Armadillo Sports

September’s Too……..is a good bar
1165 Central Avenue in Colonie, just west of Osborne Road

Wednesday- They have good food, plenty of TV’s
Thursday- Cowboys-Lions on TV………
Friday- Karaoke at 7:00
Saturday- Live music…….
Sunday- Watch NFL games, from 4:00-midnight

You can order food from them via Door Dash
Check it out, it’s a fun place

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Week 13 NFL info is posted

Sunday’s 6-pack:
Players who were hit by the most pitches last year:
27— Randy Arozarena
24— Caleb Durbin
23— Willson Contreras
21— Ty France
17— Heliot Ramos
16— TJ Friedl, Francisco Lindor, Eugenio Suarez

Quote of the Day
“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”
Zig Ziglar

Sunday’s quiz
Who was the football coach at Alabama, just before Nick Saban? 

Saturday’s quiz
New Jersey Jets picked Sam Darnold with the third pick in the 2018 Draft.

Friday’s quiz
Jacksonville Jaguars are only NFL team that has never played on Thanksgiving Day. 

— SMU 35, California 38
Golden Bears led 31-14 with 14:00 left in the game.
SMU rallied to take lead, but Cal scored game-winning TD with 0:43 left.
Mustangs missed a 52-yard field at the end that would’ve forced overtime.
Result puts 7-5 Duke in the ACC title game, against Virginia.

— Alabama 27, Auburn 20
Alabama drove 75 yards, scored game-winning TD with 3:50 left.
Alabama led this game 17-0 early in second quarter.
Alabama-Georgia is the SEC title game next Saturday. 

— Ohio State 27, Michigan 9
Buckeyes snap a four-game losing skid against their arch-rival.
Michigan scored on 3 of first 4 drives, but they kicked 3 field goals.
Rest of game, Michigan ran 18 plays for 39 yards, and no points.

— Troy 28, Southern Miss 18
Goose Crowder threw three TD passes for the 8-4 Trojans.
Troy outgained Southern Miss 428-304, overcame 11 penalties for 87 yards.
Troy will play James Madison in the Sun Belt title game next weekend.

— Vanderbilt 45, Tennessee 24
QB Pavia threw for 268 yards, ran for 165 more.
Game was tied 21-21 at halftime.
First time ever Vanderbilt won 10+ games in the regular season.

— Upsets of the Week:
California (+13.5) 38, SMU 35
Georgia Southern (+9.5) 24, Marshall 19
UAB (+7.5) 31, Tulsa 24
Army (+7.5) 27, Tex-San Antonio 24

Troy (+6.5) 28, Southern Miss 18
Kent State (+5.5) 35, Northern Illinois 31
Navy (+5.5) 28, Memphis 17
Middle Tennessee (+4.5) 31, New Mexico State 24 OT

— Baltimore Orioles signed reliever Ryan Helsley to a 2-year, $28M contract; Helsley had 21 saves for St Louis last year, but they traded him to the Mets at the trade deadline and he didn’t do well in New York, posting a 7.20 ERA in 22 games as a set-up man.

— Stanford Cardinal hired Washington Commanders QB coach Tavita Pritchard as its new football coach. Pritchard is a former Stanford quarterback who was also an assistant coach there from 2010-22.

— Texas A&M is 11-1 after getting upset Friday; they’ve beaten four teams who fired their coach during the season.

— Lions/Cowboys both play every year on Thanksgiving; how do they do the next week, with the little mini-bye built into their schedules? 

Last 11 years, Dallas is 7-4 ATS in their game after Thanksgiving.
Last five years, Detroit is 4-1 in their game after Thanksgiving.

— Famous birthdays, November 30th:
Jim Chones, 76
Bob Tewksbury, 65
Bo Jackson, 63
Ben Stiller, 60
Shane Victorino, 45

Rich Harden, 44
Elisha Cuthbert, 42
Kaley Cuoco, 40
Chase Anderson, 38
Daylen Lile, 23

— Drake 84, Georgia Tech 74
Bad loss for ACC, losing to an MVC team that is outside the top 100.
Drake was 20-2y on foul line, Tech was 7-18.
Tech is 5-3, but 0-3 vs top 200 teams.

— Cal-Santa Barbara 74, Seattle 71
Seattle led by 8 early in the second half.
Seattle was +8 in turnovers, but got out-rebounded 33-18
Gauchos were 22-25 on foul line, Seattle 14-22.

— Penn 73, LaSalle 71
LaSalle led by 15 early in the second half.
Penn was 10-20 on the arc; they got out-rebounded 40-31.
6-9 junior Power played all 40:00, scored 29 points for Penn.

— LSU 96, DePaul 63
Tigers led 50-22 at halftime.
7-0 LSU has played schedule #328 so far.
It gets tougher now; next 3 games: @ Boston College, vs Texas Tech, SMU

— Some teams with worst continuity coming into the year:
Xavier
Baylor
Central Florida
Indiana
Maryland
Memphis
Miami FL
West Virginia

— Bears 24, Eagles 15
Chicago ran ball 47 times for 281 yards (6.0 yards/carry)
Bears won five in row, nine of last ten games
Chicago was 10-17 on third down, Eagles 4-12.
Bears are 9-3, 6-1 in games decided by 5 or fewer points.

Eagles’ first six drives: 23 plays, 63 yards, 3 points.
Philly ran for less than 100 yards in seven of last ten games.
AJ Brown caught 10 passes for 132 yards.
Last four games, RB Barkley has run ball for only 54.3 yards/game.

— Vanderbilt 96, Saint Mary’s 71
Gaels beat Vandy 59-56 last year, in NCAA Tourney game (59 possessions)
Vandy gets revenge here, in much faster game (72 possessions)
Commodores scored 1.33 ppp, led 51-34 at halftime.
Vandy is 8-0, with three top 100 wins, and the #5 eFG% in country.

— Stanford 78, Saint Louis 77
Billikens led by 15 midway thru the first half.
Stanford trailed Minnesota by 10 in Thursday’s win.
Stanford shot 29.7% inside arc, 13-27 outside arc.

— Pittsburgh 67, Ohio State 66
Demarco Miner scored 18 points, hit 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Pitt played seven guys, and the 7th guy only played 7:00.
Buckeyes led by 5 with 4:12 left in the game.

— UConn 74, Illinois 61
UConn never trailed; Illinois shot only 6-29 on the arc.
Huskies are 6-1, with #10 eFG% defense in country.
Illinois is 6-2, losing both their games away from Evanston.

— SMU 87, Mississippi State 81 OT
Miss State led by 9 with 7:36 left in the game.
SMU is 8-0, with top 100 wins over Butler (87-85) and this game.
Mustangs start four seniors; they had a 50-40 edge on the boards.

Top 5 experience teams in country:
1) Indiana
2) SMU
3) Liberty
4) Gonzaga
5) Texas

— Famous birthdays, November 29th:
Mike Easler, 75
Kim Delaney, 67
Howard Johnson, 65
Andrew McCarthy, 63

Don Cheadle, 61
TJ Rubley, 57
Mariano Rivera, 56
Jamal Mashburn, 53

Anna Faris, 49
Russell Wilson, 37
Stefan Diggs, 32
Julius Randle, 31

— BYU 83, Dayton 79
Dayton led 36-30 at halftime.
Richie Saunders scored 29 points for BYU.
Dayton lost, despite shooting 15-33 on the arc.
This was a high-level game.

— BYU’s Saunders is the grandson of the guy who founded frozen foods company Ore-Ida- they invented Tater Tots. Saunders has an NIL deal with Ore-Ida, which makes sense. 

— Oklahoma 75, Marquette 74
Oklahoma shot 11-28 on arc; Nijel Pack scored 24 points.
Marquette is 0-4 vs top 100 teams; they led by 12 with 13:19 left to play

— VCU 86, Virginia Tech 68
VCU shot 11-21 on the arc, led 45-35 at halftime.
Rams are 5-3; five of their eight games were against top 100 teams.

— Some teams who’ve played the hardest schedules so far:
1) Oakland
2) Alabama
6) Rider
8) Morehead State
9) Michigan

— Western Kentucky 75, Wichita State 70
Wichita led by 9 with 13:24 left to play.
Hilltoppers went 1-2 in Atlantis tourney; games were decided by 5-6-5 points.
Only six guys scored for WKU, only four of them had more than 5 points.

— Top five teams in country, via KenPom’s ratings:
1) Michigan
2) Purdue
3) Duke
4) Iowa State
5) Gonzaga

— Packers 31, Lions 24
Packers’ first six drives: 47 plays, 320 yards, 31 points.
Jordan Love threw for 234 yards, four TD’s.
Green Bay is 8-0-1 when it scores 23+ points
Since 2019, Packers are 18-8-1 ATS as a road underdog.

Detroit is 3-4 in its last seven games, after a 4-1 start.
Lions are 1-5 when they score less than 34 points.
WR Williams caught seven passes for 144 yards and a TD.
Detroit was 8-13 on third down, Green Bay 6-12.

— Cowboys 31, Chiefs 28
Dallas won its last three games, scoring 33-24-31 points.
Cowboys were 9-16 on third down, outgained Chiefs 457-362.
WR Lamb caught seven passes for 112 yards and a TD.
Cowboys are 13-6 ATS last 19 games as a home underdog.

Chiefs’ first two drives: 14 plays, 109 yards, 14 points.
Chiefs’ next four drives: 25 plays, 94 yards, four punts.
Chiefs lost their last four road games, by 3-7-3-3 points.
Chiefs committed 5 pass interference penalties, most of any team in last 35 years.

— Bengals 32, Ravens 14
Ravens turned ball over five times on 12 drives.
Ravens are 0-5 when they allow more than 19 points.
QB Burrow threw for 261 yards, two TD’s.
Bengals were 8-19 on third down, Baltimore 3-10.

Just second win in last ten games for the Bengals.
Loss snaps the Ravens’ five-game winning streak.
Evan McPherson kicked six field goals for Cincinnati.
6-5 Steelers are atop AFC North, by half-game over 6-6 Baltimore.

— Navy 28, Memphis 17
9-2 Navy clinches at least a tie for AAC regular season title.
Middies ran ball 60 times for 200 yards.
Navy was 8-15 on third down, Memphis 4-12.
Memphis led this game 17-14 at halftime.

— South Florida 97, Western Kentucky 91 OT
Hilltoppers led 50-33 late in first half, by 6 with 1:14 left in regulation.
6-5 freshman Nyorha scored 11 points in 11:00 off the bench for USF.
South Florida shot 13-36 on arc; they’re 4-3, 0-3 vs top 100 teams.

— TCU 84, Florida 80
Gators led 44-39 at halftime.
6-5 soph Posey scored 21 points in 21:00 off the bench for TCU
Florida had 19 turnovers, Horned Frogs only nine.
Florida is 4-2, vs schedule #48.

— Michigan State 74, North Carolina 58
Spartans were 5-10 on arc, North Carolina was 4-23.
7-0 Michigan State is #49 in continuity, 6-1 UNC is #310.
Spartans have 3 top 40 wins (Arkansas-Kentuckyp-UNC)

— Famous birthdays, November 28th:
Ed Harris, 75
S. Epatha Merkerson, 73
Sixto Lezcano, 72
Preston Dennard, 70

George Andrews, 70
Dave Righetti, 67
Judd Nelson, 66

Jon Stewart, 63
Johnny Newman, 62
Matt Williams, 60

Pedro Astacio, 57
Robb Nen, 56
Leandro Barbosa, 43
Jarvis Landry, 33

— Indianapolis Colts’ QB Daniel Jones is dealing with a fractured fibula, a nice way of saying he will try to play through having a broken leg. Jones threw for 181 yards vs Kansas City in an OT loss last week, but ran the ball only three times.

Colts are 8-3, lead the AFC South by a game; they host Houston Sunday. 

— Missouri Tigers signed football coach Eli Drinkwitz to a six-year contract extension, worth roughly $10.7M/year. Mizzou is 28-9 the last three years, and has played in a bowl game the last six years under Drinkwitz’s tutelage. There were rumors that Penn State was interested inn hiring him, which is part of why he had a lot more to be thankful for Thursday.

— Colorado Rockies named interim manager Warren Schaeffer their full-time manager for 2026. Schaeffer was the Rockies’ 3rd base coach during their 7-33 start last year, but was named interim manager when Colorado fired Bud Black- their front office was terrible.

Schaeffer has been a member of the Rockies organization for over a decade and becomes the eighth full-time manager in club history. Paul DePodesta is Colorado’s new front office boss; he is the Jonah Hill character in Moneyball, so the Rockies are becoming analytics-driven.

— Vanderbilt 89, VCU 74
Lot of fouls; Vandy was 24-33 on foul line, VCU 27-35.
7-0 Vandy has a 61.6 eFG%, 5th-best in the country.
Vandy is #7 in country experience; they play Saint Mary’s Friday.

— Saint Mary’s 77, Virginia Tech 66
8-0 Gaels never trailed, shot 59.5% inside the arc.
For season, Gaels are shooting 40.4% on arc (#22), 81.7% on foul line (#8)
Saint Mary’s has #9 eFG% defense; they beat Wichita/Va Tech last two days, both top 100 teams.

— Saint Louis 71, Santa Clara 70
Santa Clara led by 9 early in second half.
This was first top 100 win for Billikens, who are shooting 63.6% inside arc (#8)
First loss for Santa Clara, which has top 100 wins over Xavier/McNeese State

— Houston Rockets are only NBA team that hasn’t played on back/back nights yet this season. Warriors have done it five times, 76ers four times, most in the league so far. 

Hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving; thanks for reading every day (you do read this every day, right???) Hope you all enjoy the day.

— Michigan 101, Gonzaga 61
Wolverines were awesome this week, winning by 40-30-40 points.
All three of those wins were against top 50 teams.
Michigan shot 69.7% inside arc, shot 13-27 on arc.

— USC 88, Arizona State 75
Trojans shot 73.5% inside arc, win the Maui Classic.
One of USC’s best players, Rodney Rice, didn’t play in this game (shoulder)
Trojans are 7-0, with three wins by 3 or fewer points.

— Texas 102, NC State 97
Texas shot 16-32 on the arc, scored 1.42 points/possession.
NC State scored 1.35 points/possession but lost; unusual.
Texas is #5 experience team that is 6-2 vs schedule #312.

— Baylor 91, San Diego State 81
Baylor led 40-36 at halftime, pulled away in second half.
Bears improve to 5-1, with three top 60 wins.
Shaky start for the Mountain West; they’re only 51-30 SU this month, 7-15 against teams in the top 100.

— Kansas 81, Tennessee 76
Tennessee led this game 41-34 at halftime.
Kansas was 26-30 on foul line, Vols 17-22.
Kansas is 6-2, against schedule #26. 

Jayhawks went 3-0 in Las Vegas this week, even though star freshman Peterson (hamstring) didn’t play in any of the games.

— Famous birthdays, November 27th:
Don Strock, 75
Curtis Armstrong, 72
AJ Duhe, 70
Mike Scioscia, 67

Ken O’Brien, 65
Michael Rispoli, 55
Brooke Langton, 55
Nick Van Exel, 54

Ivan Rodriguez, 54
Adam Archuleta, 48
Jimmy Rollins, 47
Brendan Haywood, 46

— Toronto Blue Jays signed P Dylan Cease to a 7-year, $210M contract; Cease has started 32 or 33 games each of the last five years. He was 8-12, 4.55 for San Diego last year; for his career, he is 65-58, 3.88 in 188 starts.

— The baseball they use in the major leagues is slightly bigger than they one they use in the pro leagues in Japan, which may be why Japanese pitchers sometimes take a while to adjust to pitching in this country.

— Jim Mora Jr is the new football coach at Colorado State, which moves to the revived Pac-12 next season. Mora coached at UConn the last four years, going 18-7 the last two seasons. He was previously 46-30 in six years coaching UCLA, 31-33 in four years as an NFL head coach.

Colorado State has had only one winning season the last eight years, going 8-5 last year- they haven’t won a bowl game since 2013, losing their last five bowls.

— Baylor is the only college basketball team that, over the last five years, has had a player taken in the first 19 picks of the NBA Draft.

— Movie of the Day: Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)- A sportswriter discovers that his grade school-aged son is a chess prodigy. 

Joe Mantegna is the sportswriter, Joan Allen is his wife. Ben Kingsley/Laurence Fishburne are chess experts who try and influence how the kid plays the game, in vastly different ways.

This is a very good movie. 

— Auburn 85, St John’s 74
St John’s led 39-30 at halftime.
Auburn shot 59% inside the arc.
St John’s is 4-3, with only one top 100 win (Baylor).

— Saint Mary’s 70, Wichita State 65
Gaels outscored Wichita 6-0 over the last 1:16 of the game.
Brickfest; teams combined to shoot 6-30 on the arc.
Saint Mary’s is 7-0, but this was their first top 100 game.

— Wagner 103, Manhattan 101 OT
Jaspers led by 19 late in the first half.
Manhattan led 56-43 at halftime.
1-5 Wagner gets its first win; they shot 58.3% inside arc, 9-16 on arc.

— Virginia Tech 66, Colorado State 64
Tech is 6-0, with two top 100 wins (Providence, Colorado State)
Hokies were 13-16 on foul line, Colorado State 6-8.
Virginia Tech-Saint Mary’s is an interesting game Thursday

— VCU 78, South Florida 66
VCU was 23-32 on foul line, South Florida 12-20
Teams combined to shoot 9-37 on the arc.
VCU is 4-2, but this was their first top 300 win (lost to Utah State/NC State)

There is ton of college basketball being played this week, but when this week is over, will have enough information to process and start thinking about conference play, which actually starts (a little bit) next week. 

— I took a look at the last 10 Maui Classics that were actually played in Hawai’i (because of the pandemic, there were two that were not). Here is what I found out…….

Last 10 teams to win the Maui Classic in Maui, six of them made the Elite 8 in March. The last two years, Purdue/Auburn made the Final Four after winning a title in Maui. 

2023 Arizona Wildcats were only one of last 10 Maui champs to lose in NCAA first round. Notre Dame’s 2017 team won the Maui Classic, didn’t make it to the NCAA’s.

Last 10 teams to lose the Maui Classic in Maui, only two teams made the Elite 8 and both of them lost their Elite 8 game. 

Three of last 10 teams to lose the Maui Classic final in Maui also lost their first round NCAA game.

— Tennessee 76, Houston 73
Vols avenge their loss to Houston in last year’s Elite 8.
Houston led this game by 11, midway thru the first half.
Tennessee shot 55.9% inside the arc.
This was a very good game, seemed like a March game.

— USC 83, Seton Hall 81
Seton Hall led by 13 late in the first half.
USC was 31-38 on the foul line, Pirates 12-18.
Ezra Ausar was 15-19 on line; he took more FT’s than Seton Hall’s whole team.

— Arizona State 100, Washington State 94
Coogs led 48-42 at halftime, led by 11 early in second half.
ASU shot 66.7% inside arc, scored 1.41 points/possession.
Sun Devils play USC in the Maui Classic title game Wednesday.

— Cal 80, UCLA 72
Great win for a Golden Bears squad that has had eight straight losing seasons.
UCLA led this game 41-36 at halftime.
Cal made 11 of 22 shots on the arc
Cal is 7-1 this year, but this is only their second top 200 win, first top 100 win. 

— Gonzaga 100, Maryland 61
Zags are 7-0 already, with five wins over top 90 teams.
Clemson/Gonzaga apparently have the oldest rotations, chronologically.
Looks like Gonzaga-Michigan is a very interesting addition to Wednesday’s schedule.

— St John’s 96, Baylor 81
Johnnies scored 1.33 points/possession, shot 11-22 on the arc.
Baylor out-rebounded St John’s 48-34; Bears only played seven guys.
Both teams play Wednesday, but this Players’ Era tournament is weird, so they haven’t said who is playing who when.

— Michigan 102, Auburn 72
Wolverines scored 1.44 points/possession, led 59-31 at halftime.
Auburn shot only 31.6% inside the arc.
Michigan is 4-0, vs a difficult schedule (#33) early on.

— George Mason 74, Florida Atlantic 65
Patriots of the A-14 are 7-0 this year; they were 27-9 last year. So far this year, Mason has played schedule #309 at a slow pace (#334)- they have the #26 eFG% defense in country. They only play one top 100 team before New Year’s, when they visit Virginia Tech January 6th.

— Famous birthdays, November 26th:
Jan Stenerud, 83
Art Shell, 79
Roger Wehrli, 78
Richie Hebner, 78

Harry Carson, 72
Bob Walk, 69
Mike Moore, 66
Harold Reynolds, 65

Chuck Finley, 63
Mario Elie, 62
Shawn Kemp, 56
Cal Raleigh, 29

— St Louis Cardinals traded P Sonny Gray to the Red Sox Tuesday, for P Brandon Clarke and P Richard Fitts. Red Sox also get $20M to pay off some of Gray’s hefty contract.

36-year old Gray was 14-8 with a 4.28 ERA last year, making all his starts. He is guaranteed $41M over the next two seasons.

— Apparently there are two pro baseball leagues in Japan, but one of them still doesn’t use the DH- they’re going to, starting in 2027.

— Oklahoma State hired North Texas coach Eric Morris as its new football coach; Morris will stay with North Texas for the rest of the regular season as well as any appearances in the AAC title game and/or College Football Playoff.

Morris was 21-15 in three years at North Texas, 24-18 in three years before that at Incarnate Word. Oklahoma State won a lot under Mike Gundy, finishing in top 20 nine times, but the last two years, Cowboys lost their last 17 conference games.

— Hawai’i’s football team has a 26-year old kicker, a 29-year old punter. The kicker is from Japan; he taught himself how to kick by watching videos on YouTube.

— California fired football coach Justin Wilcox after he went 48-55 over nine years with the Golden Bears; Cal is 6-5 this year, bowl eligible for the third year in a row, but losing to Stanford earned him a pink slip.

Wilcox gets $10.9M as his parting gift.

— Former NBA player/current TV analyst Grant Hill not only owns part of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, he also owns part of the Baltimore Orioles. It must be fun to be really rich. 

— 49ers 20, Panthers 9
McCaffrey had 89 rushing yards, 53 receiving yards against his old team.
49ers were 7-13 on third down, Carolina 1-7
SF won even though Purdy threw 3 INTs on their first four drives.
49ers outgained Carolina, 340-230

Down 7-3, Carolina had ball on SF’s 1-yard line, but Young threw an INT
Carolina in first half: 30 plays, 52 yards, 3 points.
Panthers are 8-15-1 ATS last 24 games as a road underdog. 
Panthers are 2-5 when they score less or fewer points.

— Big baseball trade Sunday night; Mets traded OF Brandon Nimmo to Texas for 2B Marcus Semien, in an exchange of highly-paid veterans.

Semien is owed $72M over the next three years; he’s seen as a defensive upgrade at 2B. 

Nimmo is owed $101M over the next five years; Texas dumped Adolis Garcia last week. 

— Iowa State 83, St John’s 82
Really good game, seemed like a late March game.
Red Storm was 23-30 on foul line, Iowa State 20-25.
6-8 junior Momcilovic scored 23 points for the Cyclones. 

— Gonzaga 95, Alabama 85
Zags scored 1.23 points/possession, had 20 offensive rebounds.
Alabama shot only 9-29 on the arc.
6-9 senior Ike had 21 points, 11 boards for Gonzaga.

— Auburn 84, Oregon 73
Game was 37-37 at halftime.
Teams combined to shoot 14-56 on the arc.
Ducks out-rebounded Auburn 46-34.
Oregon turned ball over 18 times, Auburn had only six turnovers.

— Baylor 81, Creighton 74
Baylor had 22 offensive boards, out-rebounded Creighton 45-28.
Bears led by 12 in first half; game was tied with 8:46 left to play.
Baylor only played 7 guys (8th guy played 3:00); could be an issue Tuesday.

— Seton Hall 85, NC State 74
Pirates were 10-point dog; they shot 64.7% inside the arc.
This was Seton Hall’s first top 200 game; they’re #29 in experience.
NC State trailed 35-33 at halftime.

— Cal-San Diego 91, Temple 76
Tritons shot 71.9% inside arc, 12-24 on the arc (1.34 ppp)
Cal-San Diego was 30-5 last year; they’ve got #8 eFG% in country.
Temple is 0-2 vs teams in top 150, giving up 76-91 points.

— Houston 78, Syracuse 74 OT
Houston led by 11 with 3:06 in regulation.
Syracuse lost an OT game when they were 12-29 on foul line.
Cougars shot only 33.3% inside arc, Syracuse 59.4%.

— USC 70, Boise State 67
Trojans shot 11-23 on the arc.
Rodney Rice had 27 points; no other Trojan had more than 11.
USC is 5-0, winning last two games by a combined four points.

— Famous birthdays, November 25th:
John Larroquette, 78
Bernie Kosar, 62
Cris Carter, 60
Mark Whiten, 59 

Jill Hennessy, 57
Anthony Peeler, 56
Donovan McNabb, 49
Jerry Ferrera, 46

Nick Swisher, 45
Trevor Booker, 38
Alec Burleson, 27
Blake Corum, 25

— Las Vegas Raiders fired offensive coordinator Chip Kelly Sunday, 11 games into his first season with the Raiders. Raiders had previously fired their special teams coach a few weeks ago.

Las Vegas is:
tied for last in the NFL in points per game (15.0)
30th in total yards per game (268.9)
31st in rushing per game (79.5 yards)
30th in offensive EPA (minus-77.8)
28th in red zone efficiency (48.1%).

Kelly is making $6M this season. Maybe the Raiders should acquire a better QB. 

— New Jersey Giants fired defensive coordinator Shane Bowen; they’ve lost five road games this year that they led in by 10+ points. Giants have lost their last 12 road games- they fired head coach Brian Daboll a couple weeks ago. 

— NFL divisional trends:
AFC East
Underdogs 5-3 ATS divisional games
11-6 ATS non-divisional underdogs

AFC North
Home teams 5-0 ATS divisional games
13-21 ATS non-divisional games

AFC South
Home teams, favorites 4-1 ATS divisional games.
12-7 ATS non-divisional underdogs

AFC West
Home teams 3-1 ATS divisional games
4-10 ATS non-divisional road team

NFC East
Home teams 5-2 ATS divisional games
6-10 ATS non-divisional underdogs

NFC North
Favorites 4-1 ATS divisional games
11-9 ATS non-divisional favorite

NFC South
Underdogs 3-1 ATS divisional games
14-20 ATS non-divisional games

NFC West
Home teams 1-5 ATS divisional games
18-11 non-divisional games

— College football trends, conference games:
American
Road favorites 16-8 ATS
All favorites 30-19 ATS

ACC
Home favorites 16-21 ATS

Big 18
Home underdogs 16-13 ATS

Big X
Home favorites 26-18 ATS
Home underdogs 8-14 ATS
All favorites 40-26 ATS

Conference USA
Home teams 27-14 ATS

Mid-American
Home teams 29-17 ATS

Mountain West
Home favorites 15-13 ATS

SEC
Home favorites 22-17 ATS

Sun Belt
Home teams 28-22 ATS

Cowboys 24, Eagles 21
Eagles first three drives: 25 plays, 192 yards, 21 points.
Eagles rest of game: 33 plays, 147 yards, no points.
Cowboys’ first four drives: 25 plays, 120 yards, no points.
Cowboys rest of game: 43 plays, 353 yards, 24 points.

Last time the Eagles lost after leading by 21+ points? 1999.
Dallas is 12-3 ATS in last 15 NFC East home games.
Cowboys outgained Philadelphia, 473-339.
Eagles ran the ball 18 times for only 63 yards. 

Chiefs 23, Colts 20 OT 
Mahomes threw an INT on the Chiefs’ second play of the game.
Chiefs’ next three drives: 40 plays, 185 yards, three FG’s.
Colts led 14-9 at halftime.
Chiefs ran 91 plays for 494 yards; Indy 50 plays, 255 yards. 

Mahomes threw for 352 yards, but no TD’s.
WR Rice caught eight passes for 141 yards.
Chiefs are 6-1 giving up 20 or less points, 0-4 giving up 21+.
Under is 6-0 in last six Kansas City games.

Lions 31, Giants 24 OT
RB Gibbs ran 69 yards for a TD on first play of overtime.
Gibbs ran ball 15 times for 219 yards, two TD’s.
Detroit made a 59-yard FG with 0:28 left to force OT.
Goff threw for 279 yards, two TD’s. 

Giants led 27-17 early in the 4th quarter.
Winston threw for 366 yards, two TD’s, also caught a 33-yard TD pass.
Giants are 1-5 in games decided by 7 or fewer points.
Giants outgained Detroit, 517-494.

Bears 31, Steelers 28
Chicago’s first four drives: 18 plays, 70 yards, 7 points.
Chicago’s next three drives: 25 plays, 180 yards, 21 points.
Bears won four in row, eight of last nine games.
Bears are 6-0 scoring 25+ points, 2-3 otherwise.

Backup QB Rudolph threw for 171 yards and a TD.
Steelers in second half: 42 plays, 134 yards, 7 points.
Pittsburgh lost four of its last six games.
Steelers are 1-5 when they allow more than 21 points.

Patriots 26, Bengals 20
Bengals led 10-0 early in second quarter.
Patriots won their last nine games (7-2 ATS).
QB Maye passed for 294 yards and a TD.
TE Henry caught seven passes for 115 yards and a TD.

Both teams scored a defensive TD in the first half.
Last five games, Bengals allowed 33.4 ppg.
Bengals in second half: 31 plays, 152 yards, 7 points.
Bengals lost four in row, eight of last nine games.

Packers 23, Vikings 6
Green Bay outgained the Vikings, 288-145.
RB Wilson ran for 107 yards and two TD’s.
Vikings are 8-11-1 ATS in last 20 games coming off a loss.
Last five games, Vikings converted only 15 of 57 third down plays.

Minnesota in 2nd half: 16 plays, 4 yards, no points, 2 INT
Vikings lost five of their last six games.
Last seven games, Minnesota is minus-14 in turnovers.
4 of last 5 games, Minnesota gained less than 270 yards.

Famous birthdays, November 24th:
Oscar Robertson, 87
Steve Yeager, 77
Henry Bibby, 76
Randy Velarde, 63
Ben McDonald, 58

Katherine Heigl, 47
Ryan Fitzpatrick, 43
Jeimer Candelario, 32
Ben DiMucci, 29
Tyler Soderstrom, 24

Movie of the Day: Number One (1969)- Charlton Heston plays a washed-up NFL quarterback who struggles in the transition from being an athlete to the next chapter in his life. 

Jessica Walter, Diana Muldaur, Bruce Dern are in this movie. Lot of the real-life New Orleans Saints are also in the movie (one of them is Cooper Kupp’s grandfather)

If I said this was a good movie, I’d be lying; read once that when he was president of the Screen Actors’ Guild, Charlton Heston had the movie taken out of circulation- he didn’t like it much, but it does tell the story of how tough it can be for a pro athlete to move on in his life. 

Ravens 23, Jets 10
Jets are 0-7 when they score less than 27 points.  
Baltimore won its last five games, giving up 13.4 ppg
Last five games, Ravens are +7 in turnovers.
Last four weeks, opponents converted 11-51 third down plays.

Jets led this game 7-3 at halftime.
Ravens’ 1st three drives of 2nd half: 27 plays, 127 yards, 17 points.
Jets in 2nd half: 24 plays, 132 yards, 3 points, 2 turnovers.
Ravens won despite going 2-11 on 3rd down, and being outgained 282-241.

Seahawks 30, Titans 24
Seattle’s first five drives: 31 plays, 247 yards, 23 points.
Seattle led 30-10 midway thru third quarter and held on.
QB Darnold threw for 244 yards, two TD’s.
WR Smith-Njigba caught 8 passes for 167 yards. 

Seattle led 30-10 midway thru third quarter and held on.
Tennessee is 0-6 SU/3-3 ATS in last six games.
Titans were held under 300 TY in nine of 11 games.
Titans ran ball 22 times for only 64 yards. 

Jaguars 27, Cardinals 24 OT
Cardinals drove 64 yards, kicked FG to force OT with 0:06 left.
Cardinals lost eight of their last nine games.
Arizona is 2-6 in games decided by 7 or fewer points.
Jaguars won despite being minus-4 in turnovers.

QB Lawrence threw for 256 yards, with 3 TD’s, 3 INTs.
Jaguars held 8 of last 10 opponents under 100 yards rushing.
Jaguars are 7-0 when they run for 100 yards, 0-4 when they don’t.
Jacksonville K Little had a pair of 52-yard field goals. 

Browns 24, Raiders 10
Browns’ first four drives: 13 plays, 88 yards, two TD’s.
Cleveland led 14-0 after the first quarter.
In their three wins, Browns gave up 10-6-10 points.
Sanders is 42nd QB to start for Cleveland since 1999. 

Las Vegas ran the ball 21 times for only 60 yards.
Raiders lost five games in a row, eight of last nine.
Las Vegas OL has allowed 20 sacks in their last three games.
Raiders had 13 penalties for 109 yards. 

Falcons 24, Saints 10
Cousins threw for 199 yards, 2 TD’s; Falcons snapped a 5-game skid.
Atlanta is 8-6 ATS in last 14 NFC South road games.
Under is 6-3 in last nine series games.
Falcons are 3-0 when they allow less than 20 points, 1-8 otherwise. 

Only New Orleans TD was a pick-6 that cut Falcons’ lead to 10-7
Saints lost five of their last six games.
Saints missed field goals of 38-47 yards, in a dome.
New Orleans was 5-16 on third down, 2-5 on fourth down. 

Rams 34, Buccaneers 7
LA’s first drives: 16 plays, 217 yards, 21 points.
Rams won last six games, allowing 3-7-10-26-19-7 points.
Rams are 8-0 when they allow less than 26 points.
Last six games, Rams are +11 in turnovers.

Last seven games, Rams outscored foes 126-42 in first half.
Rams are 17-8 ATS in last 25 games as a favorite.
Buccaneers lost four of their last five games.
QB Mayfield hurt left shoulder; was in street clothes for 2nd half. 

— These football games were played Saturday:
Texas A&M 48, Samford 0
Auburn 62, Mercer 17
Alabama 56, Eastern Illinois 0
Clemson 45, Furman 10

Why the BLEEP are these schools playing I-AA opponents???? Do fans care that they have to pay to watch these beatings? At least play a MAC team or a Sun Belt team, a I-A opponent.

— Oregon 42, USC 27
QB Moore threw ball for 257 yards, two TD’s.
Ducks grabbed 21-14 lead on a 85-yard punt return in 2nd quarter.
10-1 Oregon ran ball 41 times for 179 yards (4.4 yards/carry)

— Pittsburgh 42, Georgia Tech 28
Pitt led 28-0 early, 28-14 at halftime.
LB Lovelace had a 100-yard pick-6 to make it 35-13 in third quarter.
Pitt is 8-3, has won six of its last seven games.

— Utah 51, Kansas State 47
Utes drove 70 yards, scored game-winning TD with 0:56 left.
K-State led 47-35 with 7:00 left in the game.
K-State ran ball 42 times for 472 yards and still lost; very unusual.

— Vanderbilt 45, Kentucky 17
QB Pavia threw for 484 yards, 5 TD’s. Does he have a shot at the Heisman?
Last time Vanderbilt won nine regular season games? 1915.
How does Vandy keep coach Lea? Someone will poach him, right?

— Tennessee 31, Florida 11
Vols had lost their previous ten visits to the Swamp.
Tennessee led this game 31-0 at halftime.
Vols converted 9-13 third down plays, Florida 2-9.

— College Football Upsets of the Week:
Tulsa (+10.5) 26, Army 25
Wisconsin (+7.5) 27, Illinois 10
Nevada (+7.5) 13, Wyoming 7
NC State (+5.5) 21, Florida State 11
Appalachian State (+5.5) 26, Marshall 24

— Iona 91, Oregon State 84 2OTs
Beavers led by 9 points with 2:18 left in regulation.
Oregon State was only 21-36 on the foul line.
Toby Harris was 5-12 from floor; all 12 shots were 3-pointers.

— Northern Iowa 70, Cal-Irvine 69 OT
Trey Campbell hit a foul shot with 0:00.8 left for the win.
MVC’s Panthers led 35-25 at halftime.
UNI was 11-32 on the arc, Irvine 3-11

— Cal-Fullerton 88, St Thomas 80
Titans were an 11-point underdog on a neutral floor in Portland.
St Thomas led by nine with 8:08 left in the game.
Teams combined to shoot 39-42 on the foul line.

— San Francisco 77, Minnesota 65
WCC’s Dons made 11-22 shots on the arc.
Gophers were only 15-30 on the foul line.
USF is shooting 41.6% on the arc (#17 in country).

— Famous birthdays, November 23rd:
Brook Jacoby, 66
Dale Sveum, 62
Steve Alford, 61
Vin Baker, 54
Jonathan Papelbon, 45

Justin Turner, 41
Casper Wells, 41
Ross Stripling, 36
Johnny Mundt, 31
Gavin Lux, 28

— New Mexico 20, Air Force 3
New Mexico has won five games in a row, is 8-3 this year.
Lobos had lost their previous 10 visits to Colorado Springs.
Lobos held Air Force to 161 yards on 59 plays.

— UConn 48, Florida Atlantic 45
Huskies drove 75 yards, scored game-winning TD with 0:26 left.
UConn, coached by Jim Mora Jr, finishes regular season 9-3.
UConn QB Fagnano threw for 446 yards, three TD’s.

— North Texas 56, Rice 24
QB Mestemaker threw for 469 yards, three TD’s.
WR Young caught eight passes for 295 yards, two TD’s.
North Texas is 10-1; their only loss was 63-36 to South Florida.

— Tulsa 26, Army 25
Tulsa drove 52 yards, kicked 27-yard FG with 0:12 left.
Army led 25-14 after the third quarter.
Tulsa QB Hayes threw for 267 yards and a TD.

— TCU 17, Houston 14
TCU QB Hoover passed for 293 yards, two TD’s.
Horned Frogs won despite committing four turnovers (minus-3)
Houston missed a 38-yard FG in the last minute. 

— Purdue 86, Texas Tech 56
Purdue had a 20-0 run, led 49-26 at halftime.
Boilers are 6-0, with four top 75 wins.
Purdue out-rebounded Tech 43-25.
Right now, November 22, Purdue is the best team in the country.

— Wake Forest 69, Memphis 68
Deacons ran the Bryce Drew play, hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer for a comeback win.
Memphis led 19-6 early, but they’re 1-4, their worst start in long time.
Memphis is #45 in experience, but #345 in continuity; they’re getting used to each other.

— Nebraska 86, Kansas State 85
Nebraska shot 25-29 (86.2%) inside arc, only 8-32 on arc.
Cornhuskers led by 10 at the half, trailed by 5 with 7:21 left to play.
Nebraska has won 10 in a row, longest win streak in country.

— Louisville 74, Cincinnati 64
Cincinnati led 32-28 at halftime.
Louisville was 24-28 on foul line, Bearcats 10-16.
Louisville is 5-0, with wins over Cincinnati, Kentucky.

— Clemson 70, West Virginia 67
WVU led by 11 points with 10:57 left in the game.
Clemson shot 56.7% inside the arc.
Clemson had five guys score in double figures, including two subs.

— Georgia 78, Xavier 77
Dawgs hit a 3-pointer with 0:11 left to pull out a win.
Georgia led by 14 early in second half.
Georgia’s subs played total of 63:00, Xavier’s only 31:00

— Seattle 77, Stanford 69
Stanford led by 13 with 10:55 left in the game.
Seattle was 20-24 on foul line, Cardinal 16-25.
Seattle is 4-1; they’re #10 in country in eFG%.

— Famous birthdays, November 22nd:
Rich McKinney, 79
Jack Reynolds, 78
Greg Luzinski, 75
Jamie Lee Curtis, 67

Mark Malone, 67
Hugh Millen, 62
Benoit Benjamin, 61

Eric Allen, 60
Mark Ruffalo, 58
Ricky Ledee, 52

Scarlett Johansson, 41
Adam Ottavino, 40
Brock Osweiler, 35
Griffin Jax, 31

Missed a birthday Friday; Earl Monroe, the great basketball player, turned 81 on Friday.

— Virginia 83, Northwestern 78
Cavaliers were 30-36 on foul line, Northwestern 17-24.
Virginia had 21 offensive boards, out-rebounded Wildcats 49-25.
Virginia is 5-0, scoring 89.2 ppg; Ryan Odom is an excellent coach.

— Butler 79, South Carolina 72
Butler out-rebounded the Gamecocks, 48-29.
South Carolina never led; they shot 7-26 on the arc.
Big East team over an SEC team has significance for both leagues.

— Utah State 96, Tulane 75
Aggies shot 12-23 on the arc, 68.6% inside arc; they scored 1.39 ppp.
Tulane shot 15-30 on the arc, still lost by 21. 

Utah State always seems to win, but with lot of different coaches:

1998-2015- Stew Morrill, 402-156
2015-18- Tim Duryea, 48-49
2018-21- Craig Smith, 74-24
2021-2023- Ryan Odom, 44-25
2023-24- Danny Sprinkle, 28-7
2024-26- Jerrod Calhoun, 31-8

— Kind of similar to VCU’s recent history:

2003-06- Jeff Capel, 79-41
2006-09- Anthony Grant, 76-25
2009-15- Shaka Smart, 161-56
2015-17- Will Wade, 51-20
2017-23- Mike Rhoades, 129-61
2024-26- Ryan Odom, 52-21
2025-26- Phil Martelli Jr, 2-2

— USC 107, Troy 106 3OT- This game was Thursday night
Troy led by 6 with 1:43 left in the third OT
USC led by 11 with 9:37 left in regulation.

This was Troy’s 4th game in seven nights in the Los Angeles area; they won in double OT at San Diego State Tuesday, then played this game in triple OT two nights later.

Five players fouled out of this game.
Four players played 47:00+ in this game. 

USC was 34-46 on the foul line, Troy 25-35.
USC subs were a combined 4-13 from the floor, Troy 2-11. 

One of the most interesting games I’ve watched in years. 

— USC 107, Troy 106 3OT
This was an amazing game, with a devastating ending for Troy, which led by six in the third overtime. I’ll post more about this game tomorrow.

This was Troy’s 4th game in seven days in SoCal….it ended after 1am, here in the East.

Friday- lost 74-63 at LMU
Sunday- lost 94-85 at Cal-Northridge
Tuesday- won 108-107 in 2 OT’s at San Diego State
Thursday- battle of Trojans at USC.

Troy is a good team; They don’t have a D-I home game until December 20th.

— Texans 23, Bills 19
Bills had ball on Houston 22-yard line on last drive, but didn’t score.
Texans were outgained 326-261, but were +3 in turnovers.
Houston is 6-2 in last eight games, after an 0-3 start.
Texans are 5-0 when they score 20+ points. 

Bills only scored one offensive TD on 10 drives; they kicked two FG’s.
Buffalo led 16-13 after a 97-yard kick return for a TD.
Buffalo scored 28+ points in wins, 20-14-13-19 in losses.
Bills are 0-6 SU/1-5 ATS in last six visits to Houston.

— Cal Poly 92, Utah 85
Mustangs were a 14-point underdog.
Cal Poly shot 14-25 on the arc in a fast (84 possessions) game.
Mustangs are playing the #2 pace in country so far this month.
Cal Poly is 3-3; they don’t play a D-I home game until December 6th.

— Kansas State 98, Mississippi State 77
Wildcats made 14-30 on the arc, scored 1.31 ppp.
PJ Haggerty scored 37 points, had 8 assists.
K-State is 5-0, with top 100 wins over Miss State, Cal.

— Central Florida 77, Pittsburgh 67
Knights shot 60.5% inside the arc.
UCF is 5-1, with top 100 wins over Pitt, Texas A&M
Pittsburgh is 0-2 vs teams ranked in the top 150.

Baha Mar tournament
— Purdue 80, Memphis 71
Boilermakers shot 54.3% inside the arc, scored 1.18 ppp.
Memphis was 17-25 on foul line, Purdue 9-11
Purdue- Texas Tech is final of this tournament Friday night.

— Texas Tech 84, Wake Forest 83
Wake led by 7 with 13:16 left inn the game.
Deacons were only 13-22 on the foul line.
Tech is 4-1, with an 81-77 loss at Illinois.
Tech had 16 offensive boards, out-rebounded Wake 44-33.

— One of the quirks of the NIL era, especially in basketball, has to be team chemistry; Player A transferred in and got $2M to play, will Player B resent that money? Player C? 

Watching the games may be more critical than ever before; stats/numbers are important, but observing how teams work together can tell you a lot.

— These days, college basketball in November is about gathering knowledge, figuring out who is where, who did the best raiding the transfer portal. It has been suggested that coaches who have been junior college coaches have an advantage— JC coaches re-stock their rosters every year, that is the nature of the job at that level. More and more, D-I ball is becoming like that.

— Famous birthdays, November 21st:
Marlo Thomas, 88
Goldie Hawn, 80
Bill Almon, 73
Troy Aikman, 59
Ken Griffey Jr, 56

Michael Strahan, 54
Danny Kanell, 52
Stromile Swift, 46
Jena Malone, 41
Brice Turang, 26

— Louisiana 34, Arkansas State 30
Cajuns stopped Ark State on the 1-yard line on last play of the game.
Louisiana ran ball 46 times for 202 yards.
ULL had 11 penalties for 76 yards, Red Wolves 1 for 15.
Both teams need to win their last game to become bowl eligible.

— Sounds like the MLB.TV package is moving to the ESPN app; pretty soon we’ll need a scorecard to tell which leagues are televised on which channels.

— Phillies-Twins are going to play a Field of Dreams game in Iowa next summer.

— Astros traded utility guy Mauricio Dubon to Atlanta for SS Nick Allen; Dubon is versatile, Allen is a slick fielder who can’t hit a lick.

— Good program on Netflix; Last Chance U, about junior colleges and players who play there, trying to get scholarships to four-year schools. There is a football version and one for basketball that provide insight on what kids/coaches go through, behind the scenes.

— Ben DiNucci/Chase Daniel were both backup QB’s in NFL who have a presence on social media now; this week, they’ve both been talking about how backup QBs don’t get many practice reps with the first team offense, which makes it tougher for them when they become starters.

— Jay Bilas has gotten better (less annoying) as a TV analyst since Mike Krzyzewski retired as coach of Duke; less critiquing of refs, more normal analysis, but when he works a Duke game, like he did this week, it is still the basketball equivalent of fingernails on a chalkboard.

— There’s a chance I watch too much TV; there are an incredible amount of podcasts posted on YouTube, on a wide variety of subjects. You have to pick/choose to find the good ones, but once you do, there is good information to be had.

Late Tuesday night I watched a fantasy baseball draft; 15 teams, 23 rounds, was interesting to hear opinions about the 345 players who were drafted. 

— Arizona 71, UConn 67
Arizona out-rebounded the Huskies, 43-23.
Wildcats are rebounding 38.8% of their missed shots (#37)
UConn was 9-18 on foul line, 8-25 on the arc.

Arizona is 5-0, with three top 30 wins; none of those were in Tucson.

— Alabama 90, Illinois 86
Illinois led 19-10 early on, but that didn’t last.
Alabama was 13-36 on the arc, 17-30 inside arc; they scored 1.14 ppp. 

So far this month, 52% of Alabama’s shots have been 3’s.

Alabama has already played three top 20 games (2-1); they’re playing the #5 pace in the country. Fun team to watch.

— Oklahoma State 103, South Florida 95
USF led by 13 points late in the first half.
Bulls shot 15-39 on the arc, 15-25 inside the arc.
OSU is 5-0 with two top 100 wins, playing #3 pace in country.

— Dayton 77, Marquette 71 OT
Dayton led by 12 with 8:27 left in regulation.
Flyers had 25 turnovers, Marquette 20.
Marquette is 0-3 vs top 70 teams; they need PG Jones to get healthy.

— Famous birthdays, November 20:
Veronica Hamel, 82
Louie Dampier, 81
Rick Monday, 80
Richard Masur, 77

Bo Derek, 69
Dwight Stephenson, 68
Sean Young, 66
Callie Thorne, 56

JD Drew, 50
Carlos Boozer, 44
David Fry, 30
Tarik Skubal, 29

— Miami OH 37, Buffalo 20
Freshman QB Gotkowski was 13-23/185 passing in his first college start.
Miami was +3 in turnovers; they’re bowl eligible for fifth year in a row.
Buffalo QB Roberson threw for 303 yards, two TD’s.

— Central Michigan 28, Akron 16
Chippewas led 14-3 at halftime.
CMU had an 18-play, 75-yard TD drive in the first quarter.
Kent State’s first TD came on a 59-yard punt return.

— Akron 19, Bowling Green 16
Matthew Schramm kicked four FG’s, including a career-long 48-yarder.
Game was tied 6-6 at halftime.

Akron QB Finley threw a 75-yard TD pass; he played for three schools in his six years as a college QB, also playing for NC State and California.

— Western Michigan 35, Northern Illinois 19
Huskies led 10-0 after the first quarter.
RB Buckley ran for 133 yards, two TD’s.
Western Michigan ran ball 59 times for 361 yards (6.1 yards/attempt).

— Ohio U 42, UMass 14
RB Bangura ran for 196 yards, two TD’s.
Bobcats ran for 363 yards, threw only 8 passes.
UMass finishes the season a dismal 0-11.

— Movie of the Day: Forget Paris (1995)- An NBA referee travels to France to bury his father; he meets and becomes friends with an airline employee. Their story gets told in flashbacks by their friends, as they wait for the couple to show up at a restaurant.

Great cast: Billy Crystal is the ref, Debra Winger his friend. Joe Mantegna, John Spencer, Cathy Moriarty, Richard Masur are also in this movie, as well as a lot of NBA stars.

— South Alabama 71, Jacksonville State 65
Gamecocks led 26-11 early in the game.
Jaguars were 15-24 on foul line; Jax State, playing at home, was 1-4.

South Alabama is 6-0; only one of their five D-I wins was at home. They’re #307 team in the country in experience.

— Arkansas 84, Winthrop 83
Red flag game; SEC teams should beat Winthrop by more than one point, especially since they won their previous game 79-75 over Samford.

Arkansas has games with Duke/Louisville coming up soon, which will be interesting.

— In baseball, Orioles traded P Grayson Rodriguez to the Angels, for veteran hitter Taylor Ward. 

Rodriguez is 20-8, 4.11 in 43 big league starts, but he’s been hurt a lot; his last major league game was in July, 2024.

Ward hit 36 homers this year, knocked in 103 runs, but he’s a free agent after the ’26 season.

— RIP to former big league pitcher Randy Jones, who passed away at age 75.

Jones went 20-12/22-14 for the Padres in 1975-76, throwing 600 innings those two years, back when starting pitchers went deeper into games. Those Padre teams went 71-91/73-89, so he was ace for a cruddy team. He wasn’t a hard thrower, but he was very good.

RIP, sir.

— Someone asked me this summer; “Who are more important, coaches or players?”

I thought about it for a minute, then said how I think that no team can be great without great players. Players make the train roll down the tracks, coaches keep the train on the track. It is the truly great teams that have both, but given my choice, I’d rather have great players.

— Bill Belichick is a polarizing figure, but no doubt he is a Hall of Fame coach, with six Super Bowl rings as a head coach (333-178 record), two more as an assistant coach with the Giants.

Upon further review, this is his record:

1991-95 Cleveland 37-45
2000-23 New England 296-133

In New England when Tom Brady started at QB, he was 249-75
In New England, when someone else started, he was 47-58.

Overall, his NFL record without Brady: 84-103 (also 4-6 in college this year)

— Other QB’s records when starting under Belichick:

Testaverde 16-15………Kosar 14-22………….Zeier 1-3
Cassel 10-5………………Mac Jones 18-24…..Hoyer 0-2
Garoppolo 2-0…………Bledsoe 5-13…………Brissett 1-1
Rypien 2-1………………Newton 7-8…………..Philcox 2-3
Tomczak 4-4…………..Zappe 4-4

— I posted those numbers on Twitter over the weekend; that post had 10 times more activity than anything else I ever posted there, so I decided to research a few more coaches.

— QB’s who started under Bill Walsh:
Joe Montana 88-40
Steve Young 4-2
DeBerg 6-18
Cavanaugh 2-0
Kemp 3-2-1
Gagliano 1-0

— QB’s who started under Chuck Noll:
Terry Bradshaw 121-56………Kruczek 6-0…….Bono 2-1
Bubby Brister 26-27………….Gilliam 4-2-1……Blackledge 2-3
Mark Malone 21-24…………..Woodley 7-6…….SCampbell 0-2
Hanratty 6-11…………………..O’Donnell 2-6…..Shiner 1-8
Stoudt 9-7

— QB’s who started under Joe Gibbs
Joe Theismann 53-23……..Brunell 16-19……..TCollins 3-0
Mark Rypien 47-22………..JCampbell 8-12…..Rutledge 0-1
Jay Schroder 24-7………….Ramsey 4-4………..Rubbert 3-0
Doug Williams 5-9…………Humphries 3-2

— QB’s who started under Don Coryell:
Dan Fouts 72-53…….Luther 2-7………..Harris 0-2
Jim Hart 41-28………Herrmann 1-4…..Keithley 1-1

Famous birthdays, November 19th:
Bob Boone, 78
Ahmad Rashad, 76
Allison Janney, 66
Meg Ryan, 64
Ryan Howard, 46

Adam Driver, 42
Framber Valdez, 32
Joey Gallo, 32
Poona Ford, 30
Zach Collins, 28

— Apparently Florida Gators have offered Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin a six-year deal worth $81M; had to be awkward over the weekend, when the Rebels beat Florida, 34-24.

— Best wishes to former NFL quarterback Bernie Kosar, who underwent a liver transplant a few days ago. He says he feels good after the surgery, which is excellent news.

— Dallas Cowboys TE Jake Ferguson is the grandson of longtime Wisconsin coach/AD Barry Alvarez; Ferguson has caught 60 passes for 400 yards so far this season.

— Michigan State 83, Kentucky 66
Spartans shot 11-22 on the arc, Kentucky 7-30.
Michigan State out-rebounded Kentucky, 42-28
Kentucky is 3-2, but 0-2 vs teams ranked in the top 250.

— Duke 78, Kansas 66
Duke shot 62.5% inside arc; they only played one senior.
Kansas PG Peterson (hamstring) didn’t play.
Teams combined to shoot 11-47 on the arc.

— Florida State 87, Tenn-Martin 73
Skyhawks turned ball over 26 times, FSU only six times.
Tenn-Martin has turned ball over 27.3% of time in its D-I games.
Tenn-Martin has also covered the spread in all three D-I games.

— Texas A&M 86, Montana 81
Aggies led by 14 at half, shot 71% inside the arc.
Montana made 16-31 on arc, covered after trailing by 19.
Montana shot 59.3% inside arc in its four D-I games.

— Fresno State 80, Stephen F Austin 78
Lumberjacks led by 7 with 3:55 left to play.
Bulldogs were 11-19 on foul line, SF Austin 3-6.
Fresno State shot 64.3% inside the arc.

— Troy 108, San Diego State 107 2OT
Kid on San Diego State hit a half-court shot at the buzzer to force OT.
6-8 junior Dowd scored 25 points, had 19 rebounds for Troy.
Aztecs were 34-48 on foul line, Troy 32-43.

Pretty good week for Troy, with four games in seven days in SoCal, playing LMU, Northridge, this game and USC Thursday night. 

— Cowboys 33, Raiders 16
Dak Prescott threw for 268 yards, four TD’s.
At one point, Dallas scored TD’s on four consecutive drives.
Cowboys outgained the Raiders, 381-236
Dallas is 12-7 ATS last 19 games as a road favorite.

Raiders lost four in a row, eight of last nine games.
Last five games, Raiders ran the ball for only 49.2 yards/game.
Las Vegas averaged only 4.9 yards/pass attempt.
QB Geno Smith is 42-52 as an NFL starter.

— Bengals WR Ja’Maar Chase was suspended one game without pay for spitting on Steelers’ DB Jalen Ramsey Sunday. Chase has caught 79 passes for 861 passes this year, even with Bemgals’ QB Joe Burrow missing most of the season.

Chase is appealing the suspension, which would cost Chase his weekly paycheck of $448,333 along with a $58,823 per game active bonus.

— Atlanta Falcons QB Michael Penix hurt his knee Sunday, is expected to miss the rest of the season. Penix is 4-8 as an NFL starter; he has thrown for 1,982 yards this season, with nine TD’s, three INT’s.

— Eagles’ RT Lane Johnson hurt his foot/ankle Sunday night, is expected to miss 4-6 weeks for an 8-2 Eagles squad that leads the NFC East by 3.5 games.

— Jets are going back to Tyrod Taylor at QB this week, after throwing for a combined 147 yards in their last two games, with Justin Fields at QB.

— NFL divisional trends:
AFC East
17-10 ATS non-divisional games

AFC North
Home teams 5-0 ATS divisional games
8-19 ATS non-divisional games

AFC South
Home teams 4-1 ATS divisional games
9-7 ATS non-divisional underdog

AFC West
7-4 ATS non-divisional home favorite
1-7 ATS non-divisional road favorite

NFC East
5-10 ATS non-divisional underdog
Home teams 4-2 ATS divisional games

NFC North
3-6 ATS non-divisional underdog

NFC South
14-18 ATS non-divisional games
6-10 ATS non-divisional home games

NFC West
8-0 non-divisional road games
home teams 1-5 ATS divisional games

— College football trends, conference games:
American
Favorites 27-17 ATS

ACC
Road teams 19-11 ATS

Big 18
Home favorites 15-20 ATS
Home underdogs 10-12 ATS

Big X
Home favorites 18-20 ATS
Home underdogs 15-11 ATS

Conference USA
Home teams 23-13 ATS
Home favorites 11-8 ATS
Home underdogs 12-5 ATS

Mid-American
Home teams 28-12 ATS

Mountain West
Home favorites 12-11 ATS
Home underdogs 6-5 ATS

SEC
Home favorites 19-17 ATS
Home underdogs 8-8 ATS

Sun Belt
Home favorites 14-10 ATS
Home underdogs 11-9 ATS

— Famous birthdays, November 18th:
Kevin Nealon, 72
Warren Moon, 69
Elizabeth Perkins, 65
Jamie Moyer, 63

Dante Bichette, 62
Gary Sheffield, 57
Owen Wilson, 57

Romany Malco, 57
Sam Cassell, 56
David Ortiz, 50

Cory Littleton, 32
Logan Webb, 29
Shea Langliers, 28
Caleb Williams, 24

— 1B Josh Naylor re-signed with the Seattle Mariners, inking a five-year deal with $92.5M; Naylor hit .299 in 54 games with Seattle LY, with an OPS of .831, as he helped Seattle get to Game 7 of the ALCS. He also stole a career-high 30 bases last year. 

He is a career. 269 hitter, with a .777 OPS.

— Virginia Tech hired James Franklin as its new football coach; Franklin was 104-45 as coach at Penn State, but was fired after starting this season 3-3. He was previously 24-15 in three years at Vanderbilt; he has a career record of 8-7 in bowl games.

— North Texas is ranked #22 in this week’s football top 25, only the second time the Mean Green has ever been ranked, the first time since 1959.

— Saskatchewan Roughriders won the Grey Cup Sunday, 25-17 over Montreal, the fifth time they’ve won the CFL title, first time since 2013.

— New Orleans Pelicans fired coach Willie Green after starting the season 2-10; Pelicans were 49-33 two years ago, but got swept in first round of the playoffs, then went 21-61 last year. 

— NC State 85, VCU 79
Wolfpack led 63-62 with 9:53 left to play.
Wolfpack was 27-33 on foul line, VCU 12-18
State out-rebounded VCU, 45-31. 

— Kansas State 84, Tulsa 83
Tulsa led by 5 with 0:48 left in the game.
K-State was a 13-point favorite.
PJ Haggerty scored 31 points, had 10 rebounds.

— LMU 78, Cal-Santa Barbara 74 OT
Gauchos led by 14 with 12:30 left in regulation.
LMU won despite shooting only 15-29 on foul line.
UCSB was +8 in turnovers (6-14).
Lions are off to a 6-0 start.

— Drake 71, Charleston 62
Drake’s bench outscored Charleston’s subs, 25-10
Bulldogs put five players in double figures.
Only two guys on Charleston scored more than 7 points. 

Bears 19, Vikings 17
Chicago kicked a 48-yard FG at the gun for the win.
Bears won seven of their last eight games.
In wins, Chicago is +19 in turnovers; minus-3 in losses.
Bears are 6-0 when they allow less than 27 points.

Vikings scored TD with 0:50 left to take lead; Bears ran kickoff back 56 yards.
Both QBs completed 16 of 32 passes, in a domed stadium. Oy.
Vikings lost four of their last five games.
Last seven games, Minnesota is minus-11 in turnovers.

Dolphins 16, Commanders 13 OT
Miami won three of last four games, after a 1-6 start.
Dolphins drove 52-56 yards on first two drives, kicked two FG’s
Miami’s only TD came with 12:36 left, after a 53-yard drive.
Dolphins kicked a 29-yard FG after an INT for the walk-off win. 

Commanders lost last six games, giving up 32.5 points/game.
Washington outgained Miami 379-311, but were minus-2 in turnovers.
Commanders are 0-4 in games decided by 9 or fewer points.
Commanders are 3-8 ATS in last eleven games as an underdog.

Panthers 30, Falcons 27 OT
Panthers QB Young threw for 448 yards, three TD’s.
Atlanta tied game on 45-yard FG with 0:16 left.
Carolina won five of its last seven games.
Panthers are 4-1 when they score more than 13 points.

Atlanta has lost five games in a row, giving up 27.8 ppg.
Falcons’ first four drives: 26 plays, 228 yards, 21 points.
Atlanta rest of game: 43 plays, 108 yards, 6 points.
Falcons led 21-10 at halftime. 

Bills 44, Buccaneers 32
Bills’ drives in first half: INT-TD-TD-INT-TD
Buffalo led 21-20 at halftime.
QB Allen threw for 317 yards, 3 TD’s, ran for 40 yards, 3 more TD’s
Buffalo scored 28+ points in wins, 20-14-13 in losses.

Buffalo threw for 317 yards (10.6 yards/attempt)
Tampa Bay ran ball for 202 yards (5.2 yards/attempt)
RB Tucker ran ball for 106 yards, two TD’s.
Bucs are 4-0 giving up less than 24 points, 2-4 giving up 24+.

Texans 16, Titans 13
Texans drove 48 yards, kicked 35-yard FG for a walk-off win.
Tennessee had tied game on a TD with 1:35 left.
Houston is 5-2 in last seven games, after an 0-3 start.
Since 2016, Texans are 4-11-2 ATS as a road favorite.

Houston in first half: 37 plays, 127 yards, no points. (trailed 3-0 @ half)
Houston in second half: 36 plays, 199 yards, 16 points.
Titans ran ball 17 times for only 58 yards.
Houston won seven of last nine games vs Tennessee.

Rams 21, Seahawks 19
Rams won last five games, allowing 3-7-10-26-19 points.
Rams are 7-0 when they allow less than 26 points.
RB Williams ran for 91 yards and a TD.
Rams’ win snaps Seattle’s 10-game road winning streak.

Seattle’s three losses were by 3-4-2 points.
Seahawks outgained Rams 414-249, but Darnold threw 4 INT’s.
Seattle’s first five drives: INT-FG-FG-FG-INT
Seahawks missed a 61-yard FG on last play of the game. 

Packers 27, Giants 20
Game was tied 13-13 at halftime.
Packers drove 65 yards, scored game-winning TD with 4:02 left.
Packers converted 7-11 third down plays.
Green Bay is 6-0-1 when it scores 27+ points, 0-3 otherwise.

Giants lost last five games, giving up 31.2 ppg.
QB Winston 19-29/201 passing, in his first start for the Giants.
Giants went over their team total in six of last eight games.
Giants are +4 in turnovers in wins, minus-11 in losses.

Steelers 34, Bengals 12
Steelers lost QB Rodgers (broken bone in left wrist in 2nd quarter)
Steelers scored two defensive TD’s in the second half.
Steelers are 5-0 when they allow less than 25 points.
Pittsburgh is +14 in turnovers in its wins, minus-6 in losses.

Pittsburgh led 10-6 at halftime.
Bengals in 2nd half: 38 plays, 205 yards, outscored 24-6.
Bengals lost seven of their last eight games.
Cincinnati is 2-6 ATS in last eight AFC North road games.

Jaguars 35, Chargers 6
Jaguars outgained the Chargers, 345-135.
Jacksonville led 14-6 at halftime.
Jaguars’ first 3 drives in 2nd half: 29 plays, 154 yards, 21 points,
Jaguars are 6-2 ATS last eight games as a home underdog.

Chargers’ first four drives: 24 plays, 52 yards, six points.
Chargers rest of game: 17 plays, 83 yards, no points.
Jaguars didn’t punt once the whole game.
Chargers are 1-3 when they allow more than 21 points. 

49ers 41, Cardinals 22
49ers ran opening kickoff back 98 yards, scored on next play.
49ers in first half: 26 plays, 197 yards, 25 points.
San Francisco led 25-10 at halftime.
McCaffrey ran for 81 yards, two TD’s, caught five passes, scored another TD

Arizona committed 17 penalties for 130 yards.
Cardinals lost seven of their last eight games.
Cardinals are 6-14 ATS in last 20 NFC West home games.
Brissett was 47-57/452 passing; 47 completions is an NFL record. 

Ravens 23, Browns 16
Cleveland led this game 16-10 after three quarters.
Ravens drove 44 yards, scored game-winning TD with 2:31 left.
Baltimore won its last four games, scoring 30-28-27-23 points. 
Last five games, Ravens allowed 17-16-6-19-16 points.

Ravens outgained Cleveland 351-187
Browns QB Gabriel (concussion) sat out the second half.
Backup QB Sanders was 4-16/47 passing, with an INT.
Home teams are 9-0 ATS in Cleveland games this year.

Broncos 22, Chiefs 19
Denver drove 58 yards, kicked 35-yard FG for a walk-off win.
Broncos won their last eight games (5-3 ATS)
Six of their last seven wins were by 4 or fewer points.
Denver is 10-6-1 ATS in last 17 AFC West home games.

Kansas City is 5-5 for the first time since 2015.
Chiefs are 0-5 TY in one-score games (were 12-0 LY)
Chiefs in first half: 37 plays, 157 yards, 6 points (was 6-6 at half)
Chiefs in 2nd half: 26 plays, 203 yards, 13 points

Eagles 16, Lions 9
Eagles led 13-6 at the half; not much happened after halftime.
Philly is 14-6 ATS in last 20 games coming off a win.
Last three weeks, opponents ran ball for only 82.7 yards/game.
Eagles lead the NFC East by 3.5 games, a big lead. 

Goff completed only 14-37 passes, playing with a glove on right hand.
Detroit converted 3-13 third down plays, 0-5 on fourth down.
Lions are 5-0 when they score 34+ points, 1-4 when they don’t.
Detroit missed PAT after their only TD; WR Williams got 15-yard penalty for gloating, and the kicker missed the 48-yard PAT on a windy night.