December might be my favorite sports month of the year. An easy pick is October—all four major sports are playing at once—but it’s December that brings much of the highest stakes football, not to mention the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic to Las Vegas. But I haven’t played much poker recently, so this blog is about sports, and specifically my hot takes for the remainder of the NFL season.
1. The Patriots will lose their divisional home game: This might be one of those things I believe because I want it to be true, but the Patriots have yet to beat a real football team. Yea yea, they beat the Bills, but I’ve seen that charade before. The Pats are likely to receive either Houston or Kansas City in Foxboro, and they just got their asses handed to them by the Texans last Sunday (albeit in Houston). It’s a fool’s errand to bet against Belichick in the playoffs, but I’m taking my chances.
2. The Cowboys will miss the playoffs: Right now, the Cowboys are a 2 to 1 favorite to make the playoffs over the Eagles; their only competition in the pathetic NFC East. And to his credit, Dak Prescott is playing some MVP level football that’ll go overlooked because of their record. But the Eagles have an easier strength of schedule remaining—with three of their remaining games against the toothless Giants and Redskins. The fourth game is the deciding one against the Cowboys, and it’s the Eagles who have home-field advantage.
3. Ryan Tannehill will lead the Titans to the playoffs: I’m not sure this is really a hot take anymore as Tannehill has made some serious believers with the last month of his play. He’s always had athleticism and a strong arm, but his recent uptick in efficiency has him playing at a career-best, and putting up yards-per-attempt numbers in line with this seasons’ MVP candidates.
The Titans need to beat out the similarly 8-5 Steelers to make the playoffs, and they’ve got the tougher remaining schedule with two games against Houston and one against New Orleans. But perhaps more importantly, Pittsburgh is being quarterbacked by a third-stringer with one career start, and many of their best offensive players are injured.