The Skolney Blog

Thursday: BILLS 24, BUCCANEERS 18 Bills bounced back from that bad loss in Foxboro, but still were a hail mary away from losing.  Sunday: COWBOYS 43, RAMS 20 Dallas completely blew this one out by halftime. JAGUARS 20, STEELERS 10 5th win in a row for the Jags. The Steelers offense again was bad, and lost Pickett.  EAGLES 38, COMMANDERS 31 For whatever reason the Commies can play Philly tight. The Eagles look like a near lock though for the #1 seed.  TITANS 28, FALCONS 23 Will Levis had a huge game in his 1st career start, which probably means it's his show going forward. Atlanta wound up led by Taylor Heinicke.  SAINTS 38, COLTS 27 Another home loss for the Colts, whose season is slipping away. The Saints meanwhile have found some offense and might be the south favorites.  JETS 13, GIANTS 10 OT The Giants are having a woeful season, yet still almost won with a 3rd string QB named Tommy DeVito, until they choked at the end (with help from the clock o...

In theaters: THE EXORCIST: BELIEVER Well, I suppose this is was better than David Gordon Green's Halloween movies. But not by much. This film is just a dull slog, generating no tension. And what they do to Ellen Burstyn here, reprising her role from the original, is criminal.  KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON Martin Scorsese's 3 1/2 hour epic mostly lives up to the hype. I mean, you feel the length for sure, and I wish there had been more early scenes of the Leonardo DiCaprio-Lily Gladstone relationship to sell that part of the story. But the story is deeply involving and coldly matter of fact about racism and evil in a way few films are. The main trio of performances are all stellar, especially the unshowy Gladstone and the chillingly diabolical Robert Deniro. Of course from a technical standpoint the film is impeccable. And it delivers a very unexpected gut punch of an ending in a most unexpected and creative way.  Everything else: HE'S ALL THAT Randomly watched the gender-swap...

VIKINGS 24 PACKERS 10 Many things happened during the Vikings win on Sunday at Lambeau that marked their 3rd straight win to get them back to .500 after a season from hell start. Some good, a few bad. None matter. Because the season from hell struck again in the worst way yet. Kirk Cousins tore his Achilles and is out for the season. It overshadows everything else. Because I don't know how the Vikings survive this blow, or even if it is remotely possible. Making things all the sadder is that Kirk was playing absolutely spectacular football.  There was no massive hangover from the big Monday Night Football win over the 49ers. The Vikings were basically in control of this game from the start, even if it didn't totally show up on the scoreboard.  The Vikings had 10 points on the board before the Packers even managed a 1st down. Cam Akers finally got the Vikings 1st rushing touchdown of the season. Cousins was throwing great, particularly on 3rd downs.  Mistakes kept the game...

VIKINGS 22 49ERS 17 At last! After 6 weeks of mostly pain and suffering, the 2023 Vikings finally turned back the clock to better days on Monday night. They put together their best collective performance of the KOC era, and took down one of the best teams in the NFL, in a no fluke we beat their butts in primetime victory that could be a season changing moment. What this win will mean in the long run will reveal itself in time, but this is a win worth savoring big time. Once again the Vikings were playing a home game that by the look of the stands was practically a road game, as there was a ton of 49er red in the crowd.  And these visitors got an early chance to cheer as somehow the Vikings had their 4th opening drive turnover of the year, when Charvarius Ward stole the ball away from Jordan Addison on a slant pass. The 49ers quickly drove into the redzone, but Harrison Smith forced a fumble by Christian McCaffrey, which Dean Lowry pounced on before it could roll out of bounds. With...

Thursday: JAGUARS 31, SAINTS 24 A very rare good Thursday night game. The Jags were pretty much in control the whole way, but the Saints kept it close, and just missed a tying TD   Sunday: RAVENS 38, LIONS 6 Well well well. Look at what happens to the Lions when they actually play a good team that is willing to catch a football. Lamar Jackson dominated. I believe this was 28-0 before the mighty Lions even got a 1st down. And Detroit could never even make it a game. But of course the media loves the Lions and will never call THEM frauds.  BEARS 30, RAIDERS 12 The Bears started Tyson Bagent, and naturally blew out the Raiders, who themselves started Brian Hoyer.  FALCONS 16, BUCCANEERS 13 In a battle for first place (really), the Falcons had a couple awful turnovers, but escaped with a field goal at the buzzer.  BROWNS 39, COLTS 38 Naturally a wild game with this score came down to the refs fixing the finish. The Browns sort of benched Mr. Massage for ...

Twice, Quentin Tarantino completely blew my god damn mind with one of his movies. The first was Pulp Fiction, which hit in 1994 and so instantly re-wired my brain as far as what movies could be that it felt like all movies existed in either a pre or post-Pulp world.  9 years later he did it again. Kill Bill. The early 2000s had its great movies, sure, but that 90s boom of massive, game-changing creativity had definitely faded out a lot. And then here comes Tarantino to again just blow the roof off of what a movie can be. Kill Bill was such a massive undertaking that sometime during production it was split into 2 volumes. There was just too much here to fit it into a regular runtime, although for years we have been teased with the idea of a release that's the entire 2 volumes put together. This was Tarantino's 1st film in 6 years, since Jackie Brown, and like that film was a tribute to a beloved B movie genre. This time it was the Samurai movie, and again, it's n...

Thursday: CHIEFS 19, BRONCOS 8 Another ugly TNF game. The Chiefs weren't good but were also never threatened. As mortal as they seem they'd be unbeaten if Kelce and Jones had played in the opener.  Sunday: RAVENS 24, TITANS 16 The Ravens weren't great, but the bumbling Titans were way worse. Would appreciate a great Ravens effort next week.  BROWNS 19, 49ERS 17 Just when I'm thinking the 49ers might flirt with an unbeaten season they go and lose a team led by PJ Tucker. Though it took a couple major injuries and a missed field goal at the end for it to happen.  BENGALS 17, SEAHAWKS 13 Another game led by defenses. The Bengals have gotten back to .500 after early struggles.  COMMANDERS 24, FALCONS 16 A pair of teams I have no handle on. Actually a rare home loss for the Falcons.  DOLPHINS 42, PANTHERS 21 Carolina stunningly went up 14-0 in Miami, but all that did was just irritate the fish, who ripped off the next 35.  JAGUARS 37, COLTS 20 Jags w...

VIKINGS 19 BEARS 13 I swear, it is impossible to have a Vikings @ Bears game be anything other than an ugly scrum. For over 20 years these have been the ugliest football games of nearly every Vikings season. And for quite a long time, winning in Chicago was nearly impossible for the Vikings. (We only won once there between 2001 and 2014) The Vikings came into Sunday actually having won their last 3 in Chicago though, all in aesthetically unpleasant fashion. And this game today was a matchup of 2 1-4 teams, so you knew the ugliness would be kicked up a notch. And the game lived up (down?) to the matchup, as neither team looked good, and probably nobody came away feeling that great. But for the Vikings, they feel a little better after getting a must win. Step one for the Vikings was to not turn the ball over on their opening drive, as they had done in each of the last 3 games. And they accomplished that, ending drive one with a 53 yard Greg Joseph field goal. Chicago methodically drove f...

ALDS Game 4: Astros 3 Twins 2 The 2023 Minnesota Twins did some memorable things. They won the first playoff game since 2004, advanced for the first time in the playoffs since 2002, found a bona-fide big game ace, and maybe a new face of the franchise superstar.  But they also struck out. Constantly. Relentlessly. 1,654 times in the regular season, a new record. And another 73 in just 6 playoff games, including 14 in an elimination game. This team died as they lived. And they only had 3 hits in game 4. An Edouard Julien leadoff double was quickly wiped out by a double play. But then Royce Lewis hit his 4th homerun of these playoffs to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.  That lead lasted 3 batters, when Michael Brantley took Joe Ryan deep to tie it.  That one bad pitch was enough for Rocco Baldelli to make the move to the bullpen. I'm not sure why you even bother starting Ryan (who hadn't pitched in nearly 2 weeks) if you are going to have this quick a hook. Plus, it sets up that ...

ALDS Game 3: Astros 9 Twins 1 As you may have heard, the 2023 Twins shattered the record for most strikeouts by any team. Ever.  And as seemingly different as the Twins have seemed so far in these playoffs, they're still that team that set the record. And boy did the strikeouts rear their ugly head at a bad time in game 3, putting the Twins on the brink of elimination.  Also didn't help that Sonny Gray got 4 runs tagged on him in the 1st inning. Yeah there was a sharp grounder that Alex Kirilloff maybe should have fielded, and maybe if he does the Astros get nothing. But that play didn't make Gray serve up a 3 run meatball to Jose Abreu. The Twins had a chance to get runs back in the first, with 1 out and 2 in scoring position. But Lewis and Correa both struck out. They got the first 2 on in the 3rd, but a Polanco strikeout helped Houston escape again.  An Alex Bregman homerun padded the lead to 5-0. Then the Twins took 3 walks to load the bases in the 5th, before again h...

Thursday: BEARS 40, COMMANDERS 20 Sure, that makes sense. Washington takes Philly into OT on the road, then a few days later gets absolutely clowned by Justin Fields.  Sunday: JAGUARS 25, BILLS 20 The Bills were killing teams the last 3 weeks, but lost to the London Jags rather convincingly.  LIONS 42, PANTHERS 24 Any fight the Panthers showed against us was absent here. Guess the Lions are just going to have it all this year.  DOLPHINS 31, GIANTS 16 Miami bounced back from their Buffalo blowout by crushing the again inept Giants.  STEELERS 17, RAVENS 10 The Steelers defense rebounded from a blowout as well, causing a pretty awful Lamar Jackson game and getting a late TD pass to win   COLTS 23, TITANS 16 The Colts win was largely a Gardner Minshew game, since Anthony Richardson got hurt yet again.  SAINTS 34, PATRIOTS 0 Bill Belichick suffered his worst ever loss last week, and now suffers his worst shutout loss. He might not even be able to las...

ALDS Game 2: Twins 6 Astros 2 It's no secret that, in a best of 5 series, going down 2-0 is almost a death sentence. So game 2 was pretty close to a must win for the Twins. Fortunately, they had Pablo Lopez on the mound. And as good as he was in game 1 against Toronto he was even better here, throwing 7 scoreless, and calmly working out of the couple mini-jams he got into. You would have to say it's one of the greatest starts in Twins playoff history.  The Twins were productive at the plate too. They grabbed a quick 1-0 lead in the first on a Correa double. Kyle Farmer hit a 2 run homerun next inning. Correa drove in 2 more with a bases loaded single in the 5th. Correa has been having a superb postseason so far. This Twins club doesn't seem to be too small for the moment. And now they have a chance to finish this series without ever going back to Houston. 

CHIEFS 27 VIKINGS 20 Last week was an anaomly. Last week the Vikings played a football game in which a few things went their way in key spots, and they were able to win. We now resume our scheduled programming, in which the 2023 season as a Vikings fan is an unrelenting hellscape, full of missed opportunities, mistakes, and winnable games falling away in excruciating fashion.  I wasn't even expecting a win. Apparently not many Vikings fans were, since clearly a whole ton of them sold their tickets to Chiefs fans. I have never seen more visiting fans at a sporting event before. I guarantee if it was even a 50-50 split it wasn't by much.  My hopes for this game were that we could at least keep things close and have a chance late. Well, I guess that worked out. I should have been more specific.  The first play of the game should have told me all I needed to know. Kirk connected with Josh Oliver on a really nice gainer aaaaaaand then Oliver had the ball ripped out of his hand...

ALDS Game 1: Astros 6 Twins 4 With the pressure of two ugly postseason streaks behind them, I pretty much think the Twins are playing with house money now. Nobody really thinks this team has what it takes to go all the way. So I approached this next series pretty zen-like.  That doesn't mean squandering a quite winnable game 1 against Houston isn't still annoying. The Twins had a great chance to steal one of the games in Houston they will have to to advance again, but blew it through some dreadful situational at bats.  Right from the start, Justin Verlander was far from unhittable. The first 2 Twins reached, but a double play wiped it out. Another double play in the 2nd. A Julien leadoff double in the 3rd. Again, no runs. And then Verlander got in his groove. As all this was going on, the Twins pitchers were not putting up zeroes. In fact, the Astros led after 1 pitch, a Jose Altuve homerun off Bailey Ober. A Yordan Alavarez 2 run shot expanded the lead. And the Astros tacked ...

Wild Card Series Game 2: TWINS 2 BLUE JAYS 0 In 2 days, the 2023 Minnesota Twins put to bed the 2  embarrassing streaks that have loomed over this franchise for basically my entire adult life.  Game 1 they broke the playoff game losing streak. But as cool as that was, you really didn't want to then drop the series. It would kind of wreck the moment. The mission of game 2 was to win a playoff series for the first time since 2002.  Mission accomplished. The Twins swept the series by again displaying outstanding, clutch pitching against a tough lineup, and making just enough key plays at the plate and in the field. There was no Royce Lewis show in game 2. The crowd greeted his every at bat with massive ovations, as if expecting homeruns every time now. The pitching matchup was Sonny Gray vs Jose Berrios. And both threw up zero after zero early on.  Gray had to work a little harder for those zeroes, as the Jays did get runners on in 4 of his 5 innings. Berrios was much m...

1993: It's the future: Los Angeles 1996. The city burns, overtaken by gangs, and master criminals like the psychotic Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes). Into the fray comes super cop John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone) aka the Demolition Man. He takes down Phoenix, but innocents die in the process, and both are sentenced to cryo-prison.  So begins Demolition Man, arguably the greatest 80s action movie of the 90s. The plot proper kicks into gear when Phoenix is thawed out for a parole hearing and breaks free, into the long into the future of 2032 where the world has become pacifism on steroids. What constitutes police in this future are unable to deal with violent criminals. They don't even have guns. So the police thaw out Spartan to go after him. Demolition Man would probably have been plenty entertaining if it were just content to have Stallone and Snipes go at it in a collection of amped-up action sequences. But this movie has endured because it is REALLY funny, buildin...

Wild Card Series Game 1: TWINS 3 BLUE JAYS 1 6,937 days.  That is how long the Twins went without winning a single playoff game. 18 games over 19 seasons. So many missed opportunities and wasted seasons. But at long last that humiliating albatross of a streak is over. The Twins combined some excellent pitching and 2 huge swings from their now unquestioned best hitter to take game 1 over the Blue Jays.  Royce Lewis wasn't even a guarantee to be on the playoff roster, having hurt his hammy late in the season. But he was well enough to DH. And boy did that pay off.  In the first inning he lasered a Kevin Gausman pitch into the left field bleachers for a 2 run homerun. The burst of energy this seemed to give the crowd was palpable. And then, two innings later, Lewis did it AGAIN, lifting one out to right field for a 3-0 lead. So much of the 18 games were marked by top Twins hitters pulling no shows. And here you got Lewis coming up this huge in this spot. It could prove to be...

VIKINGS 21 PANTHERS 13 When you start 0-3, especially a surprising 0-3, everything is bad. Everything.  No aspect of the Vikings organization seems immune from fan anger right now. It's just a toxic fan culture right now. The only thing that could start to cure this is a win, but the Vikings traveling to face the also winless Panthers felt scary. I cannot even imagine what would have happened if they had fallen to 0-4.  Thankfully we will never have to find out. While not a season saving win, the Vikings did achieve a most necessary win and can at least breathe a tiny sigh of relief. It wasn't without problems. It's hard to find a more ominous start to a game. The Vikings were inside the 5 on their opening drive, and then had a TD called back on a Josh Oliver holding penalty. It got worse, way worse, when Kirk Cousins made a legitimately terrible throw towards the front corner of the endzone, which was easily picked off by Sam Franklin, who darted 99 yards for a touchdown. ...