"Ball Control" - November 26, 2021

[DrTom]

Because there were some player names I initially started down the path of looking for players but soon got the teams. That is when the fun started.

Taking the 4th letter down gave me nothing useful, taking the city names also nada, taking the stadium names (hey, I remember the pageant - why not try that again, it's about time) nope - RATS. So I tried anagrams and HANDLER came up, but two weeks in a row where the answer was not in order - wow that seemed wrong. I felt that HAD to be it and finally (before someone whose shoulder I cried on pointed out the REAL method - L>R, DUH!!!) decided that since a line drawn connecting the letters looks like the football kicking tee that had to be it. Yes I know, TERRIBLE justification, but when the only tool you have is a hammer......

[escapeartist]

My chance to win the coveted mug would have been the greatest over the last 4 weeks since I started trying to solve the contest puzzles, but I didn't have the moxie to successfully decipher those incredibly difficult metas.

I'm very thankful for an easier week, but the odds again for the mug have likely increased.

Gimme that mug!

[kgiano]

I really really wanted the answer to be ENGLISH. Like pool players use to control the cue ball.

Also - is the rating machinery working?

[Streroto]

This was a really fun and clever meta and a wonderful “upon awakening” aha moment that I described in a prior post. I saw the team names before I was half finished the grid, and even commented to my wife “finally an easy one”! That’s when the fun began. As noted, I had no printer but I did have my laptop, and after convincing myself that the fourth down situation was important I created a spreadsheet of the teams and any player involved in fourth-down activities such as long snapper, center, quarterback, punter and place kicker, trying to map their player numbers to grid squares. I mostly got gibberish, although one of these can create “grabbag”, and this pseudo aha moment when shared with my wife was immediately pooh-poohed, propelling me onward. This is by far the deepest rabbit hole I’ve ever gone down. That spreadsheet also included locations, names of stadia, managers, owners, and more. Wow!

Stay well all!!

[Mister Squawk]

Was there anything in the puzzle that clued the left-to-right ordering? I was troubled because "usually" the letters in this type of meta are taken in grid order. The absence of any anagram other than HANDLER made the question moot, I suppose.

[KWStein]

Found a different answer and couldn't back out, even though I suspected that fourthdown was a probable clue. (Did not solve the anagram, so gave up on that.)

The seven teams listed represent 7 of the 8 divisions in the NFL. Only the NFC North did not have a team in the grid. Of the 4 teams in that division, the Packers and Vikings each contain 7 letters. And only the VIKINGS can be spelled by taking one letter from each of other teams in the Grid.
V from Ravens - AFC North
I from Patriots - AFC East
K from Seahawks - NFC West
I from Raiders - AFC West
N from Texans - AFC South
G from Eagles - NFC East
S from Saints - NFC South

V, K , and G are not common, so I figured that this could not be a coincidence. Oh well.

[Joe Ross]

Found a different answer and couldn't back out, even though I suspected that fourthdown was a probable clue. (Did not solve the anagram, so gave up on that.)

The seven teams listed represent 7 of the 8 divisions in the NFL. Only the NFC North did not have a team in the grid. Of the 4 teams in that division, the Packers and Vikings each contain 7 letters. And only the VIKINGS can be spelled by taking one letter from each of other teams in the Grid.
V from Ravens - AFC North
I from Patriots - AFC East
K from Seahawks - NFC West
I from Raiders - AFC West
N from Texans - AFC South
G from Eagles - NFC East
S from Saints - NFC South

V, K , and G are not common, so I figured that this could not be a coincidence. Oh well.

Extra Credit!

[KWStein]

thanks. been out to sea for the last 4 or 5 weeks...need to break that dry spell. (Nice to find this forum. Used to participate in the WSJ comments.) Ridiculously avid NFL fan, so tough not to get this one correctly. Cheers!

[flyingMoose]

I appreciated all of the "extras" in this one - from people (e.g., Otto Graham and Bert Bell) to "asides" in the clues (e.g., jets, game, draft).

The best one in my view is RIVERA, Ron, not Diego. Ron Rivera is the head coach of the Washington Football Team - the team with no nickname! How deliciously ironic.

[SewYoung]

Ashore after several weeks on the beach. Loved the mechanism.

RTR!

RTR, you say.... As my father used to say in this situation, "War Eagle, anyway".

[Hamrock]

Found a different answer and couldn't back out, even though I suspected that fourthdown was a probable clue. (Did not solve the anagram, so gave up on that.)

The seven teams listed represent 7 of the 8 divisions in the NFL. Only the NFC North did not have a team in the grid. Of the 4 teams in that division, the Packers and Vikings each contain 7 letters. And only the VIKINGS can be spelled by taking one letter from each of other teams in the Grid.
V from Ravens - AFC North
I from Patriots - AFC East
K from Seahawks - NFC West
I from Raiders - AFC West
N from Texans - AFC South
G from Eagles - NFC East
S from Saints - NFC South

V, K , and G are not common, so I figured that this could not be a coincidence. Oh well.

I saw the same, didn't pay attention to the fourth down answer. I saw not only were the 7 divisions represented but also a 1 to 4 placement with nfc north the #1 slit missing which is the Packers! My team! Oh well...

[FirstMax]

I feel like knowing almost nothing about football helped me out here. I only know the team names because I live in Massachusetts.
Shop clerk: How bout that game last night? Me: Go Pats?
Anyway, I I was sweating it out when I saw all the other football references sprinkled throughout and when I got to 4th down I told myself it’s either the 4th letter down or I’m out, I’m not gonna know what a wide end is or the ACF East
Very easy solve and the first in a few weeks.

[802puzzler]

Found a different answer and couldn't back out, even though I suspected that fourthdown was a probable clue. (Did not solve the anagram, so gave up on that.)

The seven teams listed represent 7 of the 8 divisions in the NFL. Only the NFC North did not have a team in the grid. Of the 4 teams in that division, the Packers and Vikings each contain 7 letters. And only the VIKINGS can be spelled by taking one letter from each of other teams in the Grid.
V from Ravens - AFC North
I from Patriots - AFC East
K from Seahawks - NFC West
I from Raiders - AFC West
N from Texans - AFC South
G from Eagles - NFC East
S from Saints - NFC South

V, K , and G are not common, so I figured that this could not be a coincidence. Oh well.

I saw the same, didn't pay attention to the fourth down answer. I saw not only were the 7 divisions represented but also a 1 to 4 placement with nfc north the #1 slit missing which is the Packers! My team! Oh well...

Found the same rabbit-hole, and I chose Packers because of the 37A clue which obviously meant "Dean Lowry". LOL the wrong beach was apparently pretty popular!

[M and M]

The order of the letters was unusual if you took the clues in numerical order, but if you simply went left to right, (like marching down a football field) they were in perfect order. I think that was a fun twist.

[Cap'n Rick]

Initially I wanted the answer to be "GO-TO GUY", as in a QB's favorite receiver on third (or FOURTH) down to maintain CONTROL of the BALL. And I almost got there via the following mechanism:

TEAMPLAYER = OTTO GRAHAM (49D, 6D)
ACADEME = UGA (63D)
FOURTHDOWN = YUM (4D)

The first letters of the above gave me the "OGUY" part, and I tried really hard to get "GOT" from the "Game of Thrones" part of 15D.

Talk about overthinking!

[John77]

The order of the letters was unusual if you took the clues in numerical order, but if you simply went left to right, (like marching down a football field) they were in perfect order. I think that was a fun twist.

I got the letters quickly, but out of "order" based on the clue numbers. Anagramming the letters got me to the answer after about 5 more minutes, followed by a head slap on reading the down clues left to right.

After the past five weeks I wondered whether I'd ever solve one of these again.

[OGuyDave]

... ...

The first letters of the above gave me the "OGUY" part, and I tried really hard to get "GOT" from the "Game of Thrones" part of 15D.

Talk about overthinking!

Hello? What? Oh whoops, never mind.

--
OGuyDave

[Commodore]

The flummoxed Commodore, ever reliant on Easy A schemes, drew up this 1st quarter loser.
Perfectly executed flea flicker from a young off-the-bench scrub shut him up, and prevented further lubricated tales from NFL archives rendered in John Facenda fashion. Handled, indeed.
Crew here most thankful for a fun holiday puzzle from Admiral Shenk.

[Bob cruise director]

First successful meta in a month. Sunday morning I was ready to punt and for the first time asked for a nudge. I had been chasing "team player" thinking a player name from each team was hidden in the grid. 2 hours later I abandoned that idea.

I thought "fourth down" was significant but misapplied it twice, thinking it was an empty rabbit hole.

I then started chasing "itals" thinking Mike was pulling another pronunciation/phonetics play. After another fruitless hour, I wanted to call it,

but hell no

I came back to fourth down in desperation at 8:30 ET and got it right - I had earlier tried to apply the letters in grid order and got H-E-L-D-N-R-A. Ugh!

I thought what if I take the letters in visual order fro left to right, and VOILA!

This was a sneaky medium-difficult puzzle because of the red herrings.

Thankful for this group. I hope you guys have a great week. See you next weekend!

@Relic We are all like football players - get beat to pieces each week and win or lose we keep coming back and are ready to play the Thursday night game on a national stage.

[Bob cruise director]

This was a really fun and clever meta and a wonderful “upon awakening” aha moment that I described in a prior post. I saw the team names before I was half finished the grid, and even commented to my wife “finally an easy one”! That’s when the fun began. As noted, I had no printer but I did have my laptop, and after convincing myself that the fourth down situation was important I created a spreadsheet of the teams and any player involved in fourth-down activities such as long snapper, center, quarterback, punter and place kicker, trying to map their player numbers to grid squares. I mostly got gibberish, although one of these can create “grabbag”, and this pseudo aha moment when shared with my wife was immediately pooh-poohed, propelling me onward. This is by far the deepest rabbit hole I’ve ever gone down. That spreadsheet also included locations, names of stadia, managers, owners, and more. Wow!

Stay well all!!

@Streroto and all of us - when I get stuck in a deep rabbit hole like you went down (and I have been in many of them), I keep remembering that Mike Shenk has to explain the answer in a very small space in the Monday paper. So if my solution requires four pages of integral calculus, it probably is not right.

Bob