Week 5: Cincinnati Bengals at Baltimore Ravens 

By Ross Mazin

We have a Sunday night football game with a big time feel. These two teams are very much in the hunt for a Super Bowl title this year. They are relatively young and very scrappy. Last season the Bengals swept the Ravens in the season series for the first time since 2015. 

The Bengals are coming off a big win against Miami last weekend. The offense showed up as well as the defense. Joe Burrow was 20 for 31 for 287 yards,  two touchdowns and no interceptions. Burrow dominated the Ravens last season throwing for 941 yards, seven touchdowns and one interception and a passer rating of 131.1 Ja’Marr Chase had 326 yards receiving and a touchdown in the two meetings. 

The Ravens are coming off a very ugly loss against Buffalo last weekend. They struggled in the second half. Lamar Jackson was 20 for 29 for 144 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. He also had 73 rushing yards. In the one game that Lamar played against the Bengals last year he was sacked five times. In seven career games against his division rival Lamar has nine touchdowns and three interceptions. 

I expect a relatively low scoring game. My prediction is Bengals 22- Ravens 10

Max Disaster

By: Mike Rifkin

The San Diego Padres defeated the New York Mets 7-1 in game one of their Wild Card series. Mets ace Max Scherzer gave up four home runs in the loss. Scherzer went 4.2 innings giving up seven runs on seven hits and four strikeouts. For the second straight start Scherzer had a bad outing. The Mets were playing from behind from the start after Josh Bell hit a two run home run in the first inning. Trent Grisham hit a solo shot in the second inning. The game got out of hand in the fifth inning where Jurickson Profar hit a three run home run and Manny Machado hit a solo home run. 

Outside of Scherzer not pitching well, the Mets offense also bears responsibility. The Mets went 1-11 with RISP and the hit didn’t drive in a run. Yu Darvish had the Mets offense in a funk as he has all season. Darvish went 7 innings giving up a run on six hits and four strikeouts. The Mets lone run came on an Eduardo Escobar home run. The Mets did get Starling Marte back off a fractured thumb. Marte had two hits and two stolen bases in his return to the lineup. 

In Game two of the series will see Blake Snell pitch for the Padres take on Jacob DeGrom for the Mets. Snell has made two prior starts against the Mets this season. On June 6th, Snell gave up four runs in four innings pitched. On July 23rd, Snell threw five scoreless innings in a Padre win. Snell went 1-1 with an ERA of 4.00. He gave up 11 hits and five walks in nine innings. Snell is 3-3 with an 2.73 ERA in six career starts against the Mets. Jacob deGrom didn’t face the Padres in 2022. In his career against San Diego deGrom is 6-3 with a 1.28 ERA and has 82 strikeouts in 70.1 innings pitched. 

If the Mets want their season to continue they will need their ace to be better than he has been his past few starts. They will also need their offense to do damage against Snell who at times will lose the plate which could work in the Mets favor. Either way Saturday night is a must win game for the Mets. 

Mets Regular Season Recap

By : Mike Rifkin

A lot of people are still down based on what happened with the Mets last weekend in Atlanta, but that has to change. The Mets are still playing in the Wild Card Round against the San Diego Padres. The Mets were 4-6 vs the Padres this season. 

Despite what transpired in Atlanta it was a sensational season for the Mets. For the fourth time in franchise history the Mets won 100 games, two of the prior three they won the World Series. There were a lot of individual accolades accomplished this season : Jeff McNeil won the Franchise’s second ever batting title, First baseman Pete Alonso set a club record with 131 RBI, Francisco Lindor set a club record for RBI in a season by a shortstop with 107. Future Hall Of Famer Max Scherzer reached 200 career wins and Closer Edwin Diaz who was sensational all season reached 200 career saves. 

I understand that people are upset with what took place in Atlanta last weekend. In my lifetime this was one of the most exciting Mets teams and the season is not over. In the Playoffs anything can happen and I expect this team to fight like they did all season.

Battle Of The Birds

By : Mike Rifkin

The Philadelphia Eagles take their undefeated record on the road this week as they play the Arizona Cardinals. The Eagles, the NFL’s last unbeaten team defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars and former Head Coach Doug Pederson 29-21. It was a wet, rainy, sloppy game. The Eagles trailed 14-0 early but scored 29 unanswered points. 

Jalen Hurts who is off to a tremendous start this year was 16-25 for 204 yards and an interception. He also had 38 yards rushing and a touchdown. This is supposed to be a make or break year for Hurts in Philly and through four games he is passing the test with flying colors. He has a 66.7 completion percentage, 1,120 yards, four touchdowns, and two interceptions. He has added 205 yards rushing and four rushing touchdowns. The receiving duo of AJ Brown and Devonta Smith has been great to start the season just like the Eagles envisioned when they acquired Brown. The Eagles offense is second in total yards averaging 435.5 yards per game and they average 28.8 points per game. The Eagles defense deserves praise also they are first in sacks, turnover differential (+8), and third is yards allowed. Defensive Coordinator Jonathan Gannon deserves an opportunity at a head coaching gig next year. 

On the other side there is the Arizona Cardinals who sit with a record of 2-2 and are coming off a 26-16 win over the Panthers. Kyler Murray had 207 yards passing and three total touchdowns (2 passing, 1 rushing). Marquise Brown who the Cardinals got from the Ravens leads the team with 30 catches, 339 yards and two touchdowns. Former Eagle Zach Ertz is also off to a good start with 22 catches 181 yards and two touchdowns. The Cardinals average 349.5 yards per game and 22.0 points per game. This is a big game for the Cardinals for many reasons. One of them is the fact that in their first two home games they looked bad against the Chiefs and Rams. But the other is this until the Cardinals win a big game against a good team the jury is going to be out on both Kyler Murray and Kliff Kingsbury both of whom got an extension that I feel was unwarranted. 

The offenses should be hot in the desert when these two teams play. For the Eagles they want to keep their unbeaten streak alive and the Cardinals need to win a big game, so the question is which bird will soar to victory?

Week 5: Miami Dolphins at New York Jets 

By Ross Mazin 

Oh boy was the Jets win over the Steelers a thrilling one. Trailing by 10; they found a way to win. They now face the Tua Tuavoglia-less Dolphins Sunday afternoon. They are only a 3 point underdog heading into this weekends matchup. They need to have a better opening half than last weeks at Pittsburgh. 

The Jets came away with a huge win on the road last weekend against the Steelers . They are looking to build off that with a win against the Dolphins after losing their quarterback in Tua. Zach Wilson was 18 for 36 for 252 yards and had one touchdown and two interceptions. Wilson also caught a touchdown on a pass from receiver Braxton Berrios. 

The Dolphins are coming off a tough loss against the Bengals. They are certainly looking to bounce back this weekend. Teddy Bridgewater came in to replace Tua Tagovailoa who suffered one of the scarier injuries I have seen.  Teddy Bridgewater was 14 for 23  for 193 yards, one touchdown and one interception. The Jets defense will have to try to contain the speed of Jaylen Waddle and Tyreek Hill.  

My prediction is Jets 22-Dolphins 7

METS GET WILD CARD

By Mark Halpern

      After being in first place for 175 games, the Mets got swept by the Atlanta Braves in a crucial series at Citi Field this past weekend. Like the Yankees, the Mets held control of first for the longest time. The team was on cruise control, but just like the Yankees, things started to happen. 

     The end of the summer slumps began, and not only the offense but the pitching was all over the place. Consistency is something a ball club has to have. I am not talking about Scherzer and DeGrom, as they pitched unbelievable. I am talking about the rest of the Mets Pitching staff, which consists of Bassitt, Carrasco, Walker, MeGill (who was injured most of the season), and Peterson’s play fell off. It began costing us wins, and little by little, we began to lose control. Atlanta did what they had to (and usually) do put on a surge, and just caught the Mets, and it came down to the final series in NY in which the Mets’ Pitching and Hitting was a no-show.

    Now the Mets’ offense has been hot pretty much the whole season. Even when injuries began to pile up, players who were brought up from the minors or were received in trade did their jobs and hit in crucial situations, and the Mets kept on putting runs on the board. However, if you put up ten runs in a game and your pitching staff can’t hold the other team, and they score eleven, it doesn’t matter how good the offense is (if Statistics is what you are looking for, please Read Mike Rifkin’s Article he breaks it down)

    During this season, a lot of the talk brewing was in the Mets minor league system on which one of the young stars would get the call first. Many fans, sportscasters, and writers predicted Francisco Alvarez. The weakest position offensively was the catcher. The Mets tried different combinations, but between McCann, Nido, and Mazeika, they barely hit their weight. Their Defense is fantastic but having a guaranteed out in a lineup (especially with the DH now) is a problem. However, the position that saw the most injuries was third base, and the question began whether it would be Baty or Vientos. Brett Baty got the call, hit a home run in his first at-bat, and played a great game. Unfortunately, the injury bug hit Baty as he tore some ligaments in his wrist and was shut down for the rest of the season. With the last week of baseball approaching, the Mets called up their other two superstars, Alvarez and Vientos, and they both made immediate impacts and carried their play from the minors to the big leagues, and the rest of the teams in the MLB are taking note. These young stars are going to be part of this organization for a long time to come.

  The Mets landed the Wild card spot and drew the San Diego Padres as their first opponent on their path to winning the World Series. The Padres won the regular season matchup 4-2, which isn’t encouraging, but the Mets will have the home-field advantage for this series which begins Friday at 8 pm est. The Mets can’t play meticulously against this hot-hitting team at all. The Padres, even without superstar Fernando Tatis Jr (Suspended for PED), have played all season amazingly with constant hitting from Manny Machado and Jake Cronenworth, just to name a few. The Mets will have all pitchers available, and the Best bet is for Jacob DeGrom to pitch game one on Friday, Max Scherzer to pitch Saturday, and Bassitt or Carrasco to pitch Sunday if needed. If the Mets win, the road to the World Series doesn’t get easier as the Los Angels Dodgers, the best team in baseball, will be waiting for them. This wildcard series will be a great playoff matchup, and come check us out on YouTube on our SIN (Sports Insanity Podcast) channel and watch along with us; it will probably get insane.

Embracing History

By : Mike Rifkin

On Tuesday night, Aaron Judge hit his 62nd home run of the season establishing a new Yankee and American League record. The record overtakes the 61 hit by Roger Maris in 1961. But this is nothing against Judge he bet on himself this season and had arguably one of the greatest seasons in the history of Baseball and he will get paid by someone this winter.

My issue is with people who are calling 62 the Major League record. It’s not the record Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs in 2001. Now Bonds is one of the many faces of Baseball’s steroid era, but for a game that loves to talk about the history of it, how can people ignore the steroid era? In 1998 the greatest thing during the summer was the race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. 

Now none of those three Bonds, McGwire and Sosa are no longer on the Hall Of Fame ballot and the only way they can get in is by a Veterans Committee. But here is where Baseball really has a double standard the Commissioner at the time Bud Selig is in the Hall Of Fame. As is former Red Sox Designated Hitter David Ortiz who got in this year, his first on the ballot. Ortiz was mentioned in the Mitchell Report for illegal PED use. Again not attacking Ortiz I think he is a Hall of Famer as are Bonds, McGwire and Sosa. If you want to put an asterisk next to their names in Cooperstown that’s fine, but to act like these guys didn’ achieve anything when you reward others in the era of which they played is insane to me. 

To ignore the entire steroid era to me is stupid. Yes, I grew up during the steroid era and yes I am against cheating, but to totally ignore what these guys did is comical especially when you honor the guy who was at the helm during the era. Aaron Judge set an American League and Yankee record, but not the Major League record.  So whether you agree with me or disagree the steroid era happened and you cannot scrub that from history.

Swept Away

By: Mike Rifkin

The New York Mets entered Atlanta with a one game lead in the NL East and if they won one game they controlled their own destiny. But worst case scenario happened as the Braves swept the Mets and not only lead the division by two games, but their magic number to clinch is one meaning one more Braves win or Mets loss and Atlanta wins the division for a fifth consecutive season. 

The Mets lined up their top three starters Jacob DeGrom, Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt to pitch in the series and the three combined to go 14.1 innings pitched giving up 17 hits, 11 earned runs, 3 walks, 17 strikeouts, and 6 home runs. That is a ERA of 6.91 for your top three starters. But to only blame the starters is wrong, the offense has to share in the blame as well. The Mets two stars at the plate Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso went 5-23 with two walks in the series with 0 extra base hits. Outside of Jeff McNeil and Daniel Vogelbach (Sunday night) the Mets offense was awful. The Braves hit seven home runs in the three game series including Dansby Swanson and Matt Olson hitting one in each game, the Mets hit three. THE METS OFFENSE SCORED SEVEN RUNS in the entire series, the Mets scored the same amount of runs as the Braves hit home runs. 

The Mets based on win percentages were supposed to have a easy September schedule. But they went 6-8 against the Marlins, Cubs, Nationals and Athletics. That is where they lost the division, but the cherry on top is in a series fans thought it was impossible to get swept in they got swept. Now a team that could’ve used the first round bye to the Division Series now has to play a Padre team that is starting to figure somethings out. Plus if they had the bye the Mets could’ve lined up their pitching anyway they wanted. 

There are a lot of words to describe the Mets series in Atlanta. Unacceptable, pathetic, etc.. But know with Atlanta basically clinching the division the Mets can use the next four days to give guys like Lindor, Alonso, Nimmo days off to get ready for what the end goal is and attempt to make a run in the playoffs. Once the season is over is when you can point fingers at whoever you want, but the Mets will still be playing in the playoffs despite a terrible weekend in Atlanta. 

RUSH DOSEN’T HAVE TO RUSH ANYTHING

By Mark Halpern

     I have been a Dallas Cowboys fan for 39 years now (Thank you, I apricate the condolences), and I have seen it all from down in the dumps to being the world’s champs. Dallas fans not only want to win it all but also want consistency in our team, and the backup quarterbacks we had for our $40 million star Dak Prescott just don’t thrill you. When you hear the name Cooper Rush as your back up QB you head sinks in to your hands.; However, Cooper Rush isn’t rushing to any conclusion that he is the prime number 1 Quarter Back in Dallas behind Dak Prescott. He knows that when Dak returns, he will return to the bench, but the way Rush has been playing, he knows he will start until Dak returns from the broken bone in his throwing hand heals. His play over the first 3 weeks has been solid as the head QB.

    Over the last few years, we have had some changes in and around the backup quarterback position, from Andy Dalton to the horrible Ryan Leaf. It’s a position that comes with a ton of responsibility, but you won’t hear the good things you do unless you are error free and you win the game. Only the poor play that you had will be brought up. Dak has been the sole #1 Quarter Back in Dallas since 2016, and though we have had teams that should have gone onto the Super Bowl, we as a Cowboys Nation have gone home like the New York Yankees to watch other teams win the Championship. Dak broke a bone in his throwing hand on a pass attempt against Tampa Bay. Rush couldn’t help the Cowboys do much when he came in the fourth quarter, and we were down by three scores with eight minutes left. Dallas dropped the opener 19-3, but over the last two games, Rush has gotten the job done against the Cincinnati Bengals by going 19-31 235 and a touchdown. The big key is no interceptions on the day. The Bengals have a good defense (It took them to the Super Bowl last year), and they played well but not well enough to beat the Dallas Defense as the Cowboys went on to win 20-17. With the high expectations for the Bengals this year, this win by the Cowboys with no Dak as Field General surprised us all. Cooper was very efficient in moving the ball around to all players. Even with Cee Dee Lamb in the one spot, Noah Brown has become Rush’s favorite target over these past two games. The Cowboys left and were headed to take on the 2-0 New York Giants.

    Anytime the Cowboys play the Giants, the game is usually a nail-biter as both teams usually come and get ready to play their best and own bragging rights for another year. The Giants are last year’s version of the Panthers and needed the Cowboys to take them down a step and get their first loss like the 3-0 panthers did to the 2-1 Cowboys last year at this time. The Giants looked horrible on all fronts except for Saquon Barkley, who is back to his rookie year form and is leading the league in rushing. Rush knew the meaning of this game and came out in prime QB1 form. Rush threw for 215 yards on 31 passes on 19 completions and one touchdown. The key in Rush’s stats is that he didn’t throw an interception or create a turnover in this game. Rush had help on all fronts, though; while the Giant’s offensive line seemed to leak like a sieve and gave Quarterback Daniel Jones no time to throw, the Cowboy’s offensive line created a ton of holes, giving Zeke Elliot and Tony Pollard more room to run. So all facets of the Cowboys team played a crucial key in the team’s last two wins.

     As I said earlier, Rush doesn’t need to rush anything as he has stuck his claim as the team’s backup QB, and with Dak’s injury problems, it isn’t such a bad spot to be in. Rush looks comfy out there and is taking his time and being a Great Field General; that is how the old man sees it.

Searching For Answers

By: Mike Rifkin

One of the best rivalries in Football if rekindled on Sunday as the Denver Broncos travel to Vegas to play the Raiders. Both teams are still searching for consistency after making big offseason moves.

The Broncos somehow are 2-1 and coming off a 11-10 win over the 49ers on Sunday night. The Broncos offense has been struggling to start the season. Quarterback Russell Wilson has a 59.4 completion percentage, 743 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Wilson has been sacked nine times through three games. The Broncos are averaging 14.3 points per game. The new Quarterback and Coach combination of Wilson and Nathaniel Hackett has yet to work. The Broncos are 1-7 in the Red Zone which is last in the NFL. The Broncos defense has been tremendous so far giving up 12.0 points per game. They have nine sacks through three games. 

The Raiders are 0-3 on the season and have lost each game by one possession. Things are bad in Vegas that after Sunday’s loss to the Titans, first year Coach Josh Mcdaniels had a closed door meeting with owner Mark Davis. The big addition they made offensively Davante Adams who played with Quarterback Derek Carr at Fresno State has 17 receptions for 189 yards and three touchdowns. Carr at times has looked good and other times he hasn’t but has a 60.8 completion percentage, 850 yards, six touchdowns and four interceptions. Carr has been sacked seven times already this year. The Raider defense has struggled to say the least. They give up 25.7 points per game. They have two sacks and two turnovers so far this season. They brought in Chandler Jones to help the pass rush and that hasn’t panned out yet, their corners aren’t great. This season so far looks like a gamble that hasn’t paid off.

Two teams still searching for answers go at it on Sunday to renew a great rivalry. Maybe a win can springboard one of them into contention in the AFC West.