Tuesday’s 6-pack:
Interesting NFL games this week:
— Dolphins vs Chiefs (-2.5)
— Seahawks @ Baltimore (-5.5)
— Cardinals @ Cleveland (-8)
— Vikings @ Atlanta (-4.5)
— Colts (-2.5) @ Carolina
— Cowboys @ Philadelphia (-3)
Quote of the Day
“I’ll never watch baseball again if that happens!”
Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Glavine, on a suggestion that balls/strikes could be subject to instant replay challenges
Tuesday’s quiz
On the old TV show
Friends, what well-known actress played Chandler’s mother?
Monday’s quiz
Jared Goff played his college football for the Cal Golden Bears.
Sunday’s quiz
Randall Cunningham is the only UNLV football player who has had his number retired by the Rebels.
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— When I was a kid, two guys in our neighborhood drove Cadillacs; the guy who owned a funeral parlor, and the guy who owned a beer distributorship.
There’s a lesson in there for kids; get into a line of work where you’ll never, ever run out of customers. Dying and drinking fit that description.
— Monday was the Sports Equinox, the only day in 2023 where all four pro sports were in action on the same day. Only the 29th time it has ever happened.
— Saturday night in Fort Collins, Colorado State was penalized after their fans threw snowballs at the Air Force bench during the Falcons’ 30-13 win. Problem is, the game was 13-13 when the snowballs were thrown; Air Force scored a touchdown on the drive after the penalty.
— NHL has struck gold with their Stadium Series games, where teams play outdoors; they draw very large crowds. Flames-Oilers in Edmonton Sunday drew 55,411 fans.
—
Lions 26,
Raiders 14
Lions outgained the Raiders, 486-157.
Detroit won/covered five of its last six games.
Under Campbell, Detroit is 7-2 ATS as a home favorite.
Under Campbell, Lions are 29-12-1 ATS overall.
Raiders in 2nd half: 22 plays, 76 yards, no points.
Raiders’ only TD in 2nd half was 75-yard pick-6 by Peters.
Las Vegas lost last three road games, by 28-17-18-12 points.
Raiders’ team total: under 8-0
— Through eight weeks of the NFL season, seven rookie QB’s have started a game, the most of any year in the Super Bowl era.
Rangers 3,
Diamondbacks 1
Texas scored 3 runs in 2nd inning; Seager hit a 2-run homer.
Scherzer left after three innings with a bad back.
Texas bullpen got 18 outs, allowed only one run.
Rangers lead series, 2-1
— Rangers’ OF Adolis Garcia left the game with left side tightness.
— It is good to watch the World Series live again; this time last year, I had DirecTV and they were at war with the local FOX station, so no live baseball— watched the replays of the World Series at 2:30am on MLB Network. Watching them live is more fun.
— Whoever invented the multi-view, with football game/baseball game next to each other on the same screen, that person deserves a raise, a big raise.
— In case you were wondering, there have been 20,533 major league baseball players; it is difficult to make it to the big leagues, even harder to stay there.
— Word of the Day: Camaraderie— Mutual trust and friendship among people who spend a lot of time together.
— College football conference trends:
AAC— home favorites are 5-11 ATS, home underdogs are 4-8.
ACC— home underdogs are 10-4 ATS
Big X— home favorites are 12-9 ATS, home underdogs are 9-4
Big 14— home underdogs are 3-11 ATS
C-USA— home favorites are 5-8 ATS, home underdogs are 2-8
MAC— home favorites are 6-8 ATS, home underdogs are 3-7
Mountain West— home favorites are 6-8 ATS, home underdogs are 5-7
Pac-12— home underdogs are 10-4 ATS
SEC— home favorites are 13-7 ATS, home underdogs are 4-10
Sun Belt— home favorites are 8-12 ATS.
— Iowa-Northwestern total for this week is 29.5, the lowest college football total on record. Five of the six meetings in this series stayed under the total. This game is in Chicago, not Evanston.
Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz, the head coach’s son, will finish out this season, then take a hike, the school announced Monday. Nice way of saying he got fired.
— NFL divisional trends:
NFC East teams are 12-9 ATS outside the division.
NFC North teams are 9-12-1 ATS outside the division.
NFC South teams are 7-14-1 ATS outside the division.
NFC West home teams are 6-3 ATS outside the division.
AFC East underdogs are 3-5 ATS outside the division.
Underdogs are 5-0 ATS in AFC North divisional games.
AFC South underdogs are 11-5 ATS outside the division.
AFC West underdogs are 0-5 ATS outside the division.
— UNLV’s football program is 6-2, their best year in a long time; it turns out that the last time UNLV went thru an entire season with the same starting QB was 1996, when John Denton was the Rebels’ quarterback. Thats a lot of instability at a very important position.
— San Jose State shut Hawai’i out 35-0 Saturday; it was the first time since 1998 that Hawai’i was shut out at home.
— I’m curious about the mechanics of the transfer portal; who contacts who? If Player A wants to bolt his current school, does he have people contract other schools, or do schools contract players who want to bolt? Or both?
— If the World Series goes seven games, Game 7 is Saturday night on FOX, the same time as the Alabama-LSU football game on CBS. Good time for multi-view on YouTube TV.
— Chiefs-Dolphins play Sunday morning at 9:30, in Germany; was this a good idea, having one of the marquis matchups of the season at 9:30am?
Kansas City wanted the game to be in Germany; every team has to play an international game once every eight years, and the Chiefs wanted their game to be in Germany since they have global marketing rights there.
— NFL trades (trade deadline is Tuesday at 4:00):
Giants traded DE Leonard Williams to Seattle, for a 2nd and 5th-round draft pick.
Philadelphia traded DT Kentavius Street and a 2025 7th-round pick to Atlanta, for a 2024 6th-round pick.
— Cardinals benched QB Joshua Dobbs; rookie Clayton Tune will start this week in Cleveland, unless Kyler Murray is deemed healthy enough to make his return from ACL surgery.