Weekly Update October 9, 2023

Baseball: Not-so wild Wild Card games. ALDS and NLDS have begun.

Basketball: NBA and players are talking all about Paris 2024.

Football – NCAAF: Big upset week this week. Red River Rivalry was amazing! But we had a lot of great games as fall football begins! Walker eligible to play.

Football – NFL: Bears get their first W. Wilson QB showdown. Kelce goes out injured but comes back. Taylor gets a new contract. Butkus dies.

Golf: List wins Sanderson in surprise.

Motorsports: Verstappen wins another F1 World title to no one’s surprise.

Olympic Sports: Biles wins more and more world titles. But the USA men also preform well. New marathon WR. Flag Football, an Olympic sport?

Baseball – MLB:

• Wild cards were not as wild this year. All 4 ended in a sweep, meaning the team that won Game 1 also won Game 2 and no Game 3s were needed.
  • Rangers won Game 1 4-0 and Game 2 7-1 just 2 years after losing 102 games. They move onto the next round of the playoffs upsetting the Rays.
  • The Twins end a record 18-game losing streak in the postseason beating the Blue Jays 3-1 Game 1 and 2-0 Game 2. The Minnesota team advances for the first time in 21 years!
  • The Diamondbacks/Brewers series was perhaps the most entertaining. The AZ team came back from 3 run hole to win Game 1 despite having less Hits (12 vs 9). They do it again in Game 2, only having to make up a 2-run deficit. But the AZ team upsets the Brewers.
  • The Phillies and Marlins match up was the only one to not end in a technical upset. The Phillies had the better record and showed why. They beat the Miami team 4-1 then 7-1 to advance.

• Start of the ALDS and NLDS:
  • ALDS: The Rangers continued their momentum from the Wild Card game, taking Game 1 over the 101 win Orioles in a close one 3-2. Game 2 was also close but very high scoring. The Rangers put up 5 runs alone in the 2^nd inning and they take the win 11-8. Rangers lead series 2-0.
  • ALDS: The Astros leaned on their prodigal son Verlander who started the season in NY but came home to H-town. He held the Twins scoreless before stepping off the mound. Astros take Game 1 6-4. The opposite happened on Sunday. Former Astros turned Twin Carlos Correa passed Derek Jeter for the most post season RBIs in MN’s 6-2 victory. Series tied 1-1.
  • NLDS: The Phillies/Braves match up is a NL Division series rematch! The Braves made 2 errors in their game Saturday to give the Phillies the W 3-0. In today’s game the Braves got revenge winning in a big comeback, scoring their 5 runs in the 6^th inning or later. The Phillies scored 4 unanswered runs to start the game but the Braves fought back to win 5-4, including an amazing catch at the wall to deny the Phillies a late 9^th inning redemption.
  • NLDS: The Diamondbacks came out hot, destroying the LA Dodgers 11-2 in Game 1. The AZ team is currently winning Game 2 3-0 but its only in the 2^nd.

Basketball – NBA:

• All NBA talks about Paris. 76ers Joel Embiid has decided he wants to play for Team USA over FRA which is the host the Paris games. That’s a big W for the USA. Wemby debuted in front of his home crowd in FRA, getting some excitement up over there with less than a year left until the games.

Football – NCAAF:

• Alright I feel like this week is the first week we have some real upsets. Theme of the week seemed to be comebacks.
  • I told you it’s the best weekend of the year… Red River Rivalry. And oh what a game it was. #3 Texas vs #11 Oklahoma both teams were undefeated but Oklahoma hadn’t lost 2 OU/TX games since 2009. This game was wild. We started with 2 Texas turnovers and OU goes up early. Then Texas blocked a punt for a TD and were tied. Then we have some back and forth, Sooners up 20-17 at half. Then another dream start to a H for the Sooners. They go down and score, going up 10. Then a Texas fumble gives them the ball back. But that’s when things start to shift a little bit. OU gets no points there, TX scores a FG and we exchanged turnover on downs. Then OU misses a FG. They were still up 7 with 7:55 to play but you felt the momentum change. Texas then only needed 5 plays to score and tie the game. Then the Sooners do nothing and go 3& out. Texas gets the ball back and get a FG, taking their first lead of the game with only 1:17 on the clock. Longhorns feel confident for the first time all game since the Sooners hadn’t scored since the first drive of the 2H. All they need a FG to tie it up and go to OT. But QB Dillon Gabriel had other ideas. He throws 3 straight completions for 3 straight first downs. His only incomplete pass on this drive would draw a PI flag, giving Sooners 15 yArds. 1^st and goal on the 6, he runs for half of that. Next play he throws it to the back of the endzone to Nic Anderson for the game winning TD. Texas goes down 34-30.

• • #10 Notre Dame’s schedule finally caught up with them. After 3 weeks of playing ranked opponents, it takes a toll. They had already lost to Ohio St in a last second TD. This time was not that close. Newly ranked #25 Louisville had a great 2H scoring 26 of their 33 points. Fighting Irish lose by 13.
  • #13 Washington state takes their first loss of the season in a UCLA comeback. Their defense won them this game. Wazzu had 4 turnovers which also doesn’t help (3 in 1H). The bruins scored 13 points in the final Q to win 25-17.

• • #17 Miami played Georgia tech who just got beat by bowling green. Not a good look for the ACC. But the hornets had some fight left in them. Miami had all but won the game. Let me run this back for you. The Canes were winning 20-17 with only 33 seconds left on the clock, which means you SHOULD kneel the ball and let time expire, you win, go home and stayed undefeated. However for some reason, HC Cristobal had Miami snap it and fight for yards. The RB then fumbles the ball, GT falls on it. Hornet ball. GT QB Hanes King needed 4 plays (and really 2 successful ones) to go 74 yards and they score a TD with 2 seconds left. Stunning the canes. Canes go down 23-20.
    • If you’re like hold on there were 2 more seconds, what did the Canes do? They threw the ball 4 yards and then fumbled again. Insult to injury really.
  • #1 Georgia finally looked like the Georgia we all know (and hate to see). They went up on Kentucky early and never gave the game back. This was the most points allowed by KY since 2020. Dawgs win 51-13.
  • #23 LSU looked to be in trouble early trailing 22-7 in the 2Q to undefeated #21 Mizzou. But man they rallied with the D only giving away 14 points in the entire 2H and the offense doing its job (and by that I mean QB Jayden Daniels) scoring 22 points in the final Q alone. LSU escapes losing back-to-back games and handing Mizzou their first loss 49-39.
• 
  • #24 Fresno state traveled to Laramie to play unranked Wyoming. We had already seen one epic battle in WY. Why not another? Fresno State had the 2^nd longest winning streak active in the league at 14 games until the faced Wyoming. That means the Bulldogs hadn’t lost since Oct 22, 2022. Cowboys win 24-19. WY did all their work in 1H scoring all 24 points needed.

• Other major storylines:
  • #3 Ohio State struggled early again this time to unranked Maryland. They were down 10-0 at one point but came back to tie the ball game and in the 2H it was all Buckeyes. They win 37-17.
  • #9 USC escapes again and this time in 3OT against Arizona. Arizona led 17-0 in the 2Q then USC turned it on and you were like ‘ok now were back’ but no! the Wildcats hung around and kept giving the Trojans trouble, tying the game with 8 minutes left. Then USC misses a game winning 25 yard FG. So we got to OT. Both team score. We go again. Both team score again. We line up again. USC does this odd swinging gate play. But always put the ball in your best players hands – and of course Caleb Williams comes up big. Then the D does their job to literally escape and remain undefeated.

• • #11 Alabama looked as if they might have found something which is dangerous for the rest of us. QB Milroe and WR Burton were a lethal combo against Texas A&M. The Aggies kinda shot themselves in the foot a couple of times, even giving Alabama a safety in the 4Q. Tide rolls 26-20.
  • #14 UNC destroyed Syracuse 40-7 to hand them their 2^nd loss of the season and 2^nd loss in the ACC.
  • Arkansas continues to play good teams close. This week they kept #16 Ole Miss honest only losing by a TD.
  • Kansas St played OSU in a blackout Friday night game and it was a good one, well we will say a close one. Both teams struggled at the end to do anything but the Cowboys come up big with an upset 29-21. Also on Friday, Nebraska won! They beat up on Illinois 20-7. Yikes for the Fighting Illini.
  • NC St also barely beat an undefeated Marshall team at home. That does not bode well for them the rest of the season as they have good ACC opponents left.
  • Colorado got their first Pac 12 win beating the Arizona State Sun Devils 27-24.

• Top 25 this week: Oklahoma jumped to #5 – not a big surprise there. Texas fell to 9. USC gets punished for a close win again with falling one spot – should’ve been more in my opinion. Louisville shot up 11 spots while Notre Dame fell 11. They are now the highest ranked 2 loss team at #21. LSU is #22. Tennessee and Wazzu are tied at 19. Kentucky is still ranked after their beat down by the Dawgs and so is Miami. Kansas is the only new addition this week coming in at 23.

• Excited to bring you this one. WR Tez Walker (the transfer from Kent St who is now at UNC) finally got released to play by the NCAA. He did not start against Syracuse but he did play and got 6 catches. NCAA claimed to get new evidence but we don’t know what that means. Glad to see that this poor kid gets to finally see the field.

Football – NFL:

• This week in the NFL: Starting with TNF because it was a total shock. The Bears get a huge win as Justin Fields goes off, being responsible for 4 TDs in their 40-20 win over the Commanders. It was their first win of the season. Only 5 games were close (within a TD). The Jags beat the Bills 25-20 in London early morning for us. The Falcons scored 14 points in the 4Q to comeback to win with a walk off FG to beat the gaining momentum Texans by 2. The Steelers bounced back from last week’s loss to beat the Ravens late 17-10 with a big performance by TJ Watt. Bengals QB Joe Burrow looked much more like himself this week, throwing 3 TDs and over 300 yards passing to take his team to a W over the Cardinals 34-20. The Broncos/Jets game was the showdown between Wilson QBs. Jets Zach Wilson got the last laugh getting the victory 31-21. Belichick took another painful loss and cant seem to get his offense to do anything. The Patriots got shutout by the Saints 34-0 and QB Mac Jones got benched. The Panthers remain winless and are now the last team to get a W. They lost to the Lions this week 42-24. Bryce Young struggled throwing 3 TDs but 2 interceptions. The Eagles remain undefeated but it was a tough one. They beat the Rams 23-14 with an impressive defensive performance. Travis Kelce went out of the game with an ankle injury but came back and caught a TD pass. Chiefs win 27-20 over the Vikings. The 49ers showed why they are undefeated, destroying the Cowboys 42-10.

• • Still undefeated: 49ers and Eagles
  • Still winless: Panthers
• Colts RB Jonathan Taylor signed a 3-year $42MM deal with the Indy team. Remember a couple of weeks ago we talked about how RBs don’t seem to get the same caliber deals as some of the other positions. This is a nice fix of that and it was due to the RBs that the Colts get the win over the Titans on Sunday 23-16.

• Dick Butkus, a true legend of the game, has passed away at the age of 80. Butkus was a CHI kid, went to Illinois and then played for the Bears as a middle linebacker. He caused 22 INT, 25 fumble recoveries and made 8 Pro Bowls in his 9 seasons with the CHI team.

Golf:

• I turned off the Sanderson Farms on Sunday as Ben Griffin was up 3-shots to start the day and was still up 2 strokes in the final 3 holes and he had gone 44 holes without a bogey at one point. However he fell apart and missed an 8-foot par putt to take the tournament to a 5-man playoff. Those 5 men were Luke List, Ludvig Aberg, Henrik Norlander, Scott Stallings and Ben Griffin who all had to play #18 again. List had already given away his hat after he missed a 10 foot birdie putt but then had to keep playing. 3 of the men were going for their debut PGA Tour win. List was not one of them and it showed. List nailed a ~45 foot birdie putt to put all the competition away and claim his 2^nd PGA Tour title.

Motorsports:

• We still have 5 full GPs left in the F1 season (and some sprint rounds too) but Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has already locked up the championship after the sprint race on Saturday. Oh and he then went on to win Sunday just for good measure. The Qatar GP is his 14^th win of the season, just 1 win shy of his record 15. Red Bull already won the manufacturer’s championship last GP.

Olympic Sports:

• Biles breaking more barriers at the Gymnastics World Championships over the weekend. It is official, she is the most decorated gymnast in history winning her 6^th All-Around gold easily 10 years after she won her first in the same city. As a reminder she only returned to the sport 3 months ago and has already catapulted herself to the top once again. She won the All Around by more than 1.5 points over BRA Rebecca Andrade. But don’t feel too bad for Andrade, she took the gold from Biles in the Vault. Biles fell on her Yurchenko double pike, thus relinquishing her 22^nd World title to BRA. Biles also won gold in the Beam and Floor so her total WC titles is currently at 23. Uneven Bars had the worst finish for the USA women with Shilese Jones getting Bronze. Oh also on night 1 of finals, Team USA took home their 7^th straight World Championship gold – something no team has done before. The men had something to celebrate as well. Team USA took home Bronze ending their 20+ year world medal drought. JPN and CHN took gold and silver respectively. USA Fred Richard took Bronze in the All-Around as well, sneaking in behind UKR and before JPN. Khoi Young took silver on the pommel horse, known for being USA men’s weakest apparatus. He would also take 2^nd on vault. Overall a good showing for Team USA before Paris.

• KEN Kelvin Kiptum broke the men’s marathon WR in Chicago this weekend, breaking Kipchoge’s mark by 30 seconds! The new WR is 2 hours 35 sec (2:00.35). We are so close to a real sub-2 hour marathon yall!

• Watch out yall – flag football looks to be on the ballot for the LA 2028 Olympic Games. Swifties use that new power! Also on the LA proposal were baseball and softball, lacrosse, squash and cricket. Flag football does already exist in the World Games (USA men took gold but women took silver). Adding also means subtracting so what didn’t make the ballot: breakdancing (bye Paris), motorsports, kickboxing and karate. This might hurt the number of disciplines in other sports as well because adding so many team sports when there is a 10,500 athlete max at the Summer Olympics.

What to watch this week

Baseball – MLB:

• Tues 10/10
  • ALDS – Game 3: Astros at Twins @ 3:07pm on FOX
    • Javier vs Gray
  • ALDS – Game 3: Orioles at Rangers @ 7:03pm on FOX
    • Kremer vs Eovaldi
• Wed 10/11
  • ALDS – Game 4: Astros at twins @ 1:07pm on FS1
  • NLDS – Game 3: Braves at Phillies @ 4:07pm on TBS
  • ALDS – Game 4: Orioles at Rangers @ 6:07pm on FS1
    • If necessary
  • NLDS – Game 3: Dodgers at Diamondbacks @ 8:07pm on TBS
• Thurs 10/12
  • NLDS – Game 4: Braves at Phillies @ 5:07pm on TBS
  • NLDS – Game 4: Dodgers at Diamondbacks @ 8:07pm on TBS
• Fri 10/13 – If necessary
  • ALDS – Game 5: Twins at Astros @ 3:07pm on FS1
  • ALDS – Game 5: Rangers at Orioles @ 7:03pm on FS1
• Sat 10/14 – If necessary
  • NLDS – Game 5: Phillies at Braves @ 5:07pm on TBS
  • NLDS – Game 5: Diamondbacks at Dodgers @ 8:20pm on TBS
• Sun 10/15
  • ALCS – Game 1: Teams TBA @ TBD on TBD

Football-NCAAF:

Top 25
Week 7
Top 25 Games
Visitor	Home	Day	Time (CT)	TV	Line
8. Oregon	7. Washington	Sat 10/14	2:30 PM	ABC	+2.5
Texas A&M	19. Tennessee	Sat 10/14	2:30 PM	CBS	+3.5
10. USC	21. Notre Dame	Sat 10/14	6:30 PM	NBC	+2.5
25. Miami	12. UNC	Sat 10/14	6:30 PM	ABC	+3.5
Mizzou	24. Kentucky	Sat 10/14	6:30 PM	SEC	+2.5
NC St	17. Duke	Sat 10/14	7:00 PM	ACC	+3.5
18. UCLA	15. Oregon St	Sat 10/14	7:00 PM	FOX	+4
*GameDay indicated in bold*

Football-NFL:

• Mon 10/9
  • Packers at Raiders @ 7:15pm on ABC or ESPN
• Thurs 10/12
  • Broncos at Chiefs @ 7:15pm on Prime
• Sun 10/15
  • Ravens at Titans @ 8:3am on NFL – in London
  • 7 games @ 12pm on CBS or FOX
    • CBS: Commanders at Falcons – or – Seahawks at Bengals – or – Panthers at Dolphins – or – Colts at Jags
    • FOX: Vikings at Bears – or – 49ers at Browns – or – Saints at Texans
  • Patriots at Raiders @ 3:05pm on CBS
  • 3 games @ 3:25pm on FOX
    • Cardinals at Rams
    • Eagles at Jets
    • Loins at Bucs
  • Giants at Bills @ 7:20pm on NBC
• Mon 10/16
  • Cowboys at Chargers @ 7:15pm on ABC and ESPN

Golf:

• Thurs 10/12
  • Shriners Open – Round 1 @ 4pm on Golf Channel
• Fri 10/13
  • LIV Invitational – Jeddah: Round 1 @ 4:15am on CW
  • Shriners Open – Round 2 @ 4pm on Golf Channel
• Sat 10/14
  • LIV Invitational – Jeddah: Round 2 @ 4:15am on CW
  • Shriners Open – Round 3 @ 4pm on Golf Channel
• Sun 10/15
  • LIV Invitational – Jeddah: Final Round @ 4:15am on CW
  • Shriners Open – Final Round @ 4pm on Golf Channel

Hockey:

• Tues 10/10
  • Predators at Lightning @ 4:30pm on ESPN
  • Blackhawks at Penguins @ 7pm on ESPN
  • Kraken at Golden Knights @ 9:309pm on ESPN
• Wed 10/11
  • Blackhawks at Bruins @ 6:30pm on TNT
  • Avalanche at Canucks @ 9pm on TNT
• Thurs 10/12
  • Red Wings at Devils @ 6:30pm on hulu
• Fri 10/13
  • Penguins at Capitals @ 6:30pm on hulu

Olympic Sports:

• Sat 10/14
  • Gymnastics – World Championship Highlights @ 11am on NBC
  • Rugby – World Cup @ 12pm on NBC
• Sun 10/15
  • Rugby – World Cup @ 12pm on NBC

Soccer:

• Thurs 9/14
  • UEFA Euro Qualifying: TUK vs CRO @ 11:30pm on FS1
• Fri 9/15
  • UEFA Euro Qualifying: NED vs FRA @ 11pm on FS1
• Sun 9/17
  • International Friendly: ENG vs AUS @ 5pm on FS1
  • UEFA Euro Qualifying: NOR vs SWE @ 7pm on FS1