Football Contest: Week 10

We haven't had a blaster since Week 1.  This time, we have a 2010 Panini Epix blaster.  For those of you not familiar with Epix, it's a throwaway Panini product. I picked up this blaster at a discount, which meant it was still too expensive.

8 packs, 10 cards each.  We should see 2 RC and a couple of inserts.  For the most part, these games are going to be base card battles.  One thing that should make this interesting is that the base veteran set is only 100 cards.  The base cards are distributed evenly, with 28 teams getting 3 cards and Dallas, Indy, NY Jets, and San Diego getting 4 cards. Since we should see around 75 base cards, we should have a number of close matchups. The teams that get all of their base cards should be successful.  Inserts and rookies will be very important.

Bye week teams: Arizona, Cleveland, Green Bay, Washington.

Let's see some games:

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS 3, INDIANAPOLIS COLTS 2
>>> Right off the bat we see a statistical upset.  The Jags got 3/3 base cards while the Colts only managed 2/4.

BALTIMORE RAVENS 5, OAKLAND RAIDERS 1
>>> In addition to all three of their base cards, the Ravens also hit the first RC:

DENVER BRONCOS 2, CAROLINA PANTHERS 1


NEW YORK GIANTS 3, CINCINNATI BENGALS 3
>>> Both teams got their three base cards, but the tiebreak goes to the Giants since one of the Bengals cards was "Ocho Cinco".

MIAMI DOLPHINS 3, TENNESSEE TITANS 2


DETROIT LIONS 3, MINNESOTA VIKINGS 1


NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS 13, BUFFALO BILLS 2
>>> The Patriots landed the surprise of the week with this Rookie Campaign jersey:

 

ATLANTA FALCONS 3, NEW ORLEANS SAINTS 2


SAN DIEGO CHARGERS 3, TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS 2
>>> The base card odds were in favor of the Chargers and they ended up winning.

SEATTLE SEAHAWKS 4, NEW YORK JETS 3
>>> The Seahawks were outnumbered on base cards, but pulled out one of the insert to get the win:

PHILADELPHIA EAGLES 3, DALLAS COWBOYS 2
>>> Just like the Jags-Colts game, the Eagles get all of their base cards and the Cowboys only get half of theirs.

ST. LOUIS RAMS 3, SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS 3
>>> The Rams had three base cards while the 49ers had a base card and a RC. I was tempted to give the tiebreak win to the Niners, but Taylor Mays didn't really pan out, so I'm going with "3 cards > 2 cards". Rams improve to 8-1.

CHICAGO BEARS 5, HOUSTON TEXANS 2
>>> The Bears had the victory in hand on base cards alone, but decided to pull an insert anyway:

PITTSBURGH STEELERS 3, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS 3
>>> Both teams completed their base sets, so it really came down to players.  The Steelers had Roethlisberger, Hines Ward, and Rashard Mendenhall.  The Chiefs had Matt Cassel, Dwayne Bowe, and Jamaal Charles. This is a tough matchup.  Even though Hines Ward has a longevity advantage over Dwayne Bowe, I'd say they are roughly even.  Jamaal Charles is considerably better than Mendenhall, though Mendenhall did have two 1,000-yard seasons.  The biggest margin, though, is between Big Ben and Cassel.  Big Ben is potentially a future HOFer and Cassel is miles and miles away from that.  Therefore, I have to give the victory to the Steelers.

The bye teams: Cardinals 2, Browns 3, Packers 2, Skins 2. Nothing special missed.

Updated Standings:

Check out that NFC Wild Card race.  The 49ers have the first spot right now, and then 4 teams are tied for the second spot.  There are 3 more teams after that who are a game out.  This should get interesting.

2013 Upper Deck Football

How about a little college football on a Saturday.  I can't wait for the season to begin.  I picked up two hobby packs from the LCS just before the draft to get in the mood.

How did they do with the cover guys?

Geno Smith - 2nd Rd, 39th overall
Montee Ball - 2nd Rd, 58th overall
Eddie Lacy - 2nd Rd, 61st overall
Matt Barkley - 4th Rd, 98th overall

There's your first sign that this year's draft class isn't going to fuel the prices like last year's.

Since Upper Deck doesn't have an NFL license (STUPID!), but they do have an NCAA license, we end up with nice college cards.  A lot of folks don't care for them, but since I'm a college fan first, I love them.  Most of the set consists of NFL veterans shown in their old jerseys:

For those of you that think Oregon's recent jersey's are hideous, check out Fouts. 

As for the current draft class, they appear on Star Rookie cards. 

Philip Lutzenkirchen - Undrafted, Signed with Rams
EJ Manuel - 1st Rd, 16th overall, first QB picked
Cobi Hamilton - 5th Rd, 197th overall
Damontre Moore - 3rd Rd, 81st overall

1st, 3rd, 5th, and undrafted isn't too shabby for two packs.  If EJ hadn't been there it would have sucked, though.  Of course, there's no reason EJ should have been a first round pick.  Regardless, there's nothing wrong with getting the top-drafted QB.

I managed to score an auto in my two packs, which was a pleasant surprise:

I can't complain at all with this one.  Fluker, out of Alabama, was drafted 11th overall by the Chargers.  I love that his signature looks like a college kid's signature.

I'm glad I stopped buying cards for a while after buying these.  I could easily blow a bunch of money on rack packs and hobby packs. 

Shoebox Card #29

This was a great set.  I had at least half of them as a kid, but can't seem to find any of them, now.

PWE from Tim

PWEs are the hottest thing in cards right now, and I've got the fever like everyone else.  Tim recently dropped a PWE in the mail for me with four cards I needed:

It's going to be hard enough to complete the 2012 Panini Triple Play set, so I know I'll probably never have a complete Justin Upton puzzle in my JUp collection.

The A-Rod gets me down to just one X4 on my want list.  I had the Zim X2 in my Zim collection, but didn't have it in my 2008 UDX set yet. Now I do.  In total, I need 67 more Xponential cards across the four levels.  I'm 2/3 of the way to the set.

Thanks, Tim!

2006 Topps Allen & Ginter #171

I used to kill with Jason Schmidt on Xbox.

2002 Upper Deck Series 2

It's too easy to grab certain packs at the LCS.  These just kept jumping into the bag.  I'm not complaining though.  I wasn't really collecting in the late '90s or early '00s, so it's cool to finally open some of those packs.

Base Cards

Six "Star Rookies" whose careers consist of a 5.5 ERA and 65 HR. 

Yikes.  The only redeemable quality of these cards is what it says on A-Rod's:

"Sets mark for homers by ass on 9/23/01".  At least, that's how I read it.  There's also the grammatical issue where it could be interpreted as though he hit a bunch of homers on 9/23/01.

The Superstar Summit cards don't do much for me, but the Return of the Ace cards are pretty sweet.

Lastly, I managed to pull a really nice card:

 

 

This is a great looking Larkin relic with a hint of pinstripe.  I was really surprised to get a HOFer relic from those packs.  

2006 Topps Allen & Ginter #170

Duke couldn't make the Astros...and the Nats thought they should pick him up?