The NFC Playoff Picture

Can Suh & the Lions save their season?

Now to take a look at, & make some predictions about, my favorite conference... the National Football Conference!

NFC Playoff Picture

East

Dallas 7-5     Remaining Schedule: NYG, at Tampa, Philly, at NYG

Prediction: 9-7, I like Dallas to lose twice over these last 4, to the same team. Part of this is obviously because I’m a homer, & I’ll get into another, more obscure reason below. Either way expect their games against the Giants to be close (15 of their combined 24 games have been decided by 1 possession). As for Tampa, they’ve fallen apart, & against Philly I expect Dallas to be awfully motivated to avenge the 34-7 Sunday Night beat down they experienced back in week 8.

10 Terrible Predictions & the AFC Playoff Picture

Tim Tebow's blowing up my 5-11 Broncos prediction.

Thanks to my inability to manage my time I’ve been on hiatus from the blog for about 2 months, & haven’t posted anything about sports since September 24, well it’s time to rectify that. In order to atone myself for the many horrible predictions I made in my NFL Preview I’m going to now correctly* predict how the last 4 weeks will unfold and who will make the playoffs. First though, for a good laugh, let’s take a look back at some of my horrible predictions.

*Yea, I don’t really believe that either but it’s possible. I got the Super Bowl right last season!!! Remember? You don’t? Well it happened, & I’m going to cling to that till the day I die.

My 10 worst predictions in descending order:

10.  Prediction: Bears 6-10

        Reality: They’re 7-5 & with the injuries to Cutler & Forte they’re unlikely to finish strong, but before that this was the third or fourth best team in the NFC & the biggest threat to the Packers undefeated season. This team was much better than I expected.

A look back at "Face Off," & the rest of season 4 of "Breaking Bad."

After over a season of conflict there could only be one.

Breaking Bad just wrapped up its 4^th season &… well… it was freaking amazing!  First a look back on the brilliantly named “Face Off,” what the finale means for the characters going forward, & a look back at season 4 as a whole. Spoilers galore (for The Wire & Lost as well) after the break…

This Week In TV: Tuesday

Awkward, MTV's best show. You heard me Jersey Shore!

Tuesday:

Glee (FOX at 7)-No really, I’m a straight guy. I’m serious. Whatever, I don’t care what you think! Glee used to be a good show, a show that I enjoyed, & one that I would defend when people made fun of it and/or me for watching. That lasted all of half a season and then it took a nosedive as the writers chose to almost completely ignore any character continuation, made episodes fit around the music rather than the other way around, completely forgot many of their actors’ strengths, & forever ruined the character of Mr. Schuester. Now it’s a show I watch mostly so I can mock how terrible it’s become (though every once in a while there are still glimpses of something decent), & while last week’s season premiere was no exception, this week brought some hope.

This Week in TV: Sunday & Monday

Barney Stinson, a man of many talents.

This will be a new installment on Joe’s Junk in which, every day or two, I give brief thoughts on the shows I watch during the week. In the past I’ve done in depth recaps of The Office and Community but those tend to be overlong & a number of people (including Alan Sepinwall, James Poniewozik of TIME, & the fine people at the AV Club) do a much better job of it, so now I’m keeping it short & sweet. Now I must warn you my viewing habits are odd. Some of these shows I highly recommend as the best television has to offer (Breaking Bad & Parks and Recreation) & some I would recommend to no one, but watch anyway (Glee). So this will be all over the place in terms of taste, but hopefully that will help keep things interesting. Also the grades I hand out will be somewhat arbitrary in that to some degree I’ll be grading on a curve based on what I expect from each show. A B+ episode of Castle or Glee is not likely to be better than a B- episode of Breaking Bad or Parks & Rec, & an A- episode of The Office would likely be one or two grades lower 3 years ago when it was the best sitcom on TV, so don’t take them too seriously. Enough talk, let’s do this…

Arizona vs. Oregon: Can the Cats Slow Down the Ducks? Is Zendejas the Answer? Will the Pain Finally End?

Juron Criner's scored 5 TDs against Oregon.

Ok… So that wasn’t a great start to the PAC-12 (& thank God, for a number of reasons, we’re not about to be the PAC-16). Yet another beat down against a ranked opponent. In fact in our current 7 game losing streak to D-1 opponents we lost to 2 unranked opponents by a combined 4 points, & to 5 ranked opponents by 120 points. On the plus side we hung with Stanford for most of 3 quarters & if we’d switched back to Zendejas like I’ve been calling for or if Juron Criner’s appendectomy hadn’t also removed his ability to catch touchdowns who knows what might’ve happened. Also after last year’s disappointing finish to my predictions (I correctly called every game in Arizona’s 7-1 start, & then missed 3 of 5 in their 0-5 finish) I’m 3-0 so far this year (I know only one of those is posted on here but I think you can trust I called the NAU & Ok St. games correctly). Now it’s on to #10 Oregon, the third straight top 10 team Arizona has faced, the first team to do so in 3 years. A game that absolutely no one outside of the Wildcat organization thinks they’re going to win.

Emmy Preview-Who Should, & Will, Win

The Emmys are tonight  & alas I have failed yet again to finish my major category preview (this time only getting through the comedic supporting categories). So now I’ll just list who should win & who I think will win.

Arizona vs. Stanford-Why the Stoops Haters are Wrong, What the Cats Must Do To Win, & Who Will Win

Mike Stoops is the right man to lead Arizona.

Here we go! Today the Arizona Wildcats will play their first PAC-12 game, & boy is it a big one for these Wildcats. Following a 7-1 start that saw them ranked as high as 9^th in the nation Arizona has now lost 6 straight games to D-1 opponents & the Wildcat faithful have begun to lose faith. Following last week’s blowout loss to Oklahoma State it’s not uncommon to hear even die hard Arizona fans talk about how the Cats are going to lose by at least 20 points to Stanford. Many claim Stoops is a hothead who loses control of the team in games & has shown an inability to win big games. I expect these pessimists to be wrong about this week’s game & they are clearly ignorant in regards to Stoops.

2nd Annual NFL Preview!

Jonathan Vilma is after the Lombardi Trophy.

It’s everyone’s favorite time of year again! That’s right, time for the 2^nd annual Joe’s Junk NFL Preview! Last year I shocked the world by correctly predicting the Chiefs would win the AFC West & Green Bay would win the Super Bowl over Pittsburgh, while the Buccaneers shocked me by winning 8 more games than I predicted. Hopefully this season I won’t blow any picks that badly & I can repeat my Super Bowl glory. Naw… Screw that. Hopefully I’m totally wrong & the Giants & Colts face off in the Manning Bowl! Now onto the predictions…* (Playoff teams in bold)

My (faux) Emmy Ballot: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy

Now that's an Emmy worthy handshake.

The Emmy nominations were just announced last Thursday (see the list of nominees here) I thought I’d give my thoughts on who/what should have been nominated in the major categories. Last week I detailed my list of Outstanding Supporting Actresses in a Comedy, & today we move on to their male counterparts.

No category gave me more trouble to narrow down to six nominees, as you’ll be able to tell from my honorable mentions list, than Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy (For a look at a professional critic’s opinion click here, & for my picks last year go here). There are just so many great comedic actors & roles in television that you could pick at least a dozen different actors & be able to make a fine case that they should earn a nomination, however Emmy voters are restricted to six votes so I am as well. Without further ado here are my six picks (click on their names to see one of their highlights from this season)…

My (faux) Emmy Ballot: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy

Alison Brie: Beautiful? Check. Hilarious? Check. Emmy worthy? You bet.

With the Emmy nominations being announced Thursday I thought I’d give my thoughts on who/what should be nominated in the major categories. Considering I watch more television than the majority of Emmy voters (who in their defense are busy making television) I’m actually more qualified than they are to decide who/what is deserving of recognition. For example they gave “The Wire,” considered by most critics one of the two best dramas of all time (“The Sopranos” being the other), only two nominations (& zero wins) in 5 seasons. That would never have happened had I been in charge.

Our first category will be Supporting Actress in a Comedy (For a look at a professional’s thoughts go here, & for my picks last year click here). Out of all the female categories this was the hardest to narrow down for while they’re may be a general lack of good lead roles for women comedically, be it on television or in film, there are a number of fine roles out there for women in complimentary roles & the women filling them are more than up to the task of making us all laugh (click on their names to see one of their highlights from this season).

2011 NBA Mock Draft

It’s time for the greatest draft of them all! No, I’m not talking about beer, or the NFL Draft, but the National Basketball Association’s Draft! But the NFL is better so there draft must be better you say? Wrong. Yes I enjoy the NFL more, however NFL teams start 22 players & hence unless you’re getting a new franchise QB it’s unlikely the draft will overly change your team for the next season. In the NBA you only start five players, so if you draft a starter you’ve just changed 20% of your lineup, that’s a huge difference. Plus while the NFL draft features boring trades like the 67^th pick for the 83^rd & 122^nd pick, the NBA Draft sees potentially franchise altering trades (Vlade Divac for the 14^th pick [Kobe Bryant] anyone?). There’s already rumors that Andre Igoudala, Lamar Odom, Monta Ellis, & Tony Parker could all be on the move tonight. To commemorate this momentous occasion my brother & I will go through the lottery (the top 14 picks) and alternate making the picks those teams SHOULD make. I’ll also give you my best guess as to whom they WILL take (something I did better last year than any major publication), my top 20 prospects, & 5 sleepers.