NERDS AROUND TOWN

Nerds Around Town: Crawfish, Mulan and what's next for HBO?

May 20, 2019, 5:45 am

ART BY JESUS RODRIGUEZ

Born with a comic book in one hand and a remote control in the other, Cory DLG is the talent of Conroe's very own Nerd Thug Radio, Sports and Wrestling. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio show at www.nerdthugradio.com!

Hey Nerds!

It's a new week and there's challenges to overcome and opportunities to seize. Don't waste your time and your chances by letting the week slip away.

GOOD DEED OF THE DAY

I've found one this week, a beautiful and wonderful charity event. It's an ALL YOU CAN EAT Crawfish boil, that's right! It's the Light of the Phoenix Charity All You Can Eat Crawfish Boil, and also there's a waterslide and bounce house. Boom! Get pumped, $25 if you get your tickets early. $30 at the door, how are you not excited? #NerdsUnite

House Mouse

As Disney continues to remake movie after animated movie into live action versions, and make another large fortune, they're starting to run out of the cool movies like Jungle Book and Beauty and the Beast (don't judge, it was a great movie, the fight between Gaston and Beast was awesome) they move on to movies like Mulan. Mulan was a big story, with tons of characters and big set pieces because it's about a war in China. So now it's getting a $300 million dollar budget to be remade, which is a lot of money. I'm curious if China will be excited about this movie coming out and if it will be one of the 27 American films released in China the year it comes out. Which will be key to them making the money they need to make in order for Mulan to be a success. I'm curious how it all turns out.

House Minecraft

The game Minecraft, which you may not know about but your kid probably knows it all to well has sold over 175 million copies over the last ten years. That is an insane amount of copies of a game, now granted there may be some overlap, like someone who has bought it for multiple platforms or devices or accounts, but still, that's a lot of copies. This helps underline just the sheer size of the video game market and world. It's weird to think just how many people have gotten into gaming and how many people have slowly gotten involved in the whole industry to just grow it to this point. The sheer growth of this whole industry is amazing and it is hard to imagine how many people are represented by that number but it's almost immeasurable.

House Box Office

Game of Thrones has ended. No spoilers here directly but the conversation for HBO is what's next? Westworld had a great debut trailer, Watchmen looks like it's going to try and do something interesting, and the new His Dark Matters which I think is a Golden Compass based property are all coming up. Are they enough to keep people entertained and attached to a $15 dollar a month subscription for a bunch of not as great as Game of Thrones shows? I don't know, and honestly I don't think anyone else does either. I bet there's a bunch of very nervous suit wearing executives who are going to have their eyes on the numbers for the next month or two, waiting to see which way the numbers go. If I were a betting man, I would bet strongly that the numbers take a dip, somewhere in the realm of less than 20% but more than 10% because I think for every ten people I know at least one will cancel their HBO but I don't think it'll be up to that one in five range. I don't see a mass exodus but I bet in the next investor call for whomever owns HBO someone utters the phrase, "post Game of Thrones numbers are shaky."

Not That You Asked

This weekend is the retailer summit at in Vegas for the comic book world. For those who don't know the simple version is this, all the comic book companies are doing their own thing, there's only one national distributor and no one likes working with them and the reality is the shops suffer for all this craziness. So this annual event is a big deal because the publishers, the distributor and the shop owners are all in one place all talking at the same time and changing nothing. But cool stories always leak out of this event, so that's a plus.

I'm going to jump out and wish you guys a great Monday and remind everyone to be kind to each other and try a little harder to have a great day! I'm coming back Tuesday and we'll be bringing more good times your way. Feel free to check out my digital short story The Wilson House or buy a shirt from Side Hustle Ts where some proceeds help fight cancer or listen to Nerd Thug Radio or support our Patreon Page. Thoughts, complaints, events and comments can be sent to corydlg@gmail.com.

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RAVENS 33, TEXANS 16

5 observations from the Ravens win over the Texans

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Let's be honest; the Texans were not going to beat the Ravens. Baltimore has better players, a better quarterback and a better coaching staff. (And oh, a better kicker). All of that was on display in the Ravens' 33-16 win.

The Ravens move to 2-0, while the Texans dropped to 0-2 after facing the AFC's two best teams.

The Texans will still likely contend for a playoff spot, but nothing the last two weeks indicates they are anywhere near contending in the AFC. A look at five things from the Ravens win:

1) Oh, Brien...It did not take long for Bill O'Brien's goofy coaching to rear its ugly head. Down 3-0 at their own 34 as the first quarter was running out, O'Brien chose to go for it on fourth and one. The play was predictably blown up, the Ravens quickly scored to make it 10-0, and the Texans were instantly in a hole against a superior opponent. You can't give points away against the Ravens. They might have scored anyway with a punt, but there was no stopping them with a short field.

2) Some positives on defense. Despite the score, The Texans looked much better on that side of the ball against an explosive offense. J.J. Watt had two sacks, the team had four total, and they kept Lamar Jackson from destroying them. Seven of the points were scored by the Ravens defense, and O'Brien's gaffe led to seven more. The Ravens wore them down in the fourth quarter, but they played well enough until then to keep the team in the game had the offense been better. They did not force any turnovers, however, and that was one of the differences in the game. They were also blown off the ball on a fourth and one in the fourth quarter that led to the Ravens' 30th points and could not stop the run at all in the fourth quarter. But that's what the Ravens do with a lead, and the Texans offense gave them no breaks by being unable to stay on the field.

3) The difference between real contenders...The Ravens were just so much more skilled on both sides of the ball. Defensively, they focused on taking away the run. David Johnson averaged 3.1 yards per carry. Will Fuller had as many catches as you did. The Ravens forced two turnovers on just really good football plays. The Texans don't make plays like that. They might against lesser teams, but if your goal is to compete with the best, it's just not good enough.

4) Deshaun Watson needs to be better. His numbers looked so so on the surface (25 of 36, 275 yards, 1 TD, 1 interception). He was sacked four times and added 17 rushing yards on five carries. He did not make plays late when they needed one here or there to maybe get back in the game. With his big contract, it's time for Watson to stop being close to elite and take the next step. His interception was more of being fooled by Marcus Peters than throwing a bad ball, but the Texans were just 3 of 9 on third downs. Throw in the ill-advised fourth down play, and they were just 3 of 10 extending drives. Give the Ravens a lot of credit, but again, to compete with the best, you have to be better than that.

5) Now what? The Texans travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers, who have not been impressive in their two wins. Still, it's hard to see Houston as anything but serious underdogs. They are last in the AFC South, and have a lot of work to do. The defense showed some promise at times, but will have to continue to improve. The offense has a long way to go. They match up better with the Steelers than they do the Ravens and Chiefs, but that does not mean they can win. If you were hoping they would give you some indication they can be more than just also-rans, they failed to do that on any level against either the Chiefs or Ravens.

houston texans nfl

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