Armadillo Sports

Ravens 33, 49ers 19
— 49ers got a safety on Ravens’ 2nd drive, took a 5-0 lead.
— Ravens’ next 7 drives after that: 49 plays, 322 yards, 33 points.
— Baltimore won nine of its last ten games (7-3 ATS).
— QB Jackson threw for 252 yards and two TD’s.

— Purdy threw 4 INT’s, three on 49ers’ first four drives.
— 49ers turned ball over five times, had 102 penalty yards.
— Ravens outscored San Francisco 17-0 in third quarter.
— 49ers scored 27+ points in their wins, 17-17-17-19 in losses.

Raiders 20, Chiefs 14
— Raiders scored two defensive TD’s 0:07 apart in second quarter.
— Not often an NFL team has 48 passing yards and wins, but the Raiders did.
— Last two games, Raiders have scored four defensive TD’s.
— Under is 11-4 in Raider games this season.

— Chiefs are 3-5 in their last eight games, after a 6-1 start.
— In those eight games, Chiefs are minus-9 in turnovers (5-14)
— Chiefs’ first three drives: 11 plays, minus-10 yards, three punts.
— Kansas City lost its last three home games SU.

Eagles 33, Giants 25
— Eagles led this game 20-3 at halftime.
— Giants scored defensive TD late in 3rd quarter to make score 20-18.
— Eagles’ last three drives: 24 plays, 172 yards, 13 points.
— Under Sirianni, Eagles are 5-8 ATS coming off a loss.

— Giants changed QB’s at half; Tyrod Taylor was 7-16/133 in 2nd half.
— Eagles outgained Big Blue, 465-292.
— Giants were held under 300 TY in seven of last eight games.  
— Giants are 13-5 ATS in their last 18 NFC East road games.

Lions 30, Vikings 24
— Lions clinch their first division title since 1993.
— Detroit led 17-14 at halftime.
— Lions’ first two drives of 2nd half: 27 plays, 163 yards, two TD’s.
— Detroit is 5-1 ATS as a road favorite this season.

— Vikings lost four of their last five games (the win was 3-0).
— Minnesota only ran the ball 11 times, for 17 yards.
— Mullens threw for 411 yards, but also threw four INT’s.
— Minnesota is 6-8 in one-score games this year (11-0 LY)

Seahawks 20, Titans 17
— Seattle drove 53 yards, scored game-winning TD with 0:57 left.
— Seattle in first half: 27 plays, 93 yards, 3 punts, 3 points.
— Seattle in second half: 34 plays, 180 yards, no punts, 17 points.
— Second week in row Seahawks scored game-winning TD in last 1:00.

— Titans lost six of their last eight games. 
— Tennessee averaged only 3.8 yards/pass attempt.
— Titans are 4-1 scoring 27+ points, 1-8 scoring 17 or less.
— Under is 9-4 in Tennessee’s last 13 games.

Packers 33, Panthers 30
— Packers drove 61 yards, kicked game-winning FG with 0:22 left.
— Packers first 4 drives: 32 plays, 243 yards, no punts, 23 points.
— Packers in second half: 27 plays, 126 yards, 3 punts, 10 points.
— Green Bay outscored last five foes 82-42 in first half.

— Green Bay led 30-16 with 8:00 left in game.
— Panthers had TD drives of 63-70 yards, tied game with 4:15 left.
— Rookie QB Young was 23-35/312 passing, with two TD’s.
— Carolina’s 8.1 yards/pass attempt was by far their best this season.

Jets 30, Commanders 28
— Zuerlein kicked 54-yard FG with 0:10 left for the win.
— Jets’ first three drives: 10 plays, 68 yards, 17 points.
— Jets’ first three drives all started in Washington territory.
— Jets are 3-9 ATS in last 12 games as a home favorite.

— Washington lost six in row, 11 of last 13 games (3-6 ATS last nine)
— QB Brissett was 10-13/100 passing off bench, with one TD pass.
— Washington is 3-1 giving up 17 or less points, 1-10 giving up more than 17. 
— Last five games, Commanders allowed 35.8 ppg.

Falcons 29, Colts 10
— Colts drove 62 yards for a touchdown on their first drive.
— Rest of game, Colts ran 55 plays, gained 201 yards, scored 3 points.
— Colts are 0-6 giving up 29+ points, 8-0 allowing 28 or fewer points.
— Favorite covered the Colts’ last eight games.

— Atlanta scored two TD’s, kicked five FG’s on its drives.
— Falcons ran for 177 yards, outgained Colts 406-262.
— Atlanta scored 28-23-29 points in Heinicke’s three starts.
— Under is 4-1 in last five Atlanta games.

Browns 36, Texans 22
— Flacco threw for 368 yards and three more TD’s.
— WR Cooper caught 11 passes for 265 yards and two TD’s.
— Cleveland won/covered six of last eight games.
— Browns are 6-0 giving up less than 24 points, 3-5 allowing 24+. 

— Houston’s first TD was a 98-yard kickoff return by Pierce.
— Texans in first half: 28 plays, 75 yards, 5 punts and an INT.
— Cleveland led the game 22-7 at halftime.
— Texans are 13-16-1 ATS in last 30 games as a home underdog.

Buccaneers 30, Jaguars 12
— Bucs’ first six drives: 56 plays, 289 yards, 30 points.
— Tampa was 10-19 on third down, Jaguars were 3-9.
— Bucs won their last four games, scoring 21-29-34-30 points.
— Tampa Bay covered seven of its last nine games.

— Jacksonville lost its last four games, giving up 34-31-23-30 points.
— Jaguars turned ball over four times, ran for only 37 yards.
— Last five weeks, Jaguars ran ball for only 64.4 yards/game.
— QB Lawrence was already banged up; he hurt his shoulder today.

Bears 27, Cardinals 16
— Bears’ first four drives: 29 plays, 236 yards, 21 points.
— Chicago won/covered four of last six games.
— QB Fields threw for 170 yards, ran for 97 more.
— Bears converted 8-15 third down plays.

— Arizona is 2-10 SU/4-8 ATS in its last dozen games
— Arizona’s first three drives: 15 plays, 36 yards, three punts.
— Last two games, Cardinals are 24-49 on third down.
— Cardinals are 0-10 SU when they score less than 25 points.

Dolphins 22, Cowboys 20
— Miami drove 64 yards, kicked 29-yard FG with 0:02 left.
— Miami scored only one TD; Sanders kicked five FGs, three of them 50+ yards.
— Dolphins won six of last eight games SU, clinched a playoff spot.
— Last five games, Miami converted 34-70 third down plays.

— On their first series, Dallas lost a fumble on the 1-yard line.
— Cowboys have scored 37.2 ppg in wins, 15.8 ppg in losses.
— Cowboys are 6-10 ATS last 16 games as a road dog (0-4 TY).
— Dallas lost five of its last seven road games SU.

Patriots 26, Broncos 23
— New England kicked a 56-yard FG with 0:02 left for the win.
— Patriots scored two TD’s in a 0:06 span of the third quarter.
— Teams combined to convert 7-26 third down plays.
— Zappe is now 4-2 as an NFL starting QB.

— Denver trailed 23-7 in 4th quarter, tied game on TD drives of 83-88 yards.
— Patriots won/covered four of last five visits to Denver.
— Broncos are 2-8-1 ATS last 11 games as a home favorite (1-5 TY).
— Last five weeks, Denver converted only 20-67 on third down.

Sunday’s college basketball:
Temple 55, Portland 54
Owls outscored Portland 15-6 over the final 6:31.
Temple was 10-18 on foul line, Pilots were 4-9.
Owls were +11 in turnovers (7-18)

UMass 87, Old Dominion 65
UMass shot 59.6% inside the arc.
Minutemen are grabbing 36.3% of their missed shots (#26)
Old Dominion lost five of its last six games.

TCU 65, Hawai’i 51
Rainbows shot 33.3% from floor, turned ball over 19 times.
TCU’s three subs all played 20+ minutes.
Horned Frogs improve their record to 10-2. 

Nevada 72, Georgia Tech 64
Wolf Pack shoots 61% inside arc, wins the Diamond Head Classic.
Nevada starts four seniors, Georgia Tech doesn’t start any.
Wolf Pack is 12-1; they’ve got the #35 eFG% defense in country. 

Nothing says Merry Christmas like a full helping of NBA trends…….
NBA trends (thru Sunday)
Hawks (12-17):
— gave up 122+ points in last five games (1-4 ATS).
— 0-9 ATS as a home favorite
— over 10-2 at home

Celtics (22-6):
— won nine of last 11 games SU (3-1 ATS last four)
— 8-5 ATS as a home favorite.
— over 8-2 last 10 games.

Nets (14-15):
— lost five of their last six games.
— 8-1 ATS as home favorite.
— under 5-2 last seven games.

Hornets (7-20):
— lost their last seven games SU.
— 1-7 ATS last eight games as road underdog.
— under 3-1 last four games.

Bulls (13-18)
— 10-2 ATS in their last 12 games.
— 4-6 ATS as a home favorite.
— over 4-1 last five games.

Cavaliers (17-13):
— 9-2 ATS in their last 11 games
— won/covered four of last five home games.
— over 5-0 last five home games.

Mavericks (17-12):
— lost four of their last six games.
— 6-1 ATS as road favorites.
— over 8-5 home games.

Nuggets (21-10):
— won 7 of last 8 games (6-2 ATS)
— 5-9 ATS as a road favorite  
— under 5-1 last six games.

Pistons (2-27):
— lost their last 26 games (7-19 ATS).
— 4-8 ATS as a home underdog, 6-9 as a road dog.
— over 6-2 last eight road games

Warriors (15-14):
— won last five games SU (3-2 ATS)
— 3-9 ATS as a home favorite
— 6-2 ATS as a road underdog.

Rockets (15-12):
— won seven of last nine games SU
— 18-5 ATS last 23 games overall.
— under 4-1 last five road games.

Pacers (14-14):
— 2-6 SU since the in-season tournament
— under 4-2 last six games
— 3-7 ATS as a road underdog.

Clippers (17-12):
— lost last two games, giving up 134-145 points. 
— 1-6 ATS as an underdog. 
— over 5-1 last six games.

Lakers (16-14):
— 2-5 SU since they won the in-season tournament.
— 7-13 ATS as a favorite.
— over 8-0 last eight road games.

Grizzlies (9-19):
— 3-0 SU/ATS since Ja Morant came back.
— 4-9 ATS at home.  
— under 4-1 last five games

Heat (17-12):
— won five of last seven games SU.
— 4-10 ATS at home.
— over 9-3 last twelve games.

Bucks (22-7):
— won their last nine games SU (6-3 ATS)
— 6-1 ATS last seven road games.
— over 9-2 last eleven games.

Timberwolves (22-6)
— won five of last six games SU (4-2 ATS)
— 9-4 ATS at home.
— over 5-2 last seven road games.

Pelicans (17-13):
— won six of last eight games (5-3 ATS)
— 10-4 ATS as an underdog.
— over 6-0 last six road games. 

Knicks (16-12):
— split their last ten games SU
— 9-4 ATS as a favorite, 7-7-1 as an underdog
— under 3-0 last three games

Thunder (18-9):
— 5-2 SU their last seven games.
— 11-5 ATS as a favorite, 8-3 as an underdog.
— over 6-1 last seven home games

Magic (17-11):
— lost four of last five games SU.
— 9-3 ATS at home.
— under 3-0 last three road games. 

76ers (20-8):
— 8-1 last nine games SU.  
— 17-5 ATS as a favorite, 3-3 as an underdog.
— over 5-1 last six road games.

Suns (14-14):
— 3-8 SU last eleven games (1-10 ATS)
— 6-14 ATS as a favorite.
— under 6-2 last eight games

Trailblazers (7-21):
— 1-9 SU in last ten games (4-6 ATS)
— 4-9 ATS at home
— under 3-1 last four games

Kings (17-11):
— 6-3 SU last nine games (1-3 ATS last four)
— 6-2 ATS as an underdog. 
— over 8-3 last eleven home games

Spurs (4-24):
— lost 22 of their last 23 games (1-3 ATS last four)
— 5-9 ATS as a home underdog, 5-9 as a road dog.
— over 5-1 last six games.

Raptors (11-18):
— lost 10 of last 13 games SU
— 7-10 ATS as an underdog.
— over 3-0 last three road games.

Jazz (12-18):
— won/covered five of last seven games. 
— 10-3 ATS at home
— 4-11 ATS as a road underdog.

Wizards (3-17):
— covered last five games (2-3 SU).
— 3-6 ATS as a home underdog.
— under 4-1 last five games.

Steelers 34, Bengals 11
QB Rudolph threw an 86-yard TD pass on the Steelers’ 2nd play of game.
WR Pickens caught four passes for 195 yards, two TD’s.
Steelers in first half: 33 plays, 263 yards; they led 24-0 at the half.
since 2018, Steelers are 10-3-1 ATS as a home underdog.

Bengals are 0-5 SU vs AFC North rivals, 8-2 vs everyone else.
Cincinnati turned ball over twice on its first four drives.
Bengals’ only TD was 80-yard pass to Higgins on first play of third quarter.
Six of Bengals’ last seven games went over the total.

Bills 24, Chargers 22
Buffalo kicked a 29-yard FG with 0:28 left for the win.
Bills were 5-10 on third down, Chargers 4-14.
Buffalo scored 28.2 ppg in five games since firing their OC.
Buffalo won/covered four of those five games.  

Chargers lost despite being +3 in turnovers.
Bolts scored six times, but it was 5 field goals, only one TD.
Chargers have only six TD’s on their last 56 drives.
Chargers lost six of their last seven games.

— Florida Atlantic 96, Arizona 95 2OT
Arizona led 19-5 early on.
Owls shot 58.3% inside the arc.
FAU is 10-2 this season, vs schedule #28.
Arizona out-rebounded FAU, 52-39.

— Providence 75, Butler 65 OT
Friars led 15-0 out of the box, but……..
…….Friars forced OT on a 3-point shot with 0:02 left.
Seven players in this game played 39+ minutes.

— UConn 69, St John’s 65
Red Storm led 32-26 at halftime.
Teams combined to shoot 9-36 on the arc.
Newton scored 15 points, had 9 rebounds, 6 assists for UConn.

— Memphis 77, Vanderbilt 75
Vandy led by 8 points with 7:56 left in game.
Vandy’s team was 17-22 on the foul line.
Memphis star Jones was 12-18 on foul line, scored 28 points.
Vanderbilt is 1-8 vs teams ranked in top 200.

— Nets 126, Pistons 115
Detroit has lost 26 games in a row (7-19 ATS)
Pistons were +6 in the 35:00 with PG Ivey on the floor.

— Word of the Day: Continuity- when something keep happening or existing, with no great changes or interruptions.

College basketball teams with better continuity have an advantage; they’re used to playing together.

— Duke 17, Troy 10
Duke has now won/covered its last five bowl games.
Blue Devils led this game 14-0 at halftime.
Troy ran ball 26 times for only 89 yards.
Both head coaches had already bolted to bigger $$$ jobs.

— Northern Illinois 21, Arkansas State 19
Ark State scored a TD with 1:14 left, but 2-point conversion failed.
NIU’s first four drives: 30 plays, 220 yards, 21 points.
NIU rest of game: 44 plays, 201 yards, no points.
Huskies snapped a 7-game losing streak in bowl games.

— Air Force 31, James Madison 21
Falcons ran ball 63 times for 351 yards.
Air Force led 21-7 at half; they threw 5 passes the whole game.
Eight of Air Force’s nine I-A wins were by 10+ points.
Falcons won their last five bowl games, scoring 33.6 ppg.

— Georgia State 45, Utah State 22
Georgia State in first half: 40 plays, 396 yards, 31 points.
QB Grainger was 19-22/257 passing, with three TD’s.
Panthers outgained Utah State, 643-347.
RB Brock carried ball 24 times for 276 yards and a TD.
 
— South Alabama 59, Eastern Michigan 10
Jaguars led 38-3 at halftime.
USA’s first six drives: 36 plays, 296 yards, 31 points.
Freshman QB Lopez threw for 192 yards, ran for 88 more.
This was South Alabama’s first win in four bowl games.

— Northwestern 14, Utah 7
Northwestern drove 53 yards, scored game-winning TD with 6:19 left.
Wildcats finish season on a 4-game winning streak.
Utah is 6-12-1 ATS in last 19 non-league games.
Utah lost its last five bowls, after Whittingham started out 11-1 in bowls.

— Chiefs’ QB Patrick Mahomes is a great player; with an 86-24 career record, 11-3 in playoff games, at age 28, he is on track to become one of the NFL’s best-ever quarterbacks. 

Flashback six years to the 2017 NFL Draft; Mahomes was the 10th player taken, the second QB drafted that year. 

Let’s take a look at the first 10 picks that year:
1) Browns- Myles Garrett, DE
2) Bears- Traded UP (they TRADED UP!!!) to take QB Mitchell Trubisky.
3) 49ers- Solomon Thomas, DE
4) Jaguars- Leonard Fournette, RB
5) Titans- Corey Davis, WR- Acquired this pick in a trade, when Rams traded up the year before to select Jared Goff.

6) Jets- Jamal Adams, S
7) Chargers- Mike Williams, WR
8) Panthers- Christian McCaffrey, RB- why did Carolina trade him????
9) Bengals- John Ross, WR- they made up for this by drafting Joe Burrow
10) Chiefs- Patrick Mahomes, QB

This is why the NFL Draft is so interesting to study; not everyone is going at it.

— Right now, the eight NFL teams leading their division have one thing in common; their starting quarterback has started all 14 games.

— Jets will start QB Trevor Siemian against Washington Sunday; he’ll be the 4th quarterback to start a game for the Jets this season.

Houston Texans will start QB Case Keenum again Sunday, with rookie CJ Stroud still in the concussion protocol.

QB Geno Smith is going to start for the Seahawks against Tennessee.

— Los Angeles Rams scored a TD on their first drive Thursday night; it was the 5th game in a row LA scored on their first drive of a game. For the season, Rams have scored five TD’s, kicked six field goals on their 15 game-opening drives.

— Georgia Tech 30, Central Florida 17
UCF led 14-0 after the first quarter.
UCF’s first two drives: 14 plays, 149 yards, 14 points.
UCF rest of the game: 55 plays, 260 yards, 3 points.
Tech outscored the Knights 13-0 in second half.

— There are 1,825 players in the college football transfer portal; college sports has become a whole different world.

QB Maalik Murphy transferred from Texas to Duke, which had its QB poached by Notre Dame. Murphy was the backup QB at Texas this year.

— Word of the Day: Dox- search for and publish private or identifying information about a particular individual on the internet, typically with malicious intent.

Never heard of this word until five minutes before I typed this sentence; fans get mad about a loss, and they post stuff about players online. Not cool.

— In the NBA, Detroit Pistons have lost 25 games in a row; they’re 7-18 ATS in those games.

— December 9th, LA Lakers won the first-ever In-Season Tournament; since then, they’ve lost five of six games.

— Milwaukee Bucks are 8-1 this month, but they haven’t played a road game in December; they visit Madison Square Garden Saturday afternoon, it’ll be their first road game since an OT loss in Chicago November 30.

— Nevada 88, TCU 75- TCU coach Dixon got two technicals and was tossed in first half of this game; Horned Frogs won by 24 on Thursday, they’re in a holiday tournament in Hawaii, was just weird to see him get so heated so early in a game.

— UAB 79, Drake 78 OT- Good game between solid mid-major programs; we need more games like this in the pre-conference schedule.

— Brown 71, Siena 67- Siena led by 18 early in second half; they’re 2-10, having been ravaged by the transfer portal- their starting guards from last year are now playing at Oklahoma, George Mason.

— Milwaukee 85, Chattanooga 83 OT- Visiting Mocs were 10-13 on foul line; Milwaukee was 26-37. Both teams took 30+ 3-pointers. Playing on the road can be difficult.

— Maryland 69, UCLA 60— Bruins shot 1-14 on arc, were down 15 at the half- they’ve lost four in row, six of last seven D-I games.

— Miami OH 70, Vermont 69- Kid on Miami banked in a 3-pointer at the buzzer to win a game they trailed 63-54 with 3:31 left to play.

— Illinois 97, Missouri 73- Third straight loss for Mizzou, which gave up 87.7 points/game in the three losses.

— Colorado State 76, LMU 67- Rams are 11-1, they start four seniors, are shooting 61.6% inside the arc (#5). Colorado State already has five top 100 wins. 

Rams 30, Saints 22
Rams are 5-1 SU/ATS last six weeks, scoring 32.4 ppg in last five games.
Rams outgained New Orleans, 458-339
WR Demarcus Robinson has caught a TD pass in four consecutive games.
Rams are 7-3 when they run ball for 92+ yards, 1-4 when they don’t.
Rams have missed 11 field goals TY, the most of any team since 2015.

New Orleans didn’t give up a TD in its previous two games (Carolina/Giants).
Rams’ first drive: 14 plays, 95 yards, 7:56 and a TD.
Saints are 7-8, but have been favored in 12 of the 15 games.
New Orleans was 0-3 on 4th down conversions, all in LA territory.

South Florida 45, Syracuse 0
Bulls outgained Syracuse 407-159.
Orangemen were 1-16 on third down conversions.
Syracuse lost seven of its last nine games, after a 4-0 start.

— LA Dodgers signed Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto for $325M over 12 years; Dodger Dogs are going to be expensive next summer. Mets supposedly offered him the same amount of money, but Yamamoto opted to sign with the Dodgers.

Yamamoto is 25; he’s won the Japanese version of the Cy Young Award three times.

— Other baseball signings this week:
Detroit Tigers signed P Jack Flaherty for one year, $14M

Pittsburgh Pirates gave OF Andrew McCutchen a one year, $5M deal.

Mets acquired P Adrian Houser and OF Tyrone Taylor from Milwaukee for minor league outfielder Coleman Crow.

— They tweaked some baseball rules this week:
Teams will be allowed four mound visits per game, not five.

With a runner on base, the pitch clock will now be 0:18; it was 0:20 last year.

If a pitcher warms up before an inning, he has to face the first hitter.

— In case you were wondering, the only 0-0 tie in NFL history was back in 1943, a Giants-Lions game at Briggs Stadium in Detroit.

— Bills-Chargers game Saturday night is exclusively on Peacock; apparently the 4th quarter will be commercial-free, the first time that’s happened on an NFL telecast.

— Word of the Day– Imbecile- a stupid person is one definition.

Another definition is someone who stays up until 2am watching the Portland-Hawaii basketball game, after watching the end of the South Dakota-San Diego game before that. Then that person will watch a movie after the Hawaii game, before they get to bed.

That person is me.

— Best wishes to Old Dominion basketball coach Jeff Jones, who had a heart attack Wednesday night; he is expected to make a full recovery. Old Dominion is playing in a holiday tournament in Hawai’i; they lost 111-87 to TCU Thursday.

63-year old Jones has led eight teams to the NCAA Tournament in his 31 years as a college coach; as a player, he was one of Ralph Sampson’s teammates at Virginia.

— Here is how stupid college sports have become:
49ers QB Brock Purdy is making $870,000 this year; he might be the NFL MVP, but he’s still on his rookie contract, and he was a 7th round draft pick.

Texas Longhorns backup QB Arch Manning, Peyton Manning’s nephew, made $2.8M on his NIL deal this season. He doesn’t even freakin’ play and he made $2.8M.

— There are three undefeated teams left in college basketball:
Houston, James Madison, Ole Miss.

— Jazz 119, Pistons 111- Detroit has now lost 25 games in a row; their last win was in October, but somehow they were a slight favorite in this game. Yikes.

Jazz sat out four players, which is why they were the underdog here, but Kelly Olynyk scored 27 points as Utah got a road win.

— Kentucky 95, Louisville 76- Wildcats made 12-25 on the arc. Louisville is 22-54 the last 2+ seasons; it is likely they’ll have a new coach next season.

— Georgia Tech 73, UMass 70- Tech outscored the Minutemen 18-6 over the last 5:03 of the game; they’re off to a 7-3 start.

— New Hampshire 81, Rhode Island 71- Oy. URI has lost five in row, seven of its last eight D-I games. Not good. Rams are shooting 59.6% on foul line (#358), turning ball over 20.2% of the time (#294).

— Happy 98th birthday to the great actor Dick Van Dyke; spent lot of my childhood watching re-runs of his TV show, with Mary Tyler Moore, Morey Amsterdam and Carl Reiner. 

The way college basketball is now, with so many transfers happening, it is still kind of early, but here is some of what we’ve learned so far this season.

— Big X
6 of 14 teams are in kenpom.com Top 20
Houston/BYU, newcomers to the Big X, are highest-rated teams right now.
Houston has the best eFG% defense in the country.
Oklahoma State (6-5), West Virginia (4-6) have regressed.

— SEC
5 of 14 teams are in the top 25.
Tennessee is 8-3, but they’ve played the #12 schedule, a tough schedule.
Ole Miss is 11-0, but they’ve played schedule #262.

Vanderbilt is 4-7; they’re 65-76 in 4+ years under Jerry Stackhouse, 24-46 in SEC games. Five years ago, Vandy was off to a 4-0 start under Bryce Drew, but their best player (Darius Garland) got hurt, missed the rest of the season, and the Commodores went in the ashcan, going 9-23- they fired Drew. 

Garland is now a productive player in the NBA, while Drew has moved on to Grand Canyon in the WAC, where he has a 73-28 record coaching the Antelopes. I’m thinking the administration at Vanderbilt screwed up- they should’ve kept Drew as coach.

— Big 14
Only have three teams rated in top 20.
Michigan State is struggling at 6-5.

Zach Edey must have a great NIL deal for him to return to Purdue this season. Boilers have five top 20 wins, but lost conference opener at Northwestern. Purdue is shooting 40.3% on the arc; what will they shoot in March, when the heat is on?

— Pac-12
In its last season, Pac-12 is 0-5 SU against the Mountain West; no bueno.
Arizona/Colorado are only Pac-12 teams rated in top 30.
UCLA is 5-5, losing five of last six D-I games; there are rumors about Mick Cronin’s interest in the Louisville job, when that opens up.

Arizona has eight foreign players on its roster, UCLA has seven.

Meanwhile, Oregon State/Washington State are joining the WCC in basketball for the next two seasons.

— ACC
Duke, Clemson, North Carolina are only teams rated in top 25.
Duke had a quality neutral court win over Baylor Wednesday.
Syracuse is 8-3 with a 20-point win over Oregon, but all three Orange losses were by 17+ points; they’re forcing turnovers 21.7% of time, a marked improvement over recent years.

— Teams in country with best continuity:
Columbia- Ivy League
Drexel- CAA
Florida Atlantic- AAC
Marquette- Big East
Cal-Davis- Big West

— Teams in country with most experience:
St Bonaventure- A-15
Washington- Pac-12
TCU- Big X
North Carolina- ACC
St John’s- Big East

— OVC
Morehead State is 8-4, the only OVC team in the top 200; Tuesday night at Indiana, they led the Hoosiers by 15 with 8:58 left, but lost 69-68. Morehead looks like one of those dangerous 14-seeds we’ll be talking about in March. 

— Word of the Day- Grinch- a person who is unfriendly, a killjoy.

— Big East
Seton Hall upset UConn Wednesday, Providence upset Marquette Tuesday.
Villanova just beat Creighton in overtime, another upset.
Rick Pitino is going to make waves with St John’s, just not sure it’ll be this year.

Jay Wright retired in the spring of 2022, after a 30-8 season. In his last nine years at Villanova, Wildcats went 265-53, 130-31 in Big East games.

Since Wright left, Villanova is 25-21, 11-10 in Big East games.

— Mountain West
Three best teams appear to be Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State.
Rams/Lobos both have one loss; both losses were against Saint Mary’s. 

Like we said before, Mountain West is 5-0 SU against the Pac-12 this season.

Right now, MW is ranked as the #7 league; this would be the third year in a row Mountain West is in the top 7- 2013 was the last time before that.

— Atlantic 15
9-2 Dayton is the only team rated in the top 70.
Duquesne is 9-2; their coach is Keith Dambrot, who was Lebron James’ high school coach.
St Joe’s is 9-2, but against schedule #325; they lost to Texas A&M-Commerce.

A-15 got only one team in NCAA’s LY (VCU), could be headed that way again.

— AAC
14 teams in this league now; they’ve reshuffled more than any league this year.
FAU is legit good; they were in Final Four last year, have whole team back, are 9-2 now.
Memphis is 9-2, with seven top 100 wins (schedule #10)

Other than FAU/Memphis, SMU, North Texas, Tulane appear to be AAC contenders.

— Missouri Valley
Indiana State/Drake are both 11-1, the Valley’s only top 100 teams.
Drake has played schedule #301, Indiana State #264. Sycamores are shooting 61.2% inside the arc, 41.4% on the arc- they have the best eFG% in the whole country.

Evansville is 10-2 against schedule #318; the last five years, Evanaville was 40-111, so a great rebuilding job being done by David Ragland. They did lose their only top 100 game by 41 at BYU, but 10-2 is 10-2.

Murray State is 3-8; they’ve had only one losing season since 1997.

— WCC
Right now, WCC is 5-14 against the Mountain West
7-6 against the Pac-12
0-5 against the WAC
3-4 against the Big Sky,

In other words, the WCC is down; losing BYU hurt, especially this year, because BYU is really good. Saint Mary’s is a disappointing 7-5, but they’ve played better recently. Gonzaga is 8-3, 3-3 against top 100 teams.

It’ll be interesting next year, when Oregon State/Washington State join the WCC.

— Ivy League
Princeton is 10-1, with three top 100 wins; KenPom has them at #44.
Yale, Cornell appear to be the teams best poised to upset Princeton in the Ivy tournament.

— Conference USA
League looks like a 3-way battle between Liberty, Louisiana Tech, Western Kentucky.

This league has teams in Virginia, Florida, Louisiana, New Mexico; lot of travel.

— Other mid-majors we’ve got our eye on:
Grand Canyon, WAC- Antelopes are 9-1, with wins over San Diego State, Liberty

James Madison, Sun Belt- 11-0 Dukes opened season with OT wins at Michigan State/Kent State and they still haven’t lost. JMU has #27 eFG% in country; they’re forcing turnovers 21.8% of the time (#29).

Western Carolina, SoCon- Catamounts have Power 5 wins at Notre Dame, Vandy; WCU has been in the NCAA’s one time- they were a 16-seed in 1996, lost 73-71 to #1-seed Purdue.

Western Carolina also made the first 3-point shot in NCAA history, on November 29, 1980. Ronnie Carr made the shot.

Cal-Irvine, Big West- Anteaters haven’t been in NCAAs since 2019, when they upset Kansas State in a 4-13 game. Irvine always defends well; their subs are playing 8th most minutes in country, so they’ve got good depth.

Vermont, America East- Catamounts have been in four of last six NCAA Tournaments; they have wins over Charleston, Yale this season.

McNeese State, Southland- Will Wade has never had a losing season as a coach, whether at VCU, LSU or Chattanooga; his first team at McNeese is 10-2, shooting 41% on the arc, while playing a slow (#348) pace.

Joe Dumars’ alma mater hasn’t been to the NCAA’s since 2002; could this be their year? 

— I’m watching HBO’s Hard Knocks tonight, and they show a 2nd grade teacher in Miami who teaches her students how to do Math by adding/subtracting using Tyreek Hill’s stats each week. She posts Hill’s stats on a white board, and are counting down to how many yards he needs for 2,000 receiving yards.

It was great; the kids are into it, both boys/girls, but it reminded me of something else, how when I was a kid, I’d the grab the newspaper as soon as I could and would study boxscores and stats- this was way before the Internet, information was a little limited.

But I got to the point where I could do Math in my head; if Reggie Jackson went 4-13 in a series, I knew he hit .308 for the weekend, or if Vida Blue gave up two runs in 6 IP, his ERA was 3.00. Not bad for a 10-year old.

— Fast forward 25 years, and I’m a Grade 6 working for New York State at a low-level job; I’m in a training session with a cross-section of employees, some of whom are big shots; the person leading the room gives out a word problem which requires calculations. 

There were eight people at a table; we worked as a group. A lady at my table was the Chief of Staff for a Deputy Commissioner, she started with her calculator to get the answer for the problem, but I just told her: “Marsha, its 27. The answer is 27” She kept working the calculator, then looked at me when she came up with 27. 

It happened couple of more times; this was a Friday afternoon. Three days later, on Monday, I got a call to schedule a job interview for a Grade 13, an Administrative Assistant job, a very big raise. I got the job, which is why my retirement now is a lot more comfortable than it would’ve been if I hadn’t been able to do Math in my head.

— I tell the story because this teacher in Miami is doing her students a huge favor, teaching them in a way that they’ll remember it. Hopefully they appreciate it, though Tyreek Hill didn’t play this past week, so she probably had to be inventive to get them to do some calculations.

— If you owned an NFL team worth $5B or so, the three most people in your organization would be, in no particular order:

Head Coach- Runs the team on the field.
Quarterback- This one is kind of obvious.
General Manager- Acquires the players, which in an injury-riddled sport, is really important. This time of year, teams with good depth are the ones that finish strong.

— Here are the four NFL teams with the most dead salary cap space this season. When a team is up against the cap, it takes a clever GM to find players who can still win games while they have less flexibility to spend $$$.

$78.6M- Rams
$67.3M- Buccaneers
$65.3M- Packers
$65.2M- Cardinals

— But today we’re looking at head coaches; how would you choose one?

In today’s NFL, 21 of the 32 head coaches who started this season are/were in their first NFL head coaching job. Only 3 of the 21 have won a Super Bowl.

3 of the 32 coaches won a Super Bowl in a previous head coaching job.
2 of the 32 coaches lost a Super Bowl in a previous head coaching job.
6 of the 32 coaches had a previous head coaching job, but didn’t make it to a Super Bowl.

Coaches don’t get recycled as much as they used to; Bill Belichick is one of the head coaches who didn’t make it to a Super Bowl in his first head coaching job- he’s pretty good. Josh McDaniels had two head coaching jobs and was pretty bad at both of them.

Giants’ coach Brian Daboll interviewed with five other teams before the Giants, who are damned lucky that no one else hired him- Daboll is a good coach.

Raiders have had 13 head coaches since 2003; the Steelers have had three since 1969.

It is what makes the NFL so interesting; the teams are worth a fortune, but some of the teams are run really well, some pretty poorly.

— Texas-San Antonio 35, Marshall 17
The two QB’s: Josh McCown’s son, and Chad Pennington’s son. Makes me feel old.
Marshall led 14-0 early in second quarter.
UTSA was 7-14 on third down, Marshall 5-18.

Second day in a row a backup QB wins a bowl game; gambling is difficult.

— QB Taulia Tagovailoa is skipping Maryland’s bowl game; I’m not going to rant about this again, at least not today, but Tagovailoa’s college career is over.

— Strange stats to read: USC’s defense is 110th in the country in yards allowed/play; they’re 123rd in scoring defense.

— Jacksonville Jaguars signed QB EJ Perry to their practice squad; Perry played his college ball at Brown, so he never opted out of a bowl.

— Underdogs won/covered the last seven Monday night NFL games.

— Cleveland Browns are first team in the last 70 years to have four different QB’s lead a game-winning drive in the same season.

— Atlanta Falcons are going back to Taylor Heinicke at QB this week, third time this year they have changed starting QB’s, which makes you wonder if Desmond Ridder is still their QB of the future.

Falcons kicker Younghoe Koo recently became the most accurate kicker in NFL history; he used to kick for the Chargers, but they cut him, even though he made his last six FG’s for them.

Since they cut Koo in 2017, Chargers have gone through 12 different kickers.

— As it turns out, Kansas City’s last four games are going to be against backup QB’s:
Week 15- beat New England (Zappe) 27-17.
Week 16- vs Las Vegas (O’Connell)
Week 17- vs Cincinnati (Browning)
Week 18- @ LA Chargers (Stick)

— AFC North teams are 26-12 SU in non-divisional games.

— In baseball, Pirates signed lefty starter Martin Perez for one year, $8M. He figures to be their #3 or #4 starter. 

Panthers 9, Falcons 7
— Falcons lost five of their last seven games.
— Atlanta ran ball 31 times for only 52 yards.
— Underdogs covered nine of Atlanta’s last ten games.
— Falcons’ loss puts Tampa Bay atop NFC South.

— Carolina drove 85 yards, kicked game-winning field goal at the gun.
— Panthers allowed 13-7 points in their two wins.
— Carolina averaged 5.7 yards/pass attempt, their best since Week 5.
— Panthers’ team total: under 10-4

Browns 20, Bears 17
— Flacco threw for 374 yards, two TD’s.
— Bears haven’t led at halftime since Week 7 vs Las Vegas.
— Chicago did lead 17-7 after the third quarter.
— Cleveland is 7-3 SU in last ten games (5-2 ATS in last seven)

— Chicago’s only TD drive was two yards long, after an INT.
— Bears also scored a touchdown on a 45-yard pick-6.
— Chicago is 2-8 when it scores less than 28 points.
— Hail Mary on last play of game was dropped by WR Mooney.

Buccaneers 34, Packers 20
— Mayfield was 22-28/381 passing, with four TD’s.
— Tampa Bay led 13-10 at halftime.
— First 3 drives of second half, Bucs ran 23 plays for 216 yards, 3 TD’s.
— Bucs won/covered four of last six games (6-2 ATS last eight)

— Buccaneers averaged 10.7 yards/pass attempt.
— Packers ran ball 17 times for only 60 yards.
— QB Jordan Love is 6-9 as an NFL starter.
— Over is 5-1 in Green Bay’s last six games.

Texans 19, Titans 16 OT
— Fairbairn’s 4th FG, a 54-yarder, won game with 0:02 left in OT.
— Backup QB Keenum threw for 229 yards in his first start since 2021.
— Texans outgained Tennessee, 340-204.
— Underdogs covered 10 of their last 12 games.

— Titans led 13-0 after a 2nd quarter pick-6; they missed the PAT.
— Tennessee ran ball 30 times for only 66 yards.
— Tennessee is 0-5 ATS this season coming off a win.
— Titans are 4-1 scoring 27+ points, 1-8 scoring 17 or less. 

Saints 24, Giants 6
— Giants didn’t score a TD, were outgained 296-193.
— Big Blue averaged only 3.0 yards/pass attempt.
— Last three weeks, Giants are 9-39 on third down. 
— Since 2018, Big Blue is 11-21-1 ATS as a road underdog.

— Saints first three drives of 2nd half: 26 plays, 158 yards, 17 points.
— Last two games, Saints didn’t allow a TD on 21 drives.
— New Orleans outscored last three opponents 52-12 in second half.
— Under is 10-4 in Saints’ games this year, 5-2 at home.

Dolphins 30, Jets 0
— Dolphins outgained the Jets, 290-103.
— Under McDaniel, Miami is 9-4 ATS as a home favorite.
— Miami scored 30+ points in eight of 10 wins; 20-17-14-27 in losses.
— Favorites are 11-2 ATS in their last 13 games.

— In first half, Jets ran 27 plays for 4 yards. 27 plays, 4 yards.
— Jets lost six of last seven games, scoring 12.9 ppg.
— Jets are 2-10 ATS in last 12 AFC East road games.
— Under Saleh, Jets are 5-10 ATS coming off a win.

Chiefs 27, Patriots 17
— WR Rice caught nine passes for 91 yards and a TD.
— Chiefs are 6-2 ATS in last eight games coming off a loss.
— Chiefs held 10 of last 12 foes under 5.7 yards/pass attempt.
— Last seven games, KC is minus-7 in turnovers (5-12)

— Patriots lost six of seven, nine of last 11 games (2-9 ATS).
— New England converted only 2-12 third down plays.
— AFC East underdogs are 7-10 ATS outside the division.
— Since Brady left, NE is 28-36 SU in regular season, 0-1 in playoffs.

49ers 45, Cardinals 29
— SF won its last six games (4-2 ATS), scoring 36.2 ppg.
— Only 7 of the 49ers’ 54 plays came on third down.
— McCaffrey had 23 touches for 187 yards.
— SF is 10-4-1 ATS in last 15 NFC West road games.

— 49ers averaged 7.5 yards per play.
— Arizona is 3-11 ATS in last 14 NFC West home games.
— Over is 7-0 in Arizona’s home games this year.
— Arizona is 2-9 SU/4-7 ATS in its last eleven games.

Rams 28, Commanders 20
— First three series, Rams ran 33 plays for 208, scored only 10 points.
— Stafford threw 62-yard TD pass to Kupp on 3rd play of 3rd quarter.
— Last four weeks, Rams averaged 425.8 yards/game.
— Right now, Rams own #7-seed in NFC, the last playoff spot.

— Washington lost its last five games (2-6 ATS in last eight).
— Last four games, Commanders allowed 39.8 ppg.
— QB Brissett came off bench, was 8-10/124 passing, with 2 TD’s.
— Opponents’ team total: over 11-3

Bills 31, Cowboys 1o
— Bills ran ball for 266 yards, outgained Dallas 351-195.
— Bills’ first four drives: 37 plays, 244 yards, 21 points.
— Buffalo is 8-0 when it gives up 20 or less points
— Buffalo won/covered its last three games.  

— Favorites are 6-1 ATS in Dallas’ road games.
— Cowboys averaged only 2.9 yards/pass attempt.
— Dallas has scored 37.2 ppg in wins, 14.8 in losses.
— Cowboys are 6-9 ATS last 15 games as a road dog (0-3 TY).

Ravens 23, Jaguars 7
— Ravens won eight of last nine games (6-3 ATS).
— QB Jackson threw for 171 yards, ran for 97 more.
— Baltimore is 5-1 SU/4-2 ATS on road this year
— Opponents’ team total: under 9-4-1

— Jacksonville lost its last three games, giving up 29.3 ppg.
— Jaguars converted only 3-13 third down plays.
— Jaguars gained 179 yards in first half, but didn’t score.
— Jaguars are minus-7 in turnovers in their losses (+4 in wins).

— Syracuse 83, Oregon 63
Syracuse trailed 14-4 early; they shot 62.5% inside arc.
Orange is forcing turnovers 21.7% of time (#35)

— Washington 100, Seattle 99, 2OT
Huskies shot 57.1% inside arc.
Washington put six players in double figures.

— Seton Hall 93, Missouri 87
Seton Hall shot 70% inside the arc, scored 1.33 ppp.
Pirates led by 16 with 10:00 left, survived late run by Mizzou.

— Oregon State 66, Texas-San Antonio 65
Beavers are 7-3, with five wins by 3 or less points, or in OT.

Buccaneers 29, Falcons 25
— Mayfield threw 11-yard TD pass with 0:31 left for winning score.
— For the game, Mayfield was 14-29/144 passing, but with two TD’s.
— Last four games, opponents were 14-51 on third down.
— Tampa is 10-7-1 ATS in last 18 games with spread of 3 or less.

— Last play of game, Falcon WR was tackled on 3-yard line.
— Atlanta outgained the Bucs 434-290, but still lost.
— Falcons lost four of their last six games.
— under Smith, Falcons are 2-10-1 ATS as a home favorite.

Bears 28, Lions 13
— Lions’ last 2 drives of first half: 20 plays, 119 yards, 13 points.
— Lions in second half: 31 plays, 86 yards, no points.
— Last four games, Detroit is minus-6 in turnovers (4-10)
— In their last five games, Detroit has given up 29.8 ppg.

— Bears held to Detroit to 3.3 yards/pass attempt.
— Chicago outscored the Lions 18-0 in second half.
— Last five games, Bears ran ball for 144.4 yards/game.
— Chicago is 7-3 ATS in their last ten games.

Bengals 34, Colts 14
— Cincinnati averaged 11.0 yards per pass play. 
— Bengals are 12-3 ATS in last 15 games coming off a win
— Cincinnati is 17-10-2 ATS in last 29 home games. 
— Bengals are 6-1 giving up 20 or less points, 1-5 allowing more than 2o.

— Colts scored on a pick-6, but had only one offensive TD.
— Bengals outscored Indianapolis 20-0 in second half.
— Colts are 11-13 ATS in last 24 games with spread of 3 or less.
— Colts are 0-6 giving up 29+ points, 7-0 allowing 28 or fewer points.

Browns 31, Jaguars 27
— Flacco threw for 311 yards, three TD’s.
— Browns’ team total: over 9-3-1
— Browns are 9-3-2 ATS in last 14 games coming off a loss.
— Flacco is 19th QB in NFL history to win 100 games.

— Jaguars’ first six drives: 24 plays, 81 yards, no points.
— Jaguars ran for only 58 yards; they had 4 turnovers (minus-1)
— Jaguar defense gave up 11 TD’s on their last 26 drives.
— since 2018, Jags are 13-23-2 ATS as a road underdog.

Saints 28, Panthers 6
— Carolina lost its last six games (2-4 ATS)
— Last nine games, Panthers were outscored 140-52 in first half.
— Young completed only 13-36 passes; the game was indoors.
— Carolina is 0-8 SU/2-6 ATS on the road this year.

— Saints won despite being outgained, 303-207.
— Saints’ three TD drives: 44-24-64 yards.
— Carolina ran ball for 204 yards; they were 8-20 on third down.
— Saints, Bucs, Falcons are all tied for 1st in NFC South, at 6-7.

Jets 30, Texans 6
— In first half, teams combined for 11 drives, 11 punts, no points.
— Jets outgained Houston, 347-135.
— Rookie QB Stroud was knocked out (concussion) late in game.
— since 2016, Houston is 1-7-2 ATS as a road favorite.

— Jets in first half: 26 plays, 101 yards, five punts.
— Jets in second half: 42 plays, 247 yards, 30 points.
— Jets were 6-15 on third down, Houston 1-12.
— Opponents’ team total: under 9-4

Ravens 37, Rams 31, OT
— Wallace ran a punt back 76 yards for a walk-off TD in overtime.
— This was first time this season Ravens trailed after three quarters.
— Last six games, Baltimore scored 20 TD’s on 64 drives.
— Ravens won seven of last eight games (5-3 ATS).

— Rams forced OT with a 36-yard FG with 0:11 left in regulation.
— LA is 2-7 when it gives up 19+ points.
— Kyren Williams ran ball 25 times for 114 yards.
— Cooper Kupp caught eight passes for 115 yards and a TD.

Patriots 21, Steelers 18
— New England snapped a 5-game losing skid.
— Patriots in first half: 33 plays, 209 yards, 21 points.
— Patriots in second half: 22 plays, 69 yards, no points.
— Zappe is 3-1 as an NFL starting QB.

— Steelers lost last two games, both to teams that were 2-10.
— Last four games, Pittsburgh scored 10-16-10-18 points
— Last three games, Pittsburgh was outscored 41-16 in first half.
— Steelers are 16-21 ATS last 37 games as a home favorite.

Patriots 21, Steelers 18
— New England snapped a 5-game losing skid.
— Patriots in first half: 33 plays, 209 yards, 21 points.
— Patriots in second half: 22 plays, 69 yards, no points.
— Zappe is 3-1 as an NFL starting QB.

— Steelers lost last two games, both to teams that were 2-10.
— Last four games, Pittsburgh scored 10-16-10-18 points
— Last three games, Pittsburgh was outscored 41-16 in first half.
— Steelers are 16-21 ATS last 37 games as a home favorite.

Vikings 3, Raiders 0
— Vikings kicked 36-yard FG with 2:00 left for game’s only score.
— 4th-string QB Mullens came off bench, was 9-13/83 passing.
— Minnesota was 8-20 on 3rd down, Raiders were 3-14.
— Opponents’ team total: under 9-3-1

— Raiders lost last three games, scoring 13-17-0 points.
— Las Vegas had only 8 first downs, was outgained 231-202.
— Under is 10-3 in Raider games this season.
— Last seven games, Las Vegas is 28-89 (31.5%) on third down.

49ers 28, Seahawks 16
— Backup QB Lock was 22-31/269 passing, with 2 TD’s, 2 INT’s.
— Seattle lost last four games, giving up  28.8 ppg.
— Seahawks are 6-1 scoring 20+ points, 0-6 scoring less than 20.
— Seattle is 16-9-1 ATS in its last 26 games as a road dog (4-2 TY).

— 49ers are 5-0 since their bye (3-2 ATS) with all five wins by 12+ points. — McCaffrey ran ball 16 times for 145 yards.
— Last three games, SF ran ball for 169-146-173 yards.
— 49ers were 6-11 on third down, Seattle 2-11.

Broncos 24, Chargers 7
— Denver’s first TD came on a 3-yard drive after an INT.
— Denver was 8-17 on third down, Chargers 0-12 (1-6 on 4th down)
— Broncos are 6-1 SU/5-2 ATS in their last seven games.
— Denver is 18-14-1 ATS last 33 games as a road underdog.

— Chargers QB Herbert broke right index finger, is probably OFY.
— Chargers got stopped on downs on Denver 7-yard line on their 2nd drive.
— Bolts are 3-6 since their bye week.
— Under is 9-1-1 in last eleven Charger games.

Bills 20, Chiefs 17
— Buffalo scored TD’s on two of its first three drives.
— Bills are 9-3-2 ATS in last 13 games as a road underdog.
— Seven of their last nine games stayed under the total.
— Bills are 7-0 giving up 20 or less points, 0-6 giving up more than 20.

— KC appeared to take lead late in game, but TD was nullified by Chiefs’ WR lining up offsides
— Chiefs are 2-4 in their last six games, after a 6-1 start.
— Kansas City team total: under 10-3
— Under is 6-2-1 in their last nine games.

Cowboys 33, Eagles 13
— Last two weeks, Eagles lost 42-19/33-13.
— Last four games, Eagles were outscored 72-26 in first half.
— Eagles are 0-6 ATS in their last six visits to Dallas.
— Under Sirianni, Eagles are 5-9 ATS as an underdog.

— Dallas in 1st half: 4 drives- 43 plays, 262 yards, 24 points.
— Dallas was 9-16 on third down, Philly 4-9.
— Dallas won/covered seven of its last eight games.
— Cowboys are 16-6 ATS in last 22 games as a home favorite (6-1 TY)

NFC East
— Cowboys- Dak Prescott (Mississippi State)
4th round pick in 2016
72-43 with Dallas, 2-4 in playoffs.
Dallas is set here for next five years.

— Giants- Daniel Jones (Duke)
1st round pick in 2019
23-37-1 with Giants, 1-1 in playoffs.
Has been hurt a lot, is hurt now
Backups- Tyrod Taylor, Tommy DeVito
They’ve got some big decisions to make in off-season.

— Eagles- Jalen Hurts (Alabama/Oklahoma)
2nd round pick in 2020
35-14 with Eagles, 2-2 in playoffs
Eagles are set for the foreseeable future.

— Commanders- Sam Howell (North Carolina)
5th round pick in 2022
5-8 with Washington.
Two years, two offensive coordinators; Howell is doing OK so far.

NFC North
— Bears- Justin Fields (Ohio State)
1st round pick in 2021
7-26 with the Bears
Chicago has two very high draft picks next April; will they take another QB?
Rookie backup Tyson Bagent is 2-2 as a starter this year.

— Lions- Jared Goff (California)
1st round pick by Rams in 2016
traded to Detroit with draft picks for Matthew Stafford
44-30 with Rams, 20-21-1 with Detroit (2-3 in playoffs with LA)
Lions are set here for next five years.

— Packers- Jordan Love (Utah State)
1st round pick in 2020
5-7 with Green Bay.
Aaron Rodgers is tough act to follow, but he’s doing OK so far.

— Vikings- Kirk Cousins (Michigan State)
4th round pick by Washington, in 2012
26-31-1 with Washington, 51-39-1 with Vikings (1-3 in playoffs).
He’ll be 36 when next season starts, coming off a bad injury; his future is unclear.
Joshua Dobbs (2-11 as NFL starter) is Minnesota’s QB right now.
Vikings have a major decision to make in off-season.

NFC South
Falcons- Desmond Ridder (Cincinnati)
3rd round pick in 2022
7-6 with Falcons.
He’s been benched once this year, but is starting again; it is still early for him.

Panthers- Bryce Young (Alabama)
#1 overall pick in last April’s draft
1-9 with Carolina; head coach/QB coach already got fired.
They scored 27 points in the one game backup Dalton started.
Would it kill Carolina to sit Young and let him watch some?

Saints- Derek Carr (Fresno State)
2nd round pick by Raiders in 2014
63-80 with Raiders, 5-6 with New Orleans (0-1 in playoffs)
Carr will be 33 in March; are Saints sold on him?
Last time Saints drafted a QB in 1st round? Archie Manning, in 1971.

Buccaneers- Baker Mayfield (Oklahoma)
#1 overall pick by Cleveland in 2018
29-30 with Browns, 1-5 Carolina, 1-3 with Rams, 4-7 with Bucs
Has played for four teams the last three years; he is still only 28.
Would think he’ll still be Tampa Bay’s quarterback next year.

NFC West
Cardinals- Kyler Murray (Texas A&M/Oklahoma)
#1 overall pick in 2019
26-34-1 with Arizona (0-1 in playoffs)
Has a very big contract; can he stay healthy and be productive?

Rams- Matthew Stafford (Georgia)
#1 overall pick in 2009 by Detroit
Traded to Rams for Jared Goff
74-93-1 with Lions, 24-16 with Rams (4-3 in playoffs)
won Super Bowl two years ago
will be 36 in February; how much longer does he want to play?

49ers- Brock Purdy (Iowa State)
7th round pick in 2022 draft
15-4 with 49ers (2-1 in playoffs)
came out of nowhere last year to be the starter.
49ers are built to win now; will he get them over the hump?

Seahawks- Geno Smith (West Virginia)
2nd round pick by Jets, in 2013.
12-18 with Jets, 0-1 with Giants, 16-17 with Seattle
0-1 in playoffs (lost 41-23 to 49ers LY)
Is 33 years old, has regressed some this year.

AFC East
Bills- Josh Allen (Wyoming)
1st round pick in 2018
62-34 with Buffalo, 4-4 in playoffs
Bills are set here for next 7-8 years.

Dolphins- Tua Tagovailoa (Alabama)
1st round pick in 2020
29-16 with Miami; he’s headed to playoffs for first time.
Dolphins seem set here for the next 10 years. 

Patriots- Mac Jones (Alabama)
1st round pick in 2021
18-25 with New England, 0-1 in playoffs
Is now more of a suspect that prospect; his future is unclear.
Patriots have lot of decisions to make this winter.

Jets- Aaron Rodgers (California)
1st round pick by Green Bay, in 2005
158-85-1 with Packers (11-10 in playoffs)
Won Super Bowl, 14 years ago.
Got hurt on his 4th play with Jets this season
Tore his Achilles; today is his 40th birthday.
He is expected to play before end of this season; we’ll see.
If not him, then who? (no one on current roster)

AFC North
Ravens- Lamar Jackson (Louisville)
1st round pick in 2018 draft
55-22 with Baltimore, 1-3 in playoffs.
Ravens are set here for next 8-10 years.

Bengals- Joe Burrow (Ohio State/LSU)
1st overall pick in 2020 draft
34-22-1 with Bengals (5-2 in playoffs)
Cincinnati is set here for the next ten years.

Browns- Deshaun Watson (Clemson)
1st round pick by Houston in 2017
28-25 with Texans, 8-4 with Browns (1-2 in playoffs)
Had off-field problems with Texans, was suspended
If he can stay healthy, Browns are set here for next 6-7 years.

Steelers- Kenny Pickett (Pittsburgh)
1st round pick in 2022 draft
14-9 with Steelers, hasn’t made playoffs yet.
Steelers fired their OC last week- who will new guy be?

AFC South
Texans- CJ Stroud (Ohio State)
2nd overall pick in 2023 draft
6-5 in his rookie year, doing surprisingly well.
Texans are trying to make playoffs for first time since 2019.
Looks like Houston is set here for foreseeable future. 

Colts- Anthony Richardson (Florida)
#4 overall pick in 2023 draft
only started 13 games in college
2-2 as starter TY; got hurt, is OFY.
last seven years, Colts have started 7 different QB’s in Week 1.
Gardner Minshew is 4-3 as Colts’ starter this year.

Jaguars- Trevor Lawrence (Clemson)
1st overall pick in 2021 draft
21-26 with Jaguars, 1-1 in playoffs
Jaguars are set here for next 10-12 years

Titans- Will Levis (Kentucky)
2nd round pick in 2023 draft
2-3 as starter in his rookie season; 2-0 at home, 0-3 on road
as long as he hands off a lot to Derrick Henry, he’ll be OK.

AFC West
Broncos- Russell Wilson (NC State/Wisconsin)
3rd round pick by Seahawks, in 2012
113-60-1 with Seattle, 10-16 with Denver (9-7 in playoffs)
Won Super Bowl ten years ago.
Just turned 35; how much longer does he want to play?

Chiefs- Patrick Mahomes (Texas Tech)
10th overall pick in 2017 draft (9 teams passed on him!?!?!?!)
83-22 with the Chiefs, 11-3 in playoffs, an all-time great.
Chiefs are set here for next 7-8 years.
Would be nice if they got him better receivers.

Raiders- Aidan O’Connell (Purdue)
4th round pick in 2023 draft
2-3 as a rookie starter; head coach has already been fired.
As usual, Raiders have lot of questions to answer this winter.

Chargers- Justin Herbert (Oregon)
6th overall pick in 2020 draft
29-32 with Chargers, 0-1 in playoffs (blew 27-0 lead, lost 31-30)
Chargers are set here, for next ten years. 

 

We’re 23 days into the college basketball season; this is when we gather information and learn as much as possible. It is still really early, but this is what we’ve learned so far:

— Indiana State 77, Southern Illinois 48- This is the only conference game that’s been played so far this season. Salukis shot 30.4% from floor; Indiana State shot 57.1% inside the arc.

— Six teams in country with the best continuity:
1- Columbia
2- Florida Atlantic
3- Marquette
4- Drexel
5- Cal-Davis
7- Weber State

Six teams in country with the worst continuity:
361- New Mexico State
360- Iona
359- Utah State
357- Idaho
356- Notre Dame
355- Southern Utah

— Purdue won Maui Classic, becoming first team in 13 years to beat a top 15 team three days in a row. Last team to do it was UConn, in 2011 Big East tournament.

— Teams that’ve played easiest schedules so far:
362- TCU
361- Cal-Northridge
360- Tulsa
359- Valparaiso
357- Cal Baptist
356- Georgetown

Teams that’ve played hardest schedules so far:
3- Eastern Washington
4- Rider
8- Morehead State
9- Northern Iowa
10- Cal-Fullerton
12- Boise State

— Some of teams playing fastest tempo in country:
4- George Washington
5- James Madison
6- New Mexico
7- Marshall
8- Western Kentucky
9- Hampton

Some of teams playing slowest tempo in country:
362- Virginia
361- Towson
360- Air Force
359- North Texas
357- Northwestern
356- Saint Peter’s

— Teams with the best FG% defense inside the arc:
1- Illinois
2- Rutgers
3- Providence
5- Virginia
6- Iowa State
7- UConn

Teams with the worst FG% defense inside the arc:
358- Wright State
355- Toledo
348- Drake
347- Cornell
346- Rice
345- Nebraska-Omaha

— Word of the Day: authenticity- being true to your own personality, values, and spirit, regardless of the pressure that you’re under to act otherwise.

— Teams getting highest %age of points on 3-pointers:
1- Creighton
2- Sacramento State
3- St Joe’s
4- Cal-Riverside
6- BYU
10- San Jose State

Teams getting lowest %age of points on 3-pointers:
362- Rio Grande Valley
361- Indiana
359- Western Kentucky
358- IUPUI
357- Cal-Northridge

— James Madison started the season with overtime wins at Michigan State/Kent State; they’re only team in the last 30 years to start a season with back/back overtime wins, both on the road.

— Field of 68’s top 6 mid-major teams:
1- Drake
2- Cal-Santa Barbara
3- Yale
4- Akron
5- Charleston
6- Furman

— According to Kenpom.com, these are the six best conferences in the country:
1- Big X
2- Big East
3- SEC
4- Big 14
5- Pac 12
6- ACC

These are the six worst conferences in the country:
32- NEC
31- SWAC
30- MEAC
29- Patriot
28- Southland
27- Ohio Valley

— Teams forcing highest % of turnovers:
1- Iowa State
2- Houston
3- Florida International
4- Rutgers
5- TCU
6- Cal-Davis

— Teams playing their subs the least:
361- Princeton
360- Murray State
359- West Virginia
358- Oral Roberts
357- Air Force
356- Gonzaga

— Most experienced teams (experience is different than continuity; teams that poach lot of transfers have experienced guys, but guys that haven’t played together very much):
1- St Bonzaventure
2- Washington
3- TCU
4- St John’s
5- North Carolina
6- James Madison

— Least experienced teams
362- Idaho
361- Siena
360- Valparaiso
359- Notre Dame
358- VMI
357- North Carolina A&T

— Bears 12, Vikings 10
Chicago kicked a 30-yard FG with 0:13 left for the win.
Bears had five drives in 2nd half: kicked 3 FG’s, lost 2 fumbles.
DJ Moore caught 11 passes for 114 of Chicago’s 217 passing yards.
QB Fields ran ball 12 times for 59 yards, 24 yards more than any other Bear.

Dobbs threw 17-yard TD pass with 5:54 left, Minnesota’s only TD.
Vikings’ first four drives: 16 plays, 44 yards, 2 INTs, no points.
Chicago was 8-18 on third down, Vikings 2-9.
Under is 8-2 in Minnesota’s last ten games. 

— Before Monday, NFL teams were 0-28 this season when they didn’t score a TD.
Now, they’re 1-28.

— So far this year in the NFL……..
divisional home favorites are 18-15 ATS
divisional home underdogs are 9-14-1 ATS

Overall, divisional favorites are 32-24-1 ATS

— Carolina Panthers fired coach Frank Reich after their 1-10 start; two ofter offensive assistant coaches were also told to take a hike.

Panthers are averaging:
15.7 points/game (29th)
4.1 yards per play (T31st)
Panthers are converting 37.2% of their third down opportunities (20th).

You play a rookie QB, your job is in jeopardy; they should have sat Bryce Young, let him learn while watching and played veteran Andy Dalton. Maybe they’d still have their jobs now.

Carolina fired Matt Rhule last year, with $40M left on his contract.
Carolina fired Reich Monday, with $30M left on his contract.

Panthers owner David Tepper is richest owner in the NFL, but he isn’t the most patient one.

— If the 2024 NFL Draft was today……..
1) Bears (from Carolina)
2) Cardinals
3) Patriots
4) Bears
5) Commanders
6) Giants

— Denver Broncos have won five games in a row; in their last four games, Denver has 14 takeaways- they’re +11 in turnovers in those four games.

— In his career, Bills’ QB Josh Allen is 0-6 in overtime games.

— NFC South standings:

Falcons 5-6
Saints 5-6
Buccaneers 4-7
Panthers 1-10

If the Wild Card playoffs were this week, Dallas would be a significant road favorite at whatever team wins the NFC South.

— NFL Draft is a fascinating process; some teams are just so much better at it than others. Chargers’ RB Austin Ekeler is a really good RB, but he wasn’t drafted; he went to college at Western Colorado, which makes you wonder what the Broncos’ scouts are thinking about, such a good player at a D-II school in Denver’s backyard.

— TV show of the day: The White Shadow (1978)- An NBA player retires from the pro game and gets a job as a basketball coach in an inner-city high school.

Ken Howard played the coach; he was excellent in this role. Basketball scenes were well done.

Creator of the show was Bruce Paltrow, Gwyneth Paltrow’s father.

— Tough week for college football coaches:
Indiana fired its coach; he got $15.5M to go away.

New Mexico fired its coach, who they praised in a statement, but when you go 11-32, they tell you to take a hike, even if you’re a New Mexico alumnus. 

Middle Tennessee fired its longtime coach after going 3-8 this year, the Blue Raiders’ third losing season in the last five years. The coach was 113-111 in 18 seasons at MTSU, but this is a “what have you done for me lately?” world, and MTSU hasn’t done much lately.

Houston fired its coach, who had three losing seasons in his five years as the Cougars’ head coach, going 31-28 overall. Houston went 4-8 this year, their first year in the Big X; it is better to be a big fish in a small pond, than a smaller fish in a big pond.

Texas-El Paso fired its coach, after he went 20-49 in six seasons with the Miners.

Texas A&M hired Duke coach Mike Elko to fill their coaching vacancy; he was 16-9 in two years as Duke’s coach- before that, he was the defensive coordinator at Texas A&M. Aggies just fired their head coach, even though he had a 45-25 record. 

Mississippi State hired Oklahoma OC Jeff Lebby; since 2019, his offenses have scored 50+ points 14 times, most of anyone in the country during that time. Lebby used to be OC at Ole Miss, the Bulldogs’ biggest rival.

— Random trivia: Back in the mid-1950’s, at Van Nuys High School in Los Angeles, Robert Redford, Don Drysdale and Natalie Wood were all students there.

They must’ve had a really good drama club there, plus you had Roy Hobbs on the same baseball team as a Hall of Fame pitcher. Pretty, pretty good.

— Switching to basketball, VCU beat Penn State Sunday; last spring, the Penn State coach left VCU to go coach at his alma mater, an interesting decision.

My question is this: is Penn State a better basketball coaching job than VCU?

Obviously, they’re in a better league, but Penn State is a football school located in an area that isn’t real close to any basketball hotbeds (190 miles from Philadelphia), while VCU is a basketball school, kind of an eastern version of Gonzaga.

VCU has been in 10 of last 12 NCAA tournaments, under three different coaches; Penn State has been in two NCAA tournaments since 2002 (they would’ve made it had there been a tournament in 2020).

If someone asked me which job was better, without knowing the $$$ end of it, I’d say VCU, because winning is a lot more fun that losing.

— Baseball stuff:
St Louis Cardinals have been aggressive in rebuilding their starting rotation, adding free agent pitchers Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson, Sonny Gray. 

Detroit Tigers added P Kenta Maeda.

Winter meetings start Sunday, should be lot of stuff going on.

— Oakland 78, Xavier 76
Good win for 13-point underdog Oakland, and the Horizon League.
Grizzlies outscored Xavier 12-7 over final 3:49.
Oakland was minus-14 on boards, but shot 69.7% inside arc.

— Utah 78, Saint Mary’s 71
Gaels were picked to win WCC, but they’re off to a shaky 3-4 start.
This was first game in eight days for Utah.
Utes are the tallest college team in America.

— Cal-Santa Barbara 69, Fresno State 65
UCSB was 1-5 on arc for whole game, Fresno 7-31.
Fresno led by 7 with 16:25 left in game.
Gauchos didn’t play any seniors; Fresno started five seniors. 

Eagles 37, Bills 34 OT
— Eagles kicked 59-yard FG in rain on last play to force overtime.
— Eagles’ first seven drives: 28 plays, 93 yards, 7 points.
— Eagles last six drives: 37 plays, 281 yards, 30 points.
— Philly ran ball for 185 yards, was only 4-11 on third down.

— Buffalo led game 17-7 at halftime.
— Bills were 13-22 on third down; they outgained Eagles, 505-378.
— Bills are 2-6 in games decided by 6 or fewer points.
— Buffalo is 3-5 SU in its last eight games

Steelers 16, Bengals 10
— Steelers outgained an opponent for first time all season.
— Nine of eleven Steeler games stayed under the total.
— Last four games, Pittsburgh ran ball for 166-205-172-153 yards.
— Steelers won/covered five of their last seven games.

— Steelers in first half: 37 plays, 231 yards, 3 points.
— Steelers in 2nd half: 31 plays, 203 yards, 13 points.
— Cincy was 2-10 on third down, Pittsburgh 8-17.
— Bengals lost last three games, giving up 26.7 ppg.

Falcons 24, Saints 15
— Saints kicked five field goals, but didn’t score a TD.
— Just third loss for NO in last 14 games against the Falcons.
— Saints are 7-11-1 ATS in last 19 games with spread of 3 or less.
— New Orleans is 4-1 scoring 20+ points, 1-5 scoring less than 20.

— Falcons’ first TD was a 92-yard pick-6.
— Atlanta ran ball for 228 yards, but was outgained, 444-396.
— Last three games, Falcons are 21-40 on third down.
— Underdogs covered Atlanta’s last six games. 

Titans 17, Panthers 10
— Carolina is 0-6 SU/1-5 ATS on road this season.
— In five post-bye games, Panthers scored four TD’s on 46 drives.
— In five post-bye games, Carolina scored 15-13-13-10-10 points. 
— Last seven games, Panthers were outscored 119-52 in first half. 

— Tennessee’s first four drives: 24 plays, 124 yards, 14 points.
— Titans’ 2nd TD drive was 15 yards, after they recovered a fumble.
— Last six games, Tennessee converted 19-70 on third down.
— Tennessee is 4-0 SU at home TY, winning by 3-24-5-7 points.

Colts 27, Buccaneers 20
— Colts’ first three drives: 24 plays, 145 yards, 17 points.
— Indianapolis won its last three games, allowing 13-6-20 points.
— In its last three games, Colts are +5 in turnovers (7-2)
— Colts allowed 20 or less points in wins, 29+ in losses.

— Colts outgained Tampa Bay, 394-298.
— WR Evans caught six passes for 70 yards, two TD’s.
— Mayfield is 36-46 as an NFL starter
— Buccaneers lost six of their last seven games

Giants 10, Patriots 7
— Patriots missed a 35-yard field goal with 0:03 left.
— New England lost last two games, 10-6/10-7.
— Patriots lost seven of their last eight games (1-7 ATS).
— New England is minus-8 in turnovers this year.

— Giants won last two games, giving up 19-7 points.
— Giants’ only TD drive was 26 yards after an INT.
— Last eight games, Giants are +13 in turnovers.
— Last five weeks, Giants are 14-70 on third down. 

Jaguars 24, Texans 21
— QB Lawrence was 23-38/364 passing, with a TD.
— Jaguars won/covered seven of their last eight games.
— Under Pederson, Jaguars are 4-0 ATS as a road favorite.
— Jacksonville scored 9-17-3 points in losses, 20+ points in wins.

— Texans’ 58-yard FG attempt bounced off crossbar with 0:34 left.
— Only 2nd loss for Houston in their last 12 games vs Jaguars.
— Texans’ last five games were decided by 2-2-3-5-3 points.
— Houston is 5-9 ATS in last 14 AFC South home games.

Broncos 29, Browns 12
— Browns used two QB’s, completed 20-42 passes, for 190 yards.
— Cleveland converted only 2-13 third down plays.
— Browns are 11-17-1 ATS in last 28 games with spread of 3 or less points.
— under is 6-3 in last nine Cleveland games.

— Denver’s first three drives: 26 plays, 139 yards, 14 points.
— Last four games, Denver is +12 in turnovers (15-3).
— Broncos outscored last four opponents 61-33 in first half.
— Broncos won last four games, giving up 17-9-22-20 points.

Rams 37, Cardinals 14
— Rams win consecutive games for first time this season.
— LA scored TD on its first drive of game, first time in last six games.
— Rams ran ball for 228 yards, their most this season.
— LA is 4-0 giving up 16 or less points, 1-6 giving up 19+ points.

— First half yardage: Rams 287, Arizona 102.
— last four games, Cardinals are 13-50 on third down.
— Rams won 14 of last 16 games against the Cardinals.
— LA covered its last nine visits to Arizona.

Chiefs 31, Raiders 17
— Chiefs’ first two drives: 7 plays, 13 yards, no points.
— Chiefs’ next five drives: 39 plays, 305 yards, 28 points.
— Game was 14-14 at halftime; Chiefs scored 17 points in 2nd half.
— Chiefs are 11-5 ATS in last 16 games coming off a loss.

— Raiders’ first three drives: 25 plays, 221 yards, 14 points.
— Raiders rest of game: 35 plays, 137 yards, 3 points.
— Las Vegas is 3-17 in its last 20 games against Kansas City.
— Raiders are 12-18 ATS in last 30 games coming off a loss.

Ravens 20, Chargers 10
— Baltimore ran ball for 197 yards, was +4 in turnovers
— Ravens are 9-1 when they score 20+ points, 0-2 if they do not.
— Flowers had 37-yard run with 1:36 left to cover the spread.
— Ravens won six of last seven games (5-2 ATS).

— Chargers are 2-5 since their bye, with three losses by 3 points.
— under Staley, Chargers are 2-4-1 ATS as a home underdog.
— under is 7-1-1 in last eight Charger games.
— AFC West teams are 13-19 ATS outside the division.

Texas A&M 73, Iowa State 69
Cyclones led 35-14 late in first half. 
Teams combined to shoot 15-58 on the arc.

Stetson 85, Central Florida 82
ASUN’s Hatters trailed 21-8 early, made 13-30 on the arc.

VCU 86, Penn State 74
Penn State’s coach was VCU’s coach the last six years.

Florida Atlantic 84, Virginia Tech 50
Owls win tournament at Disney’s Wide World of Sports
They beat teams from Big East, Big X, ACC this weekend.

— Alabama 27, Auburn 24
Alabama threw a 31-yard TD pass on 4th-and-31 with 0:32 left for the win.
Auburn turned ball over three times, was 6-17/93 yards passing.
Crimson Tide plays Georgia in the SEC title game next week.

— Michigan 30, Ohio State 24
First time since 1997 that Michigan beat Buckeyes three years in a row.
Ryan Day is 56-7 at OSU with two Big Ten titles, but he is 1-3 vs Michigan.
Buckeyes outgained Michigan 378-338, but were minus-2 in turnovers.

— Washington 24, Washington State 21
Huskies kicked a 42-yard FG at the gun to finish 12-0 in regular season.
Coogs outgained Washington, 381-306 but had 10 penalties for 85 yards.
Wazzu lost seven of last eight games, after a 4-0 start. 

Kid who kicked the game-winning FG was put on scholarship after the game, which seems fair, seeing how Washington will likely make the playoffs for the national title now.

— Florida State 24, Florida 15
Gators led this game 12-7 at halftime; they finish season 5-7.
Neither starting QB played in this game; yardage was 232-226, Florida.
Seminoles finish regular season 12-0, play in ACC title game next week.

— Kentucky 38, Louisville 31
Cardinals led 10-7 at halftime, 24-14 with 2:00 left in 3rd quarter.
Kentucky had a 31-yard TD run with 1:02 left for the win.
Wildcats beat Louisville for fifth time in a row.

— Iowa State 42, Kansas State 35
Cyclones had touchdown PLAYS of 71-77-79-60-33-82 yards.
Iowa State averaged 19.2 yards per pass, 12.7 yards/run.
K-State led 20-14 at halftime, on a snowy night in the Little Apple.

— Upsets of the Week:
Iowa State (+10) 42, Kansas State 35
California (+9) 33, UCLA 7
Kentucky (+7.5) 38, Louisville 31
Texas State (+6.5) 52, South Alabama 44
Eastern Michigan (+6.5) 24, Buffalo 11
Northwestern (+5.5) 45, Illinois 43
San Diego State (+5) 33, Fresno State 18

— Word of the Day: Perseverence- persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.

— Michigan State hired Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith as its new coach.
Smith was 34-35 in six seasons at Oregon State, his alma mater.
When a coach bolts a job at his alma mater, where he played QB, that stings.
Smith was 34-35 in Corvallis, but the last two years, Beavers were 18-7.
Oregon State is without a league right now, with Pac-12 out of business; they got left behind with Washington State in all the re-alignment.

— Northwestern 45, Illinois 43
Illinois threw an 80-yard TD pass with 0:55 left, but their 2-point play failed.
Northwestern is 7-5; they scored 14 or less points in all five losses.
In their last five games, Wildcats were +9 in turnovers.

— Old Dominion 25, Georgia State 24
Georgia State led 21-0 at halftime, 24-14 with 2:00 left in game.
Old Dominion scored on a 3-yard run on last play of the game for the win.
Monarchs became bowl eligible with the dramatic win.

— San Jose State 37, UNLV 31
Spartans led this game 20-10 at halftime. 

San Jose ran ball 40 times for 233 yards (5.8 yards/carry).
Mountain West ends in a 3-way tie; computer rankings will decide who plays in the MW championship game next weekend.

— West Virginia 34, Baylor 31
Baylor’s Richard Reese ran kickoffs back 96-93 yards, both for touchdowns.
West Virginia still led 27-14 at halftime.
Both teams averaged 10.8 yards/pass attempt.

— LSU 42, Texas A&M 30
Underdog Aggies led 17-14 at halftime; their 3rd-string QB played.
LSU QB Daniels was 16-24/235 yards passing, ran 11 times for 120 yards
A&M outgained the Bayou Bengals, 390-389.

— Oklahoma State 40, BYU 34 OT
BYU led 24-6 at halftime.
Cougars kicked a 48-yard FG at the gun to force OT.
Gordon ran ball 34 times for 166 yards and five TD’s for OSU. 

Packers 29, Lions 22
Packers won three of last four games, after an 0-4 skid.
Green Bay averaged 8.4 yards/pass attempt.
Last four games, Green Bay is 27-55 on third down.
Packers are 13-7-1 ATS in last 21 games as a road underdog.

Packers led 23-6 at halftime.
Green Bay ran fumble back for TD to take 20-6 lead.
Last two games, Lions turned ball over 7 times on 20 drives.
Detroit lost its last seven Thanksgiving games. 

Cowboys 45, Commanders 10
Cowboys’ first four drives: 26 plays, 263 yards, 3 TD’s.
Cowboys averaged 10.3 yards/pass attempt.
Dallas won its five home games TY by 20-35-23-32-35 points.
Dallas is 16-4 ATS in last 20 NFC East home games.

Dallas outscored Commanders 25-0 in second half.
Washington lost eight of last ten games SU (4-5-1 ATS)
Washington is 3-1 giving up 17 or less points, 1-7 giving up more than 17.
Opponents’ team total: over 9-3

49ers 31, Seahawks 13
49ers ran ball for 169 yards, led 24-3 at halftime.
SF outgained the Seahawks, 377-220.
49ers are 8-4-1 ATS in last 13 games NFC West road games.
SF scored 34-27-31 points in winning its three post-bye games.

Seattle’s only TD was a pick-6 in third quarter.
Seahawks are 0-5 when they score less than 20 points.
Last five games, Seattle converted only 17-64 third down plays.
Seahawks are 3-6 ATS in last nine NFC West home games.

Dolphins 34, Jets 13
Miami scored on a 99-yard pick-6 on last play of first half.
Dolphins were 11-16 on third down, Jets 5-14.
Favorites are 9-1 ATS in Miami’s last ten games.
Waddle had 114 receiving yards, Hill had 102.

Jets in first half: 19 plays, 37 yards, INT run back for a TD.
Miami outgained Gang Green, 395-159
Jets lost last four games, by combined 109-37.
Under Saleh, Jets are 15-22 ATS as an underdog

— Washington Commanders fired DC Jack Del Rio after Washington’s 45-10 loss in Dallas on Thursday. HC Ron Rivera is expected to call defensive signals the rest of the year.

— Jets’ WR Allen Lazard was a healthy scratch Friday; he is making $12M this year, after coming over from Green Bay.

Meanwhile, the Packers’ seven WR’s are earning a combined $7.5M this season.

— Word of the Day: Scapegoat- a person who is blamed for the wrongdoings, mistakes, or faults of others, to take the focus off the person/people who made the mistakes. 

— Ohio State 92, Alabama 81- Buckeyes start four sophomores, Alabama start four seniors; OSU shot 10-18 on the arc. Buckeye G Thornton scored 29 points (13-14 on foul line).

— Baylor 95, Florida 91- Bears shot 14-25 on the arc, scored 1.21 points/possession; game was 41-41 at halftime.

— Florida Atlantic 96, Texas A&M 89- Owls made 16-30 on the arc; their last two wins are over Big East/SEC teams. Not a lot of defense in this game; Aggies scored 1.33 points/possession, and they lost, which almost never happens.

— Villanova 79, Memphis 63- Wildcats were winning this game 44-14 at one point; Memphis outscored them 34-15 over the last 10:00, still lost by 16.

Villanova won its last four games, all against top 60 teams.

— Oklahoma 72, USC 70- Sooners tipped in a shot for the win with 0:01 left in game; they trailed by 8 with 17:29 left to play.

— Evansville 85, Chattanooga 77 OT- Mocs led by 20 with 11:40 left in game; they were 14-41 on the arc, 14-28 inside arc. Evansville is 5-0 this season vs schedule #322, forcing turnovers 24.3% of time (#11 in country).

— Indiana State 76, Toledo 74- Rockets led by 5 with 4:58 left, got outscored 14-7 rest of the way; Toledo has lost three games in a row, giving up 92-77-76 points.

— Movie of the Day: Less Than Zero (1987)- A college freshman returns to Los Angeles for the holidays at his ex-girlfriend’s request, but discovers that his former best friend has an out-of-control drug habit.

Andrew McCarthy/Robert Downey Jr are the friends, Jamie Gertz is girlfriend. This is a good movie, but not a very pleasant one, because the one character is so self-destructive.

In real life, Jamie Gertz has represented the Atlanta Hawks at the NBA Draft Lottery a couple times; she’s been married to Hawks’ owner Anthony Ressler since 1989.

— LSU’s football team won the 2019 national championship; 30 players from that team have played in the NFL. Thirty!!!!

— NFL needs to fix their onside kick rule; no one recovers onside kicks anymore, they need to go to the gimmick rule they use in one of the spring leagues.

Team A trails by 10 with 1:00 left, they score a TD, now trail by 3. Instead of an onside kick, Team A gets the ball on their own 30-yard line, 4th-and-15, and the teams play on from there. I’m telling you, this would make the end of close games a lot more interesting.

— In case you were wondering, the record for most pick-6’s in a career is Rod Woodson, with 12.

— BYU has a basketball player Spencer Johnson who is 26 years old; he’s older than Jayson Tatum, who has been in the NBA for seven years.

— Princeton Tigers are off to a 5-0 start; they’re first college basketball team in the last 15 years to start a season 5-0, with four true road wins.