mat Page 58 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Mohamed Salah is on one
I suppose being as analytic-minded as I can get that I’m going to be hypocritical here. It doesn’t help (or hurt, depending on your point of view) that I love Mohamed Salah in every sense of the word, to an extent that my vulnerability is teetering on “highly damaging.” So take that as you will....

Good not being good enough is the Cardinal Way, apparently
Is the Cardinals’ “philosophy” hiring underwhelming coaching staffs?...

NFL Week 6: Chargers and Cardinals each try to prove they’re the best team in the league
There is a void at the top of the NFL right now. With Kansas City sputtering at 2-3 and failing to keep opponents from scoring more than 25 every single week, the power has shifted. Nobody knows who the top dog is anymore, and every team that had become so used to playing second or third fiddle to t...

Wait… why isn’t Kyle Shanahan on the hot seat?
In four-plus years as the head coach in San Francisco, Kyle Shanahan has gone 31-38. He’s finished either third or last-place in his division in three of his four full seasons, and despite his teams consistently finishing in the top half of the league in terms of total offense and defense, they are ...

32 teams need to hear this: There is no pitching formula for the playoffs
Many years ago now, baseball pundits and fans tried to come up with a “secret sauce” for success in the playoffs. It can be pretty infuriating to simply accept that the sport’s biggest prize is handed out at the conclusion of a tournament that is essentially random. There had to be a reason these th...

2021 NHL Previews: Fifty-four years between Cups for Toronto, going on 55
The Toronto Maple Leafs have now crossed the Rangers Line. The most famous Stanley Cup drought in history belonged to New York, which for years had to hear “1940” chants until Mark Messier, Mike Richter, and company finally broke the hex in 1994....

2021 NHL Previews: Don’t believe the media, it’s over in Nashville
I’m not even sure the Preds are that highly thought of this year. It definitely feels that whatever cycle they were on has come to an end, and there was a temptation to put the Avalanche here, who look set for goalie-related heartbreak come May. But I’ve never missed an opportunity to completely sh...

Week 5 NFL Takeaways: Kickers miss more 3s than Ben Simmons, Eagles D acts like they aren’t butt cheeks, and Raiders show us they're cubic zirconia
The 2021 NFL season is starting to pick up, and we are learning a lot about certain teams, with some starting to show us exactly who they are....

NFL Week 5 returns us to the eternal question: Why are the London games always trash?
In 2021, there are two NFL games slated to play in London. The first is happening this weekend as the Atlanta Falcons take on the New York Jets. Now… you’re probably thinking to yourself, “Gee, that matchup sounds awful. If we’re really trying to expand the sport, why don’t we show London the absolu...

Thursday Night Football offers up Rams as ultimate ‘eye test’ for Seahawks
The NFC West is the best division in football. Don’t give me any of that AFC North business. I love the Browns and Ravens. I think the Bengals are on the upswing of their rebuild, but Cincy and the Steelers are still definitely not contenders in the AFC. Any team in the NFC West could win the confer...

Deadspin Fixes: the MLB playoff format
I noticed Dodgers fans were already bitching to protect themselves even before first pitch about the unfairness of the playoff system that saw their team win 106 games yet faced with the indignity of having to play in the Wild-Card Game. Followed nicely with Yankees fans complaining last night, beca...

NFL Week 4 Rookie QB Rankings: Justin Fields jumps Trevor Lawrence
The 2021 NFL Draft class will be a focal point of the NFL for years to come. The class included five quarterbacks who have a chance to make a significant impact on their franchises this season and beyond....

A few MLB postseason storylines you might not know
As the baseball playoffs begin, you already know the big storylines....

The madness of King Nagy
As a Bears fan, I don’t really want to turn this website into As Halas Hall Turns, constantly tracking the latest confusing bit of postmodern performance art Matt Nagy is putting on when it comes to Justin Fields....

The fastest quarterback to win 100 regular-season games is Black — his name is Russell Wilson
Sunday was a huge day for Russell Wilson. His team, the Seattle Seahawks, knocked off the 49ers on the road, 28-21, avoiding the distinction of worst record in the highly contested NFC West. Wilson’s name, meanwhile, was solidified in the record books in a way once thought impossible for a man who l...

Kyler Murray and Cardinals give Rams a two-piece spicy combo in L.A.
Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals are for real. They showed it to us in Week 1 when they smacked up the Tennessee Titans. Now they’ve done the same thing to the Rams, who were coming off a dominant performance against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers a week ago....

NFL Week 4 Betting Primer: Best Over/Under, Spread, Teaser, and Prop Bets
If not for a fluke missed extra point at the end of Chargers-Chiefs last week, we’d be coming off a perfect 4-0 week. But nothing wrong with a 3-0-1 showing (thanks to buying the half-point there)....

Idiot of the Month: Do you remember September? We hope not
Welcome to Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE MONTH, in which we ruminate on some cringey happenings from weeks past....

Thursday Night Football is a rematch of the 2020 BCS Championship — but the real story is Urban Meyer’s incompetence
Some people consider Trevor Lawrence’s Clemson career one of the greatest college careers of all-time. The man never lost a regular-season game, won a National Championship, and was promptly drafted first overall as soon as he became eligible....

Kellen Moore is going to get a head coaching job before Eric Bieniemy and Byron Leftwich because he's white
When “Black Monday” — the annual day when NFL head coaches get fired after the regular season — takes place in January, the last two offensive coordinators that have won Super Bowls will more than likely find themselves in a situation where they’ll be watching a younger colleague yet to make the pla...