Big wins: From college to the pros
Someone in the American football circle must have declared last weekend “Big Win Weekend” because, between the college scene and the National Football League (NFL), there were some performances for the decades. Of course, there were some NFL losses — one in particular — that disrupted every iota of notes and statistics that have been compiled since the beginning of the season.
That is not to say the offenses lit up the scoreboards, generally, as a lot of the scoring came from the defensive units, and the top-ranked defence of the Dallas Cowboys could have used some help from quarterback (QB) Dak Prescott and his offensive cohorts.
The Cowboys have been the most prolific team in getting to the red zone this season, but their production within 20 yards of their opponent’s end zone has been the worst in the NFL, and it was no different last Sunday in a 16-28 loss to the Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals, who couldn’t fight their way out of a wet paper bag, were the least favoured by JustBet to win in Week 3 but pulled a major surprise by wrestling the Cowboys to a two-score defeat.
The Cowboys will seek to redeem themselves this Sunday afternoon (October 1) when the New England Patriots come visiting, but if the offense can’t’ find a footing, the defence will need to work overtime against the craftiness of head coach Bill Belichick.
Additionally, running back Ezekiel “Zeke” Elliott — who won two rushing titles and gained more than 8,000 yards during his seven seasons as a Cowboy — is set to return to his old stomping grounds at AT&T Stadium, where he called home up to the end of last season. Elliott, age 28, was released by Dallas — deemed too pricey — when they decided to go with the younger, faster Tony Pollard, age 26, as their lead running back.
By most metrics, Zeke is the third-best ever Dallas running back, but he has more rushing titles than Tony Dorsett, a better yards-per-carry average than Emmitt Smith, and the third-most yards and touchdowns. If history is anything to go by, Elliott should receive a warm ovation from his former fans but should expect a rude awakening from the Dallas defence, as all former Cowboys’ running backs returning to Texas have a 1-9 record: Herschel Walker was 0-5, Duane Thomas was 0-2 and Emmet Smith was 1-2 – Zeke’s return to Dallas should be an interesting watch.
The first big win of the weekend took place last Saturday afternoon, and it involved the most compelling story in sports over the past few weeks, when the Colorado Buffaloes, the football programme of the University of Colorado Boulder, took their 3-0 record to the University of Oregon, to face the Oregon Ducks, also with a 3-0 record. A few of the Buffaloes, in their pre-match walk-through, saw it fit to walk on the Ducks’ big “O” logo at centrefield, and one player even raked the logo with his foot, unnecessarily ‘poking the bear’ – or the duck in this instance. The Ducks jumped out from the first whistle and ran up 42 points on the Buffaloes, who didn’t get on the scoreboard until the fourth quarter, losing 6-42.
The resurrection of the Buffaloes programme by coach Deion “Prime Time” Sanders has been nothing short of incredible, but they will be in the hot seat again tomorrow when the highly ranked University of Southern California (USC Trojans) come visiting, with their 4-0 record. The Trojans have won their four games by an average of 35 points, which justifies their highly favoured position by JustBet, but if Prime Time can rally his troops to a victory, the Cinderella story may again find some traction — a highly unlikely outcome but sometimes it’s the game within the game.
In the NFL, of the 32 teams that played in Week 3, 18 teams were held at 20 points or below, while only four broke the 30-point mark, but two teams stood out after pushing the scoreboard past the 40-point threshold.
Firstly, the Chicago Bears paid a visit to Arrowhead Stadium to tackle the Kansas City Chiefs last Sunday and left with a 0-3 record, joining the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers as the only winless teams in the league. No one for the Chiefs had very impressive individual numbers, but a great team-effort saw them rack up 41 straight points before the Bears got 10 of their own in the fourth quarter. The game itself had some special moments, but they got overshadowed by the cameras often switching to Taylor Swift, who is now reportedly dating Kansas City’s tight end Travis Kelce.
Speaking of Kelce, the Taylor-effect was swift, as within hours of the game he gained more than 300,000 social media followers and his jersey became the fifth best-seller in the NFL after a 400 per cent increase in sales.
The Chiefs will be seeing green on Sunday when they travel to face the struggling New York Jets at MetLife Stadium and there is no logical reason not to expect Kansas City to add to the turbulence the Jets are facing, while the Bears welcome the underperforming Broncos into Soldier Field for the weekend’s winless matchup. The Bears enter the game as JustBet underdogs but if they can’t change the narrative this Sunday, they may as well pack it in for the season.
Speaking of the Broncos, a massive, history-making win came at their expense last Sunday by the hands (and feet) of the Miami Dolphins, topping the scale with a 70-20 trouncing. The Dolphins became just the third team in NFL history to score 70 points or more in a regular season game, with the record being a 72-pointer by Washington over the New York Giants in 1966. Miami had a chance to attempt a potential record-breaking field goal with roughly one minute remaining, but coach Mike McDaniel elected to apply the mercy rule and had his QB take a knee at Denver’s 26-yard-line.
The Dolphins had 726 total yards (nine shy of the record set by the 1951 Rams) and scored 10 touchdowns (five in the air and five on the ground, for an NFL first), QB Tua Tagovailoa completed his first 17 pass attempts (23-for-26 for 309 yards and four touchdowns), running back Raheem Mostert had four total touchdowns (two in the air and two on the ground), Devon Achane had 202 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns to go along with one receiving touchdown, and kicker Jason Sanders was 10-for-10 on extra-point attempts in the incendiary offensive display.
Tyreek Hill was not exactly pedestrian (nine receptions for 157 yards and a touchdown) but his performance paled in comparison to some of his offensive teammates. He will have ample opportunity to parade his skills when the Dolphins visit the Buffalo Bills early Sunday afternoon for the undeniable game of the week. These teams played three memorable games last season – which included an American Football Conference (AFC) wild card contest – and the match-ups were decided by a combined total of eight points, with the Bills winning the last two. The home team is favoured by JustBet but with the Miami offences clicking and the potential return of receiver Jaylen Waddle, this one is expected to be a humdinger – a must-see.
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