Weekend winners
Graham Gano. Dude made a 63-yard field goal to win the game for the Carolina Panthers. In a sport that is based in physical violence and life-shortening collisions, there may not be a player in the locker room other than the quarterback who is more important in today’s 3-points, this way, 3-points that way NFL than the kicker. And man, oh man, can you imagine the pressure, the angst and the joy a kicker – who stands off to the side during practice, collects millions as these modern-day gladiators trade years for yards – feels walking on the field and back to the sideline depending on whether he kicks an oblong ball made of pigskin through a big H.
Rookie quarterbacks. Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Josh Allen and Josh Rosen each started and each team won. That’s not a regular occurrence.
This Astros fan. We have more on postseason baseball, but this is a dude after our own heart. He told his section that if George Spring homered on the next pitch, beers on him. A dinger later and $500 in beers and we all know who has 2 thumbs and title of “Most popular dude in his section. That guy.
Texas. A return to the top 10. Check. A monster win over hated Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry. (Side note: We are so politically correct now that the word ‘Rivalry’ is too inflammatory? Seriously? When did this change to the Red River Showdown and who do we need to see to make this nonsense stop? Dear Lord of semantics and Emily Post Etiquette getting in the way of my college football.)
Notre Dame. The Irish are now No. 5 in the country. They will be a favorite in every game they have left on their schedule. (Heck, Navy may be their toughest hurdle with the way USC has looked at times.) And friends, like it or not, believe it them or not, an unbeaten Irish bunch is headed to the college football playoff.
Auburn junior running back Kam Martin / Wade Rackley/Auburn photo
Weekend losers
Mason Crosby. Dude missed five kicks – four field-goal tries and a PAT – as Green Bay lost to Detroit 31-23. Do the math. Now know this: The Lions have a three-game winning streak over Green Bay. The last time that happened the starting quarterbacks were Erik Kramer and Mike Tomczak.
Jason Garrett. It’s time right? It’s time for the Cowboys to part ways with Garrett, after his gutless decision to punt on fourth-and-1 from inside the Texans’ 42. In overtime. With a chance to win the game. And to make things worse, the Cowboys were in the same spot earlier in that game, went for it and got it. To make matters even more worse, Dallas is 18-for-19 on fourth-and-1 since drafting Ezekiel Elliott and Dak Prescott. Yes, this more than a gutless call from a big bad football coach who calls for courage and commitment from his players. It was a witless call too.
Auburn. I am sick to my stomach and still not able to talk about the absolute joke of an offensive effort the Tigers dropped in Starkville. Seriously. How about this for a phrase I never expected to type: It may very well be time to replace Jarrett Stidham at quarterback. That was awful from everyone involved in that offense, from the top to the last man on the depth chart. Awful.
FSU. Willie Taggart’s bunch is 1-3 to start ACC and that one was a gift from a dreadful Louisville bunch that Tech walked to the woodshed. Wow. It maybe worse in Tallahassee than it is Auburn, especially considering that Dan Mullen is rolling in Gainesville, and Mark Richt is recruiting his buzz cut off in Coral Gables. Not sure we’re ready for a place in college football in which FSU and NC State are interchangeable.
NFL officials. It feels like we are discussing this every Monday, right? And we know that all coaches complain about the officials, but when winning coaches are banging the drum like Mike Tomlin did Sunday, t’s bad. And when players are refusing to sack a quarterback because they are worried about a penalty, well, that’s simply incomprehensible.
The Fab 4 picks. Yes, we went 4-2. Over in Alabama, which cruised. Notre Dame minus-6. Georgia Southern minus-13.5. Northwestern plus-11. We were a smidge from a season-making weekend considering we left Georgia Tech on the cutting room floor. (And even pegged that one on Friday’s Press Row.) We left the under in Auburn’s game and Georgia there too. As for the losses, well, Syracuse was about to cover until a last-second score and an overtime interception offered a somewhat painful beat. But in truth, we are in the weekend losers category for giving simply the worst pick ewe have every offered in our time doing this. We were blinded by loyalty and offered UNLV minus-9.5 over New Mexico. We failed to check the injury report and did not know that Armani Rogers, the 6-foot-5 athletic quarterback that is the trigger man of the Runnin’ Rebels runnin’ game is out for the next six weeks with a broken foot. That’s unacceptable and complete trash – like Auburn’s offense. For the season, we are 23-16-1 against the number. That’s 62.2 percent.
The New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge hits a home run during the first inning of Saturday night’s AL Division Series game against the Red Sox in Boston.Playoff baseball
We mentioned the power of the ‘er’ months – September, October, November – when it comes to baseball and the drama.
Every pitch means more. Every move matters. Every thing feels bigger and better. (And slower, sadly. It took almost 4 hours for the Braves and Dodgers to play 8 and a half innings last night.)
Still the goods far outweighed the bad, and truth be told, we watched way more Braves-Dodgers than Cowboys-Texans last night. How about you/ (Yes, that’s a regional and even personal bias all things considered and we’re not saying the NLDS going up against Sunday Night Football will be even, but still.)
Let’s review some of the baseball fun from the weekend:
There were these Baby Braves, with a young starting pitcher battling nerves, some young, hard-throwing bullpen arms battling Dodgers sluggers, and a possible future face of this game – Mr. Acuna if you’re nasty – becoming the youngest big-leaguer to ever hit a grand slam in a playoff game. (Side question: Guy who says Grand Salami instead of Grand Slam, friend or foe? Discuss.)
There was grizzled veteran Brian Snitker truly managing like there was no tomorrow Sunday night. Pulled Sean Newcomb quickly because he was fighting with his control. Went up and down his roster and his bullpen against the high-payrolled and extremely deep Dodgers, matching moves throughout despite, in terms of bench and options, Snitker was swinging a butter knife and Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts had Excaliber. (Excellent work as always from TFP ace sports columnist Mark Wiedmer here on Snitker and his rightful claim to NL Manager of the Year honors. Well-played indeed.)
There was a Braves crowd rocking Sun Trust that made a lot of us fondly remember the energy in Fulton County, circa 1991-2-and-3.
There was the Friday night dominance of Clayton Kershaw, who certainly knows that his status among the game’s all-timers depends on his ability to rewrite his personal narrative in the ‘er’ months.
There was the Yankees’ road win in Boston, which means that series likely will go five games, and is there anything better in the sport than a win-or-go-home meeting between Red Sox and Yankees? We think not.
There was an impressive sweep of by the Milwaukee Brewers, who made quick work of the road-weary Rockies. And for those bemoaning the Rockies’ jumbled schedule, well, here’s an idea: Win more games in the non-‘er’ months.
There’s the hope that Bob Uecker – the all-time great voice of the Brewers – may be involved for another day in the sunshine. There’s hope that those old, great, 1980s Brewers teams with those money uniforms, one of the best logos ever and a glorious collection of guys who looked like slow-pitch softball players like Gordon Thomas, Cecil Cooper, Ted Simmons, Robin Yount, and especially Pete Vuckovich (who played Clu Haywood, who led the league in most offensive categories, including nose hair in “Major League”) will get some love. And then there’s the story of Eric Kratz, the 38-year-old journeyman catcher for Milwaukee who was mashing Rockies pitching. Kratz is the oldest position player since Lave Cross in 1905 to make his postseason debut, and when asked about that, Katz said, “We played together in rookie ball.” Baseball – heck sports in general – needs more Eric Kratz.
There was the Astros looking the part of power player in this postseason like a defending champ is supposed to.
Good times.
This and that
– Speaking of the over in the Alabama game, we are seriously at a point that there’s no way to feel safe with an under bet on the Tide. Check out the Alabama stats from Saturday, and yes, Arkansas defensively is nothing excellent. (The Hogs allowed more than 30 points to Auburn for Pete’s sake.) Here’s the number that jumps off the page: Alabama averaged 28.1 yards a completion and a mind-numbing 21.8 yards per passing attempt. That’s insane. And if we see Alabama vs. THE Ohio State in a semifinal the over/under will likely be in the high 70s and at this pace, it could approach 90. Seriously.
– The action in the Octagon on Saturday night was fast and furious for all the fights including the headliner in which some dude who’s name makes Coach K’s and Tua T.’s look like Smith and Jones whipped Conor McGregor. But all the news came after the fights. First there was this heavyweight in his post-fight interview when asked why he took his pants off, and his answer – “My balls is hot” (sic) – makes a lot of sense. Then there was the melee after the McGregor fight and the fallout from that which may include criminal charges as well as fines and suspensions. That said, the MMA powers that be can cool all the faux outrage. This is how you guys promote your sport. The adrenaline. The testosterone and the machismo. The anger and the smack talking. And when it boils over, well, duh. And one more thing about the misplaced hand-wringing from Dana White and folks. Here’s betting that McGregor and unbeaten Khabib Nurmagomedov will a) have a rematch, b) the post-fight fight videos will be part of the hype of said rematch, and c) the rematch will make MMA history and White and the MMA bigwigs will gladly cash those checks.
– Man, we hope Steve Spurrier has saved his coins. Or maybe his latest commercial campaign is about the Ol’ Ball Coach trying to stay in the spotlight. Here’s the ‘interview” about after the Gators beat LSU, which meant that Spurrier won his ‘bet’ with Les Miles. It was all done for Dos Equis, and Spurrier even changed his title to the Ol Beer Coach. Uh, OBC, you called some great ball plays. Your beer call, though, well, we’ll just say no es bueno. The Head Beer Coach… Say it ain’t so Steve.
– NASCAR raced. Some white dude won. A lot of us still long for the old days. Rinse. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
– In truth, we are surprised this does not happen more often in NFL locker rooms. Here’s Broncos defensive end Derek Wolfe sounding off about “the same (bleep) the last two years” that has cost the Broncos. There’s a whole lot of truth in what Wolfe is saying, but there’s a lot of blindness too. Wolfe and the defense gave up 512 yards to the flippin’ Jets. Wowser.
– From an astute reader we thought we’d share this nomination. “Paul Johnson. Georgia Tech threw two passes. And scored 59 points on offense. Of the last 18 drives that weren’t effectively end of game clock-kilerls, Georgia Tech has scored on 17 of them. They are almost Alabama like in proficiency. And getting the last laugh on Brian VanGorder. Seriously, how does this guy keep getting work?”
– Speaking of coaches who are running low on time. Wonder in Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy will allow players to answer questions about what it’s like to lose in Stillwater to Iowa State?
Today’s questions
Weekend winners and losers. Go.
From Darren Rovell Twitter: “This Day In 1956: Don Larsen throws what is still the only perfect game in World Series history. He immediately earns $35,000 in endorsements ($330K in today’s $). Larsen finishes mediocre career with a record of 81-91. In 2012, Larsen sold his jersey from the game for $756,000.” That jersey selling thing was a sound decisions.
As for today, Oct. 8, well, let’s review. Anyhoo, it’s also Alvin C. York Day. So there’s that.
Matt Damon is 48 today. It’s Columbus Day. Seriously, since he, you know, discovered the country, shouldn’t Columbus Day be a little bigger. Heck, who are we kidding, we are likely a few years removed from folks wanting to do away with Columbus day because he invaded the native’s land and may or may not had too much vino during college. (Looking it up, today also is Native American Day, because, well, you know.)
It’s also National Kick Butt Day.
Rushmore of most iconic movie fights. Go.