NFL Week 3: Press Your Luck

"These three players are after Big Bucks, but they will have to avoid the Whammy!, as they play the most exciting game of their lives!"

This will be one of the rare game show write-ups where I don't have to saw much about the game. Who doesn't know Press Your Luck? The game was always in four sections:

Part 1: 4 questions asked to get spins

Part 2: First time around the big board - prizes were awful at this stage ("a Sewing Machine!"). You use your spins to "randomly" stop the board on a prize square. If it is a Whammy, you lose everything!

Part 3: 4 more questions to get spins

Part 4: The final time at the big board; prizes here were 5x as nice as the first round.

The key square to stop on, of course, was the "BIG BUCKS" square - that sent you to the highest dollar value on the board. That caused a lot of yelling and hollering and jumping!

If you knew nothing about the 1980s, I think this game show explains a lot about popular culture at the time. Bright neon colors everywhere! Big hair for all the contestants! Never ending cash grabs! And the debut of Rod Roddy!

Who could forget the horrible sound effect music played when the board was in movement. "doo doo dee doo doo dee doo doo......" I'm sure this music was the inspiration for the robot dance craze of the 80s.

Peter Tomarken was a good host - I wouldn't call him excellent; he seemed way too smarmy at times. Also, if there was a contestant he didn't like, you could sense some joy in his narration when he said "STOP....at a Whammy......"

Speaking of Whammy, we all remember the 5 second animation "skits" that were played when the Whammy came up. An animated Whammy appeared on the player's scoreboard and made a cheesy saying ("I cannot tell a lie.... YOU LOSE!") or dressed up as Tina Turner to sing while your money was taken away. I have to admit, this did not go stale, as the writers came up with 30-40 skits at least to use when the Whammy appeared.

Anyway, some more random notes on Press Your Luck:

- You could pass your spins at any time; the person that received your passed spins had to take them. However even I couldn't figure out the rules on who they went to . If you were in 1st, the spins you pass would go to the person in 2nd....if you were in 2nd and you passed, the spins went to the person in 1st....I never understood that. If you were the guy in 3rd, I guess you were just screwed.

- This is one of the very few game shows without a bonus round at the end. I guess the producers thought the final round on the big board was climatic enough that no additional tension was needed. They were porbably right!

- If a contestant got 4 whammies over the two rounds, you were eliminated. So there was some strategy/risk in the first round if someone got 2 whammies. Do you keep going, or pass so you don't risk a 3rd whammy? Would love to have seen how Rich Kotite or Andy Reid would have handled this.


- Did you know someone figured out the "pattern" of the Press Your Luck screen? yes! An unemployed truck driver from Southwest Ohio (!!!!) memorized the pattern of the screen and was able to win $110,000 on an early episode. He is my hero! CBS tried to accuse him of cheating - but, of course, it's not cheating if you figure out the pattern of the lights! Here's the Wikipedia link for more.

- At the end of the show, Tomarken would read a poem sent in by a reader that referenced the whammys and was suppossedly "funny". The author was usually an 11-year old boy from Monkton, MD or a 43-year-old housewife from Peoria, IL.


Some may say the Browns are trying to Press their luck by bringing McCown back to start in Week 3 after Johnny's win last week. Are we going against our week 2 pattern and hitting the buzzer earlier and risk getting a whammy? I am for the decision. If McCown was our starter week 1 - and he was - and he's ready to go week 3, he starts. We are 1-1 , the season is not over, and there's a good chance if we win we will be tied for the division lead. You play the QB that has the best chance to win. It's still September.

Don't worry- this is the Browns - Johnny will have plenty more opportunities to start this year. We will either be 2-7, or McCown will imitate Don Beebe and land on his head and be taken off for precautions, etc. etc. I'm sure, for one reason or another, Johnny will be in there for week 7 and we will be able to evaluate Manziel. And if not, that means we will be 5-2 or so!

On to the games for week 3:

Bal 30, Cin 27.  This has to be a kitchen sink game for the Ravens - lose this, they go to Pit on Thu night looking at 0-4 and then a tough division game after that. I can't see them losing here, alothough Cincinnati is the better team.

Car 24, NO 17. I think all those people who jumped on the Carolina bandwagon when Bree's injury was announced will be shocked at how close this game will be. Where, exactly, is Carolina's offense?

Dal 20, Atl 17. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Weeden and all that. But I'm not sure Atlanta is good offensively. They have Jones - and nothing else.

Hou 23, TB 10. I'm sticking with my gut on a blowout when a good defense meets Winston. And the Texans are desperate.

SD 24, Min 21. I can't get a handle on these two teams yet; I'll pick the team with more offensive weapons.

NE 27, Jax 20. I'm not going to call the upset or anything, but I think NE is a bit 'soft" physically. Pittsburgh ran all over them in the opener. And we've seen this plenty of times before - NE, at home, simply does not get up against inferior teams.

NYJ 20, Phi 16.  Too scared to pick anything here. The Eagles can't be this bad, can they? If the Eagles don't turn it over, will the Jets reach 20???

Stl 31, Pit 27. Let's be clear, Pit's defense is a shambles. StL has the advantage on each of the lines here to win the battle in the trenches. Both teams will score.

Ind 24, Ten 20. Should be a lot of sacks in this game - both o lines have problems. Should be a lot closer than people think.

Az 30, SF 17. As seen last week, I think SF is very vulnerable to a precise passing attack - something Pittsburgh excels at and Minnesota did not have at all week 1. Arizona is very much like Pittsburgh and I think they will move the ball easily.

Buf 20, Mia 13. I'm now on record for 3 weeks with my dislike of Miami. What have they been doing well?

Sea 30, Chi 17. A blah game. I don't think Seattle's D is good enough to shut the Bears completely down, and their offense is not firing on all cylinders yet.

Den 24, Det 16.  I just remember how easily Rivers moved the ball vs. the Lions week 1 - that's the blueprint for Manning here! How will the Lions score against that Denver D?

GB 23, KC 20. How many big games can the Packers get up for? Opener vs. their rival Chi, Sunday night at home vs. Seattle...and now this? Kansas City has the D to put pressure on Rodgers and slow them down.

Best bets: 14 of them. Last week:  10-5; overall: 17-11
Cin/Bal over 44 1/2
Dal +1
Atl/Dal under 43 1/2
Hou -6.5
TB/Hou under 40 1/2
SD +1
Jax +13.5
StL +1
Pit/StL over 48 1/2
Az -6.5
Buf +2.5
Buf/Mia under 41 1/2
Den -3
KC +6.5

Supercontest picks:  Last week: 4-1; overall: 7-3

Dal +2
Hou -6.5
Jax +13.5
Az -6.5
KC +6.5

 

NFL Week 2: Scrabble

" It's the crossword game you've played all your life,  but never quite like this....."

SCRABBLE!

I miss this game show. It's very to have a game make a successful transition from a popular board game into a TV show (anyone remember the awful "Monopoly" game show?), but this worked. The play was easy, it was relateable, and Chuck Woolery was in his prime as a host. I worked the remote hard between Scrabble at 11:30 and the end of Price is Right for a while....(of course, in the mid 80s, that "remote" was actually Layup....

Anyway, the main game was simple. You had a word where one letter was given to you, and a clue was given to you that usually was a clever pun or had a second meaning. Then you picked "tiles" of letters out of the bin - 2 at a time - and placed them. When you knew the word, you solved it and won!

It's harder than it looks! The tiles aren't letters but numbers - so you don't know what actual letter is it when you pick them - and there were 3 tiles in the bin that were false letters and weren't in the word. If you picked them out of the bin and tried to use them, you lost your turn.

Of course everyone knows what those false tiles were called.....THE STOPPER. Devastating! You're trying to solve the last word, you have an "E" placed, with and "R" and an "S".....and you pick two tiles and the tiles are "Q" and "X". You're screwed.

They never quite perfected the bonus round. The first bonus round was the "Scrabble Sprint" - you had to solve 2 words in under 10 seconds to win the jackpot. Sounds ok - but how does that work on TV? How do you fill a 5 minute ending spot with 10 seconds of action? They should have taken suggestions from the NFL! (ba-da-bum).

The next format was a "head-to-head" format; two winners play the same 4 words; the lowest time wins. Again, good in theory, but does the viewer want to see two people struggle with the exact same set of words ? They are probably playing at home - so what do they do for the second set?

Oh - and the 5 foot tall "plunger" to stop the clock. "It's the only way the clock will stop!" Cool technology you got there, Chuck!

Scrabble also highlighted the height of 80s fashion. The hair! The neon colors! The ties! And, of course, the sweaters. For you kids out there, go google "Lou Carnessecca" as he was the fashion god of the 80s.

Oh, and Chuck Woolery was a perfect host. This wasn't too intellectual of a game, and he was the perfect mix of a joking host at the beginning, then turning serious at the end for the "big" jackpots of $5,000...... I'm sure we will talk about Chuck again in this blog later this year.

Here's a Scrabble clue for you...

"Building on the "C" in "Holy Crap".....Eight letters.....the clue is: "An accurate description for 16 years".....

PATHETIC!

Well - there weren't just three stoppers in the Browns tile bin, but 5. 5 turnovers vs. the Jets. Holy crap. The first one was devastating. We have a NINE minute drive in the first quarter....85+ yards....9 minutes vs. the Jets physical defense. And what happens? Josh does his helicopter impression and fumbles at the 1.

The second one was a killer also - up 7-0 second quarter; Fitzpatrick throws a duck that we pick off. Great, huh? Yeah, for most teams. Our DB - Gibson - takes two steps and then is stripped by Brandon Marshall. Marshall recovers at the 15 for the Jets; they score 2 plays later. Absolute killer.

I'm not going to rag on Johnny too much for the loss; we will take a more critical look this week at JFF with a  week to prepare against....Dick LeBeau. I think the intelligence level is about equal there, no?

What do you think of the Browns, Chuck?

Anyway, on to the games....

NE 23, Buf 20. I just can't trust Buffalo yet. There are holes in NE's defense, but I have to think that Belicheck will fix them with 10 days preparation. Did the Bills get too amped up for week 1?

Hou 20, Car 13. I couldn't figure this one out until I asked myself - how exactly will Carolina score? They have no weapons! They only managed 13 vs. the Jags.

Az 27, Chi 24. I remain impressed with the modest improvement of the Bears. But they can't stop precision passing games (like GB), and the Cards are a slightly worse version of the Pack. They won't stop Carson when it matters.

Cin 27, SD 17. I'm convinced Cincinnati is undervalued - strong lines on both sides- and people are overvaluing the Chargers after last week. The Cincinnati pass rush should overwhlem Rivers.

Min 23, Det 13. Speaking of the Chargers....boy, the collapse of the Lions vs. the Chargers was impressive. I'm not sure what the Lions do well. Their pass rush was not good; that will help to enable Teddy in the Vikes home opener.

NO 31, TB 20. Tampa could not look worse; but I don't think Rob Ryan is as good as his press releases. Tampa should be able to score here, especially with Evans back. The question is - can they stop the Saints at all at home?

NYG 20, Atl 17. Monday night hangover for the Falcons? They always seem to lose these types of games. The Giants will have to try to win ugly every week to be competitive; I think they can do it here vs. a possibly over-confident Falcons team.

Pit 23, SF 20. Boy, it's hard to miss the Pittsburgh holes in their defense. It will be bad this year. I just can't see the Niners taking full advantage, coming off a late Monday game. They don't have the passing attack to utilize the weakness of Pittsburgh.

Was 24, StL 20. Playing outdoors is different than turf, and the Redskins defense is better than advertised. I was surprised at how good Washington's D was last week, and there will be some letdown for the Rams after the week 1 win.

Mia 17, Jax 16. I really want to pull the trigger on the upset here, but I don't know how many weapons the Jags have. But I am not impressed with the Dolphins offense.

Bal 20, Oak 17. This is the test to see the true colors of the Ravens. Do they have offensive problems, or was it great Denver D last week? Will they have issues on D without Suggs? This game will tell a lot.

Phi 31, Dal 21. The Eagles of the 2nd half of the Atlanta game will show up for 4 quarters here. Not sure how Dallas can keep up with Bryant out.

GB 30, Sea 21. The Hawks are overrated. Their lines are not very good; look at St Louis last week! They only scored 17 offensive points vs. the Rams. And now they go into Lambeau against the Packers who want revenge?

Ind 27, NYJ 17. I think people are overvaluing the Jets due to the 5 stoppers we gave them last week. I expect the Jets to return to earth and the Colts to dominate.

Best bets: 15 of them. Last week: 7-6
NE pk
Hou +3
Hou/Car under 39 1/2
Az/Chi over 46
Cin -3
Min -2
Det/Min under 43 1/2
Atl/NYG under 51 1/2
SF +6.5
Was +3
Jax +6
Mia/Jax under 41 1/2
Oak +6.5
Phi -4.5
GB -3

Supercontest picks: Last week: 3-2.
Hou +3
Cin -3
Min -3
Was +3.5
GB -3.5

Another debacle - Quote of the week

It's now 11 straight losses in opening games for the Browns.
(I distinctly remember the last win - it was my first year in Iowa, 2004, when we beat the Ravens.....wow).

Quote of the week on the Browns board:

Someone posted:
The team laid an egg in the worst opener I've seen, and that includes the Pittsburgh debacle.

The classic response:

Which one? 1999 or 2007?


When you can't keep all of your opening week disasters straight because there are too many of them, that's not a good sign.



 

2015 NFL Week 1: Dream House

It's back! Welcome to the world-famous NFL Themed picks by Eric! This year, we are going with a theme I've wanted to do for a long while.....favorite game shows of the 70s and 80s!

Yes, these shows may explain why I am a bit warped. I loved watching these in my youth. Nothing better than a day home from school for some random holiday (or the infamous "Energy Conversation Week!" - those of you who grew up in Baltimore County remember that) and watching bad game shows from 9-12. 

Well, unfortunately for you, these are seared into my mind and over the next 17 weeks we will link one of those classic game shows to the NFL season. Let's enjoy some nostalgia!

Leading off is "Dream House". This show ran for 2 seasons in the 80s with the grand prize being .... a house! No silly car or cash here...give them what the people want...a 3 bedroom ranch with wood paneling that is value at $89,900! I wonder if any of these houses are still around....

How do you win a house? The game was played by couples against each other; in the bonus game at the end, the winning couple had to guess a three-digit combination that would unlock the doors to their house. You had 4 choices for the first digit of the code, 4 for the second, etc. So to start you had a 1/4^3 = 1/64 chance of winning the house. 

Each win on the regular stage allowed you to knock a digit off, so after a few wins, you could get the odds down to 1/27 ot even 1/8 or so. Then you chose the digits, pressed the "time-release bar" (fancy 1984 technology), and waited. The code COULD NOT BE CHANGED by the computer once you put it in - don't mess it up! We can't re-program ENIAC back there to start over .....

The countdown would begin, and the lights would light up if you chose the correct code...which they usually did not. Bob Eubanks was always disappointed. 

Why are we choosing this show to lead off? Well, here we are at the start of another Browns season, and we still have no answers at quarterback. Recall those 1/64 odds of winning the house by choosing the code? I feel like we are staring at the board every September, hoping we choose the right code to give us an above-average quarterback. The Jones's down the street were able to do this and get their QB - how come our code never works? 

When will our luck turn around and we enter the right code in to win our dream QB?

Every September we press the time release button, and what pops up behind the doors? Weeden...Frye....Garcia....Campbell....Delhomme.....a bunch of run down 1-bedroom studio apartments where the heat doesn't work. At least last year we got into a 2-bedroom apartment without rats in Hoyer........ I'm sure the transition to the McCown neighborhood won't be a good one, and then we will be evicted for Manzielville.......

I don't feel good about today's game. A lot of distractions going on for us...the latest Gilbert thing...our OL coach being suspended.....no wide receivers.....yes, we could beat the Jets, but I'm starting to think this could be a blowout the other way.

On to the rest of the games for week 1!

Ind 23, Buf 13. It is hard for me to see how the Bills under Taylor score. And I'm sure Pagano knows that if the Colts are to be taken seriously as the leading AFC contender, they need to make a statement and win this game. 

GB 24, Chi 20. I'm banking on Fox to bring some stability to the Chicago D and I expect the Packers to be a little bit off kilter for a couple of games without Jordy. New coach, rivalry, at home....the Bears should keep it close. 

Hou 23, KC 20. I'm very interested to see how Brian Hoyer does in this game. If they put up 30 vs. the Chiefs, don't call me at 4:15 pm and rub it in. Please don't.

Car 16, Jax 13. Where in the world will Carolina get their offense now? No WRs at all - is it the Cam and Greg Olsen show? Bradley has to cook something up for the Jags, right? 

StL 20, Sea 17. I don't know....I worry about Seattle's offensive line and the Rams' defensive strength....but how are the Rams going to score? 

Mia 24, Was 23. There's GOT to be some sort of "circle the wagons" attitude around the Redskins right now. It's the world world vs. them! Cousins is decent. And do you really trust Philbin on the road?

Az 19, NO 17. Something seems off here.....I think the Saints will play better by devoting more to the run game, and I want to see Palmer in action before I jump on the Cards' bandwagon.

SD 30, Det 20. I like the Chargers' defense, and I'm not sure what much has changed for the Lions' offense that struggled a lot outdoors last season. Plus, the Lions' D defintely took a step back.

Den 28, Bal 24. Should be a good game and the line is exactly where it should be . A close, 3-7 point Denver win. 

Cin 24, Oak 17. The Bengals have close to an elite defense, and they have plenty of weapons on offense. If they can't win THIS game - healthy, on the road vs. a myseterious Raider team - then lets cut the crap and pencil them in for 7-9 this year. 

Ten 20, TB 17.  I think Mariota>>Winston in terms of football IQ; and now we have Dick LeBeau on the sidelines for the Titans. You don't think he has anything in store for a rookie QB prone to mistakes? 

Dal 31, NYG 17. It's hard to see the Giants staying with the Cowboys here. How do they stop Dallas? How do they score? Will be fascinating to see which RB for Dallas gets the bulk of the carries. 

Atl 30, Phi 27. Are we sure the Eagles - Bradford, new RB, some new WR - are all that good in 2015? Let's wait to see how all that new talent gels in a game situation vs. a defensive coach. 

Min 27, SF 24. How truly bad are the Niners? Are the Vikes overrated? What will Peterson look like? I'll stay away until we get some answers here. 

Best bets: 13 of them. Let's try to do better than last year....
Ind -2 1/2
Ind/Buf under 45
Chi +6 1/2
Hou -1
Car/Jax under 41 1/2
StL +4
NO/Az under 48 1/2
SD -3
Cin -3
Ten +3
Dal -6 1/2
AtL +3
Min/SF over 41 1/2

Supercontest picks:

Ind -2.5
Chi +7
SD -3
Ten +3
Atl +3

Time to get ready!

So this is usually the weekend that I head to Hong Kong or Macau and are able to get pumped up for the coming NFL season by watching old pre-game shows or game intros on You Tube. Let's continue this tradition!

Here's a good one from 1992. I think this is the best theme music for the NFL over the last 40 years- yes, even better than MNF music. Short and dramatic - especially for this key game for the Battle of the Bays!

What an announcing crew here - can you imagine two more opposites in the booth? One is a Hall of Famer (but not for football), and one is, well.......not. Who could have imagined in 1992 that these two would be household names in the sports world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHr3CHtUxYw

I still love the old NBC montages....the "Great Games, Great moments" and the music....another one from the files:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr9Q0WcTIXE

And look who is on NFL Live '88 for the pre game show! What a B-list of talent! Len Berman, Frank Deford, Paul Maguire and Gayle Sirens.


Finally, it must have been embarassing for NBC to put on the NFL in the late 70s/early 80s, when they were competing against CBS and NFL today. Their graphics, music, intro to the games were horrible. Here's one example from 1979. Love to watch this just for the ads! Schlitz! Chrysler! 7 Up!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QUtSjbbQk0

NFL 2015!

Get ready for new material on this blog!

The NFL picks will return with a theme I've always wanted to use....

And stay tuned tonight for more broadcast teams from the past!