The Weekend Ahead

The Weekend Ahead

Here we are on a Wednesday.

• The Yankees won last night. Judge hits 2 homers to reach 57 on the year, and 3 hits total against the basement dwelling Red Sox.
• The Bills had a statement win on opening night against the reigning Superbowl champion Rams.
• The Bears, in spite of a dismal first half found a spark in the Midway rain to overtake the Forty-niners.

Both the Bills and Bears are 1-0. Judging is pursuing Roger Maris.

At this moment things are going pretty good in a sports context. Except for Notre Dame Football, but that’s a different issue under a first year head coach. I’ll post on that another time.

For the Bears and Bills, however, there’s a Week 2. The Bills always struggle against Tennessee no matter the year. No matter the talent. It is the second strong test in as many weeks. I favor the Bills in this one solely because of the venue. Monday Night Football at home, against a team that you’ve had arduous games in the past, means everything. Even if it’s only Week 2. I might be tempted to take the Titans if this game was in Music City, but it’s not. It’ll probably be a far tighter game then what we saw against the Rams, but the Bills have a way of surprising. I’ll take Buffalo in this one with the home field.

The Bears are another issue. It’s the Packers. The Packers own them. There’s no nice way of saying that. Could the Bears upset the Packers? Yeah. Maybe if it was a noon game at Soldier Field and, again, with wind and rain coming off Lake Michigan. Neither of those items are on the table unfortunately. You’re looking at the Bears in Lambeau, on a Sunday night, against a Packers team that played an uninspired game against the Vikings. As much as I wish it wasn’t true I have no unreasonable expectations. The Packers own them, and they will remind everyone that on Sunday night. Hopefully it’ll give the Packers a false sense of their NFL ranking. They are not as good as they’ve been in years prior, and they certainly are not a contender to be the NFC representative in February. It’s just that no one will be able to tell that on Sunday night.

As for Aaron Judge and the Yankees it’s been a roller coaster season. Weeks where they could never lose, followed by weeks you’d wonder if they’d ever win. The 161 game grind is coming to an end, and a dramatic one at that. Will Judge pass the true single season home run king in Roger Maris? It seems likely. At the time of this writing he has only 5 to go. The only thing that could affect him are these intentional walks in these remaining games. The Yankees still need to win games. Nothing at this moment with 19 games remaining is clinched, and in game maneuvers will dictate what Judge gets to see. Again, however, the number to break Maris is 5 with 19 games remaining. I do think he’s got this.

Let’s see how this all pans out.