a resident of Middle Tennessee--and a longtime resident of Nashville, itself (where the Titans are located)--I would probably not appear to be an impartial voice. (I watched the game in its entirety; and I rooted hard for the Titans, from the opening kickoff forward.) But I still think that the Titans may now be the hottest team in the NFL.
KC came back from being behind 24-0 and then the scored 51 points in the last 3 quarters to win 51-31 (while setting several records). KC is Pretty "HOT", Also. The Titans never had an off week and they played 3 really good games and Henry set a record with 3 straight 180+ Yd. Games. KC was coming off of a Bye playing at Home. The game is in KC. It will be the Irresistible Force (Mahomes) against the Immovable Object (Henry). Something's Gotta Give. Gonna be a Fun Matchup.
That is a reasonable analysis. A couple of things to consider, though: (1) Baltimore was also playing a home game; and the home-field "advantage" did not especially seem to work for them. (2) It is debatable whether a bye works in favor of, or against, the team that has it. (It is the old "rest or rust" conundrum.) Still, it is my understanding that if the Titans should win this game, it will mark four consecutive victories over division winners. The operative question, then, is: Can they do it? Dunno...
Here's my reasonable "analysis": The NFL is not a sport. It is solely entertainment. It is a football version of the WWE. Teams win based on marketable storylines, not based on talent or any other factor. The Titans only won their playoff games because their coach "changing the culture of their team" is a marketable storyline right now. Their cinderella run is now over, as KC will beat them. Mark my words; it will be KC vs Green Bay for the superbowl (as I predicted before the playoffs even began). It will be that way because the very first superbowl was KC vs Green Bay, and this is the 100th year of the NFL, so we will get a very overly-hyped "re-match" of that very first superbowl to celebrate 100 years of the NFL. As for who will win, I won't make any guarantees, but I am leaning towards Green Bay due to their "storied legendary history" throughout the years.
Although it is certainly possible--and reasonable enough, I think--to take the position that the Chiefs will defeat the Titans, I cannot at all endorse the view that the NFL "is not a sport," but is "solely entertainment"--the "football version of the WWE." Just what is your evidence that the games are fixed, anyway?
The number of games that are "nailbiters". The number of games that bad calls determine the outcome of them. The number of games that ignored penalties determine the outcome of them. How "dream storylines" seem to always pan out perfectly for the NFL. The number of games in which one team kicks ass the first half and then lays a fat one in the second half. The fact that the Raiders couldn't seem to win a game directly after suspended player Burfict called out the NFL for being rigged. All the non-calls that favored the Saints the year that they won the superbowl surrounding "hurricane katrina" hype. The Patriots becoming a dominant dynasty directly surrounding 9/11. The Broncos winning the SB during Manning's last year, and Elway's last year. Same with the Steelers and Bettis. I could go on and on...
Another thing to take note of is that the NFL is legally classified as "sports entertainment", the same thing that the WWE is classified as. College Football, however, is legally classified as a "collegiate sport".
And just how many one-run games are there in major-league baseball? Or one- or two-point games in the NBA? Do you imagine that these, two, are fixed? Note: Two things that I emphatically do not believe in are (1) the existence of esoteric knowledge--that is, knowledge possessed by only a select few individuals; and (2) the veracity of conspiracy theories. This would appear to embrace both...
Yes. And KC proved to be just a little too much for the Titans--especially in the second half. My sincere congratulations to the Chiefs.
Looks like I was dead wrong about SF vs GB... oh well. But the pre-game hype was all about SF and they acted like GB didn't even exist, so there's that. Not like the NFL loses much by not having GB in there. It'll get watched all the same.
