John Fetterman, the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania who has become one of the few truly enjoyable political figures in America in 2020, had a little sports-themed fun after the latest judicial setback to Donald Trump’s coup attempt.
“But the Browns are 7-3 this year!” you might say.
Not in Pennsylvania, they’re not.
The Browns’ 38-7 loss to the Steelers on Oct. 18 was their 17th consecutive loss in Pittsburgh, the last Steelers home loss in the rivalry coming when Tommy Maddox was the quarterback at The Confluence, in 2003. Going back to the Original Browns days, Cleveland has lost on 28 of its last 30 visits to Pittsburgh, after a brief run of success in the 1980s. All-time, the Browns are 21-49 in the ’Burgh.
Wawa country is better for the Browns, but only sort of. Cleveland has made two visits to Philadelphia since rejoining the NFL, a 30-10 loss in 2008 and a 29-10 defeat in 2016. The previous iteration of the Browns went 14-8 in Philly, but most of that came in the 1950s and 1960s when the Browns were — get this — good, and the Eagles pretty routinely stunk.
The NFL has a video on its YouTube channel of every pass attempt by a non-quarterback last season.
Pity the poor video editor who’s going to have to put together this year’s version after Sunday’s Broncos game.
As impressive as it was that Buffalo put up 70 points on Kent State behind Jaret Patterson’s record-tying eight touchdown runs, they only won by 29 points, 70-41. Louisiana hung 21 points on Louisiana-Monroe in the first quarter, and that was all they needed, but the Ragin’ Cajuns ran it up to 70 instead, winning by 50.
Louisiana’s touchdowns were more spread out than Buffalo’s, with nine players scoring the 10 TDs — five rushing, four receiving (from two quarterbacks), and one pick-six by safety Bralen Trahan.
There had been only one 70-burger dropped this year before Saturday, that being Clemson’s 73-7 stomping of Georgia Tech on Oct. 17. The Tigers were on track for way more than 70 against Pitt after a 31-0 first quarter on Saturday, but settled for a mere 52-17 blowout, with five players combining to score seven touchdowns — Travis Etienne and Chaz Mellusi had two apiece.
How often do multiple teams score 70 on the same day? It happened three different times last year, including Sept. 21, when Louisiana-Monroe took an even bigger hammering — 72-20 — from Iowa State. Meanwhile, Louisiana is slipping, having beaten Texas Southern last Sept. 14, 77-6. The Cajuns were the only 70-pointers that day.