Patriots 26, Jets 19

 

After a 1-2 start to the season, the New England Patriots go 3-0 and are now 4-2 after six weeks. 

Yesterday, they beat the New York Jets in a divisional game. The Jets scored first, a field goal, but the Patriots answered with a touchdown on a 42-yard Drake Maye pass to Romeo Daubs, and never trailed after that. Maye finished with three TDs and 235 passing yards on 18 of 32 attempts. No sacks, no fumbles, no interceptions. 

The big news for the Pats may be the return to play of AJ Brown. However, he went only 3-for-10 yesterday with 27 yards, fourth among New England receivers. Demario Douglas led all receivers with 86 yards and one TD. In addition to that and Daubs' first-quarter catch, Hunter Henry (48 yards) had a receiving TD as well. 

Corey Kiner led the New England running backs with 57 yards. Maye had a total of 24 yards rushing, mostly on one 21-yard run in the third quarter, the longest by any Patriot in the game. 

New England (4-2) is still in second place in the AFC East standings. Buffalo (5-1) won yesterday, barely holding off the Raiders, 33-30 (the Patriots beat the Raiders, 45-17, last week). If the season were to end with the standings as they are now, New England would have the first Wild Card spot in the AFC.

Patriot fans won't have to wait long for the next game - they play Thursday night against the 4-2 Bears in Chicago (8:15 pm). Led by QB Caleb Williams (USC) and former Georgia Bulldog running back D'Andre Swift, their potent running game (1239 yards, third best in the NFL), will be a challenge for New England's mid-level rushing defense. However, Maye should be able to find some success against Chicago's mid-level passing defense. Still, New England is a three-point underdog going into the game.

We're No. 5!

 

Yesterday was a day in college football the likes of which we probably won't see again soon. Not only did the No.1 ranked team lose to an unranked opponent for the second straight week, but five of the top seven teams (Georgia, Notre Dame, Indiana, Alabama, and Texas) all lost their games as well. 

The previously undefeated, No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs lost to unranked Auburn yesterday, 27-24, and fell to No. 5 in the today's AP Poll. Last week, then-No. 1 Texas lost to unranked Oklahoma by the same, 27-24, score. It was the first time that the No. 1 team lost to an unranked opponent in back-to-back weeks since 1990. The hilarious part is both Auburn and Oklahoma are still unranked.

Just as hilarious is that Texas, after having fallen from No. 1 to No. 7 last week, lost again yesterday, this time to unranked Florida and fell all the way down to No. 19. Wouldn't it be just hysterical if Texas lost a third straight time to No. 7 Ole Miss (5-1) next week? Meanwhile, Florida (5-2), Georgia's next opponent, is now ranked No. 20. 

The undefeated, No. 3 Miami Hurricanes (6-0) survived unranked Florida State, 43-35, in double OT yesterday and are the new No. 1 team with 40 of the 70 first-place votes. 

No. 2 Notre Dame lost to No. 8 BYU, 28-24, and fell to No. 4. The Cougars (6-0) are the new No. 2 team with 20 of the first-place votes. But just as importantly, Notre Dame held the lineal college football championship and Georgia's 2021 and 2022 championship belts, and lost them both to BYU, the new lineal champion and belt holder.

No. 4 Ohio State (6-1), who lost to the now-disgraced Texas Longhorns, 24-22, in Week Two, beat No. 5 Indiana, 19-15, yesterday. One of the few teams to survive yesterday's massacre, the Buckeyes moved up in the rankings to the new No. 3 spot with nine of the first-place votes and Indiana (6-1) fell to No. 6.

The old No. 6 team, Alabama, who lost last week to Georgia, 20-17, lost a second straight game to No. 14 Tennessee. Alabama (5-2) is now No. 13 and Tennessee (6-1) is now No. 11.    

What else? Some asshole, probably from Texas, cast the single first-place vote for No. 8 Texas Tech as the top team. Good luck with that.  

Confused? Not surprising. It was a crazy day. In short, the top seven teams are now Miami, BYU, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Georgia, Indiana, Ole Miss, and Texas Tech, in that order. This helpful chart might help you understand what happened:

Top 25 teams remaining on Georgia's schedule are No. 7 Ole Miss (5-1), No. 20 Florida (5-2), and No. 22 Missouri (5-2). The Dawgs are off next weekend on a bye before playing Florida in a Halloween game on October 31.

It's hard to tell what to make of the Florida team. The Gators suffered back-to-back losses to Missouri and South Carolina (two teams still on Georgia's schedule), but before those losses they beat Auburn and Ole Miss, and after those losses they beat Texas. So are they a good team or are their opponents just bad?  I like Georgia's chances recovering from a loss and coming off a bye week, and the Bulldogs are early 12½-point favorites. 

But like all of Bulldog Nation, I'll be holding my breath the entire game. 

Bruins 4, Kings 1

 

Just like Friday night, the Bruins' opponent scored first, and then Boston responded with four unanswered goals. See a pattern here? Don't poke the bear . . . 

The L.A. Kings scored a goal in the first period. David Pastrnak wasn't having any part of that and responded with an unassisted goal in the second period, his fourth of the season, to tie up the game. 

In the third period, Marat Khusnutdinov scored a goal, assisted by Matthew Poitras and Morgan Geekie, to give the Bruins the lead. Elias Lindholm later hit an empty-netter, assisted by Khusnutdinov and Charlie McAvoy (BU, 2016), followed by another open-net goal by JJ Peterka, assisted by Pastrnak and Fraser Minten. It was Pasta's eighth assist of the season. 

Jeremy Swayman made 25 saves in the game (.962). He has 184 saves n the season after seven games, third best in the NHL.

It was the mighty Boston Bruins fifth consecutive win and they improve to 7-2-0 on the season, giving them a two-point lead for first place in the Atlantic Division ahead of Ottawa, Florida, and Tampa Bay. They're second overall in the Eastern Conference to the Carolina Hurricane's 15 points (7-1-1). 

The road trip concludes Tuesday night in Dallas against goalie Jake Oettinger (BU, 2019) and the Stars.  Oettinger has only 120 saves so far this season - he's no Swayman - but his save percentage (.952) is sixth best in the NHL (Swayman's is .934). However, Boston's shooting percentage, 12.9, fifth best in the league, should make up the difference in the goalies' save percentages, as Dallas has only a 9.0 shooting percentage, third from worse in the NHL.

BU 2, Vermont 1 (OT) (men)

 

Whew! I needed this one! After Georgia's disappointing loss to Auburn today and the BU women's loss to Colgate tonight, not to mention the two BU losses last night, I needed someone to win something.  The No. 11 Terriers' men's team came through for me up in Vermont.

Trailing 1-0 with 0:54 left in the third and an open net, the Terrier's Ryder Ritchie blasted a shot from the opposite side of the ice and scored a game-tying goal. And then, barely a minute into the three-on-three, sudden-death OT, Ritchie scored again and won the game for BU, 2-1, to split the weekend series with the Catamounts.

Ritchie also led the team with six shots on goal and nine shots overall. Mikhail Yegorov made 24 saves in the net (.960).

The Terriers improve to 3-1-0 overall, 1-1-0 in Hockey East play.

Next weekend, the Terriers play a home-and-away series against the No. 17 UConn Huskies (2-2-0). It will be the first conference games of the season for the Huskies. 

Thank you, Ryder, and thank you, BU. I needed the wins!

Colgate 1, BU 0

 

The BU women get swept by No. 9 Colgate, losing tonight by a score of 1-0, a second consecutive shot-out loss.

The Terrier's Lo Lachapelle led the team with four shots on goal. Quinn Taylor had the most shots overall (6). Mari Pietersen made an astonishing 45 saves (.978), holding the Colgate offense to a single goal. But that single goal was one more than the Terriers scored, and they drop to 1-4-1 on the season. It wasn't a conference game, so the Terriers are still 1-0-1 in Hockey East play.

Next weekend, the Terriers will host something called the Ice Breaker Tournament, an early-season tournament featuring the odd, seemingly random selection of BU, Yale, Minnesota State, and Robert Morris (whoever he is)..The Terriers will play Yale on Friday, October 23rd, and then either Minnesota State or Robert Morris the next night. None of the tournament attendees, other that BU, are Hockey East teams.

Auburn 27, Georgia 24

 

Well, shit. I don't like this. Not one bit. The previously undefeated, No. 1-ranked University of Georgia Bulldogs lost by a field goal to unranked Auburn (3-2), a team who's biggest win up to this point in the season had been over the Vanderbilt Commodores. 

Georgia looked invincible in the first quarter, scoring two TDs on their first two possessions. However, on the very first possession, in fact the first play of the game, Georgia QB Gunner Stockton rushed for five yards, diving forward at the end of the run and landing on his head. Backup QB Ryan Puglisi came in and passed for 51 yards on three plays, but Gunner came back in the game and handed the ball to running back Dwight Philips Jr. for a 15-yard rushing TD. 

Was Gunner concussed? Should he have been back in the game? He looked fine on the next drive, passing for 79 yards, including a second TD, but for the entire second and third quarters, his play was pretty questionable. He threw two interceptions and was sacked twice, and the Bulldogs didn't score again until almost eight minutes into the fourth quarter.

But the loss was hardly Gunner's fault. The Georgia defense looked tired and listless, and let Auburn score 24 unanswered points in the second and third quarters. Peyton Woodring uncharacteristically missed a field goal in the second. It should also be noted that running back Nate Frazier, who missed late week's game with an injury, was extremely tentative all game and only rushed for 16 yards on three plays. The wheels seemingly had completely come off the Georgia cart.

But in the second half, after Auburn opened with a TD on the first possession, the Georgia D held the Tigers to three consecutive three-and-outs. In the fourth quarter, Woodring made a 42-yard FG and Gunner seemingly returned to form and drove the Dawgs 94 yards down the field for a game-tying TD. The Dawgs forced Auburn to punt on their next possession and with 1:35 left to play, began a drive from their own 39 to get the ball within range for a game-winning FG.

That's when things got really ugly. Gunner fumbled the ball on the Auburn 46 (actually his own center, Drew Bobo, knocked it out of his hands with his elbow as Gunner ran behind him) and the Tigers recovered. Georgia could have kept them out of field goal range with less than a minute remaining to set up OT, but after two first-down plays by Auburn, Georgia defender Gabe Harris hit the Auburn QB late and was assessed a 15-yard roughing-the-passer penalty, putting the Tigers within easy FG range. They connected with 0:03 remaining and won the game.

Epic upset. Demoralizing loss. 

Georgia will lose its No. 1 ranking after only one week on the throne. Doesn't matter, AP Poll rankings during the season are meaningless, beauty-contest awards and the only poll that matters in the Selection Committee rankings at the end of the season. Still, either Notre Dame or Miami will probably be the new No. 1 depending on tonight's scores, and one hates to see either of them nab the beauty contest.

Georgia has a bye week next week, and they need it. Time to rest up, heal a little, think about what went wrong and how to fix it, and get ready for the Halloween afternoon game against the Florida Gators, who beat No. 7 Texas today by the same 27-24 score that Georgia lost by today. More on Florida and Georgia's chances tomorrow after the new rankings come out. 

There are only six undefeated teams left in the Top 25, and two of those are struggling in their games as I write. There are no undefeated teams left in the SEC. But even with the Auburn loss and loss of the No. 1 ranking, Georgia is still first in the conference at 6-1 overall and 4-1 in SEC play. Georgia's path to the National Championship doesn't go through winning the most AP Polls but on winning the conference, getting a good seed in the post-season bracket, and winning the playoff games. 

With the next three games against Florida, Ole Miss, and Missouri, the loss to Auburn just might be the kick in the pants that the Bulldogs needed. Time to rest up, lock down, and barrel through the remaining five games.

Go. Dawgs!

Bruins 4, Ducks 2

 

The mighty Boston Bruins improve to 6-2-0.

Last night in Anaheim, wherever that is, the Bruins came back from an 0-2 first-period deficit to score four unanswered goals, starting with a power-play goal by Fredrick Brunet assisted by David Pastrnak and James Hagens in the second. Pastrnak scored a power-play goal of his own in the third, assisted by Elias Lindholm and Pavel Zacha, and then Elias scored on a power play, assisted by Zacha and Morgan Geekie. In a perfect world, Zacha would have scored next - it was his turn - but it was Matthew Poitras, assisted by Hagens, who found the back of the net for the Bruins' fourth goal of the evening.

Michael DiPietro minded the goal for the Bruins last night, and made 25 saves (.926).

The Bruins are tied with Ottawa with 12 points on the season (both teams have identical 6-2-0 records), but Boston leads in regulation wins, 5-4, and regulation-and-overtime wins, 6-4, are are in first place in the Atlantic Division, ahead of the Senators. Florida and Tampa Bay, the Bruins' twin Sunshine State nemeses, both have only 10 points each.

As you hopefully know, today is No Kings Day (va te faire foutre, Donald Trump!), and tonight the Bruins play the Kings in the Cryptocom. The Kings are winless, 0-3-2, and their fortunes aren't about to change against the Mighty B's on No Kings Day.

Vermont 2, BU 1 (Men)

 

Not a banner weekend so far for BU hockey. The women's team lost at home to Colgate, and the No. 11-ranked men's team lost in Montpelier to Vermont. 

The Catamounts scored first, but the Terriers' Tynan Lawrence scored 2:26 minutes later, assisted by Viktor Nörringer and Jack Murtagh. Unfortunately, that was pretty much it for BU. Lawrence and Charlie Trethewey each made six shots on goal and Mikhail Yegorov made 22 saves in the net (.917) for the Terriers. 

The game was the first conference game for the Terriers, so they start the season off 0-1-0 in Hockey East play (2-1-0, overall). The loss will surely affect their No. 11 ranking in the next USCHO poll.  

The Terriers will stay up in Montpelier far tomorrow's game at 7:00 pm before returning home. 

Colgate 2, BU 0

 

The Boston University Terriers women's hockey team (1-3-1), having opened the season against then-No. 1 Wisconsin, hosted No. 9 Colgate (5-0-0) tonight. It didn't end well.  The Raiders won, 2-0. 

BU's Quinn Taylor led the team with five shots on goal. While three players (Lo Lachapelle, Kaileigh Quigg, and Greta Henderson) had three shots, Colgate doubled the total number of shots the Terriers had, 40-20. Both teams won 24 faceoffs, and both were 0-3 on power plays. BU goalie  Sydney Fogu made 38 saves (.974), a career high.

Colgate still plays in the ECAC, BU's old conference, so the loss doesn't affect the Terrier's standing in Hockey East, where they're 1-0-1 and in third place behind BC (2-1-0) and Northeastern (2-0-0). The second game of the weekend series is tomorrow evening at 6:00 pm.

Bruins 6, Sharks 3

 

He's back! The slashing, crashing, smashing defenseman, Charlie McAvoy (BU, 2016), has returned to the ice after serving his six-game suspension for kicking the Buffalo Sabres' Zach Benson's ass, and scored his first goal of the season last night in San Jose late in the first period. The Bruins won the game, 6-3.

Obviously, it wasn't all McAvoy. Fraser Minton scored the first goal of the game and then scored again in the third, and now leads the Bruins in goals made at four. Matthew Poitras and Pavel Zacha scored in the second period, and William Borgen hit an empty-netter late in the match. Morgan Geekie made two assists in the second, his fourth and fifth of the season, and Pastrnak made his sixth assist that same period and leads the Bruins in points at eight. Jeremy Swayman made 35 saves for a .921 average. 

The Sharks' Macklin Celebrini (BU, 2024) scored a power-play goal in the third period, his second goal of the season, and also made his sixth assist of the year during another power play in the second. 

Last night's win finally put the Bruins (5-2-0) into first place in the Atlantic Division with ten points. Ottawa has ten as well and both teams have played the same number of games, but Boston is 1-0 against the Senators and therefore leads in the standings.

Friday night, the Bruins play A.J. Greer (BU, 2015) and the Anaheim Ducks (4-2-0). Sadly, the Ducks aren't a very good team. They've averaged 2.90 goals per game, 15th of 32 in the NHL, while the Bruins have allowed only 2.18 per game, third in the NHL. Mid-level offense versus elite D, now turbocharged by McAvoy's return. 

Puck drops at 10:00.

WE'RE NO. 1!!!

 

Texas teams suck. I've been holding that opinion for years, and the reality on the scoreboards keeps reinforcing my belief. Texas teams think they're hot shit early in the season by beating other limp-dick Texas teams and then when they're finally forced to play an out-of-state opponent that's not a total cupcake, they fold like dime-store tortillas on a rainy day. 

Case in point: the Texas Longhorns, the Lone Star State's best and brightest hope, opened their season against the PAC-12 pushover, Texas State, and then got lucky against an overrated Ohio State team, squeaking past them by a single point. That win got them ranked No. 1, and they then beat the beep-beep UTSA Roadrunners (are they even FBS?) followed by another squeaker - a three-point win over No. 14 Tennessee.   

Then yesterday, they fatefully crossed the Red River and got embarrassed by unranked Oklahoma. The fucking Oklahoma Sooners, man. The Georgia Bulldogs beat Oklahoma, 41-13. It's not hard, but the Longhorns QB, whichever Manning it is that's this year's model, threw an interception with 24 seconds remaining, and the Sooners kicked a game-winning FG. Unranked Oklahoma 27, No. 1 Texas 24. 

No. 1 no more. Yesterday's AP Poll dropped the Longhorns from No. 1 to No. 7 with no, as in zero, first-place votes. Even Miami, Notre Dame and Indiana got at least one first-place vote, but not a single one of the 61 AP Poll voters who picked Texas as No. 1 last week could get themselves to vote for the 'Horns this week. 

Meanwhile, as you surely know by now, the undefeated, 6-0 Georgia Bulldogs beat No. 6 Alabama on Saturday, 20-17, and, after five straight weeks at No. 2, are the new No. 1 team with 66 first-place ballots. Infuriatingly, the AP Poll kept Alabama (5-1) at No. 6  because, I don't know, roll Tide, I guess? 

With Texas now down at No. 7, No. 3 Notre Dame (6-0), No.4 Miami (5-0), and No. 5 Ohio (5-1) all move up one position to the new Nos. 2, 3, and 4. Old No. 7 Indiana (6-0) vaulted past No. 6 Alabama to the new No. 5. 

Rounding out the Top 10, BYU (5-0) and Ole Miss (4-1), Georgia's Week 10 opponent, remain at No. 8 and 9, respectively. Old No. 10 LSU (4-2) lost to unranked Kentucky (5-1) in OT and fell all the way down to No. 22. The new No. 10 is, ugh, Texas Tech (5-0), who didn't even play this week and boast "quality" wins against Abilene Christian, Houston, Sam Houston, Oregon State, and Colorado.  

The only other currently ranked team besides Ole Miss left on Georgia's schedule is No. 13 Missouri (5-1). The former No. 16 Florida Gators (4-2), Georgia's Week 9 opponent, lost to unranked South Carolina (Georgia's Week 12 opponent), 38-19, Saturday and fell out of the Top 25 entirely.

Next week, the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs (oh, how I like saying that!) plays unranked Auburn (3-2). The Bulldogs are 21½ point favorites but would be well advised to prepare well for the game because Auburn lives to upset highly ranked teams (just ask Alabama) and have always played Georgia tough. Still, you gotta like the Bulldogs' chances to win.

Patriots 45, Raiders 17

 

Oh, we're so fucking back, baby! Yesterday, the resurgent New England Patriots (3-2) crushed the Oakland Las Vegas Raiders, 45-17, in a demonstration of raw power    

The Patriots scored 17 points on their first three possessions. Running back Corey Kiner fumbled on the fourth possession, but then the Pats scored on five off their next six possessions until they ran the clock out on their final possession.

Drake Maye had 374 yards passing yards, most in the NFL yesterday, and 25 yards on the ground. He had 26 completions on 34 attempts for four TDs and no INTs.  He finished the game with a 150.9 QB rating, best on the day in the NFL. Yesterday, no one in the league was better than Maye.

As for his receivers, DeMario Douglas (65 yards) had two TDs, Kyle Williams (91 yards) had one, and Hunter Henry (44 yards) caught a TD pass, too. Rhamondre Stevenson led the Patriots with 64 yards on the ground and one TD, and Kiner finished with 52 yards despite the fumble. Drake Maye actually edged out TreVeyon Henderson in total rushing yards, 25 to 22, and ran in one TD himself.

Despite concerns about his recovery from an injury, former Georgia Bulldog Brock Bowers had 110 yards receiving for the Raiders yesterday, including a first-quarter TD. That's about all these is to say about "highlights" for Las Vegas. 

Buffalo has a Monday-night game tonight against the Rams, so the standings in the AFC East aren't meaningful until after they play. Which is to say, right at this moment, the Bills are 3-1 (.750) and the Pats are 3-2 (.600), so Buffalo's in first place. Should they win tonight, they'll still lead the division, but should they lose, they move into a 3-2 tie with New England and the Patriots will be in first place because they beat Buffalo last weekend and currently have the tie-breaker. So I guess we're all Matthew Stafford fans tonight, unless, of course, the Rams decide to finally put in the Mailman, former Bulldog QB Stetson Bennett IV, who's only seen very limited play so far this season.

Next weekend, the Patriots will host the New York Jets (2-3). The Patriots will win. The only former Bulldog playing for the Jets is wide receiver Arian Smith, who's out on injured reserve with a torn ACL. The Patriots are currently seven-point favorites.