NFL Week 7: Blockbusters

"This is the battlefield for our game of speed and strategy....These are the letters that lead to victory on.....Blockbusters!"

This was a fairly unique show back in the 80s because of the contestant teams. This was not a one-on-one battle. This was 2 vs 1! A solo player vs. a "family pair"! Are two heads really better than 1? Usually not, from my experience.

The first part of the game was fairly simple. The board consisted of 20 hexagons, laid on in a 4x5 board. Each hexagon had a letter, which was the starting letter of the answer. For example, the letter could be "C"; the clue is: "What C is the name of a university whose football team will always come up with a timely choke in November?" The players would buzz in, and give the correct response.

To win the game, you have to make a path from left to right or from top to bottom. Here's where I find this game odd and possibly unfair.

As I said at the beginning, this is a 2 vs 1 game. The "Family pair" was the white color, and they had to cross from left to right - and had to make a connection of a minimum of 5 hexagons to win. The solo contestant was red, and he/she only had to win at least 4 hexagons for the game.

Now, for the human psychology questions - is this really fair? In a game show environment, is it really 2 vs 1? What are the dynamics here? With the family pair, are you really getting 100% of each playing partner? Usually, it was a strong partner and a "weaker" partner....so that team really is only getting 1.1 of a person. But what if you had 2 strong partners on the team? Then you have an unfair advantage the other way - and they should be forced to make a 6- or 7-length connection.

To me, it seemed that the solo player had an unfair advantage since he was able to buzz in at any time and not worry about possible family dynamics.......on the family pair side, contestant #1 may get an earful from Grandma if he/she didn't let his partner buzz in a fair amount of times....who knows.

By the way - something I learned in digging up pictures for the game. See the game board? What happens if there is a tie and there is no full connection made? Well - I learned that there is no possible way for a tie to happen. A path - either up/down or left/right - has to be made. I can't prove this, but now I'm going to fascinated by this math problem today while watching Buffalo/Jacksonville.....

The bonus game followed the same format as the regular game; a 4x5 matrix of honeycombs, and the contestant has to make a path from left to right in 60 seconds. The clues could be 1-5 letters, meaning the answers were 1-5 words. For instance, the honeycomb may be "DS". The clue is: "What DS is the odds-on favorite to be the Cleveland Browns head coach in 2018?" If the contestant gets stopped, he can try to move around the missed answer and find alternate paths across in 60 seconds.

And that's about it! Maybe this really never caught fire because it seems repetitive. No bells/whistles in the bonus round, no opportunity for trips to the Bahamas in the main game. It lasted for about 2 1/2 years and then died out.

The host of the show is Bill Cullen. I'm sorry, I never saw his appeal. Nice guy and all - very personable - but he seemed to waste a lot of time with the contestant interviews and making corny jokes after every answer. He's the opposite of Dick Clark....in my opinion, the show is not about the host, but about the game. Bill seemed to host a game show thinking it's a talk show with the game secondary. For a purist like me, that's an offense!

Now - I have to copy this story in. Bill contracted Polio as as a kid and had complete trouble walking. He usually had to use the metal poles attached to his arms to walk. Not many people knew this....including the great Mel Brooks.....here's a story from Mel that I find hilarious - this is Mel speaking:

The week of October 17–21 in 1966—that would make me about 40—was a special celebrity week on Eye Guess. Bill Cullen was the host. The game was very similar to Concentration. I was teamed up with Julia Meade. Remember her? Actress, very pretty young lady, blonde... Okay, never mind. I don't think I won, but I did get the take-home game. Anyway, the show is over, and I start walking toward the podium to say good night to Bill, to thank him for having me on. He starts coming toward me cross-stage, and I don't know what he's doing. His feet are flopping. His hands are flying everywhere. He's doing this kind of wacky walk-of-the-unfortunates that Jerry Lewis used to do. So I figured, what the hell, I'll join him. I start doing, I dunno, this multiple-sclerosis walk, flapping my arms and doing the Milton Berle cross legs—my own Jerry Lewis impression... And Julia is whispering, "No! He's crippled, Mel!" I don't even hear her. Finally we meet in the middle, we hug, and he says to me, "You know, you're the only comic who's ever had the nerve to make fun of my crippled walk. Everyone's so careful, it makes me feel even worse." And I realize, Oh, my God, this guy is really crippled! It was my worst moment—and if you weren't me, probably the funniest thing that ever happened.^[11]

One of the great champions in Blockbusters was Leland Wung - winning over $100,000 across 20 episodes as a solo player. Notice any resemblance to a reader on the blog?

What a frustrating Browns game last weekend. Ugh. So much optimism, so many things we did right - and then we can't take advantage of multiple opportunties. I wonder what the winning percentage is of NFL teams that get a turnover in opposition territory in OT....it has to be 95%, right? Well, last week fell in the 5% category. I asked Steve with about 2:00 left in regulation: "I wonder how we will lose this game"? At the end, after the loss, I concluded: "Ah, it's the run-of-the-mill heartbreak. Nothing special, just a routine crushing loss".

This season is like playing Blockbusters with Steve and my sister-in-law Candace. I'm the solo player facing those two, and the clues all seemed to have a theme, like "19th Century European History" and "Famous Bassoonists". Even if I manage to get a clue, I'll get blocked by obscure questions in these areas. So frustrating... I feel this offense is much better than 2-4, but we don't have anything better to show for it. And now we play Todd Gurley and the Rams. I look for a 30-13 shellacking.

Anyway, on to the games:

Buf 20, Jax 17. The Bills were so unimpressive last week. I'm surprised - maybe I bought into the Rex Ryan hype a bit. I think the Jags will keep this close.

Min 24, Det 17. The Vikes are this year's annual "non-descript" team- can you think of anything they do well? But the Liions are so one-dimensional they should be easy to stop.

Ind 31, NO 20. Saw a lot of good things from Vick last week (in that horrendous back door cover by the Colts), and the Saints won a game in a perfect spot for them. I still continue to  think the Saints are a bottom 5 team.

Pit 20, KC 17. No idea here. You'd think that Andy Reid can game plan against Landry Jones, but maybe that would be overestimating Reid's coaching abilities....

Mia 24, Hou 20. Let's not get too excited over Miami - 2 weeks to prepare with a new coach and fresh attitude. However, I still can't trust Houston on the road yet.

NE 24, NYJ 20. I think the Jets have the offense to take the air out of the ball here and enough defense to slow down Brady. I am concerned about Fitzpatrick on the road and a fatal mistake (or 2).

Atl 23, Ten 20. The Falcons - who may be overrated - outdoors against LeBeau? I know Marcus is out, but I think the Falcons will struggle to move the ball.

Was 24, TB 14. Still not a believer in Tampa. I think this is an excellent matchup for the Skins - a physical team at home vs. a mistake-prone offense. Sounds like a mirror game of the Browns-Rams!

Oak 31, SD 30. A great shootout here; The Raiders have 2 weeks to prepare against the soft San Diego offense; the Chargers have played 2 emotional games in a row and have to have a letdown here.

NYG 20, Dal 17. Can't pick this game when I haven't seen Cassel in forever. I am shocked at how bad the Giants looked last week.

Car 23, Phi 16. Yes, Philly has a good defense, but their offense still is not clicking. Did anyone watch that game on Monday? So the Eagles, off of a big home divisional win Monday, head to Carolina for a fired up Panthers team that people STILL do not believe in.

Az 27, Bal 23. I have to believe that a good coach with a good quaterback will show up on the road on Monday night against a good opponent. Banking on too much pride in the Ravens here...and a lot of points!

Best bets: 14 of them. Last week: 6-8-1; overall: 48-34-2

Min pk
Ind -4
Pit +3
Pit/KC under 43
NYJ +7.5
Ten +6
Was -3
TB/Was under 43
Oak +3.5
Oak/SD over 46 1/2
Dal/NYG under 45
Car -3
Phi/Car under 45 1/2
Bal +8

Supercontest picks: Last week: 0-4-1. Too much time on the Pyramid review, apparently. Overall: 18-11-1.

Ind -4.5
Was -3
Oak +4
Car -3
Bal +7.5