— Cowboys 30, Commanders 23
Dallas led 21-3 with 7:00 left in first half.
Cowboys’ first four drives: 47 plays, 306 yards, 24 points.
Cowboys ran ball 44 times for 211 yards.
Last eleven games, Dallas’ team total: over 7-3-1
Washington kicked 51-yard FG with 2:09 left for a backdoor cover.
Commanders are 1-10 SU/3-8 ATS in their last eleven games.
39-year old backup QB Johnson was 15-23/198 in his first start since 2021.
Dallas ran 87 plays for 480 yards; Washington 41 for 328 yards.
— Vikings 23, Lions 10
Loss eliminates Detroit from playoff contention.
Lions turned ball over six times on their 12 drives.
Detroit ran the ball 30 times for only 68 yards.
Lions are 1-7 when they score less than 34 points.
Minnesota won, despite having only 3 net yards passing.
Vikings ran ball 28 times for 158 yards (5.6 yards/carry)
Vikings last four games, scoring 31-34-16-23 points.
Vikings held five of last six opponents under 300 TY.
— Broncos 20, Chiefs 13
Denver drove 65 yards, scored game-winning TD with 1:45 left.
Broncos have won 12 of their last 13 games.
Underdogs covered Denver’s last eight games.
Denver is 13-3 SU, but 0-5 ATS as a road favorite.
Kansas City has lost five in a row, seven of last eight games.
#3 QB Oladokun was 13-22/66 passing, in his first NFL start.
Denver was 11-18 on third down, Kansas City 4-11
Broncos outgained the Chiefs, 303-139.
— Jacksonville State RB Cam Cook plans to enter the NCAA transfer portal; he has run ball for 1,659 yards this year, earned Conference USA MVP and All-America honors in his one year with the Gamecocks after transferring from TCU.
— Famous birthdays, December 26th:
Carlton Fisk, 78
Ozzie Smith, 71
Storm Davis, 64
Jeff King, 61
Tim Legler, 59
Omar Infante, 44
Trevor Siemian, 34
Hogan Harris, 29
— Great day to be an A’s fan: A’s signed OF Tyler Soderstrom to a 7-year, $86M contract extension; the deal buys out at least three free agent years, and keeps him under team control until his age 31 season.
Last year, Soderstrom hit 25 homers, had 93 RBI, had an .820 OPS.
— Our fantasy baseball draft starts in seven short weeks; it is a keeper league, so our draft is only two rounds, but how do you evaluate players coming here from Asia?
Two years ago, Shota Imanaga signed with the Cubs; I scoured the Internet, trying to find out about this guy. No one knew anything; in the last two years, he’s gone 24-11, 3.28 in 54 starts.
This year, there are three Asian players left to be signed; the deadline is January 4th to sign them. This year, pundits on YouTube podcasts all have lots of opinions on who is/isn’t good, so I’m curious to see where they get drafted in our league.
— Chiefs’ QB Chris Oladokun was on the Chiefs’ practice squad for two of their Super Bowl wins, but Thursday night was his first NFL start. He’s had an interesting journey:
2016-18- South Florida
2019-20- Samford
2021- South Dakota State
He was the Steelers’ 7th round draft pick in 2022; he has two Super Bowl rings, but now he’s started an NFL game. Didn’t go that well, but it is a start.
— Bowl records, by conference (SU/ATS):
AAC- 0-3/0-3
ACC- 3-1/2-2
Big X- 0-0
Big 18- 2-0/1-1
Conference USA- 3-2/3-2
MAC- 2-1/3-0
Mountain West- 1-3/1-3
SEC- 2-2/2-2
Sun Belt 2-4/3-3
— Movie of the Day: The Rewrite (2014)- An Oscar-winning writer in a slump leaves Hollywood to teach screenwriting at SUNY-Binghamton, where he falls for a single mom taking classes there. Hugh Grant is the teacher, Marisa Tomei the student. Allison Janney, JK Simmons are also in this movie.
Lot of the movie is filmed in Binghamton, including one scene at a merry-go-round that has helped Binghamton be known as the Carousel Capital of the World.
Anyway, this is a nice movie; our world needs more nice in it.
— Noah Eagle called the Dallas-Washington game on Netflix Thursday; the son of Ian Eagle, Noah Eagle is a network broadcaster at age 29. Pretty cool.
— Knicks 126, Cavaliers 124
Knicks were down 17 points in the fourth quarter.
Tyler Kolek had 16 points, 9 assists off the bench.
— Spurs 117, Thunder 102
De’Aaron Fox scored 29 points for San Antonio.
Oklahoma City is 0-3 against the Spurs this year, 26-2 vs everyone else.
— Warriors 126, Mavericks 116
Jimmy Butler scored 14 points, had 9 rebounds, 9 assists.
De’Anthony Melton scored 16 points in 24:00 off the bench.
— Rockets 119, Lakers 96
Houston had six players score in double figures.
Rockets shot 60.6% inside the arc.
