Armadillo Sports

September’s Too……..is a good bar
1165 Central Avenue in Colonie, just west of Osborne Road

Golfers, bring your scorecards:
If you played nine holes, 9% off your bill
If you played 18 holes, 18% off your bill

Wednesday- They have 12 TV’s and good food/drinks.
Thursday- Open Mic night, Bills-Texans on TV
Friday- Karaoke with Dan Leto, 7:00
Saturday- Tangled Webb is live on stage
Sunday- Watch NFL games, from 4:00-midnight

You can order food from them via Door Dash
Check it out, it’s a fun place

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Week 12 NFL info will be posted Wednesday

Tuesday’s 6-pack:
College basketball teams playing the slowest pace:
— Charlotte, AAC
— Idaho State, Big Sky
— West Virginia, Big X
— Western Illinois, OVC
— Iowa, Big 18
— UCLA, Big 18

Quote of the Day
“Always end the day with a positive thought. No matter how hard things were, tomorrow is a fresh opportunity to make it better.”
Roy Bennett

Tuesday’s quiz
Where did Raiders’ QB Geno Smith play his college football? 

Monday’s quiz
Jason Witten is the all-time leader in receiving yards for the Dallas Cowboys.

Sunday’s quiz
When John Calipari left Memphis for Kentucky in 2009, Josh Pastner replaced him as head coach. 

— Cowboys 33, Raiders 16
Dak Prescott threw for 268 yards, four TD’s.
At one point, Dallas scored TD’s on four consecutive drives.
Cowboys outgained the Raiders, 381-236
Dallas is 12-7 ATS last 19 games as a road favorite.

Raiders lost four in a row, eight of last nine games.
Last five games, Raiders ran the ball for only 49.2 yards/game.
Las Vegas averaged only 4.9 yards/pass attempt.
QB Geno Smith is 42-52 as an NFL starter.

— Bengals WR Ja’Maar Chase was suspended one game without pay for spitting on Steelers’ DB Jalen Ramsey Sunday. Chase has caught 79 passes for 861 passes this year, even with Bemgals’ QB Joe Burrow missing most of the season.

Chase is appealing the suspension, which would cost Chase his weekly paycheck of $448,333 along with a $58,823 per game active bonus.

— Atlanta Falcons QB Michael Penix hurt his knee Sunday, is expected to miss the rest of the season. Penix is 4-8 as an NFL starter; he has thrown for 1,982 yards this season, with nine TD’s, three INT’s.

— Eagles’ RT Lane Johnson hurt his foot/ankle Sunday night, is expected to miss 4-6 weeks for an 8-2 Eagles squad that leads the NFC East by 3.5 games.

— Jets are going back to Tyrod Taylor at QB this week, after throwing for a combined 147 yards in their last two games, with Justin Fields at QB.

— NFL divisional trends:
AFC East
17-10 ATS non-divisional games

AFC North
Home teams 5-0 ATS divisional games
8-19 ATS non-divisional games

AFC South
Home teams 4-1 ATS divisional games
9-7 ATS non-divisional underdog

AFC West
7-4 ATS non-divisional home favorite
1-7 ATS non-divisional road favorite

NFC East
5-10 ATS non-divisional underdog
Home teams 4-2 ATS divisional games

NFC North
3-6 ATS non-divisional underdog

NFC South
14-18 ATS non-divisional games
6-10 ATS non-divisional home games

NFC West
8-0 non-divisional road games
home teams 1-5 ATS divisional games

— College football trends, conference games:
American
Favorites 27-17 ATS

ACC
Road teams 19-11 ATS

Big 18
Home favorites 15-20 ATS
Home underdogs 10-12 ATS

Big X
Home favorites 18-20 ATS
Home underdogs 15-11 ATS

Conference USA
Home teams 23-13 ATS
Home favorites 11-8 ATS
Home underdogs 12-5 ATS

Mid-American
Home teams 28-12 ATS

Mountain West
Home favorites 12-11 ATS
Home underdogs 6-5 ATS

SEC
Home favorites 19-17 ATS
Home underdogs 8-8 ATS

Sun Belt
Home favorites 14-10 ATS
Home underdogs 11-9 ATS

— Famous birthdays, November 18th:
Kevin Nealon, 72
Warren Moon, 69
Elizabeth Perkins, 65
Jamie Moyer, 63

Dante Bichette, 62
Gary Sheffield, 57
Owen Wilson, 57

Romany Malco, 57
Sam Cassell, 56
David Ortiz, 50

Cory Littleton, 32
Logan Webb, 29
Shea Langliers, 28
Caleb Williams, 24

— 1B Josh Naylor re-signed with the Seattle Mariners, inking a five-year deal with $92.5M; Naylor hit .299 in 54 games with Seattle LY, with an OPS of .831, as he helped Seattle get to Game 7 of the ALCS. He also stole a career-high 30 bases last year. 

He is a career. 269 hitter, with a .777 OPS.

— Virginia Tech hired James Franklin as its new football coach; Franklin was 104-45 as coach at Penn State, but was fired after starting this season 3-3. He was previously 24-15 in three years at Vanderbilt; he has a career record of 8-7 in bowl games.

— North Texas is ranked #22 in this week’s football top 25, only the second time the Mean Green has ever been ranked, the first time since 1959.

— Saskatchewan Roughriders won the Grey Cup Sunday, 25-17 over Montreal, the fifth time they’ve won the CFL title, first time since 2013.

— New Orleans Pelicans fired coach Willie Green after starting the season 2-10; Pelicans were 49-33 two years ago, but got swept in first round of the playoffs, then went 21-61 last year. 

— NC State 85, VCU 79
Wolfpack led 63-62 with 9:53 left to play.
Wolfpack was 27-33 on foul line, VCU 12-18
State out-rebounded VCU, 45-31. 

— Kansas State 84, Tulsa 83
Tulsa led by 5 with 0:48 left in the game.
K-State was a 13-point favorite.
PJ Haggerty scored 31 points, had 10 rebounds.

— LMU 78, Cal-Santa Barbara 74 OT
Gauchos led by 14 with 12:30 left in regulation.
LMU won despite shooting only 15-29 on foul line.
UCSB was +8 in turnovers (6-14).
Lions are off to a 6-0 start.

— Drake 71, Charleston 62
Drake’s bench outscored Charleston’s subs, 25-10
Bulldogs put five players in double figures.
Only two guys on Charleston scored more than 7 points. 

Bears 19, Vikings 17
Chicago kicked a 48-yard FG at the gun for the win.
Bears won seven of their last eight games.
In wins, Chicago is +19 in turnovers; minus-3 in losses.
Bears are 6-0 when they allow less than 27 points.

Vikings scored TD with 0:50 left to take lead; Bears ran kickoff back 56 yards.
Both QBs completed 16 of 32 passes, in a domed stadium. Oy.
Vikings lost four of their last five games.
Last seven games, Minnesota is minus-11 in turnovers.

Dolphins 16, Commanders 13 OT
Miami won three of last four games, after a 1-6 start.
Dolphins drove 52-56 yards on first two drives, kicked two FG’s
Miami’s only TD came with 12:36 left, after a 53-yard drive.
Dolphins kicked a 29-yard FG after an INT for the walk-off win. 

Commanders lost last six games, giving up 32.5 points/game.
Washington outgained Miami 379-311, but were minus-2 in turnovers.
Commanders are 0-4 in games decided by 9 or fewer points.
Commanders are 3-8 ATS in last eleven games as an underdog.

Panthers 30, Falcons 27 OT
Panthers QB Young threw for 448 yards, three TD’s.
Atlanta tied game on 45-yard FG with 0:16 left.
Carolina won five of its last seven games.
Panthers are 4-1 when they score more than 13 points.

Atlanta has lost five games in a row, giving up 27.8 ppg.
Falcons’ first four drives: 26 plays, 228 yards, 21 points.
Atlanta rest of game: 43 plays, 108 yards, 6 points.
Falcons led 21-10 at halftime. 

Bills 44, Buccaneers 32
Bills’ drives in first half: INT-TD-TD-INT-TD
Buffalo led 21-20 at halftime.
QB Allen threw for 317 yards, 3 TD’s, ran for 40 yards, 3 more TD’s
Buffalo scored 28+ points in wins, 20-14-13 in losses.

Buffalo threw for 317 yards (10.6 yards/attempt)
Tampa Bay ran ball for 202 yards (5.2 yards/attempt)
RB Tucker ran ball for 106 yards, two TD’s.
Bucs are 4-0 giving up less than 24 points, 2-4 giving up 24+.

Texans 16, Titans 13
Texans drove 48 yards, kicked 35-yard FG for a walk-off win.
Tennessee had tied game on a TD with 1:35 left.
Houston is 5-2 in last seven games, after an 0-3 start.
Since 2016, Texans are 4-11-2 ATS as a road favorite.

Houston in first half: 37 plays, 127 yards, no points. (trailed 3-0 @ half)
Houston in second half: 36 plays, 199 yards, 16 points.
Titans ran ball 17 times for only 58 yards.
Houston won seven of last nine games vs Tennessee.

Rams 21, Seahawks 19
Rams won last five games, allowing 3-7-10-26-19 points.
Rams are 7-0 when they allow less than 26 points.
RB Williams ran for 91 yards and a TD.
Rams’ win snaps Seattle’s 10-game road winning streak.

Seattle’s three losses were by 3-4-2 points.
Seahawks outgained Rams 414-249, but Darnold threw 4 INT’s.
Seattle’s first five drives: INT-FG-FG-FG-INT
Seahawks missed a 61-yard FG on last play of the game. 

Packers 27, Giants 20
Game was tied 13-13 at halftime.
Packers drove 65 yards, scored game-winning TD with 4:02 left.
Packers converted 7-11 third down plays.
Green Bay is 6-0-1 when it scores 27+ points, 0-3 otherwise.

Giants lost last five games, giving up 31.2 ppg.
QB Winston 19-29/201 passing, in his first start for the Giants.
Giants went over their team total in six of last eight games.
Giants are +4 in turnovers in wins, minus-11 in losses.

Steelers 34, Bengals 12
Steelers lost QB Rodgers (broken bone in left wrist in 2nd quarter)
Steelers scored two defensive TD’s in the second half.
Steelers are 5-0 when they allow less than 25 points.
Pittsburgh is +14 in turnovers in its wins, minus-6 in losses.

Pittsburgh led 10-6 at halftime.
Bengals in 2nd half: 38 plays, 205 yards, outscored 24-6.
Bengals lost seven of their last eight games.
Cincinnati is 2-6 ATS in last eight AFC North road games.

Jaguars 35, Chargers 6
Jaguars outgained the Chargers, 345-135.
Jacksonville led 14-6 at halftime.
Jaguars’ first 3 drives in 2nd half: 29 plays, 154 yards, 21 points,
Jaguars are 6-2 ATS last eight games as a home underdog.

Chargers’ first four drives: 24 plays, 52 yards, six points.
Chargers rest of game: 17 plays, 83 yards, no points.
Jaguars didn’t punt once the whole game.
Chargers are 1-3 when they allow more than 21 points. 

49ers 41, Cardinals 22
49ers ran opening kickoff back 98 yards, scored on next play.
49ers in first half: 26 plays, 197 yards, 25 points.
San Francisco led 25-10 at halftime.
McCaffrey ran for 81 yards, two TD’s, caught five passes, scored another TD

Arizona committed 17 penalties for 130 yards.
Cardinals lost seven of their last eight games.
Cardinals are 6-14 ATS in last 20 NFC West home games.
Brissett was 47-57/452 passing; 47 completions is an NFL record. 

Ravens 23, Browns 16
Cleveland led this game 16-10 after three quarters.
Ravens drove 44 yards, scored game-winning TD with 2:31 left.
Baltimore won its last four games, scoring 30-28-27-23 points. 
Last five games, Ravens allowed 17-16-6-19-16 points.

Ravens outgained Cleveland 351-187
Browns QB Gabriel (concussion) sat out the second half.
Backup QB Sanders was 4-16/47 passing, with an INT.
Home teams are 9-0 ATS in Cleveland games this year.

Broncos 22, Chiefs 19
Denver drove 58 yards, kicked 35-yard FG for a walk-off win.
Broncos won their last eight games (5-3 ATS)
Six of their last seven wins were by 4 or fewer points.
Denver is 10-6-1 ATS in last 17 AFC West home games.

Kansas City is 5-5 for the first time since 2015.
Chiefs are 0-5 TY in one-score games (were 12-0 LY)
Chiefs in first half: 37 plays, 157 yards, 6 points (was 6-6 at half)
Chiefs in 2nd half: 26 plays, 203 yards, 13 points

Eagles 16, Lions 9
Eagles led 13-6 at the half; not much happened after halftime.
Philly is 14-6 ATS in last 20 games coming off a win.
Last three weeks, opponents ran ball for only 82.7 yards/game.
Eagles lead the NFC East by 3.5 games, a big lead. 

Goff completed only 14-37 passes, playing with a glove on right hand.
Detroit converted 3-13 third down plays, 0-5 on fourth down.
Lions are 5-0 when they score 34+ points, 1-4 when they don’t.
Detroit missed PAT after their only TD; WR Williams got 15-yard penalty for gloating, and the kicker missed the 48-yard PAT on a windy night. 

— Texas A&M 31, South Carolina 30
South Carolina led this game 30-3 at halftime.
A&M QB Reed threw for 439 yards, three TD’s.
Aggies are 10-0 for the first time since 1992.
Since 2004, SEC teams had lost 286 consecutive games when trailing by 27+ points.

— Oklahoma 23, Alabama 21
Sooners’ first TD came on an 87-yard pick-6.
Crimson Tide outgained Oklahoma, 406-212, but they had 3 turnovers.
Alabama also missed a 36-yard field goal, allowed a 46-yard punt return.
Alabama had its 17-game home winning streak snapped.

— Michigan 24, Northwestern 22
Michigan drove 50 yards, kicked 31-yard field goal at the gun.
Wolverines led 21-9 after three quarters, but blew that lead.
Michigan was 9-14 on third down, Northwestern 2-12.
This game was played at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

— USC 26, Iowa 21
Iowa led 21-7 with 2:00 left in first half, on a rainy day in LA.
WR Lemon caught ten passes for 153 yards and a TD.
Trojans are 7-2, 7-0 when they allow less than 34 points.
Iowa’s four losses this year are by a total of 15 points.

— Georgia Tech 36, Boston College 34
Tech drove 68 yards, kicked a 23-yard FG with 0:11 left for the win.
Boston College led 28-17 after three quarters.
Tech QB King threw for 371 yards and a TD.
Boston College ran for 257 yards, but lost their 10 game in a row.

— Arizona State 25, West Virginia 23
Sun Devils kicked a 49-yard FG with 2:44 left for the winning score.
ASU led this game 22-10 at halftime.
QB Sims threw for 207 yards, three TD’s, ran for 81 more yards.
West Virginia threw for 353 yards (11.4 yards/attempt)

— LSU 23, Arkansas 22
Tigers drove 92 yards, scored game-winning TD with 7:53 left.
Arkansas led 14-0 after the first quarter.
LSU was 8-17 on third down, Arkansas 2-11.
Razorbacks have lost eight games in a row, six of them by 6 or fewer points.

— Football Upsets of the Week:
Navy (+10.5) 41, South Florida 38
Nevada (+9.5) 55, San Jose State 10
Arizona (+6.5) 30, Cincinnati 24
Oklahoma (+6.5) 23, Alabama 21
Kent State (+6.5) 42, Akron 35, OT
Virginia (+5.5) 34, Duke 17

— Famous birthdays, November 16th:
Don Hahn, 77
Herb Washington, 73
Marg Helgenberger, 67
Dwight Gooden, 61

Maggie Gyllenhaal, 48
Amare Stoudemire, 43
Pete Davidson, 32
Jason Sanders, 30

— UConn 86, BYU 84
Huskies had three players score 21 points each.
UConn led 43-32 at halftime.
Both teams shot over 60% inside the arc.

— Nebraska 105, Oklahoma 99
Oklahoma led by 16 with 6:00 left in first half.
Nebraska made 15-27 shots on the arc.
Cornhuskers scored 1.46 points/possession, ridiculously high.

— SMU 87, Butler 85
Butler led 38-29 with 3:56 left in the first half.
SMU shot 63% inside the arc
Butler was only 14-23 on the foul line.

— Georgetown 79, Clemson 74
Hoyas are 4-0, with wins over Tigers, Maryland.
6-4 junior Lewis scored 26 points (11-14 on foul line)
Clemson led by 7 with 9:07 left in first half.

— Maryland 89, Marquette 82
Maryland shot 63.6% inside the arc
Marquette shot 11-40 on the arc, 17-36 inside the arc.
Game was tied 42-42 at halftime.

— East Tennessee State 78, North Alabama 74
North Alabama led by 9 with 4:37 left in the game.
ETSU shot 57.1% inside the arc.
Buccaneers are 3-1, but against schedule #276.

— Santa Clara 98, Nevada 83
Santa Clara shot 72.2% inside the arc.
Broncos made 12-25 on the arc, scored 1.40 points/possession.
Santa Clara is 4-0; they led 48-34 at halftime. 

— Arizona 69, UCLA 65
UCLA led by 8 with 7:18 left in the game.
Bruins shot only 39% inside the arc.
Arizona is 4-0, with wins over Florida/UCLA.

It is ridiculous that these teams aren’t in the same league anymore.

— Gonzaga 77, Arizona State 65
Graham Ike scored 20 points, had nine rebounds.
Gonzaga out-rebounded the Sun Devils, 45-31

ASU coach Bobby Hurley continues to be a jerk where refs are concerned; he never stops bitching at the officials. Gonzaga was 27-35 on the foul line, because Arizona State commits a lot of fouls. Ike was 12-15 on the foul line, ASU’s whole team was 13-23.

— Central Florida 86, Texas A&M 74
Aggies led by 13 points with 9:25 left to play.
UCF outscored A&M 40-15 in the last 10:00 of the game.
Knights are shooting 52.4% behind the arc, #2 in the country.

— Michigan 67, TCU 63
TCU led by six with 11:30 left in the game.
Michigan out-rebounded the Horned Frogs, 44-23
Wolverines are 3-0; they won last two games, by total of five points.

— Colorado 97, Providence 88
Colorado outscored Providence 58-50 in the second half.
Buffs’ subs outscored Providence’s bench, 45-20.
Colorado out-rebounded the Friars, 43-32.

— Washington 81, Washington State 69
Huskies shot 60% inside the arc.
Wazzu’s subs scored 37 points, their starters 32.
Why aren’t these teams in the same league? College sports have gone crazy.

— Georgia 92, Georgia Tech 87
Dawgs were 32-44 on foul line, Tech 17-28.
Yellow Jackets led by 8 with 14:01 left in the game.
6-1 soph Wilkinson scored 18 points in 24:00 off the bench.

— Famous birthdays, November 15th:
Sam Waterston, 85
Bob Dandridge, 78
Beverly D’Angelo, 74
Greg Anthony, 58

Ethan Westbrooks, 35
Trevor Story, 33
Karl-Anthony Towns, 30
Wyatt Langford, 24

— Clemson 20, Louisville 19
Clemson drove 56 yards, scored game-winning TD with 7:16 left
Louisville missed a PAT and a 46-yard field goal.
Cardinals outgained Clemson 385-308, but had 84 penalty yards.

— Oregon 42, Minnesota 13
Oregon QB Moore was 27-30/306 passing, with two TD’s.
Ducks outgained Minnesota 510-200.
Only nine of Oregon’s 63 plays were on third down (6-9).

— Warriors 109, Spurs 108
Seth Curry scored 49 points, was 9-17 on the arc.

— Knicks 140, Heat 132
Karl-Anthony Towns scored 39 points, Landry Shamet 36

— Rockets 140, Trail Blazers 116
Houston has won eight of its last nine games.

— Lakers 118, Pelicans 104
Lakers are 9-4 and Lebron James hasn’t played yet.

— Clippers 133, Mavericks 127, 2OT
James Harden scored 41 points, had 14 rebounds, 11 assists. 

— Patriots 27, Jets 14
Jets drove 72 plays on 14 plays on first drive, led 7-0.
Jets’ next four drives: 15 plays, 25 yards, four punts.
Jets averaged only 3.6 yards/pass attempt.
QB Fields is 16-37 as an NFL starter.

Patriots won their last eight games (7-1 ATS).
New England outgained the Jets, 336-245.
New England won 18 of last 20 series games.
Jets are 1-10 SU/2-8-1 ATS in last 11 visits to Foxboro.

— Old Dominion 33, Troy 0
QB Joseph threw for 147 yards and a TD, ran for 90 yards, 2 TD’s
7-3 Old Dominion ran ball 47 times for 351 yards (7.5 yards/carry).
Monarchs outgained Troy, 503-138.

— Purdue 87, Alabama 80
Alabama led by 4 with 11:34 left in the game.
Crimson Tide shot 16-44 on the arc, 12-22 inside the arc.
Senior G Smith scored 29 points for Purdue.

— West Virginia 71, Pittsburgh 49
Solid win for the Big X against an ACC team.
4-0 Mountaineers led 34-25 at halftime.
Pitt shot just 5-20 on the arc, was only 4-6 on foul line.

— Wednesday night at Oregon State, Beavers were tied 64-64 vs North Texas with 0:05 left; UNT had the ball- they called timeout, but they didn’t have a timeout, so Oregon State made the foul shots and won a game they trailed 59-46 with 7:11 left, 64-57 with 2:10 left.

Oregon State is 3-0, with wins by 2-3-2 points. 

— Kansas State 99, California 96
Cal lost despite shooting 15-28 on the arc.
K-State shot 70.7% inside the arc, scored 1.27 points/possession.
Thru three games, 3-0 K-State is shooting 37-68 (54.4%) on the arc.

— Tennessee-Martin is off to a 3-0 start, with wins at UNLV, Bradley.

Skyhawks were a 16-point underdog at UNLV
Skyhawks were a 15-point underdog at Bradley

All five of Tennessee-Martin’s starters are from eastern Europe; their poster has guys from 11 different countries. The NIL era has made college ball more appealing to foreign players.

— Louisville beat Kentucky 96-88 the other night; Cardinals are 3-0 this season and in 1+ years under Pat Kelsey, Louisville is 30-8, after going 25-71 the three years before Kelsey was hired.

Louisville is playing #26 pace so far this year, shooting 68.8% inside the arc (#6). ACC teams are a combined 49-6 so far this season; it is still early, but ACC looks like a much-improved league.

— Famous birthdays, November 14th:
Jack Sikma, 70
Patrick Warburton, 61
Curt Schilling, 59
Josh Duhamel, 53
Aaron Taylor, 53

Xavier Nady, 47
Matt LaFleur, 46
Kyle Orton, 43
Francisco Lindor, 32
DeVonta Smith, 27

— Cal Raleigh hit 60 home runs this year as a switch-hitting catcher, playing home games in a ballpark that is a lousy hitter’s park, but he didn’t win MVP, Aaron Judge did.

Judge is a great player, no doubt, but Raleigh led Seattle to its first division title in over 20 years; if he did what he did in New York, he might’ve been a unanimous MVP.

— Dodgers have won the last two World Series; they have $87M coming off their payroll this winter, which will allow them to re-stock the shelves with some more good players, and they generally get whoever they want in free agency.

— There were 54 relief pitchers this season with 5+ saves.

— Free agent Kyle Schwarber is going to break the bank this winter; he hit 23 home runs against lefty pitchers this season, the most homers EVER by a lefty hitter against lefty pitchers.

— The family of the late San Diego Padres owner Peter Seidler is looking into selling the team; Padres have made the playoffs three times in the last four years and won 90+ games in back-to-back seasons- they drew 3M+ fans the last three years.

— Stephen Curry and sneaker company Under Armour are parting ways and ending their long-standing partnership; Curry left Nike and signed with Under Armour in 2013. Curry’s new brand, Curry Brand, will move forward independently- he’ll be a sneaker free agent.

“On November 13, Felix Unger was asked to leave his place of residence. That request came from his wife……..”

So began every episode of The Odd Couple, one of the funniest TV shows ever, about a finicky photographer sharing an apartment in New York City with a sloppy sportswriter.

I spent countless hours watching re-runs on Odd Couple reruns on TV; the show is still out there on TV, on Paramount+ or Prime Video. Great stuff.

Happy Felix Unger Day!!!!

By the way, the late Garry Marshall was one of the creators of The Odd Couple; November 13 was his birthday.

— Jameis Winston is starting at QB for the Giants this week, when they host Green Bay in their first game under interim coach Mike Kafka. 

Winston has a 36-51 record as an NFL starter; he was 2-5 starting for Cleveland last year.

— Cardinals’ WR Marvin Harrison Jr had an appendectomy, is out for a few weeks; Harrison has caught 31 passes for 492 yards and three TD’s.

— You think about the NFL games in Europe that start at 9:30am here in New York, then think about the poor souls that work in Las Vegas sports books. Those games start at 6:30am out there, so the people who take the bets probably have to be there at 5:30 or so. Not great; the casinos are open 24 hours a day, the sports books are not.

— Famous birthdays, November 13th:
Wes Parker, 86
Joe Mantegna, 78
Chris Noth, 71
Whoopi Goldberg, 70

Rex Linn, 69
Jimmy Kimmel, 58
Pat Hentgen, 57
Gerard Butler, 56

Ron Artest, 46
Asdrubal Cabrera, 40
Trevor Rogers, 28
Brett Baty, 26

— Central Michigan 38, Buffalo 19
Chippewas scored two defensive touchdowns.
Buffalo gained 398 yards, but turned ball over five times.
Central Michigan is bowl eligible for first time in four years. 

— Northern Illinois 45, UMass 3
Huskies led 31-0 at halftime.
NIU outgained UMass, 433-262.
Huskies ran for 318 yards, only threw 8 passes the whole game.

— Toledo 24, Miami 3
Both teams turned ball over three times.
With the win, Toledo is bowl eligible.
Miami was 5-16 on third down, 2-6 on fourth down. 

— Kent State 42, Akron 35 OT
Kent State led this game 35-17 in the 4th quarter.
Akron forced OT, scoring a TD with 1:59 left in regulation.
Kent QB DeShields threw for 317 yards, five TD’s. 

— Western Michigan 17, Ohio U 13
Western Michigan becomes bowl eligible with the win.
Both teams ran ball for over 200 yards.
Teams combined to convert only 3-19 third down plays. 

— Movie of the Day: PS I Love You (2007)- A young widow discovers that her late husband left her ten messages intended to help ease her pain, and to help her start a new life. 

Gerard Butler plays the husband, Hillary Swank the widow; also in the cast: Gina Gershon, Lisa Kudrow, Kathy Bates, Harry Connick Jr. Very good movie.

— Michigan-Northwestern have a football game at Wrigley Field this week; Northwestern’s home stadium is being renovated this year. Wildcats are 5-4 right now, Michigan 7-2.

— Dallas Mavericks fired GM Nico Harrison after the team started out 3-8; Dallas traded star Luka Doncic to the Lakers last year, then went 39-43, aggravating a lot of the fanbase; they won the draft lottery and took Cooper Flagg this year, but the team is off to another rough start.

— NBA trends, dealing with teams playing back/back nights:
Home teams who played on road night before are 1-8 ATS
Home teams who played at home night before are 15-9 ATS

Road teams who played at home night before are 5-3 ATS
Road teams who played on road night before are 11-10 ATS

— Michigan 85, Wake Forest 84
Deacons led 77-70, missed nine of last 10 shots from floor.
Michigan was 25-37 on foul line, Wake 16-21
Michigan big man Mara had 18 points, 13 rebounds, six assists.
Watching this game, it felt a lot like March. Excellent game. 

— Illinois 81, Texas Tech 77
Stojakovic scored 23 points in 26:00 off the bench.
JT Toppin scored 35 points for Tech
Illinois was 16-23 on foul line, Red Raiders 3-4

— Gonzaga 90, Creighton 63
Zags outscored Creighton 46-25 in second half.

Rough start to season for Big East:
DePaul lost to Buffalo
Xavier lost to Santa Clara
Marquette lost by 23 to Indiana
St John’s lost to Arizona, giving up 103 points.
Villanova lost to BYU.
Providence lost to Virginia Tech

— Florida 78, Florida State 76
Gators were favored by 16.5 points.
Florida out-rebounded the Seminoles, 58-36
Florida shot 57.6% inside the arc, was minus-8 in turnovers. 

— Louisville 96, Kentucky 88
Louisville had only six turnovers, shot 62.1% inside the arc.
Cardinals were 13-40 on the arc, 18-29 inside the arc.
Louisville led 53-46 at halftime.

— Cincinnati 74, Dayton 62
Dayton shot 2-26 behind the arc.
Cincinnati led 27-11 early, turned ball over 24 times (minus-11)

— Ole Miss 83, Memphis 77
Ole Miss made 8 of their 13 3-point shots.
Rebels were 21-33 on foul line, Memphis 14-20.

— Cal-Santa Barbara 92, Sacramento State 87
Gauchos shot 13-27 on arc, scored 1.26 points/possession.
Thru three games, UCSB’s eFG% is 62.6% (#17 in country)

— Arkansas State 86, Missouri State 85
Missouri State led by 16 late in the first half.
Arkansas State scored 33 points in 1st half, 53 in 2nd half. 

— Central Connecticut 60, Boston College 59
Eagles have already lost to FAU and now this game. Not good for a program that hasn’t had a winning record in the ACC since 2011. BC led this game by 11 early in the second half. 

— Famous birthdays, November 12th:
Al Michaels, 81
Neil Young, 80
Jody Davis, 69
Ryan Gosling, 45

Anne Hathaway, 43
Charlie Morton, 42
Russell Westbrook, 37
Marcell Ozuna, 35

Dexter Lawrence, 28
Terrell Burgess, 27
Addison Barger, 26
Paolo Banchero, 23

— New Jersey Jets are the only team since 1950 with zero or one takeaway in their first nine games of a season.

Since 1950, fewest takeaways in first nine games:
1- Jets, 2025
3- Jets, 2014
4- Falcons, 2019
4- Steelers 2011

— Tampa Bay Bucs’ rookie WR Emeka Egbuka was the 2011 national champion in the Pitch, Hit and Run baseball competition, when he was 10 years old.

— When the Houston Texans rallied to beat the Jaguars 36-29 Sunday, it was the first-ever NFL game that ended with a 36-29 score.

— LSU fired football coach Brian Kelly when he had $54M left on his contract; now the school is trying to weasel out of paying Kelly what they owe him, A lawyer who is familiar with cases like this says that when all is said and done, it is highly unlikely that Kelly won’t get all that money.

— Listening to lot of early season college basketball games, have already heard 3-4 guys say that this is the best freshman class in college basketball in the last 20 years..

— St John’s is expected to be a Top 5/Top 10 team this year, but they only have one player from New York City, which is unusual for them.

— ESPN is putting out Bracketology already, predicting the 68-team brackets for the NCAA Tournament, which starts more than four months from now. Give it a rest guys, let the kids play some games before projecting the tournament. 

— Eagles 10, Packers 7
NFL’s first scoreless first half in two years.
Eagles in first half: 31 plays, 94 yards, no points.
Eagles first 3 drives in 2nd half: 17 plays, 136 yards, 10 points.
Eagles are 14-2-1 ATS last 17 games with spread of 3 or fewer points.

Green Bay averaged only 4.0 yards/pass play.
Green Bay is 0-3 when they score less than 27 points.
In their three losses, Packers were held to 10-13-7 points.
Packers are 5-9-1 ATS last 15 games coming off a loss.

— New Jersey Giants fired coach Brian Daboll Monday; Giants were 9-7-1 in Daboll’s first season, but were 11-33 since then, including 2-8 this season. Daboll was making $5M/year, os he gets roughly $7.5M to take a hike.

Daboll was doing a good job bringing along rookie QB Jaxson Dart this year; will be interesting to see who the Giants hire as their new coach.

— Jaxson Dart, by the way, is the first QB EVER with a rushing TD in five straight games. 

— Rookie QB’s who start get coaches fired; Tennessee fired its coach this year, while they’re starting rookie Cam Ward. It is almost like the rich humans who own these teams cannot comprehend that it takes time to develop a quarterback who wins games.

— Minnesota Vikings had eight false starts Sunday, in a home game, the most by any NFL home team since 2009.

— NFL divisional trends:
AFC East
Underdogs 5-2 ATS divisional games
10-6 ATS non-divisional underdog

AFC North
Home teams 4-0 ATS divisional games
10-19 ATS non-divisional games

AFC South
Favorites 4-1 ATS divisional games
12-13 ATS non-divisional games

AFC West
7-4 ATS non-divisional home favorite
1-6 ATS non-divisional road favorite

NFC East
4-7 ATS non-divisional home games
6-8 ATS non-divisional underdog

NFC North
Favorites 3-1 ATS divisional games

NFC South
6-9 ATS non-divisional home games

NFC West
Home teams 1-5 ATS divisional games
17-6 ATS non-divisional games

— College football trends, conference games:
American
Favorites 24-15 ATS

ACC
Road teams 31-20 ATS

Big 18
Home favorites 14-18 ATS
Home underdogs 14-10 ATS

Big X
Favorites 33-17 ATS

Conference USA
Home underdogs 9-5 ATS

Mid-American
Home teams 26-8 ATS

Mountain West
Home favorites 10-9 ATS
Home underdogs 5-5 ATS

SEC
Home teams 25-21 ATS

Sun Belt
Home teams 21-16 ATS

— Famous birthdays, November 11th:
Stanley Tucci, 65
Demi Moore, 63
Leonardo DiCaprio, 51

Mark Sanchez, 39
Stedman Bailey, 35
Ladd McConkey, 24

— RIP to Lenny Wilkens, who passed away over the weekend at age 88; he is one of only five people who was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach. 

He scored 16.5 ppg in a 15-year playing career, then coached for 30 more years, winning 1,412 games, including the 1979 NBA title with the Seattle SuperSonics.

He is the only person to be in both the NBA’s 75th season celebration lists, as a player and as a coach.

RIP, sir.

— Guy in California won $2.04B (that’s billion, with a B) last week; after taxes, he took home $628M. Dude paid $1.42B in taxes.

— North Carolina senior captain Seth Trimble broke his left arm in practice Sunday, will have surgery this week. No word on how long he’ll be out of the Tar Heels’ lineup. North Carolina is off to a 2-0 start, including a win over Kansas.

— Iowa State 96, Mississippi State 80
Cyclones shot 65% inside the arc, led by 18 at the half.
Miss State had 26 turnovers, Cyclones only 9.
Game was played on a neutral court in South Dakota. 

Game like these are important to see early in the season, as we try to get a handle on which teams and which leagues are the best this season. /

— Santa Clara 87, Xavier 68
Musketeers shot only 37% inside the arc in an ugly home loss. 

Xavier had only three players score more than four points.
Impressive win for the WCC here. 

Rams 42, 49ers 26
Rams’ first drive: 10 plays, 64 yards, TD
Rams’ second drive: 7 plays, 86 yards, TD
Rams’ third drive: 9 plays, 59 yards, TD
Matthew Stafford is 9th QB ever to throw 400+ TD passes.

Rams’ first three drives in 2nd half: 23 plays, 166 yards, 3 TD’s
Rams are 16-7 ATS in last 23 games as a favorite.
Mac Jones threw for 319 yards, three TD’s.
49ers are 1-10 ATS in their last 11 games following a win. 

Texans 36, Jaguars 29
Jaguars led 29-10 after the third quarter.
Houston drove 93 yards, scored game-winning TD with 0:31 left.
Houston was 10-15 on third down, Jacksonville 4-11.
Texans won 13 of last 16 series games.

Houston is 4-0 when it scores 26+ points, 0-5 when it doesn’t.
Texans outgained Jacksonville, 412-213.
Jaguars led 17-0 after they scored on a 73-yard punt return.
Backup QB Mills threw for 292 yards, two TD’s. 

Dolphins 30, Bills 13
Dolphins snap a seven-game losing streak vs Buffalo.
Miami led 16-0 after the third quarter.
Bills’ first seven drives: 38 plays, 172 yards, zero points.
Buffalo has scored 28+ points in wins, 20-14-13 in losses.

Dolphins ran the ball 32 times for 197 yards.
Miami is 10-6 ATS last 16 games as a home underdog.
Miami is 12-8-1 ATS in last 21 games coming off a loss.
Dolphins went over their team total in six of last eight games.

Colts 31, Falcons 25 OT
Jonathan Taylor ran for 244 yards, three TD’s.
Colts kicked a 44-yard FG with 0:25 left to force overtime.
Inday’s last four drives: 26 plays, 201 yards, 18 points.
Colts’ team total: over 8-2

Indy is 8-0 scoring 29+ points (20-20 in losses)
Colts outgained Atlanta, 519-290.
Colts were 2-12 on third down, Atlanta 0-8.
Falcons lost their last four games, by 10-24-1-6 points.

Jets 27, Browns 20
Jets ran kick back for TD, punt back for TD, both in first quarter.
Jets won last two games, scoring 39-27 points, after an 0-7 start.
QB Fields was 6-11/54 passing, for the whole freakin’ game.
Total yardage: Cleveland 278, Jets 169.

Home teams are 8-0 ATS in Cleveland games this year.
Browns are 0-5 on road, losing by 24-24-14-19-7 points.
Overall, Browns have lost their last 13 road games.
Cleveland gained less than 280 yards in six of last seven games.

Ravens 27, Vikings 19
Ravens’ first four drives: 20 plays, 58 yards, 3 points.
Ravens rest of game: 50 plays, 293 yards, 24 points.
Baltimore won its last three games, scoring 30-28-27 points. 
Last four games, Ravens allowed 17-16-6-19 points.

Vikings were 3-14 on third down, turned ball over three times.
Last six games, Minnesota is minus-9 in turnovers.
Vikings had an 86-yard TD drive to start the game.
Vikings rest of game: 58 plays, 276 yards, 12 points.

Famous birthdays, November 10th:
Larry Parrish, 71
Jack Clark, 69
Mackenzie Phillips, 67
Isaac Bruce, 53

Shawn Green, 52
Zach Ertz, 34
Teddy Bridgewater, 32
JJ Bleday, 27

Bears 24, Giants 20
Down 20-10, Chicago had TD drives of 91-53 yards in last 3:56.
Bears are 6-0 when they allow less than 27 points.
Bears won six of their last seven games.
In its wins, Chicago is +17 in turnovers; they’re minus-3 in losses.

Giants outgained Chicago, 431-391.
QB Dart (concussion) sat out the 4th quarter; threw for 242 yards, ran for 66 more.
Giants lost last four games, giving up 33-38-34-24 points.
Giants allowed 18-17 points in wins, 21+ points in losses.

Patriots 28, Buccaneers 23
Patriots won their last seven games (6-1 ATS).
Patriots had TD plays of 72-55-69 yards.
QB Henderson ran ball 14 times for 147 yards, two TD’s.
Vrabel is 64-50 as an NFL head coach, 8-2 this year.

Bucs are 4-0 giving up less than 24 points, 2-3 giving up 24+.
QB Mayfield threw ball for 273 yards, three TD’s.
WR Egbuka caught six passes for 115 yards and a TD.
NFC South teams are 14-16 ATS in non-divisional games.

Saints 17, Panthers 7
Rookie QB Shough threw for 282 yards, two TD’s.
Saints outgained Carolina, 388-175.
Saints are 17-11-1 ATS last 29 games as a road underdog.
New Orleans is 13-5-1 ATS in last 19 NFC South road games.

Saints were 8-17 on third down, Carolina 3-9.
Last four weeks, Panthers scored 13-9-16-7 points.
Last three games, Carolina was held to 244/265/175 total yards.
Since 2020, Panthers are 1-10 ATS as a home favorite.  

Lions 44, Commanders 22
Lions scored on all eight drives: 55 plays, 537 yards.
Detroit outgained Washington, 546-288.
Lions are 13-2 ATS last 15 games as a road favorite.
Detroit is 6-0 when it runs for 100+ yards, 0-3 when it doesn’t.  

Commanders lost last five games, last four by 22-21-24-22 points.
In those five games, Washington gave up 35.8 ppg.
Opponents’ over/under total: over 7-2 last nine games.
Commanders are 1-6-1 ATS last eight games as a home underdog.

Seahawks 44, Cardinals 22
Seattle scored two defensive TD’s in the first 16:00 of the game.
Seahawks’ first three drives: 22 plays, 222 yards, 21 points.
Seattle led 35-0 with 8:33 left before halftime.
Seahawks won/covered seven of their last eight games.

Seattle averaged 13.4 yards/pass attempt.
Seahawks ran ball 46 times for 198 yards.
Cardinals lost six of their last seven games.
This was Arizona’s first loss by more than four points.

Chargers 25, Steelers 10
WR McConkey caught four passes for 107 yards and a TD.
Chargers won four of their last five games.
Chargers are 7-3 ATS last ten games as a home favorite.
Under Harbaugh, Chargers are 10-5 ATS in games coming off a win.

Steelers in first half: 27 plays, 71 yards, 3 points.
Chargers outgained Pittsburgh, 314-221.
Steelers were 2-11 on third down, turned ball over three times.
Pittsburgh is +12 in turnovers in its wins, minus-6 in losses.

— Indiana 27, Penn State 24
Hoosiers drove 80 yards, scored game-winning TD with 0:36 left.
WR Cooper make a great catch in back of the end zone to win the game.
Penn State lost their sixth straight game, after a 3-0 start.

— Vanderbilt 45, Auburn 38 OT
QB Pavia threw for 377 yards, three TD’s, also ran for 112 yards.
Auburn led 20-10 at halftime.
Auburn is 1-6 in SEC, with five losses by 7 or fewer points.

— Oregon 18, Iowa 16
Ducks kicked a 39-yard field goal with 0:03 left, for the road win.
Oregon ran ball 36 times for 261 yards.
Ducks outgained Hawkeyes 373-239 on a rainy day in Iowa City.

— UConn 37, Duke 34
Huskies drove 75 yards, scored game-winning TD with 1:58 left.
Duke led 28-23 after the third quarter.
Crowd of 38,106 was UConn’s largest home crowd since 2013.

— Iowa State 20, TCU 17
Cyclones scored two TD’s in last 8:12 for a comeback win.
Game-winning TD was a 79-yard punt return with 6:32 left.
TCU outgained the Cyclones 432-272, but had three turnovers.

— Delaware 27, Louisiana Tech 24
Blue Hens scored nine points in the last 0:40, are now 5-4.
Delaware scored TD with 0:34 left, then recovered an onside kick.
Delaware QB Minicucci threw for 304 yards, two TD’s.

— Wisconsin 13, Washington 10
Badgers threw for only 48 yards, half of them on a fake punt.
Washington led 10-3 at halftime, didn’t score in second half.
Wisconsin’s win snaps a six-game losing skid.

— Football upsets of the week:
California (+18.5) 29, Louisville 26
Wisconsin (+10.5) 13, Washington 10
Missouri State (+7.5) 21, Liberty 17
Wake Forest (+7) 16, Virginia 9
Iowa State (+6.5) 20, TCU 17
Delaware (+5.5) 25, Louisiana Tech 24

— Famous birthdays, November 9th
Virgil Carter, 80
Lou Ferrigno, 74
Teddy Higuera, 68
Adam Dunn, 46
Michael Busch, 28

Sunday would’ve been the 90th birthday for Bob Gibson, the great pitcher

— Alabama 103, St John’s 96
84-possession track meet was like an old Loyola Marymount game.
Crimson Tide led 53-44 at halftime.
St John’s was 28-40 on foul line, Alabama 14-22

— Michigan State 69, Arkansas 66
6-9 frosh Ward scored 18 points in 23:00 off MSU’s bench.
Brickfest: teams combined to shoot 8-42 on the arc.
Razorbacks led 39-36 at halftime.

— Virginia Tech 107, Providence 101 OT
Providence led by 8 early in second half.
6-9 frosh Avadalas scored 33 points, had six assists.
Tech was 12-28 behind the arc, Friars were 11-28.

— Marshall 85, Toledo 73
Rockets led 40-30 at halftime.
Thundering Herd shot 66.7% inside arc, 15-37 on the arc.
Jalen Speer scored 20 points; 14 of his 15 shots were behind the arc.

— Memphis 76, San Francisco 70
Memphis led by 23 early in second half.
Two leading scorers for Memphis scored 25-24 points; both guys are playing for their third team in three years, all different teams.

— Cal-Santa Barbara 85, San Jose State 74
6-3 senior Mahaney is UCSB’s key player; he was a star for two years at Saint Mary’s, when the Gaels went 53-26, 29-3 in WCC games.

Last year he bolted to UConn, where he only played about 12:00/game. Now he is back as a star at a very good mid-major program. He had 17 points, six assists for the Gauchos in this game.

— Tulane 79, Texas State 71
Texas State led by 20 with 4:15 left in the first half.
6-4 junior Brumbaugh was 19-19 on foul line, scored 33 points.
Texas State’s whole team was 11-13 on the foul line. 

— North Carolina 80, Kansas 77
Kansas led 37-29 at halftime.
Tar Heels outscored them 58-37 in the second half.
North Carolina shot 66.7% inside the arc.

— Georgetown 70, Maryland 60
Georgetown led 11-0 right out of the gate.
Lot of fouls; Hoyas were 23-31 on foul line, Maryland 30-37.
Myles Rice scored 19 points in 27:00 off the bench for Maryland.

— Utah State 80, VCU 77
Utah State led by 18 with 11:28 left, hung on at the end.
VCU was only 16-28 on the foul line, in a 3-point loss.

Phil Martelli Jr is VCU’s 5th coach in 12 years; they’ve won at least 18 games every season of that stretch:
2010-15- Shaka Smart, 163-56
2015-17- Will Wade, 51-20
2017-2023- Mike Rhoades, 129-61
2023-25- Ryan Odom, 52-21
2025-26- Phil Martelli Jr, 1-1

It is good to be the basketball coach at a place that doesn’t have football.

— Kent State 110, Cornell 102
Cornell was 19-40 on the arc, 14-23 inside the arc.
Kent State was 18-38 on the arc, 17-27 inside the arc.
78 3-pointers taken, 60 2-point shots. Modern basketball.

— Tulane 38, Memphis 32
7-2 Green Wave led 35-17 at halftime.
QB Retzlaff passed for 332 yards, three TD’s.
Memphis split its last four games, after a 6-0 start.

— USC 38, Northwestern 17
WR Lemon caught 11 passes for 161 yards and a TD
Trojans outgained Northwestern, 482-280

USC ran a successful fake punt, using their 3rd-string QB to throw a pass; he was wearing the same jersey number as USC’s punter. Clever.

— Houston 30, Central Florida 27
Houston drove 62 yards, kicked game-winning FG with 2:31 left.
Cougars outgained UCF, 433-282.
UCF led 24-17 at halftime, scored only three points in second half. 

— Famous birthdays, November 8th
Mary Hart, 75
Alfre Woodard, 73
Jeff Blauser, 60
Courtney-Thorne Smith, 58

Brevin Knight, 50
Yasmani Grandal, 38
Sam Bradford, 38
Giancarlo Stanton, 36

— Santa Clara 79, McNeese State 67
Soph G Gavalyugov scored 19 points in 22:00 off the bench.
Broncos out-rebounded McNeese, 47-28.

— George Mason 96, Winthrop 90
Patriots were 31-43 on foul line, Winthrop 25-29
Winthrop led by a hoop with 4:34 left in the game.
6-2 junior Mincy scored 29 points, only 2 assists; his job is to score points

— Missouri 89, SE Missouri State 84
Underdog Redhawks led 51-46 at halftime.
Game was 76-76 with 3:34 left to play.
Mizzou shot 66.7% inside the arc. 

— Oregon 67, Rice 63
Visiting Owls led 32-27 at halftime.
Oregon was 26-38 on foul line, Rice 8-11.
Ducks are 2-0, also beating Hawaii 60-59

— Wilmington 71, Delaware 62
Ugly loss for the Blue Hens, losing to a D-2 team.

— Nuggets 129, Warriors 104- Over the last six years, Golden State is now 34-41 when Steph Curry doesn’t play. 

— Las Vegas Raiders lost 10-7 in Denver Thursday; they had a punt blocked. Friday, they fired their special teams coach. When you’re 2-7, there will be scapegoats.

— Toronto Blue Jays came thisclose to winning the World Series, but manager John Schneider doesn’t have a long-term contract yet. Blue Jays exercised their 2026 option on Schneider, but bench coach Don Mattingly has left Toronto.

— Japanese star 3B Munetaka Murakami entered the posting system this week; his will be one of the most anticipated free agencies this winter.

Murakami leaves the Tokyo Yakult Swallows with 246 home runs over his eight seasons in Japan; he hit 56 homers in 2022. 

— Broncos 10, Raiders 7
Broncos won their last seven games.
Five of their last six wins were by 4 or fewer points.
Total yardage in game: Denver 220, Raiders 188
Penalty yardage in game: Denver 78, Raiders 83

Raiders’ only TD was on a 41-yard drive, on their 2nd possession.
Raiders the rest of the game: 44 plays, 86 yards, zero points.
Denver’s first four drives: 12 plays, 17 yards, four punts.
QB Bo Nix is 18-10 as an NFL starter.

— More and more, coaches just answer “…..analytics” when they’re asked to explain why they go for it and 4th down or don’t go for it, but here is a piece of analytics that gets ignored.

The team that scores first usually wins; best eight teams scoring first this year and their records:

Cardinals 3-5
Colts 7-2
Eagles 6-2
Lions 5-3

Packers 5-2-1
Houston 3-5
Bears 5-3
Chargers 6-3

— Remember the movie Moneyball, about the Oakland A’s front office? Jonah Hill’s character in that movie is in real life Paul DePodesta, who for the last ten years has worked for the Cleveland Browns in the NFL. He played football in college but worked for the A’s/Dodgers before going to Cleveland and switching to football.

Well, the Colorado Rockies are hiring DePodesta to be their head of baseball operations, after they lost 119 games this past season. Right now, Colorado is the only team without a manager for 2026; they haven’t made the playoffs since 2018 and the last three years, they lost 119-101-103 games.

From what you read, Colorado is way behind other teams in terms of what you need to have to be a successful team, as far as resources, both $$$ and baseball-wise.

By the way, the reason the A’s were really good in the Moneyball era was that they had Hudson, Mulder, Zito as great starting pitchers, and Miguel Tejada was a superstar at shortstop. They kind of left that part out of the movie.

— San Diego Padres named Craig Stammen their new manager; he was pitching in the majors just three years ago, and when the interview process started for this job, Stammen was one of the guys doing the interviewing.

Last two years, Padres went 93-69/90-72; this is a good job. San Diego has made the playoffs four of the last six seasons.

— Chicago White Sox named Zach Bove their new pitching coach; Bove was a hitting coach at the high school/college level (Central Florida) before becoming a pitching coach.

Last three years, Bove served as an assistant pitching coach for the Royals, who ranked sixth in the majors with a 3.73 ERA this past year. White Sox dumped four coaches from last year’s staff after they went 60-102, bossing 100+ games for the third year in a row.

— Arizona Cardinals put QB Kyler Murray on the IR with a foot injury; Jacoby Brissett is the starter, with Kedon Slovis the backup.

— If you need another reason to visit Las Vegas, A’s-Angels are playing a couple of spring training games in Las Vegas March 7-8th.

— Famous birthdays, November 7th
Jim Kaat, 87
Tom Moore, 86
Danny Smith, 71

Billy Giilispie, 65
Kris Benson, 51
Sonny Gray, 36

— Georgia Southern 25, Appalachian State 23
Eagles led 19-3 at halftime, hung on for the win.
Georgia Southern QB French threw for 352 yards and a TD
App State QB Swann threw for 348 yards, 2 TD’s.

— South Florida 55, Tex-San Antonio 23
USF scored defensive TD’s on the Roadrunners’ first two drives.
Bulls led 45-10 at halftime.
USF ran the ball 32 times for 238 yards.

— Akron 44, UMass 10
Zips outgained UMass 467-169.
RB Gant ran ball for 153 yards, two TD’s.
0-9 UMass trailed 27-10 at halftime.

— Ohio U 24, Miami 20
Game was 3-3 at halftime.
Bobcats drove 75 yards, scored winning TD with 2:15 left in the game.
Ohio QB Navarro threw for 201 yards and a TD.

— Ball State 17, Kent State 13
Cardinals drove 37 yards, scored game-winning TD with 1:53 left.
Kent outgained Ball State 301-238, but had 78 yards in penalties.
Ball State stopped Kent twice on 4th-and-1 situations. 

— Toledo 42, Northern Illinois 3
QB Gleason threw for 309 yards, two TD’s.
Rockets led 28-3 at halftime.
Toledo was 9-14 on third down, NIU 2-16. 

— Weird Stat of the Day: In Monday’s 93-87 win over Florida, Arizona was 2-5 behind the arc, for the whole freakin’ game. In this day and age, no teams only take five 3’s in a game.

Arizona shot 50% inside the arc, made 31-38 on the foul line. Florida was 7-27 on the arc. It was a really good game that seemed like a Final Four game.

— Tennessee-Martin 86, UNLV 81- The Josh Pastner era in Las Vegas got off to a cruddy start, as Rebels blew a 10-point first half lead, losing as a 17-point favorite. UNLV turned the ball over 22 times, shot only 7-23 on the arc. 

Tennessee-Martin was 27-48 on the foul line; the Skyhawks have players from 11 different countries- their entire starting 5 is from eastern Europe. Seven of their players have played at non-Division I colleges.

— SC-Upstate 87, Fresno State 86
Bad home loss for the Bulldogs, who were favored by 9.5 points; Fresno led by 12 late in the first half, were +10 in turnovers, but the Spartans shot 57.6% inside the arc. Five of the 12 teams in the Mountain West have already lost a game, in the season’s first three nights.

— Rutgers 81, Rider 53— Tariq Francis scored 20 points for the Scarlet Knights; he used to play for NJIT in the America East. He took 370 3-pointers over two seasons in which NJIT went a combined 13-46, 6-26 in conference games. Go figure.

— UCLA 80, Eastern Washington 74— UCLA coach Mick Cronin wasn’t happy after the game. 

“There’s so many mistakes; I’d like to fire myself for our defense. I mean, if you think you’re going to give up 53.7% in your own gym in a buy game and have a good year, you have no chance.”

They won, but apparently he wasn’t happy.

— Second year in a row, my doorbell only rang once on Halloween night; mustn’t be a lot of kids in my neighborhood. It was windy/cold Friday, but I didn’t think it was that bad.

— Famous birthdays, November 6th:
Sally Field, 79
Ethan Hawke, 55
Adam LaRoche, 46

Lamar Odom, 46
Luke Jackson, 44
James Paxton, 37

— Atlanta Braves signed two coaches who were with the Mets this past year: pitching coach Jeremy Hefner and and first base coach Antoan Richardson. 

Hefner had worked for the Mets for six years. Richardson was first base coach,OF coordinator and baserunning instructor for the Mets the past two seasons; he got tons of credit for the Mets’ 89.1% stealing bases this year- Juan Soto stole a career-high 38 bases.

— Players who opted in on their 2026 contract:
Chris Sale, $18M
Shane Bieber, $16M
Salvador Perez, $25M for two years
Jack Flaherty, $20M
Trevor Story, $55M for two years

— Chicago Cubs rejected an option to extend P Shota Imanaga’s contract out to 2028; he then rejected a $15M player option for next year, so now he is a free agent.

Imanaga was 24-11, 3.28 in 54 regular season starts in two years with the Cubs; he was 9-8, 3.73 this season, but he had a 6.51 ERA in September.

— Jets were a 2.5-point favorite over Cleveland this week, until they traded two of their best defensive players away, for three first round draft picks.

When that happened, the line moved to Cleveland, -2.5, a five-point swing.

— Drew Brees is joining FOX Sports as an NFL game analyst; rumors are that he is taking Mark Sanchez’ place. Sanchez had some off-field issues recently, may now be out of a job.

— Oklahoma City star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has now scored 20+ points 81 games in a row, the 3rd longest streak of all-time. 

Lot of stuff going on, with seasons overlapping……..
— Tuesday was the NFL’s trade deadline; Jets dumped DT Quinnen Williams, CB Ahmad (Sauce) Gardner, got three first round draft picks in return.

Next two drafts, Jets now own five first round picks. Which quarterback will they draft?

— Teams with two first round picks in the 2026 Draft: Rams, Browns, Jets

— Cardinals 27, Cowboys 17
Arizona snaps a five-game losing skid, all close losses.
Arizona’s first six drives: 52 plays, 312 yards, 27 points.
Last four games, Cardinals converted 36-72 third down plays.
Cardinals are 9-1 ATS last ten games as a road underdog. 

Cowboys in first half: 28 plays, 98 yards, no points.
Cowboys’ only first half score came on a blocked punt for TD.
Cowboys were minus-3 in turnovers.
Dallas is 0-5 when they score less than 37 points.

— In their last two games, Houston Texans scored on 9 of their 23 drives, which isn’t bad, but unfortunately for the Texans, those nine scores were 7 field goals, only 2 touchdowns.

In Sunday’s 18-15 loss to Denver, Texans went 5-for-6 kicking field goals, but you don’t win much when you don’t score a touchdown.

— Famous birthdays, November 5th:
Elke Sommer, 85
Art Garfunkel, 84
Tatum O’Neal, 62
Famke Janssen, 61

Javy Lopez, 55
Johnny Damon, 52
Jason Kelce, 38
Odell Backham Jr, 33

— NFL divisional trends:

AFC East
14-10 ATS non-divisional games

AFC North
Home teams 4-0 ATS divisional games
9-17 ATS non-divisional games

AFC South
12-12 ATS non-divisional games

AFC West
8-5 ATS non-divisional home games.
4-9 ATS non-divisional road games.

NFC East
Home teams 4-2 ATS divisional games
10-13 ATS non-divisional games

NFC North
5-2 ATS non-divisional home favorite

NFC South
13-15 ATS non-divisional games

NFC West
16-7 ATS non-divisional games

— College football trends, conference games:
American
Home favorites 10-6 ATS
Road favorites 11-6 ATS

ACC
Home favorites 11-14 ATS
Road favorites 11-9 ATS

Big 18
Home favorites 12-17 ATS
Road favorites 10-10 ATS

Big X
Home favorites 10-6 ATS
Road favorites 11-6 ATS

Conference USA
Home favorites 8-6 ATS
Home underdogs 7-4 ATS

Mid-American
Home favorites 12-5 ATS
Home underdogs 9-3 ATS

Mountain West
Home favorites 9-8 ATS
Home underdogs 4-4 ATS

SEC
Home favorites 15-13 ATS
Home underdogs 7-6 ATS

Sun Belt
Home favorites 10-8 ATS
Home underdogs 9-6 ATS

— Movie of the Day: The Fugitive (1993)- A doctor is wrongly accused of murdering his wife; he has to find the real killer while being pursued by a veteran US Marshal.

Harrison Ford is the doctor, Tommy Lee Jones is the marshal, Sela Ward is the doctor’s wife, Joe Pantoliano is one of the other policemen.

Excellent movie, lot of drama.

— UConn’s football is 6-3 and bowl eligible under coach Jim Mora Jr; all three of their losses came in overtime. Huskies won the Fenway Bowl LY, their first bowl win since 2009.

— Auburn fired football coach Hugh Freeze, who went 15-19 in 2+ years with the Tigers; he gets a $15.8M buyout to take a hike. Auburn has lost five of its last six games.

— South Carolina is 3-6, lost its last four games; they fired offensive coordinator Mike Shula, who was in his first season as Carolina’s OC. Gamecocks rank last in the SEC in both points (19.7) and yards per game (294.1).

Mike Shula is the answer to a good trivia question: he was the head coach at Alabama just before Nick Saban took over the Crimson Tide.

— With coaching jobs coming open, other coaches get big raises to stay where they are:

Nebraska signed Matt Rhule to a two-year contract extension that will take him through the 2032 season; Nebraska is 6-2 this year; Rhule led the program to its first bowl game since 2016 last year.

SMU signed coach Rhett Lashlee to a new seven-year deal that keeps him with the Mustangs thru 2032; $$$ details weren’t provided, but apparently the deal will make him one of the 10 highest-paid coaches in college football.