Baseball: Dodgers vs Braves in NLCS. ATL leads 2-0. Astros vs Red Sox in ALCS. Series tied.
Basketball-NBA: Season starts tomorrow! Irving not allowed to pay. Sky win WNBA. NCAAW expand tournament to 68.
Football-NCAAF: 7 losses in Top 25 including #2 Iowa. Ole Miss won in a trashy TN. LSU HC Orgeron is out after this season. No ranked match ups this weekend. GameDay at the Rose Bowl.
Football-NFL: Jags get a W. Cardinals undefeated. Rodgers beat Bears as usual. Lots of injuries. Lamar Jackson’s number gets retired at Louisville. HC Gruden resigned. Ravens do not get rushing record.
Golf: Rory McIlroy wins CJ Cup. Fowler held 54-hole lead and gets T-3.
Olympic Sports: Torch lit for Beijing games. Protesters show up. NCAA moves to get rid of standardize tests. Tirop found murdered.
Baseball-MLB:
- The Braves won in another walk-off single in the 9th inning last night. The Braves were down 4-2 going into the 8th when they tied the game. Rosario had the single to score in the bottom of the 9th. Austin Riley did the same thing on Saturday’s game after being tied at 2-2 going into the bottom of the 9th. The Braves are up 2-0 against the Dodgers in the NLCS.
- The Dodgers beat the Giants in a winner-takes-all game 5 on Thursday in a game that was 0-0 until the 6th Both teams scored 1 run a piece in the 6th before Bellinger had the game-winning single in the 9th to move them onto the NLCS.
- All the other teams moved on before reaching game 5.
- The Red Sox advanced to the ALCS, being the first team to make it to the championship series.
- The Dodgers beat the Giants in a winner-takes-all game 5 on Thursday in a game that was 0-0 until the 6th Both teams scored 1 run a piece in the 6th before Bellinger had the game-winning single in the 9th to move them onto the NLCS.
- In the other division, The Red Sox and the Astros are tied 1-1 before they play tonight.
- HOU won game 1 5-4. BOS came out hot in Game 2 leading 8-0 after the 2nd They won 9-5. Both of those games were played in Houston. The series moves to BOS for tonight’s game.
- Cardinals Manager, Mike Shildt, is out despite the 17-game winning streak. He was fired on Thursday. Mike led the team to the playoffs 3xs including this year and was 252-199 in his 3+ seasons with the team.
Basketball-NBA:
- Season started Tuesday! With the Nets at Bucks and the Warriors at Lakers.
- Following up from last week on the Kyrie Irving sitch, the Nets have announced that Irving will not play until he is eligible to be a full participant in the games and season under the COVID vaccine requirements.
- Chicago Sky won the WNBA Championship last night in Game 4 over the PHX Mercury. This is the first championship for the franchise. Candace Parker won MVP and it meant so much to her. She is a local Ill girl who played at TN before going as #1 in the draft and won Rookie of the Year in 2008. She won a championship with the Sparks in 2016 but came home to CHI this year.
- Sticking with women’s bball for a moment, the NCAA has moved to expand the women’s march madness tournament from 64 to 68 teams (now the same as the men’s since 2011). along with this expansion, the DI women’s bball committee also moved to use March Madness branding on the women’s tournament as well as the men’s.
Football-NCAAF:
- There were 7 loses in the Top 25. Cincinnati won in impressive fashion which is what they need to make an argument for the CFP. They moved up to #2 with Iowa’s loss. Oh ya #2 Iowa lost 17-7 at home to unranked Purdue (they are now ranked – no shock there). #1 Georgia handled Kentucky 30-13 although the game never felt in jeopardy and wasn’t as close as the score would indicate. Bo Nix seems to finally be putting it together on the road with Auburn giving #17 Arkansas its 3rd straight loss. They are now unranked. Oklahoma St had a comeback win over Texas, who had a big lead and lost it (sound familiar?). LSU ran all over Florida to barely get the upset.
- Ole Miss HC Lane Kiffin was hit by a golf ball and a myriad of other things when TN fans threw stuff onto the field. This caused the game to be delayed more than 20 minutes. Ole Miss won 31-26. Fans reacted that way bc Kiffin was actually the HC at TN for 1 short season before leaving to take the HC job at USC in 2010. Students were drunkenly running amok around campus and setting fire to mattresses.
- Loses: 2. Iowa, 11. Kentucky, 17. Arkansas, 18. Arizona St, 19. BYU, 20. Florida, 25. Texas
- LSU HC Ed Orgeron will be leaving LSU after this season. LSU will pay the remaining $16.95MM on his contract. He was the HC when LSU won the national championship in 2019 and then last year the team had one of the worst seasons following a natty in Power 5 history. The did upset #20 Florida on Saturday though. RB Davis-Pryce broke Fournette’s one-game rushing record with 287 yards by himself. He only had about 230 yards on the season before the Florida game.
- Washington St may not have a coach as of today. Their HC Nick Rolovich applied for a religious exemption for the COVID vaccine mandate but has yet to be approved. The deadline to either be vaccinated or have an exemption approved is today… so TBD.
- Week 8 has no ranked matchups and 6 of the Top 25 in bye weeks. But we know that just because the weekend looks tame, doesn’t mean it is going to end up that way. College GameDay will be going to the Pac 12 for UCLA vs Oregon.
- Upset watch: 8. Oklahoma St, 10. Oregon, 12. Ole Miss, 21. SMU, 25. Purdue
Football-NFL:
- Week 6 saw 5 games within a score and 2 games go into OT. Cardinals remain undefeated after the former OU QBs faced off Kyler Murray vs Baker Mayfield (37-14 Cardinals). The Texans keeping losing and losing badly (31-3 vs Colts). The Jags got their first win over the Dolphins 23-20 with a 56 yard FG as time expired. That just leaves the Lions as the only winless team in the league now. The Chiefs got back on track only throwing 2 interceptions but 2 TD passes to combat that winning 31-13 over Washington.
- Both teams surrounded Seahawks DE Darrell Taylor as he was stretchered off the field. He had CT scans done and was moving his extremities – a very positive report on both fronts. The Steelers ended up winning that game 23-20 in OT.
- The Packers beat the Bears and it got a little personal for Packers QB Aaron Rodgers who sealed the victory with a 6-yard scramble TD. After the TD, he yelled “I own you” multiple times and well he’s right. Rodgers is 22-5 against the Bears which makes his winning percentage 81.5%, the 3rd highest by a QB against any opponent since the 50s with a minimum of 25 starts. Only Tom Brady (91.4% against the Bills) and Ben Roethlisberger (87% against the Browns) are higher.
- There have been some more injuries to report on: add these to the growing list. This is as plenty of teams are suffering from lack of depth due to injured players.
- Cowboys QB Dak Prescott injured his calf during the OT win against the Patriots yesterday. He is questionable at the moment but the Cowboys have a bye.
- Browns RB Kareem Hunt is expected to miss several weeks (min of 3 games) with a calf injury.
- Panthers RB Christian McCaffrey, already on IR, is expected to be on there for a couple more weeks.
- Bucs CB Richard Sherman will be out for few weeks with a pulled hamstring. It happened on the 7th defensive play of the game. This one is more understandable. Sherman has played 3 games in 12 days after not playing or practicing for 288 days prior to that.
- Vikings CB Patrick Peterson has also been played on IR with a hamstring injury. He is expected to miss 3 games but not to end the season with this injury.
- Broncos LB Alexander Johnson will miss the rest of season with a torn pec muscle. He is the team’s 2nd leading tackler
- Lamar Jackson’s # 8 is set to be retired at Louisville. He is only the 2nd student have his number retired after Johnny Unitas’ #16. It will be celebrated at the Louisville/Syracuse game on Nov 8th.
- Following up on a story from last week. Raiders HC Gruden has resigned and did so late Monday after more emails (spanning 7 years) surfaced with homophobic slurs, racists slurs, negative comments about women refs, etc. The emails surfaced during an investigation into the Washington football team’s emails. I’m sure this is not the last we have heard from this investigation.
- Ravens did not manage to get their 100 yards rushing against the Colts on Monday. They fell 14 yards short. The Colts, although 1-4, have a good rush defense and it showed. The Ravens and Lamar Jackson still got the W though and he threw for over 437 yards. The Ravens had to come back from behind scoring 22 unanswered points to win in OT. The Colts held a 25-9 lead in the 4th Mark Andrews and Lamar Jackson made an electric team scoring both TDs and 2-point conversions to take the game into OT.
Golf:
- Rory McIlroy won the CJ Cup this weekend after it was relocated from Korea to Las Vegas due to COVID. He was 9 shots behind the leader going into Sunday’s round but his final round of 66 have him the 1 shot victory. You could tell he was on a tear when he eagled the 14th, putting him in the lead. Rory is now the 39th player to win at least 20 times on the PGA Tour and this is his 5th consecutive season with a win. This 20th win also secured him lifetime status on the PGA Tour after he completes his 15th season (in 2 years).
- Rickie Fowler held the 54-hole lead but failed to convert that to a W for the 6th He shot a final round of 71 to finish T-3. He was leading by 2 shots coming into the final round.
Olympic Sports:
- Olympic torch has been lit for the Beijing 2022 games in Olympia, GRE. This is the first step in the torch relay. The Games are set to take place in just over 100 days. After the ceremonial lighting, the flame will be moved to the Panathenaic stadium in Athens where it will be passed onto the Beijing Olympic committee tomorrow. The traditional torch relay will be held closer to the games. 2,900 athletes are set to compete in Beijing, which will be the most gender equal winter games to date.
- Protesters were on the scene of the ceremonial lighting protesting the human rights abuses in China before the Beijing Games. Protesters also disrupted the lighting for the 2008 Beijing Olympics as well.
- NCAA sports have moved to abolish standardize tests for incoming Freshman into DI and DII schools. This would no longer require a minimum score on standardize tests for initial eligibility as a part of racial equality. They argue that schools moved away from standardized tests as part of the admissions process recently and they are reflecting that movement. However tests were mostly not used over the last year or so due to students not being able to take them due to COVID.
- Agnes Tirop broke the women’s 10km world record in Germany last month with a time of 30:01. That time was 28 seconds faster then the previous record. However now she is in the news for another reason. Tirop was found murdered on Wednesday with multiple stab wounds in her house. Her husband, Ibrahim Rotich, has been arrested and is being held in suspect of her killing. He was found trying to leave the country.
- Mikaela Shiffrin is back in the blog and she is eyeing 5 individual events at the Beijing games.
What to watch this week
Baseball-MLB:
- Mon 10/18
- ALCS Game 3: Astros at Red Sox @ 7:08pm on FS1
- Urquidy vs Rodriguez
- Tied 1-1
- ALCS Game 3: Astros at Red Sox @ 7:08pm on FS1
- Tues 10/19
- NLCS Game 3: Braves at Dodgers @ 4:08pm on TBS
- Morton vs Buehler
- ATL leads 2-0
- ALCS Game 4: Astros at Red Sox @ 7:08pm on FS1
- NLCS Game 3: Braves at Dodgers @ 4:08pm on TBS
- Wed 10/20
- ALCS Game 5: Astros at Red Sox @ 4:08pm on FS1
- NLCS Game 4: Braves at Dodgers @ 7:08pm on TBS
- Thurs 10/21
- NLCS Game 5: Braves at Dodgers @ 7:08pm on TBS
- If necessary
- NLCS Game 5: Braves at Dodgers @ 7:08pm on TBS
- Fri 10/22
- ALCS Game 6: Red Sox at Astros @ 7:08pm on FS1
- If necessary
- ALCS Game 6: Red Sox at Astros @ 7:08pm on FS1
- Sat 10/23
- NLCS Game 6: Dodgers at Braves @ 4:08pm on TBS
- If necessary
- ALCS Game 7: Red Sox at Astros @ 7:08pm on FOX
- If necessary
- NLCS Game 6: Dodgers at Braves @ 4:08pm on TBS
- Sun 10/24
- NLCS Game 7: Dodgers at Braves @ 6:38pm on TBS
- If necessary
- NLCS Game 7: Dodgers at Braves @ 6:38pm on TBS
Basketball-NBA:
- Tues 10/19
- Nets at Bucks @ 6:30pm on TNT
- Warriors at Lakers @ 9pm on TNT
- Wed 10/20
- Celtics at Knicks @ 6:30pm on ESPN
- Nuggets at Suns @ 9pm on ESPN
- Thurs 10/21
- Mavericks at Hawks @ 6:30pm on TNT
- Clippers at Warriors @ 9pm on TNT
- Fri 10/22
- Nets at 76ers @ 6:30pm on ESPN
- Suns at Lakers @ 9pm on ESPN
Football- NCAAF:
| Top 25 | |||||
| Week 8 | |||||
| Top 25 Games | |||||
| Visitor | Home | Day | Time (CT) | TV | Line |
| 8. Oklahoma St | Iowa St | Sat 10/23 | 2:30 PM | FOX | |
| 10. Oregon | UCLA | Sat 10/23 | 2:30 PM | ABC | |
| LSU | 12. Ole Miss | Sat 10/23 | 2:30 PM | CBS | |
| USC | 13. Notre Dame | Sat 10/23 | 6:30 PM | NBC | |
| 18. NC St | Miami | Sat 10/23 | 6:30 PM | ESPN2 | |
| *GameDay indicated in bold* | |||||
Football-NFL:
- Mon 10/18
- Bills at Titans @ 7:15pm on ESPN
- Thurs 10/21
- Broncos at Browns @ 7:20pm on FOX
- Sun 10/24
- 6 games on @ 12pm depending on location on CBS/FOX
- FOX:
- Washington at Packers
- Falcons at Dolphins
- Panthers at Giants
- CBS:
- Chiefs at Titans
- Jets at Patriots
- Bengals at Ravens
- FOX:
- Eagles at Raiders – or – Lions at Rams @ 3:05pm on FOX
- Texans at Cardinals – or – Bears at Bucs @ 3:25pm on CBS
- Colts at 49ers @ 7:20pm on NBC
- 6 games on @ 12pm depending on location on CBS/FOX
- Mon 10/25
- Saints at Seahawks @ 7:15pm on ESPN
Golf:
- Wed 10/20
- ZOZO Championship – Round 1 @ 10:30pm on Golf Channel
- Thurs 10/21
- ZOZO Championship – Round 2 @ 10:30pm on Golf Channel
- Fri 10/22
- ZOZO Championship – Round 3 @ 10:30pm on Golf Channel
- Sat 10/23
- ZOZO Championship – Final Round @ 10:30pm on Golf Channel
Motorsports:
- Sun 10/24
- F1 US GP @ 2pm on ABC
- NASCAR: Hollywood Casino 400 @ 2pm on NBCSN
- MotoGP: Valencia GP @ 6pm on NBCSN
Olympic Sports:
- Thurs 10/21
- Gymnastics: FIC World Championships @ 6pm on NBCSN
- Curling: USA vs DEN @ 8pm on NBCSN
- Fri 10/22
- Gymnastics: FIC World Championships @ 6pm on NBCSN
- Figure Skating: ISU Grand Prix: Skate America @ 8pm on NBCN
- Sat 10/23
- Figure Skating: ISU Grand Prix: Skate America @ 4:30pm on NBCN
- Figure Skating: ISU Grand Prix: Skate America @ 9pm on NBCN
Soccer:
- Tues 10/19
- NCAAM: UNC vs 14. Loyola-Marymount @ 6pm on ACC
- Wed 10/20
- NCAAM: 5. VTech vs Winthrop @ 5pm on ACC
- La Liga: Club Tijuana Xolos vs Chivas de Guadalajara @ 10pm on FS1
- Thurs 10/21
- Women’s International Friendly: USA vs KOR @ 7pm on ESPN2
- NCAAW: Georgia vs Florida @ 4pm on ESPNU
- NCAAW: Pitt vs Boston College @ 5pm on ACC
- NCAAW: Mississippi State vs Texas A&M @ 6pm n SEC
- NCAAW: 3. UNC vs 1. Florida St @ 7pm on ACC
- NCAAW: 25. Texas vs 21. West Virginia @ 7pm on LGHN
- NCAAW: Penn St vs 22. Michigan @ 7pm on FS1
- Fri 10/22
- Premier League: Arsenal vs Aston Villa @ 3pm on NBCSN
- NCAAM : UVA vs 7. Pitt @ 6pm on ACC
- Sat 10/23
- Premier League: Chelsea vs Norwich City @ 6:30am on NBCSN
- Spanish La Liga: Valencia vs Mallorca @ 7am on ESPN2
- Premier League: Leeds United vs Wolverhampton Wanderers @ 9am on NBCSN
- Sun 10/24
- Premier League: West Ham vs Tottenham Hotspur @ 8am on NBCSN
- Premier League: ManU vs Liverpool @ 10:30am on NBCSN
- NCAAW: South Carolina vs Alabama @ 12pm on ESPNU
- NCAAW: 8. Duke vs 1. Florida St @ 1pm on ACC
- NCAAW: 25. Texas vs Oklahoma St @ 1pm on LHGN
- NCAAW: Texas A&M vs Vanderbilt @ 3pm on SEC
- MLS: Austin FC vs Houston Dynamo @ 4pm on ESPN
- MLS: Orlando City vs New England Revolution @ 6:30pm on FS1
