Weekend winners – non Tiger Woods version
UTC. The FCS polls will be released today. Expect the UTC Fightin’ Arths to be part of it. UTC delivered an impressive 27-20 win over 17th-ranked Samford on Saturday night. Also of note: UTC drew more than 10,000 folks Saturday night – the biggest crowd in Arth’s year-plus with the Mocs.
Old Dominion. Losses to Liberty (52-10), Charlotte (28-25) and FIU (28-20) set the table for the Monarchs to be a four-TD underdog at home against previously unbeaten Virginia Tech. ODU of course drops a 49-35 win on the Hokies that surprises everyone. (It’s also a loss that really hurts the ACC’s perception. Clemson has no mulligans in that league friends.)
Mike Vrabel. Monster win for a Titans team that may have the most challenged offense in the NFL. The Titans are averaging a little more than 16 points per and are 2-1 with a monster road win over AFC South favorite Jacksonville. The Titans are 29th in total yards per game with 284 yards per game and 29th per game with 162 passing yards per game and . They are 30th in points per game at 16.3 per game. Somehow though – with injuries to Taylor Lewan and Delanie Walker – Vrabel’s team is 2-1. Kudos.
Golf in general. Wow, what a springboard for NBC, which may have won the Sunday late window against the Dallas Cowboys on Fox. Plus, the Tiger effect now carries NBC (and the Golf Channel) into a very intriguing Ryder Cup with a whole lot of star power. (Seriously, if the Ryder Cup is tight and let’s say it’s Tiger vs. Rory or Tiger vs. Sergio or Tiger vs. Justin Rose possibly in a key singles match Sunday, that TV number, even with the time change, could be surprisingly big.)
The Braves. Atlanta swept for games from the visiting Phillies to cap its home season at Sun Trust with an NL East-clinching win on Saturday. It also capped the best home attendance season (2,505,297) since 2007. Atlanta is 88-68, and by every measure this season has been filled with overachievements and pleasant surprises. We’ll have more on the Braves later this week. Deal? Deal.
Kentucky. Yes, UK makes the list long before basketball season. (Man, we are in a strange sports place in which Big Blue is top-20 in college football and talking realistically about a possible New Year’s Six Bowl game, and Tennessee is counting down the days until college basketball season starts. We’re through the looking glass people.) The Wildcats punished Mississippi State and is ranked 17th in the country at 4-0.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo (10) throws against the Tennessee Titans during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/John Hefti)Weekend losers (bare with us because there are more than a few)
The 5-at-10 Survivor Pool. The a nice chunk of the field – including the 5-at-10 – was hammered in Week 1 when the Lions lost to a rookie starting quarterback. It was nothing compared to the carnage left after Buffalo – a 17-point home underdog to Minnesota – crushed the Vikings Sunday. The last time a 17-point underdog won? It was December 1995, when a dreadful Washington team beat a resting Dallas team. We now have roughly 10 or so folks left in the pool because, well, the NFL is the NFL.
Scott Frost. Wowser, Nebraska is dreadful and was down 39-0 before the intermission on its trip to Ann Arbor. Nebraska lost 56-10 and is bagel-and-3 for the first time since 1945. Read that again.
The Patriots. Yes, the NFL is the NFL, and those things happen. But that Patriots team looked slow – against Detroit mind you – and was never competitive – against Detroit mind you – in a lackluster 26-10 loss – to Detroit mind you. And to make the puzzling issues even more puzzling, a Jacksonville team that punished New England last weekend looked awful in a 9-6 loss to Tennessee.
The 49ers. Teams win and lose in Week 3 of the NFL, that’s part of the equation. But the 49ers – a trendy pick to contend for a playoff spot – lost the game and watched as Jimmy Garropolo tore his ACL.
Every UT football coach since Johnny Majors. Follow along. Jeremy Pruitt’s team got housed – ab-SO-lutely housed – in its house by a mediocre-at-best Florida team. (The best move he made Saturday as the Gators were scoring the most points ever in Neyland was kicking the kid off the field that refused to go back into the game.) As for the final score, yes, Felipe Franks was the starting QB of the Florida team that put the biggest number on the board in Knoxville. Not Tebow. Or Wuerffel. Not even Spurrier, as a Heisman winner or as a pain in the Coors coach. And the ripples of blame go back to the end of the Fulmer era, the terrible one-year fling with the flavor of the month that was Lane Kiffin, the decision to hand the keys Derek Dooley (who hired Sal – SAAAALLLLLLLLL!!!!! – Sunersi), landing fifth-overall-choice Butch Jones, the most galvanizing and putrid coaching search ever and now Jeremy Pruitt. Yes, it’s four games in. Yes, we must all reserve judgement on Pruitt. Yes, yes, yes. But Florida did very little and beat Tennessee’s eyes out 47-21 because UT turned the ball over, was sloppy in every fashion and looked like they don’t practice. This is not all of Jeremy Pruitt. There’s a slew of layers to the Big Orange Onion of blame. But Pruitt is not without blame either, because everyone with a T on Saturday night in Knoxville looked over matched. Pruitt included.
Football officiating. OK, we have said multiple times that the replays that slow the flow on every score are understandable but also completely momentum halting as a viewer. Wow. And now we are hearing experts asking for more replays, especially when it comes to the controversial roughing the passer calls that are dominating conversation around the league right now. And Clay Matthews has a legit beef with his third roughing the passer penalty in as many weeks. Here’s a tweet from ESPN NFL Insider Louis Riddick, who simply is as good discussing the NFL as anyone out there: “There are more egregious helmet to helmet hits taking place on every play that put players in much more danger that are NOT being called that should be…yet Clay Matthews getting flagged for today’s sack of Alex Smith? Don’t ruin the game #nfl…be careful.”
Andrew Luck. OK, we all should be very concerned about Luck’s longterm abilities throwing the football. Follow along: Luck is throwing everything to check-down receivers. Everything. He has completed more than 68 percent of his passes through three games bit a for a paltry 5.34 yard super attempt. That’s wretched. Sunday at Philly! Philly! he completed 25 passes for 164 yards on 40 attempts (that’s 6.56 per completion and 4.1 per attempt, which is staggeringly bad). Now comes the really discouraging news for those of us who thought Luck was going to take the baton from Rodgers at some point: With his surgically repaired shoulder, Luck’s longest pass of the season traveled 42.8 yards according to NFL Next Gen stats. And that fact – nor the lack of strength in Luck’s arm – was not lost on the Colts on Sunday. When Indy had one last chance at a Hail Mary on Sunday from its 46, the Colts sent Jacoby Brissett into the game to throw last-second prayer. No es bueno amigos.
Tiger Woods celebrates on the 18th green Sunday at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta after winning the Tour Championship. Woods, whose career was derailed by back surgeries, completed his comeback with a two-stroke victory, his first win since August 2013 at the Bridgestone Invitational.So, yeah, Tiger
How many different perspectives can we approach Tiger Woods’ wire-to-wire win Sunday?
Several, because it was that big of a deal.
We could go big picture, and ask point-blank, what was the last sporting event that made the NFL seem secondary – and a distance second at that – on a fall Sunday?
We could go technical, and, as we wait for the ratings, wonder how much of a potential lift will this mean in the short term with the Ryder Cup just days away and long term for a sport that was losing participants yearly?
We could go mathematical, and list the number canyon Tiger traversed. There had been 119 players to win a PGA event since his last win, which came more 1,876 days and 44 PGA starts ago. And how about this one: Since Woods’ last victory, dude has had four back surgeries. He was ranked 1,193rd in the world 10 months ago. He was ranked 668th at the beginning of 2018.
We could go tip-o-the-visor cool and point out that Justin Rose, without anything remotely resembling his A-game, was grinding his way through the noise and drama for a tap-in birdie on 18 Sunday that was worth $10 million. And, while his storyline was developing – and understandably ignored for the most part because of the hubbub Eldrick created. And it one of the best parts of Sunday – and one that has already been glossed over – as he was walking off the green, knowing that he just made an eight-figure check, Rose looked into the NBC camera and said, “Sorry, guys, I know who you are rooting for” with a perfect wry smile that relayed how everyone felt.
And amazingly, it may be bigger than all that, because on this Monday morning, because we are talking about the greatest golfer of his generation and arguably one of the five biggest sports stars of all-time. (Seriously, if we started with Pele, Ali, Jordan and Tiger, considering the world-wide nature of their sports, who cracks that top?)
We are talking about the first victim of the social media morality mob who has persevered through a lifetime of self-inflicted and narcissistic wounds as well as more physical ailments – the knee, the back surgeries, the mental scars – than most people could ever have the fortitude to work through to get back to the golf course.
Yes, Tiger was a terrible husband and Sunday does not forgive that. He has a lifetime of daddying and correcting to do to make sure his selfishness and adultery does not leave long-term marks on his kids. (But let’s be very real right here: Tiger did this in the Twitter age in which everyone wants to be famous. The personal lives of some of the greatest and most-beloved men in history – Ruth, Mantle, JFK, MLK, Jordan, Arnold Palmer, et al. – were filled with more women than “A Fifty Shade of Grey” marathon and more one-night stands than every amateur comedian ever. Tiger’s just became part of the mainstream conversation and the 24/7 news cycle. That’s not excusing it. No way. It’s just offering a perspective.)
But Sunday was not about his past has it was about his pastime. It was a magical moment for golf – and the scene of Tiger walking through the mass of humanity up the 18th fairway was one of those “sports moments” that you will always remember and you will always see in opening montages of big events – in particular and for sports in general.
The only thing we love more than our A-list superstars are comeback stories, and Sunday had both. We have been forever steadfast in that Tiger being back to the early 2000s Tiger is simply not possible. Not for him or anyone else because when he was winning every other major and two out of every five tournaments is something that will not be duplicated. By anyone.
But Tiger getting back to the top and winning a tournament, especially one of this profile, is sports at its best. It inspires and captivates. It was filled with wonder – even though he had a comfortable margin for most of Sunday – and the wonderings of what could have been.
And while that question – where would Tiger have been without the personal and physical ailments – is a great “What if” in sports history, but his tap-in par for a two-shot win Sunday made us all remember what was and what is.
Simply put, it made us remember the pure excellence that was Tiger at his peak.
It was better and bigger than sports. It was, not trying to stretch the fabrics of hyperbole, it was truly great human theater.
This and that
– Not sure where to put this, but it needs to be discussed. Here’s the next chapter on the whole “Fake News” discourse. Now Nick Saban wants the rat-poison media to write about the bad things Alabama is doing. Yes, you read that correctly. That’s at least a straight forward stance on the powerful folks trying to manipulate the message and the media. It actually would be funny if it was not such a farce. Good nor bad, no matter how great you are at your job Lord Saban, you do not get to tell me how to do mine. And the simple fact that you think you do actually damages the true mission of every professional in the room and in the profession. Because he certainly will not be the last to jump up and start directing the message. Think Kirby’s not going to do this? PUH-lease. And, considering that Saban always starts his SEC Media Days message with how much he “respects” the job the media does and this is his week 4 speech after acting like such a brat with Maria Taylor earlier this season he rightly apologized to her, well, maybe we need to write about he may not understand what the word respect means. (That said, when you absolutely dominate a ranked-conference foe to the point that your main postgame message is pleading with the media to try to help him find flaws in his top-ranked Tide is scary.)
– OK, quick fantasy guy story. We like our team – especially since we were not at the draft and Wells Guthrie and the rest of the room pieced together our team on our wishes – but have nagging injuries to every-week starters such as Leonard Fournette, Doug Baldwin and Alshon Jeffrey. So we’ve made a couple of free agent acquisitions, and this week played a hunch an replaced one of the highest scoring QBs in the league and played a Sunday morning pick-up. Those dudes: Matt Ryan for Kirk Cousins and rookie Calvin Ridley – made the Fightin’ 5-at-10s a load on Sunday.
– Along those lines, well, the Falcons are in a pickle. They have an offense that will score 28-plus points per game (and as some of our fellow Johnny Falcons Fans will attest, that is inspire of the Land Sark) but they are going to need at least that many because of a defense that is completely riddled with key injuries. After
– We were fully prepared to write about gambling beyond the winners and losers today, but then Tiger happened, and well, you know. Our picks went a crazy and agonizing 4-3-1 against the numbers we had Thursday. That, as Alejandro pointed out earlier this weekend, can change, and this week it did. We know of at least one local entertainment broker who has started shading his numbers after our picks come out. We know Georgia and USC lines closed higher than the numbers we had Thursday when we made the picks. Sometimes, the line goes the other way. Either way, the only gauge we can use is what we had on Thursday. That clarification is very important this morning because we bought a half point on USC (from 3.5 to 3) and the Trojans pushed with a 39-36 win. We bought the half in Georgia (from 14 to 13.5) and Georgia, which played sloppy and still beat a pretty good Missouri team with a first-round quarterback by two touchdowns. Our other three winners – Syracuse (-27.5) over UConn 51-21, South Carolina (-2) over Vandy xx-xx, and UNLV (+7.5) with the half-point cover at Arkansas State – were balanced by a couple of tough-luck losses. Alabama failed to cover the 26 because of a very questionable horse collar penalty midway through the fourth that extended the final A&M scoring drive. Navy took a 7-point lead in overtime and SMU scored on fourth down and converted the two-point conversion. And TCU played like a foot. But, especially in college, the nature of scoring and the tightness of most point spreads – Alabama was a blow out and the point spread gave it drama; Georgia was clearly in control but whether the Dawgs kicked a field goal or tried to score a TD on that final red-zone drive made the whole thing tense – makes most every game close throughout. On the season we’re not 16-11-1 against the number. That’s 59.3 percent, and we apologize to everyone for not seeing the Clemson over Georgia Tech pick. That’s on us.
– OK we have acknowledged that NASCAR could be on the weekend losers list every week, right? Well, consider Patrick Mahomes a resident of the weekend winners list until further notice. OK, through three career games, Mahomes has 13 TDs (and NFL record) and has thrown a scoring pass to nine receivers. That’s awesome in his awesomeness. (Side note: One of our announcing pet peeves is “nine different receivers” because it’s as redundant as “quarterback position” and scoring the basketball.” Can anyone throw the ball to nine of the same receivers? No. No they can not. That is all.)
– Side, non sports, note: “Crazy Rich Asians” has been the break-out comedy movie smash of 2018. It has grossed more than $159 million since its Aug. 15 release. It is now seventh all-time on the Rom-Com money in terms of gross. Want to know something crazy, here’s betting the top 10 will leave you staggered. “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” is 1 by a mile, with $241 million gross, which is $60 million more than “What Women Want,” which is a stunning second all time because that movies os pretty dreadful. “Hitch” is third and it’s also very forgettable, followed by arguably the best rom-com ever in “Pretty Woman.” (Hey did we mention that we went to the same high school as Julia Roberts?) Another all-time – “There’s Something About Mary” – is fifth, followed by “The Proposal,” the newcomer about the crazy rich Asians, :Sex and the City,” “Runaway Bride” (did we mention that we went to the same high school as Julia Roberts) and “Knocked Up.”
– Because the NFL is the NFL, two weeks ago the Lions lost to the Jets buy 31 and Sunday night they crushed the Pats. Two weeks ago, the Bills lost to the Ravens by 44 and Sunday they beat Minnesota by 21. Football.
– We could put Rick Pitino on losing the weekend, but let’s just say that Twitter handled that for him. This story is funny. Pitino joined Twitter this weekend and misspelled his own name on “The Pitno Podcast” and in his bio had “the only coach to take three different schools to the Final Four” completely forgetting that some fellow named John Calipari did that too.
Today’s questions
We have a slew. Winners and losers. Discuss.
On this day, Sept. 24, in history, well, let’s review:
The Tonight Show premiered on NBC today in 1954. It’s one of the TV changers to be honest.
In 1957, “Jailhouse Rock” was released by Elvis.
Jim Henson would have been 82 today. Phil Hartman would have been 70. (Harm may not make the all-time Rushmore of SNL cast members, but he’s on the all-time underrated SNL cast members list.)
As for the Rushmore, well, let’s discuss the greatest individual comebacks. Sports and beyond. Discuss.