— 49ers 48, Colts 27
49ers’ first four drives: 33 plays, 239 yards, 24 points.
San Francisco outgained the Colts, 440-312.
49ers won their last five games, all by 11+points.
TE Kittle caught seven passes for 115 yards and a TD.
Colts scored TDs on first two drives, but in between fumbled away a kickoff.
49ers were 7-11 on third down, Colts 5-1o.
Indy lost six of last seven games, after a 7-1 start.
44-year old QB Rivers threw for 277 yards, two TD’s.
— Steelers WR DK Metcalf got suspended two games for getting into a confrontation with a fan in Detroit Sunday; the suspension costs him $555,555 in salary.
— Kansas City Chiefs are moving from Missouri to Kansas; they’ll start playing in a new $3B domed stadium in 2031. The stadium is expected to seat 65,000 fans, about 10,000 less fans than Arrowhead Stadium, where the Chiefs have played since 1972.
— Washington State 34, Utah State 21
QB Eckhaus threw for 334 yards, three TD’s.
Coogs outgained Utah State 628-254.
Wazzu ran ball 41 times for 255 yards.
Starting next year, these teams will be rivals in the Pac-12.
— NFL divisional trends:
AFC East
Non-divisional underdogs 13-10 ATS
Non-divisional favorites 9-8 ATS
AFC North
Non-divisional underdogs 10-15 ATS
Non-divisional favorites 8-11 ATS
AFC South
Non-divisional underdogs 17-10 ATS
Non-divisional favorites 7-6 ATS
AFC West
Non-divisional underdogs 10-6 ATS
Non-divisional road favorites 1-10 ATS
NFC East
Home teams 6-3 ATS divisional games
Non-divisional underdogs 8-13 ATS
NFC North
Non-divisional favorites 15-11 ATS
Non-divisional underdogs 5-8 ATS
NFC South
Underdogs 8-1 ATS divisional games
Non-divisional favorites 4-8 ATS
NFC West
Non-divisional favorites 20-8 ATS
Divisional home underdogs 0-4 ATS
— Famous birthdays, December 23rd:
Jerry Koosman, 83
Susan Lucci, 79
Jack Ham, 77
Joan Severance, 67
Paul Shirley, 48
Victor Martinez, 47
Hanley Ramirez, 42
Mitch Haniger, 35
— Boston Red Sox acquired 1B Willson Contreras from St Louis, in exchange for P Hunter Dobbins and two other pitching prospects. Contreras hit .257 with a .791 OPS last year; he figures to benefit from playing half his games in Fenway Park.
— A’s acquired 2B Jeff McNeil from the Mets, in exchange for a very young pitching prospect. McNeil won a batting title in 2022, but has slacked off the last two years, while playing in more of a utility role. Hopefully playing every day will boost his production.
— Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami got a 2-year deal worth $34M from the White Sox; he is expected to mostly DH and also play some first base.
— P Paul Blackburn signed for one year, $2M with Bronx; he has some incentives if he pitches a lot of innings. He had knee/shoulder issues last year with the Mets.
— USC/Notre Dame won’t be playing college football the next two years; Notre Dame is going to play BYU instead. USC didn’t want to play Notre Dame later in the year, so their agreement went up in smoke.
— There have been 30 coaching changes in I-A football so far this season, a little less than 25% of all the jobs there are.
— Of the 74 referees who have worked NBA games this season, 56 of them have also spent some time in their career working in the G-League.
