Sunday Dinner with Italians and Football

Rams and Chiefs are only sure things

I sometimes feel sorry for those fans that think football Sunday revolves around chicken wings, pizza and chips with dips. Growing up in NY, Sundays meant waking up to the smell of garlic and onions as my Dad prepared the sauce for our feast.   Chicken wings and nachos? Not in my house! I’m eating sausage and meatballs with a hand ripped piece of Italian bread dipped into it. You can have your guacamole and chips; I’d rather have my pasta and braciole! As I cooked the red sauce with meatballs and sausages over the stove like I do every Sunday, I had several games going and a couple pots and pans boiling as well. My ability to multi task making the meatballs, frying them in a little olive oil, grilling sweet Italian sausage while occasionally stirring the homemade sauce and watching several games, is nothing short of genius. It is akin to a neurosurgeon removing a tumor while making a turkey club sandwich and channel surfing between reruns of “Seinfeld” and “The A-Team”. I do this on a weekly basis with ease, yet from week to week so far this season we have no idea what we are getting from 90% of the teams.

The Buffalo Bills rolled the Vikings like my Dad used to roll braciole for his sauce. They literally took every part of the game on both sides of the ball and rolled it into a delicious victory just when it seemed like they would be regretting picking Josh Allen in the top 10 in this year’s draft. Josh Allen looked like a young John Elway and Kirk Cousins reminded us why the Redskins (yeah, I went politically incorrect here, you gotta a problem with dat?) were reluctant to give him the $90 million guaranteed.

Jacksonville looked like one of the best teams in the AFC after destroying the Pats last week. They dismantled Tom Brady and made him look his age (59) and appeared to be the team to beat. Along come the Titans and QB Gino “Manicotti” Mariotta, who slices and dices the vaunted Jags defense to a stunning victory.   Gino is a paesano from Hawaii so we can applaud this upset. He is from the southern part of the island, which is very similar to Sicily. This one was also shocking based on the Titans defense that reminded us once again why Blake Bortles cannot be trusted week to week.

The Packers look like they are a complete and utter mess. They have the best QB in the league in Rodgers, but literally have running backs that would struggle for playing time if they went to the University of Alabama. That is not a joke; I seriously doubt any of them could win a starting job over Bama’s current roster of running backs. Once again, their defense was shredded like fine whole milk mozzarella by Alex Smith. There was of course the obligatory roughing the passer calls on the “hit man” Clay Mathews because he had the audacity to make a picture perfect tackle of Smith. More on this angle later.

Seattle and Dallas proved that you don’t need to eat a big bowl of pasta and sausage to fall asleep on the couch. This was such a boring game and Dallas literally has a crisis on their hands. Dak Prescott is throwing 4 yard passes and like the Packers, I seriously think that not one single Dallas receiver would see the field if they played for ‘Bama or Clemson. Russell Wilson is in the same boat and is running for his life on every passing down and playing a dink and dunk passing game.

The Patriots are 45-7 when coming off a loss under Tom Brady. They are now 45-8 after not only losing, but once again being dismantled by an opposing team. The winless Lions made it look easy and manhandled them on both sides of the ball like me making the Italian bread yesterday. On both sides of the line, they looked overwhelmed and weak. Brady is taking an awful lot of punishment for a guy who just turned 60 in the time it took to write this article. The Pats run defense is abysmal to say the least and the Lions yesterday had their first running back rush for over a 100 yard in a game since George H.W. Bush was still in office. The Pats may have signed Josh “water bong” Gordon, but if teams can run the ball down their throat like ricotta being stuffed in a shell it will make no difference.

The Rams and Chiefs appear to be the real deal. The Rams are the deepest and most complete team in the league and barring an injury, they will be home in L.A. for the duration of the playoffs. They have so much talent on both sides of the ball that they very well may be able to withstand an injury or two. They also benefit from playing in the NFC West. Two games with Seattle, Arizona and now the QB deficient 49ers and you can tack 6 more wins onto their 3-0 start. The Chiefs are an offensive juggernaut and Patrick Mahomes is throwing TD’s around like I was throwing meatballs into plates yesterday…Everybody gets a couple!   It will be interesting if Mahomes and the Chiefs can finally overcome the one thing that has held them back for years: Coach Andy Reid. We shall see but for now, Mangia!!!             Time for me to hit the leftovers!

-BSB