#@DilfersDimes

[heckyestaylorhicks]

Cole Cubelic@colecubelic·

Great day in studio on @macandcube today! Loved our chats with @DilfersDimes & @TaylorHicks Podcasts up at http://JOXfm.com

[junker-town]

Oklahoma and WVU put up a barnburner to rival Chiefs-Rams

Monday night was fun, but the Big 12 wants to remind us all how it’s done.

On Monday Night Football, the Rams and Chiefs torched all conventional wisdom about what offense in an NFL game could be for 60 full minutes. The scoring kept coming in each half — 105 points in total — and the game was more about defenses finding a way to break serve with occasional stops and create turnovers than it was about putting up low numbers.

People expected points in that game. The over/under was about 63.5, the biggest in NFL history. But seeing that many points was surprising. It played out like a college game, not just with offense winning the day, but with both teams calling play after play that used to be found primarily on campus. It borrowed a little bit from a bunch of different conferences.

On Black Friday, we got something similar in a big game.

West Virginia and Oklahoma played in a de-facto Big 12 semifinal game and torched their own massive total (85) by the end of the third quarter. Then they scored again. And again, en route to the 59-56 Sooner win. But in every way, remember that the NFL is still adopting these shootout-game principles. Big 12 teams do this kind of thing damn near every week.

I mean, look at this:

Oklahoma’s win by a field goal set up a blockbuster rematch with Texas in the Big 12 Championship Game.

Let’s address the naysayers about this game with a note about why our viewing habits should evolve on a situational basis.

The Monday night game was fun, but detractors pointed out that from a fundamental sense things could have gone better. Both can be true at the same time.

Amazing fandom experience, really cool game to watch, however, overall it was bad ball! Reckless and balls to the wall doesn’t mean good football. Sean Peyton was happiest man in the world watching this. @NFL

— Trent Dilfer (@DilfersDimes) November 20, 2018

It was fun on Friday Night in Morgantown, too, and the detractors had their say as well.

This ain’t football

— Booger (@ESPNBooger) November 24, 2018

Booger’s right, given his own purview. It’s not the defense-first style of ball he grew up playing. But it’s kinda confusing, given he was on the field for the Monday Night showdown between the Chiefs and the Rams, which he and many others praised as it happened.

But what Booger’s onto (just like ESPN colleague Greg McElroy) is basically an “eye of the beholder” situation for judging the way the game is trending.

Ok, I’ve seen enough offense. Can we at least ATTEMPT to be fundamentally sound on the defensive side of the football? The Offenses are great, but these Defenses are PATHETIC.

— Greg McElroy (@GregMcElroy) November 24, 2018

While we joke that the Big 12 is basketball on grass, we don’t judge defenses on the same standard.

We gawk at offenses as being overly impressive relative to what we’re used to from back in the day. But we hold defenses to an outdated standard that hasn’t evolved with the sport. Nobody expects a basketball team to hold its opponent to a shutout.

What you do expect is for a good defense to maximize stops. And OU grabbed a handful of those, as WVU’s drives went:

TD

TD

Turnover on downs

Punt

TD

Lost fumble

TD

TD

TD

TD

Fumble

Punt

TD, before Oklahoma mounted a long drive to kill the clock and end the game

If we believe good defense in a scenario where both offenses are juggernauts is about limiting points, then the Sooners’ two forced punts, turnover on downs, and two takeaways look solid. That requires having some context about the way these teams play.

(Also, basketball on grass isn’t entirely a joke. Some teams have embraced it as a schematic thing, too. Mike Gundy explains that here.)

Sooners-Mountaineers was a lot like Chiefs-Rams in other ways, too.

Chiefs-Rams took three hours and 42 minutes. That, for an NFL game, is bonkers. OU-WVU took 3:49, and like in the Chiefs-Rams game, the Sooners and Mountaineers made use of just about all of those seconds.

There were over 1,300 total yards, a pretty large abdication from a traditional straight-on running game and passing numbers that’ll make your shoulder ache. There was also some incredible running, most notably this Kyler Murray TD run:

55 yards and a cloud of dust for Kyler Murray ‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/2aIK7jU8Eb

— ESPN (@espn) November 24, 2018

The games were similar in other ways. There were flags all over the field in Chiefs-Rams, and a high-profile reffing decision had a huge impact on this game, too:

West Virginia had a big run called back because T.J. Simmons kept blocking an Oklahoma DB out of bounds.... And two plays later, Will Grier fumbled, Oklahoma took it back for a TD. Brutal! pic.twitter.com/eseIz4cwaB

— #FreePhillipDorsett (@ftbeard_17) November 24, 2018

We came in knowing what we were gonna get out of these two teams, and they delivered.

It was a comfortable, familiar shootout, as opposed to what happened Monday, when we were all pleasantly surprised by that degree of outburst.

Maybe there’s something to that. After years and years of this high-octane offense being the Big 12’s brand, nobody bats an eye at 59-56.

[careerjugglr]

ESPN jobs lay-offs: Trent Dilfer among talent axed

ESPN talent Ed Werner, Trent Dilfer and Danny Kanell.

The feared day is here for many in Bristol.

ESPN president John Skipper sent out a memo to employees Wednesday morning alerting them that 100 employees will be laid off. Around half of those receiving pink slips are well known, according to James Miller, author of the ESPN behind-the-scenes book “These Guys Have All the Fun.”

The lay-offs were expected for months, but according to Miller, some are still in shock as they are notified they are among the ones being let go.

Ed Werder, a prominent on-camera NFL reporter, shared on Twitter that he was fired.

After 17 years reporting on #NFL, I've been informed that I'm being laid off by ESPN effective immediately. I have no plans to retire

— Ed Werder (@Edwerderespn) April 26, 2017

ESPN Radio host Danny Kanell soon joined the grim tally. Fellow former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer wasn’t far behind.

Poured my heart and soul into ESPN for last 8 years. Moved my wife and 3 kids to CT to go "all in" 5 years ago. Bummed it ended in 3 minutes

— Danny Kanell (@dannykanell) April 26, 2017

Laid off by ESPN today.Although sad cause I loved my job, mostly filled w/gratitude & appreciation for the 9 years #GreatFriendsAndTeammates

— Trent Dilfer (@DilfersDime) April 26, 2017

Longtime respected baseball journalist Jayson Stark also announced he was done at the network.

For 17 yrs I've had a dream job covering baseball for ESPN. Today is my last day. Thanks to all the great people at ESPN, MLB & all of you!

— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) April 26, 2017

Other journalists who revealed they have been let go include: columnists Johnette Howard and Jane McManus; baseball reporters Jim Bowden, Doug Padilla and Mark Saxon; basketball reporters Ethan Strauss and Calvin Watkins; hockey reporters Pierre LeBrun, Scott Burnside and Joe McDonald; college reporters Dana O’Neil, Brett McMurphy, Eamonn Brennan, Jeremy Crabtree, Max Olson, C.L. Brown, Austin Ward and Jesse Temple; and soccer reporter Mike L. Goodman.

Former “First Take” host Jay Crawford is leaving. In addition, anchor Hannah Storm, “Baseball Tonight” host Karl Ravech and ESPN Radio’s Ryen Russillo (who is Kanell’s co-host) will have their roles “significantly reduced,” a source told The Hollywood Reporter.

“This could be a bloodbath,” a source told the Sporting News earlier this week, and it appears that prediction has come true.

Disney Earnings Down on ESPN Income Drop

Disney's quarterly earnings were once again weighted down by income and subscriber declines at ESPN. WSJ's Shalini Ramachandran has details and explains why there may be hope for Disney investors going forward. Photo: Reuters

November 12th 2016

5 months ago

/video/video.news.com.au/Business/

In a press release titled “ESPN’s content evolution strategy,” the company appeared to acknowledge how cord-cutting and technological shifts have undermined the cable-TV-first business model. “Given how fans’ habits are changing, our focus continues to be providing high-quality, distinctive content at any minute of the day on any screen,” the release said.

ESPN also released Skipper’s “message to employees.”

“These decisions impact talented people who have done great work for our company,” the statement read in part. “I would like to thank all of them for their efforts and their many contributions to ESPN.”

I was only at ESPN for 4 years, but they were some of the best of my career. Thanks to all of the fans and to my entire SportsCenterAM crew. pic.twitter.com/gxKuUh13ck

— Jaymee Sire (@jaymee) April 26, 2017

[the5-9]

via Twitter https://twitter.com/27inchZenith

[dffjwaltner]

Tweeted

Cowboys Special Teams Missed Field Goals: 10 (Most) Field Goal Percentage: 66.7% (30th) Net Yards Per Punt: 36 (32nd) Punts Downed/Faircaught Inside Opponent 10: 7.3% (32nd) Yards Per Kick Return: 14.19 (32nd) Yards Per Punt Return: 5.59 (27th) https://t.co/O9pKsMJMHc

— Trent Dilfer (@DilfersDimes) December 6, 2019

[mporter96]

via Twitter https://twitter.com/MW_Porter

[elishahrachelle-blog]

Lay off with ESPN

I am a sports girl, have always been a sports girl that’s why, for my current event I am going to write about the major layoff ESPN recently did.  ESPN as of April 30th laid off about 100 including familiar faces. Most of the people affected by the job cuts are television, and radio online personalities.  ESPN is even going to cut a limited number of additional off-air employees as well. The reason for this is ESPN is looking more at shifting their whole entire focus regarding digital, mostly because they are facing severe cable subscriber losses and increased pressure on costs. Trent Dilfer tweets “Laid off by ESPN today, Although sad cause I loved my job, mostly filled w/gratitude & appreciation for the 9 years #GreatFriendsAndTeammates”.  https://twitter.com/DilfersDime/status/857286119171342336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fmoney.cnn.com%2F2017%2F04%2F26%2Fmedia%2Fespn-layoffs-on-air-talent%2Findex.html

While others take a big hit like Ed Werder who stated “After 17 years reporting on #NFL, I’ve been informed that I’m being laid off by ESPN effective immediately. I have no plans to retire.”

The president of ESPN stated that many of the people who were laid off were coming to the end of their contracts and did not want to accept large pay cuts. While for other ESPN offered to buy them out of their contracts.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/04/26/espn-announces-layoffs-with-100-people-reportedly-affected/?utm_term=.81cbe5ca774a

[mporter96]

Tweeted

Colts WR’s pic.twitter.com/CcuJpOqEvV

— Trent Dilfer (@DilfersDimes) October 5, 2018