Rangers make history with offensive futility and botched handoffs rule Monday Night Football

Posted on October 14, 2025 by Aaron Yorke

How does this keep happening?! It was disappointing when the Rangers were shut out on opening night at MSG by the lowly Penguins. It was strange when they didn’t score again in a loss to the Capitals on Sunday night. Then, on Tuesday night the Rangers lost 2-0 at home to the Oilers and it is starting to feel like a sick joke or a curse or both. How do you not have a home goal in 180 minutes?! The worst part is that scoring on Edmonton is supposed to be the easy part. New York let in just one goal against Connor McDavid and company before the net was emptied, and yet the Blueshirts still came up short. They even had back-to-back power plays (only a few seconds of five-on-three) followed by a breakaway for Sam Carrick, but nothing went in the net.

At least the Rangers have 10 goals in two road games, albeit against two lousy squads in Pittsburgh and Buffalo. Another silver lining is that New York outshot the defending Western Conference champions 30-22, but it’s painful to get shut out by Stuart Skinner, who had just six career shutouts in 168 career starts before Tuesday.

We saw two upsets on Monday Night Football with Buffalo falling in Atlanta 24-14 for a second straight loss and Washington losing at home to Chicago 25-24 in heartbreaking fashion. The Bills had a lot of trouble defending the Falcons’ star players with Drake London catching 10 passes for 158 yards and a score and Bijan Robinson gaining 170 yards on the ground and another 68 in the passing game. Robinson’s night was highlighted by an 81-yard touchdown run in which he ran over Buffalo safety Cole Bishop along the sideline without stepping out of bounds.

That is pure savagery. The Bills appeared to get back in the game when they strolled down the field on their first possession of the third quarter and scored on a touchdown pass from Josh Allen to Ray Davis. That brought Buffalo back within seven points, but the offense would go to bed for the rest of the game. The Falcons did a great job pressuring Allen with blitzes, which seems like a good strategy when Buffalo lacks a superstar receiver who can burn one-on-one coverage. Sure enough, Allen was held to 15-for-26 passing and just 180 yards with two interceptions and two touchdowns. No Buffalo receiver caught more than three passes, and Joshua Palmer led the team in receiving with 60 yards despite catching a 45-yard bomb on the Bills’ first play from scrimmage.

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Dodgers survive crazy play and poor managing to win Game 1 in Milwaukee

Posted on October 13, 2025 by Aaron Yorke

You can excuse me for thinking that the Brewers are a team of destiny after they turned a double play on a ball drilled by Max Muncy off of center fielder Sal Frelick’s glove and the center field wall. There was some confusion over whether the ball was caught on the fly or not, and that made Teoscar Hernandez hesitate enough for the Brewers to force him out at home on a relay from Frelick to Joey Ortiz to catcher Williams Contreras. If that wasn’t amazing enough, Will Smith stayed put at second base, allowing Contreras to job down to third base to force him out as well.

That is horrible base running from the Dodgers and also a good job by the umpires to get the play right without assistance from instant replay. How could Los Angeles survive such a horrible twist of fate? Well, it turns out Blake Snell was doing a fine Sandy Koufax impression on the mound. He struck out 10 batters in eight innings and the only batter that reached base against him was Caleb Durbin on a leadoff single in the third inning. Durbin ended up getting picked off, so Snell faced just the minimum 24 batters during his masterclass performance.

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Rangers win big in Pittsburgh but still can’t score at home

Posted on October 12, 2025 by Aaron Yorke

College football made me miserable on Saturday, so it was nice for the New York Rangers show up and blast the Penguins 6-1 on the road to avenge the 3-0 loss that Pittsburgh handed us on opening night. The Rangers got a nice variety of goals with Mike Zibanejad getting the scoring started with a shorthanded tally and Adam Fox adding an even-strength score after Ben Kindel evened the game up for the Pens. Then, Will Cuylle scored a power play goal on a great feed from Conor Sheary to make the score 3-1 midway through the second period.

The Rangers added a second power play goal with Fox’s second score of the night to take a three-goal lead into the third period. Adam Edstrom helped New York pour on another goal by shooting the puck past Pittsburgh goalie Arturs Silovs after Sam Carrick set him up with an aggressive drive to the net. However, the goal was credited to Matt Rempe because the puck bounced off of him after he was checked into the crease by Ryan Shea. Eight minutes later, Taylor Raddysh wrapped up the scoring by taking advantage of a brilliant backhanded feed from rookie forward Noah Laba.

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Penn State finds another way to lose and Drew Allar is out for the season

Posted on October 11, 2025 by Aaron Yorke

I really wanted to believe that Penn State hit rock bottom when it lost to 0-4 UCLA last Saturday, but now I see that the abyss goes deeper than I could have imagined. That’s because Penn State lost for the second straight week as a favorite of more than 20 points. This time the unthinkable defeat came at home against Northwestern, 22-21.

After a muffed punt by Penn State led to a Northwestern field goal and a 16-14 lead for the Wildcats, the Nittany Lions appeared to regain control of the game early in the fourth quarter when Devonte Ross turned a shallow cross into more than 50 yards after the catch for a 67-yard gain. Kaytron Allen followed with an 18-yard run to set up Drew Allar’s one-yard end zone plunge that gave Penn State a 21-16 advantage. Now all we needed was for the defense to do what it had done for most of the second half and keep the Wildcats out of the end zone.

Of course, that did not happen. Northwestern quarterback Preston Stone found Griffin Wilde for three key first down completions to move the Wildcats down the field and Caleb Komolafe finished the drive with a nine-yard touchdown run to put his team back in front. Penn State stopped the two-point try and had plenty of chance to respond, but Allar was injured while trying to scramble on 3rd and 4. On the next play, Ethan Grunkemeyer also tried to scramble for the first down, but he was stuffed to end Penn State’s hope of a comeback.

After the game, we learned that Drew Allar will miss the rest of the season due to the injury he suffered on that final drive. It’s probably best for the program that Grunkemeyer gets an extended look with the College Football Playoff out of reach, but who knows what the roster will look like next year with James Franklin’s job status in doubt? He deserves to be fired because of his team underperforming drastically when expectations were at their highest. However, due to Franklin’s buyout that costs almost $50 million, letting him go at this point is a huge financial undertaking.

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Giants take massive leap towards prominence with win over defending champion Eagles

Posted on October 10, 2025 by Aaron Yorke

Can one game change the trajectory of a franchise? Giants fans like myself are hoping that last night’s 34-17 walloping of the Philadelphia Eagles was a turning point that will bring us back into the realm of Super Bowl contenders after spending years wandering in the wilderness of pro football. It’s not as though the Giants haven’t made the playoffs since Eli Manning retired after the 2019 season. The 2022 campaign had magical moments that provided hope for the future with Daniel Jones looking like he could be a long-term fixture at quarterback and Saquon Barkley rushing for over 1,300 yards. We even won a playoff game! The issue with 2022 was that the Giants went 0-5 against Philadelphia and Dallas, including being embarrassed by the Eagles 38-7 in the Divisional Round of the Playoffs.

Flash forward to 2025 and there is another promising young quarterback and exciting young running back in place. The Giants are still a longshot for the Playoffs with a brutal schedule ahead, so why should we feel hopeful now when we know that everything fell apart after 2022? There are two reasons. The first is that we just beat the defending Super Bowl champs by 17 points. The second is that Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo are absolute animals.

This is going to sound like sour grapes, but I’ve been saying this since Barkley’s college days. He is an unbelievable athlete, but he doesn’t have the physicality I prefer to see in a lead back. He’s a boom-or-bust guy who tries to turn every play into a home run and he doesn’t embrace contact like the battering ram that is Skattebo. Barkley can change a game with one big play, but when that big play doesn’t come, he’s pretty ordinary. Last year, Barkley was hitting a home run once a game. This year, his longest run is 18 yards and that came in the first quarter of last night’s game.

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Cam Schlittler can’t save Yankees again, but Phillies keep their hopes alive in Los Angeles

Posted on October 9, 2025 by Aaron Yorke

Make sure you hug your favorite Yankees fan today. There was a chance for all four MLB Division Series to end on Wednesday, but the only one that did featured the Pinstripes playing at home with Cam Schlittler going against Toronto’s bullpen. Schlittler wasn’t as amazing as he was in Game 3 of the Wild Card series against Boston, but he was still pretty solid with just two runs allowed in six and one third innings. He just wasn’t a sharp as the group of eight Blue Jays relief pitchers that held New York to two runs in nine innings. The first run came on a Ryan McMahon solo shot in the third inning off of Mason Fluharty that tied the score at 1-1. The Yankees didn’t score again until Aaron Judge singled off of Jeff Hoffman in the ninth to drive in Jasson Dominguez. However, the next batter Cody Bellinger struck out to end the game with Toronto on top 5-2.

Toronto got to Schlittler early when George Springer led off the game with a double and was driven in on Vladmir Guerrero Jr.’s single. The Blue Jays wasted an Addison Barger leadoff double in the fourth, but struck again in the fifth when Ernie Clement and Andre Gimenez hit back-to-back singles and Springer followed with a sac fly. Clement got Toronto’s offense started again when he singled with one out in the seventh, and then Jazz Chisholm botched a potential double play ground ball to set up a clutch two-RBI single by Nathan Lukes.

That made the score 4-1, and Toronto would add another in the eighth when Myles Straw drove in Alejandro Kirk following his leadoff double. The Yankees loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the frame, but Austin Wells was retired on a routine fly ball to left off of Hoffman’s first pitch to him.

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Aaron Judge finally hits the big one and the Yankees reach Game 4

Posted on October 8, 2025 by Aaron Yorke

It was fun listening to Yankees fans complain about Aaron Judge’s failures in clutch situations during October. It was hard to believe that such a dominant player could play so poorly in the Postseason, but the expectations are high when you play for the same franchise as Mr. October and Mr. November. All good things must come to an end, though, and on Tuesday night, Judge finally came through with a massive home run to save the Yankees from elimination.

It was only a matter of time before Judge finally did something incredible during October, but what made his game-tying laser beam especially wild was that it came on a 100 mph 0-2 fastball that was off the plate inside. I have no idea how this man turned on this pitch and somehow kept it fair. If you look at the count, the velocity, and the location, it’s one of the craziest home runs ever hit.

Judge is well on his way to living up to Derek Jeter’s legacy of the media kissing his rear end every fall. Before the heroics, the Yankees appeared done for. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a two-run home run in the first inning to put Toronto on top, and a string of singles in the third inning plated four more runs and chased Carlos Rodon from the ballgame. The Yankees began their rise in the bottom of the frame with Judge hitting an RBI double and Giancarlo Stanton following with a sac fly. After Judge tied the game in the fourth, Jazz Chisholm hit a monster solo shot in the fifth to give New York the lead, and Austin Wells followed with an RBI single to make it three straight crooked numbers for the Yankees.

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The Dodgers are one win away from eliminating the Phillies from the Postseason

Posted on October 7, 2025 by Aaron Yorke

What is it with the Dodgers and the eighth inning in October? Los Angeles might be 4-0 in postseason play, but every eighth inning it gives the opponent a chance to come back. Twice against the Reds, the Dodgers allowed a crooked number in the eighth inning to give Cincinnati hope of overcoming a seemingly impossible deficit. In Game 1 in Philadelphia, the home team loaded the bases in the eighth and put the tying run on second base before Alex Vesia came in from the bullpen and got Edmundo Sosa to fly out.

Once again in NLDS Game 2, trouble struck the Dodgers in the eighth inning. The boys in blue were leading 4-0 thanks to a seventh inning rally that featured RBI singles from Will Smith and Shohei Ohtani, but Emmet Sheehan allowed a one-out triple down the right field line by Max Kepler to wake the Phillies up. Kepler scored on Trea Turner’s single, but Sheehan retired Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper to escape further trouble.

The real danger for the Dodgers this time around came in the ninth, and it came because Dave Roberts decided to insert Blake Treinen into the save situation rather than Roki Sasaki, who had closed out Game 2 of the Wild Card and Game 1 of the NLDS with little trouble. Treinen, on the other hand, was coming off a September in which he allowed 10 earned runs (12 total) in nine and one third innings. It was a surprise to probably no one except Roberts that Treinen started the ninth by allowing three straight hits, the last of which was a double that Nick Castellanos hooked down the left field line to score a pair of runs and put the tying run in scoring position.

Still, Roberts would not go to Sasaki. He had to risk the game with Vesia first. Fortunately for the Dodgers, Roberts was not the only lousy manager that evening. Philadelphia’s Rob Thomson asked Bryson Stott to bunt. Not only did that eliminate the chance of the winning run reaching base, but it allowed Max Muncy to field the ball on the left side of the infield and throw to Mookie Betts, who tagged out Castellanos at third. So much for the tying run being in scoring position.

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Who has it worse than the New York Giants?

Posted on October 6, 2025 by Aaron Yorke

It was really frustrating being a Giants fan on Sunday. Jaxson Dart led Big Blue on touchdown drives during the team’s first two possessions to take 14-3 lead, and it looked like we might be building some momentum ahead of Thursday night’s battle against Philadelphia. Instead of cruising to victory, though, the Giants turned the ball over five times in a row while New Orleans capitalized with 23 unanswered points to get its first win of the season, 26-14.

It’s tough for the Giants to hit on the big play with Malik Nabers missing the rest of season due to a knee injury, but Dart and company were still able to move the ball up and down the field well enough to beat a team like the Saints. The defense even helped out by limiting New Orleans to one offensive touchdown on an 87-yard pass from Spencer Rattler to Rashid Shaheed. The problem was that the Saints got a defensive touchdown when Cam Skattebo fumbled on the first play of the fourth quarter with the Giants threatening in the Red Zone. The ball popped out at the perfect spot for Jordan Howden to scoot 86 yards for the score, and the Giants’ best chance of retaking the lead was wiped out.

New York was looking for the lead before halftime when Darius Slayton caught a pass in Saints territory and then coughed it up for the first turnover of the day. Dart also lost a fumble in the third quarter without being touched by the defense. The final two turnovers were Dart passes that were intercepted by Kool-Aid McKinstry. I thought the first one Dart tried to force into a tight window, but the second was because Beaux Collins broke off his route too early. That’s something that can’t happen on a team that might have the worst wide receiver pool in the league without Nabers. 16 of Dart’s 26 completions were received by tight ends Daniel Bellinger and Theo Johnson as well as Skattebo. Wan’Dale Robinson caught five passes on seven targets, but he only gained 30 yards on them.

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It’s finally time to give up on James Franklin

Posted on October 5, 2025 by Aaron Yorke

Thank goodness for Gavin McKenna. That’s all I have to say after a very sad sports day. The phenom’s game-winning blast from the right circle to complete a second straight third period comeback for Penn State was a nice little pick-me-up, but it didn’t make up for the disaster that was Penn State football on Saturday.

The Nittany Lions lost 42-37 to a UCLA team that had never had the lead during its 0-4 start and had already fired its head coach DeShaun Foster. The Bruins played like they had nothing to lose and ambushed Penn State with an onside kick following their opening touchdown drive. That helped lead to UCLA holding a massive time of possession advantage in this game, but it was no excuse for Penn State acting like it had never seen a scrambling quarterback before. Nico Iamaleava rushed for 128 yards and three touchdowns on 16 carries while the Penn State defense was continually out of position to stop him. The edge rushers led by Dani Dennis-Sutton kept taking wide routes into the backfield, which made it easy for Iamaleava to escape. Once he was out of the pocket, he faced either no resistance from man defense or feeble resistance from zone defense with Penn State missing tackling opportunities.

Penn State had opportunities to get back in this game, most notably when it blocked a punt and scooped up the ball in the end zone for a quick touchdown the score 27-21 midway through the third quarter. Every time Penn State got within a score, though, Iamaleava had the answer. Penn State finally had a chance to tie the score after stopping UCLA on fourth down with two minutes left in the game, but Drew Allar had his option with Trebor Pena running jet sweep action blown up by the UCLA defense on 4th and 2.

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