December 28th, 2024 - Philadelphia 76ers @ Utah Jazz

https://youtu.be/855YRd2ksZc?si=HFqq1IetVSBeMSUT

It's still a festive time as Christmas has just passed yet the New Year still hasn't come. Christmas feelings are still in the air with one more big holiday yet to arrive... a pretty unique feeling. The final 'regular' days of the year, adds a sentimental and oddly sad twist to this time period I suppose. They're 'regular' days but also they're not because life around the country still hasn't returned to normal quite yet. There should be a name or nickname for these days. In one of these grey area middle days, The Machine heads to Utah with the 76ers to play in front of the nation. The Machine appreciates the opportunity to play during the holidays in general.

On this evening, the Machine dropped 17, tying his career high! Sixers won 108-80!

• 17 Points, 2 Rebounds, 3 Assists
• Teammate Grade: A

He hopes he provided some entertainment to fans across America and the world.

🌎My Thoughts on the Sports World Today🌎

In the real world, NFL Week 2 just happened! Sundays come quick! There's always so much football to digest between weeks and so little time to really appreciate all that went down. Each game in a team's season is nearly worth six percent of the year's games. In basketball/hockey it's closer to one percent, in baseball a singular game is worth less than a percent.

How much of a team's season gets completed per game in America's Big Four Sports:

Obviously this is not a super mind-blowing fact but I do think when it's listed more plainly like this it's even easier to grasp how much more important each game is in football than in other sports. Some criticize football because they don't have a series format in the playoffs well to that I say, the whole NFL season itself game to game feels as important as some playoff games in other sports. I think this is a big reason why football is so popular.

Anyway, let's dive into these games a bit.

Packers defeat Commanders, 27-18. - The Packers look ready to win a Super Bowl right about now. Firing on all cylinders! The Commanders seem beatable through two games and Jayden Daniels may be out for a handful of weeks with a knee sprain. Their season seems up in the air right now but they do have a respectable backup QB in Marcus Mariota to perhaps hold down the fort. If Mariota plays it will be against his former team in the Raiders.

Cowboys defeat Giants in a WILD one, 40-37. - This game was straight out of Madden. Nuts! Russell Wilson randomly dropping classic Russ games in 2025. He chucked 450 passing yards with three touchdowns. Dak Prescott threw 361 yards himself which is nothing to shrug at. Just a crazy one that was nearly a tie as it went deep into overtime. The Cowboys needed this win badly, Giants are showing that they've got some guts.

Seahawks defeat Steelers, 31-17. - Jaxon Smith-Njigba is looking ready to have the biggest season of his career! Sam Darnold might have a nice Baker Mayfield comeback. Baker Mayfield, Geno Smith, now maybe Sam Darnold? I'm intrigued to see this trend of 'older' QBs finding success later in their careers. Even Daniel Jones is doing better. Maybe the league is a but impatient at times. The Steelers shouldn't be overly discouraged.

Rams defeat Titans, 33-19.

Bills defeat Jets, 30-10. - I mean nobody should be surprised. The Bills are Super Bowl contenders with the MVP on their team and the Jets are average at best. These teams are in different universes.

Patriots defeat Dolphins, 33-27. - This was a wild one for sure. Two rather odd teams finding their identities. The Patriots young and up and coming, the Dolphins trying to figure out why things are kinda falling a part. Entertaining game though.

Bengals defeat Jaguars, 31-27. - This was a potentially fun matchup that ended pretty tragically as Joe Burrow is out for the season with a turf toe injury that needs surgery. Tough scene. Burrow has been injured a lot in his career at this point. So odd and unfortunate to see such a great player deal with random major injuries like this. Hope he doesn't deal with the same fate as Andrew Luck. Well despite this, the competition itself actually did become fun as this was a back and forth affair with plenty of twists and turns. Trevor Lawrence and Jake Browning combined to throw 5 TD and 5 INT. Bengals are actually 2-0 though, so they have started off better as they hoped but now they have a bigger issue on their hands. Jake Browning is actually a good backup. This is a massive opportunity for Jake in his career. He started a handful of games back in 2023 and looked pretty good. Now he has a whole season most likely. He may not be a starting caliber QB but if he plays reasonably well he could establish himself in a big way and be a backup for many more years to come. He's been on the Bengals a long time, the whole team knows him. Should be interesting. Trevor Lawrence and the Jags still look super average as usual.

49ers defeat Saints, 26-21. - Mac Jones looked very competent against the Saints which was cool. Crazy that Brock Purdy is also injured. Nothing too surprising here otherwise. The Saints don't look awful but they don't look good.

Ravens defeat Browns, 41-17. - Ravens bounce back from last week's insanity and score 40 with ease. Man, it would have been sweet to see Joe Flacco have some epic comeback story and to an extent he did these last few seasons. But I fear that this second stint may be coming to a close unless he can grab a few wins in a row or something.

Lions defeat Bears, 52-21. - Welp, the Lions reminded everyone they're still very dangerous. I'm not surprised but this was still a good reminder. Caleb Williams might be slowly trekking into bust territory we shall see. He definitely deserves a very lengthy leash but he's been looking rough.

Colts defeat Broncos, 29-28. - Daniel Jones looks like the next Tom Brady. I'm calling it now LOL. Just kidding but hey, he looks ready to have a good season I will say that. So far he's making a lot of people forget about Anthony Richardson. The Broncos should be ok. They should have actually won this game had their not been a massive inconvenient flag at the end of the game. But yeah, they seem like a solid enough squad. I can see Bo Nix taking a Dak Prescott sort of trajectory. I bet Nix's best days might be in like six years or something. He'll be very useful till then I just see him improving significantly over time.

Cardinals defeat Panthers, 27-22. - This was another strange game that I think only became very close because the Cardinals may have gotten a bit complacent but nothing really surprising from this one. The Cardinals took care of business in these first two weeks and got wins which is good, but they'll need to prove a little more before they are seen as a legit threat. Hard to say much on the Panthers, might have to draft a new QB next season, but they have a lot of season left.

Eagles defeat Chiefs, 20-17. - Welp, the Eagles are still terrifying. They don't even look as sharp as last season through two games but still, they just win because isn't that just how football works right? The Eagles just win on accident they are so good, it's like they're just going through the motions. The Chiefs will win eight in a row or something soon. I'm unsure if they have a championship ceiling or not, but they did face an up and coming division rival in their first game, and then they had a rematch of their Super Bowl loss. While the Chiefs lost this rematch, they did factually play a lot better than back in February.

Falcons defeat Vikings, 22-6. - J.J. McCarthy looked really bad this week. I was personally maybe fooled by his pretty epic comeback over the Bears last week but yeah. Tough. McCarthy is injured and Carson Wentz is getting a chance to start for ANOTHER team. The dude keeps getting chances and well, I don't blame teams. Wentz is after all these years, a decently good talent. If Wentz plays well, I would not be shocked if he keeps the job. The Falcons look average.

Buccaneers defeat Texans, 20-19. - Baker Mayfield is just tough as nails and one of the most fun QBs to watch. Baker was getting buried and at one point it looked like his knee was destroyed. But Baker stayed in and even scrambled a lot after getting wrecked. Bucs get it done on true grit. Texans are in trouble I feel. The AFC South is gonna be nuts in 2025/26.

Chargers defeat Raiders, 20-9. - Well, yeah the Chargers look like a team that I'd be reluctant to play. They look good. Geno Smith is an awesome QB, but I wonder what his ceiling is hmmm. But also, there's not a lot of great targets in Las Vegas and the Chargers seem for real. So, yeah I think Smith is still a solid winning QB at this point.

Week 2 felt a bit strange, teams are still finding their identities, there's already a lot of injuries... But I'm ready for week three which begins in a few minutes with the Dolphins visiting Buffalo! The Bills should dominate but the Dolphins are as desperate as they've been in years! Should be interesting.

The sports world never sleeps, till next time!