We have endured some “sub-optimal” events over the past few days, details unnecessary, but those events are why I haven’t posted in two of the last three days.

Not one of those events, but the practitioners at the Mayo Clinic who supervise some of my medical care have informed me that, despite my history in a certain system, all of my testing is good. That’s good news, I guess, but part of me thinks that if I exhale and think I’m OK that I will be struck down.

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I have been a Capital One customer for at least 15 years. Soon, I will no longer be. They have been cheating me out of interest as my savings accounts are in “old” products earning next to nothing even though they have accounts that pay the current market rates.

Yes, I deserve some of the blame for not monitoring my accounts more closely, but you’d think that for a long-time customer they might show me the courtesy of telling me about the newer products, especially since both joint savings accounts are the newer type. I once had an IRA with a bank that was paying 9% per year. Of course, when interest rates dropped they tried to get me into other “investments.” Obviously, I did not, but I did transfer that money out of that bank as soon as the term was completed.

A problem with totally disengaging from Capital One is that my credit file has been frozen for more than five years, my primary credit card is a Capital One product and to open a credit card account with another bank means I have to un-freeze my credit file, even if just temporarily. We froze our credit files after the Equifax data breach in September, 2017.

In addition, much of my banking and purchasing activity is “linked” to Capital One. I will go through the slog of changing these links, but it’s not an easy process. Banks talk about deposits being “sticky” meaning that once a customer has been with a bank for awhile, they are very unlikely to make a change. I will do it, though, as the only real choice a consumer has is to change vendors if dissatisfied. A customer can complain incessantly, but the majority of companies no longer feel that good customer service is necessary.

Shame On Capital One!

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OK, time for recaps of my computer football season playoffs. In the last game of the first round, Phoenix overcame a slow start (trailing 14-7 at the end of the first quarter) and pulled away from New York 34-24. The Atlantics–this New York team’s nickname, the other team was called the Dragons–scored a garbage time TD with less than a minute left to make the final score closer than the game really was. The Gilas–Phoenix’s team name–intercepted FIVE New York passes, which is consistent with their excellent pass defense. During the regular season, they allowed the fewest passing yards, the lowest opponents passer rating and intercepted the most passes.

In the championship game for the conference I called the AFC, the Las Vegas Lightning–with a regular season record of 9-9–played at the Toronto Argonauts, who were 15-3, the only team in the conference with a winning record. Toronto won the regular season meeting 27-20.

The Argos’ defense completely shut down the Las Vegas running game, which had finished sixth in rushing yards and second in average yards per carry during the regular season–but Argonauts’ quarterback Davis Mills turned back into a pumpkin and Las Vegas throttled star Toronto running back Jonathan Taylor. A 9-9 team is going to the league championship as Las Vegas upset Toronto 12-9.

During the regular season, Mills had a passer rating of 110.4 in 442 attempts with just four interceptions. In two playoff games, he threw four interceptions in 72 attempts on his way to a 69.0 passer rating. With Micah Parsons, Trey Hendrickson and Emmanuel Ogbah, Las Vegas can rush the passer. Toronto’s offensive line is much better at run blocking than pass blocking and the result was Mills being sacked seven times.

Only two games remain: the NFC Championship between 14-4 Phoenix and 17-1 Texas and that winner plays Las Vegas for the championship. Phoenix and Texas played during the regular season, but the game was meaningless as both teams’ playoff seeds were set. I rested many regulars for both teams; Texas won 16-13 in overtime.

Phoenix-Texas is a great matchup as the former has the league’s best pass defense (already noted) and the latter has the league’s best passing attack. Behind Joe Burrow and “The Big Three” receivers (Cooper Kupp, JaMarr Chase and Mark Andrews) the Tornadoes averaged 374 passing yards per game and Burrow compiled a ridiculous 144.3 passer rating. Phoenix allowed a 57.3 passer rating.

I know the purpose of any athletic season is to crown a champion, but I will be a bit sad when the season ends. It gave me something interesting to do for five months.

Thanks for indulging my interest in computer football. You won’t have to read about it much longer.

 

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