Rick Porcello
No Former Tigers Allowed
The baseball playoffs are in full swing and the narrative thus far has been, “Ex-Tigers trounced six ways to Sunday.”
First it was likely Cy Young winner Rick Porcello opening things for the favored Red Sox and getting bopped all over the yard in Cleveland. David Price took the ball next for Boston and continued one of the most hard-to-believe streaks in sports.
This was Price’s ninth postseason start, and for the ninth consecutive time, his team came out on the losing end. How does one of the more dominant regular season pitchers of the last decade make that many playoff starts without steering his team to victory one stinkin’ time? He’s this generation’s anti-Whitey Ford.
Max Scherzer looked like the would save the day for the Former Tiger All-Stars, but alas, that was not to be, either. He danced between raindrops for six innings in the winner-take-all Game 5 against the Dodgers, but then he gave up a solo shot to tie the score and Dusty Baker came with the quick hook. The Nationals bullpen would blow up from there and Scherzer was left with another L in a huge playoff spot.
Max is not necessarily on the same level as Price, but for being another guy with a Cy Young award and sparkling regular seasons to his credit, he is far from the same guy in October. In the last five playoff series that Scherzer has appeared, he has registered a win in only one of them (2013 ALDS vs. Oakland).
Of course, the star of the playoffs has been Andrew Miller of the Indians, a former first-round selection of the Tigers. But it’s awful hard to complain about dealing him away early in his career. After all, it was the Miller-and-Cameron Maybin combo that brought Miguel Cabrera to Detroit. I think most Tiger fans remain quite satisfied with that exchange, even if Miller has turned out to be one of the deadliest weapons in this MLB postseason.
(No) Fear of Going Over the Middle
While the NFL has been vigilant in recent years about improving long-term player health, it has essentially done away with one of the more thrilling elements of the game.
In particular, throwing over the middle used to be the ultimate football battle of wills. As an offense, you wanted to exploit that area of the field, find the holes, and gash the D for big yardage. But you did so knowing it came with a price -- that your receiver would be wildly exposed to an oncoming safety set to deliver a jarring, ball-popping blow.
The Lions defense pulled this off to perfection late in the first half. Case Keenum of the Rams took a shot into the end zone, but delivered the ball high and in plenty of traffic to smallish receiver Tavon Austin. One Lion batted the ball away, and at the same instant, Glover Quin arrived to knock Austin completely out of the play. Using mostly his shoulder, but also getting a modicum of helmet-to-helmet contact, out came the flags; instead of the Rams facing a difficult third down and long, they were set up nicely first-and-goal.
Ten or twenty years ago, the “penalty” by Quin might not have even required a second look on replay. It was a good hit, but not one that would be featured on highlight reels at the end of the night. It continues to get more and more difficult for defenses to know what is permitted in terms of contact to quarterbacks and receivers. Thankfully for the Leos, they later made a critical stop on 4th-and-goal to prevent a penalty-aided touchdown drive.
(He won’t get talked about in many game discussions today, but it was 5th-year pro Tyrunn Walker blowing up the middle of the Rams’ line on said 4th-down play. The Lions defense did mostly nothing on the afternoon, but the effort by by big #93 to stop a likely TD was quite possibly a game-saver.)
25 Years and Out?
It' well-known that the Detroit Red Wings qualify for the playoffs every single year. For the last quarter of a century, they haven’t missed the dance once. That run looks to be in a bit of jeopardy.
The Wings started their 2016-17 campaign in the Sunshine State and it did not go swimmingly. Their recent playoff nemesis, the Tampa Bay Lightning, came back from a pair of two-goal deficits to win 6-4. Then Jeff Blashill’s crew hopped across the state to take on the Florida Panthers where they were put down again, 4-1.
For a team many feared was on the verge of finally crashing into last place, this was not the start they were looking for. The goaltending is a question mark again (10 goals through two games) and the defensive corps still seems to be playing with the thought bubble over their head of, “Hey, anybody know when that Lidstrom guy is coming back?”
The NHL record for consecutive playoff appearances is 29 by the Boston Bruins. Amazingly, every year from 1968 through 1996, the B’s played postseason hockey (though they only captured two Cups during the run). If the Red Wings are to catch Boston with another four years of playoffs, they’ll have to start holding the opposition to less than five goals a night. A victory in the home-opener tonight against Ottawa would be crucial in terms of giving this group some much-needed confidence; and more importantly, their first points in the standings.
A Bronco Stampede
Coach P.J. Fleck and his Western Michigan Broncos could very well rumble through the regular season without a single loss to their name. They went on the road this weekend and crushed the souls of the Akron Zips 41-0. That’s also the fourth straight game that Western has topped the 40-point mark.
The five remaining games on WMU’s schedule show mostly the lesser-lites of the MAC conference. Ball State, Kent, and Buffalo are not exactly the Steelers, Dolphins, and Raiders of the 1970’s. The date with offensive powerhouse Toledo on November 25 will likely be the biggest test for the Broncos to keep that goose egg in the loss department.
If only this were college hoops, where Cinderella stories like this get a completely fair chance at actually playing for the sport’s national championship. Even if Western plows through the schedule unscathed and wins a MAC title game too, there is virtually no chance they will be entered into college football’s “Final Four” with a chance at reigning supreme in the sport.
A Lot of the Same from Mr. Drummond
Andre Drummond
The Pistons opened up the bank vault this summer for big man Andre Drummond in the hopes that he would develop into a true franchise player. One would think that part of that agreement entailed Drummond finally scrapping his entire approach at the free throw line and starting from scratch. Underhand, sidespin, throwing it up one-handed like a quarterback; anything but the same broken model that sees Drummond shoot in the mid-to-high-30’s every year from the stripe.
But a disturbing report came out before the pre-season got underway. Drummond did not overhaul his approach. He instead focused exclusively on the “mental” aspect of free throws, choosing to work on confidence instead of technique.
Drummond has taken ten free throws so far in the exhibition slate. He has converted on two of those attempts. That’s 20 percent -- respectable for a post-meal tip at a diner, disastrous for a player supposedly worth around $125 million clams.
The Pistons obviously have many reasons to be excited heading into this season. They’ve added some quality pieces in free agency, Tobias Harris is here for the full campaign, and Stanley Johnson could explode in year number two. But in order to really go from fringe playoff squad to upper-tier Eastern Conference team, it has to go hand-in-hand with a significantly improved Andre Drummond from the free throw line.
To this point, it looks like nothing of the sort has or will take place.
