"The Stack" 11-3-16

The Chicago Cubs have won the World Series for the first time since 1908. It was an amazing, gripping game seven. Congrats to the Chicago Cubs.
Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
Norv Turner resigned as Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator on Wednesday.
Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

The Stack is back on this Thursday and what a game seven we had in the World Series.  One of the most riveting of all time.  The Stack is here with reaction to that plus a college football weekend forecast and more so let’s get right to it and see what’s in “the stack” for today, Thursday, November 3rd:

 

Cubs end the drought, win first World Series in 108 years

 

The Chicago Cubs have finally done it!  They have won the World Series ending the longest suffering singular fan base in sports.  Their 8-7 win over the Cleveland Indians in game seven in Cleveland had a roller coaster of emotions and momentum.  Dexter Fowler led the game off with a homerun.  Cubs fans had to be feeling pretty good about themselves.  Then with the score tied 1-1 in the bottom of the third, the Indians failed to score with runner on first and second with one out.  Had they scored even one run there, the complexion of this game could have changed dramatically.  When the Cubs scored two runs in the fourth inning and then tallied on two more in the fifth to go up 5-1 it felt like there was no way Cleveland was going to come back.  The Cubs were scoring runs off of Corey Kluber and Andrew Miller, the best pitchers the Indians had.  Yet Cleveland battled back with a couple of runs once Jon Lester came into the game thanks in part to a wild pitch and then tied the game in the eighth inning on a two-run homerun by Rajai Davis in the bottom of the inning to tie it up 6-6.  The place was going nuts.  This was off of Cubs closer Aroldis Chapman no less.  It was unbelievable.  Then a 17 minute rain delay happened after the ninth inning and in the tenth the Cubs came out with a couple of runs which started when Ben Zobrist (MVP) hit a double that scored a run.  The Indians would score one run in the bottom of the tenth, but a ground ball went for the final out and the Cubs celebrated.

 

I can’t begin to put into words how Cubs fans must feel today.  They have suffered plenty.  This was one of, if not the best World Series game in baseball history.  The city of Chicago is celebrating today and there will be plenty of babies born next August I can tell you that.  Congratulations Cubs fans!  The curse has been lifted.  The Cubs are World Series champions!

 

Norv Turner resigns as Vikings offensive coordinator

 

In a move that sent shockwaves not just through the Twin Cities, but through the NFL in general, Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator Norv Turner resigned on Wednesday citing, “different views.”  It’s hard not to view the Vikings offense as a complete joke right now.  They struggle to move the ball and it is almost all on the offensive line.  Injuries have decimated the Vikings this year and the offensive line in particular has been hit hard. Perhaps Turner was taking too much of the heat and he simply had enough.  Perhaps head coach Mike Zimmer had a role in this one.  He and Turner are good friends and Zimmer said at his press conference on Wednesday he hopes the two will remain friends for years to come.  Tight ends coach Pat Shurmur will take over now as offensive coordinator which will benefit Sam Bradford since Shurmur has been with Bradford both in St. Louis and Philadelphia.  This is a shocking move, one that the team didn’t see coming and fans and the media didn’t see coming.  Something has to change though and we’ll see what Shurmur can get out of the guys for Sunday’s game against Detroit.  The ship feels like it is definitely sinking and at this point I would be very surprised to see the Vikings do anything other than lay an egg at home on Sunday to the Lions and watch their season continue to spiral out of control.  These guys are professionals though and Zimmer rallied them together after Teddy Bridgewater went down with his devastating knee injury.  Some blows though are tough to recover and this could certainly be one of them.  Even if Turner didn’t make the Vikings into a top ten offense, he had Adrian Peterson only for half of the games, a young quarterback in Teddy Bridgewater and really no star receivers.  No the offensive line is playing, well, offensive.  Tough for anyone to deal with that.  We’ll see just how professional the Vikings can be and can only hope they come out with fire and confidence Sunday against the Lions at U.S. Bank Stadium.

 

College football weekend forecast

 

If you’re looking for some really good college football games this weekend you’re going to half to wait until pretty late in the day on Saturday and by that I mean 8 PM ET at night.  And you will have to either have two TVs side by side or have your big flat screen TV do split screen because Saturday night features two mammoth matchups.  On CBS it’s #1 Alabama at #13 LSU in Death Valley and on ABC it’s #10 Nebraska at #6 Ohio State.  LSU has a chance to really put a wrinkle into the College Football Playoff with a win.  They have played excellent since Les Miles was given his walking papers.  They always play Alabama tough in Baton Rouge and this game should be no exception.  I can’t wait for this game and give the Bayou Bengals a good shot to beat the Crimson Tide.

 

On the other side, no one is really giving Nebraska a whole lot of respect, but if they go into Columbus and beat the Buckeyes then there will be a whole of respect thrown their way.  Ohio State hasn’t really played very well the past couple of weeks and perhaps their win streak masked some of their faults, but in a big game like this I expect Ohio State to come through with a W.  Wisconsin may need to beware of the trap that is Northwestern where they meet in Evanston at noon ET on ABC and I’m sure there will be other decent games, but Bama-LSU and Nebraska-Ohio State take the cake for me and I’m sure the rest of the country.

 

Atlanta Falcons @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers 8:25 PM ET NFL Network

 

I believe Jim Nantz and Phil Simms are handing the mic over to Al Michaels and Chris Collinsworth now is that correct?  Speaking of handoffs, who is Jameis Winston going to hand the ball off to for the Buccaneers?  They are really banged up in the backfield.  Whoever it is, the Bucs will have to rely on Winston to win this game for them (I’m playing Winston in fantasy so I hope he doesn’t have that good of a game).  We saw last week that the Falcons can put up points even when Julio Jones doesn’t see the ball a whole lot.  They find a way to get the win on the road on a short week.

 

Prediction: Falcons 27 Bucs 20

 

Coming up Friday: NFL week 9 preview and predictions