mat Page 33 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Kliff Kingsbury’s Big 12 offense ain’t flyin’
The Cardinals got scooped by a bigger bird when the Seattle Seahawks’ 32nd-ranked defense held Arizona out of the end zone. In Arizona’s 19-9 defeat, quarterback Kyler Murray threw for fewer than 300 yards for a third consecutive week. Murray’s contract extension has been the subject of endless scru...

Steelers-Bucs epitomized why Todd Bowles’ ‘stop making a big deal’ comments were so dangerous
Todd Bowles has forgotten where he came from — and who he is. Hopefully, Sunday’s loss from Mike Tomin (and Brian Flores) helped him remember. ...

If you need something to complain about, complain about MLB relievers
Having no love for the Dodgers (I was threatened with far too many stabbings in the Dodger Stadium upper deck at an impressionable age to get over it), I certainly am gleaning at least a modicum of joy over their fans’ wailing about seeing a 111-win team eat it at the first hurdle in the postseason....

10 NBA preseason takeaways that provide insight into the regular season
The NBA will give everyone their first real look at the league’s rapidly transforming landscape and its latest rookie class when the regular season tips off on Tuesday, but the preseason is a window into what to expect from certain teams. Wins and losses are mostly meaningless, so don’t read into th...

The rest of the bill is coming due for the Rams’ Super Bowl
In professional sports, it’s understood that if a team has a legitimate chance to win a championship, the front office needs to operate as if they’re in the final frame of play, and down by one score....

Philadelphia Eagles’ easy schedule could ensure the road to Super Bowl runs through Philadelphia
The Philadelphia Eagles are tied for the ninth most difficult remaining strength of schedule in terms of combined winning percentage, with their remaining opponents a combined .533. That looks tough on paper, but when you read between the lines, it looks like Philly could run away with the top seed ...

Lamar Jackson being graded so harshly is a testament to his greatness
The criticisms against Lamar Jackson are exhausting at this point. The Ravens defeated the Bengals on Sunday Night Football, and like clockwork, Matt Hasselback was on SportsCenter afterward talking about how Jackson has to improve as a pocket passer. ...

Clint Eastwood has an explanation for Yordan Alvarez’s hot streak
Once Clint Eastwood turned into his character from “Gran Torino” I haven’t paid as much attention to the Hollywood legend’s movies. So forgive me, I just saw “Trouble with the Curve,” and aside from more evidence that Justin Timberlake isn’t an actor, I walked away pleasantly surprised. It was a pre...

NFL history tells us that the Carolina Panthers won’t hire coach Steve Wilks permanently
Sometimes a promotion is just an extended two-week notice....

A rematch for the ages?
Josh Allen watched overtime from the sideline. Gabe Davis hauled in two of his NFL playoff-record four touchdown catches within the two-minute warning and also didn’t take the field beyond the fourth quarter. A coin flip that sparked controversy as to whether the league needed to change postseason o...

College Football Marty McFly Rankings Week 6: Tennessee, L.A. football, and Texas are all back
Like a poorly thought-through movie-to-TV series, it appears the Marty McFly rankings are on life support. The actor I hired to play Michael J. Fox’s character is no Michael J. Fox, the de-aging for Christopher Lloyd is too expensive, and the DeLoreans keep breaking down. Never mind that these are t...

Don’t be in such a rush to show your genius
When you come at the Houston Astros, you’d best not miss. ...

Ranking the 12 NFL head coaches hired straight from the Power 5 college ranks since 2000
Dear NFL GMs and owners, you may want to think twice about hiring a head coach straight outta the college ranks. While there have been success stories — Jimmy Johnson going from the U to Big D being the best example — that really hasn’t been the case in this millennium. Matt Rhule is the latest flop...

Week 5 NFL Powerless ranking: A look at the league's dreck
It’s time to check in on the teams that can’t get out of their own way. The first few weeks of the 2022 NFL season have been somewhat unpredictable, but there are always a few teams we expect to disappoint their fan base. Now let’s get into the powerless ranking for Week 5....

NFL Week 5: MVP and LVP
Who had the better four-touchdown outburst, Travis Kelce or Taysom Hill? Kelce and Hill showed that efficient production trumps volume in wins. In the red zone, Kelce has a knack for getting open, and despite only gaining 25 yards on seven receptions, he maneuvered himself open for Mahomes on nearly...

Can WWE get Bray Wyatt right this time?
It has become obvious that Triple H is going to get as much mileage as he can by reclaiming all that Vince McMahon tossed overboard. There’s certainly a lot of goodwill from fans to win by bringing back their favorites, and the whole business is about the buzz you can create with pops from big or sh...

The Maple Leafs are going to try again with Matt Murray and that’s great for the rest of us
The NHL season kicks off for real tomorrow night (the two appetizer games in Prague don’t count, especially because they involved the Sharks), or as it’s known for most of the hockey covering world, “Six months of how does this affect the Leafs?” Yep, the sport’s biggest soap opera, the question of ...

Lions need to fire Dan Campbell — because were he Black, he’d be gone already
It’s been said that the greatest trick that’s ever been pulled off is when the devil convinced people he didn’t exist. That honor should belong to the editors at HBO, because Hard Knocks had y’all fooled....

NFL Week 5 Takeaways: The NFC East, for once, is nowhere near the least — except for Washington of course
Most people who pay close attention to the NFL knew that 2022 was going to be a down year for the NFC. The conference with Kyler Murray, Matthew Stafford, and the aging greats — Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady — as its best quarterbacks has a clear lower level of talent at the position than what is in t...

It hasn’t been all smiles and sunshine for the Rams, but it also wasn’t for the last back-to-back champions — the Patriots
Saying the Rams have had a rough start to the season would be an understatement. Although they are 2-2, the offense has struggled and has become one-dimensional. It’s Cooper Kupp or bust and let the defense bail ‘em out if they can. Now the Dallas Cowboys are visiting in Week 5, bringing one of the ...