Lions crush Cowboys on Jerry Jones’ birthday; Dodgers win NLCS Game 1; Liberty even WNBA Finals

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🏈 The Football Five

1. It was ugly, but the Bengals scrounged out a much-needed 17-7 win over the Giants. Joe Burrow and Chase Brown both scored on the ground, and the defense came up with several key stops. Also ugly? Daniel Jones‘ prime-time numbers.
2. The Lions demolished the Cowboys, 47-9, for a Scorigami!, but NFL sack leader Aidan Hutchinson broke his leg. We’ll talk about this game in a bit.
3. The Ravens beat the Commanders, 30-23, Baltimore’s fourth straight win after starting 0-2. Lamar Jackson threw for 323 yards and a score, and Derrick Henry scored twice, continuing his historically great start.
4. The Steelers thumped the Raiders, 32-13, and after another strong game, Justin Fields deserves to be the full-time starter, Bryan DeArdo writes. Pittsburgh got an “A-” in John Breech’s Week 6 grades.
5. Over in London, the Bears walloped the Jaguars, 35-16, with Caleb Williams throwing four touchdown passes and earning a spot on Cody Benjamin’s Week 6 winners. Jacksonville safety Andre Cisco called out his teammates’ effort.

⚾🏈 Good morning to all, but especially to …

THE LOS ANGELES DODGERS

The Dodgers were desperate for pitching all season. Now, they’re on one of the greatest postseason pitching stretches ever. Jack Flaherty tossed a gem, and the star-studded offense struck early and often in a 9-0 NLCS Game 1 win over the Mets.

• The Dodgers are up to 33 consecutive scoreless innings pitched, tying the 1966 Orioles for the longest streak in a single postseason. Los Angeles is also the third team in MLB history with three straight playoff shutouts.
• Offensively, Max Muncy drove in two in the first inning, and Shohei Ohtani, Tommy Edman and Freddie Freeman helped extend the lead to 6-0 by the fourth.
• The Dodgers’ No. 1-3 hitters — Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freeman — collected five hits, five RBI and four runs.
• It’s the largest shutout win in Dodgers playoff history, topping their previous best of 8-0 all of two games ago.

This is a pitching staff that’s been battered by injuries. The Dodgers needed a bullpen game in a do-or-die Game 4 in the NLDS against the Padres and then got a great effort from Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the winner-take-all Game 5. Now, Flaherty is the latest to impress by going seven scoreless, the first Dodger to do so in a postseason game since Clayton Kershaw in 2020.

Game 2 is today, and Game 1 of the Guardians-Yankees ALCS follows.

… AND ALSO A GOOD MORNING TO THE OREGON DUCKS

So close yet so far … until now. After years of missing out on a true top-tier win, No. 3 Oregon got just that, an enthralling 32-31 triumph over No. 2 Ohio State.

The game featured eight lead changes, but it’s the way the lead didn’t change late that was most stunning. With five seconds left, Will Howard scrambled to try to get the Buckeyes into field goal range, but time expired as he slid down.

But we won’t dumb it down to just that play. No, this game was too good, this result too meaningful, for that. Oregon entered 0-19 against AP top-two teams and won despite multiple miscues and the absence of star pass rusher Jordan Burch.

Instead, let’s focus on …

• Dillon Gabriel threw for 341 yards and two touchdowns and ran for a touchdown, his best game this season against the best competition.
• Jordan James rumbled for 115 yards and a score.
• Evan Stewart collected seven catches for 149 yards and a score.

More than the individual efforts, how about the team-wide resilience from Dan Lanning‘s bunch? These Ducks don’t back down from anyone, nor should they, Brandon Marcello writes.

😄 Honorable mentions

🏈 And not such a good morning for …

THE DALLAS COWBOYS

For Jerry Jones‘ 82nd birthday, the Cowboys gifted him his worst home loss as an owner. Yes, the 47-9 defeat was as bad as it looks and sounds. Maybe worse. Jones himself said it best: “We’re in the proverbial sh—er right now.”

Let’s first praise the Lions, who very much deserve every compliment. Watching Ben Johnson call plays and his offense execute them is more art than sport — every wide open receiver, every gaping running lane, every creative spark more beautiful than the last.

• Jared Goff (315 yards passing, three touchdowns) had four completions of 35+ yards, the most by a Lions quarterback in a game since Matthew Stafford in 2015.
• Detroit ran for 184 yards on 5.1 yards per rush.
• This double flea-flicker 52-yard touchdown to Sam LaPorta was the perfect example of how Cowboys defenders’ heads were spinning all game.

The score was disrespectful enough, but the Cowboys got clowned. The Lions tried to throw a touchdown to left tackle Taylor Decker (who caught the controversial waved-off touchdown last year). They tried a lateral to right tackle Penei Sewell. They put backup lineman Dan Skipper at wide receiver. 

Dallas just doesn’t have answers. Everything is so difficult offensively. I mean, five turnovers? Outgained 492-251? Really? The offensive line is a mess. Outside of CeeDee Lamb, no players really threaten the defense. The Cowboys are dead last in the NFL in yards per rush, which puts a ton of pressure on Dak Prescott to be excellent. He hasn’t been close. The defense is getting shredded, especially with Micah Parsons and Demarcus Lawrence out. On Goff’s touchdown to Jameson Williams, Trevon Diggs wasn’t ready at the snap, and Williams cruised by him. That’s inexcusable.

Listen, I get it. The Cowboys are “America’s Team.” (Whatever that’s supposed to mean anymore.) They’re going to stay in the spotlight. But as things stand, they’re going to keep getting embarrassed in it, too.

😕 Not so honorable mentions

🏈 College football recap: Texas rolls in Red River Rivalry; LSU, Penn State, Alabama rally

It’s a burnt orange world, and we’re just living in it. No. 1 Texas crushed No. 18 Oklahoma, 34-3. After a slow start in Quinn Ewers‘ return from an abdominal injury, Texas poured it on for its fourth-largest win in Red River Rivalry history

Simply put, the Longhorns took care of business at a championship-caliber level, Shehan Jeyarajah writes.

• Jeyarajah: “By the end of the game, there wasn’t a slot on the box score where Texas failed to dominate. … Through six games, the Longhorns have been arguably the most impressive team in the country with blowout wins on the road against Michigan and at the Cotton Bowl against Oklahoma. It wasn’t always pretty, but finding ways to blow out lesser opponents is critical on a championship run.”

Not much drama in that one, but there was plenty elsewhere.

No. 13 LSU pulled off a thrilling 29-26 overtime win over No. 9 Ole Miss despite leading for exactly zero seconds. Garrett Nussmeier came up huge late with a 23-yard touchdown to Aaron Anderson to force overtime and a walk-off 25-yard touchdown to Kyren Lacy in overtime.

No. 4 Penn State, meanwhile, overcame a 14-point second-half deficit to upend USC, 33-30, in overtime. The star of the day was Tyler Warren, who caught an FBS tight end record-tying 17 passes for 224 yards, including a touchdown on a play he snapped the ball. Seriously.

But how about the guy throwing to him? Drew Allar is the gunslinger Penn State has long needed, Dennis Dodd writes.

We also have College Football Playoff contenders who won, but didn’t impress:

Alabama visits Tennessee this weekend. Oh boy.

Here’s more from the weekend

🏀 Liberty hold off Lynx, even WNBA Finals

After missing a couple of crucial opportunities in Game 1, Breanna Stewart responded emphatically in Game 2 with 21 points, eight rebounds and five assists to lead the Liberty to an 80-66 win over the Lynx and tie the WNBA Finals at one game apiece. Betnijah Laney-Hamilton added a playoff career-high 20 points for New York.

As nice as the offensive numbers were, Stewart’s Finals-record seven steals set the tone, Jack Maloney writes.

• Maloney: “With Stewart leading the way, the Liberty held the Lynx to 66 points on 45% shooting. This was the Lynx’s lowest-scoring game of the playoffs and their second-least efficient shooting performance. The Liberty also forced 20 turnovers, tied for the second-most in a playoff game in Lynx franchise history.”

📺 What we’re watching Monday

⚾ NLCS Game 2: Mets at Dodgers, 4:08 p.m. on Fox/FS1
⚾ ALCS Game 1: Guardians at Yankees, 7:38 p.m. on TBS/truTV
🏈 Bills at Jets, 8:15 p.m. on ABC/ESPN