The past week in sports was an interesting one. Just on a national scale, the NBA’s most historical franchises are back on top of the standings for the first time in nearly a decade. MLB saw massive allegations come out against one of its powerhouses. College football lost one of its biggest stars for the rest of the season, and possibly the rest of his collegiate career.
On a more local scale, big games were lost, less important games were closer than expected and frustrating trends continued to loom large.
Eagles
Coming off of a bye week, a home matchup against the reigning champion New England Patriots lived up to the hype, as the game went down to the final minutes in a 17-10 loss. Troublingly, some of their recent trends continued, with Carson Wentz struggling once again and Nelson Agholor failing to reel in a potential game-tying touchdown.
So where do they go from here? Through 10 weeks the Eagles are 5-5, good for second in the division, with a good defense but an offense that still can’t find their footing. The returns of Jordan Matthews and Jay Ajayi made no difference, as they had a single touch between the two of them.
There are still six weeks left, which is a lot of football. The defense has been good enough, when at its best, this year to keep them in games. If the offense can find a way to build some momentum, a playoff berth is still within reach.
Up next: 11/24 vs. Seattle, 1:00 p.m./FOX
Penn State
After a crushing loss on the road at Minnesota, Penn State rebounded with a tough win at home over the Indiana Hoosiers. While it may not look pretty on paper, this was a big, well deserved win for the Nittany Lions.
Indiana had been right on the edge of the top 25 in national polls, so they are a quality team. Penn State completely dominated the line of scrimmage, holding Indiana under 100 rushing yards on the day and sacked the quarterback twice. With that said, there were some issues.
The secondary was completely picked apart by Indiana’s passing game, surrendering 371 yards through the air and a touchdown. That is a major problem, especially considering this week’s opponent, Ohio State, has a heisman candidate at quarterback in Justin Fields and the fourth best offense in the country overall, to match the top scoring defense in the nation.
Up next: 11/23 @ #2 Ohio State, 12:00 p.m./FOX
Flyers
Riding a four-game winning streak, the Flyers promptly went 0-3 last week including blowing a 3-0 lead in the final period at home against the New York Islanders. That loss dropped them to 10-10 with four of those losses in overtime or shootouts.
Their recent inability to close games in regulation has caught up to them, losing two of those three in shootouts to teams ahead of them in the division currently. The season is still relatively young, but if that trend continues they won’t be in the playoff conversation for much longer.
Up next: 11/19 @ Florida, 7:00 p.m.
11/21 @ Carolina, 7:00 p.m.
11/23 vs. Flames, 1:00 p.m.
76ers
The bad news: the Sixers are 3-5 since their 5-0 start, including losses to the middling Magic and Thunder on the road.
The good news: that loss to Oklahoma City was only the second loss all season for their opening-night lineup. With that group (Simmons, Harris, Embiid, Richardson and Horford) starting on the floor, the 76ers are 7-2, so if that core can stay healthy/not suspended, they should be just fine.
Expect them to bounce back this week with three extremely winnable home games on tap.
Up next: 11/20 vs. New York, 7:00 p.m.
11/22 vs. San Antonio, 8:00 p.m./ESPN
11/23 vs. Miami, 7:30 p.m.
Villanova
I’ll admit I wasn’t planning on covering the Wildcats much this year because of my limited college basketball knowledge, but they’ve been too bi-polar to start the year for me to not talk about it in some depth.
The good: All of their games have been decided by at least 24 points, including a 43-point dismantling of Army on opening night.
The bad: That also includes getting torched 76-51 by Ohio State last Wednesday.
The verdict: They’ve played three games. They only have one game in the next 12 days. They still have plenty of time to find their groove before facing #4 Kansas and #18 Xavier to close 2019, so there’s no reason at all to press the panic button… yet.
If they happen to lose before those games and get demolished in them, then yeah go ahead and panic but I don’t exactly see that happening.
Up next: 11/21 vs. Middle Tennessee St. in Conway, SC, 11:30 a.m./ESPN2
Temple
The good news is that with the 29-21 win over Tulane on Saturday, Temple kept themselves alive for an American Athletic Conference championship game berth.
The bad news is they need a whole lot of help for that to even become a relative possibility.
What they need to do: win out. That’s easier said than done with a tough matchup on the road against #17 Cincinnati this week (only a 13.7 percent chance to win according to ESPN).
On the off-chance they do win out, they then need the following to happen:
- Cincinnati loses at #18 Memphis to close the year; this is pretty likely.
- UCF loses either at Tulane (which is possible, Tulane’s beaten some good teams this year and is really tough at home; UCF also lost on the road to 3-7 Tulsa last week) or at home against USF (much less possible but I guess stranger things have happened before).
Up next: 11/23 @ #17 Cincinnati, 7:00 p.m./ESPN2
The Good, the bad and the weird
The Good – Oklahoma Sooners
When Jalen Hurts threw an interception early in the second quarter of the Sooners’ game at Baylor on Saturday, I texted my father to gloat about how I had been right in saying they were completely overrated. I felt even better when the Bears rolled into the half with a 31-10 lead.
Then the Sooners outscored Baylor 24-0 in the second half, Hurts threw four touchdowns and Baylor’s offense collapsed to the tune of 104 total yards and two turnovers as Oklahoma came back and stole a 34-31 win.
Good on them for proving me wrong.
Honorable mention: Whether it was a PR stunt by the NFL, or a PR stunt by himself, Colin Kaepernick proved that he can still sling it at a NFL level, at least when throwing to uncovered receivers in a workout setting. Regardless of how people feel about him, that’s what the thoughts of people who get paid to do this kind of thing are. Make of it what you must.
The bad – Houston Astros
During the MLB playoffs, Astros manager AJ Hinch was told about anonymous sources who had told reporters that the Astros were systematically stealing opposing catchers’ signs electronically and relaying them to the batter. When he was asked about the claims, he doubled down and challenged the sources to put a face to the quote or shut up about it.
Mike Fiers and Danny Farquhar happily obliged, Fiers coming clean about his experiences with Houston and both about theirs playing against and now a clear picture has come into view.
The Astros used a camera behind center field to view the opposing catcher’s signals to the pitcher, broadcasted it to a monitor in the hallway between the dugout and the clubhouse. Someone, probably a clubbie or other low-level team employee, would then relay the incoming pitch to the hitter at the plate by slamming on a trash can with some object, likely a bat or a hammer or something.
These aren’t just random claims anymore, they have been widely confirmed, and both footage from the World Series documentary recently released and leaked footage from a security camera in said hallway appear to confirm what has been said.
How MLB is going to react to all this is presently unclear but the decision could make or break the reputation of league commissioner Rob Manfred.
Honorable Mention: Alabama QB Tua Tagavailoa suffered a season — and possibly college career — ending injury on Saturday at Mississippi State. He was tackled awkwardly, sustaining a dislocated hip and posterior wall fracture and needed to be carted off the field.
He underwent successful hip surgery on Monday in Houston and according to doctors has a very promising prognosis and is expected to make a full recovery.
The Worse – Myles Garrett, DE, Cleveland Browns
No matter what Mason Rudolph did to incite the ensuing brawl, what Garrett did was absolutely inexcusable. Ripping off an opponent’s helmet and then swinging it at their head is something seemingly more fit for a Mortal Kombat video game, as evidenced by the video posted on Social Media of someone splitting the seat of a wooden chair in two with a football helmet.
Now, in no way am I saying that Rudolph’s hands were completely clean in this situation. He took a clean hit that was a little awkward personally and grabbed Garrett’s helmet, trying to rip it off, and then played the victim card acting like he was completely innocent.
Garrett took it way too far, and his indefinite suspension reflects that, but Rudolph calling him a coward is a bit hypocritical.
The Weird – Atlanta Falcons
The Falcons started the season 1-7, and was one drop by Nelson Agholor away from being 0-8 heading into a week 10 tilt against the Saints in New Orleans. Fans and analysts alike were weighing the future of the team, head coach Dan Quinn and general manager Thomas Dimitroff alike.
Then the Falcons rattled off convincing road wins against those Saints and the Carolina Panthers by a combined score of 55-12, playing like a Super Bowl contender the last two weeks completely out of nowhere.
This is just evidence that if you think the Eagles are confusing…well you’ve got it easy.
