Weekend winners
Stetson Bennett IV, quarterback at law. Amid all the names and portals and injuries and the hand-wringing from a subpar Week 1 showing, Bennett was Arthur Fonzarelli cool in his first start at Sanford Stadium as Georgia dominated Auburn on Saturday night. Some birthday present, Gus. Jackwagon. (Side question: What is the age of demarkation for getting the full Christian-name reference of Arthur Fonzarelli? Is it still universal? What if I set the over/under at 33? Intern Scott, do you know Arthur Fonzarelli?)
William Riddle. Making his first start in the biggest rivalry in Chattanooga, Riddle was aces in an overpowering first half as McCallie rolled Baylor Friday night at Finley. How about this: Riddle had four first-half TD passes; Baylor had four first-half first downs.
Jimmy Butler. OK, there are now three dudes in the history of the NBA to have a 40-point triple-double in the Finals. Jerry West, the Logo, did it. LeBron James, the King, did it. Last night, the Butler did it. His stat line in a must-have Game 3 for the Heat was staggeringly great: 45 minutes, 14-of-20 from the field, 12-of-14 from the line, 11 boards, 13 assists. Now the Heat are down 2-1 and could get Goran Dragi and even Bam Adebayo back for Game 4. Series on.
Tom Brady. Yes, we are a little QB heavy today, but hey, that’s the nature of the beast. QBs get too much credit for the wins and too much blame for the losses. So it goes. But TB12 was circa-2007 Brady on Sunday. Nine receivers caught a Brady pass; five Bucs caught TD passes. All of Brady’s final numbers – 30-of-46, 369 yards, five scores – were needed as the Bucs moved to 3-1 with a 38-31 win over the Los Angeles Chargers.
Baseball playoff match-ups. There were a lot of us who did not think baseball would get this far. But now they are through the regular season and the first round of the expanded playoffs, and now they go to the respective bubbles with four Divisional pairings that include some of the biggest brands in the game. The Yankees advanced with their national brand and almost 7 million viewers in the country’s largest TV market. So did the Dodgers and their national brand and more than 5 million viewers. Yes, baseball would have loved either or both of the Chicago clubs to advance (the Windy City is third in TV markets), but MLB had teams from the No. 6 (Oakland), the No. 8 (Houston), the No. 10 (Atlanta), the No. 12 (Tampa Bay), and the No. 16 (Miami) TV markets. Will that turn the dismal ratings? Hard to know, but baseball is a winner this weekend if for no other reason than how many of us really expected them to be in a place to crown a World Series champ?
Bonus pick: Jeremy Pruitt. The Vols faced a tricky spot against a MIzzou bunch that will surprise someone before this season is done. And UT punched them in the face. Physical and efficient – and with some surprisingly sound decision-making from QB Jarrett Guarantano – UT never let Missouri in the game and left little doubt that Year 3 under Pruitt is pointed in the right direction.
Weekend losers
Lincoln Riley. Wow, the shine’s of Riley’s rose a touch, huh? Oklahoma is unranked for the first time since 2016 after Saturday’s loss to Iowa State. For one of the real blue bloods in college football, you can make an argument that this is the worst 10 days since the NCAA left town after blowing up Barry Switzer’s powerhouse in the 1980s. Consider that the Sooners have lost back-to-back games to Kansas State (which OU had a 76-20-4 record before that game) and Iowa State (which OU had a 76-7-2 record) is the first losing streak in Norman in this century. It was also the Sooners’ first loss at Ames, Iowa since Nov. 5, 1960, or three days before Kennedy beat Nixon for the Oval Office.
Everyone in the Auburn football program from Gus Malzahn all the way down to the equipment guys. Wow, that was unexpected. And unacceptable. Unprepared. Undisciplined. Unmotivated. Underwhelming. Loved the effort of a couple of skill guys -Tank Bigsby will be the SEC freshman of the year if Gus is half the offensive ‘whiz’ most believe him to be, and Anthony Schwartz is going to be a “Wow” guy on Sundays when someone decides to throw him something other than a bubble screen – but every other phase, from the the coaching to the cadence and from outside the lines to the lines of scrimmage was dominated by Georgia. And getting stomped by Georgia is becoming a predictable problem for Malzahn.
Mike Leach. Yep, the SEC comes at you pretty quickly, right Coach Pirate. After landing the biggest win for Starkville in goodness knows how long, Leach and MSU got bullied and had sand kicked in its face by the SEC 90-pound weakling that has been Arkansas, which had lost 20 straight SEC games.
Dallas defense. THat’s three straight games that the Cowboys have surrendered 38-plus points. Egad. How bad has the defense been? Try this number on for size? Dak Prescott has thrown for 1,690 yards in four games – yes, that’s 422.5 per game – and the Cowboys are the Falcons being the Falcons on an onside kick from being bagel-and-4.
Weekend college picks. 3-4 in college picks, with a couple of painfully close ones and a couple of downirght disasters. Here’s the definite line of struggling in terms of picking games: Self doubt. Because the following picks – made on the radio in fact – did not make the column: Arkansas over Mississippi State, Ole Miss to win outright as a TD underdog, Auburn-Georgia under 44 and change, and Alabama to smoke A&M. Also had earmarked in the picks column SMU – which was killing Memphis before its star WR hurt his knee – and Oklahoma State, which got the golden ticket of playing a Kansas team that is GAWD awful, before leaving them on the cutting room floor. (Maybe we should stick to the SEC a little more, huh?)
Different class
Couple of staples in and around our Weekend winners and losers by now.