SBSQ #28b: Maye vs. Stafford and Yelp vs. Google

Hey subscribers, we’ve got a busy week ahead:

• Later today, we’ll update QBERT and ELWAY with the results of the divisional playoffs.

• Tuesday is the anniversary of Trump’s inauguration. I’ll have a Substack Live with Matt Yglesias of Slow Boring at 1 p.m. Tuesday, where we’ll discuss that and other things.

• I’m also planning to revisit my 113 Trump predictions column from a year ago, probably landing late this week. Spoiler alert: I think the predictions are reasonably well-calibrated based on what we know so far. But I also think that doesn’t tell the whole story. (I have a lot of “meta” thoughts about how it’s going and whether the resistance libs were right about everything.)

• Finally, our generic ballot polling average is ready to go. We just have to finish up a few elements on the charts and the presentation. This is basically the kickoff to our midterm election coverage, so we think it’s kind of a big deal! That’s also landing this week. It will also have some extra goodies attached, such as state-by-state benchmarks and historical generic ballot data.

Today, however, is a federal holiday1 and the college football national championship game, so we’re going to have some fun. I have a few leftover questions from this month’s SBSQ2 — two about football and one about food.

• Why Drake Maye, not Matt Stafford, should be NFL MVP

• Yelp vs. Google and Nate’s 3 tips for scouting restaurants

• What’s wrong with the College Football Playoff selection committee?

SBSQs usually run behind the paywall, but we’ve been a little heavy on paid content lately, so we’re gonna run this one free. Asking questions is a benefit for paid subscribers, however! As always, we’d encourage you to submit questions for SBSQ #29 in the comments below.

Why Drake Maye, not Matt Stafford, should be NFL MVP

FlipperAndersonFan (not a real person3) asks:

Why are you and Bill Simmons stanning so hard for Maye? My boy Matty Stafford had more TDs, more yards. And the Rams faced a much tougher schedule. Approximately 85.4362 percent of Mays’s [sic] yards were against the Jets. Aren’t you supposed to be a stats guy? Stafford was a SUPER BOWL CHAMPION the same year that Maye was the second-string quarterback in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.

The NFL’s MVP award is almost certainly going to come down to Maye and