4 Hard Downs: Turnovers, Targeting & Turkey Time

Navy got roasted, Roasting a turkey, the human body and spotlight on this bad team

We are coming off a hell of a weekend.

On the field.

In my life.

Just so much going on and working as a human to manage it. This should have been out yesterday, but I had a meeting with the school Monday and was coming off said weekend.

My kid got some ribbons in her first time trials assessment for swim. We had the Family Dance and the meet. I timed at the meet. She swam well at the meet. And to their word, it was truly just an hour, not 5 or 8 hours for a meet and we got out of there and got home for dinner in plenty of time.

So, keeping time in mind, let’s use some tempo and SPOT THE BALL!!!

1st Down: Loose Lips Sink Ships, So Do Turnovers

If you don’t know, I come from a military family. My dad. His dad. His brother. His mother. Shout out to Holloman Air Force Base.

I also got recruited heavily by the service academies:

Got very close to going to the Naval Academy. They came to my school to talk to me. So did Army. I care about them and I just couldn’t go to school that far away from my mom (not an exaggeration, almost every weekend of my freshman year my mom drove up Sunday to have lunch with me because I was homesick and that isn’t happening in NY or MD).

Watching this team, who is supposed to be the picture of discipline have 6 turnovers after having 0 turnovers for September and almost all of October is brutal. Just giving the Fighting Irish the ball.

You can’t win that way; and when you’re playing a team that is objectively more talented, bigger, faster and stronger, giving them extra possessions is how you lose by 37 points, 51-14.

The bright side is that it doesn’t matter for the AAC Championship. Still on a collision course with Army, a team who also has Notre Dame on their schedule. The back three for them with Tulane, ECU (looking for a coach) and Army will determine who is headed and hosting that title game and who has a shot at the playoff.

We will talk more about that in The Format because the AAC might have really pissed their pants.

2nd Down: I Don’t Know What To Do About Targeting

I hate that these guys are getting kicked out of games for football plays. There is a massive difference between a malicious play and a violent play. Violence is a part of the sport. Being violent is what makes people good at the sport.

Legislating that violence based upon the fear of what people who have never done it, who are gambling and need the QB/WR to make their nut or view the defense as “too mean” isn’t what it should be.

There are very few VIOLENT wide receivers. There are even fewer VIOLENT quarterbacks. Their meekness creates an element of sympathy. And, if we’re being honest, false empathy because people view themselves getting hit that way and how it would hurt and they don’t want to go through it and they don’t want them to go through it.

That sympathy and empathy doesn’t exist for an LB who gets smoked by a TE. It doesn’t exist for a G who gets blanked by a DE. It doesn’t exist for a CB who gets a bowling ball, fire hydrant RB ducking his head and running straight through him. It defintely doesn’t exist, and this isn’t targeting but it is a personal foul (in theory), for an S when an RB grabs his facemask and smacks him or drags it to the ground.

So I don’t know what to do with the rule. I do know that every time it happens and I say, “he hit him in the chest with his shoulder, but their heads also collided,” like clockwork someone will say, “that’s textbook targeting.”

Not to make a joke but the headbone is connected to the neckbone. The neckbone is connected to the shoulderbone. Shoulderbone is connected to the chestbone. If you fold someone’s chest in half, your head will hit their head. That’s how the body works.

I say all of this as someone who has been spineboarded. Temporary paralysis. We watched the hit that sent me to the hospital over and over again in film. It was a clean hit but it was a violent hit. Not malicious. Violent. I put my goddamn neckbrace on and dealt with it.

Understanding the difference between violent and malicious is huge here and I don’t think we’ll ever get there because most people think all violence is malicious.

TLDR: Folks view themselves as QB/WR so when those guys get rocked, largely of their own making, they want “justice” and in CFB that justice is throwing someone out.

3rd Down: Let’s Talk About Oklahoma

They’re not good.

Like, really not good.

I went long on the targeting, so I just don’t have much to say. Their numbers are terrible but watching them is worse. They seemed to have figured something out in the first half against Ole Miss, leading 14-10 at the half. However, everything after that was just ugh.

9 sacks, that can’t happen.

Based on the schedule this could be a year the Sooners don’t make it to a bowl game. Maine will get them to 5 but Mizzou, Bama and LSU are all, to varying degrees, orbiting that playoff world and they ain’t going to drop this one against the Sooners.

4th Down: It Is Turkey Time

If you’re not practicing. If you’re not getting better everyday. If you’re not trying.

Then you’re getting worse.

That’s true in sports. That’s true at work.

Also, so true in turkey.

If you think you’re going to roll out of bed on November 28th and just “make a turkey” be it roasted, fried or smoked, you’re joking yourself. If you cook turkey one time a year, you’re joking yourself.

If you think turkey isn’t good, it is because you, or your family, whoever does the cooking, y’all are bad at it. Probably because you do it once a year.

Turkey, Bacon, Cheese Sauce, Homemade Bread, Crisp Skin Turkey, HOT BROWN

That also means you don’t make Hot Browns. If you haven’t had a Kentucky Hot Brown, you’re missing out. They’re one of the GOAT open-faced sandwiches, they’re on the Mt. Rushmore of open-faced sammies.

Actually, there are only two open-faced sandwiches on my Mt. Rushmore, so maybe it is Mt. Rush and No More. Kentucky Hot Browns and Hot Turkey Sandwiches. Everything else GTFO.

So this links the start of the post with the backend, this was a two-day thing and a big part of my weekend. Just a turkey breast as a warm up to make whole birds (got 4 on deck, 2 for friends and 2 for us). Injected with a blend of melted butter, bourbon, cumin, chili, garlic, s&p, Texas Pete. Blended and then strained to go through the injector and into the bird.

Roasted it after the swim meet, rested, sliced while I did the bread “french toast” style but nothing sweet. Just an egg wash and then in the butter in the cast iron. Cheese sauce is a blend with Swiss, Mozz, Gruyere and a little Ched. Bacon and some basil to finish. I 86 the tomato because my wife doesn’t like them.

That’s life dude. This shit was devoured in our home. My family likes turkey. We are fans of turkey. She took a turkey bacon wrap to work today for lunch. Turkey is the jam here. That’s because I know what I’m doing. That’s why folks are asking me to make their birds next month.

Let’s get ready, Freddy. Halloween is just a warm up for holiday season and Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Let’s go out there and win.

Cheers!!!