Joe Burrow and the Bengals are back. Plus, previewing Game 3 of the World Series

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🏈 Football Five

1. The Eagles moved to an NFL-best 7-1 with a 38-31 comeback victory over the Commanders. A.J. Brown had his 6th directly sport with 125+ yards receiving — the longest streak in NFL historical past — whilst catching a couple of touchdowns. Washington, in the meantime, has misplaced 5 of six and is anticipated to promote at the industry time limit as some other misplaced season looms.
2. The Chiefs dropped a shocker, 24-9, at the Broncos. Russell Wilson threw 3 touchdowns with Justin Simmons and Ja’Quan McMillian selecting off Patrick Mahomes, who were 12-0 in opposition to the Broncos. Mahomes had the first zero-touchdown, three-turnover sport of his occupation
3. Will Levis joined Marcus Mariota and Fran Tarkenton as the best avid gamers with 4 landing passes of their NFL debuts, main the Titans to a 28-23 win over the Falcons. Cody Benjamin named Levis one of this week’s giant winners.
4. What a weekend in the Pac-12: Washington survived some other scare, Arizona disappointed Oregon State and UCLA passed Colorado its fourth loss in 5 video games.
5. Ohio State‘s protection inspired once more in a 24-10 win over Wisconsin.

🐅 Good morning to everybody however particularly …

THE CINCINNATI BENGALS

Sometimes, the measure of a workforce is the way it fares when issues are not going neatly. Other instances, it is how the workforce fares when issues are rolling. The Bengals stayed afloat all the way through the early section of their season, thru Joe Burrow‘s harm struggles, and now they are again amongst the NFL’s superb. Burrow confirmed his patented pinpoint accuracy and some not too long ago rediscovered scrambling skill as Cincinnati walloped the 49ers, 31-17.

• Burrow finished 28 of 32 passes — a Bengals file 87.5% — and threw 3 landing passes. He additionally had six carries for 43 yards; his prior season highs had been 4 carries and 7 yards. Seems like that calf is feeling higher!
• Perhaps simply as importantly, the Cincinnati protection confirmed up. Brock Purdy threw two interceptions — to Logan Wilson and Germaine Pratt — and misplaced a fumble.

The Bengals earned an “A” in our Week 8 grades by means of Tyler Sullivan.

• Sullivan: “Cincinnati is starting to look like the team that we’ve come to know under Joe Burrow in recent seasons, and that’s largely because the quarterback’s health is moving in a positive direction in recent weeks. … He had an answer for anything that the 49ers defense was throwing his way and picked the secondary apart. The offense also carried the baton nicely from the defense which was able to create several turnovers.”

As for San Francisco, I mentioned I wasn’t too involved after the loss to the Vikings. I’m somewhat involved now. Purdy used to be a possibility taker (and mistake maker) at Iowa State, and that tendency is rearing its unpleasant head. He has 5 turnovers over the closing two weeks. Christian McCaffrey can stay breaking data, however till Purdy begins taking care of the ball once more, the 49ers will fight.

👍 Honorable mentions

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

THE NEW YORK GIANTS

Jeff Kerr known as it the worst sport of the season. And it is not arduous to look why. The Jets‘ rainy, wild, so-bad-you-want-to-laugh 13-10 win over the Giants featured …

• 24 mixed punts, maximum in a sport since 1998
• 16 mixed three-and-outs, tied for many in a sport since 2000
• -9 yards passing by means of the Giants — fewest by means of a workforce in a sport since 2000 — after Tyrod Taylor (ribs) used to be injured, leaving Tommy DeVito (who?) to quarterback

And but the Giants nonetheless had a perfect likelihood to win, main 10-7 with 28 seconds left in legislation. Until …

• Graham Gano ignored a 35-yard box function, his 2d omit of the day
• Zach Wilson — terrible all sport — drove the Jets 58 yards in 27 seconds (and not using a timeouts) to arrange Greg Zuerlein‘s game-tying kick
• The Giants went backwards 11 yards on their extra time force, punted, dedicated a terrible move interference and misplaced

Listen, it may well be harsh to place the Giants right here. It’s arduous sufficient to have a reliable beginning quarterback, a lot much less a reliable third-stringer. But this used to be team-wide incompetency — ranging from the best — and but some other embarrassing loss.

👎 Not so honorable mentions

🤕 Kirk Cousins (Achilles) amongst a number of injured NFL QBs

Just as the Vikings appeared to be again not off course, they have got misplaced the participant who led that turnaround: Kirk Cousins reportedly tore his Achilles overdue in Minnesota’s 24-10 win over Green Bay.

Cousins, 35, who has ignored only one sport because of well being causes in his NFL occupation (COVID-19 in 2021), is in the midst of arguably the superb season of his occupation. He is tied for the league lead in landing passes, 2d in yards passing and 0.33 in each passer ranking and touchdown-to-interception ratio this season. 

I’ve usually been lovely prime on Cousins, and this yr he is deserved the reward — particularly when issues have long gone poorly round him. Justin Jefferson stays out, however the Vikings are 3-0 with out J.J. Minnesota ranks in the backside 5 in maximum dashing stats and hadn’t scored a landing on the flooring till this week. The offensive line and the protection were inconsistent. Through all of it, Cousins were terrific.

It’s arduous to believe the Vikings can triumph over this one. Fifth-round rookie Jaren Hall — the presumed starter till Nick Mullens (again) returns — misplaced a fumble on his 2d occupation dropback. Cody has a dozen out of doors choices for the Vikings.

This, naturally, brings up whether or not Cousins has performed his closing snap for the workforce. The two facets tabled talks a few contract extension this previous offseason, and it is unclear whether or not a pricey, ageing quarterback coming off a significant harm would are compatible Minnesota’s “competitive rebuild,” as termed by means of normal supervisor Kwesi Adofo-Mensah closing yr.

Cousins used to be some distance from the best notable harm for sign callers round the league:

• Matthew Stafford (thumb) left and didn’t go back for the Rams. Brett Rypien took over.
• Desmond Ridder used to be checked for a concussion (later cleared) and changed by means of Taylor Heinicke for the Falcons.
• Kenny Pickett (ribs) left the Steelers‘ 20-10 loss to the Jaguars and didn’t go back. Mitch Trubisky took over. Quick apart: Jacksonville went 5-0 this month, the best workforce to take action. I’m truly inspired. 
• As discussed previous, Tyrod Taylor (ribs) left the Giants’ sport and did not go back.

Will Brinson broke down the quarterback carnage, and here is our complete harm roundup.

⚾ World Series tied 1-1; Game 3 preview

The World Series is now a superb of 5 after the Rangers and Diamondbacks cut up Games 1-2 in Texas.

The Rangers desperately want Max Scherzer — pitching thru a minimize on his thumb — to throw neatly after Nathan Eovaldi and Jordan Montgomery each struggled. Scherzer posted a 9.45 ERA throughout 6 2/3 innings in two ALCS appearances, and whilst it is outstanding he is pitching in any respect given his late-season shoulder harm, the World Series is the time for effects, now not just right tales. Rookie Brandon Pfaadt gets the ball for Arizona.

Here’s R.J. Anderson’s Game 3 preview.

🏈 Georgia, Oregon dominate as Oklahoma will get disappointed

No Brock Bowers, no downside for No. 1 Georgia. The Bulldogs had been the toast of the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, beating Florida 43-20 in Jacksonville. Dennis Dodd says Kirby Smart’s workforce despatched a message forward of a large week.

• Dodd: (*3*)

Meanwhile, Oregon bolstered its playoff resume with an astonishing 35-6 rout at Utah, which hadn’t misplaced at house since 2020.

As for a best workforce going the improper path, Oklahoma‘s dream season got here to a halt in a 38-33 loss at Kansas. The Sooners earned a “D” in Barrett Sallee’s weekly grades, and Shehan Jeyarajah declared them one of the week’s largest losers. Perhaps the best factor feeling worse than the Oklahoma protection are the Kansas goalposts, which ended up in Potter Lake.

Here’s extra:

📺 What we are observing Monday

⚽ Ballon d’Or rite, 2:30 p.m. on Paramount+
🏀 Warriors at Pelicans, 8 p.m. on NBA TV
🏈 Rangers at Diamondbacks, 8:03 p.m. on Fox
🏀 Magic at Lakers, 10:30 p.m. on NBA TV