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Good morning! We hope you ate too many gummy clusters this weekend.
NFL Sunday: Lions and Saints streaking very differently
Lately, thereâs been a lot of philosophizing about momentum in sports. Is it real? Does it matter? Is it just a narrative that helps us make sense of results that donât have much to do with each other? Who knows.
Football might be the sport where itâs hardest to assess. All we know about you is who youâve been for only a few games, just a handful per month.
Coincidentally, yesterday, we had a couple of games that served as arguments on which teams have the best and worst momentum as of this minute, if momentum is real. For instance:
- Three NFL teams entered the weekend with winning streaks of at least four games. Two of them faced each other, when the Lions snuffed their division-rival Packersâ win streak while extending their own to six in a row.Â
- With the leagueâs best point differential (+110), 7-1 Detroit continues to look like the NFCâs best  â and the top threat to take down the team nobody has beaten yet, the Chiefs. (Info below on the defending champsâ game tonight.) Not hard to picture Detroit winning five more in a row, heading into a home showdown against Buffalo (7-2 after escaping against 2-6 Miami yesterday).
On the flipside:
- Four teams entered the weekend with losing streaks of at least four games. Yep, two of these slumpers faced each other yesterday. And the Saints, who started 2-0, are now tied for the worst record in the league after losing to the likewise newly 2-7 Panthers. Hot-seat status in New Orleans: âThis whole situation is fireable for Dennis Allen right this second,â says Larry Holder. đ
- As for the other ice-cold teams, the Raiders fired first-year offensive coordinator Luke Getsy and two other assistants after their fifth straight loss, yesterdayâs 41-24 L against Cincinnati, and the 2-7 Giants returned to âTankathonâ by falling to the 7-2 Commanders.
Then thereâs the other version: two teams streaking past each other in opposite directions. The Eagles, 6-2 after holding off the 2-7 Jaguars yesterday, can make it five wins in a row by beating Dallas next week. That would just about do it for the 3-5 Cowboys, who lost their third in a row yesterday, 27-21 in Atlanta, while also suffering an onslaught of injuries, including a Dak Prescott hamstring situation pending evaluation.
Speaking of the Eagles, Saquon Barkley did something that isnât even in any football video games. This looks more like a Super Mario move:
THE 180 HURDLE??? DID SAQUON JUST INVENT THIS?!
đș: #JAXvsPHI on CBS/Paramount+
đ±: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/tYThjnbdgGâ NFL (@NFL) November 3, 2024
Who even thinks of doing that, let alone pulls it off?? Minds were blown.
Elsewhere, since I probably didnât mention your team, be sure to read yesterdayâs takeaways on the AFCâs elites handling business, ponder Mike Sando on whether Detroit should go all in at Tuesdayâs trade deadline and listen to âThe Athletic Football Showâ break down dominant Baltimore and resurgent Joe Burrow.
Next up:
Primers: 3 questions to set up MLBâs offseason
It took less than a day for the MLB offseason to spring into action, so weâve barely had a chance to regroup post-World Series and mentally prepare for offseason news. But here we are, a weekend later, and things are only picking up. So we turned to Windup scribe Levi Weaver to set the stage with a Q&A:
Letâs get Soto out of the way. As we enter the offseason, do you have an instinct on where he ends up?
Soto was adamant during the World Series that he was going to be âavailable for all 30 teams,â but letâs be serious, the Pirates arenât signing him (to be clear, they absolutely should, though). The truth is, there are only a handful of teams with the financial heft to land Soto. Two of them are in New York. It would be really funny if the Dodgers used some of that deferred Ohtani money to swoop in. But my gut says itâs either the Yankees or the Mets.
There are plenty more free agents. Who do you think has the biggest impact outside of Soto?
Iâm really interested to see what happens with Alex Bregman. The Astros had a pretty long tradition of letting their stars walk when it came time to pay up, but between the Jose Altuve extension and the Josh Hader contract, there are maybe some signs that they could be more amenable to signing bigger checks. Bregman has been a core piece of the dynasty, and an enormous leadership presence in the clubhouse. Wherever he lands, it should have an impact beyond his on-field contributions.
Give us one team thatâs a move or two away from contending next year for a title.
Could I bring it full circle and say the Pirates? If theyâre able to boost their lineup a bit. It wonât be Soto, but if they could jump in somewhere in the Ha-Seong Kim/Anthony Santander range, it could go a long way toward supporting a pitching staff that is coming into bloom.
Thank you, Levi! Subscribe to The Windup to receive a more comprehensive offseason guide in your inbox later this morning.
News to Know
Fresh KD vs. Stephen A. beef
After Stephen A. Smith called out Kevin Durantâs leadership abilities in a âFirst Takeâ segment last month, our Doug Haller talked to the Suns star 1-on-1 this weekend. Durant didnât hold back: âYeah, Stephen A., I donât understand how people even listen to Stephen A. Iâve been in the league for 18 years. Iâve never seen Stephen A. at a practice, or a film session, or a shoot-around. Iâve never seen him anywhere but on TV talking sâ about players. ⊠Heâs a clown to me. Heâs always been a clown.â More here.
More news
- Two WNBA head-coaching hires from the weekend: The Fever brought back Stephanie White, who was previously with the team from 2011-2016, while the Sky hired former Aces assistant Tyler Marsh.
- Abdi Nageeye and Sheila Chepkirui stunned the star-studded New York Marathon fields with upset wins yesterday. Read a recap.
- Oregon became the first unanimous No. 1 team in the AP Top 25 of the past three regular seasons.
- The NWSL quarterfinals are set for next weekend: Pride vs. Red Stars, Spirit vs. Bay FC, Gotham vs. Thorns and Current vs. Courage. Full schedule and match previews here.
Stats to Melt Your Brain: Card boom is still going strong
So you found a box of trading cards in the basement during the pandemic card boom and are still thinking of getting them graded ⊠welcome to the club, apparently. Some stats we thought were striking from Michael Salfinoâs latest piece:
- Weâre on pace for 16.8 million cards to be graded annually by just PSA, which controls most of the grading market.
- In October alone, 1.45 million cards â both sports and non-sports â were graded.
- Victor Wembanyama, in his second season, already has 2,505 card types and nearly 400,000 graded. (For comparison: Wilt Chamberlain had 22,700 graded PSA cards issued during his 14-year career.)
Ken Griffey Jr. has, by far, the most graded PSA cards; baseball still dominates the industry. Now, time for a quiz: Who are the most-graded athletes across basketball, golf, football, hockey and tennis? Bonus points if you can somehow guess the exact card. Answers here.
Watch This
đș NBA: Bucks at Cavaliers, 7 p.m. ET on NBA TV
The 7-0 Cavs protected their undefeated start with a one-point win over the Bucks (1-5) in Milwaukee on Saturday. The teams are at it again tonight, this time in Cleveland, before the NBA takes tomorrow off for Election Day.
đșÂ NFL: Buccaneers at Chiefs, 8:15 p.m. ET on ABC/ESPN
The other Bucs are also going up against a 7-0 squad â fun! In this one, a win would go a long way in the divisional race for Tampa Bay (4-4), which is trying to get right after dropping two straight.
Get tickets to games like these here.
Pulse Picks
Andrew Marchand and Scott Dochterman have a thoughtful and thorough story on the decades of work that made the Caitlin Clark phenomenon possible. Itâs worth your time today.
The NBA season is less than two weeks old, but thatâs enough time for our staff to have noticed some trends. For starters, they identified each teamâs biggest surprise so far.
Over in the NHL, meanwhile, we identified each teamâs biggest concern after a month of play.
Before Tuesdayâs first 12-team College Football Playoff rankings reveal, check out Stewart Mandelâs and Austin Mockâs latest bracket projections.
Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Our news story on the Jason Kelce situation.
Most-read on the website yesterday: âïž
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(Top photo: Larry Radloff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
