Weekly Update October 16, 2023

Baseball: Finishing up the Divisional Series. The ALCS and NLCS in action. All Texas ALCS.

Basketball: NBA is back next week!

Football – NCAAF: We started the week with crazy games and we ended the week with crazy games. 8 Losses in the Top 25 made for a crazy week! 2 of those in the Top 10. Movement in the Top 25 rankings. Bowers injured.

Football – NFL: No more undefeated team in the NFL as both teams lose this weekend. 7 close games.

Golf: Kim reaches an impressive milestone. Koepka wins final regular season LIV event.

Olympic Sports: LA sports are official. Mary Lou Retton fighting for her life but sounds like she is winning.

Baseball – MLB:

• Finishing up the ALDS and NLDS…
  • ALDS: Were going to start with the Orioles/Rangers matchup because it was the first to be over. The Texas team came into Tuesday’s game with a 2-0 series lead and smoked 100+ win Baltimore team 7-1. Rangers are the first team to advance to their Championship Series.
  • ALDS: The Astros vs Twins was a better series as we were tied going into Tuesday in MN. The Houston team came out hot though with 4 HRs scoring 9 runs to the Twin’s 1 to take the series lead. Wednesday’s game was closer but Abreu HR’d again (he had 2 on Tues) putting them into the ALCS for the 7^th straight year. Astros advance and we have a all-Texas ALCS.
  • NLDS: Bryce Harper hit 2 HRs in the Phillies dominance of the Braves on Wednesday helping them win 10-2. Yikes. PHI leads the series 2-1. They would then ride that momentum on Thursday’s game at home, winning 3-1 completing the huge upset of the 104 win and MLB leading Braves!
  • NLDS: Last we left off, the Diamondbacks were winning in their Monday night game against the Dodgers and they did end up putting that game away 4-2, taking a 2-0 series lead. The AZ team would only need one more game to put it all away. They win by the same score on Wednesday, hitting 4 HRs in a single inning. Diamondbacks sweep the 100 win Dodgers.

• Every team that is playing in the Championship Series have less than 100 wins and that’s saying something since we had 3 teams with that impressive feat.
  • The ALCS began last night with Game 1 of the Texas showdown between the Rangers and Astros, starting in Houston. But it was Dallas who got the last laugh in Game 1. P J. Montgomery only allowed 5 hits and no runs while he was pitching which was until the bottom of the 7^th Verlander only allowed 1 more hit than Montgomery but also got 2 runs scored on him. That’s all that was needed last night . Rangers win 2-0 to take the series lead. As of putting out the podcast and blog, Game 2 has also been decided. The Rangers rode their momentum from Game 1 into Game 2 going up 4-0 in the first inning. We then exchanged runs for a couple innings but Houston could never get a big enough run going, despite Alvarez’s 2 HRs. Eovaldi also got himself out of a bases loaded with no outs in the 5th inning and with that Rangers win 5-4, taking it to 2-0 in the series.

• • The NLCS started tonight and finished as I was prepping so I went back and did a quick write up. The Phillies got off to a quick start. Like on the 1^st pitch of the game to Schwarber was a HR. they would score 2 in that inning. And it was all Phillies early as they scored 5 straight runs through the 5^th. The Diamondbacks tried to answer but fell 2 runs short. Phili wins 5-3 Game 1.

Basketball – NBA:

• Regular season begins next week! It will start Tues 10/24 and run through April 14^th next year.

Football – NCAAF:

• Oh man this week was a doozy! We had 8 losses in the Top 25.
  • Wow the Oregon Washington game was amazing!!! There were 7 lead changes and it looked like it would come down to who had the ball last. Washington drew first blood on their first drive but Oregon retaliated with a TD and going for the 2-point conversion on their first score of the game! Huskies led 22-18 at half. Washington got the ball back to start 2H and scored another TD, going up 29-18. But then it was a lot of Ducks defense. Washington would then go 3 straight drives with no score. Now Oregon leads 33-29 with 13m to play. Washington then drives it all the wa to the goal line for 1^st and 8 to goal. They fumble on the 1 but get it back. Now 2^nd down – loss 1 yard. 3^rd down gained 1 yard. Then the Huskies goes for it on 4^th & 1 and come up short. 6:33 and 98 yards to go and it’s a turnover on downs. ORE leads by 4. ORE then goes for it on the Washington 47 (basically at half field) with 2:11 to go and are short. That gave Michael Penix a short field and 2:11 to work. Washington scores a TD in 2 plays, going 53 yards. Washington now leads 36-33. 1:38 to play. ORE QB Bo Nix is not known for being good on the road but he does well, getting the Ducks into FG range for a tying going-into-OT 43 yard FG and the kicker misses wide. Oregon suffers their first loss of the season. Both still have 3 ranked teams to play but hopefully we will get a rematch in the Pac 12 Championship game.
  • Let’s just say it started with an interception and a Notre Dame TD and that set the tempo for the rest of the game. #9 USC goes down after Caleb Williams had his most interceptions ever in a college football game (with 3). #21 ND led 24-6 at half but admittedly, I thought we were going to see the normal Caleb Williams comeback when USC scored to within 10 points with 9m left. But then ND runs it back 98 yards in a kick return and continued to piled on. Fighting Irish fight to win 48-20.

• • Despite winning every stat matchup (rushing yards, passing yards, time of possession, penalties) #14 Louisville fell to unranked and unimpressive 1-4 Pitt. The one area that Louisville gave it back was three turnovers. The Cardinals take their first loss of the season 21-38.
  • We knew that #18 UCLA’s D needed to come up big this week to help their true freshman QB shine. But it was all beavs early scoring 13 unanswered to start the game. Oregon State never gave the lead back to the Bruins despite some mounted comeback attempts. Beaves win 36-24 in Coravallis.
  • Arizona might be better than we initially thought. Last week the wildcats took USC to 3OT and this week they beat up #19 Washington state 44-6!
  • Oklahoma State is starting to click with their odd QB play. This week’s game was a great one playing #23 Kansas. KU led by 1 at half. But OSU scored 15 unanswered points to upset the Jayhawks 39-32.

• • #24 Kentucky and Mizzou both took their first loss of the season last week. So it was a match up of who can be a better gold fish. Despite going up 14-0 in 1Q, Kentucky would only score another 7 points compared to Mizzou’s 38. Apparently that award goes to Mizzou. Tigers upset wildcats 38-21.
  • #25 Miami would’ve been undefeated going into their big ACC matchup this week except for that gnarly kneel at GT. It was a good game in 1H with Miami leading 17-14 but then #12 UNC QB Drake Maye showed out and took advantage of 4 turnovers by the Canes. The Tar Heels scored 24 unanswered points. 3 of those TDs came from WR Tez Walker in his real Carolina Blue debut. Tar Heels win 41-31.

• Other major storylines:
  • We even started the week with a Power 5 craziness on Thursday. The WV Houston game had 9 lead changes! WV scored what looked like and 99% of the time is the game winning TD with 12 seconds to go in the game from the 50 yard line. But Houston wanted their first win the Big 12. The Coogs heaved it from before the 50 yard line in a hail mary pass as time expired and a Houston player came down with it after it had to have hit 3-4 hands. Houston hands WV its first conference loss of the season.

• • Then on Friday, Deion Sanders and the Buff were up 29-0 at half. I went to bed, thinking nothing of it. We actually reached 99.7% win prob. Until the next day. It was all Stanford 2H. Stanford came all the way back to tie it up at the end of regulation 36-36. Deion then elected to go first in OT. That is highly unusual because you know what you need as the team who goes 2^nd. Didn’t matter 1^st OT though as both teams scored a TD. Now into 2OT, the Buffs had the ball first and threw an interception, giving Stanford the freedom to kick the game winning FG, which they did. Stanford upsets Colorado at home. Also Travis Hunter, their star that plays on both Offense and Defense played 150+ snaps after coming back from a lacerated liver. Mistake by Deion here too IMO.
  • You knew one of the major 4 in action that were all favored by ~20 points or more would slip up. Maybe not an upset but def not a 30 point cover. And once again #1 Georgia played with its food and was the one. They still beat Vanderbilt 37-20 but the line was 32.5… #2 Michigan actually hung half a hundred on Indiana and have literally never faced a 1^st & goal all season. Purdue’s FG kicker missed 3 FGs. That’s extra awful this week as a random student nailed 3 FGs during halftime. They fall hard to #3 Ohio St 41-7. #4 Florida St destroyed Syracuse, holding Dino Babers and the Orange out of the endzone all game, winning 41-3.

• • Arkansas once again played a good ranked team close for the third time this season. #11 Alabama only won 24-21. If you’re wondering who those 3 teams are, Arkansas kept LSU, Ole Miss and Bama all within a TD.
  • #6 Penn St was not looking ahead to Ohio State this next week. They shutout UMass. Granted it’s UMass but still 63-0 is impressive against any fbs school.
  • #16 Utah was again Cam Rising-less but man that D is good. They’ve only allowed 73 points through 6 games. This week they held Cal to 14 winning by 20.
  • #19 Tennessee hosted Texas A&M and trailed at half. But it was a close game. TN kept the Aggies to 54 yards rushing. The Aggies have lost 8 straight true road games. Vols end up winning 20-13.
  • Speaking of a close game. It was a battle of 2 QBs in the Florida and South Carolina game which was back and forth all game, like 8 times the team flipped on the win probability chart! Most people would take SC QB Spencer Rattler in this case but Florida’s Grahm Mertz had a career day. South Carolina lead by 10 with 9 to go. FL put together a 5m TD drive, basically got a SC 3 & out and scored again with 47 seconds to go. Rattler then threw an interception to seal the game for the Gators. FL wins 41-39 (SC did gte a safety in the final 4 seconds)

• • We even ended the week with some crazy. Boise State was winning 17-0 at half against Colorado State on their homecoming night… embarrassing. And with 6 minutes left to go in the game, the Rams trailed by 20. But they weren’t done. They score a TD 4 left on the clock. They then kick an onside kick and recover the ball! CSU then drives down. Fails to score on a 4^th & goal but get a flag. New set of downs and they score on the next play. 1:53 left to go. They go down and score again. Then they kick the onside kick and get it. Again! Oh but there’s a flag on the field for illegal block so no they don’t. Boise St gets the ball but goes 3 & out (after some costly penalties). They have to punt it back. CSU ball with only 33 seconds left on their own 12 yard line. In 2 plays they are down to the Boise St 33 yard line. But they will only have that Hail Mary pass to win. And they get it when TE scoops it up from the bat down. Now were tied. They still need the extra point to win but there was a celebration penalty on the PAT, meaning they have to kick it from the 30 yard line, making the kick a 48 yard attempt. It sails through – no question and the Rams win for the first time in 13 years against the Boise St Broncos.

• Top 25 this week: Washington moved into the Top 5 after their impressive win. Oregon only fell 1 spot since it was such a close game. UNC, Utah and TN all moved up 2 for their wins as well. Notre Dame moved up the most, 6 spots after beating the undefeated Trojans, who fell to #18. Louisville and UCLA are still ranked but both fell 7 spots each. For the first time we see undefeated Air Force break into the rankings. That’s because they beat Wyoming 34-27 but man it was a sweat. Tulane, Mizzou and Iowa all re-appeared.
• Georgia better watch out, their star TE Brock Bowers got injured this weekend with an ankle sprain. We don’t know how much time he will miss but likely he will be back for the Tennessee game if I was a betting woman – which I am so not. He has been the most important on their lackluster offense so far this season so watch for slip ups and closer games.

Football – NFL:

• This week in the NFL: TNF was completely one sided with the Chiefs beating the Broncos 19-8. Yes 8 is a weird number (2pt conversion) and they only scored that TD in the 4Q (aka garbage time). Oh and TSwift was in the house. The Ravens beat the Titans across the pond Sunday morning 24-16. The Commanders won by the same score over the Falcons as both teams now sit at 3-3. This was QB Desmond Ritter’s first home loss since high school! There were 7 close games this week. The Vikings only won by 6 over a bad Bears team. The Bengals end their game on a TD-saving sack on 4^th and goal to win by 4 over Seahawks. The Texans have already matched their win record from last year and were on week 6. They beat the Saints 20-13 as the D comes up big for the Houston team. The Dolphins continue to run all over everyone, putting up college football scores. This week it was against the Panthers who lose their 6^th straight 21-42. The 49ers missed a 41 yard FG to win their game against the Browns. That was the Niners first loss of the season in a grunge match losing 17-19. This not only ends their winning streak which was sitting at 15 straight regular season games, a franchise record but the SF team had scored 30+ points for the last 8 games, which was the 5^th most in NFL history. All of that ends and were left with 1 undefeated team in the NFL.

• Checking in on them, the Eagles started well but QB Jalen Hurts threw 3 interceptions including one in the final 2 minutes of the game. The Jets got that drive into the endzone and with that the Jets hand the Phili team their first loss by a TD. The Lions shut down the Bucs, keeping them out of the endzone completely 20-6. The Raiders squeaked by the Patriots 21-17 but that’s pretty good considering that the Raiders QB Jimmy Garoppolo went into the locker room before half. He was later taken to the hospital with a back injury. TBD on him for now. In the Battle for the state of NY, the Bills came back and scored all 14 points in the 4Q which was enough to beat the TD-less Giants by 5.
• Still winless: Panthers

Golf:

• Tom Kim is in the big leagues. Only Byron Nelson and Tom Kim have successfully defended their PGA Tour title 2xs in the same season. Kim won the Shiners Children’s Open on Sunday by 1 shot over Adam Hadwin. This is only made possible as the PGA Tour is switching back to the calendar year system in 2024 and last year the Shriners was early in the season making it show up twice. He is also the youngest player since Tiger Woods in 1997 to win 3 PGA Tour titles in 15 months. It wasn’t as easy as it sounded though as there were 12 players who could’ve fought for the title in the final 2 hours of the tournament, 6 tied for the lead at one point. However, Kim vaulted to the front of the pack at the par-5 16^th when Kim got his two shot lead on Hadwin (Hadwin birdied the final hole to end just 1 shot behind).

• Brooks Koepka successfully defended his Jeddah LIV title this weekend in a playoff against Talor Gooch. Gooch’s 3^rd round, 62 set the tone for the day and Koepka had to birdie 2 of his final 3 holes to even force a playoff. But don’t feel too bad for Gooch, due to his impressive performance, he won the seasons points title taking home $18MM. Next week will be the team championship finale of LIV’s second season in Florida.

Olympic Sports:

• Los Angeles 2028 Olympic games will officially feature the sports we discussed last week (baseball/softball, cricket, lacrosse, squash and flag football. Cricket will return after not being seen since 1900. Lacrosse, which is claimed to be the first game played in America, was only seen 2xs in the Olympics and not since 1908. Squash finally made the yes ballot after many failed attempts. Flag football has never been in the Olympics although full contact football was a demonstration sports in the 1984 LA games. It will also see improvements to the Modern Day Pentathlon (no horse jumping event anymore – to be replaced by an obstacle running course) and Weightlifting (with stricter doping testing requirements after all the DQ’s post games).

• Mary Lou Retton was admitted to the hospital last week with a rare version of pneumonia. However like her performance in the 1984 Los Angeles Games, she is a fighter and has made a miraculous recovery. If you don’t know who she is, here is the reason you should…

What to watch this week

Baseball – MLB:

• Mon 10/16
  • ALCS – Game 2: Rangers at Astros @ 3:37pm on FOX
    • Eovaldi vs Valdez
  • NLCS – Game 1: Diamondbacks at Phillies @ 7:07pm on TBS
• Tues 10/17
  • NLCS – Game 2: Diamondbacks at Phillies @ 7:07pm on TBS
• Wed 10/18
  • ALCS – Game 3: Astros at Rangers @ 7:03pm on FS1
• Thurs 10/19
  • NLCS- Game 3: Phillies at Diamondbacks @ 4:07pm on TBS
  • ALCS – Game 4: Astros at Rangers @ 7:03pm on FS1
• Fri 10/20
  • ALCS – Game 5: Astros at Rangers @ 4:07pm on FS1
    • If necessary
  • NLCS- Game 4: Phillies at Diamondbacks @ 7:07pm on TBS
• Sat 10/21 – If necessary
  • NLCS- Game 5: Phillies at Diamondbacks @ 7:07pm on TBS
• Sun 10/22 – If necessary
  • ALCS – Game 6: Rangers at Astros @ 7:03pm on FS1
• Mon 10/23 – If necessary
  • NLCS – Game 6: Diamondbacks at Phillies @ 4:07pm on TBS
  • ALCS – Game 7: Rangers at Astros @ 7:03pm on FOX/FS1
• Tues 10/24 – If necessary
  • NLCS – Game 7: Diamondbacks at Phillies @ 7:07pm on TBS

Basketball – NBA:

• Tues 10/17
  • Nuggets at Clippers @ 9:30pm on ESPN2

Football-NCAAF:

Top 25
Week 8
Top 25 Games
Visitor	Home	Day	Time (CT)	TV	Line
7. Penn St	3. Ohio St	Sat 10/21	11:00 AM	FOX	+4.5
17. Tennessee	11. Alabama	Sat 10/21	2:30 PM	CBS	+8.5
13. Ole Miss	Auburn	Sat 10/21	6:00 PM	ESPN	-6.5
16. Duke	4. Florida St	Sat 10/21	6:30 PM	ABC	+14
14. Utah	18. USC	Sat 10/21	7:00 PM	FOX	+6.5
*GameDay indicated in bold*

Football-NFL:

• Mon 10/16
  • Cowboys at Chargers @ 7:15pm on ABC and ESPN
• Thurs 10/19
  • Jaguars at Saints @ 7:15pm on Prime
• Sun 10/22
  • 6 games at 12pm on CBS/FOX
    • CBS: Browns at Colts – or – Bills at Patriots – or – Commanders at Giants
    • Fox: Raiders at Bears – or – Falcons at Bucs – or – Lions at Ravens
  • Steelers at Rams – or – Cardinals at Seahawks @ 3:05pm on FOX
  • Packers at Broncos – or – Chargers at Chiefs @ 3:25pm on CBS
  • Dolphins at Eagles @ 7:20pm on NBC
• Mon 10/23
  • 49ers at Vikings @ 7:15pm on ABC and ESPN

Golf:

• Wed 10/18
  • PGA Tour: Zozo Championship – Round 1 @ 10pm on Golf Channel
• Thurs 10/19
  • PGA Tour: Zozo Championship – Round 2 @ 10pm on Golf Channel
• Fri 10/20
  • LIV: Team Championship in Miami – Round 1 @ 12:15pm on CW
  • PGA Tour: Zozo Championship – Round 3 @ 10pm on Golf Channel
• Sat 10/21
  • LIV: Team Championship in Miami – Round 2 @ 12:15pm on CW
  • PGA Tour: Zozo Championship – Final Round @ 10pm on Golf Channel
• Sun 10/22
  • LIV: Team Championship in Miami – Final Round @ 12:15pm on CW

Hockey:

• Tues 10/17
  • Lightning at Sabres @ 6:30pm on ESPN
  • Kings at Kraken @ 9pm on ESPN
• Wed 10/18
  • Penguins at Red Wings @ 6:30pm on TNT
• Thurs 10/19
  • Oilers at Flyers @ 6:30pm on hulu
  • Blackhawks at Avalanche @ 9:30pm on ESPN

Motorsports:

• Sun 10/22
  • F1: US GP @ 2pm on ESPN

Olympic Sports:

• Sun 10/22
  • Figure Skating: Skate America @ 11am on NBC
  • Volleyball: NCAAW – Purdue at Penn St @ 12pm on FS1

Soccer:

• Tues 10/17
  • UEFA Euro Qualifying: END vs ITA @ 11pm on FS1
• Sat 10/21
  • Premier League: Liverpool vs Everton @ 6:30am on USA
  • Premier League: Manchester City vs Brighton @ 9am on USA
  • Premier League: Chelsea vs Arsenal @ 11:30am on NBC
• Sun 10/22
  • Premier League: Ashton Villa vs West Ham @ 10:30am on USA