Armadillo Sports

Rams 42, 49ers 26
Rams’ first drive: 10 plays, 64 yards, TD
Rams’ second drive: 7 plays, 86 yards, TD
Rams’ third drive: 9 plays, 59 yards, TD
Matthew Stafford is 9th QB ever to throw 400+ TD passes.

Rams’ first three drives in 2nd half: 23 plays, 166 yards, 3 TD’s
Rams are 16-7 ATS in last 23 games as a favorite.
Mac Jones threw for 319 yards, three TD’s.
49ers are 1-10 ATS in their last 11 games following a win. 

Texans 36, Jaguars 29
Jaguars led 29-10 after the third quarter.
Houston drove 93 yards, scored game-winning TD with 0:31 left.
Houston was 10-15 on third down, Jacksonville 4-11.
Texans won 13 of last 16 series games.

Houston is 4-0 when it scores 26+ points, 0-5 when it doesn’t.
Texans outgained Jacksonville, 412-213.
Jaguars led 17-0 after they scored on a 73-yard punt return.
Backup QB Mills threw for 292 yards, two TD’s. 

Dolphins 30, Bills 13
Dolphins snap a seven-game losing streak vs Buffalo.
Miami led 16-0 after the third quarter.
Bills’ first seven drives: 38 plays, 172 yards, zero points.
Buffalo has scored 28+ points in wins, 20-14-13 in losses.

Dolphins ran the ball 32 times for 197 yards.
Miami is 10-6 ATS last 16 games as a home underdog.
Miami is 12-8-1 ATS in last 21 games coming off a loss.
Dolphins went over their team total in six of last eight games.

Colts 31, Falcons 25 OT
Jonathan Taylor ran for 244 yards, three TD’s.
Colts kicked a 44-yard FG with 0:25 left to force overtime.
Inday’s last four drives: 26 plays, 201 yards, 18 points.
Colts’ team total: over 8-2

Indy is 8-0 scoring 29+ points (20-20 in losses)
Colts outgained Atlanta, 519-290.
Colts were 2-12 on third down, Atlanta 0-8.
Falcons lost their last four games, by 10-24-1-6 points.

Jets 27, Browns 20
Jets ran kick back for TD, punt back for TD, both in first quarter.
Jets won last two games, scoring 39-27 points, after an 0-7 start.
QB Fields was 6-11/54 passing, for the whole freakin’ game.
Total yardage: Cleveland 278, Jets 169.

Home teams are 8-0 ATS in Cleveland games this year.
Browns are 0-5 on road, losing by 24-24-14-19-7 points.
Overall, Browns have lost their last 13 road games.
Cleveland gained less than 280 yards in six of last seven games.

Ravens 27, Vikings 19
Ravens’ first four drives: 20 plays, 58 yards, 3 points.
Ravens rest of game: 50 plays, 293 yards, 24 points.
Baltimore won its last three games, scoring 30-28-27 points. 
Last four games, Ravens allowed 17-16-6-19 points.

Vikings were 3-14 on third down, turned ball over three times.
Last six games, Minnesota is minus-9 in turnovers.
Vikings had an 86-yard TD drive to start the game.
Vikings rest of game: 58 plays, 276 yards, 12 points.

Famous birthdays, November 10th:
Larry Parrish, 71
Jack Clark, 69
Mackenzie Phillips, 67
Isaac Bruce, 53

Shawn Green, 52
Zach Ertz, 34
Teddy Bridgewater, 32
JJ Bleday, 27

Bears 24, Giants 20
Down 20-10, Chicago had TD drives of 91-53 yards in last 3:56.
Bears are 6-0 when they allow less than 27 points.
Bears won six of their last seven games.
In its wins, Chicago is +17 in turnovers; they’re minus-3 in losses.

Giants outgained Chicago, 431-391.
QB Dart (concussion) sat out the 4th quarter; threw for 242 yards, ran for 66 more.
Giants lost last four games, giving up 33-38-34-24 points.
Giants allowed 18-17 points in wins, 21+ points in losses.

Patriots 28, Buccaneers 23
Patriots won their last seven games (6-1 ATS).
Patriots had TD plays of 72-55-69 yards.
QB Henderson ran ball 14 times for 147 yards, two TD’s.
Vrabel is 64-50 as an NFL head coach, 8-2 this year.

Bucs are 4-0 giving up less than 24 points, 2-3 giving up 24+.
QB Mayfield threw ball for 273 yards, three TD’s.
WR Egbuka caught six passes for 115 yards and a TD.
NFC South teams are 14-16 ATS in non-divisional games.

Saints 17, Panthers 7
Rookie QB Shough threw for 282 yards, two TD’s.
Saints outgained Carolina, 388-175.
Saints are 17-11-1 ATS last 29 games as a road underdog.
New Orleans is 13-5-1 ATS in last 19 NFC South road games.

Saints were 8-17 on third down, Carolina 3-9.
Last four weeks, Panthers scored 13-9-16-7 points.
Last three games, Carolina was held to 244/265/175 total yards.
Since 2020, Panthers are 1-10 ATS as a home favorite.  

Lions 44, Commanders 22
Lions scored on all eight drives: 55 plays, 537 yards.
Detroit outgained Washington, 546-288.
Lions are 13-2 ATS last 15 games as a road favorite.
Detroit is 6-0 when it runs for 100+ yards, 0-3 when it doesn’t.  

Commanders lost last five games, last four by 22-21-24-22 points.
In those five games, Washington gave up 35.8 ppg.
Opponents’ over/under total: over 7-2 last nine games.
Commanders are 1-6-1 ATS last eight games as a home underdog.

Seahawks 44, Cardinals 22
Seattle scored two defensive TD’s in the first 16:00 of the game.
Seahawks’ first three drives: 22 plays, 222 yards, 21 points.
Seattle led 35-0 with 8:33 left before halftime.
Seahawks won/covered seven of their last eight games.

Seattle averaged 13.4 yards/pass attempt.
Seahawks ran ball 46 times for 198 yards.
Cardinals lost six of their last seven games.
This was Arizona’s first loss by more than four points.

Chargers 25, Steelers 10
WR McConkey caught four passes for 107 yards and a TD.
Chargers won four of their last five games.
Chargers are 7-3 ATS last ten games as a home favorite.
Under Harbaugh, Chargers are 10-5 ATS in games coming off a win.

Steelers in first half: 27 plays, 71 yards, 3 points.
Chargers outgained Pittsburgh, 314-221.
Steelers were 2-11 on third down, turned ball over three times.
Pittsburgh is +12 in turnovers in its wins, minus-6 in losses.

— Indiana 27, Penn State 24
Hoosiers drove 80 yards, scored game-winning TD with 0:36 left.
WR Cooper make a great catch in back of the end zone to win the game.
Penn State lost their sixth straight game, after a 3-0 start.

— Vanderbilt 45, Auburn 38 OT
QB Pavia threw for 377 yards, three TD’s, also ran for 112 yards.
Auburn led 20-10 at halftime.
Auburn is 1-6 in SEC, with five losses by 7 or fewer points.

— Oregon 18, Iowa 16
Ducks kicked a 39-yard field goal with 0:03 left, for the road win.
Oregon ran ball 36 times for 261 yards.
Ducks outgained Hawkeyes 373-239 on a rainy day in Iowa City.

— UConn 37, Duke 34
Huskies drove 75 yards, scored game-winning TD with 1:58 left.
Duke led 28-23 after the third quarter.
Crowd of 38,106 was UConn’s largest home crowd since 2013.

— Iowa State 20, TCU 17
Cyclones scored two TD’s in last 8:12 for a comeback win.
Game-winning TD was a 79-yard punt return with 6:32 left.
TCU outgained the Cyclones 432-272, but had three turnovers.

— Delaware 27, Louisiana Tech 24
Blue Hens scored nine points in the last 0:40, are now 5-4.
Delaware scored TD with 0:34 left, then recovered an onside kick.
Delaware QB Minicucci threw for 304 yards, two TD’s.

— Wisconsin 13, Washington 10
Badgers threw for only 48 yards, half of them on a fake punt.
Washington led 10-3 at halftime, didn’t score in second half.
Wisconsin’s win snaps a six-game losing skid.

— Football upsets of the week:
California (+18.5) 29, Louisville 26
Wisconsin (+10.5) 13, Washington 10
Missouri State (+7.5) 21, Liberty 17
Wake Forest (+7) 16, Virginia 9
Iowa State (+6.5) 20, TCU 17
Delaware (+5.5) 25, Louisiana Tech 24

— Famous birthdays, November 9th
Virgil Carter, 80
Lou Ferrigno, 74
Teddy Higuera, 68
Adam Dunn, 46
Michael Busch, 28

Sunday would’ve been the 90th birthday for Bob Gibson, the great pitcher

— Alabama 103, St John’s 96
84-possession track meet was like an old Loyola Marymount game.
Crimson Tide led 53-44 at halftime.
St John’s was 28-40 on foul line, Alabama 14-22

— Michigan State 69, Arkansas 66
6-9 frosh Ward scored 18 points in 23:00 off MSU’s bench.
Brickfest: teams combined to shoot 8-42 on the arc.
Razorbacks led 39-36 at halftime.

— Virginia Tech 107, Providence 101 OT
Providence led by 8 early in second half.
6-9 frosh Avadalas scored 33 points, had six assists.
Tech was 12-28 behind the arc, Friars were 11-28.

— Marshall 85, Toledo 73
Rockets led 40-30 at halftime.
Thundering Herd shot 66.7% inside arc, 15-37 on the arc.
Jalen Speer scored 20 points; 14 of his 15 shots were behind the arc.

— Memphis 76, San Francisco 70
Memphis led by 23 early in second half.
Two leading scorers for Memphis scored 25-24 points; both guys are playing for their third team in three years, all different teams.

— Cal-Santa Barbara 85, San Jose State 74
6-3 senior Mahaney is UCSB’s key player; he was a star for two years at Saint Mary’s, when the Gaels went 53-26, 29-3 in WCC games.

Last year he bolted to UConn, where he only played about 12:00/game. Now he is back as a star at a very good mid-major program. He had 17 points, six assists for the Gauchos in this game.

— Tulane 79, Texas State 71
Texas State led by 20 with 4:15 left in the first half.
6-4 junior Brumbaugh was 19-19 on foul line, scored 33 points.
Texas State’s whole team was 11-13 on the foul line. 

— North Carolina 80, Kansas 77
Kansas led 37-29 at halftime.
Tar Heels outscored them 58-37 in the second half.
North Carolina shot 66.7% inside the arc.

— Georgetown 70, Maryland 60
Georgetown led 11-0 right out of the gate.
Lot of fouls; Hoyas were 23-31 on foul line, Maryland 30-37.
Myles Rice scored 19 points in 27:00 off the bench for Maryland.

— Utah State 80, VCU 77
Utah State led by 18 with 11:28 left, hung on at the end.
VCU was only 16-28 on the foul line, in a 3-point loss.

Phil Martelli Jr is VCU’s 5th coach in 12 years; they’ve won at least 18 games every season of that stretch:
2010-15- Shaka Smart, 163-56
2015-17- Will Wade, 51-20
2017-2023- Mike Rhoades, 129-61
2023-25- Ryan Odom, 52-21
2025-26- Phil Martelli Jr, 1-1

It is good to be the basketball coach at a place that doesn’t have football.

— Kent State 110, Cornell 102
Cornell was 19-40 on the arc, 14-23 inside the arc.
Kent State was 18-38 on the arc, 17-27 inside the arc.
78 3-pointers taken, 60 2-point shots. Modern basketball.

— Tulane 38, Memphis 32
7-2 Green Wave led 35-17 at halftime.
QB Retzlaff passed for 332 yards, three TD’s.
Memphis split its last four games, after a 6-0 start.

— USC 38, Northwestern 17
WR Lemon caught 11 passes for 161 yards and a TD
Trojans outgained Northwestern, 482-280

USC ran a successful fake punt, using their 3rd-string QB to throw a pass; he was wearing the same jersey number as USC’s punter. Clever.

— Houston 30, Central Florida 27
Houston drove 62 yards, kicked game-winning FG with 2:31 left.
Cougars outgained UCF, 433-282.
UCF led 24-17 at halftime, scored only three points in second half. 

— Famous birthdays, November 8th
Mary Hart, 75
Alfre Woodard, 73
Jeff Blauser, 60
Courtney-Thorne Smith, 58

Brevin Knight, 50
Yasmani Grandal, 38
Sam Bradford, 38
Giancarlo Stanton, 36

— Santa Clara 79, McNeese State 67
Soph G Gavalyugov scored 19 points in 22:00 off the bench.
Broncos out-rebounded McNeese, 47-28.

— George Mason 96, Winthrop 90
Patriots were 31-43 on foul line, Winthrop 25-29
Winthrop led by a hoop with 4:34 left in the game.
6-2 junior Mincy scored 29 points, only 2 assists; his job is to score points

— Missouri 89, SE Missouri State 84
Underdog Redhawks led 51-46 at halftime.
Game was 76-76 with 3:34 left to play.
Mizzou shot 66.7% inside the arc. 

— Oregon 67, Rice 63
Visiting Owls led 32-27 at halftime.
Oregon was 26-38 on foul line, Rice 8-11.
Ducks are 2-0, also beating Hawaii 60-59

— Wilmington 71, Delaware 62
Ugly loss for the Blue Hens, losing to a D-2 team.

— Nuggets 129, Warriors 104- Over the last six years, Golden State is now 34-41 when Steph Curry doesn’t play. 

— Las Vegas Raiders lost 10-7 in Denver Thursday; they had a punt blocked. Friday, they fired their special teams coach. When you’re 2-7, there will be scapegoats.

— Toronto Blue Jays came thisclose to winning the World Series, but manager John Schneider doesn’t have a long-term contract yet. Blue Jays exercised their 2026 option on Schneider, but bench coach Don Mattingly has left Toronto.

— Japanese star 3B Munetaka Murakami entered the posting system this week; his will be one of the most anticipated free agencies this winter.

Murakami leaves the Tokyo Yakult Swallows with 246 home runs over his eight seasons in Japan; he hit 56 homers in 2022. 

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. 

Bills 28, Chiefs 21
Buffalo scored 41-30-31-31-28 points in its wins.
Bills were held to 20-14 points in their losses.
Buffalo was 7-12 on third down, Chiefs 3-13.
Bills are 13-4-1 ATS in last 18 games with spread of 3 or less points.

Buffalo led 21-13 at halftime.
Chiefs in 2nd half: 29 plays, 111 yards, 7 points.
Chiefs ran the ball 20 times for 79 yards.
Kansas City is 4-1 when it scores 28+ points, 1-3 when it doesn’t. 

Panthers 16, Packers 13
Fitzgerald made a 49-yard FG at the gun to post a big upset.
RB Dowdle ran ball 25 times for 130 yards, two TD’s.
Packers gained 211 yards in 1st half, but were only 2-3 on FG’s.
Green Bay is 0-2 when they score less than 27 points.

Carolina won four of its last five games.
Packers outgained Carolina 369-265, scored only one TD.
Green Bay lost star TE Kraft (knee) in the third quarter.
Tough loss for Packers on QB Love’s 27th birthday. 

Bears 47, Bengals 42
Williams threw a 58-yard TD pass to rookie Loveland with 0:17 left.
Bengals had scored two TD’s in 0:49 span to grab a 42-41 lead.
Cincinnati ran the opening kickoff back for a TD.
Total yardage in game: Bears, 576-495

Last three games, Bears allowed 31-39-47 points.
Rookie TE Loveland caught six passes for 118 yards, two TD’s.
Chicago won five of its last six games.
In wins, Chicago is +16 in turnovers; minus-3 in losses.

Broncos 18, Texans 15
Denver drove 48 yards, kicked a 34-yard walk-off field goal at the gun.
Broncos won their last six games, four by 4 or less points.
Denver’s first 8 drives: 35 plays, 126 yards, 7 points.
Denver’s last 5 drives: 28 plays, 145 yards, 11 points. 

Houston’s first 8 drives: 57 plays, 207 yards, 15 points.
Going 5-6 on field goals with no TD’s makes it hard to win.
Texans are 0-5 when they score less than 26 points.
Houston is 0-5 in games decided by 8 or less points.

Seahawks 38, Commanders 14
Washington QB Daniels dislocated his left elbow late in the game.
Darnold was 16-16/282 on his first 16 passes.
Seattle scored two TD’s in an 0:11 span in the second quarter.
Seahawks won/covered six of last seven games.

Seattle outgained the Commanders, 418-290.
Washington lost its last four games, giving up 25-44-28-38 points. 
Commanders allowed 354+ yards in seven of last eight games.
Commanders are 1-5-1 ATS last seven games as a home underdog.

Vikings 27, Lions 24
Vikings won in Detroit for first time in five years.
Vikings’ first two drives: 12 plays, 100 yards, 14 points.
Minnesota is 5-2-1 ATS in last eight NFC North road games.
Last six Minnesota games went over the total.

Detroit scored 37 points/game in its wins, 13-17-24 in losses.
Lions converted 5-17 third down plays, but 3-3 on 4th down.
Detroit ran the ball 20 times for only 65 yards.
Lions committed 10 penalties for 76 yards. 

Famous birthdays, November 3rd:
Dwight Evans, 74
Phil Simms, 70
Dolph Lundgren, 68

Paul Quantrill, 57
Darren Sharper, 49
Damien Woody, 4t

Tyler Hansbrough, 40
Kyle Seager, 38
Jake LaRavia, 24

Patriots 24, Falcons 23
Falcons scored TD with 4:40 left, but missed the PAT.
Patriots won their last six games (5-1 ATS).
Patriots’ first three drives: 30 plays, 217 yards, 21 points.
Patriots rest of game: 38 plays, 125 yards, 3 points. 

Last three games, Falcons ran ball 53 times for only 178 yards.
Atlanta is 2-0 if its scores 24+ points, 1-5 if it doesn’t.
Falcons’ first five drives: 36 plays, 114 yards, 7 points.
Atlanta is 0-5 when Bijan Robinson runs for less than 75 yards.

Chargers 27, Titans 20
Titans scored on a pick-6 on Chargers’ 2nd offensive play of the game.
Later in 1st quarter, Titans ran a punt back 67 yards for another TD.
Tennessee’s offense: 44 plays, 206 yards, 1-9 on 3rd down, 2 FG’s/9 drives.
Titans were held under 300 TY in seven of nine games.

Last four games, Chargers scored 29-24-37-27 points.
Chargers were 7-13 on third down, Tennessee 1-9.
Bolts outgained Tennessee, 343-206.
QB Herbert threw for 250 yards, ran nine times for 57 more. 

Steelers 27, Colts 20
Colts turned ball over six times (3 fumbles, 3 INTs)
Steelers are 4-0 when they allow less than 31 points.
Steelers are 14-5-1 ATS last 20 games as a home underdog.
Pittsburgh is 11-6 ATS last 17 games coming off a loss.

Indy scored 29+ points in its wins, 20-20 in losses.
Steelers’ first three drives: 10 plays, 9 yards, no points.
Steelers’ next three drives: 26 plays, 145 yards, 17 points.
Colts converted 6-14 third down plays, 5-5 on fourth down.

49ers 34, Giants 24
49ers ran for 159 yards, only 2nd time in last eight games they had 100+ YR.
McCaffrey ran ball for 106 yards and TD, had 67 receiving yards and TD
49ers’ first four drives: 30 plays, 191 yards, 17 points.
49ers are 10-6-1 ATS last 17 games as a road favorite.

Last three games, Giants gave up 33-38-34 points.
Giants allowed 18-17 points in wins, 21+ points in losses.
Giants went over their team total in five of Dart’s six starts.
Giants drove 64 yards for a TD on their first drive.
Next five drives: 18 plays, 29 yards, no points.

Rams 34, Saints 10
Rams are 6-0 when they give up less than 26 points.
Last three games, Rams allowed one TD, one FG on 19 drives.
Rams first four drives: 29 plays, 219 yards, 20 points.
Rams first two drives of 2nd half: 26 plays, 132 yards, 14 points.

QB Stafford threw for 281 yards, four TD’s.
LA ran the ball 43 times for 171 yards, a big improvement.
Rams are 15-7 ATS in last 22 games as a favorite.
Rams outgained New Orleans, 438-224

 Jaguars 30, Raiders 29 OT
Raiders scored TD with 0:16 left in OT, failed on 2-point conversion.
Raiders had a 95-yard TD drive in first half, missed the PAT.
Jaguars’ first three drives: 29 plays, 102 yards, no points.
Jaguars rest of game: 51 plays, 265 yards, 30 points.

Jags’ K Little kicked a 68-yard FG, an NFL record.
Raiders allowed 13-10 points in wins, 20-41-25-40-31-30 in losses.
Raiders ran for 106 or fewer yards in seven of eight games.
QB Geno Smith is 42-50 as an NFL starter.

College basketball games start Monday; here are some story lines I’ll be following as the games get underway:

— Over the last four NCAA Tournaments:
SEC teams have had 36 teams in the tournament; 12 made the Sweet 16 (2nd weekend)
Big 18 teams have had 31 teams in the tournament; nine made the Sweet 16.

Big X teams have had 28 teams in the tournament; ten made the Sweet 16
ACC teams have had 19 teams in the tournament; nine made the Sweet 16

Big East teams have had 19 teams in the tournament; eight made the Sweet 16
Mountain West teams have had 28 teams in the tournament; two made the Sweet 16

— 14 of the 16 SEC teams made it into the tournament last year; LSU, South Carolina didn’t.

Last three years, LSU is 14-40 in SEC games.
South Carolina has made made only two of last 20 NCAA Tournaments, though they did get to the Final Four in 2017.

— Florida won the national title LY; four of their six wins in the tournament were by 6 or fewer points. In three years under Todd Golden, Gators are 34-20 in SEC games. 

— Last Big 18 team to win a national title? Michigan State, in 2000.

Indiana fired alum, ex-NBA coach Mike Woodson last spring; in four years, Woodson was 82-53 with the Hoosiers, 41-39 in Big 18 games, but they missed the NCAA’s the last two years.. 

Darian DeVries comes in after coaching West Virginia for a year; he had previously gotten Drake to the tournament three times in four years.

— Last four years, Purdue is 116-31; last five years, they’re 72-27 in league games. Under Matt Painter, Boilermakers are 23-14 in NCAA Tourney games, but only made the Elite 8 twice in 14 tries- they lost the national title game two years ago. Purdue has high expectations this year.

— Nebraska finished 7-13 in the league LY, missed the conference tournament, then they went to Las Vegas and won the 16-team Crown tournament, an NIT-like event.

This year, the Cornhuskers have seven seniors, making them one of the older teams in the whole country, but only two of those seven guys played for Nebraska LY. Chemistry could be an issue.

— Josh Pastner is UNLV’s sixth coach in 12 years; he was 82-36 in league games at Memphis, only 53-78 at Georgia Tech. UNLV hasn’t made the NCAA’s since 2013; their last win in the tournament was 2008; they’ll be an interesting team to follow.

— Famous birthdays, October 29th:
Richard Dreyfuss, 78
Kate Jackson, 77
Danny Vranes, 67

Jesse Barfield, 66
Winona Ryder, 54
RA Dickey, 51

Keenan Burton, 41
Andy Dalton, 38
Ender Inciarte, 35

— Houston is one of the favorites to win the national title; over the last five years, they’re 160-24, 80-11 in conference games, 16-5 in NCAA Tourney games, getting to the last six Sweet 16’s, and two of last five Final Fours- they lost the national title game 65-63 last year.

Cougars have three starters back this year; a lot, in this day and age. They also brought in five new players.

— BYU brought in the country’s best recruiting class; last five years, they’re 112-54, 50-26 in conference games. BYU has won 20+ games 18 of last 20 years, but since 2012, they’re only 2-6 in the NCAA’s, going WWL in last year’s event.

— Big East has two head coaches named Pitino; Rick Pitino is 51-18 in two years at St John’s- they were a #2-seed LY. Richard Pitino moves from New Mexico to Xavier; he was 75-30 with the Lobos the last three seasons, making the NCAA’s the last two.

January 24/February 9 are the two meetings this year

— Last three years, UConn is 92-22, 45-15 in league games, winning two national titles; this year, Huskies have 62% of their scoring back from LY, plus they poached a couple of point guards in the transfer portal. 

Last year, UConn committed 76 more fouls than their opponents, going 24-11 and getting an #8-seed; they need to even out that number this season.

— Will Wade is NC State’s new coach; he’s having an interesting career:

40-25 @ Chattanooga
51-20 @ VCU
108-54 @ LSU
58-11 @ McNeese State

Wolfpack was in the Final Four two years ago, under Kevin Keatts, but the world has gone crazy so Keatts got fired last spring. We’ll see how Wade does in the shadow of Duke/North Carolina.

— This is Gonzaga’s last season in the WCC; they missed the Sweet 16 last year, the first time since 2014 they missed the Sweet 16. Tyon Grant-Foster just became eligible to play for Gonzaga this year, which makes the Zags’ roster loaded- he was WAC Player of the Year at Grand Canyon last year.

Gonzaga is 28-10 in its last 38 NCAA Tournament games.

— Last four years, Saint Mary’s is 58-7 in conference games, but only 3-4 in NCAA Tourney tilts, despite being a #7 or better seed all four years. 

Jets 39, Bengals 38
Bengals led 31-16 after the third quarter.
Jets in 4th quarter: 20 plays, 184 yards, 23 points.
RB Hall ran for 133 yards, 2 TD’s, also threw the game-winning TD.
Six of Jets’ eight games were decided by 7 or fewer points.

Bengals lost five of their last six games.
Cincinnati scored 29.7 ppg in Flacco’s three starts.
Bengals converted 17-38 3rd down plays with Flacco at QB.
Over is 4-0 in Cincinnati home games.

Ravens 30, Bears 16
Ravens ran the ball 35 times for 177 yards.
Ravens’ 1st 5 drives: 45 plays, 256 yards, but only 16 points.
Baltimore led 10-6 at the half, 16-6 after three quarters.
Ravens in 4th quarter: 16 plays, 87 yards, 14 points. 

Chicago had their 4-game winning streak snapped.
Chicago is 8-14-1 ATS in last 23 games coming off a win.
Bears committed 11 penalties for 79 yards
Chicago is 13-23-2 ATS last 37 games as a road underdog.

Dolphins 34, Falcons 10
Dolphins outgained Atlanta, 338-213.
Tagovailoa threw 4 TD’s, to four different receivers.
Dolphins were 6-13 on third down, Atlanta 2-11.
Miami is 11-7-1 ATS in last 19 games coming off a loss.

Dolphins led 24-3 after the third quarter.
Falcons ran ball only 17 times for 45 yards.
Atlanta is 3-0 if its scores 22+ points, 0-4 if it doesn’t.
Atlanta is 7-17-1 ATS last 25 games as a home favorite.

Bills 40, Panthers 9
James Cook ran for 216 yards, most by Buffalo RB since OJ Simpson in 1976.
Bills’ first eight drives: 51 plays, 374 yards, 5 TD’s, 2 FG’s.
Buffalo scored 41-30-31-31-40 points in its four wins.
Bills are +6 in turnovers in their wins, minus-4 in losses.

Bills coach McDermott is 9-0 coming off a bye.
Buffalo outgained Carolina, 410-244.
Panthers’ first six drives: 36 plays, 164 yards, 3 points.
Carolina had won three in a row overall, was 3-0 at home. 

Texans 26, 49ers 15
QB Stroud threw for 318 yards, two TD’s.
Houston outgained the 49ers, 475-223.
Texans gained 353-417-475 yards in wins, 271 or fewer yards in losses.
Texans in first half: 48 plays, 271 yards, only 16 points. 

49ers’ first five drives: 17 plays, 57 yards, 7 points.
SF ran ball for less than 85 yards in six of last seven games.
Houston was 9-16 on third down, 49ers 3-9.
49ers are 1-11 ATS last 12 games coming off a win.

Eagles 38, Giants 20
Barkley ran 65 yards for a TD on second play of the game.
Philly ran for 276 yards, 1st time in six games they ran for more than 88 yards.
Eagles led 17-10 at halftime.
Eagles’ first three drives in 2nd half: 24 plays, 199 yards, 17 points. 

Eagles outgained the Giants, 427-247.
Giants lost RB Skattebo (dislocated ankle)
Giants are 8-12 ATS last 20 games as a road underdog
Giants are 0-13 SU/6-7 ATS last 13 visits to Philadelphia.

Famous birthdays, October 27th:
John Cleese, 86
Pete Vuckovich, 73
Matt Cavanaugh, 69
Rick Carlisle, 66
Timm Rosenbach, 59

Brad Radke, 53
Brady Quinn, 41
Jon Niese, 39
Mark Barron, 36
Lonzo Ball, 28

Patriots 32, Browns 13
Patriots won/covered their last five games.
New England led 9-7 at halftime.
Patriots in third quarter: 15 plays, 164 yards, 21 points.
New England is 5-0 when it scores more than 14 points. 

Browns in 3rd quarter: 11 plays, 15 yards, 2 INT’s, a punt.
Browns are 0-4 on road, losing by 24-24-14-19 points.
Cleveland is 8-19-1 ATS last 28 games as a road underdog.
Browns have scored 17 or fewer points in seven of eight games.

Buccaneers 23, Saints 3
Buccaneers led 7-3 at halftime; only TD was a pick-6.
Tampa Bay’s 1st four 2nd half drives: 28 plays, 115 yards, 16 points.
Buccaneers are 12-3-1 ATS in last 16 games coming off a loss.
Buccaneers won/covered last four visits to Bourbon Street.

Saints outgained Tampa 275-212, but had 4 turnovers (minus-3)
Saints’ first five drives: 23 plays, 113 yards, no points, 3 turnovers.
Rookie QB Shough was 17-30/128 passing in relief of benched starter Rattler.
Saints are 6-16 ATS last 22 games as a home underdog.

Colts 38, Titans 14
RB Taylor ran for 153 yards, 2 TD’s, including an 80-yard run.
Under Steichen, Indy is 9-2 ATS as a home favorite.
Colts are 5-0 SU/4-1 ATS at home this season.
Colts’ team total: over 7-1

Tennessee is 1-7 SU/ATS, with six losses by 10+ points.
WR Dike caught seven passes for 93 yards.
Titans are 4-15 ATS in last 19 games as an underdog.
Johnny Hekker had his 1,000th career punt in this game. 

Broncos 44, Cowboys 24
Denver won its fifth game in a row.
QB Nix threw for 247 yards, four TD’s.
Broncos led 27-10 at halftime.
Only 8 of Denver’s 57 plays came on third down.

Dallas is 1-3 on the road; only win was over the 0-7 Jets.
Dallas is 0-4 when they score less than 37 points.
Cowboys are 3-6 ATS last nine games coming off a win.
Over is 4-1 in last five Dallas games.

Packers 35, Steelers 25
Pittsburgh led 16-7 at halftime.
Packers in second half: 36 plays, 279 yards, 28 points.
Steelers in 2nd half: 27 plays, 102 yards, nine points.
At one point, Jordan Love completed 20 consecutive passes. 

Green Bay is 5-0-1 when it scores 27+ points.
Steelers allowed 32-31-35 points in their three losses.
Green Bay was 5-12 on third down, Pittsburgh 1-10.
Packers outgained the Steelers, 454-295. 

— LSU fired football coach Brian Kelly, because college/minor league sports is off its rocker; Kelly was 34-14 at LSU, but lost three of his last four games. LSU expected to compete for a national title this season; now they’re a complete train wreck.

Kelly is owed just more than $54M in buyout money. million, with an M

Frank Wilson, LSU’s associate head coach and running backs coach, will take over the team as interim head coach. LSU’s next game is against Alabama November 8th; that should go well.

Couple weeks ago, Penn State paid coach James Franklin $49M to take a hike, and now this; who the hell has $100M laying around to give away? Franklin was 104-45 at Penn State and he got fired.

Yikes. 

— Gonzaga
Gonzaga is bolting to the Pac-12 next season.
Zags haven’t missed the NCAA’s since 1998.
LY, Zags lost in 2nd round of NCAA’s, earliest exit since 2014.
Gonzaga was a #8 seed LY, its lowest seed since 2016.
Senior G Miller is playing at his 4th school (Illinois, LSU, Arizona State)

— Loyola Marymount
Lions haven’t been in the NCAA’s since their great run in 1990.
In five years under coach Johnson, LMU is 32-45 in the WCC.
LMU is deeper this year, but not as experienced.

— Oregon State
Beavers head back to the Pac-12 next year, which will help, but that’s next year.
Oregon State last made NCAA’s in 2021; they went to the Elite 8.
Last year’s starters have bolted for greener pa$ture$ ($4M worth)
Beavers are rebuilding (again); LY, they had #49 eFG% in country.

— Pacific
Haven’t been to the NCAA’s since 2013.
Last four years, they’re 14-50 in the WCC.
Their point guard was a sub at national champ Florida LY.
Coach Smart used to coach at Carleton in Canada; Pacific has six Canadians.
Tigers are expected to be much deeper this year.

— Pepperdine
Haven’t been to the NCAA’s since 2002.
Last four years, they’re 12-54 in the WCC.
LY, Waves won three games in WCC tourney, lost in semi-finals.
Waves lost 91.7% of LY’s scoring; they added seven D-I transfers.

— Portland
Haven’t been to the NCAA’s since 1996.
Last three years, they’re 17-33 in the WCC.
Brought in 8 new players, should be deeper this year.
Timo George Jr is a promising 6-8 forward.

— Famous birthdays, October 24th:
Kevin Kline, 78
Chester Marcol, 76
Ron Gardenhire, 68
Mark Grant, 62
Corey Dillon, 51

Eric Hosmer, 36
Jalen Ramsey, 31
Rafael Devers, 29
Jaylen Brown, 29
Amon-Ra St. Brown, 26

Wednesday would’ve been the great Johnny Carson’s 100th birthday.

— Saint Mary’s
Made the NCAA’s last four years, going 3-4 in tournament.
Last four years, Gaels are 56-7 in WCC play.
Lost three seniors from LY, two of whom were 5-year players.
Gaels have only one senior this season.
Coach Bennett is unclear who the new point guard will be.

— San Diego
School opened a $35M basketball performance center last spring.
Toreros haven’t been to the NCAA’s since 2008.
Three years under Steve Lavin, they’re 13-37 in the WCC.
PG Johnson has played at Louisville, Wake Forest.
San Diego’s backcourt appears to be improved this year.

— San Francisco
Last time they were in the NCAA’s: 2022.
Last four years, they’re 41-25 in the WCC.
Last two years, Dons are 25-3 in WCC, other than Zags/St Mary’s.
Have 2 starters back TY, which in this day/age, is a lot.
Have high expectations; the pre-conference schedule is hard. 

— Santa Clara
Haven’t been to the NCAA’s since 1996 (Steve Nash was there).
Last four years, they’re 43-22 in the WCC.
64.4% of LY’s scoring, 49.8% of rebounding, 58.7% of assists are gone.
Five players transferred last spring, including two starters.
Broncos added three transfers, four freshmen this year.

— Seattle
First year in WCC; last four years, they were 44-28 in the WAC.
Haven’t been to the NCAA’s since 1969.
Redhawks have pretty good guards; they need to shoot better.
Big guy Junseok Yeo is a transfer from Gonzaga.

— Washington State
Coogs head back to the Pac-12 next year; they were 8-10 in WCC LY.
3 starters from LY’s team bolted to greener pa$ture$.
Riley can coach; Wazzu was #6 in country LY in 2-point FG%.
Wazzu could help its power rating with a good showing at Maui Classic. 

October 22 has been a memorable day for me:

Flash back to October 22, 1972; I was 12 years old, the A’s were playing Game 7 of the World Series in Cincinnati. Big day; when Joe Rudi caught a fly ball in left field for the last out, the A’s had won their first of three consecutive World Series. 12-year old me was very happy.

Some stuff about that game:

— Game 7 of that World Series started at 1:00 on a Sunday afternoon; things have changed. All seven games in this year’s World Series will start at 8:00- none of the games are on a Sunday. 

— Rollie Fingers got the last six outs for the save; back then, closers often got more than three outs to get a save. So when you hear people describe Mariano Rivera as “the best closer ever” remember that he almost always got three outs per game. Guys like Fingers and Bruce Sutter did more than that.

— Hall of Famer Catfish Hunter got eight outs and the win in Game 7, two days after he started Game 5; he was 7-2, 2.55 in 14 playoff games with the A’s. He threw a perfect game in May 1968.

So the A’s won the World Series, then the 4:00 NFL games came on TV; Rams wound up beating the Bengals 15-12 on a last-second field goal. All in all, October 22, 1972 was a very good day.

12-year old me was really, really happy.

Flash forward to October 22, 2019; on October 12, the retina in my right eye detached while I was in Las Vegas. I knew it was bad, but I had no idea what the problem was; I saw a few doctors when I got home, and on October 22, Dr Mallick fixed my retina.

Thanks for my cousins for driving me to the hospital that day.

I am forever grateful to Dr Mallick and Dr Lemanski (she did my cataract surgery 10 months later) for fixing my eye. Must be a cool job, helping people to see again.

Anyway, that is why October 22 stands out on the calendar for me.

— Famous birthdays, October 22nd:
Christopher Lloyd, 87
Wilbur Wood, 84
Jeff Goldblum, 73
Jamie Quirk, 71

Bob Odenkirk, 63
Carmen Ejogo, 52
Ichiro Suzuki, 52
Jeff McInnis, 51

Leonard Marshall, 44
Robinson Cano, 43
Corbin Burnes, 31
Geraldo Perdomo, 26

— Thunder 125, Rockets 124, 2 OTs
Gilgeous-Alexander had 5 points at halftime, wound up with 35.
Thunder shot 13-52 on the src, 33-52 inside the arc.
Houston had 21 turnovers, Thunder only 11.
Alperen Sengun scored 39 points for Houston

— Kennesaw State 45, Florida International 26
Owls led 24-14 at half, snapped a 13-game road losing streak.
Both teams ran ball for 200+ yards.
Kennesaw played two QB’s, averaged 16.7 yards/pass attempt
QB Jenkins threw for 296 yards and a TD for FIU

— Western Kentucky 28, Louisiana Tech 27 OT
WKU scored TD, then scored on a 2-point conversion for the OT win.
Hilltoppers led 20-7 at halftime.
Tech outgained WKU 449-340; they were 10-19 on third down.
WKU is 6-2 and is now bowl eligible. 

— Los Angeles Angels hired Kurt Suzuki as their new manager; Suzuki hit .255 in his 16-year career as a catcher, for five different teams. He was with the Washington Nationals when they won the 2019 World Series.

Suzuki has no professional coaching experience; the Angels have the longest playoff drought in the major leagues- they last made the postseason in 2014. Suzuki is the Angels’ fifth manager in eight years.

— Dodgers are -210 to win the World Series; Blue Jays are +175.

— Toronto P Trey Yesavage started this season in Class A ball; he threw 98 IP for four different minor league teams this year, then pitched 14 innings for Toronto in the regular season and has now thrown 15 more innings in the playoffs. Impressive season for the 21-year old.

— Blue Jays OF Vladimir Guerrero Jr is hitting .442 in this year’s playoffs, with 12 RBI in 11 games. 

— Mariners 6, Blue Jays 2
Eugenio Suarez hit a grand slam in the bottom of the 8th
Cal Raleigh also homered in 8th to tie game, 2-2.
Mariners took their starting P out after only 56 PT
Seattle leads series, 3-2; Game 6 is in Toronto Sunday.

— Dodgers 5, Brewers 1
Ohtani threw six shutout IP, also hit three home runs.
Milwaukee had five hits, was 0-8 with RISP.
Dodgers sweep Milwaukee 4-0; Brewers scored one run in every game.

— Bengals 33, Steelers 31
Bengals drove 52 yards, kicked 36-yard FG with 0:07 left for the win.
Flacco threw for 342 yards, three TD’s
WR Chase had 23 targets; he caught 16 passes for 161 yards.
Bengals were 7-14 on third down, Pittsburgh 7-10.

Bengals’ first two drives: 13 plays, 53 yards, two punts.
Bengals rest of game: 63 plays, 416 yards, 33 points.
Steelers led 10-0 early in second quarter.
Pittsburgh has allowed 369+ yards in five of six games.

— Louisville 24, Miami 21
Louisville had four INT’s, was +3 in turnovers.
Louisville led 14-10 at halftime.
Miami ran the ball 24 times for only 63 yards.
Cardinals were a 10.5-point underdog.

— Minnesota 24, Nebraska 6
Minnesota outscored Nebraska 17-0 in second half.
Gophers sacked Nebraska’s QB nine times.
Gophers outgained the Cornhuskers, 339-213.
Both teams are 5-2.

— Utah State 30, San Jose State 25
Utah State kicked 44-yard FG with 1:58 left for the win.
Aggies threw a 74-yard TD pass in 3rd quarter; they led 17-9.
San Jose State outgained the Agues, 534-461.
Spartans were 9-17 on third down, Utah State 5-15

— Famous birthdays, October 18th:
Mike Ditka, 86
George Hendrick, 76
Pam Dawber, 74
Alex Cora, 50

Yoenis Cespedes, 40
Zac Efron, 38
Osvaldo Bido, 30
Terance Mann, 29

— Most starting pitchers used, last two years:
31- White Sox, Marlins
27- Dodgers, Brewers
24- Angels, Mets, Giants
23- Braves, Red Sox

— Fewest starting pitchers used, last two years:
10- Mariners
12- Cardinals
14- Bronx, Nationals
16- Rockies, Royals, Phillies

— Dodgers-Brewers, Blue Jays-Mariners. This year’s Final Four

Only one player ever has played for all four of those teams: Henry Blanco, who played 16 years in the big leagues, for 11 different teams.

— Dolphins-Browns Sunday will have two lefty QB’s starting, first time that has happened in the NFL since 2006, an Atlanta-Tampa Bay game (Vick-Chris Simms)

By the way, this game could have winds as high as 60 MPH, with a 94% chance of rain. 

— Since 2016, there have been 16 college football teams that started a season 0-6 ATS; those teams went 5-10-1 ATS in their 7th game. Penn State fits that bill this week.

Since 2020, there have been eight teams that started a season 6-0 ATS; those teams went 2-6 ATS in their 7th game. Memphis, Texas Tech fit the bill this week. 

Things to think about, with college/minor league basketball around the corner…….

— This will sound weird, but Sacramento State is going to be fascinating to follow this year; the Hornets haven’t had a winning season in Big Sky games since 2015, they’re on their fifth head coach in six years, but they’re going to be fun to watch this season.

The new coach is Mike Bibby, who played 14 years in the NBA, scoring 14.7 ppg; one of his new players is 6-8 F Shaqir O’Neal, whose father is Shaquille O’Neal. 

Shaquille O’Neal is the new general manager for Sacramento State, which means we’re going to be seeing some Big Sky games on TV this season. Shaq is good at generating publicity.

Mikey Williams is a Hornet now; he was a big prospect a couple years ago, ran into some issues off the court, but he’s in Sacramento now, and is a key to Sacramento State’s season.

— Next year will be a dizzying year, with more teams changing leagues. There are a few teams changing leagues this year, but not that many.

Grand Canyon moves from the WAC to the Mountain West; Antelopes won 103 games the last four years, have been in four of last five NCAA Tournaments. Last year, Grand Canyon had the #29 eFG% in the country; they got 24% of their points on the foul line (#9 in country). Will they still get as many calls in their new, tougher league?

WAC was the #15 league last year; Mountain West was #6.

— Seattle is also bolting the WAC, which only has seven teams left; Redhawks are moving to the WCC, which won’t look the same at this time next year, with Gonzaga bolting to the Mountain West.

Seattle was 23-14 two years ago, but 14-18 last year; they were a terrible shooting team last year (#334 eFG%). Last four years, Redhawks were 44-28 in the WAC and they’ve got three starters back, but they need to make more shots. 

WAC was the #15 league last year; WCC was #7 league.

— UMass bolted from the Atlantic 15 to the MAC, a huge help to their basketball program; MAC was the #23 league LY, A-15 was the #8 league— the move was football-based, but it should make life simpler on the hardwood.

UMass is 47-47 in three years under Frank Martin, was 24-30 in A-15 games. Minutemen have not been in the NCAA’s since 2014- they’ve brought in 10 new players after last year’s 12-20 season, when they shot 28% on the arc, 2nd-worst in the country.

— Two teams bolted to Conference USA, for football reasons…….

Delaware was in the NCAA’s in 2022, going 22-13, but they went 23-31 in CAA games since then.

Blue Hens were 16-20 LY, 5-13 in CAA, but they won four games in the CAA tourney and lost in the final, 76-72 to NC-Wilmington, playing for the fifth night in a row.

Delaware was #324 in defensive efficiency LY; CAA was #20 league last year, C-USA was #9, so this is a step up for the Blue Hens.

— Missouri State bolts to C-USA from the Missouri Valley, the #10 league; Bears were 9-23/2-19 last year, a dismal team that turned the ball over 20.7% of the time (#346).

Missouri State has had some good teams recently, but they haven’t been to the NCAA’s since Steve Alford led them there, in 1999. They’ve had seven 20-win seasons since then, but haven’t made it back to March Madness.

— Famous birthdays, October 17
Michael McKean, 78
Mike Bratz, 70
Dan Pasqua, 64
Jay Humphries, 63
Danny Ferry, 59
John Mabry, 55
Myles Straw, 31

— SEC had 14 of its 16 teams in the NCAA’s last year, which seems excessive; Florida was the first SEC team to win a national title since Kentucky in 2012.

Texas/Oklahoma both went 6-12 in SEC games, tied for 13th; if you finish tied for 13th in your league, you shouldn’t make the NCAA’s.

— Kentucky’s NIL budget/payroll is $22M this season; consensus is that nationally, top 10 teams have an average payroll of $10M or so. High expectations for coach Mark Pope.

Wildcats were 24-12 LY, making their first Sweet 16 since 2019; teams shot 53.9% inside the arc vs Kentucky (#295). Hopefully they spent some of that $22M on big guys who can defend.

— Auburn was 32-6, 15-3 in SEC, made the Final Four for the second time in seven years under Bruce Pearl, but last month, Pearl abruptly quit, so his son Steven could take his place. Bruce Pearl is going into the TV studio this season.

Auburn will play six top 40 teams before Christmas, as they prepare for the rigors on of SEC play, which worked for them LY, when they played the #19 non-conference schedule.

— Last five years, the ACC ranked #5-5-7-5-5 nationally, a downturn from 2014-19, when the ACC was a top 3 league every year. Only four ACC teams made the NCAA’s LY, but couple of new coaches figure to re-vitalize their programs.

Will Wade went 58-11 at McNeese State, made the NCAA’s five of six years before that at LSU, VCU. In the NIL era, Wade seems like a good man for the job.

Ryan Odom is the new coach at Virginia; his teams at VCU/Utah State were 78-30 the last three years. In 2018, he coached #16-seed UMBC to the first #16-seed over #1-seed upset in, when his Retrievers upset………Virginia.

— Four of the top 11 teams in the preseason top 25 are from the Big 18, a league that hasn’t won a national title since Michigan State in 2000.

— BYU signed AJ Dybantsa, the best recruit in the country; Cougars also bring back last year’s leading scorer, Richie Saunders- they’ve added four guards in the transfer portal.

Last year, BYU had the #7 eFG% in the country; 47.6% of their shots were 3’s- they made 36.8% of those. Cougars went 26-10, winning their first NCAA Tournament game since 2011.

— Last five years, Cal-Irvine went 68-23 in Big West games, but was 4-5 in their conference tournament- they surprisingly haven’t been to the NCAA’s since 2019.

Last year, Anteaters were 32-7; they lost the NIT final in overtime. This year, they get G Derin Saran back; he went to Stanford LY, but it didn’t work out well, so he is back in Irvine, where hopefully the Anteaters will fare better in the conference tournament. 

— Blue Jays 13, Mariners 4
Vladimir Guerrero was 4-for-4 with a home run.
Toronto hit five homers; they had 18 hits overall.
Road team has won all three series games; Seattle leads, 2-1
Game 4 is Thursday in Seattle.

— Jacksonville State 38, Delaware 25
Cam Cook ran ball for 117 yards, three TD’s.
Gamecocks led 20-6 at halftime.
Delaware threw ball for 422 yards, but was minus-2 in turnovers.

— Texas-El Paso 35, Sam Houston State 17
Skyler Locklear threw for 236 yards, 2 TDs; ran ball for 48 yards, 2 more TD’s
Miners led 14-10 at halftime.
UTEP ran ball 34 times for 175 yards (5.1 yards/carry)

— NHL’s New York Rangers are first NHL team ever to get shut out in their first three home games of a season.

— Famous birthdays, October 16th:
Mel Counts, 84
Timothy Robbins, 67
Kevin McReynolds, 66

Adrian Murrell, 55
Kordell Stewart, 53
Bryce Harper, 33

John Wolford, 30
Steve Avila, 26
Noelvi Marte, 24

— When Gonzaga visits San Francisco this year, the game will be at the Chase Center, home of the Golden State Warriors, for the third year in a row. Gonzaga draws fans, and bigger arena makes USF a lot more money than playing in their campus gym would.

— In the history of the baseball playoffs, there have been 25 teams who hit two 3-run homers in the same game (or a 3-run and grand slam); all 25 of those teams won.

— Russell Westbrook signed on with the Sacramento Kings; this will be his 18th year in the NBA, the Kings are his 7th NBA team:

2008-19- Oklahoma City
2019-20- Houston
2020-21- Washington
2021-23- Lakers
2023-24- Clippers
2024-25- Nuggets
2025-26- Kings

In his career, Westbrook has earned $348,234,946 in salary.

— Some NBA over/under win totals for the coming season:

Thunder 62.5
Cavaliers 56.5
Nuggets 53.5
Rockets 52.5

Celtics 40.5
Bulls 32.5
Wizards 21.5
Jazz 18.5

— Angels/Orioles seem to be competing to hire Albert Pujols as their next manager; Orioles went 60-59 this season under interim manager Tony Mansolino, after they fired Brandon Hyde.

Last year, Pujols won a championship with Leones del Escogido of the Dominican Winter League; it was the first time he had managed. He is supposed to manage the Dominican Republic in next spring’s World Baseball Classic.

— Sacramento Kings signed Keegan Murray to a five-year, $140M rookie contract extension that will keep him in Sacramento through the 2030-31 season.

— Dodgers 5, Brewers 1
Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw a complete game (111 PT)
Muncy/Hernandez homered for Los Angeles.
Dodgers’ bullpen got total of three outs in the first two games.
Dodgers lead series 2-0; Game 3 is in Los Angeles Thursday.

— Dodger P Blake Snell has very interesting career numbers:
March/April 7-12, 3.89 in 32 starts
May 6-12, 4.57 in 32 starts
June 11-12, 4.44 in 29 starts

July 13-6, 2.43 in 36 starts
August 23-10, 2.45 in 48 starts
September/October 21-10, 2.15 in 45 starts

Much, much better in second half of the season.

— In the 30 years before Indiana hired Curt Cignetti as its football coach, they averaged 4.1 wins per year. Cignetti is 16-2 at Indiana; he makes $9M a year.

Worth it.

— The world is going nuts, or maybe just daytime TV sucks; I walk into a bar for lunch Tuesday and there is a discussion on TV as whether the Baltimore Ravens should fire John Harbaugh. 

Huh????

Harbaugh is 186-120 coaching the Ravens, won a Super Bowl. They’re off to a bad start this year; fire the defensive coordinator and move on. Discussing firing Harbaugh is nonsensical.

— I’m a believer that QB’s/WR’s should get stat credit for yardage they gain on pass interference penalties. Would have to be a separate category, but it would be interesting to see the numbers at the end of a season.

— I’m watching Miami-Atlanta NBA exhibition game the other night; they show the Hawks’ owner Anthony Ressler sitting with his wife and it dawns on me that he is married to actress Jami Gertz, who has 102 acting credits on IMDB.com

She was in the movie Less than Zero with Andrew McCarthy/Robert Downey Jr, a very good but very sad movie. She represented the Hawks at the NBA Draft Lottery twice. The Resslers have been married since 1989.

— Famous birthdays, October 15th:
Jim Palmer, 80
Joe Klecko, 72
Mark Wade, 60
Vanessa Marcil, 57
Fred Hoiberg, 53

Connor Barwin, 39
Blaine Gabbert, 36
Teoscar Hernandez, 33
Jack Flaherty, 30
Brandon Pfaadt, 27

— Liberty 30, New Mexico State 27
Liberty led 20-6 at halftime, held on for dear life.
New Mexico State missed a 47-yard FG on the last play.
Aggies outgained Liberty, 388-293, but had three turnovers.

— Florida International 25, Western Kentucky 6
Panthers kicked four field goals, led 19-6 at halftime.
FIU ran ball 39 times for 249 yards.
FIU had lost its previous five games vs Western Kentucky.

— Arkansas State 15, South Alabama 14
Red Wolves kicked a 38-yard FG at the gun for a walk-off win.
1-6 South Alabama led 14-3 after three quarters.
Arkansas State outgained the Jaguars, 367-293

— Last five baseball players to play for five teams in one season:
2018- Oliver Drake- Indians, Angels, Brewers, Twins, Blue Jays
2024- Mike Baumann- Orioles, Angels, Marlins, Mariners, Giants
2025- Jose Urena- Angels, Dodgers, Twins, Mets, Blue Jays

— Steve Weinman, who spent 13 years in the Chicago Bulls’ front office, has been hired by Wake Forest to be the general manager for the Deacons’ men’s/women’s basketball teams.

He’ll work closely with the head coaches on “roster construction, recruiting strategy, transfer portal evaluation, resource allocation and planning”.

— Air Force Falcons are only college football team that has gone over the total in every game they’ve played (6-0) this season.

— RIP to Sandy Alomar Sr, who passed away at age 81; he played 15 years in the big leagues for six different teams, mostly the Angels. He has two sons who played in the major leagues, Sandy Alomar Jr and Roberto Alomar.

Sandy Alomar Jr had 1,168 career hits; he made the All-Star Game in 1970.
RIP, sir. 

Falcons 24, Bills 14
Bijan Robinson ran ball 19 times for 170 yards, with an 81-yard TD.
Atlanta led 21-7 at halftime.
Falcons in first half: 36 plays, 340 yards, 21 points.
Falcons in second half: 31 plays, 118 yards, 3 points.

Bills drove 73 yards for a TD on their first drive.
Bills’ next six drives: 19 plays, 48 yards, no points.
Falcons outgained Buffalo, 443-291.
Buffalo scored 41-30-31-31 points in wins, 20-14 in losses.

Bears 25, Commanders 24
Bears drove 36 yards, kicked game-winning 38-yard FG at the gun.
Chicago was +3 in turnovers, outgained Washington. 381-329.
Bears won their last three games, scoring 31-25-25 points.
In their three wins, Chicago is +10 in turnovers.

Washington turned the ball over twice on their first nine plays.
Chicago led 13-7 at halftime.
Bears outgained Washington, 381-329.
4th quarter of this game was played in the rain. 

— Dodgers 2, Brewers 1
Treinen struck out Turang with bases loaded to end the game.
Blake Snell allowed one hit in eight shutout IP.
Freddie Freeman homered, doubled for LA.
Game 2 is Tuesday in Milwaukee. 

— Mariners 10, Blue Jays 3
Rodriguez/Polanco both hit 3-run homers.
Josh Naylor went 3-for-4 with two RBI
First two games in this series, Toronto is 1-for-42 from the 3rd inning on.
Game 3 is in Seattle Wednesday.

— Famous birthdays, October 14th:
Art Shamsky, 84
Al Oliver, 79
Charlie Joiner, 78
Ron Wolfley, 63

Keith Byars, 62
Lori Petty, 62
Joe Girardi, 61
Jim Jackson, 55

Frank Wycheck, 54
Merrill Kelly, 37
Jared Goff, 31
Emeka Egbuka, 23

— Penn State fired football coach James Franklin after the Nittany Lions lost three games in a row, the last two as 20-point favorites, but jeez……Franklin was 104-45 at Penn State and was in the College Football Playoff last year.

Franklin gets paid $49.5M to take a hike. Someone really, really wanted him fired.

— Mike Shildt is out as manager of the San Diego Padres; it is unclear whether he jumped or got pushed, though he said the decision was his. 

“While it has always been about serving others, it’s time I take care of myself and exit on my terms…….I gave every fiber of my being to help achieve Peter Seidler’s vision of bringing a World Series Championship to San Diego.

We fell short of the ultimate goal, but I am proud of what the players, staff and organization were able to accomplish the last two seasons.”

Shildt had six winning seasons in his six years as a manager; he was 435-340, making it to the playoffs his last five years.

— Tennessee Titans fired coach Brian Callahan Monday; he was 4-19 in 1+ years coaching the Titans. His father Bill was the Titans OL coach; he has also left the team.

Senior offensive assistant Mike McCoy will take over as interim coach. McCoy previously was the head coach of the San Diego Chargers from 2013 to 2016. He had a 27-37 record, making the playoffs in his first season.

— College football conference trends:
American
Favorites 14-5 ATS

ACC
Road teams 14-10 ATS

Big 18
Underdogs 17-11 ATS

Big X
Favorites 17-8 ATS

Conference USA
Home teams 8-3 ATS

Mid-American
Home teams 11-4 ATS

Mountain West
Home teams 6-7 ATS

SEC
Home teams 14-8 ATS

Sun Belt
Home teams 12-4 ATS

— NFL divisional trends:
AFC East
Home teams 1-4 ATS divisional games
7-7 ATS non-divisional games
AFC North
5-12 ATS non-divisional games

AFC South
9-8 ATS non-divisional games

AFC West
5-2 ATS non-divisional home games
3-8 ATS non-divisional road games

NFC East
8-8 ATS non-divisional games

NFC North
8-7 ATS non-divisional games

NFC South
Non-divisional road underdogs 5-3 ATS

NFC West
Home teams 0-4 ATS divisional games
10-6 ATS non-divisional games

 — Movie of the Day: The Rewrite (2014)- An Oscar-winning script writer in a slump leaves Hollywood to teach screenwriting at SUNY-Binghamton, where he falls for a single mom taking classes there.

Hugh Grant, Marisa Tomei, JK Simmons, Allison Janney, excellent cast.

This is a nice movie; the world needs more nice.

— Oregon-Rutgers play this week; because college/minor league sports are run now by over-educated morons, these teams are in the same league. 

These two schools are 2,909 miles apart; they’re not the only ones. Cal/Stanford in the ACC, Washington in the Big 18, it all makes zero sense.

— Last week in college/minor league, 8 of the top 25 teams lost.

— Rams played in Baltimore Sunday, are playing in London this week; they’re spending this week in Baltimore, and are practicing at the Orioles ballpark, Camden Yards.

— The last four QB’s taken #1 in the NFL Draft had their coaches fired during their rookie year:
2021- Jaguars, Trevor Lawrence/Urban Meyer
2023- Panthers, Bryce Young/Frank Reich
2024- Bears, Caleb Williams/Matt Eberflus
2025- Titans, Cam Ward/Brian Callahan

Happy Thanksgiving Day to all our Canadian friends………

Chiefs 30, Lions 17
Chiefs led 13-10 at halftime.
Chiefs in second half: 33 plays, 212 yards, 17 points.
Chiefs are 8-4 ATS last 12 games coming off a loss.
Chiefs are 14-8 ATS last 22 regular season games vs NFC teams.

Lions scored 40.3 points/game in their wins, 13-17 in losses.
Detroit in second half: 22 plays, 112 yards, 7 points.
Chiefs outgained Detroit, 355-297.
Kansas City didn’t have a penalty the whole game.

Buccaneers 30, 49ers 19
Mayfield passed for 256 yards, two TD’s.
Bucs’ first four drives: 14 plays, 44 yards, 7 points.
Bucs rest of game: 37 plays, 290 yards, 23 points.
Only 8 of Tampa Bay’s 50 plays were on 3rd down. 

Buccaneers led 20-16 at halftime.
49ers in second half: 29 plays, 97 yards, 3 points, 2 turnovers.
Last five games, SF ran ball for 77-73-83-74-67 yards.
49ers lost star LB Warner for the season (ankle). 

Panthers 30, Cowboys 27
Rico Dowdle had 34 touches for 239 yards and a TD.
Carolina is 3-0 at home, 0-3 on the road.
Carolina ran ball for 239/216 yards in last two games.
Panthers allowed 24+ points in five of six games.  

Carolina outgained the Cowboys, 410-292.
Dallas allowed 30+ points in four of last five points.
Last four weeks, Dallas allowed 433.6 yards/game.
Cowboys ran the ball 19 times for only 31 yards. 

Chargers 29, Dolphins 27
Chargers drove 44 yards, kicked game-winning FG with 0:05 left.
Dolphins had taken 27-26 lead on a TD with 0:46 left.
Miami led 13-9 at halftime.
Chargers in 2nd half: 39 plays, 230 yards, 20 points.

Miami has allowed 29 ppg in its 1-5 start. 
Tagovailoa threw for 205 yards, but three INTs.
Miami is 0-5 when it allows more than 21 points.
RB Achane ran ball for 128 yards, two TD’s. 

Rams 17, Ravens 3
Rams’ first two drive of 3rd quarter: 11 plays, 97 yards, 14 points.
Rams allowed 9-19-20-3 points in wins, 33-26 in losses.
Rams are 8-1 ATS in last nine games as a road favorite.
Star WR Nucua (ankle) only played six snaps in second half.

Ravens drove 53 yards, kicked FG on their first drive.
Rest of game: 64 plays, 179 yards, no points, 3 turnovers.
Ravens lost their last four games (minus-8 in turnovers)
AFC North teams are 5-12 ATS in non-divisional games.

Colts 31, Cardinals 27
Arizona led 24-17 after the third quarter.
Colts in 4th quarter: 19 plays, 149 yards, 14 points,
Colts are 4-0 at home, scoring 33-29-40-31 points.
Indy scored 29+ points in all five of its wins.

Cardinals lost last four games by total of nine points.
Backup QB Brissett threw for 320 yards, two TD’s.
Under Gannon, Arizona is 11-6 ATS as a road underdog.
Under Gannon, Arizona is 9-3 ATS vs AFC teams.

— Famous birthdays, October 13th:
Paul Simon, 84
Rich Kotite, 83
Reggie Theus, 68

Doc Rivers, 64
Derek Harper, 64
Jerry Rice, 63

Trevor Hoffman, 58
Quincy Carter, 48
De’Von Achane, 24

Mariners 3, Blue Jays 1
Cal Raleigh homered for the Mariners.
Jorge Polanco knocked in Seattle’s other two runs.
Bryce Miller held Toronto to two hits in 6 IP.
Seattle leads series, 1-0; Game 2 is Monday. 

Broncos 13, Jets 11
Jets are 0-6, with four losses by 6 or fewer points.
Jets ran 57 plays in this game, for a TOTAL of 82 yards.
Justin Fields is 14-35 as an NFL starting QB.
Denver drove 65 yards, kicked game-winning FG with 5:06 left.

Jets kicked FG’s on first two drives, both started in Denver territory
Jets rest of game: 51 plays, 85 yards, 3 points,
Denver won its last three games, giving up 3-17-11 points.
Under is 5-1 in Broncos’ games. 

Steelers 23, Browns 9
Rodgers threw for 235 yards, two TD’s.
Last 9 years, Pittsburgh is 9-0 SU/7-2 ATS coming off a bye.
Pittsburgh is 15-4 ATS last 19 AFC North home games.
Steelers held Cleveland to 3.3 yards per play. 

Browns’ first three drives: 15 plays, 29 yards, three punts.
Cleveland didn’t score a TD; they trailed 9-3 at halftime.
Browns scored 16-17-13-10-17-9 points in their 1-5 start.
Browns are 0-5 SU/ATS last five visits to  Pittsburgh.

Patriots 25, Saints 19 
NE’s first four drives: 24 plays, 219 yards, 22 points,
Kayshon Boutte caught five passes for 93 yards, two TD’s.
Patriots scored 33-42-23-25 points in wins, 13-14 in losses.
Patriots are 7-3-1 ATS last 11 games as a road favorite.

Saints were 3-9 on third down, Patriots 6-13.
New England held Alvin Kamara to 31 yards on 10 carries.
Saints are 7-14 ATS last 21 games as a home underdog.
Rattler is 1-11 as an NFL starting QB.

Seahawks 20, Jaguars 12
WR Smith-Njigba caught 8 passes for 162 yards and a TD.
Seahawks won four of last five games, scoring 30.4 ppg.
Seattle is 3-0 on road (31-17 Pitt/23-20 Arizona/20-12 Jaguars)
Seahawks have won their last nine road games. 

Jaguars were 4-16 on 3rd down, had 10 penalties for 76 yards.
Seahawks are 22-6 in last 28 1:00 kickoffs on East Coast.
Seattle sacked Trevor Lawrence seven times for 44 yards.
Seattle held last five foes to 73 rushing yards/game.

Raiders 20, Titans 10
Raiders led 10-0 at half, snapped a four-game skid.
Titans in first half: 30 plays, 76 yards, four punts, no points.
Last 3+ years, Raiders are 11-4 ATS as a home favorite.
RB Jeanty carried ball 23 times for 75 yards and a TD. 

Not much offense: total yards, 226-225 Raiders.
Las Vegas won despite running ball 32 times for only 68 yards.
Titans had three turnovers, were only 3-13 on third down.
Tennessee is 1-5 SU/ATS, losing by 8-14-21-26-10 points.

Packers 27, Bengals 18
Packers ran ball 33 times for 153 yards, outgained Cincy 409-268.
Green Bay won their three home games, 27-13/27-18/27-18.
Green Bay led 10-0 at halftime.
Bengals in first half: 21 yards, 102 yards, no points.

Bengals lost last four games, by 38-25-13-9 points.
Flacco was 29-45/219 passing; he threw 2 TD’s, beat the spread.
Green Bay outgained the Bengals, 409-268.
Green Bay scored 27+ points in four of its five games.