Weekly Update September 16, 2024

Baseball: This week in the MLB. More teams eliminated.

Football – NCAAF: Only 2 losses in the Top 25. Scaries and some not. Ranked and unranked storylines.

Football – NFL: Week 2 was awesome with a lot of close games and an OT.

Olympic Sports: Cheptegi buried. Paris recap.

Quick Headlines: F1 Piastri wins! Team USA wins Solheim. WNBA updates.

Baseball – MLB:

• MLB this week:
  • Pirates P Skenes K’d 9 in their win over the Marlins 3-2. Sticking with good pitching, Reds P Martinez retired 17 straight batters in their low scoring 1 run win over the Braves in a makeup game from July. The Red Sox upset the Orioles 12-3. The Cubs had a nice upset win over the Dodgers 10-4. They would also upset them the next night with a 5-run 8^th 

• • On Tuesday, the A’s took the Astros into extra innings. The A’s would put up 2 runs in the 12^th to beat Houston by 1. Phillies star Kyle Schwarber set the MLB leadoff HR record with his 14^th of the season in their win over the Rays 9-4. Machado hit a 2-run HR to become the Padres career HR leader in their 7-3 win over the Mariners. The Tigers got their first shutout in 3 seasons over the Rockies 11-0 by their rookie P Montero. There were a bunch of shutouts on Tuesday. The Braves 12-0 over the Nationals, the royals 5-0 over Yankees, Guardians 5-0 over White Sox, Dbacks 6-0 over the Rangers and Reds 3-0 over Cardinals.
  • The Pirates P Falter had a no-hitter go into the 7^th inning before breaking it. They would still win 3-1 over the Marlins and sweep the series. Mariners Bryan Woo took his perfect game into the 7^th inning as well before the Padres broke it. They would also still get the wins as well 5-2.

• • The Yankees beat the Red Sox 2-1 in the 10^thand Aaron Judge’s HR-less streak is now sitting at 16 games, a career high for him. He would break that the very next day with a grand slam against the same team. Talk about a way to break it! Yankees win 5-4. That wasn’t the only grand slam on Friday either. Reds De La Cruz got one against the Twins when they were trailing 3-1. They would win 8-4.

• • Over the weekend, the Reds had a 9-run 4^th They killed the Twins in that game 11-1. The White Sox had a walkoff HR to upset the A’s 7-6. They now have 34 wins. Yay for them. Speaking off walkoffs, the Rockies got theirs in the 10^th over the Cubs, despite having an error and 3 less hits. The Mariners also had a walk off single to beat the Rangers by 1 in regulation. The Rangers had lost 4 of their last 5 games. Aaron Judge hit his 53rd HR of the season in their win over the Red Sox 5-2 on Sunday. Sunday had a lot of close games. 7 games were only separated by 1 run. One of those was the Dbacks/Brewers game that went into the 10^th before Arizona won in walk off fashion to upset Milwaukee. The Padres also won in the 10^th over the Giants. The Dodgers were not one of those getting back-to-back-to-back HRs for the 2^nd week in a row. They beat the Braves 9-2.

• The A’s and Angels have been eliminated from playoffs in the American League and the Nationals have been eliminated in the NL. Still no one has clinched their division yet!

Football-NCAAF:

• Week 3 Top 25 Upsets:
  • #14 Kansas State may have had a scare last week against Tulane but that prepared them well for this week’s showdown with fellow Big 12 (but a non conference game) ranked #20 Arizona. Arizona scored on their first drive and then never scored again. K State’s first drive also resulted in a TD and then on Arizona’s punt, the Wildcats ran it back for a TD. That pretty much tells the story of this game. It was all K State. Final was 31-7.
  • In the only other ranked match up of the week #24 Boston College vs #6 Mizzou. Mizzou hadnt allowed a point all season. Spoilers they would in this game. It was a pretty back and forth game until the mid way through the 2Q. Mizzou would put up 24 unanswered points to take the lead and win 27-21.

• • In the gameday game of the week: #16 LSU South Carolina was great! South Carolina looked like they were going to run away with this game. But the LSU running game was too much for the cocks late. (3TDs on the ground even though they didn’t have that many yards). Had the lead until start of the 4Q. Leu 29-24. Then a 66 yard Rocket Sanders scored a TD for SC now its 33-29. Then a big conversion for LSU with WR lacy to give the Tigers the lead back. South Carolina would miss a 49 yard FG to go to OT. This is the largest road comeback in 25 years with 17 points for LSU.

• Other ranked storylines:
  • #4 Alabama crushed Wisconsin. Doesn’t help that the starting Badger QB went out early in 1Q. Tide rolled 42-10. That’s the most points allowed at Camp Randall since 2008.
  • #2 Texas QB Quinn Ewers went down against UTSA and Arch Manning showed out! They rolled unsurprisingly 56-7.
  • Shutouts: #10 Miami shutout Ball State 62-0. #7 Tennessee led 65-0 at half over Kent State. They ended their game 76-0, that’s the most points for the Vols in AP era.

• Some unranked storylines:
  • Texas A&M had their first road win since 2021, beating Florida 33-20.
  • Colorado had no problem with the Rams of Colorado State, winning 28-9. Travis Hunter had 10 receptions and an INT on defense – that’s only happened 3xs in hsitory andhe is now 2 of those instances.
  • The Backyard Brawl was awesome and back and forth. The win probability chart changed teams 23xs. WV was even at a 96% win rate before the final 3 minutes of the game. That was before Pitt got the ball and TD at the 3 minute mark and then another one with 32 seconds left to win 38-34.
  • UCF/TCU was awesome and a shootout. UCF scored 15 points in the 4Q and a comeback in the final 36 seconds to win over the Horned Frogs 35-34.

• • Florida State loses again this week to Memphis 20-12. FSU is just the 9^th team in NCAA history to start pre-season Top 10 and then go 0-3.
  • Indiana destroyed UCLA 42-13. Maybe start looking at the Hoosiers? They are 3-0 and now 1-0 in the conference.
• In old rivalries with the remaining Pac 2:
  • Oregon finally looked like we expected! 49-14 over the Beavs in the civil war.
  • In the Apple Cup, Wazzu upset Washington 24-19. Cougs had a great 4th down stop in the red zone at the end to win.

• Some scaries that shouldn’t have been:
  • #1 UGA was on the ropes with a Kentucky team that lost big time ot South Carolina last week. There were no TDs until the 4Q when UGA finally broke through to wo up 13-9. Kentucky would get another FG to be down by 1 and then on their next possession chose to punt. A mistake in my opinion as they would barely get the ball back and just ran out to of time to pull off the upset. Georgia escapes in a low scoring game, 13-12.
  • Utah State was leading in the 1H over #12 Utah. But the Utes ended up winning by quite a bit 38-21 by owning the game clock and the end of the game.

• The Pac 12 (aka Pac 2) has invited some schools to join their league. Boise State, Colorado St, Fresno St and San Diego St have all agreed to join. But the league is still 2 members short. So the real question is who will the final two teams be? Rumors are swirling about Tulane and Memphis?

Football – NFL:

• Going back to Week 1 to wrap it up: the 49ers ruined Aaron Rodgers return to the field for the Jets by winning 32-19. But the flip side is that finally Rodgers threw his first TD as a Jet in that game.

• NFL Week 2 was a great one as well with 11 close games.
  • The Texans handed the Bears and Heisman QB Caleb Williams their first loss of the season in a close one that was all about FGs. The 2Q had 2 TDs – one by each team and those were the only TDs scored all game. There were 6 FGs scored and only one of those was under 50 yards!

• • The Colts QB Richardson threw 3 INT in their loss to the Packers by 6. The 49ers tried to mount a comeback on the Vikings but fell 6 points short. The Jets were trailing at half but managed to rally later, putting up 17 points to win by a TD. The Browns got a safety in the 4Q to win by 5 (odd number) over the Jags. The Raiders shocked the Ravens with a final minute FG to win by 3.
  • The Commanders won their game over the Giants without scoring a single TD! The washington team put up 21 points with their former OU kicker, Austin Siebert. The Giants scored 3 TDs and couldn’t get the job done. Doesn’t help when you manage 0 PAT.

• • The Chiefs won with a walk-off FG as time expired after a penalty that kept the drive alive after an incomplete on 4^th & 16. It was a back and forth game with 5 lead changes in the 2H alone. The Cheifs are now 2-0 and the Bengals now 0-2.
  • We had another game go into OT. This week it was the Seahawks and Patriots. The scores literally alternated teams all game but the Seahawks got FGs as time expired at the end of 1H and the end of 2H (a 42 yarder in the final minute) to take the game to OT. Another chip shot FG would give Seattle the win 23-20.

• The not so close ones:
  • TNF was not one of those. The Bills put up 17 points in the 2Q alone. Tua (Miami’s QB) threw 3 INT before leaving the game with a concussion. The Bills beat the Dolphins 31-10.

• • The Saints KILLED the Cowboys in their home opener – embarrassing! The Nola team had 35 on the board by halftime. Hopefully you had Kamara on your team because he had 4 TDs for the Saints.
  • The Cardinals are starting to look like their old selves (before Murray got hurt). They scored double digits in the first 3 Qs with the help of rookie Marvin Harrison Jr. They won 41-10.
  • To no one’s surprise the opponent of the Panthers is in this rundown. This week the Chargers beat the Panthers 26-3, not allowing a TD against them.

Olympic Sports:

• This story has gone viral on social media. UGA Olympic marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegi came back from the Olympics and was drenched in gas and set on fire by her former partner. She later died from her injuries. Its super sad as she apparently went to the police at least 3xs to complain about her former partner. She was just coming back from church with her two daughters when this attack happened. She has been buried in her home in Uganda.
• Paris Games organizers reported that 12 million tickets were sold across both the Olympics and Paralympic games. They also said that the crowd capacity was 95%.

Some quick headlines:

• Piastri won the Azerbaijan GP this weekend for McLaren. Piastri made a pass for lead half way through and it was a close race with him and LeClerc. But he held on to the front and then Sainz and Perez crashed on the 2^nd to last lap. Race ended on a safety car in that order.

• USA wins their first Solheim Cup since 2017. They claimed the title on the final hole on Vilia Vu’s putt.

• Utah Archers won the PLL for the 2^nd year running.

• A’ja Wilson hit the 1000 point mark for the season. She is the first to ever do that in the WNBA.

What to watch this week

Baseball – MLB:

• Tues 9/17
  • Phillies at Brewers @ 6:40pm on TBS
  • Astros at Padres @ 8:40pm on truTV
• Wed 9/18
  • Yankees at Mariners @ 8:40pm on Prime Video
• Thurs 9/19
  • Dbacks at Brewers – or – Phillies at Mets @ 6:15pm on FOX
• Fri 9/20
  • Tigers at Orioles @ 6:05pm on Apple TV+
  • Phillies at Mets @ 6:10pm on Apple TV+
• Sun 9/22
  • Phillies at Mets @ 6pm on ESPN

Basketball:

• Tues 9/17
  • WNBA: PHX vs LA @ 9:30pm on CBSSN
• Sun 9/22
  • WNBA: Quarterfinal @ 2pm on ABC

Football – NCAAF:

Top 25
Week 4
Top 25 Games
Visitor	Home	Day	Time (CT)	TV	Line
24. Illinois	22. Nebraska	Fri 9/20	7:00 PM	FOX	Neb -8.5
NC State	21. Clemson	Sat 9/21	11:00 AM	ABC	Clem -19.5
11. USC	18. Michigan	Sat 9/21	2:30 PM	CBS	USC -5.5
12. Utah	14. Oklahoma St	Sat 9/21	2:40 PM	ABC	UT -1.5
6. Tennessee	15. Oklahoma	Sat 9/21	6:30 PM	ABC	TN -7.5
*GameDay indicated in bold*

Football – NFL:

• Mon 9/16
  • Falcons at Eagles @ 7:15pm on ESPN
• Thurs 9/19
  • Patriots at Jets @ 7:15pm on Prime
• Sun 9/22
  • 7 games @ 12pm on CBS & FOX
    • CBS: Bears at Colts, Texans at Vikings, Chargers at Steelers
    • FOX: Giants at Browns, Packers at Titans, Eagles at Saints, Broncos at Bucs
  • Panthers at Raiders – or – Dolphins at Seahawks @ 3:05pm on CBS
  • Ravens at Cowboys – or – 49ers at Chargers @ 3:25pm on FOX
  • Chiefs at Falcons @ 7:20pm on NBC
• Mon 9/23
  • Jaguars at Bills @ 6:30pm on ESPN
  • Commanders at Bengals @ 7:15pm on ABC

Golf:

• Sat 9/21
  • LIV – Team Championship – Round 2 @ 12pm on CW
• Sun 9/22
  • LIV – Team Championship – Final Round @ 12pm on CW

Motor Sports:

• Sun 9/22
  • Singapore Airlines GP @ 7am on ESPN

Olympics Sports:

• Sun 9/22
  • NCAA Volleyball: Louisville vs Nebraska @ 11:30am on ABC

Soccer:

• Wed 9/18
  • MLS: Orlando City vs Charlotte FC @ 7pm on FS1
  • MLS: LA FC vs Austin FC @ 9:30pm on FS1
• Sat 9/21
  • Premier League: West Ham vs Chelsea @ 6:30am on USA
  • Premier League: Liverpool vs Bournemouth @ 9am on USA
• Sun 9/22
  • Premier League: Brighton vs Nottingham Forest @ 8am on USA
  • Premier League: Manchester City vs Arsenal @ 10:30am on USA
  • MLS: PhiliU vs DC United @ 6pm on FS1
  • La Liga: Juarez vs Tigres @ 8pm on FS1