First off – What the hell is going on in Atlanta? Is Quinn that poor of a defensive play-caller? Is it just that pressure is off and they’re playing loose and free against division teams they’ve played so often they don’t have to think too much? Voodoo? Whatever it is it has to be able to beat a bushel of Winston turnovers next week.

The Thursday fight: Real dumb. I liked Pouncey going full fists. That ain’t gonna hurt anybody but you will break your hands on a helmet. He didn’t care. He’s the centre on my all-nasty dream team O line. LT Duane Brown, LG Quenton Nelson, RG Richie Incognito, RT Lane Johnson.

I love that stuff. I couldn’t care less about player safety or defenceless receivers. The brutality is what makes this game great. It’s the reason for playing, honestly. To really perform as a football player, to break through the innate limitations wrought by an irresistible instinct to avoid danger, you have to tap into the atavistic beast within. It’s a manual pricking of the fight response. Pushing adrenaline to every inch of the body, eliminating pain and fatigue for the thrill of pure physical domination. Plus, no one got seriously injured and now we’ve got some bad blood. Real bad blood. BAD BLOOD, BABY! Bush league! Coward! Week 13 – mark it down, get your popcorn out – It’s gonna be an old school AFC North street fight!

Credit to Garrett. He stood there and answered to it after the game. Unlike some pathetic, sniveling, gold shoe-wearing quitters who tear up and storm out of press conferences because it didn’t go their way.

Freddie Kitchens might not be a long term head coach but he seems like an honest guy. He’d be a good coordinator (again) or position coach for sure and he might be a great HC for all I know. Like a rookie QB, he is. Most of them throw a ton of picks and most do the second year too but the good few of them don’t. He didn’t minimize anything in his postgame interview. Some coaches would equivocate  He was mad at his guy and didn’t hide it. They asked what kind of punishment he expected and he said, “I’ve never seen that in my life so we’ll wait and see”. I actually have seen that this year in the CFL. Vernon Adams and a helmet vs. Adam Bighill and brain damage. The difference was he didn’t connect. So just like spread offences, black quarterbacks, and 85-year-old hockey commentators who dress more flamboyantly than Deion Sanders – Canada did it first.

I was still recovering on Monday from the beer spiel I played in at the curling club on Saturday. My team, the Ring Dandies, came in dead last in scoring but easily finished atop the drinking standings. I won a miniature speaker, a deck of cards, and an apple-shaped ice cube tray.

On Monday, as in the spiel, both teams were guilty of some sloppy execution. The Chiefs made a few nice plays but couldn’t get much sustained in the first half, scoring a TD on a short field after a Mathieu INT return. Phil turned the ball over plenty enough in the first to keep the Chargers’ score down even though they moved the ball well.

In the second half, post-coaching adjustments, it looked like the Chiefs were going to start putting up points. They sure got over that quickly, managing 14 points in the third before clamming up. Even with losing the John Lennon of the NFL to injury that was pretty lame stuff.

Good for them the Chargers could muster all of zero points in the 4th. After a big defensive stand late and a huge 50 yard catch on the sideline to Mike Williams, the Electric Suck took their shots with a first down from the 25 with 44 seconds left. One of those shots was right on the money in the end zone. To the safety for Phil’s 4th Pick of the night. With that, the season’s hope was snuffed out of this sad, lost San Diego football team.

Seattle was on a bye this week so I got to fully enjoy the CFL division finals on Sunday. A couple more good games with pretty nice weather. Too nice. For that reason I expect this Sunday’s Grey Cup in Calgary to be a giant swirling ice-shard of pain and misery for all combatants.

Both of these teams have been bereft of Grey Cup wins for at least a couple decades. I don’t know a damn soul in Hamilton but I do have family and friends in and from Winnipeg so I will be cheering for a Bombers win. That being said, The TiCats went 15-3 for a reason and have, in my opinion, the MOP in Speedy Banks on their side so they will be no easy out. All I know for sure is we can look forward to Willie Jefferson really putting in a solid effort again.