Lohensports

 Today's the day! After months of waiting, the NFL season is finally upon us. Carrie Underwood can feed her family once more off her Waiting All Day for Sunday Night earnings, we can take in commercials on Red Zone now for the first time and Sundays can finally be filled with melting into the couch for 10 straight hours. I couldn't be more excited! It's time to make some bold, and not so bold predictions to kick off the season. I vow to come back to this post when the Superbowl ends to remark at how silly I was, but until then I'll believe I'm being super smart. Before I start, please remember that while I am pretty up to date on the Steelers, I am woefully uninformed on every other team in the league. This is pretty much my opinion on all these teams based on watching like 1 game of each of them last season and sleepily following NFL news on social media. It's a for fun exercise after all! Lets get into it:  AFC East - Buffalo Bills Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphin...

Football is right around the corner with the Cowboys taking on the Eagles tomorrow night, and I couldn't be more excited. 1 year ago today I wrote my top 5 QBs post , which is in my opinion a fun way to kick off the season. Looking back at it now, I was so high on the CJ Stroud sophomore season I think I even picked them to win the Superbowl. I'm of course going to make the same mistakes again this year, what fun are these posts if not to look back on how silly I was. Tomorrow if I have time I'll pick the division winners and Superbowl winner to get you Lohensporters fully T'd up for this season. Without further delay here's the 2025 top 5 QBs: Honorable mentions: Jalen Hurts, Justin Herbert  It feels bad leaving the Superbowl MVP off my top 5, but I'm stupidly high on Jayden Daniels, probably to a fault like I was with CJ Stroud. Herbert might feel like a stretch but it's just the Chargers stink. This guy can do everything Mahomes and Allen can he's jus...

 Before I begin, I highly doubt many people were watching the tanking Raptors take on the Washington Wizards, but I am a sicko and I was. I wanted to give a quick shout out to Jamal Shead who had a nasty put-back poster dunk last night, something I wasn't aware he was even capable of. Any time your 6 foot tall point guard rises up for a dunk it should be celebrated, so Lohensports will acknowledge. Also a quick shout out to Brampton legend AJ Lawson who had a career high 32 points last night. That's right, we're in the stage of the Raptors season where AJ Lawson is dropping 30, I can't wait for next year. ANYWAY, I wouldn't have even known that NFL free agency opened yesterday if it wasn't for the flurry of notifications I received. A lot of it was fun and exciting, and a lot of it related directly to my Steelers. I won't be able to break down every move but I wanted to hop on here today to go over a few of the big ones, or the ones that struck me the most. ...

First of all, I am sorry I missed a post yesterday. I have been battling a cold and just wasn't feeling it. I am making it up today though by talking about some stuff I noticed in games that I watched last night! Kind of a jumble post today but hey, why not.  Raptors Fall to Heat Oh boy does the viewership ever fall off when Scottie Barnes is out of the lineup for the Raptors, and probably rightfully so. The Raptors lost to the heat last night 114-104 in a game where the Heat didn't really have to break a sweat. Despite the loss and some lackluster performances from the Raptors top guys, there were some bright spots from the young players that should be highlighted. Afterall, what else do we have in a development season? I can't say enough good things about Jamison Battle. For those who saw my last post, Jamison Battle is the best rookie shooter in the league and it isn't particularly close. In a draft that featured 4 year college shooter Daulton Knecht, Battle has outs...

 The NFL schedule makers are undefeated. I thought the Thursday nighter was the game they like to stuff something like Jags vs Colts into. The NFL has elected to only play exciting games to start the season, all but guaranteeing that I don't get any sleep and my evenings are consumed by football. It's hard to love sports sometimes. I kid, who doesn't love exciting football games on a week night? I am hyped! Ok lets get into it. I am a closet Bills fan and have been ever since Josh Allen took over there. Something about the big bodied giant arm QBs that really draws me in. Add to that Allen's ability to run and we've got ourselves an elite player. The Bills this year entered the season with a shaky wide receiver room. Rookie Keon Coleman had a decently promising start, but relying on a rookie week in and week out is going to be a difficult task for the Bills. That didn't end up mattering as Josh Allen took things into his own hands dragging the team to a victory ...

 Here we go! All summer long I think a lot of North American sports fans start to feel the itch for football. Today the wait is finally over with the Baltimore Ravens going into Kansas City to take on the defending champion Chiefs.  Can I just say, the NFL schedule makers are always so good at their jobs. I can't think of a more exciting opening day matchup than KC vs Baltimore. Lamar Jackson has his playoff woes for sure but goodness if he isn't one of the more exciting regular season players of all time. The Ravens also always promise to have a great defense, something that should challenge the Chiefs early. KC is absolutely no slouch of course, Patrick Mahomes is the best player in the world and he looks to defend his title starting this week. The game could be Panthers vs Patriots and I still would be tuning in, but the fact that they packed a game of the year candidate into day 1 means it's all I'm going to be thinking about all day.  The season should be fantastic...

 Short one today, I am feeling lazy. When I was doing my little bit of research that I do yesterday for my top 5 QBs article, I came across a stat that I found interesting. The all time single season leader in interceptions thrown is George Blanda. Upon looking at his Pro-FootballReference page, I have determined that this man is my hero.  In 1962 with the Houston Oilers, George Blanda threw 42 interceptions. In a 14 game season that works out to exactly 3 per game. This is simply an inconceivable stat in today's game. If a QB today had 9 interceptions in 3 weeks, he'd be riding the pine with very little chance he gets to play again. The closest thing I can think of is when the Bills decided to start Nathan Peterman in 2017 and he immediately threw 5 picks. He got 1 more chance the next week then found himself glued to the bench.  This isn't the crazy part of George Blanda's season though. He was a pro-bowler that year. Yes, he threw 3 picks a game and made the pro-bowl...

 Football is back this week! I couldn't be more excited. I have been bothering my girlfriend talking her ear off about the upcoming season, as one does, and I thought why not use this blog as an appropriate outlet. Today I am doing another classic listicle format article, the top 5 QBs entering this year. As always, this is pretty much just my uninformed opinion and I would welcome some pushback in the comments.  5. CJ Stroud Woah! A second year player on the top 5? Honestly making these lists has got me feeling old, and I'm still in my 20s. The QB era of my childhood will be officially over when Aaron Rodgers hangs them up, and there's a good argument to have him in this spot. Rodgers however, is coming off a serious injury and we'll have to see him play before ranking him. Now to the guy in the headline, CJ Stroud. Stroud was nothing short of awesome in his rookie season. He's back this year with no shortage of receiving targets with newcomer Stephon Diggs, as wel...

 This rivalry has always meant so much to me. It sounds silly when you put it like that, but if I look back it's honestly the truth. Since I started watching football I was a Steelers fan. Back in 2005 I had a Madden game for my Gameboy Advance. When wanting to choose a team I asked my cousin who won the Superbowl, I was told the Steelers. I chose the Steelers and the rest was history. I learned every player's name and played that game every day. I started watching on TV and seeing the players in real life. I was hooked, this kid from Toronto would never cheer for another NFL team again.  Cheering for the Steelers comes with a certain responsibility. You have to hate the Ravens. I spent years disliking the Baltimore Ravens to the point I was hoping they'd lose irrelevant games. It was deeper than even the rivalries with the Bengals and Browns. For my entire life it's felt like the Steelers and Ravens have been very evenly matched. The numbers check out too, since I star...

 Football is (almost) back! I couldn't be more excited to sit on the couch every Sunday watching this glorious sport. My favorite team, as you'll be able to tell reading this blog, is the Pittsburgh Steelers. The past few seasons for the Steelers have been middling and underwhelming. The offense has been somewhat putrid since the days of Big Ben ended and it has led to some hard to watch games. Despite this, the Steelers still haven't finished a season below .500 since Mike Tomlin took over as head coach and I still haven't fallen out of love with watching this team every week. If you're looking for a reason, any reason at all to pay attention to the Steelers this upcoming season well then you're in luck because below there are 3.  1. New Quarterback  Oh man I really miss having a team where you know who's going to be under center every season. For Roethlisberger's entire career this was the case for the Steelers. You knew if you got down, Ben had a come...

 Yesterday was my fantasy football draft, I got to pick first overall! It was a good time as fantasy drafts typically are. No I didn't pick George Pickens first overall, calm down hardos. I of course went with Christian McCaffrey. George Pickens did however find his way onto my team, and despite the QB battle in Pittsburgh, I believe he will end the season as one of the top wide receivers in football.  George Pickens slipped to the second round of his draft despite his immense talent, due to behavioral concerns. He is a bit of a hot head and a diva, but what great wide receiver isn't? I mean seriously, isn't that a massive part of what makes the game great? Wide receivers have attitudes, I personally love it. Pickens is no different. Multiple times over his first two seasons you could see the high and low emotions of the game impacting him. When George was involved in the offense, he would play hard, block his assignment and run the routes even if the ball wasn't going ...

 Never waste a first round pick on a running back. A mantra that has been repeated by pundits for years and pretty much always rings true. A running back's shelf life is typically very short with primes lasting sometimes only 5 years. It is also a very replaceable position, new star RBs are born every season and a lot of the time it is a function of the offensive scheme or blocking. So in 2021 when the Steelers selected Najee Harris with their first round pick, you could say I was cautiously pessimistic.  Look, Najee doesn't suck. He has had to deal with some pretty putrid offenses run by Pittsburgh public enemy number 1 Matt Canada. He's had shaky offensive lines and a non-existent passing game to help boost his running profile. All that being said, he hasn't been the elite talent promised with a first round pick. He's had over 1,000 rushing yards in all 3 of his seasons and some flashy show stopping moments but never really seemed like even a top 10 back in the le...