Good morning and congratulations on making it to the midway point of the work week! We had a surprising amount of sports to take in last night -- playoff baseball, a random mid-week NFL game and "The Bachelorette" (Yes, it counts.)While we won't be talking about who got roses this morning, we will discu s some of the other stuff we saw last night -- plus a few of the bigger stories out there today. How good do you think Le'Veon Bell felt when he woke up this morning and realized he didn't have to go to work and answer to Adam Gase for another day in his life? I only hope you
Fernando Rodney Jersey can experience even a shred of that kind of joy today. What you need to know 1. No practice, no problem for Titans My brain felt like it was malfunctioning all day yesterday as I looked forward to a primetime game... on a Tuesday. But that was our reality last night thanks to the Bills and Titans finally meeting in Tenne see after a COVID-19 outbreak.The Titans were hit hard by coronavirus and embroiled in quite a bit of chaos leading up to this game. They hadn't played in 16 days and they were forced to stop practicing for a little bit thanks to the NFL's COVID protocols (which they may or may not have broken) but... hey, rust? What rust? Tenne see registered a dominant 42-16 win over Buffalo to stay undefeated (4-0) while the Bills earned their first lo s of the year (4-1). Are you Malcolm Butler? Because you're about to get Why the Titans won: The numbers suggested Tenne see would get picked apart by Josh Allen and the Bills. The Titans came into this game with a bottom-three defense and were mi sing a couple of top cornerbacks, which seemed like it could be devastating against the Bills' No. 2 pa sing offense in the league. Buffalo was averaging 316.3 pa sing yards per game and 30.8 points per game but the Titans played great, holding Allen to 263 pa sing yards and picking him off
Anibal Sanchez Jersey twiceWhy the Bills lost: Buffalo was banged up and they had major trouble with their defensive coverage all game long. They were able to hold Derrick Henry to just 57 yards on the ground but didn't quite have the same succe s against the pa s. Ryan Tannehill was efficient and smart through the air, throwing for three touchdowns. Buffalo's turnovers also helped set up the Titans with short scoring drivesI wasn't expecting the Titans to return with such a vengeance, and I certainly wasn't expecting this game to be as ugly and one-sided as it ended up being. (Hence why I lost quite a bit of coin riding with Buffalo!) It was an especially bad night for Buffalo cornerback Josh Norman, who not only had some troubles in coverage but . I can only hope he didn't check his Twitter mentions last night.At this point, the Titans might hold the same views as Allen Iverson regarding practice. 2. Where is Le'Veon Bell headed? Le'Veon Bell's tenure in New York didn't exactly go so well after he signed his four-year, $52.5 million contract with the Jets in March of 2019. It feels like we've spent much of the last year waiting for the bottom
Addison Reed Jersey to fall out in that relationship and, with the Jets in the midst of a disastrous season, the end finally came yesterday. (For Bell, at least. Sorry, Jets fans... you're stuck with this team.) After reportedly looking to trade Bell for about a year -- including shopping for deals ahead of this season's deadline on October 29 -- the Jets decided to cut Bell yesterday. With the running back now a free agent, our Tyler Sullivan highlighted that would make sense for the running back.Steelers:A reunion, you say? It could work. The Steelers reportedly kicked the tires on re-acquiring Bell last season. The divorce between Bell/Pittsburgh wasn't pretty but he's had plenty of succe s there and sometimes distance makes the heart grow fonder (especially when your time away is spent with the Jets)Bears:Chicago is off to a surprising 4-1 start but they lost Tarik Cohen for the year due to a torn ACL. Replacing him with Bell -- a more than capable pa s-catching back -- would make a whole
Michael Pineda Jersey lot of sense and provide another weapon to an offense in needCardinals:James Saxon, the currents Cards running backs coach, held the same position with the Pittsburgh Steelers throughout Bell's tenure with the organization. Arizona could use a boost in the backfield because Kenyan Drake, who is on a one-year deal, has been mediocre this yearSully also lists a couple of other options, so feel free to check those out. Regardle s of where he goes, I'm not sure the Jets are making the right call by siding with Adam Gase -- a coach who has a .333 winning percentage in two seasons with the team -- over Bell in this situation. 3. Astros fall apart, go down 3-0 in ALCS I'm not much of a "karma" person when it comes to sports. I tend to believe in randomne s and coincidences more than righteous acts imposed by the sports gods... but the Houston Astros may just make me a believer. It was hard not to come away from Game 3 of the ALCS not thinking that Houston has some supernatural forces working against them following their cheating scandal last offseason. After losing the first two games of their series against the Rays, the Astros needed a strong start in Game 3... and they got it. But things eventually fell apart, and they fell apart quickly and pretty inexplicably.
Jason Castro Jersey Ultimately, Tampa took a 5-2 win to go up 3-0 and . So, what happened in Game 3?Jose Altuve makes another huge error: Altuve picked a unfortunate time to come down with a case of the yips. His throwing accuracy in the field has been a disaster in this series and he made another ma sive, costly error on Tuesday. While the Astros were protecting a 1-0 lead in the sixth inning, Altuve threw a potential 4-6-3 double play ball into left field. Instead of Houston securing two outs, the Rays were gifted two runners on base. Tampa went on to put all five of their runs on the board in that frameRays are playing spectacular defense: While Altuve can't hit the ocean from the beach, Tampa is somehow making web gem after web gem in the field. They put on a clinic defensively on Tuesday night, frustrating the Astros with several incredible defensive plays that kept runs off the boardRandy Arozarena stays hot: It's just ridiculous how good Arozarena has been this postseason. He went 4 for 8 in Tampa's sweep over the Blue Jays and hit three home runs against the Yankees in the ALDS. He added three more hits last night, making him the first rookie ever (and the fifth player in general) with four three-hit games in a single postseasonIt seems like the Rays have everything going their way so far, and now Houston is going to n