Category: SPORTS

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

Wednesday- Trivia Night 7:00
Thursday- $5 apps, all day
Friday- Karaoke night, 8:00
Saturday- Second Heat, 8:00

They also have an outdoor patio and good food/drinks.
Check it out, it’s a fun place
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Thursday night NFL writeup is posted on NFL page

Tuesday’s 6-pack:
— Padres 3, Astros 1- Yu Darvish tossed six shutout IP.
— White Sox 8, Angels 4- Chicago (36-115) has won three in a row
— Royals 7, Tigers 6- Detroit led 5-1 after four innings.
— Cardinals 4, Pirates 0- Andre Pallante struck out nine in 7 IP.
— Rockies 3, Arizona 2- Winning run scored on a throwing error.
— Falcons 22, Eagles 21- Cousins threw 7-yard TD pass with 0:34 left.

Quote of the Day 
“I think everything’s on the table. Ultimately, my goal is to be in that batter’s box, in the field every single day. Whether that’s moving to a corner or DHing more, I’ll leave it up to the front office to come up with a plan. Where I’m at and what’s happened the last few years, I’m definitely going to try to explore every option that can keep me out there.”
Mike Trout

Tuesday’s quiz
Where did Kirk Cousins play his college football?

Monday’s quiz
In the movie Moneyball, Philip Seymour Hoffman played A’s manager Art Howe. 

Sunday’s quiz
In the movie A Star is Born, Andrew Dice Clay played Lady Gaga’s father. 

Trends for all 30 MLB teams…….(thru Sunday’s games)

— Arizona is 57-37 vs righty starters, 26-29 vs lefties.
Over is 20-7 in Diamondbacks’ last 27 games.

— Atlanta is 9-4 in its last 13 home games. 
Under is 13-3 in their last 16 home games.

— Cubs won 11 of their last 15 road games.
Over is 12-3 in their last 15 road games.

— Cincinnati is 9-5 in its last fourteen games.
Reds are 14-27 in one-run games.

— Colorado is 9-1 in last ten home series openers.
Under is 7-2 in Rockies’ last nine road games.

— Dodgers lost four of their last six games.
Dodgers are 33-17 against lefty starting pitchers.

— Miami lost six of its last seven games.
Marlins are 10-44 against lefty starting pitchers, 45-51 vs righties.

— Under is 7-3 in Brewers’ last ten games.
Milwaukee is 19-23 against lefty starting pitchers, 67-40 vs righties.

— Mets are 9-3 in their last 12 home games.
Mets are 11-1 in their last 12 home series openers. 

— Phillies won 11 of their last 14 games.
Phillies are 26-25 in day games, 64-34 in night games.   

— Pirates are 2-9 in last 11 games where winning run scored from 7th inning on. 
Under is 6-3 in their last nine road games.

— Cardinals are 1-11 in their last dozen home series openers.
Under is 7-1 in their last eight home games.

— San Diego is 9-1 in extra-inning games.
Padres are 8-1 in last nine road series openers. 

— San Francisco is 33-30 in day games, 39-48 in night games.
Giants are 2-8 in last 12 ten home games.

— Washington is 10-8 in its last 18 home games.
Under is 8-4 in their last 12 road games.

Famous birthdays, September 17th
Phil Jackson, 79
Junior Bridgeman, 72
Mark Brunell, 54

Dan Haren, 44
Alexander Ovechkin, 39
Marcus Semien, 34

Jose Ramirez, 32
Patrick Mahomes, 29
James Wood, 22

— Orioles are 2-7 in game after their last nine wins.
Last five Baltimore games stayed under.

— Red Sox lost eight of their last nine road games.
Boston is 58-49 vs righty starters, 17-26 vs lefties; last two years, they were 47-31 vs lefties.

— White Sox are 6-43 since the All-Star break.
Chicago is 2-17 in its last 19 series openers. 

— Guardians are 22-11 in games where winning run scored from 7th inning on.
Cleveland is 29-12 vs lefty starting pitchers; LY, they were 24-35.

— Detroit is 7-3 in its last ten games.
Under is 14-3 in their last 17 home games.

— Houston won its last four games. 
Last two years, Houston was 70-33 vs lefty starters; this year, they’re 21-21.

— Royals lost eight of their last eleven road games.
Royals are 69-50 vs righty starters, 13-18 vs lefties. 

— Angels lost seven of their last eight games.
They’re 2-11 in their last 13 series openers.

— Minnesota is 8-17 in its last 25 games.
Over is 6-0 in their last six games.

— New York is 7-3 in its last ten games.
Under is 7-2-1 in their last 10 games.

— A’s are 9-7 in their last 16 games.
Oakland is 9-1 in its last ten series openers. 

— Mariners are 13-9 since they changed managers,
Seattle is 7-19 in last 26 games where winning run scored from 7th inning on.

— Tampa Bay is 4-7 in its last 11 games.
Under is 20-6 in their last 26 road games. 

— Texas lost five of its last six games.
Rangers are 16-22 vs lefty starting pitchers. 

— Toronto is 4-1 in its last five games.
Under is 10-3 in their last 13 road games.

Chiefs 26, Bengals 25
Butker kicked 51-yard FG with 0:03 left for a dramatic win.
Bengals led 16-10 at halftime.
Chiefs turned ball over three times (-2), were only 1-8 on third down.
Last 4+ years, KC is 15-18 ATS as a home favorite.

In two games, Bengals have only three TD’s on 17 drives.
Cincinnati is only 8-24 on third down conversions.
WR Chase (in a contract dispute), has caught 10 balls for 97 yards in 2 games.
Last 4+ years, Cincinnati is 18-10-1 ATS coming off a loss.

Steelers 13, Broncos 6
Steelers held first two opponents to 226/295 yards in two road wins.
Pittsburgh was +3 in turnovers last week, +2 this week.
First two opponents converted 4-21 third down plays.
Steelers are 18-9-1 ATS in last 28 games with spread of 3 or fewer points.

Rookie QB Nix does NOT look ready to play in the NFL. 
Denver was held to 231/295 TY in two games; they’re 7-30 on third down.
In this game, Broncos ran ball 19 times for only 64 yards.
Broncos are 9-18-1 ATS in last 28 games with spread of 3 or fewer points.

Cardinals 41, Rams 10
Arizona’s first three drives: 20 plays, 219 yards, 21 points.
Cardinals led 24-3 at halftime. 
Cardinals ran for 231 yards, outgained LA, 489-245.
Arizona averaged 11.7 yards/pass attempt. 

Arizona was 7-11 on third down, Rams were 2-11.
Last 2+ years, LA is 4-8-2 ATS as a road underdog.
Rams had won their previous nine visits to Arizona.
Rookie WR Harrison had 130 RY, all in first quarter.

Texans 19, Bears 13
In two games, Chicago has one offensive TD on 21 drives.
In two games, Bears gained 148/205 yards, on 119 plays.
Bears have converted 8-30 third down plays.
This week, the 3 rookie QB’s combined for one offensive TD on 30 drives.

Houston’s first three drives: 24 plays, 158 yards, 13 points,
Texans overcame 12 penalties for 115 yards.
2nd-year QB Stroud is 12-7 as an NFL starter.
Houston is 4-8 ATS in last 12 games coming off a win.

Vikings 23, 49ers 17
49ers had 15-play, 83-yard drive that took 9:18, but they were stopped on downs
Darnold then threw a 97-yard TD pass to Justin Jefferson.
Vikings averaged 8.6 yards/pass attempt.
Ty Chandler ran ball 10 times for 82 yards.

Minnesota was 7-12 on third down, 49ers 2-10.
RB Mason ran ball 20 times for 100 yards and a TD.
Both teams turned ball over twice.
49ers are 0-5 SU/1-4 ATS in last five visits to Minnesota.

Saints 44, Cowboys 19
Saints’ first six drives: 39 plays, 379 yards, six TD’s.
New Orleans led this game 35-16 at halftime.
RB Kamara ran for 115 yards, three TD’s.
In their two games, Saints are 12-21 on third down.

Dallas scored on five of first six drives, but only one TD, four FG’s.
Zimmer’s defense allowed 14.2 yards/pass attempt.
In their two games, Cowboys are only 10-32 on third down.
Over is 32-17 in last 49 Dallas home games.

Buccaneers 20, Lions 16
Lions ran 83 plays for 463 yards. 
Tampa Bay ran 47 plays for 216 yards.
With 0:53 left, Lions were stopped on downs on Bucs’ 6-yard line.
With 0:02 left, Lions were stopped on downs on Bucs’ 26-yard line.

Bucs were 2-10 on third down, Detroit 7-13.
Under Bowles, Tampa Bay is 8-3 ATS as a road underdog.
QB Mayfield is 44-48 as an NFL starter, 12-9 with Buccaneers.
Last 3+ years, under is 17-9 in Tampa Bay road games.

Famous birthdays, September 16th:
Mickey Rourke, 72
Lenny Clarke, 71
Wilbert Montgomery, 70

Robin Yount, 69
Eric Hipple, 67
Orel Hershiser, 66

Jennifer Tilly, 66
Tim Raines, 65
Sam Howell, 24

Chargers 26, Panthers 3
Chargers ran for 176 yards last week, 219 yards in this game.
Chargers were 9-16 on third down, Carolina 1-12.
Bolts are 2-0 for the first time since 2012.
Charger defense has allowed one TD on 23 drives this season.

Panthers lost their first two games by a combined 73-13.
Carolina was outgained 728-352 in those two games.
2nd year QB Young is 2-16 as an NFL starter.
Panthers averaged only 2.5 yards/pass attempt. 

Raiders 26, Ravens 23
Raiders outscored Baltimore 13-0 over final 9:24 of game.
Raiders’ first 7 drives: 34 plays, 113 yards, six points.
Raiders’ last 4 drives: 29 plays, 206 yards, 20 points.
Since 2019, Las Vegas is 20-12 ATS as a road underdog.

Baltimore is 0-2 for first time since 2015.
Ravens led 9-6 at halftime; five field goals.
Ravens ran for 151 yards, were only 3-11 on third down.
Since 2021, Ravens are 9-14 ATS as a home favorite.

Browns 18, Jaguars 13
Cleveland’s first three drives: 36 plays, 182 yards, 13 points.
Cleveland’s last four drives: 29 plays, 115 yards, 3 points.
In two games, Browns are 4-29 on 3rd down, 6-8 on 4th down.
QB Watson is 37-32 as an NFL starter, 8-5 with Browns.

Jaguars’ first five drives: 33 plays, 124 yards, three points.
Jaguars are now 0-7 against Deshaun Watson.
In two games, Jaguars are 5-19 on 3rd down conversions.
QB Lawrence is 21-33 as an NFL starter. 

Seahawks 23, Patriots 20 OT
Seattle kicked 38-yard FG with 0:58 left, to force OT.
Seahawks drove 51 yards, kicked walk-off 31-yard FG in OT.
Seattle scored TD’s on 2 of first 3 drives, led 17-13 at halftime.
QB Smith is 32-37 as an NFL starter, 20-18 with Seattle.

Patriots held Bengals to 224 TY in LW’s 16-10 upset win.
First two games, NE ran ball for 355 yards, threw for only 245
Last 2+ years, New England is 1-8-1 ATS as a home underdog.
Patriots QB Brissett is 19-31 as an NFL starter.

Packers 16, Colts 10
Colts in first half: 15 plays, 78 yards, zero points.
Colts gained 237 yards on last five drives, but threw 2 INTs, missed a FG.
Indy was 2-9 on third down, Packers were 10-17.
2nd-year QB Richardson is 2-4 as an NFL starter.

Packers’ first two drives: 19 plays, 124 yards, 10 points.
Green Bay’s only TD drive was 82 yards on 11 plays.
Green Bay is 20-9 ATS in last 29 games as an underdog.
Packers ran ball for 261 yards (4.9 yards/carry).

Jets 24, Titans 17
RB Allen scored game-winning TD on 20-yard run with 4:31 left.
Jets’ first three drives: 12 plays, 20 yards, three punts.
Jets rest of game: 44 plays, 245 yards, 24 points.
Rodgers is 160-86-1 as an NFL starter.

In its first two games, Tennessee was outscored 38-7 in second half.
Titans are first team since 2012 to have punt blocked in each of their first two games.
QB Levis is 3-8 as an NFL starter.
Titans slip to 13-8-1 ATS in last 22 games as a home underdog.

Commanders 21, Giants 18
Washington had seven drives, kicked seven field goals.
Commanders ran for 215 yards, outgained Giants, 425-304. 
Rookie QB Daniels threw for 226 yards, ran for 44 more.
Washington is 15-9-2 ATS in last 26 games with spread of 3 or fewer points.

Giants’ kicker got hurt on opening kickoff, missed rest of game.
Giants scored 3 TD’s, were 0-2 on 2-point plays, 0-1 on PAT’s.
Only eight of the Giants’ 51 plays came on third down (4-8).
QB Jones is 23-39-1 as an NFL starter.

— Georgia 13, Kentucky 12
#1 team in the country has a very narrow escape.
Kentucky led 9-6 after three quarters.
Georgia scored only TD of game with 12:20 left. 

— LSU 36, South Carolina 33
Gamecocks led 17-0 early in second quarter.
LSU drove 55 yards, scored game-winning TD with 1:12 left.

Gamecocks ran for 243 yards, but missed a 49-yard FG at the gun.
South Carolina turned ball over three times, had 123 penalty yards.

— Memphis 20, Florida State 12
Seminoles were 13-1 last year, are 0-3 so far this year:
L21-24 vs Georgia Tech (-10)
L13-28 Boston College (-16.5)
L12-20 Memphis (-7)

Mike Norvell is a good coach, but he is squarely on the hot seat now; this is his contract situation going forward:
2024- $10M
2025- $10,150,000
2026- $10,300,000
2027- $10,450,000

2028- $10,600,000
2029- $10,750,000
2030- $10,900,000
2031- $11,050,000

— Meanwhile, in Gainesville……..
Texas A&M 33, Florida 20
Aggies led this game 20-0 at halftime.
A&M averaged 10.5 yards/pass attempt.

Gators lost their first two I-A games, 41-17/33-20; they’ve now lost their last seven I-A games, with only win in that span 45-7 over I-AA Samford.

Safe to say, the natives are restless in northern Florida.

— Pittsburgh 38, West Virginia 34
WVU led 34-24 with 3:30 left in the game.
Pitt had TD drives of 75-77 yards to pull out a dramatic win.
Teams combined to convert only 4 of 22 third down plays.

These rivals didn’t play from 2012-21, kind of an expen$ive deci$ion.

— Upsets of the Week:
UNLV (+10.5) 23, Kansas 20
Toledo (+10.5) 41, Mississippi State 17
Georgia State (+10) 36, Vanderbilt 32
Memphis (+7) 20, Florida State 12
Washington State (+5.5) 24, Washington 19

— Washington State 24, Washington 19
Coogs stopped Washington on 1-yard line with 1:07 left.
Apple Cup was played in the Seahawks’ stadium, lot earlier than usual.
Washington gained 452 yards, but had 16 penalties for 135 yards.
Coogs beat Washington for just third time in last 15 meetings.

— Oregon 49, Oregon State 14
Teams that got left behind went 1-1 vs their arch-rivals this weekend.
Ducks led by only 22-14 at halftime.

Ducks outgained the Beavers, 546-309.
Oregon had lost its previous two visits to Corvallis.

— Indiana 42, UCLA 13
Curt Cignetti is the new coach at Indiana; he is a really good coach.
Cignetti was 52-9 the last five years at James Madison.

Indiana was 9-12 on third down, Bruins 2-8
Total yardage: 430-238, Indiana.
Hoosiers overcame having 14 penalties for 127 yards.

— Auburn 45, New Mexico 19
Auburn’s new starting QB Hank Brown passed for 235 yards and 4 TD’s.

Auburn’s starting QB last week (Payton Thorne) was complaining this week about gamblers bugging him after Auburn lost games; he threw 4 INT’s last week. Then he got benched.

— Famous birthdays, September 15th:
Tommy Lee Jones, 78
Oliver Stone, 78
LeRoy Irvin, 67

Dan Marino, 63
Earnest Byner, 62
Sherman Douglas, 58

Jason Terry, 47
Mike Dunleavy Jr, 44
Tyler Fitzgerald, 27

— Central Florida 35, TCU 34
UCF threw a 20-yard TD pass with 0:36 left for the winning score.
Arkansas transfer Jefferson threw for 230 yards, 3 TD’s.

TCU led 31-10 with 5:00 left in third quarter.
Horned Frogs blocked two field goals and an extra point.

— Eastern Michigan 37, Jacksonville State 34 OT
EMU led this game 31-20 after three quarters.
Gamecocks kicked a 51-yard FG to tie game with 0:34 left.
Eagles were 10-19 on third down, Jax State was 3-12.

— Buffalo 34, UMass 3
Marquis Cooper had a 105-yard pick-6 for Buffalo.

— Texas 56, Tex-San Antonio 7
Texas QB Ewers was 14-16/185 passing before he got hurt.
Backup QB Manning (Peyton’s nephew) was 9-12/223, with 4 TD passes.
UTSA lost its last two games 49-10/56-7; they’re not good.

— How conferences did in non-league games this week:
AAC 2-0 ATS as favorite, 3-6 as underdog
ACC 2-2 ATS as favorite, 2-2 as underdog
Big X 7-4 ATS as favorite, 1-0 as underdog

Big 18 3-3 ATS as favorite, 0-2 as underdog
Conference USA 1-0 ATS as favorite, 1-3 as underdog
Mid-American 2-0 ATS as favorite, 1-3 as underdog

Mountain West 2-0 ATS as favorite, 3-6 as underdog
SEC 5-5 ATS as favorite
Sun Belt 1-2 ATS as favorite, 3-2 as underdog

— UNLV 23, Kansas 20
UNLV scored winning TD with 2:00 left, ending an 18-play, 75-yard drive.
UNLV QB Sluka ran for 113 yards, completed only 7-18 passes.
Rebels threw a 27-yard TD pass on last play of second quarter.
UNLV is 3-0 for first time since 1984, when Randall Cunningham was QB.

— Kansas State 31, Arizona 7
K-State ran ball for 235 yards, Arizona 56.
Dylan Edwards ran a punt back 71 yards for a TD.
Loss ended Arizona’s nine-game winning streak.

— Tigers 1, Orioles 0
Four Detroit pitchers combined to throw a one-hitter.
Gunnar Henderson’s 9th inning triple was Baltimore’s only hit.
Kerry Carpenter homered on Zach Eflin’s 3rd pitch of the game.

— Bronx 5, Red Sox 4
Boston led this game 4-0 in 7th inning.
Aaron Judge hit a grand slam for the game-winning hit.
Bronx has a 3-game lead in the AL East.

— Mariners 5, Rangers 4
Julio Rodriguez hit a 3-run homer in the 8th inning.
Rangers led this game 4-0 in 7th inning.
Jacob deGrom made his first start since April 28, 2023; he threw 61 pitches. 

— A’s 2, White Sox 0
Rookie P Basso got 16 outs, didn’t give up a run, got his first MLB win.
Oakland is 28-22 since the All-Star break.
White Sox were shut out for the 18th time this season.

— Famous birthdays, September 14th:
Larry Brown, 84
Alvin Scott, 69
Tim Wallach, 67
David Bell, 52

Chad Bradford, 50
Brandon Hicks, 39
Jimmy Butler, 35
Deshaun Watson, 29

— Royals 8, Pirates 3
Kansas City scored six runs in the second inning.
34-year old Salvador Perez has 27 home runs, 104 RBI
Loss snaps Pittsburgh’s 4-game winning streak.

— Blue Jays 4, Cardinals 3 (11)
Alejandro Kirk knocked in the game-winning run.
St Louis was 2-19 with runners in scoring position.
Cardinals 2B Thomas Saggese hit his first MLB home run.

— Reds 8, Twins 4
Elly De La Cruz hit his 24th home run, his first career grand slam.
Minnesota lost for 7th time in its last ten games.
Twins lead Detroit for the last AL playoff spot, by 2.5 games.

— Movie of the Day: The Company Men (2010)— A major company downsizes, and the lives of three men are affected in different ways.

Great cast: Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Costner, Craig T Nelson, Mario Bello.

Kind a sad movie with something of an upbeat ending. Good movie, though.

— Padres 5, Giants 0
Dylan Cease struck out 10 in six shutout IP.
Fernando Tatis Jr hit a 2-run home run.
Giants were shut out for the second game in a row.

— Brewers 2, Diamondbacks 1
Rhys Hoskins hit a 2-run homer for the Brewers.
Milwaukee leads the NL Central by 10 games.
Freddie Peralta allowed 10 baserunners in 5 IP, but only one run.

— Mets 11, Phillies 3
Jose Quintana tossed seven shutout IP.
Mets won for 12th time in last 14 games.
Phillies still lead NL East by seven games.

— Nationals 4, Marlins 1
DJ Herz allowed only one run in 5 IP.
Luis Garcia homered for first time in 101 AB’s vs lefty pitchers.
Three of Washington’s four runs were unearned.

— Rockies 9, Cubs 5
Hunter Goodman homered twice, including an 8th inning grand slam.
Cubs are now six games behind the Mets for the NL’s last playoff spot.

— Braves 6, Dodgers 2
Braves led this game 5-0 in second inning.
Schwellenbach threw 6 IP, giving up two runs.
Atlanta is a game behind the Mets for the NL’s last playoff spot. 

— Bills 31, Dolphins 10
Buffalo had three TD drives: 37-85-49 yards.
Bills are 10-3-1 ATS in last 14 games as a road underdog.
Buffalo is 14-3-1 ATS in last 18 games with spread of 3 or fewer points.
Bills are 20-9-3 ATS in last 32 games on natural grass.

Awful night for Miami; bad loss, QB Tagovailoa left with a concussion.
Before he left, Tagovailoa threw a horrific pick-6 that made score 31-10.
Under McDaniel, Miami is 4-6 ATS in games with spread of 3 or fewer points.
Buffalo won 11 of last 12 series games.

— Tagovailoa’s concussion looked fairly severe; Miami’s other two QB’s are Skylar Thompson, Tim Boyle, who have a combined seven NFL starts (1-6). Not good.

Dolphins haven’t won a playoff game since 2000; this year isn’t looking too good, either. 

— Arizona State 31, Texas State 28
Texas State outgained ASU 400-347, but they turned ball over three times (minus-2)
Game was tied 21-21 at halftime.
Texas State QB McCloud threw for 268 yards and four TD’s in a losing cause.

— Pac-12 is back in business, kind of; Oregon State, Washington State hung around, will now be joined by San Diego State, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State. More teams are on the way; there are murmurs that UNLV/Nevada have to be a package deal, but the Pac-12 might not be interested in adding the Wolf Pack.

Memphis, Rice, Tex-San Antonio and North Texas are rumored to be in the mix, further screwing up every kid’s grades in Geography. (do they still teach Geography?)

Cal/Stanford/SMU in the ATLANTIC Coast Conference
Memphis and two Texas schools in the PACIFIC-12.

Oy.

— Famous birthdays, September 13:
Jacqueline Bisset, 80
Rick Wise, 79
Kathleen Lloyd, 76

Rick Dempsey, 75
Jim Cleamons, 75
Mike Pagel, 64

Brad Johnson, 56
AJ McCarron, 34
Troy Reeder, 30

One quick question for every NFL game this weekend:
— Chargers @ Carolina- Panthers lost their last three games by a combined score of 82-10; they were down 30-3 at halftime last week. Would they ever bench QB Bryce Young?

— Buccaneers @ Lions- Detroit won a playoff game LY for first time since 1991; is this the year they get to their first Super Bowl?

Lions won NFL titles in 1952, 1953, 1957, but that was before there were Super Bowls.

— Saints @ Cowboys- New Orleans scored five TD’s last week, averaged 8.0 yards/pass attempt; Cowboys held the Browns to 2.7 yards/pass attempt last week, can they shut down the Saints’ offense this week?

— Jets @ Titans- Tennessee lost last week without giving up an offensive TD; they had a punt blocked for a TD and their suspect of a QB threw a pick-6. Jets have a good defense; will they score more points than the Jets’ offense?

— Seahawks @ Patriots- All three of Seattle’s TD’s last week were on plays of 23+ yards; New England held Cincinnati to one TD. Will the Seahawks be just as explosive in their road opener?

— Giants @ Commanders- Minnesota’s defense outscored the Giants’ offense 7-6 last week; at $40M a year, how much rope does QB Daniel Jones get, before backup Drew Lock gets a look?

— 49ers @ Vikings- QB Sam Darnold played really well last week; what happens if Darnold has a great year and Minnesota makes a run to the playoffs? Would they keep rookie JJ McCarthy or look to pick up some draft capital and trade him? 

— Colts @ Packers- Jordan Love’s injury is the big question here; Malik Willis, Sean Clifford are the backups. Green Bay is in a position very close to Miami’s right now unless Love can get back on the field fairly soon.

— Raiders @ Ravens- How much is Baltimore going to use RB Derrick Henry? 13 carries for 46 yards doesn’t seem like a lot. 41 passes for Lamar Jackson seems like a lot.

— Browns @ Jaguars- The whole Deshaun Watson debacle is a huge ??? for the entire league. You see Tua Tagovailoa get knocked silly (again) and you understand why teams don’t want to have guys with fully guaranteed contracts.

— Steelers @ Broncos- What went on between Sean Payton/Russell Wilson in Denver? Seems like they didn’t get along too well. Wilson won’t start for Pittsburgh this week, but he must have a pretty good handle on the Broncos’ offense, right?

— Bengals @ Chiefs- Carson Wentz has one of the best jobs in America; he is Patrick Mahomes’ backup. Wentz has already banked $128M in his career, has a Super Bowl ring. Now he gets to learn from the best. Will he ever get another shot at being an NFL starter? 

— Rams @ Arizona- Sean McVay’s offensive line has a lot of injury concerns; can they keep Matthew Stafford in one piece? Pretty important question for this week; they get LT Alaric Jackson back next week.

— Bears @ Texans- Rookie QB Williams didn’t do too well in his NFL debut; how will he do in his first road start, against a playoff team from last year?

— Falcons @ Eagles- Atlanta used the 8th pick in the draft on QB Michael Penix; how long before they give him some playing time? Falcons gained 226 yards last week; they lost without giving up a TD (Steelers kicked six FG’s). How much patience do they have? 

— Auburn QB Payton Thorne said angry bettors sent him Venmo requests after they lost their bets on Auburn:

“They’re definitely not sending cash. It’s funny, when they lose money, they want the money back, but when they win money on the parley, no one’s ever saying they want to pay the money.”

Thorne threw 4 INT’s in Auburn’s upset loss to California last week; I’m thinking that these college teams have to have security teams around the players in their dorms, making sure some nitwit doesn’t try to make an appearance on Law & Order.

— Arizona State plays Texas State in football tonight; the QB for Texas State is Jordan McCloud, who has had an interesting college career:

2019- He threw 224 passes for South Florida (4-8)
2020- He threw 194 passes for South Florida (1-8)
2021- He threw 73 passes for Arizona (1-11)
2023- He threw 412 passes for James Madison (11-2)
2024- He’s thrown 57 passes for Texas State (2-0)

Six years, five seasons, four colleges. Someday he can write a hell of a book. He’ll be 25 in early November, older than any of the three rookie QBs starting in the NFL this month.

— Not only did Northern Illinois upset Notre Dame 16-14 last week, they banked a check for $1.4M on the way home, the guarantee $$$ they got for visiting South Bend.

Teams in the MAC/Sun Belt usually get their butts kicked in these guarantee games, but they bank big checks which help finance their mid-major programs. Every once in a while an upset happens. NIU actually outgained Notre Dame 388-286 in that game.

— Random trivia: When the New York Jets started playing in the AFL in 1960, they were the New York Titans, not the Jets- they became the Jets in 1963.

When the Tennessee Titans started playing in the AFL in 1960, they were the Houston Oilers; they moved to Tennessee in 1997. Oilers won the first two AFL titles, way back when.

This week, the old Titans (the Jets) meet the current Titans (the old Oilers) in Nashville.

— Famous birthdays, September 12:
Mickey Lolich, 84
Joe Pantoliano, 73
Rachel Ward, 67

Deron Cherry, 65
Vernon Maxwell, 59
Ki-Jana Carter, 51

Yao Ming, 44
Andrew Luck, 35
Freddie Freeman, 35

— Should the Carolina Panthers sit QB Bryce Young? The 2nd-year QB is 2-15 as a starter; would it help him to sit back for a few weeks and watch veteran backup Andy Dalton play?

Carolina lost its last three games by a combined 82-10; it isn’t Young’s fault that the morons in the Carolina front office traded Christian McCaffrey to the 49ers and DJ Moore to the Bears, but getting pummeled every week doesn’t seem to be working very well. Maybe a change of pace would slow the game down for Young and help him improve

(subtle reminder that Patrick Mahomes’ first career start was the last game of his rookie year)

— In addition to betting totals on games, you can bet over/unders on team totals; in Week 1, over was 16-13-3 in team totals. I actually think team totals are a fun way to bet NFL games.

— San Diego Padres were 82-80 last year, they’re 82-65 this year.

Last year’s Padres were 2-12 in extra innings, 80-68 in nine-inning tilts.
This year’s Padres are 8-1 in extra innings, 74-64 in nine-inning tilts.

— Is it a bad thing (yes, it is) when your favorite NFL team signs three new offensive linemen two days after their first game of the season?

LA Rams signed C Dylan McMahon off the Eagles’ practice squad.
They also signed Ty Nsekhe and Geron Christian off the street. Nsekhe played for the Browns LY, has played the Rams before. Christian has played for four different NFL teams.

— Pittsburgh Steelers lost P Cameron Johnson (knee) for the year last week; he was also the holder for kicker Chris Boswell, who was 6-6 on field goals in the win at Atlanta.

— Word of the Day: Potpourri- a mixture of things, especially a musical or literary medley.

This used to be a category on the old daytime Jeopardy! TV gameshow; you never knew what the question was going to pertain to. “Art, I’d like Potpourri for $60, please”

— New York Mets are only team in the major leagues that hasn’t had one at-bat taken by a rookie this season. 

Mets 6, Blue Jays 2
Toronto P Francis had a no-hitter thru 8 IP (110 PT)
Francisco Lindor hit his 111th pitch out of the park to tie the game, 1-1. Mets then scored five more runs off the Toronto bullpen. 

It is the second time in 18 days Francis had a no-hitter thru 8 IP; both times, the leadoff guy in the 9th inning hit a home run. The home run against the Angels came on his 117th pitch.

Francis has been great the last month or so; you’d think a non-contender like Toronto would want to protect him some, keep him healthy for next year, but no, the genius who manages the Blue Jays won’t take him out— not brilliant.

— Dodgers 10, Cubs 8
Dodgers hit four home runs in the first inning, then blew a 7-3 lead.
Shohei Ohtani homered, now has 47 taters and 48 stolen bases.

— Arizona 14, Rangers 4
Eugenio Suarez went 4-4, with two HR’s, scored four runs.
Ketel Marte went 3-4, with four RBI

— Red Sox 5, Orioles 3 (10)
Tyler O’Neill hit a walk-off, 3-run homer in the 10th inning.
Orioles are now 1.5 games out of first place in AL East. 

— A’s 5, Astros 4
Backup C McCann hit the go-ahead HR in the sixth inning.
Houston’s lead in AL West is down to 3.5 games.

— Phillies 3, Rays 2
Zack Wheeler struck out nine hitters in 6 IP.
Philly’s magic number to clinch NL East is 9; this will be their first NL East title since 2011.

— Mariners 5, Padres 2
Bryan Woo had a perfect game thru six innings.
Luke Raley, JP Crawford both knocked in two runs. 

— How college football conferences are doing so far ATS:
AAC- 9-4 ATS, 6-2 as a road underdog
ACC- 7-8 ATS, 1-4 as a home favorite
Big X- 7-9 ATS, 0-3 as a road favorite
Big 18- 10-12 ATS, 8-9 s a home favorite (only 2 lined road games)

C-USA- 3-5 ATS, 2-4 as a road underdog.
MAC- 8-9 ATS, 7-6 as a road underdog.
Mountain West- 6-6 ATS, 6-4 as an underdog
SEC- 9-7 ATS, 4-5 as a home favorite
Sun Belt- 8-8 ATS, 1-4 as a home favorite

— This was the first Week 1 in 45 years that three NFL teams won, after trailing by 14+ points. Dolphins, Bears, Bills all trailed by 14+, but wound up winning.

— Since Week 9 of the 2022 season, Detroit Lions are 23-8 ATS.

— Two NFL players share the current record for most teams played for:
9- Josh McCown (2002-19)
9- Ryan Fitzpatrick (2005-21)……both guys were quarterbacks.

Nobody has played for eight teams; 25 guys have played for seven.

— NFL kickers were 21-23 last week on kicks of 50+ yards. Pretty, pretty good.

— 10 WRs had 100+ receiving yards in Week 1; Dolphins were only team that had two guys with 100+ receiving yards, Tyreek Hill/Jayden Waddle.

— Seven guys had 100+ rushing yards last week, including QB Lamar Jackson; Houston’s Joe Mixon leads the league with 159 rushing yards.

— College football teams playing the fastest tempo so far this year:
Oklahoma State
Old Dominion
Pittsburgh
South Florida
Texas Tech
Mississippi State

Toledo……..all 7 teams are averaging less than 21 seconds/snap.

— Famous birthdays, September 11th:
Earl Holliman, 96
Tom Dreesen, 85
Rod Perry, 71

Kristy McNichol, 62
Gerald Wilkins, 61
Bern Brostek, 58

Harry Connick Jr, 57
Ed Reed, 46
Zay Flowers, 24

— NHL’s Edmonton Oilers are favored to win the Presidents’ Trophy (best regular season record) for the first time since 1987.

— This week, there are two college football games between two top 25 teams:

Friday: Arizona @ Kansas State
Saturday: Boston College @ Missouri

— Clemson DB Caleb Nix hurt his knee on the first play of the Tigers’ game vs Appalachian State last week, but he played the rest of the game. 

Turns out he tore his ACL, and played the whole game with it.

— Remember in the movie Moneyball, where Billy Beane is sitting at a table with a bunch of A’s scouts, talking about prospects?

Chicago Cubs just fired four veteran scouts, Boston Red Sox fired three of them, as veteran scouts are becoming less prominent. Change is happening, not sure if it is change for the better, but it is happening.

— If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Dodgers Wild Cards– Padres-Arizona-Mets
AL: Bronx, Cleveland, Houston Wild Cards– Orioles-Royals-Twins

— Phillies 9, Rays 4
Phillies broke 4-4 tie with five runs in 8th inning.
Kyle Schwarber hit his 14th leadoff home run this season
Schwarber late left the game with elbow discomfort.

— Cubs 6, Dodgers 3
Cubs scored 5 runs (4 unearned) in 8th inning.
Dodger P Yamamoto gave up a run in 4 IP, in his first start since June 15.
Dodgers’ lead in NL West is down to 4.5 games over San Diego.

— A’s 4, Astros 3 (12)
Oakland scored twice in 12th inning, both on bunts.
JP Sears threw six shutout IP for the A’s.
A’s were 50-112 LY; they’re 63-82 this year, and won’t lose 100 games.

— Royals 5, Bronx 0
Seth Lugo struck out 10 in 7 IP, got his 16th win.
Since August 1st, Juan Soto is hitting .231, with 28 walks.
Royals were 56-106 last year; they’re 80-66 this year. 

— 49ers 32, Jets 19
49ers scored on eight of their nine drives, led 16-7 at halftime.
Jake Moody kicked six FG’s: 46-51-31-53-23-42 yards.
49ers ran ball for 180 yards, outgained Jets 401-266.
McCaffrey was a late scratch; Jordan Mason ran 147 yards and a TD.
QB Purdy is 22-5 as an NFL starter.

Jets went 3/out on five of first six drives.
San Francisco ran 70 plays from scrimmage, Jets ran only 48 plays.
WR Lazard caught six passes for 89 yards, two TD’s.
Last 4+ years, Jets are 10-19 ATS as road underdogs.
Jets are 5-14-1 ATS in last 20 games vs NFC opponents.

— Philadelphia Eagles are only NFL team in the last 50 years to have:
a) the same head coach three years in a row, but…….
b) have 3 different offensive coordinators
c) have 3 different defensive coordinators

— Cleveland Browns’ QB Deshaun Watson is in year 3 of a 5-year, $230M contract that is fully guaranteed, which is highly unusual in the NFL. Watson has played in only 13 of a possible 35 games for the Browns; they’re 8-5 in those games, but in Sunday’s 33-17 home loss to Dallas, Watson was 0-10 on passes that went 15+ years downfield.

From Zach Pareles of CBS Sports: “Since 2006, there have been 1,752 times a quarterback threw at least 10 passes 15+ yards downfield in a game. Deshaun Watson (today) is THE ONLY ONE to not complete a single one.”

No bueno.

Word came out Monday that Watson is getting sued (again) for sexual assault in Houston, something that allegedly happened in 2020. Oy.

— Meanwhile, Baker Mayfield is thriving in Tampa; Mayfield was 30-31 as Cleveland’s QB before they traded for Watson- he makes $33.3M a year, and he isn’t the public relations disaster that Watson is. He might also be a better quarterback, which is kind of ironic.

Odd sidebar to this story: One of the Browns’ executives who helped facilitate the Browns trading for Watson is Paul DePodesta, who is the Jonah Hill character in Moneyball.

DePodesta played football/baseball at Harvard, was mostly a baseball executive before the Browns hired him in 2016. Go figure.

— Sunday morning, while in Cleveland ironically, Cowboys signed QB Dak Prescott to a 4-year, $240M contract. Prescott is 76-46 as the Dallas QB, but only 2-5 in playoff games; Dallas hasn’t been in a conference championship game since the 1995 season.

Dallas owner Jerry Jones will be 82 next month; he is spending lot of $$$ to get his Cowboys back to the Super Bowl in the next few years.

— NFL injuries:
Green Bay QB Jordan Love sprained his knee, not his ankle, is questionable for this week. Malik Willis will start at QB if Love can’t. Willis was 1-2 starting games for Tennessee in 2022.

Rams WR Puka Nacua (knee) is on IR, will miss the next four games.
Rams’ OL has lot of injuries right now, more injured guys than healthy guys.

49ers RB Christian McCaffrey (calf) was a surprise inactive for Monday night’s game.

Bills’ QB Josh Allen (left hand) was cleared to play in Thursday’s game vs Miami.

Chicago rookie WR Rome Odunze sprained his knee, is questionable for this week.

— When HBO’s Hard Knocks focused on the NFL’s Giants during the draft/free agency period,
Giants’ owner John Mara made it fairly clear in one scene that he wouldn’t be happy if Saquon Barkley wound up on the divisional rival Eagles.

Well, Barkley signed with the Eagles and in his first game last week, Barkley ran for 109 yards and scored three TD’s, one of them receiving. Had to be some tense moments between Mara and GM Joe Schoen this weekend. Giants are 16-20-1 in 2+ seasons with Schoen as GM.

— Famous birthdays, September 10th:
Charlie Waters, 76
Gary Danielson, 73
Amy Irving, 73

Sedale Threatt, 63
Randy Johnson, 61
Ben Wallace, 50

Joey Votto, 41
Neil Walker, 39
Paul Goldschmidt, 37

— RIP to James Earl Jones, a man with one of the best voices ever, who passed away at age 93.

In his legendary career, he earned two Tony Awards, two Emmy Awards, an honorary Academy Award and a Grammy; he was the voice of Darth Vadar in Star Wars, he was great in Field of Dreams and I remember him from a random appearance on David Letterman’s talkshow, when he read a list of “things that sound cool when James Earl Jones says them”

RIP, sir.

— Rob Lowe is a game show host now. Why?

Kind of weird to me that the guy who played Sam Seaborn on The West Wing now seems to be the face of FOX’s primetime TV, but it is what it is.

— NBA’s Denver Nuggets locked up G Jamal Murray with a 4-year, $208M deal; Murray helped Denver win their first NBA title in 2023. He’s scored 20+ points/game in his last three seasons.

— How NFL divisions did ATS outside their division this week:
NFC East- 2-2 ATS
NFC North- 2-0 ATS as home favorite, 1-1 as an underdog
NFC South- 1-1 ATS as home favorite
NFC West- 2-2 ATS

AFC East- 0-2 ATS as home favorite, 1-1 as an underdog
AFC North- 0-2 ATS as home favorite, 1-1 as an underdog
AFC South- 1-1 ATS as road underdog
AFC West- 2-0 ATS

Divisional home favorites were 2-0 ATS, home underdogs were 1-0. 

Bills 34, Cardinals 28
First three drives, Arizona ran 36 plays, 191 yards, 17 points.
Rest of game, Arizona ran 25 plays, 80 yards, 3 points.
Cardinals’ only TD in second half was a 96-yard kick return.
Last 5 years, Arizona is 2-3-1 SU/5-1 ATS in Week 1.
Cardinals are 21-11-1 ATS in last 33 games as a road underdog. 

Arizona led 17-10 at halftime.
Bills scored four TD’s, kicked FG on their first seven drives.
Cardinals were 7-13 on 3rd down, Buffalo 3-9.
Bills were 3-9 on 3rd down conversions, but 2-2 on 4th down.
Bufflo averaged 8.9 yards per pass attempt.

Patriots 16, Bengals 10
Stevenson carried ball 25 times for 120 yards.
Joey Slye kicked three field goals (35-35-37 yards)
Bengals outgained New England, 324-290.
Last 10 years, Patriots are 7-3 ATS in road openers.
There were 14,206 entries in the Circa Survivor Pool in Las Vegas; 4,895 people had the Bengals, more than any other team.  

Bengals went 3/out on first 3 drives (9 plays, 19 yards)
On their fourth drive, Bengals lost a fumble in red zone.
Cincinnati was minus-2 in turnovers, converted only 4-11 on 3rd down.
Last nine years, Bengals are 2-7 SU/ATS in home openers.
Since 2016, Cincinnati is 0-6 ATS as a favorite in a home opener.

Vikings 28, Giants 6
Vikings had an 11-play, 99 yard TD drive that took up 6:44.
LB Andrew Van Ginkel scored on a 10-yard pick-6.
Vikings outgained the Giants, 312-240
First time in eight years Minnesota won their road opener.
Under is 14-7 in Vikings’ last 21 road openers.

Giants averaged only 3.5 yards/pass attempt.
Giants were minus-2 in turnovers, had 9 penalties for 95 yards.
Last 14 years, Giants started season 0-1 12 times.
Since 2012, Giants are 2-11 SU/1-12 ATS in home openers.
QB Jones is 23-38-1 as an NFL starter.

Bears 24, Titans 17
Tennessee led 17-0 with 2:00 left in first half.
Bears scored two TD’s; a blocked punt, and a pick-6.
Teams combined to convert only 5-27 third down plays.
Tennessee averaged 3.0 yards/pass attempt.
QB Levis is 3-7 as an NFL starter. 

QB Williams was 14-29/93 in his NFL debut, but his team won.
Bears averaged only 2.1 yards/pass attempt.
Titans outgained Chicago, 244-148.
Bears outscored Tennessee 14-0 in 4th quarter.
Three teams didn’t score an offensive TD; two of them won.

Steelers 18, Falcons 10
Steelers won without scoring a TD; they kicked six FG’s.
Steelers outgained Atlanta, 270-226.
Steelers OC Smith was Atlanta’s head coach the last three years (21-30 W-L)
Since 2017, Pittsburgh is 23-12-1 as a road underdog.
Pittsburgh won/covered its last five road openers.

Falcons in second half: 21 plays, 45 yards, two turnovers.
Atlanta was 2-9 on third down, Steelers 8-17.
Falcons were minus-3 in turnovers (0-3).
Raheem Morris is 21-39 as an NFL head coach.
Last 4+ years, Atlanta is 4-14-1 ATS as a home favorite. 

Dolphins 20, Jaguars 17
Jason Sanders kicked a 52-yard FG at the gun for a walk-off win.
Tagovailoa threw a 80-yard TD pass to Tyreek Hill in third quarter
Dolphins were 8-16 on third down, Jaguars were 2-10.
Tagovailoa is 33-20 as an NFL starter.
Under McDaniel, Miami is 4-6 ATS in games with spread of 3 or fewer points.

Jaguars led 14-0 with 2:00 left in first half.
Miami outscored the Jaguars 13-0 in second half.
QB Lawrence is 21-31 as an NFL starter.
Last eight years, Jaguars are 3-5 SU/6-2 ATS in road openers.
Under Pederson, Jaguars are 9-7 ATS in games with spread of 3 or fewer points. 

Texans 29, Colts 27
Houston’s first 3 drives: 22 plays, 145 yards: FG-FG-TD
Texans led 12-7 at halftime.
Houston outgained the Colts, 417-303.
Fairbairn made three FG’s: 50-51-51 yards. 
2nd-year QB Stroud is 11-7 as an NFL starter.

Colts’ first six drives: 30 plays, 160 yards, 7 points.
Colts’ last three drives: 13 plays, 143 yards, TD-TD-TD
Indy completed only 9-19 passes, but averaged 23.5 yards/completion.
Last 10 years, Colts are 0-10-1 SU/2-8-1 ATS in Week 1.
Texans won their third straight visit to Indianapolis. 

Saints 47, Panthers 10
Saints scored on their first nine drives (5 TDs, 4FGs)
New Orleans led 30-3 at halftime.
Saints were 7-13 on third down, Carolina 1-10
Carolina averaged only 3.9 yards/pass attempt.
New Orleans outgained the Panthers, 379-193

Last 3+ years, Carolina is 7-16-1 ATS as road underdog.
2nd year QB Young is 2-15 as an NFL starter.
Last six years, Carolina is 1-5 SU/ATS in Week 1 games.
Since 2009, Panthers are 5-11 ATS in road openers.
Last nine years, Carolina is 11-16-1 ATS in NFC South road games. 

Chargers 22, Raiders 10
Chargers outscored Las Vegas 16-3 in second half.
Raiders in 2nd half: 32 plays, 183 yards, 3 points, 2 turnovers.
Chargers were 9-15 on third down, Raiders 5-14.
QB Minshew is 15-23 as an NFL starter; Raiders are his 4th team.
Riaders’ only TD was 31-yard pass from Minshew to Mattison. 

Chargers ran ball for 176 yards, Raiders 71.
JK Dobbins rushed for 135 yards on 10 carries, including a 12-yard TD.
Cameron Dicker kicked three FG’s (53-25-24 yards).
Home team won last seven series games.
Chargers won their season opener five of last six years.

Seahawks 26, Broncos 20
Denver scored two safeties in first half, led 13-9 at halftime.
Seattle’s first three drives of 2nd half: 22 plays, 178 yards, 17 points.
Rookie starting QB’s went 1-2 this week.
Broncos averaged only 3.0 yards/pass attempt.
Seahawks outgained Denver, 304-231. 

RB Walker carried ball 20 times for 103 yards and a TD.
Seahawks won four of their last five games against Denver.
QB Smith is 31-37 as an NFL starter, 19-18 with Seattle.
Seattle is 3-6 ATS in its last nine home openers.
So far this week, NFC teams are 3-2 vs AFC opponents. 

Cowboys 33, Browns 17
QB Prescott signed a 4-year, $240M contract Sunday morning.
KaVontae Turpin ran a punt back 60 yards for a TD.
Brandon Aubrey kicked FG’s of 57, 50, 46 and 40 yards. 
QB Prescott is 76-46 as an NFL starter.
Last 2+ years, Dallas is 7-4 ATS vs AFC opponents. 

Cleveland went 3/out on seven of first eight drives.
Cowboys led 20-3 at halftime.
Dallas outgained the Browns 216-54 in first half. 
Cleveland was 2-15 on third down, Cowboys were 4-14.
Over is 4-1 in Browns’ last five home openers.

Buccaneers 37, Commanders 20
Bucs had ball eight times; scored four TD’s, kicked three FG’s.
QB Mayfield threw for 289 yards and four TD’s.
Mayfield is 43-28 as an NFL starter, 11-9 with Buccaneers.
Last five years, Tampa Bay is 5-0 SU/4-1 ATS in Week 1 games.
Over is 4-1 in their last five home openers.

Buccaneers outgained Washington, 392-299.
Rookie QB Daniels had 88 of Washington’s 138 rushing yards. 
Commanders were 2-8 on third down, Tampa Bay 9-13.
Last 6 years, Washington allowed 30+ points in road openers (1-5 SU/2-4 ATS)
Over was 5-1 in those six road openers.

Lions 26, Rams 20 OT
Detroit tied game 20-20 on 32-yard FG with 0:20 left in regulation.
Lions drove 70 yards for game-winning TD on first drive of overtime.
Detroit ran ball for 163 yards, Rams ran for 83 yards.
Under Campbell, Lions are 10-4 ATS as a home favorite.
QB Goff is 27-24-1 as Detroit’s QB (was 44-30 with Rams)

Rams had ball and 20-17 lead with 4:10 left, but couldn’t run out the clock.
Cooper Kupp caught 14 passes for 110 yards and a TD. 
LA gained 181 yards in first half, but scored only three points, trailed 10-3.
LA in second half: 37 plays, 237 yards, 17 points.
Rams WR Nacua hurt his knee in first half, didn’t return. 

— Oklahoma State 39, Arkansas 31 OT
Arkansas led this game 21-7 at halftime.
Razorbacks tied game with a 45-yard FG at the gun in regulation.
Arkansas was 11-19 on 3rd down, Cowboys 5-16

— Texas 31, Michigan 12
Longhorns won easily; they led 24-3 at halftime.
Texas was 10-16 on third down, Michigan 3-12
Michigan’s new coach supposedly doesn’t have a contract yet; my advice would be to go get one signed as quickly as possible, before they change their mind.

— Northern Illinois 16, Notre Dame 14
NIU kicked a 35-yard FG with 0:31 left to post a big upset.
Huskies outgained Notre Dame, 388-286.
NIU ran ball for 190 yards, was +2 in turnovers.

— Iowa State 20, Iowa 19
Iowa led this game 13-0 at halftime.
Iowa State threw a 75-yard TD pass, had 4th quarter FG’s of 46-54 yards.
Just 2nd win for Cyclones in their last nine meetings with Iowa. 

— Virginia 31, Wake Forest 30
Deacons led 17-3 early in second quarter.
Cavaliers outscored Wake 14-0 in fourth quarter.
Virginia was only 3-14 on 3rd down, but 3-3 on 4th down.

— Famous birthdays, September 8th:
Lem Barney, 79
Maurice Cheeks, 68
Heather Thomas, 67

Latrell Sprewell, 54
Amani Toomer, 50
Gerrit Cole, 34

Matt Barkley, 34
Lars Nootbaar, 27
Leody Taveras, 26

September 8th was my grandfather’s birthday; happy birthday, Pop!!!

— Penn State 34, Bowling Green 27

MAC’s Falcons led 24-20 at halftime.
Bowling Green was 7-14 on 3rd down, Penn State 2-9
Nittany Lions ran for 234 yards (6.3 yards/carry).

— Oklahoma 16, Houston 12
Cougars outgained Oklahoma, 318-249
Houston lost 27-7 at home to UNLV LW; red flag for the Sooners?
Oklahoma’s punter downed 3 punts inside the Houston 10-yard line.

— Pittsburgh 28, Cincinnati 27
Panthers outscored Cincinnati 15-0 in 4th quarter.
Pitt threw 4th quarter TD passes of 38-56 yards.
Panthers kicked a 35-yard FG with 0:17 left for the win.

— Oregon 37, Boise State 34
Boise State led 20-14 at halftime.
Down 34-27, Ducks ran kickoff back 100 yards for TD with 9:59 left.
Oregon kicked a 25-yard FG at the gun.
Game was on Peacock, so I couldn’t watch it. Oy.

— Upsets of the Week:
Northern Illinois (+28) 16, Notre Dame 14
BYU (+12.5) 18, SMU 15
California (+11.5) 21, Auburn 14
UL-Monroe (+11) 32, UAB 6

Michigan State (+9) 27, Maryland 24
South Carolina (+8.5) 31, Kentucky 6
Iowa State (+8) 20, Iowa 19
Illinois (+4.5) 23, Kansas 17

Losing to a I-AA team isn’t good:
Idaho 17, Wyoming 13
St Francis PA 23, Kent State 17

— California 21, Auburn 14
Cal QB Mendoza was 19-21 passing in first half, when Cal led, 14-7. 

Golden Bears converted 10-19 third down plays.
Auburn threw 4 INT’s, two in 4th quarter; Cal was +5 in turnovers.

— Kansas State 34, Tulane 27
Tulane led this game 20-10 at halftime.
K-State ran a fumble back 60 yards for game-winning TD with 8:13 left.
Tulane threw for 342 yards, averaged 11.8 yards/attempt.

— Change is in the air; after today, we won’t be posting daily baseball matchups anymore; I’ve been doing this for 23 years. Do the math; I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time posting stuff every day for the last 23 summers. Time to cut back a little. 

Rest of this blog should stay the same; home page will probably be better now— I’ll post lot of baseball stuff here. Will still post football info like we have been.

Thanks for reading; hope you still visit every day. I appreciate you guys.

— Eagles 34, Packers 29
Eagles turned ball over on their first two drives.
Green Bay managed only two FG’s on the ensuing drives.
Philly scored 24 points on their next four drives.
Saquon Barkley had 132 total yards, scored three TD’s.

Green Bay scored on five of first six drives; they led 19-17 at halftime.
Jordan Reed caught four passes for 138 yards. 
Teams combined to convert only 7-25 third down plays.
Very bad news for Green Bay; QB Love sprained his ankle late in game, could be out a while.

— Duke 26, Northwesters 20 OT
Game was 13-13 after regulation.
Duke beats the Wildcats for sixth time in a row.
Both teams missed a field goal shorter than 35 yards.
Game was played in Northwestern’s temporary stadium, in front of 11,062 fans.

— BYU 18, SMU 15
BYU kicked game-winning field goal with 1:58 left.
SMU kicked five field goals, didn’t score a touchdown.
Teams combined to convert only 5-29 third down plays.
Both teams turned ball over three times.

— BYU’s defensive coordinator had a heart attack 10 days ago, was in the booth doing his job last night. Not sure how smart that is, but the freakin’ guy was working ten days after he had a damn heart attack.

— NFL hasn’t played games on Labor Day weekend since 2001, something that figures to change in the near future.

— You can bet over/unders on games, and also on individual teams; highest team team total this week is Detroit (28.5) in the Sunday night game.

— Famous birthdays, September 7th:
Gloria Gaynor, 81
Joe Rudi, 78
Bert Jones, 73

Corbin Bernsen, 70
Jason Isringhausen, 52
Kevin Love, 36

Sandy Alcantara, 29
Donovan Mitchell, 28
Heliot Ramos, 25

— NFL paid the soccer team in Brazil $500,000 to use their stadium this week.

— Revenue from the Brazil game gets split among all 32 NFL teams.

— I had no idea, but Twitter is banned in Brazil.

— A’s 7, Tigers 6 (13)
Seth Brown tied game with an 11th inning HR, won it with a 13th inning single.
Oakland was 50-112 last year; they’re 62-80 this year.

— Astros 8, Diamondbacks 0
Yordan Alvarez hit two 3-run home runs.
Framber Valdez tossed seven shutout IP.

— Mets 6, Reds 4 (10)
Mark Vientos hit a walk-off homer for the Mets.
New York has now won eight games in a row.

— Royals 5, Twins 0
Cole Ragans tossed six shutout IP.
Royals passed Minnesota in the AL Wild Card standings. 

— Chiefs 27, Ravens 20
Ravens were on 10-yard line at end of game, failed to score.
QB Jackson threw for 273 yards, ran for 122 more.
Ravens’ first drive: 11 plays, 70 yards. TD drive took 6:46
Baltimore had only one other TD on their last nine drives. 

KC won despite being minus-2 in turnovers, and outgained, 452-353
Mahomes threw for 291 yards; WR Rice caught seven passes for 103 yards; Last 8 years, Chiefs are 6-2 ATS in Week 1.
Last 22 years, defending Super Bowl champ is 12-7-3 ATS in Week 1 the next year.

— Chiefs have now won six of their last seven games against Baltimore.

— With the loss Thursday, Ravens’ QB Lamar Jackson drops to 13-3 ATS as an NFL underdog.

— Most career rushing yards by a quarterback:
6,109- Michael Vick
5,628- Cam Newton
5,380- Lamar Jackson
5,307- Russell Wilson

— NFL is heading towards having a 20-week (18-game) regular season with two byes for each team, one that will start on Labor Day weekend, with the Super Bowl on Presidents Day weekend. Should happen when the next TV contract comes up.

— Movie of the Day: Invincible (2006)- Based on the true story of Vince Papale, a 30-year-old bartender from Philadelphia who overcame long odds to play for the NFL’s Eagles in 1976.

Mark Wahlberg plays Papale, Greg Kinnear plays Dick Vermeil; Elizabeth Banks, Michael Nouri and Michael Rispoli are also in this movie.

Coach Vermeil is a stickler for details; in the locker room scenes where the players are getting ready for the games, the real names/numbers are on their jerseys.

These days, Vince Papale’s son is a wide receiver in the UFL.

This is a very good movie, especially if you like football.

— Back in 1976, teams played six freakin’ exhibition games before the season started; now they only play three.

— The first 2-point conversion in the NFL happened 30 years ago, in 1994, when Cleveland P/QB Tom Tupa scored on a fake PAT for 2 points, against the Bengals. Clever play.

Coach of the Cleveland Browns that day was Bill Belichick.

— Famous birthdays, September 6th:
Ron Boone, 78
Jane Curtin, 77
Kevin Willis, 62

Idris Elba, 52
Eric Zeier, 52
Jerry Blevins, 41

Mitch Moreland, 39
John Wall, 34
Mark Andrews, 29

— Phillies DH Kyle Schwarber had a game this week where he went 5-6 with three home runs and a double. He had six RBI and the game-winning home run, one of the best games ever by any hitter in the big leagues.

Who had the best game ever?

May 23, 2002, playing for the Dodgers in Milwaukee, RF Shawn Green went 6-6, with four home runs and 7 RBI. 19 total bases in one game is still a record today; tough one to beat.

— Giants’ TV broadcaster Duane Kuiper was a good ballplayer, lasted 12 years in the major leagues, batted 3,754 times, but he only hit one home run in all those at-bats.

August 29, 1977, Kuiper hit only big league home run, off the White Sox’ Steve Stone.

47 years later, Kuiper and Stone are both still broadcasting on TV, Kuiper for the Giants, Stone for the White Sox.

— San Francisco Giants signed 3B Matt Chapman to a 6-year, $151M contract extension; he is 31 years old, but he’s been a durable player who is an excellent fielder and has a .778 OPS this year.

— Tigers 4, Padres 3
Trailing 3-0, Parker Meadows hit a dramatic grand slam with two outs in the 9th inning.
Last time a Detroit player hit a go-ahead grand slam with two strikes and two outs in the 9th inning was Alan Trammell, way back in 1988.  

How last 20 defending Super Bowl champs did in Week 1 the next season; 15 of the last 16 opened at home:

2003: Buccaneers (+3) W17-0 @ Philadelphia
2004: Patriots (-3) W27-24 vs Indianapolis
2005: Patriots (-7.5) W30-20 vs Oakland
2006: Steelers (-1) W28-17 vs Miami
2007: Colts (-5.5) W41-10 vs New Orleans

2008: Giants (-4.5) W16-7 vs Washington
2009: Steelers (-6.5) W13-10 vs Tennessee
2010: Saints (-5) W14-9 vs Minnesota
2011: Packers (-5) W42-34 vs New Orleans
2012: Giants (-5) L17-24 vs Dallas

2013: Ravens (+7.5) L27-49 @ Denver
2014: Seahawks (-5.5) W36-16 vs Green Bay
2015: Patriots (-7) W28-21 vs Pittsburgh
2016: Broncos (+3) W21-20 vs Carolina
2017: Patriots (-8) L27-42 vs Kansas City 

2018: Eagles (-1) W18-12 vs Atlanta
2019: Patriots (-5.5) W33-3 vs Pittsburgh
2020: Chiefs (-9) W34-20 vs Houston
2021: Buccaneers (-8) W31-29 vs Dallas
2022: Rams (+2.5) L10-31 vs Buffalo
2023: Chiefs (-4.5) L20-21 vs Detroit

(11-7-3 ATS, 0-3 ATS last three years)

— 17 of the 32 offensive coordinators are in new jobs this season; makes it difficult to handicap Week 1, not much idea what to expect. 

— Steelers brought in Russell Wilson AND Justin Fields this year, as they totally re-made their QB room. Wilson is 124-79-1 with a Super Bowl ring, but he was 17-27 the last three years and he will be 36 years old in November.

Fields is 10-28 as an NFL starter, heading towards suspect more than prospect. Will they use him in goal line/short yardage situations? 

— Pittsburgh OC Arthur Smith was the Falcons’ head coach the last three years, going 7-10 all three seasons, so they fired him; Steelers open up in Atlanta Sunday.

Think that game is a little personal for Smith?

— Deshaun Watson has already gone thru two years of his guaranteed, five-year $46M/year contract, but he’s only played in 12 of 34 games for the Browns so far. Cleveland went 11-6 last year, with four different QB’s earning a win- that isn’t sustainable- they need Watson to play like a QB who deserves $46M a year.

— Eagles started 10-1 last year, then lost six of their last seven games, then changed both of their coordinators— it came out that QB Jalen Hurts and coach Nick Sirianni aren’t exactly the best of buddies, which puts the focus on new OC Kellen Moore, who spent eight of the last nine years with division rival Dallas.

This is a franchise that let Andy Reid/Doug Peterson walk; is Sirianni on thin ice?

— Aaron Donald retired; when a team loses one of the best defensive players ever, it puts their defense in question, especially with a new defensive coordinator (Chris Shula).

— Famous birthdays, September 5th:
William Devane, 85
Billy Kilmer, 85
Michael Keaton, 73

Willie Gault, 64
Dennis Scott, 56
Austin Corbett, 29

Jarren Duran, 28
Steven Kwan, 27
Mac Jones, 26

— Jets’ QB Aaron Rodgers tore his achilles on the 4th play last season; his health is obviously a big key as the Jets try to make the playoffs for the first time since 2010. Jets have five prime-time games and a Europe game in their first nine contests; someone in the league office thinks Gang Green is a contender.

— Chargers QB Justin Herbert battled a plantar fascia injury all summer; he was in a walking boot for two weeks. Chargers recently traded for Taylor Heinicke to back up Herbert; Heinicke is 13-16-1 as an NFL starter.

— Last five years, Buffalo Bills are 58-24 in regular season, only 5-5 in playoff games; Bills have problems with the salary cap these days, the way a lot of contending teams do, so their roster may be a little thinner this season than it has been.

— It is difficult for me to process that Bill Belichick, Pete Carroll are no longer NFL coaches; did they suddenly become incompetent? Hopefully Carroll will surface on TV somewhere; with his enthusiasm, he’d be a great teacher on TV.

Belichick seems like he is kind of boring; hopefully I’ll be wrong about that, but we’ll see.

— Should rookie QB’s start right away? Patrick Mahomes didn’t start until the last game of his rookie year; watching for a while can be a help. 

Bears/Commanders are going with rookie QB’s right away; we’ll see how that works out.

— How last 20 Super Bowl losers did in Week 1 the following season:

2003: Raiders (+3) L20-25 @ Tennessee
2004: Panthers (-3) L14-24 vs Green Bay
2005: Eagles (-1) L10-14 @ Atlanta
2006: Seahawks (-6) W9-6 @ Detroit
2007: Bears (+7) L3-19 @ San Diego

2008: Patriots (-16) W17-10 vs Kansas City
2009: Cardinals (-5) L16-20 vs San Francisco
2010: Colts (-1.5) L24-34 @ Houston
2011: Steelers (+1) L7-35 @ Baltimore
2012: Patriots (-5) W34-13 @ Tennessee

2013: 49ers (-5) W34-28 vs Green Bay
2014: Broncos (-7.5) W31-24 vs Indianapolis
2015: Seahawks (-3.5) L31-34 OT @ Rams
2016: Panthers (-3) L20-21 @ Denver
2017: Falcons (-6.5) W23-17 @ Chicago 

2018: Patriots (-6.5) W27-20 vs Houston
2019: Rams (-1.5) W30-27 @ Carolina
2020: 49ers (-7) L20-24 vs Arizona
2021: Chiefs (-5.5) W33-29 vs Cleveland
2022: Bengals (-7) L20-23 OT vs Pittsburgh
2023: Eagles (-3.5) W25-20 @ New England

(5-16 ATS, 3-3 ATS last six years)

— Milwaukee Brewers’ SS Willie Adames hit his 29th home run on his 29th birthday Monday, as the Brewers beat St Louis. Adames also hit his 13th 3-run homer of the season, tying Ken Griffey Jr (1996) for the most 3-run homers in a season.

Adames has homered in five straight games, leading Milwaukee to a 10-game lead in NL Central.

— Baltimore Orioles were -455 against the hapless White Sox Monday, the biggest betting favorite in any major league game this season.

Orioles won 13-3; White Sox have now lost 12 games in a row overall, and have lost Chris Flexen’s last 20 starts, which is an all-time record, breaking the previous mark, which was set way back in 1909.

— Mets’ TV announcers are pushing SS Francisco Lindor for MVP; he’s reached base in his last 31 games, which reminds me of baseball’s most underrated record.

In 1949, Ted Williams reached base in 84 straight games, which is the all-time record; no one ever talks about this, but it is an awesome record. Williams had a .490 on-base %age that year. In 1941, he had a .553 on-base %age. Amazing.

— Boston College 28, Florida State 13
Eagles were 9-16 on third down, Florida State 3-13.
BC outrushed the Seminoles, 263-21.

Florida State is just third team in last 45 years to start a season 0-2, when they were a double digit favorite in both games:

1978 Notre Dame lost to Missouri and Michigan
2007 Michigan lost to Appalachian State and Oregon.

— They have 2:00 warnings in college football now; one of the over-educated morons who run the sport finally figured out that if they had 2:00 warnings, they could run 10 more minutes of commercials and make a boatload of extra money. Go figure.

Weird thing is, they don’t called it “2:00 warning” they call it “2:00 timeout”

“There is a new two-minute timeout. We’ve been asked not to call it a warning.” Rece Davis said on TV Sunday night.

— How football has changed over the years:

From 1971-73, Miami Dolphins played in three straight Super Bowls; in those three games, Miami threw a TOTAL of 41 passes.

Chiefs beat San Francisco 25-22 in last year’s Super Bowl; Patrick Mahomes threw 46 passes in that game. Brock Purdy threw 38.

— In case you were wondering, 17 NFL teams play their home games on artificial turf, 15 play their home games on natural grass.

— Famous birthdays, September 4th:
Wendell Tucker, 81
Kevin Stacom, 73
Khandi Alexander, 67

Mike Piazza, 56
Ione Skye, 54
Scott Tolzien, 37

Adam Duvall, 36
JJ Hickson, 36
Andres Gimenez, 26

— Phillies 10, Blue Jays 9
Toronto led 6-1 in the first inning.
Kyle Schwarber went 5-6 with 3 homers, 6 RBI
Schwarber’s 3-run tater was aa game-winning in 9th inning.

Schwarber’s box score line was 6-4-5-6…….last time a major leaguer had a 6-4-5-6 game, with three home runs, was the great Dave Winfield, in 1991.

— Braves 3, Rockies 0
Chris Sale tossed seven shutout IP.

This will be the 6th year in a row Colorado will finish win a win %age under .460, all with Bud Black as manager; the last major league team to have six straight losing years like that, under the same manager, was in 1934-43, the Philadelphia A’s under Connie Mack. 

— Diamondbacks 8, Giants 7
Randal Grichuk hit two homers, now has 199 career home runs.
Arizona has won its last seven road games.
Giants drew a season-low 23,545 fans at home.

— Dodgers 6, Angels 2 (10)
Mookie Betts hit a 3-run homer in 10th inning.
Angels walked Shohei Ohtani intentionally before Betts’ home run.

— Pirates 5, Cubs 0
Cubs scored total of 3 runs losing to Pittsburgh the last two nights.
Last week, Cubs scored 41 runs in a 3-game sweep at Pittsburgh.
Rookie Paul Skenes needed 100 pitches to get thru five shutout IP.

— Rangers 7, Bronx 4
New York led 4-1 in 8th inning.
Wyatt Langford hit a walk-off grand slam for Texas.
It was the Rangers’ third walk-off win in their last four games.

— A’s 3, Mariners 2
Seth Brown had a walk-off single in ninth inning.
A crowd of 3,924 saw the A’s sixth walk-off win this season.
Hogan Harris tossed three shutout IP in relief for Oakland.