No time to dilly dally.
From the "Talks too much" studios, let's roll.
Weekend winners
UTC men's basketball coach Matt McCall shouts instructions during a scrimmage last month. The Mocs face NCAA Division III member Covenant College in an exhibition game Friday and open the season Nov. 13 at Georgia.UTC. Wow. What a weekend. Let's start with basketball on Friday, with the women - who opened the season ranked in the top 25, a fact that we have underplayed in retrospect - winning their home opener. In Athens, Ga., the men upset UGA behind a balanced an impressive offensive showing to put Matt McCall No. 1 all time in winning percentage among all college basketball coaches ever. (Well, at 1.000, he's no worse than tied for first.) Then the Mocs football team on Saturday handled its BID-ness (and in this case, BID-ness is doubly appropriate) to make sure this star-laden senior class will play beyond Saturday's regular-season finale at Florida State. Add in the volleyball win Friday that gave UTC a share of the SoCon title, and as TFP ace sports columnist Mark Weidmer pointed out, it was a weekend UTC will always remember.
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger (7) prepares to throw in the first quarter of an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2015, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) Ben Roethlisberger. OK, dude has been battered all year, and was supposed to miss two weeks after spraining his left foot last week. Well, he talked his way into dressing out and being the back-up. Then when Landry Jones was injured, all Big Ben did was come in and top Wade Wilson's record of 374 passing yards in a relief role. Roethlisberger threw for 379 as the Steelers continued to duct tape their way toward the playoffs with a 30-9 win over the Browns.
Steph and the Warriors. Golden State is 11-0 and looks every bit the part of a team committed to making a run at the record of 72 wins. Led by Steph Curry, last year's MVP, the Warriors are rolling. How special has Curry been? Dude is averaging a shade more than 33 points per game and his five 3s on Sunday allowed him to move into 40th place in the history of the NBA. He passed his father Dell. In fact, Curry is borderline Ruthian right now shooting the 3-ball. Curry set the single-season record with 286 3s. He's on pace to make 425 3s this season, which would be like Babe Ruth in 1920, when he set the MLB record with 54 homers. He had set the record the previous year with 29. And anytime you are doing anything that draws comparisons to Babe Ruth and home runs, you are winning at life.
Baker Mayfield and the Oklahoma Sooners. Who knew that the kid that tortured Tennessee in the fourth quarter back in September would have rallied his bunch to a the brink of the college football playoff and be on the short list of Heisman candidates? The Sooners rolled Baylor and now have an angle on the college football playoff, and Mayfield is a large reason why. He also has a nice collection of weapons led by Joe Mixon and Sterling Shepard.
Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals went to Seattle and grabbed the NFC West by the throat on Sunday night with a 39-32 win.
Bonus pick: Alabama. Is there any doubt who the best team in the country is? Not if you have watched Alabama more than once. Here's saying that on a neutral field Alabama is at least a seven-point favorite over Clemson, and at least a four-point favorite over every team in the country.
New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski (87) breaks a tackle by New York Giants' Craig Dahl (43) on the way to a touchdown during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday Nov. 15, 2015, in East Rutherford, N.J. The Patriots won 27-26. (AP Photo/Gary Hershorn) Bonus pick, II: The New England Patriots simply find ways to win, and that deserves compliments.
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Weekend losers
All of us. The events of Friday night in Paris were horrific and a painful reminder of the evil in the world. And we firmly believe this: the scumbags that parlay in terror will target a sporting event sooner rather than later. There were metal detectors and bomb sniffing dogs outside of NFL games Sunday, and that will be the norm across all sizable venues.
Pac 12. With losses by Stanford and Utah - two top-10 teams who were upset this Saturday - the Pac 12 winner will have at least two losses. That means unless college football becomes the crazies thing this side of "The Benny Hill Show" over the next two weeks, the Pac 12 will be left on the outside looking in at the college football playoff. You may think that would have catapulted No. 5-ranked Notre Dame into the winner's column this weekend, as the Irish now have a better chance to get into the dance, but Notre Dame would have preferred to face a one-loss Stanford in two weeks.
Ronda Rousey. Wow, that was a beatdown. And in some ways the entire sport took a body blow since its biggest star was left in a bloody heap Saturday night. (Side note: This has a real chance to be the Buster Douglas-over-Tyson moment that all-but killed heavyweight boxing.) And since the no-name that knocked out Rousey did it with a straight-forward boxing style, can we stop any debate whether she could handle a run of the mill male boxer, never mind Floyd Mayweather?
Auburn's offense. Gross.
NFL bettors. OK, it's pretty common knowledge that most of the betting public prefers to back favorites because they are better teams and taking the points with, say the Giants over the Patriots, is scary. Well, more evidence that Vegas is smart: Sunday the NFL underdogs went 10-2 against the spread with nine outright upsets. Yes, that's how they build those fancy buildings with 13 pools.
Kevin Harvick drives out of Turn 4 during the the NASCAR Sprint Cup series auto race at Phoenix International Raceway, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2015, in Avondale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ralph Freso) NASCAR. For the most part the season-ending playoff has added a fair amount of drama. Still, the lengthy rain-delay and the early-morning finish was a microcosm of the entire season for most sports fans. That leaves a couple of questions. First, the philosophical, if a NASCAR race happens in the forest and there's rally no one there to see it, does it happen? Secondly, and more seriously, considering it takes tens of millions to operate those teams and the sponsors are getting harder and harder to come by, how much will NASCAR be different a decade from now?
Bonus pick: Baltimore Ravens. In a glass case of emotion, the spiraling Ravens invented a new way to lose. And this time to the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Ravens got a 15-yard facemasking penalty sacking Blake Bortles on the final play of the game. That led to a 54-yard field goal on a non-timed down for a 22-20 Jacksonville win.
Bonus pick, II: We need to get to the point where the NFL catch rule in the end zone is better worded and more clear. It seems like once a week now we have a wide out who certainly looks like he made the catch only to be overruled by verbiage of "football move."
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Manning for all reasons
We like to list winners and losers around these parts on Monday. Our suggestions are above.
We are left with a quandary this morn, though.
In which category does Peyton Manning fall?
Dude put his name atop the all-time passing yards list, an accomplishment that is on the short list of the best in sports. (Side note: He got a video congratulations from former record-holder Brett Favre, who shot it as he was in a tree stand. Yes, that happened.)
Statistically, Peyton is the best to every play the position. His numbers are second-to-none, and he now has career records for yards (71,871) and touchdowns (539) and is second in completions and sixth in passer rating.
The yards record came Sunday, and it's one of his finest moments. And it came in his worst game by far.
Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning (18) throws during the first half of an NFL football game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2015, in Denver. (AP Photo/Joe Mahoney) Manning completed five passes to Broncos and four to Chiefs. He was 5-of-20 for 35 yards with the four picks and was replaced by Brock Osweiler. The reports Monday stated Manning had a partial tear in his plantar fasciitis. Details were still coming
Manning's fall - be it physically because of the injuries or mentally because he can't make the throws he used to - has been staggering. He says he's making bad decisions and that's the issue more than the injuries. Either way, Manning's limitations - he's thrown only three TDs and seven picks on numbers outside the numbers - allow opposing defenses to crowd the line of scrimmage because Manning can't stretch the field.
The Broncos have a championship-level defense, but - and this is hard to believe that we're actually typing this - the deficiencies at quarterback have put coach Gary Kubiak in quite a pickle.
Do you replace a first-ballot Hall of Famer? He pulled Manning on Sunday, and said it was done to protect Manning from further injury. Kubiak also said that if Manning is healthy, he is Denver's quarterback.
But Manning is an uber-star, and the final act of the supremely elite can be fraught with greatness and pain.
We can all agree that this will almost assuredly be Peyton's last year. How it ends - and how the images of this final season will unfold - is a great unknown for a renowned great.
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This and that
- Man, what is a trusted kicker worth in today's NFL? Consider this: Four of the 12 games Sunday were decided on a final kick
- Here's Gary Pinkel's emotional speech after his team beat BYU on Saturday night. In an overly emotional sport in which careers are shaped, this has been an extremely emotional week for the Missouri football program. It was one of three tough losses for the Fab 4 picks, which went 4-3 last week.
- Speaking of emotion, kudos to the Army Cadets, who charged onto the field Saturday carrying the American Flag and the flag of France in tribute to those who died after the terrorist attacks outside of Paris. Well-played indeed.
- We mentioned Big Ben earlier, and of course it happened against Cleveland - everyone's first pick among the teams who would force a starting QB out of the game only to have the back-up torch them. That said, there was something of note on the Browns' side too. Cleveland quarterback John Manziel, Esq., threw for a career-best 372 yards and a score. He has been a lightning rod for criticism, but the gunslinger formerly known as Johnny Football played well Sunday. You have to leave him in for the rest of the season to see what he can do at this point, right?
- Crazy stat of the weekend: Detroit running back Ameer Abdullah had a 104-yard kickoff return in which he fell a yard short of a TD. It's tied for the longest non-scoring play in NFL history.
- Where will it end? According to this report, the Atlanta Braves are shopping Freddie Freeman. Buckets. Last Brave in the clubhouse please turn off the lights.
- CBS has decided to preempt shows that had story lines too similar to the Paris attacks.
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Today's question
Weekend winners and losers are gladly accepted.
As for a Rushmore, let's tip the cap to unbelievable start for Steph Curry, and let's do a Rushmore of pure shooters in NBA history?
Whatcha' got?