Weekly Update – Week of September 27, 2021

Baseball: Last week of regular season! Wild card games set for next week and it’s going to be wild.

Football-NCAAF: 6 losses in Top 25. Clemson out of Top 10 ending streak. Great week 5!

Football-NFL: Ravens record setting FG. Brady’s first loss. Rodgers’ final drive. Chiefs turnover probs.

Golf: USA takes home Ryder Cup in dominant fashion.

Olympic Sports: Ironman relocated to UT. USA gets 3 spots in Olympic figure skating. Beisel swims to Block Island. Ledecky joins FL coaching staff. Hakuho retires.

Baseball-MLB:

• Last week of regular season! Wild card games start on 10/5. Let’s explain how playoffs work. Each of the 3 division champs in the American and the National leagues automatically move into the post season. So those teams so far are: the Rays, White Sox and Brewers. Then each of the leagues get 2 wild card spots to play for the final spot in their playoffs. Wild card games are aptly named as it is a 1 game single elimination and the winner then goes on to the play one of the division champs. The World Series is set to begin 10/26 – 11/3.

• • Wild cards for the American League: the Yankees are 1 game ahead of the Red Sox who are 1 game ahead of the Blue Jays for a wild card spot. It looks to be a 3 way race for the final 2 spots.
    • The Yankees and Blue Jays actually play this week! The Yankees swept the Red Sox to take the Wild Card lead. But the Blue Jays are only 2 games behind them and 1 behind the Red Sox.
  • Wild cards for the National League: The Dodgers and Giants have secured their playoff spot, one as the champ of the West and the other will be guaranteed a wild card spot. Who goes in what ordered depends on their games this week. The Giants are 2 games ahead of the Dodgers.
  • If all goes status quo right now the Astros would be the final AL champ and the Yankees and Red Sox would play in the Wild card games. Then in the NL, the Braves would be the East champ, giants take the West and the Dodgers and Cardinals would face off in the wild card game.
  • American League Eliminated from playoffs: Indians, Tigers, Angels, Royals, Twins, Rangers, Orioles
  • National League Eliminated from playoffs: Padres, Mets, Rockies, Cubs, Marlins, Nationals, Pirates, Diamondbacks
• The Yankees swept their series with the Red Sox over the weekend and man was that a huge move for the NY team vs their rivals. Not only do they just hate each other in general but it puts them atop the wild card race in the American. Sunday nights game was going the way of the Boston team until the 8^th inning when the Yankees scored 4 runs to win 6-3.

• The Cardinals beat the Cubs on Sunday to win their 16^th consecutive victory. This is the longest streak in team history. This streak put them comfortably in the 2^nd wild card spot which looked highly unlikely prior. Its not guaranteed but its likely. The streak is also the longest streak in the majors since the Cubs won 22 in a row in 2017.
• The Brewers beat the Mets this weekend to win their Central division championship; the 2^nd in 4 years. The team won 94 games so far in just its 2^nd season winning 90+.

Basketball:

• NBA season starts 10/19 and will conclude 4/10/22.

Football-NCAAF:

• We seem to like the 6 losses as it continues for Week 4. As we get into conference play, we’re seeing tighter games. 3 on my Top 25 game spreadsheet went into OT.

Losses in the Top 25
Visitor	Home	Day	Time (CT)	TV	Line	Score
7. Texas A&M	16. Arkansas	Sat 9/25	2:30 PM	CBS	-5.5	10-20
9. Clemson	NC St	Sat 9/25	2:30 PM	ESPN+	-10	21-27 2OT
14. Iowa St	Baylor	Sat 9/25	2:30 PM	FOX	-7.5	29-31
12. Notre Dame	18. Wisconsin	Sat 9/25	11:00 AM	FOX	+5.5	41-13
21. UNC	Georgia Tech	Sat 9/25	6:30 PM	ACC	-12	22-45
25. Kansas St	Oklahoma St	Sat 9/25	6:00 PM	ESPN+	+6	20-31

• • Loses: 7. Texas A&M, 9. Clemson, 14. Iowa St, 18. Wisconsin, 21, UNC, 25. Kansas St
  • Clemson has fallen out of the Top 10, actually all the way down to #25, breaking their 97-week streak. They were tied with Alabama for the current longest streak but the most ever was Miami (1985-1993) for 137 weeks. NC St earned a ranking after their big win over the Tigers.
  • UNC got routed by Georgia Tech, who put up a great fight against Clemson the week before. That ends UNC’s rankings for now and puts HC Mac Brown at 2-2 with both losses in conference play.
  • Don’t let Notre Dame’s score fool you, it was a battle til the end when the Fighting Irish put up 31 points in the 4^th They did manage to win a couple of pick 6’s at the end to win 41-17 over the Wisconsin Badgers, who had 5 turnovers in the game. The Badgers are now unranked but could definitely fight their way back in with a win this weekend over Michigan.
  • Arkansas took control early going up 17-0 in the neutral site game against Texas A&M. The Aggies fought back but just couldn’t do it on offense with their backup QB. Arkansas also ended the game on their backup QB but in the battle of backups, the Hogs had the advantage. This ends a losing streak to the Aggies since 2011.
  • The Big 12 had some flopping in the rankings. Kansas St was newly ranked and then lost to Oklahoma St in a close game this weekend. OSU likes to start ast, going up 31-13 at half and then went scoreless in the 2^nd half for the 2^nd time this season. The Cowboys are now ranked 19. Iowa St was ranked 14 going into their game against Baylor, however the suffered their second loss of the season and are not out of the rankings. Baylor popped in at 21. They play Oklahoma St so one will not be ranked at the end of this coming week.

• Week 5 features 4 ranked vs ranked showdowns. GameDay is going to the Ole South battle between Arkansas vs Georgia.
  • Upset watch: 5. Iowa, 6. Oklahoma, 7. Cincinnati, 8. Arkansas, 12. Ole Miss, 19. Oklahoma St, 20. UCLA, 22. Auburn, 25. Clemson

• Maybe don’t tweet when you’re angry. Ohio St LB K’Vaughan Pope has learned that lesson the hard way. In their game vs Akron, he was called off the field for another player, got pissed and tried to take off his jersey on the field and threw his gloves into the crowd. He was escorted into the locker room, where he tweeted out something along the lines of ‘Good luck to my teammates’… then ‘F*** Ohio St’ – he promptly deleted the tweet but its 2021, it was too late and was seen and screenshotted. He has now been dismissed from the team.

Football-NFL:

• Week 3 was a doozy! We have a change in Super Bowl favorites and some teams are going to try to keep the momentum and some are trying to change it!
  • The Ravens avoided upset at the hands of the Lions by a game winning, record setting FG. Justin Tucker hit the 66 yard FG, hitting the crossbar and bouncing in. This is the longest FG in history of the NFL. The previous record was 64 yards set in 2013.
  • Rodgers bounces back in a big way leading the Packers on a game winning drive against the 49ers 30-28. Rodgers got the ball with 37 seconds left, no timeouts on their own 25. The team was able to get within FG range, or at least Mason Crosby’s FG range, 51 yards.
  • Tom Brady and the Bucs suffered their first loss of the season at the hands of the Rams. QB Matthew Stafford and the team seem to be vibing and are starting to be the favorites for the Super Bowl… Suddenly that trade of Goff doesn’t look so dumb now does it?
  • The Steelers are now 1-2 after losing to the Bengals but that’s not all they lost in that game. Their 75 game streak of at least 1 sack has now been broken after the team never made it to Joe Burrow behind the line of scrimmage.
  • The Jets problems continue as they got shut out by the Broncos 26-0. The Jets, Jags, Giants and Colts remain the only teams without a win after week 3.
  • Chiefs HC Andy Reid was taken to the hospital after their game against the Chargers for dehydration. He is expected to be ok but his team did lose 30-25 after they struggled with ball security 4xs (meaning they had a bunch of turnovers).

Golf:

• The USA takes home the Ryder Cup in dominating style! Team USA won 19-9, the most points by an American team since the competition moved to the current format of USA vs EU (1977). This is also the first time Europe hasn’t won back-to-back ever (same format change). Dustin Johnson was the MVP of the American team winning all 5 of his matches. He is the first American to do this since Larry Nelson in 1979. And don’t expect this to be the last time you see this American team. These 12 guys were the youngest average and probably the highest world ranking wise. The team had 6 rookies on it including Scottie Scheffler, who took down the #1 golfer in the World Jon Rahm in singles. Another rookie, Collin Morikawa, was the clinching point for the USA to secure the cup.
  • To say the Europeans are disappointed might be the understatement of the year. Normally stoic, Rory McIlroy, got emotional and cursed on TV after his singles match on Sunday, his one and only point for his team. Paul Casey, Matt Fitzpatrick and Bernd Wiesberger all failed to bring in a single point (or half). Sergio Garcia set the Ryder Cup record however with 25 career matches won at the this event.
  • Next Ryder Cup is in 2023 in Rome. The USA has not won in Europe since 1993.

• Bryson DeChambeau is competing Long Drive Championship that begins today in Nevada. He leads the PGA Tour in average driving distance with 321 yards. ICYMI: he already had a bomb during the Ryder Cup…

Hockey:

• NHL regular season starts 10/12 and will conclude 4/29/22. Olympic break 2/7-2/22.

Olympic Sports:

• The Ironman World Championships are normally held in Hawaii are being moved to Utah for the first time in 40 years due to what else, COVID. The race is now scheduled for May 7^th in St George, UT instead of Feb in Hawaii. Last year the event was cancelled completely.
  • #GFHint: An Ironman is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and a 26.2 mile run (a full marathon).
• The USA now has a 3^rd spot in men’s figure skating at the Beijing games in 2022 thanks to Vincent Zhou after he won the Nebelhorn Trophy this week. Zhou won by more than 40 points after winning the short program and entering the free skate clearly in first. Nathan Chen won worlds earlier in 2021 to secure the first 2 spots for American men in the Games. Alysa Liu did the same thing for the women’s side during the same event. The Olympic team will be rounded out by 3 dance team entries and 2 pairs.

• Former Olympian and now announcer, Elizabeth Beisel became the first woman to complete the 10.4 mile swim from Rhode Island to Block Island to raise money for cancer research. She did this in honor of her late father who passed away from pancreatic cancer last year. She completed the swim in just over 5.5 hours and raised $133,000. Beisel has a silver and bronze medal from the London Olympics, not in open water events.
• Sticking with swimming, Katie Ledecky is joining the Florida Gators coaching squad as a volunteer swim coach. Ledecky will be training with Florida HC Anthony Nesty for the Paris 2024 games. Yay! Before joining Florida, Katie studied and trained at Stanford. She is a 10x Olympic medalist in case you forgot and now she just adds to the dominance by the Gator program, that had at least one swimmer in every freestyle event for Team USA.

• Hakuho, the sumo wrestling great is retiring at age 36. He won 45 tournaments including 16 perfect victories, a sumo record. He is retiring due to a right knee injury after 1,187 wins, an all time record in the sports. It is an end of an era.

What to watch this week

Baseball-MLB:

• Tues 9/28
  • Phillies at Braves @ 6:20pm on FS1
    • Wheeler vs Morton
  • Padres at Dodgers @ 9pm on ESPN
    • Darvish vs Buehler
• Wed 9/29
  • Yankees at Blue Jays @ 6pm on ESPN
    • Cole vs Berrios
  • Padres at Dodgers @ 9pm on ESPN

Football- NCAAF:

Top 25
Week 5
Top 25 Games
Visitor	Home	Day	Time (CT)	TV	Line
8. Arkansas	2. Georgia	Sat 10/2	11:00 AM	ESPN	+18.5
7. Cincinnati	9. Notre Dame	Sat 10/2	1:30 PM	NBC	-2
12. Ole Miss	1. Alabama	Sat 10/2	2:30 PM	CBS	+14.5
21. Baylor	19. Oklahoma St	Sat 10/2	6:00 PM	ESPN2	+3.5

Football-NFL:

• Mon 9/27
  • Eagles at Cowboys @ 7 :15pm on ESPN
• Thurs 9/30
  • Jaguars at Bengals @ 7:20pm on NFL
• Sun 10/3
  • 9 games on @ 12pm depending on location on CBS/FOX
    • FOX:
      • Washington at Falcons
      • Lions at Bears
      • Panthers at Cowboys
      • Giants at Saints
    • CBS:
      • Texans at Bills
      • Colts at Dolphins
      • Browns at Vikings
      • Titans at Jets
    • Cardinals at Rams – or – Seahawks at 49ers @ 3:05pm on FOX
    • Ravens at Broncos – or – Steelers at Packers @ 3:25pm on CBS
    • Buccaneers at Patriots @ 7:20pm on NBC
• Mon 10/4
  • Raiders at Chargers @ 7:15pm on ESPN

Golf:

• Thurs 9/30
  • Sanderson Farms – Round 1 @ 3pm on Golf Channel
• Fri 10/1
  • Sanderson Farms – Round 2 @ 3pm on Golf Channel
• Sat 10/2
  • Sanderson Farms – Round 3 @ 3pm on Golf Channel
• Sun 10/3
  • Sanderson Farms – Final Round @ 3pm on Golf Channel

Motorsports:

• Thurs 10/1
  • NASCAR: Whelen Series Stafford @ 5pm on NBCSN
• Sat 10/2
  • NASCAR Xfinity: Sparks 300 at Talladega @ 5:30pm on NBCSN
• Sun 10/3
  • NASCAR: YellaWood 500 @ 2pm on NBC
  • MotoGP: GP of Americas @ 1:30pm on NBCSN

Olympic Sports:

• Fri 10/1
  • Curling: USA vs GER @ 9pm on NBCSN
• Sun 10/3
  • Cycling: Paris Roubaix 2021 Men’s @ 8:30pm on NBCSN

Soccer:

• Wed 9/29
  • Campeones Cup: Columbus Crew vs Cruz Azul @ 7pm on ESPN2
• Thurs 9/30
  • NCAAW: Mississippi State vs Kentucky @ 6pm on SEC
  • NCAAW: Texas at TCU @ 6pm on LGHN
• Fri 10/1
  • NCAAW: South Carolina at 11. Auburn @ 6pm on SEC+
  • NCAAW: 13. West Virginia vs Oklahoma @ 6pm on ESPN+
  • NCAAW: Alabama vs 5. LSU @ 7pm on SEC+
• Sat 10/2
  • Premier League: ManU vs Everton @ 6:30am on NBCSN
  • Premier League: TBA @ 9am on NBCSN
  • Premier League: Brighton vs Arsenal @ 11:30am on NBC
  • Mexico Primera: Chivas de Guadalajara vs Atlas @ 10pm on NBCSN
• Sun 10/3
  • Premier League: Crystal Palace vs Leicester City @ 8am on NBCSN
  • Premier League: Liverpool vs Manchester City @ 10:30am on NBCSN
  • USL: Louisville City vs NM United @ 2pm on ESPN2
  • MLS: Portland Timbers vs Inter Miami CF @ 4:30pm on FS1
  • La Liga: Santos Laguna vs Mazatlan @ 7pm on FS1
  • MLS: LA Galaxy vs Colorado Rapids @ 7pm on ESPN