#travis moment 37 is worse

[cadaceus]

C2E105

So this episode was.... A Lot. I really was lowkey anticipating a character death in this episode and I was so tense the whole time (but also the beginning of this episode especially made me laugh a lot, so it definitely had its rollercoaster of moments.) Spoilers are below and below the cut, so beware! 

- Bold of the Critical Role cast to act like Nord by Nordwest isn’t the most thrilling TV show on air to date, someone give blackwillow69 an Emmy

- Fjord’s accent entirely fading and Veth going “Fjord, are you alright?!” is so funny please ghfjklfdk

- Jester’s “Zemnian accent” at 37:00 is so cute and funny BYE

- Jester adding pocket bacon to the Heroes Feast for Beau, and some “interesting bug-looking things” for Yasha is so wholesome, I love her

- Fjord, who rejected his former deity with the declaration of “You need me more than I need you,” telling Jester how she doesn’t need the Traveler is honestly so good

- Caduceus:“You all did so well, I’m so proud”   Veth “Oh, yeah, we pulled a Caduceus!”

- Spending my afternoon with rain against my windows, my mug of mint tea, and playing catch up on Critical Role, what a cozy afternoon honestly <3

- Liam’s offended face when Vilya rejects the salad FGHJKLLKJH

- The female figure in chains... is it Yasha herself or is it Zuala?  😭

- “Do not let me be a shackle” I’m emo

- Well I sure hope that key wasn’t important, lol!

- The amount of spell slots they are using up before the battle is lowkey stressing me out help

- Beau failing her Wisdom save and enthusiastically saying to Fjord “Yeah, yeah, Captain, let’s go!” I love my Brjeau friendship moments so much!

- Oh no, poor Yasha is truly goin through it now :(

- Wait spells can bounce off Vokodo’s shell?!?! Uhhhh ruh roh

- I feel like Sam calls Matt “Matty” a lot during combat scenarios and its really cute

- WAIT DID BEAUREGARD JUST BANISH INTO SCARY REALM BEAU COME BACK DFGHDJKL;F

- CADUCEUS NO FDGHJKL

- Both Beau and Cad appearing in the same Banishment dimension was so funny I almost wish they’d been right next to each other 

- The cast breaking out into an “Everbody Take” song and Tal saying “you know it’s kind of nice to be in another dimension right now” dfghjk drag them?

- Oh no, what if they change the plan for treasure, Vokodo comes back, and they aren’t able to defeat him?? Aaaaah I’m stressedddd

- This could go so poorly, oh goodness......

- IS IT A 20 OR IS IT A 1?!?!?!

- Matt so messed with our heads on that one, I really thought that was gonna go so much worse sdfghjkl natural 1 babey!!!

- I barely even heard the visions because I was so tense but I’m so glad they defeated this thing and nothing went horribly wrong, like that could have gone so much worse 

- Travis’s objection to the Ring Girl loooool valid

- Wait I am big stupid, but how can Taliesin see the chat if the episode is pre-recorded? Sam said something about that too last episode or a couple of episodes ago.... maybe Tal was speaking theoretically though? Or are they looking at the chat from a couple weeks ago?

- But hey! The Mighty Nein saved the V.O Community! And the only person who got Disintegrated was Vokodo!

[eddycurrents]

For the week of 22 July 2019

Quick Bits:

A Walk Through Hell #12 concludes what has been an excellent horror tale from Garth Ennis, Goran Sudžuka, Ive Svorcina, and Rob Steen with another trip into existential terror as we’re given a glimpse of what this is all about and what’s coming.

| Published by AfterShock

Action Comics #1013 keeps a lot of plates spinning as it works through elements of “Year of the Villain”, Event Leviathan, the ongoing Invisible Mafia story thread, and the Rose and Thorn revival. It’s kind of impressive as to how it remains entertaining and engrossing with as much going on.

| Published by DC Comics

Age of Conan: Bêlit #5 is another ending this week, as we finish off Bêlit’s coming of age origin story, as she confronts the Stygian priest and lays claim to her title of Queen of the Black Coast. Great art from Kate Niemczyk, Scott Hanna, Andrea Di Vito, and Jason Keith.

| Published by Marvel

Amazing Spider-Man #26 introduces us to the new Sinister Syndicate fully as they plan an attack on Boomerang. It’s kind of funny to see him still getting into trouble even now that he’s trying to stay legit. Great art from Kev Walker and Laura Martin.

| Published by Marvel

Ascender #4 gives us a few surprises in the fight between the vampires and the resistance. The grey washes, with mixes of red, from Dustin Nguyen on the vampire’s throneworld is very impressive.

| Published by Image

Batgirl #37 launches the new creative team of Cecil Castellucci, Carmine Di Giandomenico, Jordie Bellaire, and AndWorld Design with part one of “Oracle Rising”. There’s a nice battle with Killer Moth, emphasizing what some villains are doing in order to try to get noticed by Luthor to receive the offer, while playing up the expense that goes into crimefighting. Also, the Terrible Trio unleash something probably not too good.

| Published by DC Comics

Dark Red #5 concludes the first arc as Chip and Evie try to fight off an army of Nazi vampires. It’s good, with some nice funny moments. Great art from Corin Howell and Mark Englert.

| Published by AfterShock

Detective Comics #1008 is a straight-forward single issue story of Batman and Joker at the circus from Peter J. Tomasi, Doug Mahnke, Jaime Mendoza, Dave Baron, and Rob Leigh. It’s a refreshing change of pace from the extended arcs, even as it sets up a new threat in the “Year of the Villain” offering.

| Published by DC Comics

Dial H for Hero #5 gets a little meta as we dive into the Multiverse, the Heroverse, and the Bleed from Sam Humphries, Joe Quinones, Scott Hanna, Jordan Gibson, and Dave Sharpe. The use of breaking through panels, reproductions of old comics scenes, and a variation of styles just deliver phenomenal storytelling.

| Published by DC Comics / Wonder Comics

Dungeons & Dragons: A Darkened Wish #2 continues to fill in the backstory of the adventurers’ time with the White Sails, introducing us to the pitfalls that harried them, before giving more hints in the present of the nightmare that tore them apart. B. Dave Walters, Tess Fowler, Jay Fotos, and Neil Uyetake are delivering an entertaining fantasy tale here.

| Published by IDW

Fearless #1 is a new three-issue anthology mini-series spotlighting a number of the women of Marvel, both characters and creative talent. This first issue leads off with a continuing lead feature from Seanan McGuire, Claire Roe, Rachelle Rosenberg, and Janice Chiang, as Sue Richards, Carol Danvers, and Storm prepare to visit a girls camp as motivational speakers. There’s also an entertaining Mille the Model back-up from Leah Williams, Nina Vakueva, Rosenberg, and Chiang. And a very funny Jessica Jones story from the Captain Marvel team of Kelly Thompson, Carmen Carnero, Tamra Bonvillain, with Chiang. Though short, that last story is pretty much worth the price of the issue alone.

| Published by Marvel

Five Years #3 sees Tambi meet with Ivy and Julie to discuss that various nations around the world are dangerously developing Phi-alloy technology. Also a surprise appearance of people we thought were out. Great art as always from Terry Moore.

| Published by Abstract Studio

The Flash #75 delivers three stories for this extra-sized anniversary issue. The lead concludes the “Year One” arc. This is some of the best art that I have ever seen from Howard Porter, he and Hi-Fi just deliver amazing artwork here. There are also two back-ups, one hinting at things to come in the future for Barry and the other tying in to “Year of the Villain” as Captain Cold receives Luthor’s offer.

| Published by DC Comics

Guardians of the Galaxy #7 begins the second arc, “Faithless”, from Donny Cates, Cory Smith, David Curiel, and Cory Petit. It really introduces us to the new Universal Church of Truth as they take out an entire squadron of the Nova Corps and then worse things happen as the Guardians go off to investigate. I love the name for the Guardians’ new ship and that final page is one hell of a shock.

| Published by Marvel

History of the Marvel Universe #1 is an interesting project from Mark Waid, Javier Rodríguez, Álvaro López, and Joe Caramagna. It’s framed as Galactus telling Franklin Richards (at least I think that’s Franklin Richards) the history of the universe before it dies and the next is reborn. As expected, it’s dry facts, but it’s fascinating in how it’s comprehensively presented and the artwork from Rodríguez and López is jaw-dropping gorgeous. There are also annotations in the back to show where these events come from. It’s well put together and I highly recommended it to die-hard Marvel fans.

| Published by Marvel

Invisible Kingdom #5 concludes the first arc with an almost entirely one-sided battle between the Sun Dog and a Lux battleship. G. Willow Wilson, Christian Ward, and Sal Cipriano elevate the tension nicely through this issue and give a few surprises when everything seems grim and it looks like the end.

| Published by Dark Horse / Berger Books

Killer Groove #3 wonderfully showcases one of Jackie’s cases as it intertwines with the music scene and criminal underworld. Ollie Masters, Eoin Marron, Jordie Bellaire, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou are doing a nice job with this series of crafting one larger story out of many separate smaller tales.

| Published by AfterShock

Lazarus: Risen #2 is another dense read. The series has always been hefty, but this new format has elevated things further, doubling up comics content and adding a prose short story, the letters pages, and extra content like gaming material and the usual in-world advertisements. I’m loving it. Greg Rucka, Michael Lark, Tyler Boss, Santi Arcas, Simon Bowland, Adam Christopher, and Crystal Frasier are definitely giving you your money’s worth and more here. Excellent comics content as the war between Carlyle and Morray/D’Souza heats up.

| Published by Image

Livewire #8 pits Amanda versus Jada for a final round. It’s still interesting how practically everyone is trying to portray Amanda’s actions as harmful and villainous. Great art from Kano.

| Published by Valiant

Martian Manhunter #7 sees J’onn and Diane uncover some of the results of the experiments that have been going on with the kidnapped and missing people, it’s horrifying. Incredible and haunting artwork in this one from Riley Rossmo and Ivan Plascencia. 

| Published by DC Comics

Marvels: Epilogue is a short, but sweet, coda to the Marvels series from Kurt Busiek, Alex Ross, John Roshell, and Richard Starkings. It spotlights events from X-Men #98 through the eyes of Phil Sheldon and his daughters, capturing some of the awe, wonder, and terror that Sheldon experienced during the main series. The book is filled out with an interview with Busiek and Ross on their experience with the series and what it’s like to look back on it 25 years later, as well as interviews with the editors who worked on the book.

| Published by Marvel

Middlewest #9 sets out a new quest for Abel as he comes across the Nowak people. Skottie Young, Jorge Corona, Jean-Francois Beaulieu, and Nate Piekos are continuing to make magic with this series. The art is beautiful and the story is endlessly captivating.

| Published by Image

Psi-Lords #2 continues to investigate these four captives, changed for whatever reason by the Psi-Lords, and the habitat of their prison. An interesting jail hierarchy of gangs is revealed and a bit of a memory of the four’s lives before being captured. Gorgeous art from Renato Guedes.

| Published by Valiant

Star Pig #1 is weird. Very weird. Delilah S. Dawson, Francesco Gaston, Sebastian Cheng, and Shawn Lee give us the story of a kid on her way to space camp whose ship is struck and destroyed by an asteroid, saved by a space pig and a scavenger energy ball. It’s probably one of the more unique tales I’ve seen in a while.

| Published by IDW

Sword Master #1, like Aero before it, features two stories. In the first, Greg Pak adapts into English a tale from Shuizhu and Gunji of the titular hero, Lin Lie, and his quest to find his missing father. It’s an interesting start and the artwork from Gunji is gorgeous. The back up original story pairs Shang-Chi up with Lin in a story from Greg Pak, Ario Anindito, Rachelle Rosenberg, and Travis Lanham. It follows up on their appearance in the New Agents of Atlas tie-in to “War of the Realms” and presents an interesting antagonist on their trail.

| Published by Marvel

Valkyrie #1 is a wonderful debut from Jason Aaron, Al Ewing, CAFU, Jesus Aburtov, and Joe Sabino. We get some continued supporting cast from Jane Foster’s time as Thor, although with a new status quo, and an interesting hook in trying to track down Dragonfang, the former Valkyrie’s sword. The art from CAFU and Aburtov is beautiful.

| Published by Marvel

Warlord of Mars Attacks #2 continues this crossover of John Carter and Mars Attacks. It’s interesting how it incorporates Edgar Rice Burroughs’ stories as actual things in this world and explains how Mars as a dead planet and one as teeming with life as Barsoom could exist simultaneously.

| Published by Dynamite

The Weatherman Vol. 2 #2 gives us more of a look at the nightmare that has consumed Earth as the crew attempt to find the doctor who might be able to fix everything. It goes about as well as could be expected. The monster designs and execution from Nathan Fox and Moreno Dinisio are incredible.

| Published by Image

Web of Venom: Funeral Pyre #1 is another one-shot catching up on the wider world of Venom as we barrel headlong into Absolute Carnage. Cullen Bunn, Joshua Cassara, Alberto Alburquerque, Jay David Ramos, and Clayton Cowles give us a great story checking in with Andi Benton, the former Mania and occasional sidekick to Flash Thompson’s Venom.

| Published by Marvel

Wonder Woman #75 continues “Return of the Amazons” from G. Willow Wilson, Xermanico, Jesus Merino, Vicente Cifuentes, Romulo Fajardo Jr., and Pat Brosseau. This arc basically brings Wilson’s run around full circle to deal with some of the elements that kicked off her first issue as Diana faces off against Grail. Some really nice double page spreads with border art from Xermanico.

| Published by DC Comics

Other Highlights: Archie #706, Archie vs. Predator 2 #1, Bone Parish #11, Books of Magic #10, Clue: Candlestick #3, Curse Words #23, Doctor Strange #16, Farmhand #10, Freedom Fighters #7, Grumble #8, House of X #1, Justice League Dark #13, Lumberjanes #64, Magic: The Gathering - Chandra #3, Magnificent Ms. Marvel #5, Marvel Action: Avengers #6, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #41, Night Moves #5, Redneck #22, Secret Warps: Arachknight Annual #1, Shuri #10, Star Trek: The Q Conflict #6, Star Wars #69, TMNT: The Rise of the TMNT - Sound Off #1, Tony Stark: Iron Man #14, The Wicked + The Divine #44

Recommended Collections: Black Panther - Book 7: The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda Part 2, Go-Bots - Volume 1, Harrow County: Library Edition - Volume 3, House of Whispers - Volume 1: The Power Divided, James Bond: Origin - Volume 1, Lodger - Volume 1, Lumberjanes - Volume 12, Savage Sword of Conan - Volume 1: The Cult of Koga Thun, Self/Made, Star Wars Adventures - Volume 6: The Flight of the Falcon, Thor of Realms, William Gibson’s Alien 3

d. emerson eddy might well be a space lord.

[loquaciousquark]

Highlights from Talks Machina (Episode 105)

Again, covering for @eponymous-rose​ while she continues her international vacation! Sorry for missing last week--things got crazy! Tonight’s guests: Darin de Paul, Taliesin sporting a lovely scarlet mohawk, and Travis. Brian starts a story that ends with him forging several signatures, and off we go.

The new campaign guide comes out soon! Taliesin is now worried about messing up the history of a character he invented.

Darin loves D&D as a long-form improv exercise and is happy he was able to get moments with each of the cast members.

Right after college, Darin was an apprentice at the Burt Reynolds Theater in Florida (a year-long program for theater students). One of his co-apprentices was Matt’s mom, and Matt’s grandmother was the director’s assistant. Matt’s father was part of the writing room. During the run of Darin’s last show (Fiddler), a clarinet player said they were going to play D&D and invited Darin. Matt’s mother was also in the group; they were all new to the game, so they rolled on a table for names and played four sessions. Last year, Darin was hired by Blizzard to do various voices, which is where he and Matt became friends. Later, Matt realized his mom had a picture of herself with Darin de Paul, and discussion of that picture led to the conversation of their D&D game. It’s been 37 years since Sprigg’s original campaign.

Matt was worried about fitting Sprigg in until Darin mentioned he was a hermit. The hobgoblin TPK was canon! Sprigg, a chaotic evil illusionist thief, was the only one to survive; the last moment of that campaign had him fleeing on a cart with wolves chasing him, abandoning the rest of the party to their deaths. Travis and Taliesin ask if he really was chaotic evil; “Why do you think he was so interested in redemption, dear boy?”

The first episode Darin saw was the Trials of the Take episode when the carpet was destroyed. He’s wanted to be on the show ever since.

Symmetra’s voice actor, Anjali Bhimani, also plays D&D. My heart skips a few beats.

Vex and Percy eloped over the year break. Laura and Taliesin kept it secret out of pique at first (Taliesin doesn’t remember why they were piqued). He’s not surprised the others are annoyed.

Grog was extremely impressed by Sarenrae and hasn’t thought much about Kord giving him any boons.

Darin has been a fan of the show and watching for some time. Taliesin says he is the most prepared guest they’ve ever had.

Very few people were present at Vex & Percy’s wedding. They did not intend to ever bring it up on their own.

The plane of books is the worst possible plane for Grog. Only the plane of shopping would be worse.

As soon as Darin walked into the studio last Thursday, Travis immediately asked him if he was a god. Travis still thinks he might be.

Percy would rather have a thousand years with Vex than a thousand years with Ioun’s library.

Travis wants a “positive, upbeat resolution to all the drama that is a-hanging in the air.” Me too. Travis does not read the Player’s Handbook to help keep Grog dumb, so he never knows what’s going on.

Travis loves how prepared Darin was. He offered the Deck because he thought Darin was looking for something specific after Sprigg deflected the weaker offerings.

Darin loved the emotion in the room during the plane shift and the strong moment with Marisha in particular. He also likes the movie Gargoyles.

The hardest thing about playing Sprigg after so long was finding him again. Brian gets very sentimental about the long journey that brought Sprigg back to life, including Darin becoming friends and colleagues with Matt so many years later.

Darin will be back on the next episode and is visibly excited about it.

Darin used to read tons of D&D books (mentions Drizzt by name) and used to paint minis as a hobby. He still has some of the figures and wants to donate them to the show.

Darin’s wife was part of Taliesin’s parents’ circle, so he’s known her for a long time. Taliesin and Darin exchange memories of meeting Roddy McDowall, and Darin says part of Sprigg’s concept of memories being the most important came from a conversation he had with Roddy while Roddy was dying of cancer.

Percy’s current distrusting attitude towards the gods came directly from his interaction with the Raven Queen. However, he didn’t know there was a god of knowledge and has been “chewing on it a lot, and what it means to have faith in knowledge.” He sees the library as a testament to faith in humanity and the good works of life and how important memory is and is blown away by it. “Books have always been about finding meaning and this whole library thing has changed him.” Taliesin expected Percy to be much more resistant to Ioun and was surprised at how quickly the books sold him.

Darin felt as the scenes progressed that his role was to “illuminate” CR as to where they were and what they could be. Taliesin and Percy both wondered if he was Scanlan from the future. Darin had the choice of being Scanlan’s dad, but declined.

Percy picked Vesper because her namesake was the last person he’d talked to in real life.

The only place Travis can think of worse for Grog is if the books were replaced with clothing & a For Sale sign. “Grog has a beatnik poet inside him waiting to get out.”

Darin’s advice to Keyleth was total improv. He almost cried when she touched his hand. He loves funny characters that can become sad and/or touching.

Marisha has no idea how to get Keyleth out of her emotional nosedive. Watching Marisha break character from Keyleth at the end of an episode is one of Taliesin’s favorite things because they’re such different people.

Percy would seek out the lifebooks for all his family & ancestry because he’s fascinated with legacy, and Whitestone is full of ghost stories. He had lots of stories he’d planned to give as part of the gnomes’ tour, and tells one about a woman forced into a marriage who slowly poisoned her husband over a number of years.

Sprigg feels he is what Scanlan might become. He did not expect to survive the episode.

If they were really in Ioun’s halls, Travis would love to see the books of his family and of JFK. Darin would like to see his father’s book. Darin also likes wearing suits, which is why he wears suits. He only wears t-shirts at the gym. (At one point Darin’s family also owned 20 horses???). He wishes his parents could see him now because they were so supportive when he was growing up.

Honor! Justice! After Dark, After Dark, After Dark!

If the challenge for Ioun involves any physical activity, Grog will fight Percy for it.

Bucket lists: Travis wants to swim with a great white shark. (Darin’s biggest fear is great white sharks.) Taliesin wants to travel to India. Darin wants to learn to tap dance, and casually drops that he used to dance with Cirque du Soleil.

Darin’s favorite color is black. His favorite season is winter.

There’s a video somewhere of Darin de Paul and Steve Blum pretending to be zombies and running towards the camera.

Travis and Darin do Reinhardt “impressions” by talking in high-pitched baby voices. Taliesin does a pretty decent actual impression! Darin likes that there’s heroes for every playstyle.

Darin hasn’t told Matt’s parents he brought back Sprigg. He also used to have a crush on Matt’s mom.

If Darin could pick any character from VM to play, he would play Scanlan. Brian teases the entire world by saying he would play “the character Pike’s in love with.”

Darin’s twitter flooded after last Thursday and he wishes he could respond to all of the kind messages.

Darin once shared floss with Gilbert Gottfried as part of an old bit.

Darin feels his whole history has led to this moment last Thursday where he had the chance to create a story with people he loved.

Laura read the Game of Thrones books as they came out, well before the show started. Brian just found the copy of the first book she lent him in 2010, which he still hasn’t read.

If Sprigg could fight any D&D monster, it would be a hobgoblin.

[thequeenofmyownscreen]

“Your secret is safe with my indifference”

Episodes 43 “ Return to Vasselheim ” to 49 “A Name is Earned”.

Previous posts : the beginnings, episodes 22 to 32, episodes 33 to 36, episodes 37 to 42.

It was so great so see Vasselheim again, and old acquaintances, and new things to learn. I just love Kashaw and Zahra. I expected things to be deliciously awkward with Keylteh, and I was not disappointed. The visit to Victor was also delightful, and we learned that Dr. Ripley has bought black powder (I knew she wasn’t going to disappear forever !). We also learned new stuff on dragons, and the history of some ancients weapons called “the Vestiges of Divergence”, that Vox Machina will need in order to defeat the dragons. With Lady Kima, also an old acquiantance, the trip to the tomb made them fight a beholder again, on their one year stream anniversary ! Despite everybody's cries of anguish, they were a larger group, and more powerful that the last time, so I was not too stressed out.

On the other hand, I was absolutely not ready for the death of Vex. It took everyone by surprise, since it was after the battle, and evryone was doing something. But they should have know to be patient, in the tomb of a guy who served the goddess of Death ! The whole Revivify ritual was very tense, I didn’t know that a resurrection like that requires offers from the living. Then, after, not one was saying to Vex that she died, except Grog, nor that her brother made a deal with the Raven Queen to save her life. But she’s not stupid and can sense something’s shifty is the group’s dynamic. Her conversations with Keyleth is interesting in that regard : Vex seems pretty chill about her death, but the moment she knows that her brother offered his life, she's shaken. And Keyleth is right : she might be allright, but the rest of them are not.

Vax got to dealing with Percy’s choices and then his own choices. How ironic that befor they went to explore the tomb, Vax and Percy had a conversation where they reached an understanding, after some mistrust during the Briarwoods arc ! But Vex's death hit Vax HARD. Fun fact, I have a twin sister irl. So I do understand perfectly his anger. Especially since Percy can be a bit insufferable, even in his apology to Vax later. In that moment Vax doesn't accept anything, and I wouldn't either. Percy tries to think logically but in that moment, Vax is all about emotion, hence the punching. Vax doesn’t know what will happen to him now that the Raven Queen accepted his offer. I feel his anguish and terror, but he still doesn't talk about his feelings, he just walks away. Even if the Raven Queen is progressively revealing herself in his dreams and visions, he’s still lost, for now.

The situation with the dragons continues to be worse. We learn that Draconia, where Tiberius is, has fallen. The green dragon, Raishan, can do powerful magic, including transform herself into a human girl, and was clever enough to fool an entire tribe of druids... in addition to being an ancient dragon with poison breath. I don’t know if the others dragons can do magic ; if not, she seems the most dangerous for now. Westruun is ruled by Umbrasyl, the black dragon, but in coordination with the heard of goliaths where Grog came from (Travis’ reaction to this news : “Oh, fuck me ! Fuck, fuck, fuck.”). For now, it seems to be the obvious next goal, at least geographically, since they need the Titanstone Knuckles owned by Grog’s uncle.

This handful of episodes also begun as Grog learned that his strength is in his friends, thanks to his combat against Earthbreaker Groon, who also made a comment about his evil sword. And don’t get me wrong, every time Grog takes the time to talk to Craven Edge, it's so funny and creepy. But he’s still hiding to his friends the creepiness of the sword. At least until he shared the secret with Scanlan, who was the perfect character to discuss it (in the absence of Pike) : he's his best mate, his creative casting of Suggestion actually made Grog succeed in dropping the sword. It’s interesting that Grog hides stuff like this, but also doesn't want to return to his herd hidden or invisible, and would rather have a one-on-one fight with his uncle. Grog has layers. But I wish Scanlan would have done more, and conviced Grog to give the sword up entirely. In their fight against the sphinx, thanks to his last days going without sleeping so his gained strength wouldn’t disappear, Craven Edge declares itself “full”, appearance changed and Grog does necrotic damage now. This is ... awesome-but-bad. He accidentaly hurt his best friend Pike, for this to happen. What if Grog is going dark ?!

Quotes :

Scanlan, about Osysa the sphinx who gave them somes answers : “I mean, she gave us a lot to ‘sphinx’ about”. (The cast groaned, but I love puns, okay ?)

Liam, as Matt prepares himself to do the voice of Victor : “I'm gonna stand over here and fail to stay in character, okay ?”

Matt, on acrobatics checks : “Everyone will be fine, as long as you don't roll a one”. Travis : *rolls a one*. 

“Take me instead, you raven bitch !!” 

Percy, offering Vex a Siege arrow, days after accidentally releasing the trap that killed her : “This is an evening of unbridled guilt.”

Vex, describing how she stole the broom, without using the word ‘stole’ : “I sort of kind of...took something that wasn’t mine ? In a way. I mean, I was holding on to it, and then I slipped, and it fell into the Bag of Holding !”

Scanlan : “Why is everything I say creepy ?”

Another strong contestant for Critical Role without context : Liam : “Can we have the break so Taliesin and I can go make out in the other room ?” Matt : “Don’t go on break for that ! Just move your seating arrangement.”

Scanlan, describing Pike : “Hair the color of the sunset ; eyes like waves that crash in the night ; breasts, supple, firm...”. (Ashley, on Skype : “True, true, true.”)

Scanlan, attempting to cheer Tyriok, who has only one hand now : “Hey, who has two thumbs and is really excited? You and me, both doing this.” (he makes a thumb up).

Percy, very proud of himself, even though he cannot see anything in this obscurity : “I see a door that I have conquered”.

Scanlan : “You realise, that I was born to shove things in holes”.

Only one limerick from Scanlan, to Vex, for inspiration : “Friends, I don’t mean to sound bitter/but a year ago, life was a shitter/’til I picked up some dice/with some friends, it was nice !/And now, ah, I’m a Critter”

Things that are just really cool/funny :

The Highbearer Vord tried to offer to Vox Machina the aid of their great champion, who was just a random knight. Then Lady Kima basically said “Fuck that, I’m going with them !” and they (and me) were so happy.

They saw the giant roc they saved in episode 26 !! Awwww.

Scanlan cast Bigby's Hand and “fastball specialed” Grog with it so that he could attack the flying beholder. I want to see that into the anime.

Ooooh they made Gilmore's Glorious Goods T-shirts !

In Whitestone, Scanlan went back and found the painter where he ordered an art piece with him leading the revolution against the Briarwoods. Matt's description of the painting is EVERYTHING I thought it would be, and what Sam hoped it would be.

Is it me or is Vex flirting with Percy ?  

Gern Blanston's card says : “Arcane Spells. Necromancy/Candle specialist”.

They finished episode 46 at the tune of “Don't you forget about me” and quotting The Breakfast Club.

Vex continues to train with her broom, and hurts a lot of chickens. And Scanlan. And herself sometimes.

Taliesin makes a good crow noise. The captions agreed :

Scanlan sang an inspiration song at Vax inspired by “My shot” from Hamilton. Like the last post, I am reminded that this is 2016, aka right in the middle of the Hamilton mania (of which I was a part of).

Meta :

Fun fact, despite never playing D&D, I know a little bit about the opposition between Bahamut and Tiamat and metallic and chromatic dragons, because I used to play a card boardgame with dragons (the goal was to make combinations of chromatic or metallic dragons with your cards and gain more or less gold). 

The champion of the Raven Queen was named Purvan. The cast then procedes to laugh at the expense of Matt (Marisha : “Perv on ?”, Sam : “Last name Pedobear”) until he threatens them with more hit points on their later ennemies. 

Now they have battlemaps with walls and stuff, that look like awesome models.

I just love how Will Friedle sets his papers right every time Kashaw makes a point in the discussion.

I love the discussions after the episodes. It's there when we learn behind the scenes stuff and rules (like for resurrection).

For once I knew who the guest, Chris Hardwick, was. Both because of Nerdist and because of the sexual and emotionnal abuse claim that his ex-girlfriend made against him. In truth, I found him very funny in this episode of Critical Role. But that doesn't erase the fact that he's a creepy douchebag now that we know what happened behind the scenes of his life.

Travis said to Laura that she need to sacrifice a small mammal in a pagan ritual, because her dice kept rolling bad. Taliesin said very seriously : “I can hook you up. I have a kit.” (Travis : “Why am I not surprised ?”)

Marisha and Matt calculated how much gallons of water the Tidal Wave spell holds. This wouldn't have happened if Americans have switched to the metric system, like the entire world. I don't even know what a gallon is!

I love when the cast is bickering between themselves, like the “does tommorow at midnight mean tonight or tomorrow” debate ? That's such a family thing to do. 

Apparently it's not unusual for the cast to throw curse words at Matthew Mercer right before the stream starts.

At the announcements of episode 49, Matt mentions another game or a one-shot where Laura, Marisha, and Travis played, and Laura said she played “Jester, a tiefling cleric”. I'm more spoiled on Campaign 2 than Campaign 1, nothing too dramatic but I know which cast members plays which character, and it's so funny to see that Laura had the idea of Jester back in 2016.

One of the qualities of Matthew Mercer as a DM : he is flexible enough when the details don't impact the fate of the scene too much and he understands his players’ needs. Example : when Keyleth wanted to transform into an earth elemental, but couldn't because, in the previous episode at the battle against the basilisks she already turned into a giant scorpion, he said that retrospectively, the would have taken a short rest after healing Tyriok ; so that she could transform into an elemental.

The sphinx’s room was AWESOME. Those battles map are becoming really really cool.

Number of Vestiges of Divergence acquired : 2 (Vax wears the armor Deathwalker's Ward, the sword Mythcarver is not picked up yet). Number of Vestiges still to be found : 6. And some of them won’t be easy AT ALL. This is going to be long, guys.

[junker-town]

The 12 dumbest mistakes from a preseason-ish Week 1, ranked

Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

The Dolphins are worse than we thought, the Lions and Cardinals refused to win, and everyone was ejected. Oh, and never dance again, Kirk Cousins. Please.

If the 2019 kickoff game between the Packers and Bears taught us anything, it’s that sometimes Week 1 can still feel like the preseason. That’s the case now more than ever, when most starters spend the month of August standing on the sideline in their comfiest athleisure wear.

While that means some teams take a little longer to find their rhythm once September rolls around, it also produces the kind of cringe entertainment that we’re only used to seeing in the preseason or when we decide to fire up an episode of The Office.

The first week this season was chock full of moments that had us looking away in secondhand embarrassment. But that wasn’t all it delivered. There were also several ejections that suggested some players weren’t ready to end their summer vacation just yet.

Somehow, we narrowed this list down to 12, and that doesn’t even include the Jets blowing a game to the Bills, and the Patriots stomping all over the Steelers right after hooking up with their ex. Here are the dumbest mistakes from the first Sunday of the season:

12. Kirk Cousins celebrated a 1-yard TD dive by dancing like your grandma

Cousins didn’t have to do much to beat the Falcons Sunday; he only threw 10 passes for 98 yards. Rather, the Vikings did their damage on the ground in a 28-12 home victory. The veteran QB even got in on the action with a 1-yard dip into the end zone in the second quarter.

Then Cousins, so delighted to have scored, gave the world his best Andrews Sisters impression.

jesus pic.twitter.com/2N4oI7MODP

— Arif Hasan (@ArifHasanNFL) September 8, 2019

You’ve been told, Adam Thielen. Don’t wait under the apple tree for anyone else but Kirk.

11. Patrick Mahomes no-looks a pass right outta the end zone

Patrick Mahomes has an innate ability to shock the NFL with streetball-style plays that seem impossible in real life but lead to major gains on the gridiron. This was not one of them.

Mahomes already getting tricky with it pic.twitter.com/8A7WmEPDy3

— The Checkdown (@thecheckdown) September 8, 2019

Mahomes’ latest no-look pass was also a no-catch pass, soaring over Travis Kelce’s head and out of the end zone on third down. Just because you can do it doesn’t mean you always should.

10. Pittsburgh’s backup center forgot to snap the ball

B.J. Finney made his first appearance of the season when he entered a Steelers-Patriots blowout in relief of Maurkice Pouncey. He blanked the count on his very first snap, leading to a rare, four-man false start penalty that left Finney standing like an untouched bowling pin.

"false start, all the linemen but the center" pic.twitter.com/tl84yoHmoQ

— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) September 9, 2019

Ben Roethlisberger threw an interception a few plays later. The two probably aren’t related, but it’s important measuring point for just how awful things were for Pittsburgh Sunday night.

9. A Cardinals OL tried to leap over Kyler Murray and sacked him instead

This honestly might be our favorite GIF of the season, and we say that being fully aware this is only Week 1:

Kyler Murray just got sacked by his own lineman lmao pic.twitter.com/ZatJyFp5mq

— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) September 8, 2019

We’ve all had this kind of moment when you know you’re going to bump into someone and there’s no way of avoiding it, and this is dialed up to 11.

Guard J.R. Sweezy is 6’5, 310 pounds. Something in his brain told this exceedingly large man that his reaction should be “leapfrog my quarterback.” Spoiler: He couldn’t.

Honestly, it’s a miracle this just looked like a WWE move and he didn’t crush poor Kyler Murray.

8. Eli Manning needs to know who Eli Manning is

Mistake No. 1 for the Giants was rolling Manning out of the pocket inside the red zone. Even when he was 24 that would’ve been a brave play call for a quarterback who’s very much a pocket passer. It’s even worse now that he’s 38. He has 37 rushing yards in the last three years combined.

Mistake No. 2 was when Manning decided not to throw the ball, but to try to juke Cowboys linebacker Leighton Vander Esch on fourth-and-1. It went exactly as you imagine.

Eli Manning looking like Michael Vick out there! What a move pic.twitter.com/3AakWbjn79

— Eric Rosenthal (@ericsports) September 8, 2019

Let Saquon Barkley do the running, Eli.

7. Kwon Alexander was ejected for lowering his helmet straight into Jameis Winston

One of San Francisco’s bigger additions this offseason was former Bucs linebacker Kwon Alexander. He was having a great first half against his former team before he made a very, very stupid play that got him ejected.

maybe dont do that kwon pic.twitter.com/WXQosHIuXJ

— James Brady (@JamesBradySBN) September 8, 2019

Regarded as a rangy linebacker who occasionally has issues with his tackling form, Alexander elected to hit Jameis Winston, who slid head-first on a scramble, with a blatant helmet-to-helmet shot. He was immediately ejected, with three quarters left and the 49ers only up by three points.

6. The Jaguars are still fighting everyone

The Jaguars’ hopes of returning to the top of the AFC South took a huge hit when Nick Foles broke his clavicle after throwing a touchdown. That was completely out of their control, though. It’s simply the hand fate deals what is a habitually hard-luck team (and any resident of north Florida).

What the Jaguars didn’t do was keep their cool. Myles Jack, who recently received a big raise and was named a team captain, was ejected for throwing a punch against Chiefs receiver Demarcus Robinson:

#Jaguars LB Myles Jack ejected for throwing a punch at a #Chiefs player after the play is over. pic.twitter.com/24OJ2WYypD

— Big Cat Country (@BigCatCountry) September 8, 2019

He then had to be held back and escorted off the field.

Although Jaguars players fighting has been a fairly common occurrence in recent years, that it happened in Week 1 was a sign that this team might not be ready to contend again. Instead, they just found ways to embarrass themselves — like the once-proud Jacksonville defense surrendering 40 points and almost 500 yards.

5. Greg Robinson’s ejection summed up the Browns’ Week 1 experience

The Browns reign as AFC North favorites may be over after just one week, and some of their offensive struggles can be chalked up to the left tackle who took his reputation as the club’s weak link to a new level Sunday. Greg Robinson only played 1.5 quarters in Week 1, earning an early trip to the locker room for kicking Kenny Vaccaro in the face.

welp, the Browns will have to play the second half without their starting left tackle. Greg Robinson ejected for kicking Kenny Vaccaro right in the face pic.twitter.com/y324hpluQ7

— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) September 8, 2019

This was awful timing. With Kendall Lamm hurt and both Austin Corbett and Wyatt Teller inactive, Cleveland was reduced to fielding a rotation of misplaced blockers and backups. Justin McCray, an interior lineman acquired from the Packers eight days earlier, moved to right tackle. Right tackle Chris Hubbard moved to the blindside. Neither was especially helpful in pass protection; the Browns gave up five sacks, including one in the end zone that resulted in 2019’s first safety.

Even worse, Robinson’s 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty was one of 18 times the Browns were flagged. They gifted the Titans 182 yards on those penalties.

4. Jameis Winston is still making rookie mistakes in year 5

Once upon a time, Winston showed everything the Buccaneers could’ve asked for out of a No. 1 overall pick. He was mistake prone, but made enough big plays to inspire promise. Fast forward to his fifth NFL season and Winston’s inability to avoid turnovers is going to get him run out of Tampa Bay.

The Buccaneers hired Bruce Arians hoping the quarterback guru could finally get Winston to pull it together. Unfortunately for Tampa Bay, Winston still makes plays like this:

The @ahkello pick six to clinch it!#GoNiners pic.twitter.com/cNSR9kgGLP

— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) September 8, 2019

The Buccaneers had a chance win, but Winston’s off-balance lob into traffic sealed the win for the 49ers. That was his third pick of the game. What else is new?

3. Just everything about the Dolphins

Yo. We knew the Dolphins were going to be bad this year, but what the hell was that?

Miami got trounced by the Ravens 59-10 and it was 42-to-freakin’-3 at halftime. It legitimately looked like the Ravens were playing one of those faceless “FCS Southwest” teams that were in Dynasty mode on NCAA Football 14.

Ryan Fitzpatrick threw an interception to start off his day. The Dolphins had two receivers in the general area — bad spacing leads to interceptions! And just like that, Earl Thomas had an easy read for his first pick as a Raven.

INTERCEPTION @Earl_Thomas ‼️ pic.twitter.com/JOlsdWRxcc

— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) September 8, 2019

The Dolphins’ defense was even worse somehow. They let the first catch of Marquise Brown’s career go 47 yards for a touchdown. There was somehow not a single Dolphins player in front of Brown as he raced to the end zone.

first catch of his career pic.twitter.com/RtYwDnLtvT

— charles mcdonald (@FourVerts) September 8, 2019

His second touchdown catch was somehow even more embarrassing for the Dolphins. Miami only rushed three defenders on third down and, amazingly, let Brown beat them deep for an 83-yard touchdown.

Eight defenders in coverage!

second catch of his career pic.twitter.com/zsE9vMpKHL

— charles mcdonald (@FourVerts) September 8, 2019

Miami gave up 643 yards and gained just 200. 643 yards.

And now some members of the team want to get off this sinking ship and are reportedly begging to be traded. We’re so, so sorry Dolphins fans.

2. Does Kliff Kingsbury think the NFL has college football OT rules?

Kliff Kingsbury’s NFL debut did not get off to a promising start. Early in the fourth quarter, the Cardinals were trailing the Lions 24-6 and Kyler Murray’s passer rating was hovering around 28.

Then they surged back, tying the game on a touchdown and two-point conversion with less than a minute left in regulation. They had all the momentum heading into overtime.

After both teams traded field goals, the Cardinals got the ball back. At this point, any score would win the game; if neither team scored, it would end in a tie. Murray got the Cardinals to midfield, but when a third-down pass fell incomplete, Kingsbury had a decision to make with a minute left: go for it on fourth-and-7, or punt and almost assuredly settle for a tie.

Unless Kingsbury forgot about the NFL’s OT rules, he decided a tie was better than nothing in his first game. Arizona surrendered:

ARI decided to punt to DET from the DET 46 on 4th & 7 with 1:10 remaining in the OT while tied 27 to 27. With a Surrender Index of 58.73, this punt ranks at the 100th percentile of cowardly punts of the 2019 season, and the 99.6th percentile of all punts since 2009.

— Surrender Index 90 (@surrender_idx90) September 9, 2019

And yes, the game ended 27-all.

In fairness to Kingsbury, Tramaine Brock Sr. almost validated the decision to punt when Matthew Stafford’s ill-advised pass went straight into his arms ... and the veteran cornerback dropped it.

Murray’s reaction says it all:

The Cardinals dropped a potential game-winning pick with 5 seconds left in OT. Kyler Murray and Christian Kirk had the exact same reaction as you did pic.twitter.com/HHW1jm6vP0

— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) September 9, 2019

Yet, that wasn’t even the worst mistake in the Lions-Cardinals game.

1. Why did you call that timeout, Darrell Bevell?

The Lions needed just five yards to pick up a likely game-clinching first down in the fourth quarter. The Cardinals were out of timeouts and the Lions were near midfield. At the very least, the Lions would’ve been able to milk the majority of the remaining clock and give the Cardinals just a few seconds to spare.

So you can understand Matthew Stafford’s frustration when a first down pass to J.D. McKissic was nullified by a timeout. Especially when offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell was the one who called it.

The play clock was running dangerously close to zero, but Stafford’s in his 11th NFL season — let him handle it.

Instead, the Lions followed that timeout with an incomplete pass. The punt that followed was blocked and Kyler Murray led the Cardinals 60 yards for a game-tying touchdown. The game finished as a tie, but it almost certainly would’ve finished as a Lions win if Bevell just put his hands in his pockets.

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 8th December 2019

Top 10

This is a pretty easy week for me, thankfully, as not much has changed... well, apart from pretty much everything... except the top four, of course. “Dance Monkey” by Tones and I is at its tenth consecutive week at #1.

At number-two, we have “Before You Go” by Lewis Capaldi steady at the runner-up spot.

Similarly non-moving off of the debut at number-three is “Own It” by Stormzy featuring Ed Sheeran and Burna Boy. I’d say this could make a viable play for #1 in two weeks with the album release but I have my qualms, mostly because... well, you’ll see.

“Don’t Start Now” by Dua Lipa has not moved at number-four.

Arizona Zervas keeps climbing with “ROXANNE” up two spaces to number-five. As much as I hate to say it, this could clinch the top spot in the foreseeable future.

Billie Eilish is only slowly pushing herself down the chart, with “everything i wanted” down a spot to number-six.

“Memories” byhabm Maorith 5n is aipneone s;aceygw to nnujmberse0even bht who the hell cares

Now here’s the big story: “All I Want for Christmas is You”, the 1994 classic by Mariah Carey, straight off of its re-entry in the Top 40 last week, is up a whopping 26 spaces, probably the largest increase we’ve seen in months. It’s getting the #1, I’m guaranteeing it, in both the UK and US. It has virtually no competition. It’s getting there.

“South of the Border” by Ed Sheeran featuring Camila Cabello and Cardi B isn’t moving at number-nine.

At #10, we have “Heartless” by the Weeknd, a debut in the top 10 that I honestly expected to be higher, but nonetheless, it’s here and I’ll talk more about it later, but it’s the Weeknd’s 21st UK Top 40 hit and his eighth top 10.

Climbers

As I expected, there are no climbers to speak of here. You’ll see why.

Fallers

Well, here’s our first of three big lists to cover in this episode, as we have 14 fallers within the Top 40. Alright, let’s blast through them all: “Bruises” by Lewis Capaldi and “Down Like That” by KSI with Rick Ross, Lil Baby and S-X, both in the top 10 last week, are down five and seven spaces respectively to #11 and #17. “Good as Hell” by Lizzo isn’t far off, down seven spots to #19, and “Netflix & Chill” by Fredo is down five positions to #24... You know what, I’m typing too many words and too little numbers, here we go: “Turn Me On” by Riton, Oliver Heldens and Vula is down eight to #25, “Professor X” by Dave is down five to #27, “Must Be” by J Hus is down eight to #28, “Lights Up” by Harry Styles is down 14 to #29, “HIGHEST IN THE ROOM” by Travis Scott is down seven to #30 and “Ride It” by Regard featuring Jay Sean is down six to #31 – that’s five consecutive fallers. “Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi is down eight to #34, “New Dior” by DigDat and D-Block Europe is down nine to #35 off of the debut last week, “Don’t Rush” by Young T & Bugsey with Headie One is down eight to #37, and finally, “Nice to Meet Ya” by Niall Horan is at #38, down 16 spaces from last week. The sad thing is that I think most if not all of these songs, excluding “Bruises” and “Down Like That”, have been hit by the Christmas explosion and prematurely lost their chart runs, which is kind of sad – I don’t see these tracks rebounding anytime soon.

Dropouts & Returning Entries

Now for our second list of 12 drop-outs, which is only slightly less than the last list. Don’t worry, these lists do get increasingly smaller... or decreasingly bigger, however you want to phrase it. Out from #27 is “Orphans” by Coldplay, “Watermelon Sugar” by Harry Styles is out from #28 (It’ll rebound due to the album release in the next two weeks), “God is a Dancer” by Tiesto and Mabel is out from #30, “Loyal” by PARTYNEXTDOOR and Drake is out from #31, “Liar” by Camila Cabello is out from #32 (It’ll rebound next week if nothing goes awry, although she has suffered a serious sophomore slump), “Gangsta” by Darkoo and One Acen is out from #33, “French Kisses” by ZieZie and Aitch is out off of the debut from #34, “Circles” by Post Malone is finally out from #37 and “Better Half of Me” by Tom Walker is out from #38. I don’t see many of these rebounding, although the releases of sophomore albums Fine Line and Romance could seriously help out Harry and Camila, and “Gangsta” and “French Kisses” seem like they could rise later on.

Edit: I forgot to note that “Can’t Fight This Feeling” by Bastille and the London Contemporary Orchestra is out from #39.

IT’S CHRISTMAS INNIT

Now for our final list, and our shortest, with only seven entries, although I will also recite the year they were produced just to show how insane these returns are every year. “Step into Christmas” by Elton John, from 1973, is back at #39, “Santa Tell Me” by Ariana Grande, from 2014, is back at #33, “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” by Michael Bublé, from 2011, is back at #32, “Merry Christmas Everyone” by Shakin’ Stevens, from 1985, is back at #26, “Do They Know it’s Christmas?” by Band Aid, from 1984, is back at #23, “Fairytale of New York” by The Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl, from 1987, is back at #22, and “Last Christmas” by Wham!, also from 1984, is back at #13. Rest in peace to George Michael (Who actually contributed to two songs here), Kirsty MacColl and Rick Parfitt.

NEW ARRIVALS

#40 – “Falling” – Trevor Daniel

Produced by KC Supreme, Taz Taylor and Charlie Handsome – Peaked at #3 in Latvia and #41 in the US

I have no introduction for this. It’s just one of these TikTok songs and it’s produced by the new crop of trap-rap Internet Money-type guys. I don’t care for Lil Tecca or most of the crop surrounding him, so I doubt I’ll like this. This is Trevor Daniel’s first UK Top 40 hit and yeah, surprise, surprise, it’s not great. The bland guitar pick-up is good enough, but Trevor Daniel cannot sing and makes no effort to convince you that he can. The distorted sub-bass is just odd and honestly way too menacing and dark for a break-up song that paints itself not as a kiss-off, but more like a “Thank God I found someone else” song, so why isn’t this happier? The trap percussion is an FL Studio loop, and his delivery and cadence is mopey and pathetic. Everything here just feels painfully amateur, almost offensively so. This might be a lot worse than I’m giving off with my more apathetic tone here, but this is underdeveloped with a singular verse that somehow stretches out to nearly three minutes due to an overlong chorus. Yeah, no, I can’t stand this. Next.

#14 – “River” – Ellie Goulding

We’ve seen this before with Katy Perry’s “Cozy Little Christmas” last year. A week before the real Christmas kick-in, a new, mediocre Christmas-related song enters for the first time at an alarmingly high position by an increasingly irrelevant female pop star, that is exclusive to Amazon music for no other reason other than to bump sales and chart success, falsely implying that this song is successful. In the r/popheads thread about this chart, people upvoted a comment saying they didn’t even know Ellie Goulding had released anything – and I didn’t either, because it’s not on Spotify, Apple or even freaking TIDAL. It’s just on Amazon music, which is so odd to me but that is why I don’t have production info. No-one on Genius has bothered to download Goulding’s cover of a 1971 Joni Mitchell deep cut (I’m sure they just copy-pasted the original lyrics) to check the songwriting credits. The Wikipedia page for the song doesn’t have a separate section for Goulding’s version, and they did for the John Lewis advert rendition of “Can’t Fight This Feeling” that Bastille made with the London Contemporary Orchestra, a song that I forgot to even note myself until I realised it dropped out this week. In fact, I am protesting this song’s chart placement. Okay, that’s a bit far, but I’m not reviewing it, even if I could easily take a peep at a leaked YouTube re-upload. If it’s not on Spotify, it’s not on REVIEWING THE CHARTS.

#12 – “Blinding Lights” – The Weeknd

Produced by The Weeknd, Max Martin and Oscar Holter – Peaked at #3 in Lithuania and #11 in the US

It’s the Weeknd’s 22nd UK Top 40 hit: the double A-side with “Heartless” was released oddly, with “Blinding Lights” here being released days after and about a week after, was finally accompanied by a music video that’s really just an advertisement for Mercedes-Benz vehicles. Neither single got to experience their best possible tracking week in full, but nonetheless, both are still pretty high because it’s the Weeknd, and I’m actually somewhat excited for this. I’ve heard that it interpolates A-ha’s cheesy 80s synthpop classic “Take on Me”, and it wouldn’t be the first rendition I’ve heard of the song in 2019. That would be Weezer’s hilarious cover on both the Jimmy Fallon show (Where they played it with kids’ toys) and their “Teal Album”. Sorry, I bring Weezer up too much. Is the song good? Hell, yes. It starts with an overwhelming wave of ominous distortion before retro 80s synths quickly come in and an iconic, reverb-heavy drum pattern comes in that sounds awfully familiar – it’s probably also from “Take on Me”. The synth riff, as typical with 1980s synthpop, is hilariously grandiose and egregious, but the Weeknd kills it here as well, not letting the instrumental or even the freaking bongos playing during the verse shine over him or put him off. He blends in with the airy synth painting in the chorus, and it is gorgeous, it really is. I wish this was a tad catchier but that definitely will be a possibility for it to grow on me later on (Which hopefully it does, it’s already perfectly qualified for my best of 2020 list). The Weeknd’s vocals on the bridge are oddly powerful, and that last moment in the penultimate chorus where there is this epic beeping synth that rises until the synth riff drops once again is awesome. The pre-chorus is probably my favourite part, though, especially when the synths cut out for it to just be the Weeknd over the drums, right before the chorus kicks in. I love this so much, unexpectedly so, and I’m so glad it charted so high. I hope it survives the Christmas songs, though.

#10 – “Heartless” – The Weeknd

Produced by The Weeknd, Metro Boomin, Dre Moon and Illangelo – Peaked at #1 in the US

If “Blinding Lights” was the “pop” single, this is the “R&B” single. It’s very much like the Weeknd to release two singles harboured towards two different demographics and two different radio formats, and for both of them to be smash hits, although dropping them at the same time is a tad overwhelming. I can skip the pre-amble as I’ve already done that at the start of the episode, so does it deserve its (Likely single) chart-topping week on the Billboard Hot 100? Well, yeah, I’d say so definitely, this is pretty cool, although not nearly as good as “Blinding Lights” or really any of his songs by now. This really is only decent-tier Weeknd but, man, this guy’s too good. Metro Boomin is one of my favourite hip-hop producers, and he definitely makes his presence known here, with the watery synths in the intro being abruptly drowned out by massive 808 bass and a skittering trap pattern, as well as the Weeknd whispering “Sheesh” for whatever reason. Weeknd uses a very typical delivery for him here, one I’ve heard on his other massive #1 hits, “The Hills” and “Starboy”, but he still sounds charismatic as all hell, and rides the beat incredibly well, especially when those drum hits come in before pounding back into the groovy trap beat. Weeknd plays more into his cocaine-addict sex god persona here, but is pretty thorough and honestly kind of funny here (Despite sounding checked-out in the chorus’ whiny falsetto), as he’s “running through the [women] like a dog pound” and getting so much of said [women] that it’s falling out of his pockets... although he definitely doesn’t just glamorise the sour rockstar lifestyle, in fact he predicts himself to be jumping the shark in seven years (Or, alternatively, says he has already jumped the shark within his seven-year-long career). On both of these songs, however, I do feel that while they don’t run too long, they don’t really have that effective of a climax, even if both the final choruses are epic (This one going for a distorted, cluttered vocal samples to build up the dark sonic atmosphere replacing a plundering bass), and the bridges are kind of unnecessary. I’m not complaining that these songs exist though, they’re both pretty good at least. Welcome back, Abel, we missed you.

Conclusion

Best of the Week is going to the Weeknd for both “Heartless” and ESPECIALLY “Blinding Lights”, and Worst of the Week goes to Trevor Daniel for “Falling”. We’ll see next week a large amount of Christmas nonsense coming in once again, as well as the impacts of a certain unfortunate circumstance I’ve said my peace on with Twitter @cactusinthebank, which you can follow for more musical ramblings. See you next week.

[flauntpage]

Your Friday Morning Roundup

Game 2 started out well for the Sixers.

They led by 22 points midway through the second quarter. They were hitting shots and playing good defense.

But like they have for most of the season when they had a big lead against good teams, they gave it back. It was the fifth 20-point lead they blew this season, the most in 20 years. Boston went on a 25-8 run to end the first half. And despite a small fourth quarter lead, Boston exploded on offense en route to a 108-103 win to take a 2-0 series lead.

The obvious negative on the night was Ben Simmons. He scored a single point and missed all four of his shots. Simmons has been consistent for the entire season, and this was the worst he’s played this year. It was a rookie moment for a rookie. We just wish it happened in the regular season.

JJ Redick led the way with 23 points and hit 5 shots from three-point land. Robert Covington played fantastic with 22 points and four three’s with a pair of steals and blocks. Joel Embiid had a double-double with 20 points and 14 rebounds.

Make no mistake, this was a much better overall performance than in Game 1. The Sixers hit 13 of their 3-point attempts, compared to just five on Monday. Boston however still hit nearly 50% of their 3s. They also got hot at the right time, when the Sixers burned out. But this team still needs work.

And we still didn’t see Markelle Fultz. Dr. J thinks the team should’ve drafted Jayson Tatum instead. Is he right or just the most opportunistic told-you-so-er of ever?

The series shifts home Saturday at 5 PM on ESPN. The home environment may be something the team needs. Meek Mill will probably be there again. A win at home can potentially shift the momentum of the series, but they have to beat the Celtics first. That’s been the hard part for this team this season.

The Roundup:

Defensive tackle Tim Jernigan underwent surgery for a herniated disc. We knew that. He’s gonna miss 4-6 months. We didn’t know that. And the team restructured his deal and took away his guaranteed money. So that Haloti Ngata signing looks good right now.

Doug Pederson got rewarded with the team picking up his fifth-year option. He’s signed through 2020.

The rest of the team got their Super Bowl game balls.

Could Avonte Maddox become the team’s next slot corner?

Carlos Santana isn’t too worried about his slow start, and neither is Gabe Kapler. In fact, Santana thinks he’ll rebound sooner than later.

“I know I’ve struggled this month, but this is not new for me,” Santana said. “My numbers, I finish strong. Check back in September.”

The Phillies made the right move in signing Jake Arrieta over Lance Lynn and Alex Cobb:

It turns out the Phils were right on both counts. A month into the season, Lynn has been a disaster with the Twins, posting an 8.37 ERA and allowing 50 baserunners in 23⅔ innings. Cobb has been even worse, allowing 22 runs and 37 hits in 17⅔ innings with the Orioles. The duo has a combined 8.93 ERA, and Minnesota and Baltimore are 0-9 in the nine starts Lynn and Cobb have made.

The Twins are on the hook for only this year with Lynn ($12 million), so it won’t be a crippling long-term move.

Cobb is a different story. He’s in the first of a four-year, $57 million contract for an Orioles team that rarely spends money and already looks destined for mid-July selling. A month into Cobb’s contract, the O’s have to be regretting it.

Hey remember that Dylan Cozens guy? He’s still in Triple-A. Will he ever made an appearance in the big leagues?

The Phils have a weekend series in DC against the Nationals this weekend. Nick Pivetta will take the mound tonight at 7:05 PM on NBC Sports Philadelphia.

In only two seasons, Travis Konecny has matured to becoming a big part of the team’s offense.

“He’s a big part of the future of this organization,” Couturier said. “He’s got a lot of skill, a lot of speed. He can change the game himself. He’s one of those players that has that ability. I think as a young guy, he learned a lot this year. At the end of the year, he was more of a responsible player. He was taking better care of the puck and doing the right decisions.”

By the end of the season, though, Konecny found himself off the top unit. Not because of his play but rather that Dave Hakstol wanted to spread the wealth. Hakstol moved Konecny to the third line with Valtteri Filppula and Wayne Simmonds during the Flyers’ 5-4 loss to the Islanders on April 3, and Konecny remained away from Giroux and Couturier in the playoffs.

Konecny said his time on the first line gave him the confidence to try things he wouldn’t have before, and that remained when he was moved away from Couturier and Giroux.

“When he got some confidence, he started being a very dangerous player,” Giroux said. “He’s dynamic, beats guys 1-on-1, makes plays. He just matured. The immature player that had a little turnover or whatever it was, it was out of his game at the end of the year.”

Listen to the latest episode of Snow the Goalie!

Dallas is not only bad in athletic sports, but also in e-sports!

In other sports news, the Cleveland Cavaliers took a 2-0 series lead over the Raptors with a 128-110 win.

In the Stanley Cup playoffs, Pittsburgh and Nashville won their respective Game 4 matchups to even their series at two games each.

David Fizdale will become the next head coach of the New York Knicks.

The Falcons signed quarterback Matt Ryan to a five-year, $150 million deal, with $100 million guaranteed. He’ll be the first ever player to make $30 million a year.

The Yankees and Red Sox will play two games in London next June. Boston will be the home team for each. I hate this idea.

There was a college lacrosse fight last night:

Here’s that @jhumenslacrosse–@OhioState_MLAX fight from earlier in the fourth quarter @College_Crosse pic.twitter.com/wVvsTXmV99

— Chris Jastrzembski (@CFJastrzembski) May 4, 2018

How many players involved in that fight do you think have dads as lawyers? Over/under is at 5.

Legendary former Islanders GM Bill Torrey passed away at the age of 83.

The Carolina Hurricanes traded forward Marcus Kruger to the Arizona Coyotes for Jordan Martinook.

In the news, Meek Mill is pushing for criminal justice reform.

A man posed as a fake DJ and talked to students at a Philadelphia school.

Philly’s ‘Iron Chef’ Jose Garces has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is selling his empire to a Louisiana company.

A volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island (named Hawaii) has erupted.

There won’t be a Nobel Prize in Literature this year. There’s a sexual and financial scandal involving the organization that chooses the winner.

Your Friday Morning Roundup published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

[buddyrabrahams]

15 biggest disappointments of NFL Week 8

Week 8 started on Thursday night with a blowout win for the Baltimore Ravens. The rest of the week produced games that were closer, with the Houston-Seattle game delivering a particularly awesome ending. The Jaguars had the week off, which means at least one quarterback was spared an embarrassing game. But between special teams, poor rushing attacks, and some quarterbacks, there were plenty of disappointments in the week.

Here’s a look at the biggest disappointments of Week 8.

Detroit Lions’ red zone offense

The Detroit Lions looked incredible on Sunday night against the Pittsburgh Steelers … as long as you don’t count what happened in the red zone. Their offense simply could not deliver in the red zone, and that cost them the game. They took five trips to the red zone and came away with only nine points. They failed to score a touchdown, settled for three field goals, and turned the ball over on downs twice.

They had a first-and-goal from the 10 in the second quarter and ended up kicking a 37-yard field goal. They had a 1st-and-10 from the 16 before halftime and kicked a 34-yard field goal. In the third quarter, they had a 2nd-and-goal from the 1 and got stopped three plays in a row and turned it over on downs. Then they gave up a 98-yard touchdown pass. Then for the second possession in a row they got a 1st-and-goal at the 4 and took the ball to the 1, but this time they took the field goal. After going for the field goal that time, they were down 20-15 on their next trip to the red zone. They were forced to go for it on 4th-and-7 from the 8 and turned it over on downs again.

Detroit’s defense kept them in the game. The red zone offense failed them badly.

Jameis Winston, QB, Buccaneers

Winston would probably be near the top of any list of disappointments of the season, as the third-year quarterback is still making mistakes and failing to correct them despite being surrounded by plenty of weapons. On Sunday, Winston threw two more interceptions, lost a fumble, threw the ball all over the place, and failed to get the ball into the end zone. His Bucs fell to 2-5 with their home loss to the Carolina Panthers. Perhaps his lingering shoulder issue has something to do with his poor performance, but if that’s the case, he shouldn’t be playing — he was not good on Sunday.

Danny Amendola, WR, Patriots

It was widely expected that, with Wes Welker out for the season, Tom Brady would look to Amendola frequently to keep the passing game moving. That has not been the case for the last three weeks, and Amendola’s numbers did not improve much on Sunday against the Chargers.

Just when you thought he couldn’t do much worse than the 17 yards he racked up a week ago, Amendola had just two catches for 14 yards on six targets. For whatever reason, Amendola hasn’t been able to get it done, and it’s clear and understandable that Brady prefers to look to Rob Gronkowski at this point, and Rex Burkhead now that he’s available.

C.J. Beathard, QB, 49ers

Well, we already knew that Brian Hoyer was not the long-term answer for San Francisco at the quarterback position. On the evidence, neither is Beathard. He completed only 17 of his 36 passes, managed just 167 yards, turned the ball over twice, and looked lost and aimless for much of the afternoon. Yes, the Philadelphia Eagles are good, but so many of Beathard’s issues were just down to him not being good enough. There’s no shame in the 49ers trying to see what they have in the rookie quarterback, but at the moment, the answer seems to be “not much.”

Cam Newton, QB, Panthers

Carolina may have won this game, but Newton continues to look nothing like the quarterback who electrified the NFL two seasons ago. He offered little in the way of a deep threat and didn’t show off an accurate arm all day, turning the ball over once on an interception. It’s debatable how much of that can be attributed to his poor receiving options.

Newton can win games for the Panthers, and his legs will ensure that he’s always a threat. But doing a little comparison, what’s the difference between Newton and Tyrod Taylor right now? In fact, is there any evidence that he’s as good as the Buffalo quarterback?

Oakland Raiders’ offense

Oakland’s defense gave up 34 points, but they did everything they could to keep their team in the game as long as they could manage. It was the Raiders’ offense that never took advantage.

Oakland turned the ball over four times, including two Derek Carr interceptions and a fumble that the Buffalo Bills scooped up and turned into six points. The Raiders gained yards, they got in position, but converted only three of their ten third down opportunities and couldn’t hang on to the football.

Travis Benjamin, WR, Chargers

Travis Benjamin actually had a good game receiving in Week 8. His problem came on a punt return in the first half against the Patriots. Benjamin was drifting back and towards the sideline to try and catch a punt, but he was unable to haul it in cleanly around the 11-yard line. He scooped the ball up, tried to reverse field by running the opposite direction, but he kept going backwards as he tried to outrun the Patriots’ punt coverage team. That plan did not work out. He was tackled in the end zone for a safety, giving the Patriots a 9-7 lead.

As if that weren’t enough, the Chargers had to do a free kick afterwards, and the Patriots ended up with great field position at their 43. They ended up with a field goal. Not only did the Chargers lose two points and a possession because of Benjamin’s blunder, but the Pats ended up adding a field goal thanks to their excellent starting position. That blunder essentially cost the Chargers five points.

As a receiver, Benjamin at least was productive and led his team with five catches for 64 yards and a touchdown.

Mitch Trubisky, QB, Bears

Mitch Trubisky continues to deliver very little in the statistical department for the Chicago Bears. The rookie quarterback was 14 of 32 for 164 yards, no touchdowns, and an interception in a 20-12 loss to the Saints. To be fair, he should have had one touchdown pass, but the officials overturned a call on Zach Miller’s catch. He did rush for 53 yards, including a big 46-yard scramble to set up a touchdown that made it a one-score game in the fourth quarter.

Trubisky’s numbers this season have been very pedestrian. His 14 completions and 164 yards were both career-high marks, though his 43.8 completion percentage was a low for him. Maybe his passing numbers will get better when he has better options, but for now, they’re less than impressive.

Mark Ingram, RB, Saints

The real reason Sunday’s Bears-Saints game became as close as it was is because Mark Ingram fumbled twice in the fourth quarter. Ingram’s numbers for the game looked solid — he had 18 carries for 75 yards and a touchdown. But the two fumbles made the game way too close. One fumble came at the Chicago 25 with under eight minutes left. Then he lost another fumble, the second one coming at the Chicago 26 with under three minutes left. New Orleans would have likely won by a much larger margin than 20-12 had Ingram not lost two fumbles.

“I was super whack today. My teammates savage af n bail me out! I WILL bounce back! I owe my team and Nola!” Ingram tweeted after the game.

Ingram also acknowledged that he “sucked” in the game, though he vowed to bounce back.

Jeremy Kerley, WR, Jets

Much like Travis Benjamin, Jeremy Kerley lands on this list for his special teams play. Kerley made a big blunder late in the game when he muffed a punt in the fourth quarter. Kerley’s Jets were down 22-20 with 6:53 left when Atlanta punted from their 32 on a 4th-and-3 play. Kerley muffed the punt, which was recovered by the Falcons at the 13. Atlanta barely moved the ball, but thanks to their field position, ended up with a field goal to take a 25-20 lead. The Jets got the ball back twice and didn’t do much with it, but things might have been different had they known they only needed a field goal to win, rather than a touchdown.

Cincinnati Bengals’ running backs

Are the Cincinnati Bengals ever going to get some production out of the running back position this season? The Bengals’ ground game has been a total zero this season. They entered Week 8 28th in the league with just 81.8 rushing yards per game, 30th with 3.3 yards per attempt, and 31st with just one rushing touchdown. They did nothing to improve on those stats. Against the Colts, Cincy rushed 21 times for 58 yards. They averaged only 2.8 yards per carry, with a long of 14. Rookie second-round pick Joe Mixon rushed 11 times for a paltry 18 yards. You can point to the pathetic rushing attack as a big reason for the team’s all-around issues.

Stefon Diggs, WR, Vikings

Anyone who was expecting Diggs to return from his groin injury and turn in a big performance will have come away disappointed. The receiver was targeted six times and hauled in four of them, but managed only 27 yards, failing to impact the game much against the Cleveland Browns. He’ll get a pass for this one — he had, after all, missed the last two weeks with his injury — but much more will be expected of him going forward as he gets back up to the speed of things.

James Bradberry, CB, Panthers

James Bradberry has developed into one of the best cornerbacks in the league, but he wasn’t at his best on Sunday. Facing Tampa Bay standout Mike Evans, Bradberry didn’t hold up great in coverage in the second half of the game. Pro Football Focus had him down for allowing six catches for 79 yards. He also was beat by Evans on a deep ball but was lucky Jameis Winston missed his man. Bradberry recorded six tackles and one pass defensed in the game.

Bob McNair, owner, Houston Texans

McNair revived the national anthem protests on a grand scale with some extremely hurtful words. During the league’s meetings about the national anthem protests, McNair reportedly said, “We can’t have the inmates running the prison.” The “inmates running the asylum” figure of speech is a common one, but the comparison of players to inmates greatly offended many, especially his own players. One star player left practice on Friday upset over the comments, while the majority of the team’s players kneeled during the national anthem on Sunday before the game with the Seahawks. McNair apologized for his comments, but one player reportedly did not feel the apology was persuasive. It’s the general sentiment of viewing players who are for the most part great athletes, good citizens, good community and family members, as “inmates” that was so troubling.

Miami Dolphins’ offense

You have to be doing something pretty bad for your head coach to start calling you out publicly, going so far as to say that the veterans aren’t studying the playbook enough. The 40-0 shutout by the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday night has to be the low point of coach Adam Gase’s tenure, and there’s plenty of blame to go around.

Jay Ajayi only mustered 23 yards on 13 carries. Backup quarterback Matt Moore turned the ball over twice. Jarvis Landry only put together 33 yards receiving. Big names aren’t performing, and something is going to have to change; it’s not like they were doing significantly better with Jay Cutler healthy.

from Larry Brown Sports http://ift.tt/2xzO4uj

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 11th November 2018

Okay, I am so sorry this is so late, but honestly I don’t think the Sunday routine works all that well with me personally, so I just moved to my alternate date for maybe the next two weeks. I’m thinking of going for Saturday or Friday with alternate dates on Thursday for next year? We’ll see.

Top 10

And, of course... “thank u, next” by Ariana Grande debuts at number-one. I believe this is the fourth #1 debut this year, two of which were Drake, of course, and the other was “Funky Friday” by Dave and Fredo. We’ll talk more about it later, but for now, this is Grande’s sixteenth top 40 hit in the UK, her ninth top 10 and her third #1. Congratulations, Ari.

“Shallow” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, last week’s #1, is of course down a spot to number-two.

As is “Woman Like Me” by Little Mix featuring Nicki Minaj at number-three, kept in the top five by its X Factor performance.

Oh, and so is “Promises” by Calvin Harris and Sam Smith, now at number-four.

“Let You Love Me” by Rita Ora, on the other hand, is one space above its placement last week, at number-five.

Out of the top five now, we have “Funky Friday” by Dave and Fredo in freefall now, down two spots to number-six.

Up a whopping 11 spaces this week is “Thursday” by Jess Glynne, as I expected, due to an Ed Sheeran acoustic remix and now a video that may just push this one up to the top spot. As of now, it’s her eleventh top 10 and matches the peak of previous single, “All I Am”.

The ever-so-fascinating song “ZEZE” by Kodak Black, Travis Scott and Offset of the Migos is down a spot to number-eight... full-length review of that coming soon, by the way.

“Without Me” by Halsey is up 13 spots to number-nine due to the Colin Tilley-directed video, and becomes what I believe to be only her third top 10 (two of which are number-ones, funnily enough).

Finally, Post Malone and Swae Lee’s “Sunflower” returns to the top 10 after a one-spot increase, rounding off the top 10 (which is actually pretty good this week) with a fantastic song.

Climbers

Outside of the top 10, there’s pretty much nothing here I should bother with. Yeah, those are the only notable jumps this week, other than “Ruin My Life” by Zara Larsson bouncing up six spots to #22, I guess, but it’s not like that song’s any interesting.

Fallers

Now this is a very different story. There were so many fallers this week, although not many of them really have any value. I mean, sure, there were basically hundreds of one, two or three-space fallers, but who cares about them? Let’s focus on the fortunate five-space fall for “Arms Around You” by XXXTENTACION, Lil Pump, Swae Lee, Maluma and with honourable credit to Rio Santana, now sent back to #19. Same fall goes for “Better” by Khalid too (although that song is much better, for the record), now at #24, right next to the big story here – “Happier” by Marshmello and Bastille plummeting 18 spaces to #23, because I’m pretty sure it’s time for its streaming cuts, which affected Dynoro and Gigi D’Agostino’s “In My Mind” to a much heavier extent, because, Jesus Christ. It’s down freaking 32 positions to #40. This could have easily dropped off straight from number-eight and that’s pretty crazy. Now, rapid-fire: “Eastside” by benny blanco, Halsey and Khalid is down five to #26 while “MIA” by Bad Bunny and Drake and “Shotgun” by George Ezra are down four to #29 and #30, “Ay Caramba” by Stay Flee Get Lizzy with Fredo and Young T & Bugsey is down six to #38, and, to my dismay, “when the party’s over” by Billie Eilish also falls down five spaces to #39.

Dropouts

Right before the new arrivals, might as well mention the dropouts here. “Girls Like You” by Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B is out from #31 (the beast has yet to be slain in the US, it seems), “Baby Shark” by Pinkfong has dropped out again from #35, “Body” by Loud Luxury and brando has exited from #37 after having a pretty good run, “Venom” by Eminem has been bit down to the bottom of the charts as it drops out from #38, “Kiss and Make Up” by Dua Lipa featuring BLACKPINK has fallen out from #39, and finally “I Want You to Freak” by Rak-Su is out from #40.

NEW ARRIVALS

#37 – “A Million Dreams” (Reimagined) – P!nk

Apparently there’s been a “Reimagined” edition of the soundtrack for the musical The Greatest Showman (that has just had his songs finally leave the top 40 after months of “This is Me” dominating), adding covers of the musical’s songs by Kelly Clarkson and Panic! at the Disco. This is the second time I’ve had to cover this song on this show, since the original version also charted, and my opinions haven’t really changed. This is P!nk’s thirty-second UK Top 40 hit, and easily one of her least memorable. Everything feels quite plastic in the production here other than that pretty nice guitar melody but it’s nothing new and nothing all that interesting, with the strings adding some extra melodrama to a pretty-sounding but otherwise kind of useless, typical piano ballad. P!nk has some real power to her voice like she always has, and that pounding percussion is pretty effective in giving it that extra “oomph” but I’m not feeling it here. This shouldn’t be a surprise to any of you if you’ve seen other episodes; I just don’t like ballads as much as I really wish I could, I guess. Oh, and this is way too long. After less than two minutes, I get bored – and this is more than double that.

#35 – “I Found You” – benny blanco and Calvin Harris

benny blanco seems to be striving for a solo lead artist career, and his first venture after the massive success of “Eastside” is to pander to the UK crowd he’s been doing so well with, by collaborating with one of our favourite Scottish DJs, Calvin Harris, and disregarding that oddly eerie cover art, this is benny blanco’s second UK Top 40 hit as a credited artist and Calvin Harris’ thirty-third, and it’s pretty awesome. It starts with that guitar or organ riff repeating with Calvin Harris actually performing vocals (yeah, he can’t sing but it works here) in a deeper register, creating an odd atmosphere before it’s immediately retconned for some brighter synths and disco-inflected deep house grooves, because that’s the road Calvin’s been going down lately, but it still keeps me on-edge with those haunting background vocals in the hook, and that pitched-down vocal fragment that repeats is such a taunting melody. Man, and that riff returning in the bridge with only the backing vocals is pretty creepy as well. Yeah, absolutely nothing works the way it should here, and that is just perfect – nothing goes as plan and it still bangs. Nice one, guys. I recommend this... for all the wrong reasons.

#33 – “Baby” – Clean Bandit featuring Marina and Luis Fonsi

What a strange combination. Reggaeton singer and accidental meme-pioneer Luis Fonsi performing on a duet with synthpop critic’s favourite Marina Diamandis, this being her first single without “the Diamonds” (who didn’t exactly exist in the first place, it’s always been a solo venture) over a beat from orchestral-EDM fusion outfit Clean Bandit? I mean, I’m up for it, but this wasn’t expected to say the least... although looking into it Marina’s collaborated with the group before so maybe it’s not too out of left field. Anyways, this is Clean Bandit’s eleventh, Marina’s sixth and Luis Fonsi’s second (after “Despacito”) UK Top 40 hit, and it’s okay. This instrumental feels pretty cluttered with a 808 bassline on coke desperately following the slick guitar strumming, but they can definitely keep up with Marina’s beautiful voice on the track, as well as Luis’ pretty good (albeit shorter) performance, with the hats in the drop being a nice addition, but then there’s another drop for some reason, and it’s completely different, adding horns and just becoming more Latin-inflected because the rest of the song isn’t at all, really, just relying on the guitars and Fonsi to handle that crossover appeal. When Marina and Fonsi start singing completely different melodies on top of each other while the drop is still playing, I feel like way too much is going on, and it’s not mixed in an interesting or well enough way for me to forgive. This isn’t for me, but I can see other people liking it, it’s just a bit too messy for me.

#27 – “Empty Space” – James Arthur

I don’t like this guy at all. His voice is unrecognisably familiar at best and aggravatingly incomprehensible at worse. I have never heard a single song I can stand from the guy, especially after his “comeback”, in fact I’d argue he’s just gotten so much worse with songs like “Naked”, “Sun Comes Up” and especially “Say You Won’t Let Go” – oh, God, that one’s unlistenable. Anyways, this is the X Factor series nine winner’s ninth UK Top 40 hit, and it’s probably not his worst one, but it might as well be because it is still pretty terrible. James Arthur sounds bored like always over the pseudo-aggressive indie-ish production that starts the song off until we have a bit of trap percussion he rides well, right until it abruptly switches to him belting with bottle caps up his nose for unlistenable pre-choruses, especially since nothing drowns him out. It’s just him, his guitar and those only – and even when the strings and percussion comes in, it just gets worse because the drums aren’t fitting – this isn’t a motivational track. That chorus with Arthur nasally repeating “space” with tiny little chipmunk vocals placed in there at somehow exactly the worst moments. Oh, and that final drop with all the four vocal tracks going on at once, none of them even half-decent, is audio torture, especially with all the synth noise that absorbs the trash and just regurgitates it with all the spit still lingering all over it. What an excruciating three and a half minutes.

#16 – “Polaroid” – Jonas Blue featuring Liam Payne and Lennon Stella

Jonas Blue’s been here before – he’s a mainstream EDM producer who’s made songs I love like “Mama” and songs I hate with a burning passion like “Rise” with Jack & Jack, Liam Payne we haven’t really talked about but he’s one of the One Direction boys that you all know and love. Lennon Stella is a bit of a different story. She’s a 19-year-old actress who shaped her career out of the TV show Nashville – I’ve never seen it and can’t comment, but it involved a lot of singing and country music from what I can gather, so it’s understandable that it should be in her best interests to start a pop music career, and she did so with a couple singles here and there, but this is her first ever UK Top 40 hit (congratulations), Jonas Blue’s seventh and Liam Payne’s sixth as a solo artist. It’s here because of an X Factor performance, and it also sucks mostly because it’s nothing to write home about, ironically for a song named after memorable photographs. It starts with those fake finger-snaps, as background laughter and chatter fills up the mix, before an abrupt semi-drop that just kind of clouds the song with synth noise as Liam Payne uses what seems to be his lower register (proving that he just pretty much can’t sing, can he?). Oh, and the actual drop is not catchy at all, like it’s so forgettable. Lennon Stella doesn’t perform very well at all either, but yeah, the chorus isn’t a new or memorable melody, and while I like that it’s an EDM song that focuses less on the drop as its source of climax, it makes the song miss the point – and doing so, it also misses the mark.

#1 – “thank u, next” – Ariana Grande

And finally, it’s the big one – Ariana Grande’s new single where she rattles off her ex-boyfriends and thanks them for what they’ve helped her learn and how they’ve assisted in her growth as a person – in one, very non-descriptive verse, but it’s there nonetheless – and comes to terms with herself as a human, realising she does not need what she perceived as a necessity – to always have a partner. Basically it’s a self-confidence anthem that only Ariana can really relate to specifically. If you twist it around a bit it would apply to you but without any of the names changing, that’s just how it is... and it’s all over a smooth R&B beat. Ari sounds great like always, I don’t even need to comment on that, but when that warbly bass slides in after just a few seconds of just the keys and vocals, that’s just beautiful. The beat throughout is wrapped in silk and just dripping swagger, fitting Ari’s low-key verse delivery and even limiting herself in the chorus where she’s supposed to burst like usual – but nah, she doesn’t all that much. It’s there, but relegated to ad-libs and nothing else, which is good because that catchy-as-all-hell hook could not be delivered better. If I have any issues, it’s that the ending is a rushed, abrupt fade-out which adds so many additional musical elements that could have easily been developed afterwards, and that the lyrics may be a tad too passive so the whole thing comes off as disregarding even keeping to herself and instead still being boy-hungry, especially in the chorus, where the whole “thank you, next” phrase just doesn’t really make sense to me in the context of the song, especially since she implies she’ll be moving onto the next relationship. She does elaborate in the second verse, but it still irks me like all my little nitpicks do. Otherwise, great song.

Conclusion

It’s a middling weak overall, with obvious stand-outs at each end of the spectrum. James Arthur gets Worst of the Week for “Empty Space” as Dishonourable Mention goes to Jonas Blue, Liam Payne and Lennon Stella for “Polaroid”. Best of the Week is obviously going to going to Ariana Grande for “thank u, next”, but she had close competition with the Honourable Mention this week, benny blanco and Calvin Harris, for the wonderfully incompetent “I Found You”. See ya in a few days!

at1 \lsdpr

[junker-town]

Syracuse, Arizona State, and the best teams of one hell of a “This is why we love college football” weekend

A bunch of teams that have been through rough times got to celebrate.

This was a bad week to do something wild. Unless you did it against a top-10 team, it was going to get drowned out.

This also wasn’t a good week to pull off a dramatic comeback. Sorry West Virginia (over Texas Tech), USC (over Utah), Air Force (over UNLV), Appalachian State (over Idaho), etc. There was just too much happening for us to give you guys the attention you deserved.

Team of the Week: Syracuse (def. No. 2 Clemson, 27-24)

This was the week that all of your issues came home to roost. And Clemson most certainly had issues, even if we were too distracted by the Tigers’ glittery résumé to see it. From earlier in the week:

Here’s what S&P+ sees in Clemson:

A team with minimal big-play capability. The Tigers rank a solid 22nd in offensive success rate, but in IsoPPP (which measures the magnitude of one's successful plays), they are just 108th. When you aren't recording a ton of big plays, that means you have to avoid mistakes for eight or 10 plays at a time to score touchdowns. Clemson ranks just 45th in points per scoring opportunity and 41st in passing-downs success rate. Once they fall behind the chains, they are not yet excellent at catching back up.

A team that gives up nearly as many sacks as it makes. Clemson’s defense ranks second in Adjusted Sack Rate, but the offense ranks 111th. Kelly Bryant is getting sacked 8 percent of the time on standard downs (108th) and 12 percent on passing downs (109th).

A team with pretty bad special teams. The Tigers rank 120th in Special Teams S&P+, and it's costing them about a point per game at the moment. They are 119th in punt efficiency, 114th in kick return efficiency, and 106th in field goal efficiency, and they just lost place-kicker Greg Huegel. Special teams can flip a game all by itself, and if it does so in a Clemson game this year, it's probably flipping it to the opponent. Plus, despite extreme defensive efficiency, special teams has led to Clemson ranking just 68th in field position margin.

Clemson had won 14 of its last 16 one-possession games, a rate of clutchitude that simply isn’t maintainable. The Tigers have become incredibly adept at pressing the “Okay, time for a big play” button while blowing teams out as infrequently as possible. Their run game is dreadfully inefficient and reliant on the QB. Special teams really have been awful.

On Friday night in the Carrier Dome, quarterback Kelly Bryant came into the game injured and left with a concussion. He finished with three non-sack carries for four yards. Consequently, the Tigers couldn’t run the ball consistently. They got a 52-yard touchdown from Travis Etienne and a 37-yard run from Tavien Feaster. Their other 19 non-sack carries gained just 54 yards.

Redshirt freshman quarterback Zerrick Cooper was put in an impossible situation and acquitted himself reasonably well (10-for-14 for 88 yards), but Syracuse was able to tee off on him because of Clemson’s rushing problems. He was sacked three times and could only move Clemson more than 35 yards downfield once in five possessions.

Of course, if not for the whole “bad special teams” thing, the Tigers might have survived. But they missed two more field goals — a 34-yarder and a 38-yarder and are now just 4-for-10 on field goals for the season. Greg Huegel was just 2-for-4 before tearing his ACL a while back, but replacement Alex Spence has been worse.

We’re all just a kicker injury away from disaster.

That said, an upset win should be about the conqueror, not the vanquished. This was Dino Babers’ moment, and he seized it. The second-year Syracuse head coach is easily one of college football’s most likable figures, and after last year’s upset of Virginia Tech (and the locker room brilliance that followed), he just sent an even louder message about his own capabilities.

This is about:

Eric Dungey, everybody’s new favorite quarterback, who completed 20 of 32 passes for 278 yards and three touchdowns, leading the Cuse to 27 points and 440 yards on one of the nation’s best defenses.

Steve Ishmael and Eric Phillips, senior receivers who entered the game with 1,204 receiving yards and an opportunity to make a name for themselves against Clemson's sticky DBs. They combined for 10 catches, 167 yards, and two touchdown. And yes, a couple of egregious push-offs, but who's counting?

Chris Slayton and the rest of the Syracuse defensive front, which dominated Clemson’s line at times, forced Tiger running backs to find their yards on the outside, and harassed two quarterbacks.

Syracuse fans. They’ve been through quite a bit. From 1987-2001, the Orange went to 12 bowls and finished in the AP top 15 five times. They produced incredible quarterback play (Don McPherson, Donovan McNabb) and absurd individual talent, from receiver Marvin Harrison to defensive end Dwight Freeney. But after trailing off in Paul Pasqualoni’s final seasons, they bottomed out under Greg Robinson and averaged only 5.6 wins per year in seven seasons under Doug Marrone and Scott Shafer. And technically they’ve only won eight of 19 games under Babers. (Hell, they lost to a pretty bad MTSU just a month ago.)

Friday night was why we all keep watching our teams, why coaches keep working ridiculous hours, and why student-athletes put in ridiculous hours of their own (without the six-digit salaries). You never know when perseverance might pay off, be it in the stands, on the sideline, or on the field.

Change some of the names, and everything I just said could go for fans of the schools below, too. This was a life-affirming weekend of college football.

Other teams of the week:

2. Arizona State (def. No. 5 Washington, 13-7)

Arizona State won 10 games in both 2013 and 2014 under Todd Graham, but as he began losing assistants to other jobs, he began losing a lot more, too. Since a 2-4 start in 2015, the Sun Devils lost 12 of 19, and a rugged schedule — four of their first five opponents were ranked 51st or better in S&P+, as was Saturday’s opponent (and three of the next four as well) — had prevented them from proving any major progress in 2017.

A win over Oregon dropped some hints, though. And on Saturday, against a surprisingly lackluster Washington, ASU made a statement. The Sun Devils scored on three of their first four drives, and a defense that tends to give up some of the biggest big plays in the country, did anything but. Washington gained just 230 yards and scored a single touchdown in a big ASU upset.

3. California (def. No. 8 Washington State, 37-3)

I ranked ASU’s win over UW higher than Cal’s upset of Wazzu simply because I was far more confident in Washington’s ability to avoid such a loss. But make no mistake: Cal looked really, really good on Friday night and helped to make Washington State look really, really bad. The Golden Bears pounced on every single Cougar mistake.

They had lost their last three games by a combined 62 points ... and then they beat a top-10 team by 34. College football!

4. Boston College (def. Louisville, 45-42)

Good gracious.

5. South Alabama (def. Troy, 19-8)

Drowned out in all the cacophonous noise that followed: USA was 1-4 with only a win over Alabama A&M. And the Jaguars took down the team that took down LSU. Kudos.

6. Tulsa (def. Houston, 45-17)

A week ago, Tulane beat Tulsa, 62-24, to move the Golden Hurricane to just 1-5 in 2017. After last season’s breakthrough, they were staring a 3-9 or so season in the face. On Saturday, they stomped 4-1 Houston. Tulane, meanwhile, lost to FIU. College football!

7. Boise State (def. No. 19 SDSU, 31-14)

Like Clemson, SDSU was a team reliant on big, timely plays to disguise some ongoing issues. Like Clemson, the Aztecs got their comeuppance at the hands of a Boise State team ready to look like Boise State again.

8. No. 6 TCU (def. Kansas State, 26-6)

It took a few hours more than normal, thanks to the storms that rolled through the Midlands on Saturday, but in an upset-laden weekend, TCU traveled to Upset Town (aka Manhattan, KS), and handled its damn business.

9. LSU (def. No. 10 Auburn, 27-23)

From “Ed Orgeron is done!” to “Ed Orgeron’s shining moment!” in, what, about an hour? Hour and a half?

10. No. 23 Stanford (def. Oregon, 49-7)

Bryce Love rushed 17 times for 147 yards, and it lowered his season per-carry averages. Since figuring out a way to lose to SDSU, Stanford has looked awfully Stanford-like. Might get that rematch with USC after all.

[junker-town]

7 ways NFL Week 5 was a huge bummer

Major injuries, political stunts, white substance snorting, the Browns Brownsing ... phew, Sunday in the NFL was something else.

The NFL gave us a fair share of fun moments on Sunday, but most of it was overshadowed by what turned out to be a huge bummer of the day. The worst part? All those injuries. Two of the game’s biggest stars — J.J. Watt and Odell Beckham Jr. — were both lost for the season within hours of each other. And, to be perfectly blunt, that stinks like a big ol’ unflushed turd.

For Watt especially, it raises concerns about his playing future. This is the second straight season his season has ended early. Last year, it was a back injury. This year, it’s a “tibial plateau fracture,” or a broken shin bone to those who don’t speak Dr. James Andrews.

Last year in an article for the Players’ Tribune, Watt rattled off all injuries he’s endured since 2015. The list reads like a busy night for an ER staff: one broken hand, staph infection, two torn abs, three torn adductor muscles, one herniated disc (twice). Even though at the time Watt promised that he was “just getting started,” it’s fair to wonder if the 28-year-old will ever reach his three-time Defensive Player of the Year heights again.

Watt hasn’t just been a “once in a generation” player in his career, either. He has made a huge difference off the field, too. It can be easy to make fun of someone who so sincerely lives and breathes football, but Watt even earned his haters’ respect when he raised more than $37 million for Hurricane Harvey relief.

Watt is crushed, as you’d expect:

I can't sugarcoat it, I am devastated. All I want to do is be out there on that field for my teammates and this city. I'm sorry.

— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) October 9, 2017

To make matters worse for Houston, the defense also lost outside linebacker Whitney Mercilus for the season with a torn pectoral.

The Texans still have a shot of contending this season, even while Watt and Mercilus have to watch from the sidelines. But the winless Giants aren’t going anywhere. That doesn’t mean Beckham’s injury isn’t a big deal, though.

Beckham is the NFL’s best showman. He makes catches no one else can, he celebrates touchdowns like no one else can, he earns the stupidest possible criticism like no one else can.

And now he needs surgery on his fractured ankle. Not only does it take away one of the most fun players to watch in the NFL, it could end up costing Beckham millions.

The Giants’ bad luck didn’t end there, though. They lost three other receivers in the game to injuries: Brandon Marshall, Sterling Shepard, and Dwayne Harris. Harris is out for the season with a broken foot, Shepard is day to day with a sprained ankle, and Marshall will likely miss some time:

#NYG bracing for Brandon Marshall to miss multiple games with ankle injury. Yesterday was a day that defies explanation.

— Kimberly Jones (@KimJonesSports) October 9, 2017

Other teams were dealt injury blows, too. The Bills, already dangerously low on healthy receivers, lost their leading pass catcher, tight end Charles Clay, for a month. The Chiefs’ do-it-all tight end Travis Kelce is in concussion protocol, while wide receiver Chris Conley is out for the season with a ruptured Achilles.

To sum it up:

Heartbroken For You Brother. #InjuriesSuck @JJWatt

— TJ Watt (@_TJWatt) October 9, 2017

Yes, Watt the Younger. Injuries DO suck.

Cowboys lost in a gut-punching way to the Packers again

Aaron Rodgers has had the Cowboys’ number over the past few years. In 2015, Dez Bryant’s infamous no-catch allowed the Packers to advance to the NFC Championship. In 2017, the Packers held off the Cowboys’ comeback attempt in the NFC Divisional Round to advance to another NFC Championship.

In Week 5, Dak Prescott and the Cowboys gave Rodgers 1:13 to work with, and Rodgers made the most of it in a way that only he could execute.

The Green Bay drive appeared to be in danger, when Rodgers narrowly escaped David Irving for a first down.

The next play, Rodgers missed Davante Adams in the corner of the end zone. The play after that was the exact same one, and Rodgers went back to Adams for the game-winning touchdown.

That loss stings if you’re a Cowboys fan. It’s never good to lose a close game to a good team at home. But the Packers have their number, and for Rodgers and the Pack to go back to the same exact play says a lot about how good they actually are. It didn’t matter what Dallas was going to do — Green Bay was going to get that touchdown.

Instead of being 3-2 and a game behind Philadelphia for first place in the NFC East, they’re now 2-3, and have to answer questions all week about Jerry Jones’ national anthem comments.

Chris Foerster gets exposed on video snorting a white substance

The Dolphins already had a bad Sunday afternoon thanks to a game so poor by Jay Cutler that fans were chanting “we want [Matt] Moore!” They didn’t know things were going to get even worse.

Sunday night, a video was released on Facebook that showed offensive line coach Chris Foerster snorting a white substance prior to a meeting.

NSFW: Video appears to show Miami Dolphins offensive line coach snorting white substance http://pic.twitter.com/OwKLdq8880

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) October 9, 2017

Both the team and Foerster released statements. Foerster owned up to the video, and said:

“I am resigning from my position with the Miami Dolphins and accept full responsibility for my actions. I want to apologize to the organization and my sole focus is on getting the help that I need with the support of my family and medical professionals.”

Oh, and if those two items weren’t enough, Adam Gase not only had to answer questions about his offensive line coach snorting a white substance, but he also had to answer questions about the team’s national anthem policy.

“We’re out there for the national anthem, we’re standing, if you don’t want to stand, stay in the locker room,” Gase said.

Between Ryan Tannehill getting injured, signing Jay Cutler, Hurricane Irma, Lawrence Timmons going AWOL, and the Foerster video, it’s been a hectic start to the season.

The Browns were the Browns

Five weeks of the 2017 season have come and gone without a single Browns win. Sunday provided their best chance yet, with the Browns welcoming the Jets to Cleveland. Instead, the Browns lost a 17-14 heartbreaker.

DeShone Kizer was benched after completing 8 of 17 passes for 87 yards, a pick, and a costly red zone fumble. Kevin Hogan came into the game and actually got the Browns their first lead of the season. He completed 16 of 19 for 197 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. But it wasn’t enough to get past the Jets, led by former Browns QB Josh McCown, who finally got a win in Cleveland:

Josh McCown: It took me 3 years and 2 teams, but I finally got a win at FirstEnergy. Veteran said that with a big smile of relief. #NYJvsCLE

— Eric Allen (@eallenjets) October 8, 2017

To add insult to injury, it’s not even like the Browns kept a hold on the top draft spot. The 49ers are also sitting at 0-5, but their schedule is weaker. That tiebreaker let San Francisco slide into the top draft position after the 49ers’ loss to the Colts.

Kizer was considered a raw prospect coming out of college, and he’s lived up to that billing. Hue Jackson has a respectable track record of developing quarterbacks, but Kizer looks like needs more time. Jackson isn’t giving him much latitude for his performance, despite a lack of talent around Kizer and his inexperience.

"Kizer is developing, but his job is still to win,” Jackson said after the loss. "That is first and foremost. I didn't think it was going in the right direction. That is why I made the decision to take him out. If that was the case and it was just about development, I would have just left him in.

“It is not about that. It is about winning.”

Myles Garrett is a bright spot the team can build around. Cleveland had three sacks on McCown, and Garrett had two of them.

But the offense looks like the same old Browns that won just one game last season. And there may not be much that they can do to fix it this year.

Big Ben threw FIVE interceptions and the Steelers failed to score a TD

The Steelers have an offense custom-made for NFL Blitz ‘99, but slow starts from Ben Roethlisberger and Le’Veon Bell have them stuck at 3-2 and facing serious questions after a 21-point loss to the Jaguars. Roethlisberger threw a pair of touchdown passes — just to Jacksonville defenders. Three more picks left him mired in one of the worst performances of his long career.

Bell told reporters he thinks the key to fixing the team’s middling offense is a steady diet of runs, but the fifth-year back, fresh off a contract hold-out that kept him from most of training camp, is averaging just 3.6 yards per carry in 2017. In other terms, he’s been roughly as good on the ground as Mike Tolbert this fall.

Three of Roethlisberger’s interceptions were the result of tipped balls or his targets falling down mid-route, so it seems like Sunday’s Ryan Fitzpatrick impression was a one-time performance. However, 42 minutes of trailing the Jaguars was the only thing that snapped a 10-game streak where he failed to break the 300 passing yards plateau. When Antonio Brown is your top wideout, that shouldn’t be a thing.

Eli Manning’s Chargers curse lives on

One of the league’s best low-key curses comes from southern California, where not even a move to Los Angeles could erase the Chargers’ karma debt from Eli Manning’s draft-day desire to ditch them. The franchise drafted the youngest Manning with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2004 NFL Draft, then shipped him to New York in exchange for Philip Rivers, a first- and a third-round pick when he made it clear he didn’t want to play for the Chargers.

Manning has had the chance to face the team that drafted him four times. He’s lost all four, with the latest coming in a Week 5 barnburner that put an end to Los Angeles’s season-opening losing streak. Rivers led his Chargers back from a five-point fourth-quarter deficit, but the biggest factor in New York’s home loss was Manning’s mistakes.

Clinging to a 22-20 lead, the Giants’ quarterback took a sack deep in his own territory and coughed up the ball, leading to a three-play, 11-yard touchdown drive that gave L.A. the lead. That gave Manning just under three minutes to lead a game-winning two-minute drill; instead, his interception with 48 seconds to go doomed New York to an 0-5 start — and kept him winless against the team for whom he refused to play.

Mike Pence’s PR stunt during Peyton Manning’s ceremony

For the folks who swear sports and politics don’t mix, Sunday wasn’t your day. Vice President Mike Pence carried out a political stunt to walk out on the game, where he knew members of the 49ers would be kneeling during the national anthem.

The timing of the entire ordeal made things even more obvious, when he released a statement less than 20 minutes after tweeting that he would be leaving the stadium.

I stand with @POTUS Trump, I stand with our soldiers, and I will always stand for our Flag and our National Anthem. http://pic.twitter.com/B0zP5M41MQ

— Vice President Pence (@VP) October 8, 2017

Reporters at the stadium were even told to stay in the van traveling with the Vice President, because he’d be leaving early:

FLAG: Was Pence leaving Colts game a political stunt? Reporters were told to stay in van bc "there may be an early departure from the game."

— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) October 8, 2017

It also is a good indicator that it was planned, when President Trump later tweeted that he told Pence to leave if any players kneeled during the anthem.

The entire thing is a mess that we all could have gone without on our NFL Sunday, but the war Trump and his administration has picked with NFL players is one that doesn’t appear to have any kind of ending in sight.

[junker-town]

Georgia State has a new coach, a new stadium, and a new start in 2017

The Panthers take over the Braves’ old stadium and bring in a guy who’s technically been an SEC head coach recently.

This preview was originally published February 10 and has since been updated.

Trent Miles had one perfect month.

Georgia State joined the FBS ranks in 2013, only three years into its football existence. The Panthers had won just 10 games from 2010-12, a ride rough enough that inaugural head coach Bill Curry hopped off before FBS arrival.

Miles hopped on in 2013 ... and won 10 games in four years.

Four of Miles’ 10 wins, however, happened in one fell swoop late in 2015. At 2-6, staring a possible firing in the face, Miles led GSU to wins over Texas State, South Alabama, Troy, and Georgia Southern, pulling off one of the most unexpected bowl bids in the history of bowl bids.

The coup de grace was a 34-7 romp over rival Georgia Southern, a program with an actual history that didn't feel the need to move up to FBS until State was attempting it. Southern had beaten State by 38 points the year before; the Panthers’ win took on the feel of those 1980s movies where the nerd gets the best of the bully and can’t stop punching and crying. There was catharsis.

Miles was 3-29 before that four-game streak. Including the Cure Bowl loss to San Jose State that followed, he went 2-9 after it. He was ousted after a 2-8 start in 2016. (Interim coach Tim Lappano engineered another win over Southern, by the way.)

That win streak earned Miles another year of head coach salary. It also served as a glimpse into just how difficult it is to build a functional football machine. Everybody’s got talent, both on the field and in the coaches’ offices. Everybody’s got a decent idea of how they want to win. But finding an edge is tough, and keeping it is even tougher.

So now it’s Shawn Elliott’s turn. The former South Carolina offensive line coach knows about transition — he served as the Gamecocks’ interim head coach when Steve Spurrier retired midway through 2015, then he went back to his job on the offensive line when Will Muschamp took over. That technically means he has SEC head coaching experience. It also means he’s familiar with recruiting in and around Atlanta.

Georgia State will take a new coach into its new home stadium, a reworking of the Atlanta Braves’ Turner Field. It will hold about 22,000 fans — GSU’s average attendance of about 15,000 will look much more aesthetically pleasing there than in the cavernous Dome — and could eventually expand to 33,000. The initial stages of Georgia State’s FBS life are over. For better or worse, stage two has now begun.

The amazing transformation of Turner Field into @GeorgiaStateU Stadium is almost complete! https://t.co/7zSW6VbIpG http://pic.twitter.com/0CTrSgSxO3

— Curbed Atlanta (@CurbedAtlanta) August 3, 2017

It will be begin with what could be a pretty decent team.

The Panthers return quarterback Conner Manning, most of their skill position guys (plus, they get 2015 star receiver Penny Hart back from injury), most of their linemen, and most of their secondary. They had a legitimately solid defense last year, and if Elliott has made the right hires, the offense could expect to rebound a bit.

2016 in review

2016 GSU statistical profile.

You can kind of see where things began to go awry:

The season began in disappointing fashion, with losses to Ball State and Air Force by a combined 79-35. But beginning with a Week 3 trip to Madison, the Panthers looked like they had some potential.

They took an out-of-nowhere 17-13 lead on Wisconsin early in the fourth quarter before faltering. They were within a touchdown of Appalachian State in Boone with four minutes left. They pummeled Texas State and UT-Martin. They were within three points of a smoking-hot Troy before faltering on the road.

GSU was just good enough to stay close to some strong teams, but the Panthers couldn't win the last five to 10 minutes. And when quarterback Conner Manning — 20-for-29 for 269 yards against an excellent Wisconsin defense — suffered an injury in practice before the UTM game, fortunes changed.

First 2 games (0-2): Avg. percentile performance: 14% | Avg. performance vs. S&P+ projection: minus-17.4 PPG

Next 5 games (2-3): Avg. percentile performance: 41% | Avg. performance vs. S&P+ projection: plus-11.5 PPG

Last 5 games (1-4): Avg. percentile performance: 33% | Avg. performance vs. S&P+ projection: minus-10.3 PPG

Manning missed a 13-10 loss to South Alabama and went just 22-for-46 in a 31-16 loss to Arkansas State. He was excellent against ULM, but defense and special teams fell in a 37-23 defeat (Miles' last game). He was strong in the win over Georgia Southern but threw four picks in a pummeling at Idaho.

GSU underachieved, then overachieved, then underachieved again. But with a healthy Manning leading an experienced two-deep, one could see another turn of fortune in 2017.

Offense

Full advanced stats glossary.

Let's start with a list of assets. Here’s what new offensive coordinator Travis Trickett inherits:

Manning

The Utah transfer took control last year, and his best moments were quite good. Against Wisconsin, Texas State, ULM, and Georgia Southern, he completed 63 percent of his passes at 15.5 yards per completion, with eight touchdowns, no picks, and a passer rating of 164.3. Over a full season, that's basically Washington's Jake Browning.

But in his other six games, but the per-completion average fell to 11.1 yards with eight touchdowns, 13 interceptions, and a passer rating of 99. His supporting cast didn’t always offer support, and he suffered what were perhaps some predictable inconsistency in his first year as a starter.

Manning isn’t much of a runner, but Trickett’s FAU offense last year didn’t ask the QB to run. This might be a decent match.

Receiver Penny Hart

Hart exploded as a freshman in 2015. In Georgia State's six wins, he caught 40 passes for 570 yards and six touchdowns, and he had at least 97 receiving yards in three of State's losses, too.

Hart's 2016 consisted of five catches against Ball State, three against Appalachian State ... and that's it. He missed two games with a hamstring injury, then returned just in time to break his foot. The Panthers needed one or two more plays to beat Wisconsin and South Alabama and not too many more to beat Troy. Hart could have provided some of those.

Running backs Taz Bateman and Kyler Neal

When healthy, the junior has shown loads of potential. He rushed 14 times for 99 yards in the first two games of 2015, then broke his arm. He had lovely games against Texas State and Troy late in 2015 and was a spring star in 2016, then tore his ACL.

Meanwhile, Neal struggled early but looked like he might be putting something together. After averaging 2.9 yards per carry through four games, he had 13 carries for 89 yards against Texas State. He then proceeded to get hurt against Troy and miss most of five games. Injuries have not been Georgia State's friend of late.

GSU ranked 127th in Rushing S&P+ last year and 121st in Standard Downs S&P+. The Panthers were rendered one-dimensional, and it made Manning's life pretty difficult at times. If Bateman or Neal can help to give a sustained pop to the ground attack, the Manning-to-Hart combination could find life.

Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images

Kyler Neal and Conner Manning

Untapped receiver potential

Leading receiver Robert Davis is gone, as is tight end Keith Rucker. They combined for 99 catches. But those are the only departures, and the returning cast seems to have potential. Senior Todd Boyd could develop into a decent slot type, junior tight end Ari Werts averaged 11.8 yards per target, and all-or-nothing sophomore Jawan Nobles (33 percent catch rate, 19.9 yards per catch) could become more consistent with experience.

Meanwhile, three redshirt freshmen and two true freshmen (including lanky three-star Camryn Johnson) are vying for a spot or two in the rotation. If the run game brings anything (not a given), the passing game could thrive.

Experience and potential on the line

Four of last year's starters are back from a rather unsuccessful line. At the very least, the veterans will be tested by high-ceiling youngsters. Elliott signed four three-star freshmen up front, including 6'9, 340-pound specimen Connor Robbins. This line might not be good just yet, but its ceiling might be higher at least. [Update: GSU’s also adding 6’5 Pete Leota from South Carolina, though it’s uncertain whether he’ll be eligible this year.]

Trickett, son of Florida State line coach Rick Trickett, attempted balance at FAU last year; his Owl offense was middle-of-the-road in terms of run rates, tempo, and spreadness (it's a word; look it up). Meanwhile, his 2015 Samford offense leaned a little pass-heavy. Depending on Bateman and Neal, Trickett might find life more tenable leaning on the pass.

Defense

GSU's 2016 collapse was unfortunate in that it distracted us from impressive defensive improvement. The Panthers improved from 78th to 52nd in Def. S&P+ and boasted a top-20 pass defense per Passing S&P+. The run defense bent too much, but they were excellent at preventing big plays and waiting for the opponent to wilt.

The Panthers were middle-of-the-pack in the Sun Belt in efficiency, but they were by far the best in the league at preventing big plays. You might say they had the league’s premier bend-don’t-break defense. And if the offense would have cooperated, this defense could have won some games.

Former Wofford defensive coordinator Nate Fuqua inherits a seasoned group, though a personality change could be interesting. Wofford's 2016 defense swarmed to the ball.

The Terriers' 19 percent havoc rate would have ranked 15th at the FBS level, and their 42.4 percent ratio of passes defensed to incomplete passes — a way of measuring activity in the secondary — would have tied them for first with San Diego State. Even filtering out sacks, they allowed just 3.7 yards per carry, and once opponents were forced to pass, they pounced.

That doesn’t sound very bend-don’t-break to me.

Fuqua's first GSU defense will have quite a bit of experience, at least: Four of the top six linemen return, as do three of four linebackers and six of seven in the secondary. Linebacker Alonzo McGee, end Shawanye Lawrence, and safety Bobby Baker are gone, but that's about it.

Fuqua will have some playmakers. Linebacker Michael Shaw had 12 tackles for loss in 2016, end Mackendy Cheridor had six, and three returning defensive backs defensed at least six passes. But he'll probably be on the lookout for a few more disruptors.

Photo by Brian Blanco/Getty Images

Michael Shaw and Trey Payne

Special Teams

Thanks to the injury issues on offense, GSU's special teams unit probably wasn't its biggest overall enemy. But it was close. The Panthers were decent in kickoff coverage, and they had a couple of good kick returns, but that was about it. Return efficiency was nonexistent (102nd in kick return efficiency, 122nd in punt return efficiency), punting was a disaster — freshman Brandon Wright averaged under 40 yards per kick, and opponents still averaged 12.4 yards per return — and Rogier ten Lohuis' place-kicking range seemed to cut off around 39 yards.

GSU ranked 127th in Special Teams S&P+. The Panthers weren't good enough to give up an extra couple of points per game through special teams, but they did. Everybody's back, but we'll see if that's a good thing.

2017 outlook

2017 Schedule & Projection Factors

Date Opponent Proj. S&P+ Rk Proj. Margin Win Probability 31-Aug Tennessee State NR 19.9 87% 16-Sep at Penn State 8 -37.3 2% 23-Sep at Charlotte 127 4.1 59% 18-Nov Memphis 61 -12.9 23% TBA Appalachian State 62 -12.6 23% TBA Idaho 119 4.1 59% TBA South Alabama 108 1.4 53% TBA Troy 79 -6.6 35% TBA at Coastal Carolina 114 -3.4 42% TBA at Georgia Southern 98 -6.9 34% TBA at Texas State 129 6.4 64% TBA at UL-Monroe 121 -0.6 49%

Projected S&P+ Rk 113 Proj. Off. / Def. Rk 123 / 72 Projected wins 5.3 Five-Year S&P+ Rk -9.9 (108) 2- and 5-Year Recruiting Rk 113 / 121 2016 TO Margin / Adj. TO Margin* -5 / -0.2 2016 TO Luck/Game -2.0 Returning Production (Off. / Def.) 64% (65%, 62%) 2016 Second-order wins (difference) 4.4 (-1.4)

It doesn't take much to make yourself a bowl-caliber team in the Sun Belt. Georgia State is projected a conservative 113th in S&P+ but still projects to win about five games. The Panthers have between a 34 and 64 percent chance of winning in seven games. If they can work their way to about 100th or 105th, they'll probably be in the postseason.

Such is life when five conference opponents are projected 108th or worse.

In the short-term, eking out a bowl bid in your new coach's first season would be encouraging. But the long-term remains fascinating. The school has plans to use the Turner Field acquisition for both sports and campus use and might have just figured out a way to create something of an on-campus atmosphere at games. It will be more intimate, at least.

A fun atmosphere and positive results in the middle of a football hotbed: That sounds like a recipe for mid-major success, yes? GSU seems to have the potential to become a fun local team to root for within the transient Atlanta population. And while Elliott wasn't a headline-grabbing hire, that won't really matter if he wins some games.

Team preview stats

All preview data to date.

[flauntpage]

Blue Jays Mailbag: Osuna, Travis' Health, and Trading for a Mets Outfielder

This article originally appeared on VICE Sports Canada.

Andrew Stoeten answers your questions in our Blue Jays Mailbag, which runs weekly at VICE Sports. You can send him questions at stoeten@gmail.com, and follow him on Twitter.

The Blue Jays are through a strange and frustrating road trip, which ended up being uplifting thanks to a Sunday win and an appearance from their closer.

The club continues to float around the .500 mark, and have had a devil of a time crossing it, but in the two-team wild-card era, that means they are firmly still in the playoff picture, and fans are thinking long and hard about trading for upgrades—as we'll see below in this week's Blue Jays mailbag!

So let's crack it open and feast on the goo inside!

If you have a Blue Jays question you'd like me to tackle for next week, be sure to send it to stoeten@gmail.com. As always, I have not read any of Griff's answers.

Should the people that bagged on Osuna for taking time due to mental illness be shot into the sun *or* ocean? Sean

This seems to be as good a place to start as any, because yeah, it ought to be at least one of those places, right? But… hmmmm… since those people were such fucking squids, maybe they'd be a little too happy to be sent to the bottom of the sea. So… yeah… sun it is!

Seriously, though, I was fortunate in that I was away for the weekend and so only managed to have one eye on this stuff as it was happening. I hardly even know what to say about it now, except that it was great to see Osuna back out on the mound Sunday, as well as his teammates' reaction to it. And if seeing that helps underline, for all the fans who sometimes have trouble realizing, that players are actual human beings, that's another positive we can take from it—to go along with the fact that Osuna being brave enough to have this be so public will only help to destigmatize such issues.

Osuna told reporters this past weekend that he's been dealing with anxiety. Photo by Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

It, perhaps, can also serve as a reminder to a not-dissimilar subset of fans that nothing good can come out of blinding, venom-spouting frustration, especially about a sport which is so naturally awash in frustrating moments. And also, you dopes, that when a manager says an unused player "wasn't feeling well tonight, that's all you need to know," it isn't necessarily a thinly-veiled attempt at covering for some colossal fuckup or an affront to your right to know absolutely everything about an ugly loss that so badly and thoroughly loosened your bowels.

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Why is Jason Grilli still on the team? Ryan

Because of Drew Storen.

Or… OK… Grilli isn't exactly still here because of Storen, but consider the case of last year's would-be setup man. "Two's Scorin'" had an awful time on the mound for the Blue Jays, lost the confidence of the fans and his manager, then worked his way back to looking OK-ish (from May 20 to June 24 he pitched to a 1.35 ERA, allowing just 12 hits, walking 4 and striking out 12, in 13.1 innings), wobbled a bit again, and then was flipped for Joaquin Benoit—a reliever who'd struggled in his own right in Seattle, but who ended up being crucial for the Jays in the second half.

Grilli, sadly, has been worse in 2017 than Storen ever was for the Blue Jays, but the velocity is still there, and he's shown for a long time that he can get the job done. Teams aren't going to pay a lot for that, but the Jays aren't crazy to think that they can make him viable again, or that there might be another team willing to flip a similar player to them for the chance to try it themselves.

The veteran Grilli has gotten torched this season. Photo by Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

Yes, there will come a time, if things don't improve, where they'll need to part ways with him, but right now, what's the upside? Grilli has only pitched four times in the three weeks since getting blasted by the Yankees earlier this month, so the opportunity for someone else to provide significantly more value in that role just really isn't there. Upgrading their fifth-best right-handed reliever simply wouldn't do much for this team beyond making Grilli haters feel satisfied with themselves. And given what Grilli has been in his career, what he did for the Jays last season, what they like about him as a veteran in the clubhouse, and what he (theoretically) could still be—either as a trade asset or as an asset on the mound in his own right—I completely understand why the club is having more patience here than some fans maybe would like.

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Granderson could probably be had for a relatively low price. Think he's a viable option for LF? I realize he wouldn't be first choice. @renusm

I'm not sure Granderson would be the Jays' first choice on his own team, to be honest.

Late in the winter of 2016, the club appeared to have worked out a trade that would have sent Michael Saunders to the Angels, a few presumably not-so-great prospects to the Reds, and Jay Bruce from Cincinnati to Toronto. I wrote a piece at the time that I titled "Jay Bruce Is Bad, But That Might Not Stop The Jays From Trading For Him," which has led a few readers to assume over the last year that I have some kind of massive problem with Bruce. I definitely did cheer when the deal fell apart, but I also wrote this:

If it's just Saunders, and if it's somehow cash neutral, I can buy believing in Bruce's ceiling over Saunders' (despite Saunders' 3 WAR advantage in 2014, his last healthy-ish season), given the big uptick in durability and his (theoretical) potential as a 2017 asset [ Bruce had a 2017 option, Saunders was due to be a free agent]. I could even buy paying a premium to make that switch, I suppose. But not a big one. And certainly not one where the organization ends up committing dollars that could have gone to literally anything else that could have helped this club out.

It turns out the Jays' thinking was similar to my own, with one crucial exception: they liked Jay Bruce. And rightly so, it turns out.

We later learned that the Reds were going to pay $8 million of Bruce's $12.5 million salary, making the deal close to cash-neutral (Saunders made $2.9 million in 2016) and presumably low in terms of the prospects given up. A year ago the front office looked extremely fortunate that the deal had fallen apart—Bruce was OK enough, but Saunders was on his way to making the AL All-Star team. Over the last 365 days, though, it's become clear that Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins were likely onto something: Saunders has been essentially the worst position player in baseball (his -1.2 WAR is dead last among the 242 players with at least 350 plate appearances over that span and he was just released by the Phillies), while Bruce has been more than fine, putting up two wins, a 111 wRC+, and blasting 37 home runs.

Twenty of those home runs for Bruce have come this year, as he's put up a 131 wRC+ to go along with his best walk rate since 2012, and his lowest strikeout rate since 2009. His defence has been much better than the way it was trending a year ago, too. Though the samples are too small to be too meaningful, the +4 DRS and +1.7 UZR he's sitting on as an outfielder (he loses defensive value in the overall because of a handful of bad games at first base) are both pretty impressive. And they're better marks than Granderson has been capable of in recent years.

I haven't looked at Bruce's defence much this year, if at all, so I'm not going to act like these numbers are the be-all, end-all and he's suddenly good out there, but it seems like he's not going to kill you in the field and has been an asset with the bat. Bruce has been streaky, with noticeable drop-offs in his production in the second half of every year since 2013, but with the success this year, plus the previous interest (he was linked to the Jays several times early on this past offseason), and the cost, I wouldn't be surprised if he was the one the Jays are interested in.

But Granderson does make some sense, too. He's likely to be better at getting on base (once Bruce regresses a bit), offers at least a little bit of speed that Bruce doesn't, a little bit of power in his own right, and could maybe hit at the top of the Jays' lineup if they did acquire him.

Both are a cut above what the Jays will roll out there, even once Ezequiel Carrera returns to full health, and both should come at a relatively low price tag, given that they're not great, and are free agents at the end of the season. So… sure...

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What's your thoughts on Travis, injury prone time to move on, bad luck, wait it out or something else Paul

Time to move on?? Holy shit, man.

Look, to be honest, my credibility on the idea of whether or not a player deserves the "injury prone" tag went down with the good ship Brandon Morrow several years ago, but I'm of the mind that fans think they know and can see and understand a whole lot more about this stuff than they really do. A.J. Burnett was a guy who was always injured… until starting in 2008, at age 31, he reeled off seven straight seasons of 30 or more starts, y'know? And Dustin McGowan could never stay healthy, and yet he's thrown 107 innings out of the Marlins' bullpen over the last two years, and has done a damn fine job of it.

Travis has been limited to 213 games over the last three seasons and was recently transferred to the 60-day DL. Photo by Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

I guess what it comes down to, for me, is that there's a difference between "that guy is always hurt" and "that guy is always going to be hurt," and I certainly don't think Travis is in the latter category yet.

Like, we're basically only talking about two injuries when it comes to Devon's young Blue Jays career: a shoulder injury caused by the fact that his bones didn't fuse properly as he was growing up, and the ongoing trouble with his knee, which seems to have not quite healed right. They've played out like multiple injuries—Travis tried to play through pain and keep himself on the field as best he could—but are they? Really?

And if his medical history with the Jays really comes down to just two injuries, serious as they have been, I'm not sure it's fair to think that he's always going to be hurt, or to act like there's something especially wrong with him, physically, that means he's more likely than anyone else to pick up any other kind of injury.

The Jays could use a rental second baseman to finish out this season with, and it would be silly of me to say that all this must have only been bad luck and he should be entirely fine going forward, but as far as I'm concerned there is not a lot of reason to be afraid of him having trouble staying healthy beyond that. Which means I probably just cursed him. Fuck!

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Hi Stoeten

Ideally, the Blue Jays could use a huge talent upgrade at multiple spots to lift themselves out of the pack of teams within a couple games of a playoff spot. But with relatively few teams that are actively selling and a front office looking to balance the present and future, it is likely the team will have to find particular areas to focus on at the trade deadline.

If you were the front office, how would you rank the following areas of need?

-Second Baseman who can hit and is at least adept defensively -Left Fielder who can field and is at least adept offensively -Late inning left-handed RP -Back-up Catcher -Starting pitcher with a proven track record of winning games which bring the team to .500 (or maybe just additional rotation depth)

Or would you just throw out the idea of ranking needs and sell everything!?

Thanks Josh

Well, I certainly wouldn't sell everything. I also don't see much need for another starter at the big league level—though depth pieces could always help. Backup catcher seems fine, too—though I'd be terrified to see more of Luke Maile as a starter, should anything happen to Russell Martin again—so I guess it's just the other three things the Jays should be most concerned about.

The thing is, the Jays aren't exactly dying for any of these positions to be upgraded, either. The right-handers in their bullpen have handled lefties well, their left field situation won't be too bad once Ezequiel Carrera comes back (which is a crazy thing to think, but he's had a nice year so far!), and second base is... ugly, but they've at least got some adept defenders to use there.

Are one of these Mets a future Blue Jay? Photo by Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports

I guess by the way I've characterized it there, second base would have to rank at the top, followed by left field, then the bullpen lefty. But why rank? I've never seen the point in these sorts of exercises, to be honest. There are places to upgrade, there are pieces to upgrade with, and the deals that make the most sense will make the most sense. I don't think teams benefit from being rigid about which sorts of moves have to be made more than others (unless the problem is especially obvious, like the 2015 Jays needing a starting pitcher), because there are just so many moving parts and so many ways to go about adding value.

Which is to say: it seems to me like the easiest way to add value to these Jays would be to find a legit second baseman for the rest of the season, but it's entirely possible their best way to make the team better (while preserving future assets as best they can) may not run through second base. And I also think that thinking about it too much this way just leads to nonsense like we saw after the Tulowitzki trade in 2015, where some fans lost their minds about shortstop not being as important a spot to upgrade as the rotation was, as though there couldn't be another trade still coming, or the club was too focused on the wrong priorities. They're focused on every place they can make the club better.

Blue Jays Mailbag: Osuna, Travis' Health, and Trading for a Mets Outfielder published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

[junker-town]

Georgia State has a new coach, a new stadium, and a new start in 2017

The Panthers take over the Braves’ old stadium and bring in a guy who’s technically been an SEC head coach recently.

Trent Miles had one perfect month.

Georgia State joined the FBS ranks in 2013, only three years into its football existence. The Panthers had won just 10 games from 2010-12, a ride rough enough that inaugural head coach Bill Curry hopped off before FBS arrival.

Miles hopped on in 2013 ... and won 10 games in four years.

Four of Miles’ 10 wins, however, happened in one fell swoop late in 2015. At 2-6, staring a possible firing in the face, Miles led GSU to wins over Texas State, South Alabama, Troy, and Georgia Southern, pulling off one of the most unexpected bowl bids in the history of bowl bids.

The coup de grace was a 34-7 romp over rival Georgia Southern, a program with an actual history that didn't feel the need to move up to FBS until State was attempting it. Southern had beaten State by 38 points the year before; the Panthers’ win took on the feel of those 1980s movies where the nerd gets the best of the bully and can’t stop punching and crying. There was catharsis.

Miles was 3-29 before that four-game streak. Including the Cure Bowl loss to San Jose State that followed, he went 2-9 after it. He was ousted after a 2-8 start in 2016. (Interim coach Tim Lappano engineered another win over Southern, by the way.)

That win streak earned Miles another year of head coach salary. It also served as a glimpse into just how difficult it is to build a functional football machine. Everybody’s got talent, both on the field and in the coaches’ offices. Everybody’s got a decent idea of how they want to win. But finding an edge is tough, and keeping it is even tougher.

So now it’s Shawn Elliott’s turn. The former South Carolina offensive line coach knows about transition — he served as the Gamecocks’ interim head coach when Steve Spurrier retired midway through 2015, then he went back to his job on the offensive line when Will Muschamp took over. That technically means he has SEC head coaching experience. It also means he’s familiar with recruiting in and around Atlanta.

Georgia State will take a new coach into its new home stadium, a reworking of the Atlanta Braves’ Turner Field. It will hold about 22,000 fans — GSU’s average attendance of about 15,000 will look much more aesthetically pleasing there than in the cavernous Dome — and could eventually expand to 33,000. The initial stages of Georgia State’s FBS life are over. For better or worse, stage two has now begun.

It will be begin with what could be a pretty decent team.

The Panthers return quarterback Conner Manning, most of their skill position guys (plus, they get 2015 star receiver Penny Hart back from injury), most of their linemen, and most of their secondary. They had a legitimately solid defense last year, and if Elliott has made the right hires, the offense could expect to rebound a bit.

2016 in review

2016 GSU statistical profile.

You can kind of see where things began to go awry:

The season began in disappointing fashion, with losses to Ball State and Air Force by a combined 79-35. But beginning with a Week 3 trip to Madison, the Panthers looked like they had some potential.

They took an out-of-nowhere 17-13 lead on Wisconsin early in the fourth quarter before faltering. They were within a touchdown of Appalachian State in Boone with four minutes left. They pummeled Texas State and UT-Martin. They were within three points of a smoking-hot Troy before faltering on the road.

GSU was just good enough to stay close to some strong teams, but the Panthers couldn't win the last five to 10 minutes. And when quarterback Conner Manning — 20-for-29 for 269 yards against an excellent Wisconsin defense — suffered an injury in practice before the UTM game, fortunes changed.

First 2 games (0-2): Avg. percentile performance: 14% | Avg. performance vs. S&P+ projection: minus-17.4 PPG

Next 5 games (2-3): Avg. percentile performance: 41% | Avg. performance vs. S&P+ projection: plus-11.5 PPG

Last 5 games (1-4): Avg. percentile performance: 33% | Avg. performance vs. S&P+ projection: minus-10.3 PPG

Manning missed a 13-10 loss to South Alabama and went just 22-for-46 in a 31-16 loss to Arkansas State. He was excellent against ULM, but defense and special teams fell in a 37-23 defeat (Miles' last game). He was strong in the win over Georgia Southern but threw four picks in a pummeling at Idaho.

GSU underachieved, then overachieved, then underachieved again. But with a healthy Manning leading an experienced two-deep, one could see another turn of fortune in 2017.

Offense

Full advanced stats glossary.

Let's start with a list of assets. Here’s what new offensive coordinator Travis Trickett inherits:

Manning

The Utah transfer took control last year, and his best moments were quite good. Against Wisconsin, Texas State, ULM, and Georgia Southern, he completed 63 percent of his passes at 15.5 yards per completion, with eight touchdowns, no picks, and a passer rating of 164.3. Over a full season, that's basically Washington's Jake Browning.

But in his other six games, but the per-completion average fell to 11.1 yards with eight touchdowns, 13 interceptions, and a passer rating of 99. His supporting cast didn’t always offer support, and he suffered what were perhaps some predictable inconsistency in his first year as a starter.

Manning isn’t much of a runner, but Trickett’s FAU offense last year didn’t ask the QB to run. This might be a decent match.

Receiver Penny Hart

Hart exploded as a freshman in 2015. In Georgia State's six wins, he caught 40 passes for 570 yards and six touchdowns, and he had at least 97 receiving yards in three of State's losses, too.

Hart's 2016 consisted of five catches against Ball State, three against Appalachian State ... and that's it. He missed two games with a hamstring injury, then returned just in time to break his foot. The Panthers needed one or two more plays to beat Wisconsin and South Alabama and not too many more to beat Troy. Hart could have provided some of those.

Running backs Taz Bateman and Kyler Neal

When healthy, the junior has shown loads of potential. He rushed 14 times for 99 yards in the first two games of 2015, then broke his arm. He had lovely games against Texas State and Troy late in 2015 and was a spring star in 2016, then tore his ACL.

Meanwhile, Neal struggled early but looked like he might be putting something together. After averaging 2.9 yards per carry through four games, he had 13 carries for 89 yards against Texas State. He then proceeded to get hurt against Troy and miss most of five games. Injuries have not been Georgia State's friend of late.

GSU ranked 127th in Rushing S&P+ last year and 121st in Standard Downs S&P+. The Panthers were rendered one-dimensional, and it made Manning's life pretty difficult at times. If Bateman or Neal can help to give a sustained pop to the ground attack, the Manning-to-Hart combination could find life.

Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images

Kyler Neal and Conner Manning

Untapped receiver potential

Leading receiver Robert Davis is gone, as is tight end Keith Rucker. They combined for 99 catches. But those are the only departures, and the returning cast seems to have potential. Senior Todd Boyd could develop into a decent slot type, junior tight end Ari Werts averaged 11.8 yards per target, and all-or-nothing sophomore Jawan Nobles (33 percent catch rate, 19.9 yards per catch) could become more consistent with experience.

Meanwhile, three redshirt freshmen and two true freshmen (including lanky three-star Camryn Johnson) are vying for a spot or two in the rotation. If the run game brings anything (not a given), the passing game could thrive.

Experience and potential on the line

Four of last year's starters are back from a rather unsuccessful line. At the very least, the veterans will be tested by high-ceiling youngsters. Elliott signed four three-star freshmen up front, including 6'9, 340-pound specimen Connor Robbins. This line might not be good just yet, but its ceiling might be higher at least.

Trickett, son of Florida State line coach Rick Trickett, attempted balance at FAU last year; his Owl offense was middle-of-the-road in terms of run rates, tempo, and spreadness (it's a word; look it up). Meanwhile, his 2015 Samford offense leaned a little pass-heavy. Depending on Bateman and Neal, Trickett might find life more tenable leaning on the pass.

Defense

GSU's 2016 collapse was unfortunate in that it distracted us from impressive defensive improvement. The Panthers improved from 78th to 52nd in Def. S&P+ and boasted a top-20 pass defense per Passing S&P+. The run defense bent too much, but they were excellent at preventing big plays and waiting for the opponent to wilt.

The Panthers were middle-of-the-pack in the Sun Belt in efficiency, but they were by far the best in the league at preventing big plays. You might say they had the league’s premier bend-don’t-break defense. And if the offense would have cooperated, this defense could have won some games.

Former Wofford defensive coordinator Nate Fuqua inherits a seasoned group, though a personality change could be interesting. Wofford's 2016 defense swarmed to the ball.

The Terriers' 19 percent havoc rate would have ranked 15th at the FBS level, and their 42.4 percent ratio of passes defensed to incomplete passes — a way of measuring activity in the secondary — would have tied them for first with San Diego State. Even filtering out sacks, they allowed just 3.7 yards per carry, and once opponents were forced to pass, they pounced.

That doesn’t sound very bend-don’t-break to me.

Fuqua's first GSU defense will have quite a bit of experience, at least: Four of the top six linemen return, as do three of four linebackers and six of seven in the secondary. Linebacker Alonzo McGee, end Shawanye Lawrence, and safety Bobby Baker are gone, but that's about it.

Fuqua will have some playmakers. Linebacker Michael Shaw had 12 tackles for loss in 2016, end Mackendy Cheridor had six, and three returning defensive backs defensed at least six passes. But he'll probably be on the lookout for a few more disruptors.

Photo by Brian Blanco/Getty Images

Michael Shaw and Trey Payne

Special Teams

Thanks to the injury issues on offense, GSU's special teams unit probably wasn't its biggest overall enemy. But it was close. The Panthers were decent in kickoff coverage, and they had a couple of good kick returns, but that was about it. Return efficiency was nonexistent (102nd in kick return efficiency, 122nd in punt return efficiency), punting was a disaster — freshman Brandon Wright averaged under 40 yards per kick, and opponents still averaged 12.4 yards per return — and Rogier ten Lohuis' place-kicking range seemed to cut off around 39 yards.

GSU ranked 127th in Special Teams S&P+. The Panthers weren't good enough to give up an extra couple of points per game through special teams, but they did. Everybody's back, but we'll see if that's a good thing.

2017 outlook

2017 Schedule & Projection Factors

Date Opponent Proj. S&P+ Rk Proj. Margin Win Probability 31-Aug Tennessee State NR 19.9 87% 16-Sep at Penn State 8 -37.3 2% 23-Sep at Charlotte 127 4.1 59% 18-Nov Memphis 61 -12.9 23% TBA Appalachian State 62 -12.6 23% TBA Idaho 119 4.1 59% TBA South Alabama 108 1.4 53% TBA Troy 79 -6.6 35% TBA at Coastal Carolina 114 -3.4 42% TBA at Georgia Southern 98 -6.9 34% TBA at Texas State 129 6.4 64% TBA at UL-Monroe 121 -0.6 49%

Projected S&P+ Rk 113 Proj. Off. / Def. Rk 123 / 72 Projected wins 5.3 Five-Year S&P+ Rk -9.9 (108) 2- and 5-Year Recruiting Rk 113 / 121 2016 TO Margin / Adj. TO Margin* -5 / -0.2 2016 TO Luck/Game -2.0 Returning Production (Off. / Def.) 64% (65%, 62%) 2016 Second-order wins (difference) 4.4 (-1.4)

It doesn't take much to make yourself a bowl-caliber team in the Sun Belt. Georgia State is projected a conservative 113th in S&P+ but still projects to win about five games. The Panthers have between a 34 and 64 percent chance of winning in seven games. If they can work their way to about 100th or 105th, they'll probably be in the postseason.

Such is life when five conference opponents are projected 108th or worse.

In the short-term, eking out a bowl bid in your new coach's first season would be encouraging. But the long-term remains fascinating. The school has plans to use the Turner Field acquisition for both sports and campus use and might have just figured out a way to create something of an on-campus atmosphere at games. It will be more intimate, at least.

A fun atmosphere and positive results in the middle of a football hotbed: That sounds like a recipe for mid-major success, yes? GSU seems to have the potential to become a fun local team to root for within the transient Atlanta population. And while Elliott wasn't a headline-grabbing hire, that won't really matter if he wins some games.

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