Tuesday Morning Quarterback: the NFL is Darwinian

Baltimore’s Ravens are as scary as a Poe story, and you can quoth me

Because there are so few NFL games (compared to the NBA, MLB and NHL) and the football postseason is single-elimination knockout format, often pro football  boils down to who’s playing well at the end. For 2023, that team is the Baltimore Ravens.

TMQ calls them the Nevermores, owing to Edgar Allan Poe’s residence in Baltimore. They are as scary as a Poe story. Quoth me on that!

In the last two weeks the Ravens have performed rapid unscheduled disassembly of division leaders Santa Clara and Miami, clubs that were a combined 22-9 when Baltimore met them. The Nevermores won those games by a combined 89-38.

Now they’re the AFC first seed and will play at home so long as they remain in the postseason. Plus they get a home date, against Pittsburgh, to conclude the regular season. Should the Ravens make the Super Bowl, they don’t have to travel for five weeks.

Baltimore can pass, can run, can stop the pass and stop the run. Top special teams too. The Ravens are the team you don’t want to play.

College bowl season is nearly done, and the NFL postseason approaches. The two show the divergence between pro and semipro (college) football.

The NFL world is Darwinian. Just one club ends the postseason in a tickertape shower. One of 32 is happy; 31 of 32 know some measure of disappointment.

Photo by Hulki Okan Tabak on Unsplash

But at the college level it’s trophies for everyone!

There are won-on-the-field champions of D3, D2 and D1AA of the NCAA and D1 and D2 of the NAIA. At the D1 level, 44 schools finish up as bowl game victors. That’s 49 colleges whose players, coaches, cheerleaders, band, boosters and alums can dance around jubilant when their seasons conclude.

It’s fine for alums and boosters, but too many bowl game are non-competitive walkovers. New Years Day bowls pairing ranked schools ended 45-6 and 35-0, what’s interesting about that? Georgia has won its last two bowls by a combined 128-10. Why would anyone other than a Bulldogs alum want to watch?

Some of the bowl names are ridiculous. TMQ continues to seek corporate sponsors for my proposed Siesta Bowl, during which spectators would take a nice nap, souvenir pillows provided.