It's Getting Late Early

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. — That’s the dateline for NFL Films, where I’m spending a couple of days doing research for my upcoming football book. It’s amazing — my younger self would be SO jealous — but it’s also all-consuming. We’re going to have a lot of fun here at JoeBlogs the next few months while I’m finishing this book, but, hopefully, you will give me some leeway, too, as I try to keep up with it all.

In the short term, that means: I will get you that Week 6 Browns Diary as soon as I can.

Philadelphia 5, Arizona 3
Texas 5, Houston 4

OK, how many times in these playoffs have we had this basic plotline — Team A scores a crooked number against the starter, Team B can’t come back, game ends? It feels like EVERY game has been like that.

In Houston, the Rangers scored four in the first inning — the first FIVE Texas batters reached base — and managed to hold on despite Yordan Alvarez’s continued pillaging.

In Philadelphia, the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber homered on the first pitch, Bryce Harper homered on his 31st birthday and Nick Castellanos homered because that’s all he seems to do anymore, and it was 3-0 by the second inning, 5-0 by the fifth inning, and the Diamondbacks couldn’t come all the way back.

That’s two more games without a single lead change. There have been 25 playoff games so far. Guess how many of them had lead changes? Let’s look:*