Daily Archives: February 9, 2022

BY REGINALD TOBIN

In a time when social media attacks have reduced the guts of so many pastors, forcing them to keep quiet in the face of wrong doings, because of the fear of being dragged, Port Harcourt based cleric, and presiding pastor of Salvation Ministries Church, David Ibiyeomie has refused to be caged by the derogatory comments of some Nigerians on social media. Instead, he continues to speak against the ills of internet fraud and other menace ravaging the society, not minding whose ox is gored.

Pastor Ibiyeomie during the annual program hosted by his church, admonished young lads from engaging in internet fraud which is mostly referred to as yahoo. He also went ahead to curse its root.

As expected, Ibiyeomies outburst against internet fraud and those involved in it sparked a lot of controversies. While some backed the position of the revered cleric, others attacked him for choosing to speak against internet fraudsters and not corrupt politicians. For me, I am pretty sure that those who attacked him for speaking against yahoo boys, did so, not because they dont know that internet fraud is evil, but because the outburst emanated from the mouth of a pastor. This category of people dont like pastors, no matter what they do, because I dont see anything wrong in what the pastor did.

But let us look at it from a more sincere angle. In recent times, we have seen and heard a lot that has happened due to this immoral act. Crime perpetrated by internet fraudsters including ritual killing, all in the quest to make money has become a common news on the media.

A lot of young men from the age of 17 have started killing their loved ones just to make it in life through this diabolical means. The heads of their victims are being cut off, some of them even take off the private parts (breasts and vagina) of the people they kill to use for rituals. This is the new trend and people have refused to speak against it. It is more like the society has accepted to live with it. Even the one who boldly condemned the evil act was criticized for doing so.

Now, my question to those who criticized Pastor Ibiyeomie for speaking against yahoo boys is, when did it become a crime to speak against societal ills?is internet fraud now a good thing or something to be encouraged? Did pastor Ibiyeomie do anything wrong by admonishing internet fraudsters to stop? or were they expecting the pastor to speak in favour of internet fraudsters?

Some even tried to defend the act of internet fraud by saying that the reason why young men engage in it is due to lack of jobs and that they (yahoo boys) use it to help themselves. Again, I wonder why people in their right senses will try to justify something evil with the excuse that the government does not create jobs. Yes, I understand that the government has not created enough jobs, but that is obviously not enough reason to engage in such barbaric act. There are a lot of Nigerians without jobs still struggling to make ends meet. They do not scam, neither do they use people for ritual, yet they survive. So why then should someone be engaged in this immoral act because he is unemployed.

I have also seen young men who live with their parents and do not lack anything. They do not pay their bills, their parents provide everything for them. They are not suffering, yet they still do internet fraud, why?

The truth is that those who do yahoo do it because they want to. They do it because they want to live in luxury. They want to drive flashy cars, They want to live above their means and not because they are poor.

Let us not in any way try to cover up evil. We should learn to speak the truth and also identify one when we see it. Lastly, I commend Pastor David Ibiyeomie, the fearless preacher who is never afraid of being in the eyes of the storm, for speaking his truth to power and condemning evil.

Tobin is a journalist. He writes from Port Harcourt

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'Yahoo yahoo' and Ibiyeomie's truth to power - TheCable

ZHANGJIAKOU, ChinaSnowboarding exists on a continuum of perpetual progression. What won you an Olympic gold last time wont even get you on the podium this time around. Its not just go big or go home, its go bigger than anyones ever gone before.

Shaun White, the snowboarding GOAT about to drop into the halfpipe for his final Olympics, has spent his entire career both raising and clearing the bar. Hes won Olympic gold three times, each time needing to find a new level, a new trick, a new height above and new strength within.

Riders who idolized White growing up are now stepping right over his achievements, crafting once-unthinkable tricks, breaking once-impenetrable boundaries, craving the chance to hit marks White never reached. Theyve begun landing the triple cork, a triple diagonal flip once thought impossible, and theyre threatening to unleash the trick on White and the world this week.

Attempting the triple cork once put White in the hospital. Landing it could put him on the podium one last time.

Shaun White of the United States in action during the Snowboard Halfpipe practice at Genting Snow Park during the Winter Olympic Games on February 7th, 2022 in Zhangjiakou, China. (Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)

White has been a millennial avatar longer than the word millennial has even existed. He snared his first sponsors at age 7. Eight years later, he missed the 2002 Olympics by a single slot, then won his way into the next five. Now 35, he sees the sun setting; hes already announced that Beijing will be his final competition. But before he hangs up the board, hes got one more chance to push snowboarding one more trick into the future.

He won gold in 2006 by pulling off back-to-back 1080s three rotations on a halfpipe that was four feet shorter than the current 22 feet. He repeated gold in 2010, landing a Double McTwist 1260 two flips, 3 1/2 total spins. But in 2014, he could only watch as Iouri Podladtchikov of Switzerland threw down a move he created called the Yolo a cab double cork 1440, two flips and two 360-degree rotations that White tried, and failed, to replicate.

Four years after that, down to his final run and in second place behind Japans Ayumu Hirano, White unleashed his finest Olympic performance to date, back-to-back double cork 1440s two straight jumps in which he flipped twice, rotating four total times before landing. At the time, it was the toughest combination on the planet, and White had never landed the combination prior to PyeongChang, not even in practice, and it was enough to win gold once again.

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Not any longer.

The world changes slowly, and then suddenly all at once. Snowboarding launched suddenly into the future last October, when many of the sports finest halfpipe stars gathered at the Swiss Alps resort of Saas-Fee. It turned into snowboardings version of a home run derby or slam-dunk contest, an exhibition when the sports best pushed the sports limits and then broke right though them.

Over the course of two weeks at Saas-Fee, four Japanese riders landed clean frontside triple cork 1440s three flips and a twist into air bags, a far safer method of practice than landing on hard, unforgiving snow.

Its an extremely difficult trick, says Ben Elliot, snowboarding coach at Carrabassett Valley Academy, a private school in Maine thats produced 12 Olympians, including three gold medalists. If you dont spin enough, you will fall and potentially get extremely injured. Ive seen plenty of people knocked out, getting broken bones just trying stuff. The difference between just a few degrees of rotation can mean everything.

Inspired and motivated, White began working on the triple cork, landing more than a dozen into an air bag during a later training session. When Hirano finally landed the triple cork in competition at a Dew Tour stop in Copper Mountain in December, the line was clear, and the rest of the snowboarding world including White stood on the low side of it.

(Dew Tour)

But White had been here before. Hed attempted the triple cork back in 2013, even landing it in an airbag. But trying it on snow put him in the hospital once and nearly cracked his pelvis another time, so he put it aside. Maybe he thought hed never have to think about the triple cork again; maybe he always knew this day would come.

Im not, like, going to just hand it over, he told the Washington Post earlier this year. Im not going to walk away. Im going to give it everything I have at this Olympics. Its my title to defend.

The halfpipe increases the triple corks magnitude of difficulty because of geometry. In contrast to big air and slopestyle, where the rider is continuously moving downhill and forward, a rider within the bounds of a halfpipe is continuously moving downhill and back inward, into the heart of the halfpipe.

Where a rider leaping off a big hill has forward momentum and a full skys worth of air ahead, a rider coming out of a halfpipe is only moving upward as long as they can fight off gravity and then its back into the halfpipe. In other words, tricks that riders can achieve off ramps arent possible in halfpipe yet.

The halfpipe is 22 feet deep, and youre going 20 feet [up] out of that, Elliot says. Theres no room for error. If you catch the coping, where the angle and the slope meet, youll blow up.

The triple cork sits at the perfect nexus of skill and style thats always defined snowboarding. Governed by strict rules a rider must grab the board to lock into the cork in order to achieve full points its also the most exhilarating expression of freedom possible to a halfpipe rider. The triple cork is a forceful rejection of gravity and a mastering of the physics of the universe, if only for a moment.

The difficulty of the triple cork isnt just achieving it, but incorporating it into a routine that involves four or five other tricks. Like a golfer whose only skill is driving the ball 400 yards, a rider who relies on the triple cork alone will make highlight films but not podiums. Even though he landed the triple cork in the December Dew Tour event, Hirano finished only fifth, because he was unable to link it to another trick in the run.

White understands the stakes here. He knows hell have to surpass every Olympic achievement of his stellar career in order to snare one more medal. Like a poker player keeping his hole cards well concealed, White isnt revealing anything about his plan, other than the fact that he most assuredly has a plan.

"I have an idea in my head of what runs I'd like to put down and as long as I can put those down, then I'm happy, he said. You've got to be content with your own riding and level as long as you can go out there and put down your best.

Thats a nice bit of just-happy-to-be-here, but White didnt climb the mountain, again and again, by just being happy to hang around base camp.

A lot of times when guys are trying tricks, they keep it pretty secret, Elliot says. Its possible he might have been working on this. Shaun likes to go big.

I don't know how many kids really aspire to be a cowboy and get to be a cowboy, White said earlier this week. At a young age, snowboarding is what I wanted more than anything and to be walking in these shoes today is just incredible.

Like a cowboy, hes got one last challenge before he rides off into the sunset. And like a country song, hes got the chance to prove that even if he isnt as good as he once was, he can be as good once as he ever was.

Shaun White versus the field, Shaun White versus the triple cork, Shaun White versus himself. Its going to be be one hell of a gunfight.

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The trick that put Shaun White in the hospital is the trick hell need to win gold - Yahoo Sports

With prices for used cars hitting an all-time high amid the global supply crunch for semiconductors and other materials, the second-hand auto market remains hot as demand continues to outpace supply. According to a recent Bank of America Global Research (BAC) report, the space is poised to stay strong through an e-commerce boom.

Overall, December 2021 total auto inventory increased for the third sequential month and inventory levels are improving from a trough of 1mn but still far below the 5-year average, the BofA report reads. We see the eventual decline in used car prices as a potential risk, but note that the fast turn and limited size of inventories at Carvana (CVNA) and Vroom (VRM) should mitigate the risks of major mismatch in sourcing vs. selling prices.

The average listing price for a used car climbed above $28,000 for the first time ever in December per a Cox Automotive analysis of vAuto Available Inventory data. This was up from a revised price of $27,726 for November when the average listing price passed $27,000 for the first time.

Over the course of the pandemic, used car prices have jumped by at least 50%, but may be starting to show signs of easing as of the end of January. According to data by car-shopping app CoPilot provided to CNBC, the average price of a used car that is one to three years old is down 2.1% to $41,121 from about $42,000 in early January. The average price of 2019 vehicles has decreased 2.5% while 2020 models have fallen 4.4%.

BofA believes that broader tailwinds for the used-car market represent opportunities in vehicle e-commerce platforms like Carvana and Vroom despite the possible lowering of prices in the medium-term.

Looking ahead to FY22, we think secular trends will drive further momentum for Carvana and indicate longer term opportunities for share gains are still ahead and current share prices for Carvana and Vroom represent attractive opportunities, BofAs report reads.

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JANUARY 19: View of a used car dealership in Astoria, Queens New York on January 19, 2022. Inflation spiked to its highest level in four decades, sending consumer prices soaring 7 percent for the year ended. The highest annual increase since June 1982 for the Consumer Price Index, a key indicator of inflation that tracks the costs of goods and services, including used car sales, groceries and rent, according to data released by the Bureau of Statistics. Labor. (Photo by Pablo Monsalve/VIEWpress via Getty Images)

Dataweave information on retail e-commerce suggests that Carvana will deliver around 116,000 cars in 4Q 2021. BofA cited several anticipated themes for the upcoming earnings report including possible supply chain improvement during the second half of 2022, the used car demand outlook post-Omicron peak, as well as the competitive outlook. BofA maintains its Buy rating on Carvana with a price target of $320. Carvana is set to report fourth quarter earnings Feb. 24 after market close.

As for Vroom, Dataweave forecasts about 26,000 units delivered in 4Q 2021. BofA maintains a Buy rating on Vroom with a price target of $30. Vroom is set to report fourth quarter earnings Feb. 28 after market close.

Going into 4Q, we think key themes are management commentary on demand outlook into 2022 and logistics executions in car sourcing/inventory management, the report reads.

Thomas Hum is a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @thomashumTV

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Used car e-commerce is poised to remain strong: BofA - Yahoo Finance

Quarterbacks and offenses get much of the adulation during Super Bowl week, especially when both teams feature former No. 1 overall picks, ostentatious receivers and bruising running backs.

But for the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals, the defense is what helped delivered them to Super Bowl LVI. Both sides gave up fewer than 20 points per game allowed so far this postseason the Rams allowed 18.33, while the Bengals allowed 19.66 and their respective defensive coordinators have a tendency to make solid in-game adjustments that bolster their chances of winning.

The pair put together two defenses that have stifled some of the best offenses in the league over the past month. Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo held the Las Vegas Raiders and the Tennessee Titans to one touchdown each and famously allowed just three second-half points to the Chiefs in the AFC championship. Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris, meanwhile, crushed Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals, held the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to three first-half points before staving off a Tom Brady comeback and then held the San Francisco 49ers to a season-low 50 rushing yards in the tight NFC championship win.

While the Rams have major star power in All-Pros Jalen Ramsey, Aaron Donald and Von Miller, the Bengals' lesser-known players are no less scrappy. Edge rusher Trey Hendricksons 14 sacks in 2021 are 1.5 more than Donalds 12.5, while cornerback Chidobe Awukie allowed fewer yards per target (5.4) than Ramsey did at 6.4 yards. That, as well as Anarumos and Morris innate ability to flip the script depending on the opponent, is whats helped both teams reach the Super Bowl.

Aaron Donald and the Rams' defense has been great this postseason, just like the Bengals' unit. (Photo by Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images)

Anarumo famously switched his defense against the Chiefs when he dropped at least eight defenders into coverage on 45 percent of Patrick Mahomes dropbacks in the second half, per NextGen Stats, a 44 percent increase from the first half. That move spectacularly stymied Mahomes and helped the Bengals win in overtime. That wasnt the only time Anarumo changed his defense, either. He deployed a three-safety look in the Bengals Week 1 overtime win against the Vikings and blitzed more against the run-heavy Ravens in a Week 7 win neither of which were staples of his base defense.

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I havent been on a defense where we have this many looks as a defense, Awuzie said during the Bengals' bye week in mid-November. [Anarumo] gives us a lot of trust, not just as players, but as professionals. He gives us the keys, and he trusts you.

Morris did something similar in the NFC championship game. After a year of running a 3-4 base defense with two-high safety shells on 72 percent of snaps, the Rams deployed a single-high safety shell on 63 percent of snaps against the 49ers, while loading the box a season-high 49 percent of the time, per NextGen Stats. The result: A season-low rushing mark for the 49ers and a 10.0 percent rushing success rate, which was second-lowest in a game this season.

Its no wonder both Anarumo and Morris were both head coaching candidates this cycle and will likely be next year as well.

Defense matters just ask the 2018 New England Patriots and the 2013 Seattle Seahawks and Anarumo and Morris should be very busy this Sunday against two of the most star-studded offenses in the league. The Rams have Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp and Odell Beckham Jr., while the Bengals boast an equally impressive but youthful core of Joe Burrow, JaMarr Chase and Joe Mixon.

So while the offensive playmakers will get at lot of the hype, the defensive players are the ones who could affect the game the most. Especially with two of the most brilliant defensive minds this season running the show on both sidelines.

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What the Rams' and Bengals' defenses have in common - Yahoo Sports

In the 55 years of the Super Bowl era with the 56th set to culminate this Sunday in Inglewood, California 20 NFL teams have hoisted the Lombardi Trophy. Sundays AFC representative, the Cincinnati Bengals, can become the 21st and heal a 33-year-old scar in the process. (More on that to come.)

Below, we ranked the 12 franchises that havent tasted Super Bowl glory by how close they have come.

How close? About 10 feet.

A Super Bowl ending so famous it quasi-inspired the main plot point from Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

The underdog New York Giants held the Bills and their K-Gun offense to under 20 minutes of possession of Super Bowl XXV, but it was almost all Buffalo needed. After Thurman Thomas got the Bills down to the 30-yard line, Scott Norwood lined up for a 47-yard field goal with eight seconds left from the right hash mark and pushed it wide right. The laces were, in fact, out.

The Bills lost 20-19, but things may have been different had AP Defensive Player of the Year Bruce Smith knocked the ball out of Giants quarterback Jeff Hostetlers hand while sacking him in the end zone in the first half, rather than just taking the two points for the safety.

Buffalo did make the next three Super Bowls, but didn't come nearly as close to winning. The only lead the Bills held in those games came two years later against the Dallas Cowboys at 7-0 at the Rose Bowl before getting blitzed 52-17.

How close? About 2 feet.

Poor Kevin Dyson. Three weeks after scoring on the Music City Miracle (were not rehashing that here), he came up juuuust short on the final play of Super Bowl XXXIV. The Titans entered their only Super Bowl to date as seven-point underdogs to the then-St. Louis Rams vaunted "Greatest Show on Turf," but Jevon Kearse and the defense held St. Louis out of the end zone until midway through the third quarter.

After erasing a 16-0 deficit to tie the game with 2:12 to go, Tennessee gave up a 73-yard touchdown to Isaac Bruce. But since that drive was just one play, the Titans got the chance to run a two-minute drill and got down to the 10-yard line before Rams linebacker Mike Jones made the tackle on Dyson and dashed their dreams.

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Kevin Dyson came up less than a yard short of scoring a potential game-tying touchdown on the final play of Super Bowl XXXIV. (Photo by: Tom Hauck /Getty Images).

An oft-forgotten footnote: Titans kicker Al Del Greco missed two field goals that may have altered the calculus of that final drive.

An honorable mention in this category has to go to the 1992 Oilers, who ranked third in the league in points for and against, but famously blew a 35-3 lead to Frank Reich and the Bills in the wild-card round.

How close? 34 seconds.

In Super Bowl XXIII, the Bengals held a 49ers offense featuring Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Roger Craig and John Taylor out of the end zone until the fourth quarter, leading 13-6 at the time. From there, Montana engineered two scoring drives of over 80 yards, relying heavily on game MVP Rice (11 catches, 215 yards and a touchdown). Rice caught a 14-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter and was the decoy running in motion for Taylors 10-yard winning touchdown catch with 34 ticks left. It was Taylors lone catch of the game.

The result is likely very different if not for a dropped interception by Bengals cornerback Lewis Billups in the end zone on the play just before Rices touchdown catch.

How close? 57 seconds and the flip of a coin.

How many 28-3 memes did you share after Super Bowl LI?

As Yahoo Sports' Frank Schwab noted in the aftermath, 16 things absolutely had to go right for the Patriots to pull off the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history, including a strip sack, a two-point trick play and one of the greatest catches ever.

This improbable Julian Edelman reception is just one of 16 things that had to go wrong for the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)

James White scored the tying touchdown with 57 seconds left in regulation before the Patriots won the overtime coin toss and marched down the field, culminating in Whites championship-winning 2-yard touchdown run.

How close? 35 seconds and about 1 foot.

Santonio Holmes toe tap is just the latest entry here of an iconic play denying a franchise its first Super Bowl victory, and is deserving of its place in every big-game highlight package youll ever see.

Circumstantially, you can point directly to that play, given that Pittsburgh took a 27-23 lead with 35 seconds left in Super Bowl XLIII. But if you want to talk about high-leverage plays, you need to go back to just before halftime.

Arizona appeared poised to score and go into the break up 14-10, but James Harrison stepped in front of Anquan Boldin to make a goal-line interception and improbably rumble 100 yards breaking four tackles along the way to put the Steelers up 17-7 at halftime, forcing the Cardinals to empty the playbook in their second-half comeback.

How close? Six minutes and 51 seconds.

Super Bowl XXXVIII featured two of the wildest quarters (the second and fourth) that the game has ever seen. Other than that? A whole lotta punts.

Jake Delhomme rallied the underdog Panthers from down 21-10 in the third quarter to a 22-21 edge after an 85-yard touchdown pass to Muhsin Muhammad with 6:51 to go and later tied it at 29 with a 12-yard toss to Ricky Proehl with 1:08 left.

Then Tom Brady marched the Patriots down in whats become an all-too-familiar sight, and Adam Vinatieri added to his Hall of Fame credentials by hitting a 41-yard field goal with four seconds left to seal the win and the Patriots' second Super Bowl title of their first dynastic run.

The Panthers got back to the big game 13 years later, but in Super Bowl 50 Cam Newton made a business decision and Von Miller happened as Carolina was nowhere close in that game.

How close? Well, they got there.

Four times, in fact. But, in those Super Bowl trips (IV, VIII, IX and XI), they couldnt muster a score until the second half of any game, never even tasting a lead. Which is incredible considering the legends they had on the field (Fran Tarkenton, Alan Page, Carroll Dale) and the sideline (Bud Grant) in that era.

Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton played in three of the Vikings' four winless Super Bowl appearances in the 1970s. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)

The best team the Vikings have fielded in the Super Bowl era by regular season record and statistical rankings was the 1998 outfit featuring a rookie out of Marshall named Randy Moss, a 35-year-old Randall Cunningham experiencing a career renaissance and a kicker in Gary Anderson who was perfect all season and playoffs until he wasnt.

Anderson missed a 39-yard field goal attempt that would have given the Vikings a 30-20 lead over the Falcons with 2:11 remaining in the NFC title game. As it happened, Atlanta tied the game in regulation and won it overtime on a Morten Anderson field goal, and Minnesota fans have been left to wonder how theyd have fared against the defending champion Denver Broncos.

How close? Got to smell the grass.

Its possible that the Chargers were emotionally spent in Super Bowl XXIX, having first mounted a second-half comeback to dispatch the visiting Dolphins in the divisional round, and then rallying from down 10 points on the road at Three Rivers Stadium to beat the Steelers, 17-13, in the AFC title game.

That, or they were simply overmatched by a 49ers team featuring three future Hall of Famers in Steve Young (the games MVP), Jerry Rice and Deion Sanders, not to mention Ricky Watters, who scored three touchdowns.

San Diego got in a 14-0 hole early and never recovered, getting blasted 49-26 in what is their lone Super Bowl appearance to date.

How close? A notch on John Elways comeback belt.

This isnt where the Factory of Sadness started (refer to Red Right 88 for that), but its certainly a significant entry in the book.

Leading 20-13 at home with 5:32 remaining in the 1986 AFC Championship game and having pinned Denver at its own 2-yard line, victory was in sight and optimism was still a thing in Cleveland. Until Elway did what he would become famous for, leading the Broncos 98 yards in 15 plays on "The Drive" and going 6-of-9 through the air to score the game-tying touchdown before Denver won it in overtime.

The Browns would make it back to the AFC title game the very next year against the Broncos in Denver, and appeared to be driving for the winning score late in the fourth quarter until Earnest Byner committed "The Fumble." The Browns havent been that close ever since.

Thank goodness for LeBron James and Kevin Love, right?

How close? A Bill Belichick scowl.

Its hard to believe that just four years ago the Jags held a 10-point lead over the Patriots in the fourth quarter of the AFC championship game at Gillette Stadium, but it did happen. But as happens so often with Emperor Belichick and his Death Star, teams get so taken out of their own scheme by what New England might do that they do everything possible to hand the game over. (See: Falcons, Atlanta and Rams, Los Angeles for more on this phenomenon.)

After going up 20-10, Leonard Fournette only managed just three yards on four carries, Blake Bortles went 5-for-12 for 73 yards and Myles Jack got an unfortunate whistle. Meanwhile, Tom Brady led two surgical scoring drives to send the Patriots to Super Bowl LII.

How close? A hog mauling.

Yep. Weve all heard that stat: Just one playoff win in the Super Bowl era despite having generational talents in Hall of Famers Barry Sanders (1989-1998) and Calvin Johnson (2007-2015). Not to mention Matthew Stafford, who could punch his ticket to Canton with a win over the Bengals this weekend.

The Detroit Lions made the playoffs five times in Barry Sanders' Hall of Fame career, scoring their lone playoff win of the Super Bowl era in the 1991 playoffs, before getting blown out by Washington in the NFC title game. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)

The closest the Lions have got to a Super Bowl was a 41-10 drubbing in Washington in the 1991 NFC championship game that really wasnt even that close.

How close? Mahomesd.

The NFLs youngest franchise has made the playoffs six times in its 20 years and the pinnacle so far is a 24-0 lead over the Kansas City Chiefs in the divisional round just two years ago. Then the Chiefs woke up, storming to a 28-24 lead by halftime of what would become a 51-31 boat race.

Not much has gone right for the Texans since then, as Bill OBrien traded away wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins the following offseason and then got fired less than a month into the 2020 regular season. Another franchise cornerstone left the building in the 2020-21 offseason when defensive end J.J. Watt asked for and was granted his release. And then came Deshaun Watsons trade demand and subsequent legal issues, which are currently ongoing.

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Super Bowl: Ranking Bengals, others by how close to title they've been - Yahoo Sports