Quick Slant

Mat Irby's Quick Slant

Mat Irby
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Quick Slant: TNF Returns to Its Roots by Administering the Ludovico Technique and Forcing Us to Watch Bad Football

Broncos @ Saints, Thursday @8:15 PM Thursday Night Football is up to its old tricks again. A nationally featured island game with the lowest over-under of the week sounds vaguely familiar, but usually not with the Bezos edition. There was a time in the NFL when a 36.5 over-under

Mat Irby
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Quick Slant: Is This the New Allen, and Can the Jets (Ever) Get on Track?

Bills @ Jets, Monday @ 8:15 PM The expectations for the AFC East were greater than this. People gushed over three teams and wondered which had the best chance at the Super Bowl. Only the Patriots were appraised with no shot; perhaps, in retrospect, we were only right about them. The

Mat Irby
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Quick Slant: Don't Be Ashamed - It's Okay to Be a Little Excited About Bengals vs. Giants on SNF

Bengals at Giants, Sunday @ 8:20 PM The Bengals aspired to be AFC contenders. Largely perceived to have a talented roster, especially on the offensive side of the ball, Cincinnati started with a shocking loss to the Patriots, who haven’t won since. They’ve battled harder against better teams

Mat Irby
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Quick Slant: TNF Is the Tale of Two Surprises (But for Different Reasons)

49ers @ Seahawks, Thursday at 8:15 PM San Francisco was expected to win the NFC. They were supposed to contend for the Super Bowl. Instead, they have been decimated by injuries and are 2-3. Nothing has gone to plan so far, but almost no one truly believes San Francisco will

Mat Irby
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Quick Slant: Getting Back on Track in the Shadow of the Oncoming Train - The Saints Try to Get Right Against the Champs

Saints @ Chiefs, Monday @ 8:15 PM Two weeks ago, Saints fans were on top of the world. Having eaten the Cowboys for lunch in front of Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady in the Fox game of the week, they had scored 91 offensive points through two weeks and looked like

Mat Irby
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Quick Slant: The Love and the Hate - The NFL's Most Historical Inter-Conference Rivalry Plays Out on SNF

Cowboys @ Steelers, Sunday @ 8:20 PM Few inter-conference matchups are as historically prestigious as Dallas and Pittsburgh. They have combined for eleven Super Bowl victories, three against each other—more than any other pairing. The Cowboys had a streak of consecutive winning seasons from 1966 to 1985, the longest of

Mat Irby
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Quick Slant: Two Remarkably Similar Teams (to Varying Degrees of Success) Vie for the NFC South Lead on TNF

Buccaneers @ Falcons, Thursday @ 8:15 PM The Buccaneers and Falcons come into Week 5’s matchup with the division lead on the line. The 2-2 Falcons were the NFC South’s off-season pet after they added a new coaching staff and the top free agent QB to a roster many

Mat Irby
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Quick Slant: Grit and Grace on MNF - Motown's Underdog Against Seattle's Overachiever

Seahawks @ Lions, Monday @ 8:15 PM The Lions were last year’s darling – representatives of a city that’s a blue-collar hammer, cold and tough, devastated by the end of the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the Great Recession, driven to mass poverty, and desperate for a win. And