On the Sports Time Radio podcast we make picks for the NFL games like a lot of other shows do. There are four of us who make picks, myself, Dan the Man, Schaumburg Stu and of course Mr. Fantasy. We’ve now develop this thing called the Sports Time Radio jinx. It seems as that when the four of us agree that a team is going to win a game we jinx that team and they end up losing. Now this doesn’t happen 100% of the time with our picks, but it’s happen enough for us to notice it. So as you know Week 1 of the NFL season kicked off Thursday night with the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots hosting the Kansas City Chiefs. On the podcast we all selected the Patriots to win this game. As you know the Chiefs scored 21 4th quarter points to pick up a 42-27 victory. So I looks like it’s happening again. On this Sunday’s podcast Mr. Fantasy and I will announce the rest of our selections for Week 1 and will have to see how many picks we agree on and how many of them go the other way. You should probably be hoping that we don’t all agree that your favorite team will win it’s game.
When Kansas City used the 10th pick in the draft to take quarterback Patrick Mahomes out of Texas Tech a lot of people thought Alex Smith’s job was in jeopardy. Smith is in his 13th NFL season after being the #1 overall pick of the San Francisco 49ers in the 2005 draft. Smith has always completed a high percentage of his passes; 61.9% for his career and an even higher 64.8% in his five seasons with the Chiefs, but he’s never been seen as a downfield passer. Smith has been know to make the smart play and take the dump off pass instead of trying to force something downfield. In his career Smith has 161 touchdown passes to just 91 interceptions and since being with Kansas City Smith has never thrown more than 8 interceptions in a season. Now Smith may not be flashy, but he wins games. For his career Smith has a 80-56-1 record as a starter and since being with Kansas City Smith is 42-20 as their starter. You have to wonder with the numbers he put up against what was thought to be a good Patriots defense if Smith will be cut some slack.
On Thursday night Smith went 28 of 35 for 368 yards and 4 touchdowns. Kansas City’s rookie running back Kareem Hunt caught two of Smith’s touchdown passes. Hunt caught a 3 yard touchdown pass and a 78 yard touchdown pass. Smith’s other two touchdown passes where a 7-yarder to Demetrius Harris and a 75 yard pass to Tyrek Hill. Are the two 70 plus yard touchdown passes enough for Smith to lose his reputation; I doubt it, but he did average 10.5 yards per passing attempt.
Rookie running back Hunt was another Chiefs player who really announced his presentence to the NFL. Hunt took over as the Chiefs #1 running back after Spencer Ware was ruled out for the season after tearing knee ligaments. Hunt averaged 8.7 yards per carry on 17 carries Thursday night. He ran for a total of 148 yards and a touchdown. Hunt also added 5 receptions for 98 yards and two touchdowns. Add to this the fact that Hunt fumble on his first carry and it turned out to be quite a debut. Hunt actually set the record for most yards from scrimmage in a debut. Hunt combined for 246 yards to set the record.
Of course it’s just one game in a 16 game NFL season, but it sure started the right way for Kansas City. Playing opening night gives the teams a little extra time to prepare for Week 2. The Chiefs return home to host the Philadelphia Eagles while the Patriots head out on the road to face the New Orleans Saints.
Two years ago Aaron Altherr of the Philadelphia Phillies hit an inside the park grand slam when Washington Nationals outfielder Michael Taylor misplayed a fly ball. Well last night it was Taylor who was rounding the bases for an inside the park grand slam when Phillies centerfielder Odubel Herrera misplayed the line drive Taylor hit. The inside the park grand slam helped Taylor’s Nationals pick up an 11-10 win over the Phillies Friday night.
According to MLB’s record there have only been 28 inside the park grand slams since baseball expanded in 1961. An even odder stat is that it’s only happen twice this millennium and Taylor has been involved in both of them. After a reporter reminded Taylor of his involvement in Altherr’s inside the park grand slam Taylor said “feels better to be on this side of it”.
The Cleveland Indians extended their winning streak to 16 games last night with a 5-0 night over the Baltimore Orioles.
Edwin Encarnacion got the Indians off on the right foot as he hit a three run home run in the bottom of the 1st inning to start Cleveland on their 5-0 victory. Encarnacion’s home run was to dead centerfield and landed in the trees next to Heritage Park. That’s the area where past Indians stars are immortalized.
With their 16th win the Indians extended the longest winning streak in franchise history. This is also the longest winning streak in the past 15 years of baseball. Cleveland is now four wins away from tie the 2002 “Moneyball” Oakland A’s at 20 in a row and with five more wins the Indians would tie the 1935 Chicago Cubs for the longest winning streak in baseball history at 21 games. To be fair the 1916 New York Giants did win 26 straight games, but there was a tie in that streak.
The Indians haven’t lost since August 23rd when the Boston Red Sox beat them 6-1. On this streak the Indians have beaten the Red Sox and Orioles one time each. The Kansas City Royals and the New York Yankees three times each and they’ve beaten the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers four times each.
Now to get those five more wins and tie the 1935 Cubs the Indians will have to beat the Orioles two more times this weekend and then sweep the Tigers in a 3 game series Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at home. Do you think the Indians can do it?
You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but the podcast is also available on TuneIn.com
Don’t forget that you can find me on Twitter @Burketime
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