The rarity of a Pats home loss, and a Tebometer update

My biggest gripe from yesterday is that I hate when pass interference calls decide games.  Regardless of whether they're legit or not, it's just a crappy way to determine an outcome.  Moving on, the Patriots losing a home game is a VERY rare thing.  Since Tom Brady became the starter a little over ten years ago, their home record is a combined 69-14.  If you throw out the 5-3 home mark from the '08 Matt Cassel season, Brady owns a 64-11 career home record.  In fact, in 5 of his previous 7 seasons as the Pats' QB, New England went 8-0 at home.

But here's one more totally random stat that doesn't bode well for the rest of this year: in every full season that Brady has been the starter (and the Cassel year too), when the Patriots haven't gone undefeated at Gillette they've finished with a 5-3 home record.




TEBOMETER UPDATE:

If you're not familiar with the "Tebometer," read this.

Yeah, I know the Broncos won and Tim Tebow rushed for 118 yards yesterday, blah blah blah.  But, only two starting QB's threw for fewer yards, and not a single one was more inaccurate.  With his epic 10-21 (for 124 yards) performance, Tebow's career completion rate now stands at 48% (86-179), down .1% from last week.  He has yet to go over 50% in any game this year.

What's your take on daylight savings time?

I think it's dumb.  I have for years.  Now that definitely has something to do with the fact that I usually work at night and rarely get up early in the morning.  But I think even if I did, I would still prefer it to be light out in the early evening instead of the early morning.  Doesn't the average 9-5 office person hate leaving work in the dark every day?  Isn't it kind of depressing?  I'm curious to see what other people think about this.  Today the sun is going to go down soon after the start of the Patriots game.  That's weird.  I know that in Arizona they don't observe daylight savings time, and they still seem to get by ok.  Vote in the poll on the right and tell me what you think.

How does Lou Holtz have a career?

It's Saturday and I'm watching "College Game Day," which brings to mind the same question I have every week:  Why is Lou Holtz on TV?  How did he succed as a coach?  How does anyone take him seriously?  Why is he on ESPN?  I don't understand. Every time I hear him talk I think it's a joke.  But it's not.  The man can't speak, yet somehow he's a professional sports commentator on television.  And before that he was the coach of Notre Dame.  How did his players not just laugh at him all the time?  It makes no sense.

If Lou Holtz can be a television football commentator I should be able to review TV commercials for a living.  It's only fair.

I hate the espn "sports science" features

I feel like I've been seeing these on Sportscenter more and more lately.  Every time they come on I am immediately reminded of "Bill Nye The Science Guy."  The way the narrator talks makes me think his target audience is young children watching Nickelodeon on a Saturday morning.  If you haven't seen any of them yet, here's an example:

So let me get this straight: if you spread the floor, move the ball around, and find the open man, it's easier to score?  Wow.

There were two baseball related "Sports Science" features in the past few weeks that practically made me nauseous.  I literally spent an hour just now searching for them online, but couldn't find any evidence of either.  I promise they exist though, and ESPN ran both of them on Sportscenter.  The first was about home runs.  I even know that it aired on October 19, because it was so terrible that I made a note right away to try and find it on youtube.  It used a bunch of numbers and floating graphics to say that home runs are caused by greater bat speed and hitting the ball at a higher angle.  The second aired during the World Series in St. Louis, and it was about the effect that cold weather has on the game.  The conclusion was that lower temperatures make the players hands cold, and that makes it harder for them to hit and field.  And also that when the ball is colder it doesn't travel as far.  Thanks Mr. Wizard.  Thanks a lot.

I think "Saved By The Bell" may be my new insomniac television

Since I work late at night I tend to stay up WAY beyond what is generally considered normal, or even acceptable hours.  This past Saturday I was lying in bed with a case of insomnia, flipping through the guide on my TV, when I stumbled upon a great find: "Saved by the Bell" on TBS.  Now I have a terrible habit of watching whatever show or movie is on in it's entirety and not falling asleep, unless it's something I've already seen before.  As soon as I saw "S B the B" I knew it was the perfect thing to put on because I've seen them all, probably several times each.  I ended up dozing off about two-thirds of the way through the episode.  It was after Zack had come up with his crazy scheme, and sometime during the process of the rest of the gang figuring it out, but before they had decided to get him back by "teaching him a lesson he'll never forget" (I really hope most people reading this got that joke just now, because I think it was a pretty damn good line).

I'd thought TBS had stopped airing the show's reruns a long time ago, but I checked their website and discovered that Zack, Screech, Slater, Kelly, Jessie, and Lisa are still on TV every Sunday morning; 4 episodes in a row from 6-8 am.  I just set my DVR to "record series" in order to make sure I have a bunch on file for next time I need some quality television to fall asleep to.

There is NO way anybody actually makes $$$ with "google AdSense"

I signed up for google's blogger advertising system "AdSense" a few months ago.  The way it works is google puts up a few ads on the side of the page that they deem appropriate for my readers.  Then they pay me based on viewership.  Now I'm not saying that my page is that amazing or anything, or that there aren't tons of other blogs out there that get way more hits each day.  But dating back to mid-summer, I have made exactly 11 cents.  Total.  That averages out to about .01 cents a day.  So in order for me to even make $10 a day, this blog would have to become about 10,000 times more popular.  One thing I can say for sure is that if I start getting 10,000 times the daily traffic I do now, the last thing I'm going to care about is the ten bucks a day I get from google "AdSense."

So rather than rely on that, I'm going to try to do it on my own.  If you're reading this and think you might want to ADVERTISE ON MY BLOG, email me at mvandeu328@gmail.com and we'll talk.  It'll probably be the best money you've ever spent.

The Best Halloween Costume I Saw This Weekend

This wins hands down. Ray Allen's mom.  Now I know it doesn't look like much, but it was the best for 2 reasons: One, originality. And two, authenticity.  Maybe I'm partial to this costume because I've sat a few rows behind Mrs. Allen at Celtics games for the past several years.  But still, this girl absolutely killed it.  I mean this is perfect.  Fake died semi-blond short hair, check.  Big hoop earings, check.  Necklace hanging down slightly over the shirt, check.  Sparkly jersey, check.  Long sleeve white undershirt, check.  Light blue jeans, check.  This chick nailed it to a "T."

And for the record, I'm not a big Halloween guy.  More often than not I wait till the last minute, or never even bother to come up with a costume.  But one of these years I'm going to plan ahead and put some effort into it.  And I already know what it is:  Marty McFly from Back To The Future 2.  Hoverboard included.