C.J. Stroud and Joshua Dobbs play hero while Cowboys fall apart late. Plus, college basketball opens tonight

This is a piece of writing model of the CBS Sports HQ AM Newsletter, without equal information to on a daily basis in sports activities. You can signal as much as get it for your inbox each and every weekday morning right here.

🏈 Football Five

1. The Bengals persisted their contemporary surge with a 24-18 win over the Bills. Joe Burrow threw for 348 yards and a couple of ratings in Cincinnati’s fourth directly win.
2. The Chiefs used the play of the 12 months to overcome the Dolphins, 21-14, in Frankfurt. Late within the first part, Trent McDuffie stripped the ball from Tyreek Hill. Mike Edwards recovered, and while wrapped up by way of Hill, lateraled the ball to Bryan Cook, who took it 59 yards for a landing. The Dolphins are actually 0-3 towards groups above .500, and Will Brinson says it is onerous to take them critically.
3. The extra I watch the Ravens, the extra inspired I’m. Odell Beckham Jr. scored his first landing since Super Bowl LVI with the Rams, Gus Edwards had two dashing touchdowns, undrafted rookie Keaton Mitchell racked up 138 yards dashing and a rating, and Baltimore throttled Seattle, 37-3. The protection was once much more spectacular, preserving the Seahawks to simply six first downs and 151 yards. The Ravens earned an “A” in our weekly grades.
4. One day after a 52-42 loss to Washington, USC fired defensive coordinator Alex Grinch. And if you are announcing, “It’s about time,” you might be now not mistaken. The Trojans have allowed 44.2 issues in keeping with sport over their final six contests.
5. It wasn’t a very easy weekend for both of the highest two groups: Ohio State overcame a gradual get started in a 35-16 win over Rutgers, and Georgia surged overdue in a 30-21 win over Missouri.

🔥 Good morning to everybody, however particularly …

C.J. STROUD, DARE OGUNBOWALE AND JOSHUA DOBBS

Football is a sport of surprises. And as of late, we are celebrating 3 stars — two totally sudden, one on the upward thrust on the sport’s maximum essential place.

Let’s get started with the Texans, which finished a thrillingly absurd 39-37 win over the Buccaneers that featured somewhat little bit of the entirety … and numerous C.J. Stroud.

• Kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn picked up a quad harm overdue within the first part, which means the Texas principally needed to steer clear of kicking eventualities.
• After Rachaad White‘s landing tied the sport, even though, Houston confronted a fourth down within the crimson zone. This time, operating again Dare Ogunbowale — who had already kicked off a couple of occasions for the Texans — tried a 29-yard box objective … and nailed it to the pride of everybody (aside from the Buccaneers and their enthusiasts).
• Ogunbowale was the primary operating again to make a box objective since Tony Galbreath in 1979.
• The a laugh persisted: Baker Mayfield threw a landing cross to Cade Otton with 46 seconds left. Game over, proper?
• Wrong. Stroud led an impressive 75-yard power in 39 seconds with the overall two throws — an inch-perfect 26-yarder and a 15-yard landing strike — going to Tank Dell.

That gave Stroud an NFL rookie-record 470 yards passing, 5 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. He joined Y.A. Tittle (1962) and Ben Roethlisberger (2014) as the one gamers in NFL historical past to head 470/5/0. His accuracy is off the charts. He’s tremendous poised. After the worst sport of his occupation, he posted one of the most largest video games ever. Cody Benjamin named Stroud one of the most week’s large winners.

• Benjamin: “Can we issue the Offensive Rookie of the Year award yet? … Playing on a ‘rebuilding’ Houston squad, Stroud is remarkably up to 14 TDs and just one pick through eight games. That’s a QB right there.”

It took Joshua Dobbs all of 5 days to turn into “the guy” in Minnesota … no less than for one Sunday. Dobbs — bought from the Cardinals on the industry closing date following Kirk Cousins‘ Achilles tear — got here in after Jaren Hall suffered a concussion within the first quarter. All Dobbs did was once lead the Vikings from in the back of to an exciting 31-28 win over the Falcons.

• Without Hall, extensive receiver Ok.J. Osborn (concussion) and operating again Cam Akers (Achilles), the Vikings rallied round Dobbs. He discovered Brandon Powell on a 6-yard landing with 22 seconds left, accounting for 3 touchdowns (two passing, one dashing) within the win.
• The Vikings are Dobbs’ 5th workforce within the final 12 months. He hadn’t even had a convention rep with Minnesota.
• Here’s the entire timeline of his rollercoaster occupation.

The Vikings are 5-4. They’ve withstood a 1-4 get started and devastating accidents to Cousins and Justin Jefferson — occasions that can had been dying knells for different squads. Credit the Vikings — and Dobbs — for being as tenacious as any person within the league.

😄 Honorable mentions

😶 And now not this type of just right morning for …

THE DALLAS COWBOYS

Football is a sport of inches. And the ones inches have by no means felt farther away for the Cowboys. Dallas bungled but some other an important late-game situation in a brutal 28-23 loss to the Eagles.

• Early within the fourth quarter, trailing 28-17, Luke Schoonmaker stuck the ball on the objective line on fourth down. Replay confirmed his knee was once down with the ball inches quick.
• On the following power, Dak Prescott discovered Jalen Tolbert for a landing to chop it to 28-23. Prescott then looked as if it would convert the 2-point conversion, however replay confirmed he stepped out of bounds, diving for the pylon a part 2nd too overdue.
• Despite all the errors, Dallas were given the ball backpedal with 46 seconds closing, desiring a landing to win. The Cowboys were given to the Eagles’ 6-yard line — because of a mixture of playmaking and Philadelphia consequences — with 27 seconds left. Then Dallas went false get started, sack, incompletion, lengthen of sport, CeeDee Lamb catch arising quick. Game over.

Dallas outgained Philadelphia 163-14 within the fourth quarter. The Eagles did not actually have a first down within the ultimate body. Yet it is the ones inches that upload as much as miles — the ones little errors that flip wins to losses — preserving this workforce again.

This sport was once there for the taking. Dallas will have put warmth on Philly. Instead, it failed in all-too-familiar style.

😟 Not so honorable mentions

🏈 College soccer wrap-up: Bedlam bedlam, ‘Bama again

It was once a large weekend for groups at the fringes of College Football Playoff rivalry. Almost they all survived.

Almost.

For the final time as Big 12 competitors, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma delivered bedlam in Bedlam with the Pokes beating the Sooners, 27-24. Ollie Gordon had his 6th directly sport with 100+ yards dashing, and Mike Gundy additionally hit a century mark of types together with his one hundredth occupation Big 12 victory. The Sooners are considered one of Shehan Jeyarajah’s greatest losers of the weekend.

As for some other one-loss Big 12 workforce, Texas squeaked previous Kansas State, 33-30.

But no one-loss workforce stood out up to Alabama, which beat LSU, 42-28. Even with LSU celebrity Jayden Daniels (concussion) leaving early, the Crimson Tide inspired in the back of 4 Jalen Milroe touchdowns. Now in keep watch over of the SEC West, Nick Saban‘s squad is again on course, writes Dennis Dodd.

• Dodd: “A reborn Milroe became a weapon, like he never had been before, instead of being a speed bump that the Tide had to overcome. The defense was always there — third in the SEC entering the game — but it had been nothing special compared to units of the past. … A year ago almost to the day, LSU ended Alabama’s playoff hopes with an overtime win in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Three years in a row without a playoff berth would be a first for Saban at Bama, but no one is thinking about that now.”

Here’s the entirety else …

🏀 College basketball will get underway tonight

Welcome again, college basketball. We’ve ignored you! The adventure to the tourney starts as of late, and our males’s identify choices are in. Kansas is the most well liked variety, and Gary Parrish explains why he is opting for the Bill Self’s bunch.

• Parrish: “Kansas has talent, experience, depth and a coach who has been labeled the best in the sport by a panel of CBS Sports writers and analysts two straight years. That’s a great combination and why I believe the Jayhawks are the team most likely to win the national championship, which would make Self just the seventh Division I men’s coach in history to claim three NCAA Tournament titles.”

Hunter Dickinson will lead the Jayhawks after shifting from Michigan, and I broke down what he and the remainder of the highest 5 transfers convey to their new groups.

Meanwhile, Jerry Palm has his season-opening Bracketology.

On the ladies’s facet — not like at the males’s facet — now we have a bonafide blockbuster opening day:

• No. 10 Notre Dame vs. No. 6 South Carolina
  
• No. 21 USC vs. No. 7 Ohio State
• No. 20 Colorado vs. No. 1 LSU
  

Isabel Gonzalez has performed some exceptional paintings forward of the season. Here are my favorites:

📺 What we are observing Monday

🏀 No. 10 Notre Dame vs. No. 6 South Carolina, 1 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 No. 21 USC vs. No. 7 Ohio State, 2 p.m. on truTV
🏀 Georgia vs. Oregon, 4:30 p.m. on truTV
🏀 Samford at No. 3 Purdue, 6:30 p.m. on BTN
🏀 Lakers at Heat, 7:30 p.m. on NBA TV
🏀 No. 20 Colorado vs. No. 1 LSU, 7:30 p.m. on TNT
🏈 Chargers at Jets, 8:15 p.m. on ABC/ESPN
🏀 Dartmouth at No. 2 Duke, 9 p.m. on ACC Network
🏀 No. 21 USC vs. Kansas State, 10 p.m. on TNT