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🏈 The Football Five
- Days after being traded to the Steelers, Mike Williams caught the game-winning touchdown (on a route he says he’d never run before) in Pittsburgh’s 28-27 victory over the Commanders in a battle of division leaders. Mike Tomlin is among Cody Benjamin’s weekly winners again.
- They can’t keep getting away with this! The Chiefs improved to 9-0 with a 16-14 win over the Broncos after Leo Chenal blocked Wil Lutz‘s 35-yard field goal attempt as time expired. Yes, the Chiefs are still the AFC’s best team, Jeff Kerr says, but a showdown with the Bills looms.
- The 49ers eked out a 23-20 win over the Buccaneers in Christian McCaffrey‘s season debut. McCaffrey went over 100 yards from scrimmage, and Ricky Pearsall had his first NFL touchdown, under 11 weeks after being shot in the chest. Jake Moody made a 44-yarder as time expired, capping his wild day: three misses, three makes and a confrontation with Deebo Samuel.
- Moving to college football, days after Billy Napier received a vote of confidence, his Florida team got crushed by No. 5 Texas, 49-17.
- Dillon Gabriel set the FBS record for career touchdowns passing as No.1 Oregon crushed Maryland, 39-18.
🏈 Good morning to all, but especially to …
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THE DETROIT LIONS
The Lions‘ offense has been historically great for nearly two straight months. Yet even on a night when it was historically awful, the result remained similar. Detroit stunned Houston, 26-23, despite five interceptions by Jared Goff.
The Lions scored 19 consecutive points after trailing 23-7 at halftime, with Jake Bates squeezing a 58-yard field goal just inside the right upright to tie the game with five minutes left and a 52-yarder just inside the left upright to win it as time expired.
How rare is this win?
- Quarterbacks who throw five interceptions have a 3-58 record over the last 30 years.
- This is the first time a team threw five interceptions, trailed by 15+ points and won since 1970!
Credit Bates, Carlton Davis (two interceptions off C.J. Stroud), a relentless running game, a terrific run defense and a team that just finds a way. At 8-1, the Lions are off to their best start since 1954.
👍 Honorable mentions
- The NFL plans for eight international games next season.
- Jeremiah Smith broke Cris Carter‘s Ohio State freshman touchdown receptions record.
- Scottie Pippen and Scotty Pippen Jr. are the first father-son duo in the play-by-play era to both have triple-doubles.
- Sabrina Ionescu says she’d pick Caitlin Clark as her partner in an NBA All-Star Weekend 3-point shooting contest.
- The Marlins are hiring Clayton McCullough as manager.
- In men’s college basketball, No. 1 Kansas topped No. 9 North Carolina, 92-89, surviving a massive Tar Heels comeback. Dennis Dodd says this will serve the Jayhawks well come the NCAA Tournament.
- No. 11 Auburn pulled off an even more remarkable comeback, this one miles away (and above) the court. Jahki Howard and Ja’Heim Hudson got in a physical altercation on the team plane, forcing the pilot to abandon the flight plan. After a second flight, sans Howard and Hudson, the Tigers beat No. 4 Houston, 74-69. What a weekend!
- In women’s hoops, No. 1 South Carolina beat No. 9 NC State, 71-57, to extend its winning streak to 40.
- Stanford named its court after Tara VanDerveer.
- Here’s the USMNT roster for its CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal against Jamaica.
- Joey Logano became the 10th driver in NASCAR history to win three Cup Series titles.
- Austin Eckroat won the World Wide Technology Championship.
🏈 And not such a good morning for …
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THE DALLAS COWBOYS AND THE NEW YORK JETS …
The Cowboys and Jets — the darlings of talk shows everywhere, the teams we just have to talk about — are officially irrelevant in the football sense.
Oh, sure, they’ll still make headlines because of their brands, their stars, their executives, their markets … but in terms of actually impacting the football this season? Nah. Dallas is 3-6, and Dak Prescott (hamstring) is likely done for the season. The Jets are even worse — 3-7 — and can’t even blame a quarterback injury for their season coming undone. No, they did this to themselves.
Let’s start with the Eagles obliterating Dallas, 34-6.
- The Cowboys had nearly as many turnovers (five) as points (six).
- Cooper Rush started but didn’t finish the game, and he left an awful impression: 13 for 23 for 45 yards, the fewest yards per attempt by a player who attempted over 20 passes in a game since Anthony Wright in 2004. Rush also lost a fumble on a mishandled snap and threw an interception.
- It wasn’t just really bad. It was embarrassing. Among the lowlights were two Cowboys colliding trying to pick up a fumble (allowing Philadelphia to recover it), CeeDee Lamb losing a potential touchdown pass in the sunlight and Ezekiel Elliott fumbling on the goal line.
- The Eagles ran for 187 yards, and Jalen Hurts ran for two touchdowns and threw for two more. Philadelphia looks outstanding.
Again, strictly football-speaking, the Cowboys aren’t relevant, though Jerry Jones will keep trying to make them relevant in any manner.
Here’s something relevant: The Cowboys have been outscored by 94 points in four home games this season.
Here’s another relevant thing: Jones doesn’t plan to fire Mike McCarthy midseason, a surprisingly measured decision. I certainly don’t think the Cowboys need more turmoil.
If you need proof the Jets don’t need to be on the radar, interim coach Jeff Ulbrich said it himself after a 31-6 loss in Arizona. New York was nearly doubled up (406-207) in total yards. Aaron Rodgers‘ 151 yards passing were his fewest ever in a game he threw at least 35 passes.
As a quick aside, the Cardinals are everything the Jets are not: good vibes, well-coached, tough, greater than the sum of their parts, etc. Kyler Murray, James Conner and Trey McBride are playing excellent ball. I’m extremely impressed with the NFC West leaders.
We made a huge assumption about the Jets: As long as Rodgers brought competent play, the team would be vastly improved. Instead, the defense has fallen off a cliff, Rodgers’ offense — a crisp, pinpoint attack at his peak — looks really difficult and uncreative, and plenty of individuals have disappointed. Never assume in the NFL.
The Jets and the Cowboys are eerily similar — they earned the only two “F” grades this week according to John Breech — and both are mired in an ugly present and face a discouraging future.
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… AND ALSO NOT SUCH A GOOD MORNING FOR THE GEORGIA BULLDOGS
Georgia, unlike the Jets and Cowboys, still has legitimate playoff hopes. But even those are suddenly in peril — an unthinkable scenario before the season began — after the No. 3 Bulldogs were routed, 28-10, at No. 16 Ole Miss. Carson Beck‘s disastrous season continued, though he pointed to the disappointing run game for his struggles. Puzzling.
Both teams now have two losses and no room for error in their CFP hopes. But things felt very different for each. On one side was Jaxson Dart gutting through an injury and, after the game, Rebels fans carrying the goalposts through Oxford as their team inched closer to a bid. John Talty has the story on a party in the Sip. Games like these are why Lane Kiffin‘s bunch had such high expectations entering the season, after all.
On the other side is a Georgia team heading in the wrong direction. This was the Bulldogs’ first loss to a team not named Alabama in over four years. Kirby Smart‘s team got an “F” in David Cobb’s weekly grades, and the Bulldogs have a long list of issues, David writes.
- Cobb: “Defensively, the Bulldogs were out-schemed throughout the afternoon as the Rebels repeatedly found advantageous matchups on quick throws over the middle of the field. … The Rebels surrendered just one sack as their quarterbacks were precise on their reads and dissected Georgia’s defense for chunk gains. … The Bulldogs’ offensive line was outworked by the Ole Miss defensive front, which teed off for five sacks and nine tackles for loss.”
There’s no rest for the weary: First place Tennessee is up next for Georgia.
👎 Not so honorable mentions
🏈 College football recap: Alabama wallops LSU, Miami stunned, BYU escapes, Colorado rallies
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Bring on a real live tiger, bring on Death Valley at night, bring on potential CFP dreams ending.
No. 11 Alabama brought its best, thumping No. 14 LSU, 42-13, behind 185 yards and four touchdowns rushing from quarterback Jalen Milroe. With the win, the Crimson Tide went from borderline playoff team to No. 3 seed in Jerry Palm’s bowl projections, and Kalen DeBoer‘s bunch leads Shehan Jeyarajah’s Week 11 winners. Why? Here’s the list of two-loss SEC teams:
- Alabama
- Georgia
- Texas A&M
- Ole Miss
- Missouri
Yeah, you don’t want to fall behind that group, which is exactly what LSU did. As Milroe excelled, Garrett Nussmeier struggled, a troubling trend for Brian Kelly‘s signal callers in big games.
Elsewhere, Cam Ward and No. 4 Miami finally ran out of magic, losing to Georgia Tech, 28-23. Ward, who has been incredibly clutch all season, lost a fumble late to seal the Hurricanes’ first loss. They learned the hard way what happens when Ward can’t bail them out, Chip Patterson writes, and Will Backus wonders if Mario Cristobal is holding Miami back.
So the SEC and ACC races got muddled. The Big 12? Well, here comes No. 20 Colorado! The Buffaloes rallied past Texas Tech, 41-27, putting Deion Sanders and company in the driver’s seat for a conference title game appearance. They could meet No. 9 BYU there after another remarkable Cougars escape, this one so wild, Utah‘s athletic director said, “This game absolutely was stolen from us.”
Here’s more:
🏀 Kevin Durant, Zion Williamson, Ja Morant, Chet Holmgren join list of injured NBA stars
USATSI
The season is still young, but the injury list is growing rapidly. Kevin Durant, Zion Williamson, Ja Morant and Chet Holmgren — the leading stars of Western Conference contenders — are all going to miss significant time with various ailments.
Meanwhile, Anthony Davis (eye) left Sunday night’s game when he was hurt making an amazing block, and a pair of key Pacers are out several weeks.
📺 What we’re watching Monday
🏀 McNeese at No. 2 Alabama (M), 7 p.m. on SEC Network
🏀 Clippers at Thunder, 8 p.m. on NBA TV
🏈 Dolphins at Rams, 8:15 p.m. on ESPN
