Month: November 2025

— 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. 

— 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. 

“On November 13, Felix Unger was asked to leave his place of residence. That request came from his wife……..”

So began every episode of The Odd Couple, one of the funniest TV shows ever, about a finicky photographer sharing an apartment in New York City with a sloppy sportswriter.

I spent countless hours watching re-runs on Odd Couple reruns on TV; the show is still out there on TV, on Paramount+ or Prime Video. Great stuff.

Happy Felix Unger Day!!!!

By the way, the late Garry Marshall was one of the creators of The Odd Couple; November 13 was his birthday.

— Jameis Winston is starting at QB for the Giants this week, when they host Green Bay in their first game under interim coach Mike Kafka. 

Winston has a 36-51 record as an NFL starter; he was 2-5 starting for Cleveland last year.

— Cardinals’ WR Marvin Harrison Jr had an appendectomy, is out for a few weeks; Harrison has caught 31 passes for 492 yards and three TD’s.

— You think about the NFL games in Europe that start at 9:30am here in New York, then think about the poor souls that work in Las Vegas sports books. Those games start at 6:30am out there, so the people who take the bets probably have to be there at 5:30 or so. Not great; the casinos are open 24 hours a day, the sports books are not.

— Famous birthdays, November 13th:
Wes Parker, 86
Joe Mantegna, 78
Chris Noth, 71
Whoopi Goldberg, 70

Rex Linn, 69
Jimmy Kimmel, 58
Pat Hentgen, 57
Gerard Butler, 56

Ron Artest, 46
Asdrubal Cabrera, 40
Trevor Rogers, 28
Brett Baty, 26

— Central Michigan 38, Buffalo 19
Chippewas scored two defensive touchdowns.
Buffalo gained 398 yards, but turned ball over five times.
Central Michigan is bowl eligible for first time in four years. 

— Northern Illinois 45, UMass 3
Huskies led 31-0 at halftime.
NIU outgained UMass, 433-262.
Huskies ran for 318 yards, only threw 8 passes the whole game.

— Toledo 24, Miami 3
Both teams turned ball over three times.
With the win, Toledo is bowl eligible.
Miami was 5-16 on third down, 2-6 on fourth down. 

— Kent State 42, Akron 35 OT
Kent State led this game 35-17 in the 4th quarter.
Akron forced OT, scoring a TD with 1:59 left in regulation.
Kent QB DeShields threw for 317 yards, five TD’s. 

— Western Michigan 17, Ohio U 13
Western Michigan becomes bowl eligible with the win.
Both teams ran ball for over 200 yards.
Teams combined to convert only 3-19 third down plays. 

— Movie of the Day: PS I Love You (2007)- A young widow discovers that her late husband left her ten messages intended to help ease her pain, and to help her start a new life. 

Gerard Butler plays the husband, Hillary Swank the widow; also in the cast: Gina Gershon, Lisa Kudrow, Kathy Bates, Harry Connick Jr. Very good movie.

— Michigan-Northwestern have a football game at Wrigley Field this week; Northwestern’s home stadium is being renovated this year. Wildcats are 5-4 right now, Michigan 7-2.

— Dallas Mavericks fired GM Nico Harrison after the team started out 3-8; Dallas traded star Luka Doncic to the Lakers last year, then went 39-43, aggravating a lot of the fanbase; they won the draft lottery and took Cooper Flagg this year, but the team is off to another rough start.

— NBA trends, dealing with teams playing back/back nights:
Home teams who played on road night before are 1-8 ATS
Home teams who played at home night before are 15-9 ATS

Road teams who played at home night before are 5-3 ATS
Road teams who played on road night before are 11-10 ATS

College/minor league basketball tipped off Monday; here’s a recap:
Remember in school, on the first day, when the white board in class was clean? This is what the first night of college hoop has become; no one knows ANYTHING, and that includes coaches.

So many teams are total rebuilds; it is like junior college ball, teams constantly starting over, so we pay attention and try to learn quickly.

— Arizona 93, Florida 87
Gators led 32-20 midway thru first half.
6-8 freshman Peat had 30 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists.
His brother/father are/were offensive linemen in the NFL.
Arizona was 31-38 on foul line, Florida 20-30.

— BYU 71, Villanova 66
Villanova was 10-35 on the arc; they had a 49-43 edge on the boards.
BYU had only four turnovers the whole game (+7)
BYU’s star freshman AJ Dybanta scored 21 points. 

I thought they said on TV that Dybanta is getting paid $7M this year; SEVEN MILLION DOLLARS!!!!

— “Winning helps, and losing doesn’t”

Hawaii Pacific 79, Boise State 78
Hawaii Pacific is a D-2 team; this is a horrific loss for a team that was 99-40 over the last four seasons. The Sharks shot 60% inside the arc. Boise was 10-33 behind the arc.

— New Orleans 78, TCU 74
Horned Frogs were a 21-point favorite.
TCU shot 3-27 on the arc, were out-rebounded 38-28.

Great win for the Privateers, who were 26-70 the last three years. 

— Close wins can be red flags:

Auburn 95, Bethune-Cookman 90
Wildcats are coached by former NBA star Reggie Theus; they were 12-22 on the arc.
Auburn started a freshman, two sophs; they were 27-38 on foul line, visitors were 8-9.

Georgia Tech 56, Maryland-Eastern Shore 52 OT
UMES led by nine with 14:31 left in the game.
Tech shot 5-26 on the arc, 9-18 on the foul line.
Only seven players scored for the Yellow Jackets.

Xavier 66, Marist 62
Marist led by a point with 2:11 left in the game.
Red Foxes shot 52.9% inside the arc, out-rebounded Xavier 33-31.
Xavier started four seniors; they were 7-26 behind the arc.

Baylor 96, Texas-Rio Grande 81
Baylor only played eight guys the whole game (78 possessions)
Vaqueros led 26-12 midway thru the first half.
Baylor shot 60% inside the arc, had a 42-26 edge on the glass.

Famous birthdays, November 4th:
Ralph Macchio, 64
Eric Karros, 57
Carlos Baerga, 57
Matthew McConaughey, 56
Orlando Pace, 50
Lorenzen Wright, 50
Tyrese Maxey, 25

— Ohio State 118, IU-Indianapolis 102
IUI has a new head coach after going 24-101 the last four years; they brought in a D-2 coach from West Liberty College who loves to press and play fast- they went 217-37 in his tenure there. 

How will the Jaguars fare in the Horizon League?
They scored 102 points on Ohio State, at least a little impressive.
Game had 86 possessions; a normal game has around 70 possessions. Very fast pace.
IU-Indy shot 68.4% inside the arc, 12-38 outside the arc.

Problem with this  game for IU-Indy?
Ohio State was 42-53 on the foul line, Jaguars were 14-20.

They’re a team worth watching.

— MAC/Sun Belt held a 13-game challenge Monday; home teams went 9-4 SU, with all the MAC teams at home. All the teams that won also covered the spread.

Buffalo 85, Southern Miss 79
Golden Eagles led 26-11 early on.
Southern Miss shot 65.6% inside the arc, Buffalo 52.2%
Buffalo was 12-30 on the arc, 12-23 inside the arc.

— Florida Atlantic 83, Boston College 78 OT
BC led by five points with 1:03 left in regulation.
Owls shot 12-24 on the arc, only 13-25 on the foul line.

ACC teams shouldn’t lose to Florida Atlantic, who went 18-16 LY after Dusty May went 60-13 his last two years at FAU, before bolting to Michigan. But if you’re an ACC team that has hopes for a good season, you can’t lose to Florida Atlantic.

— Drake 77, Northern Arizona 71
NAU led by nine with 9:26 left in the game.
Drake is on its third coach in three years; they had five guys score in double figures.

— Again, today was the first step on a very long journey thru this season; it’ll be fun to follow.