Michigan's Second-Chance Hail Mary Caps a Chaotic College Football Week 1 — and the NFL Season Kicks Off Wednesday
Honest answer: it was a quiet day on the Minnesota wire — nothing specific on the Vikings, Twins, Wolves, Wild, Lynx, United, or Gophers in this morning's feed. The closest thing to local relevance is that the NFL's f...
Quick Hits
- The finish everyone's arguing about: Michigan beat Western Michigan 13-12 on a walk-off (game-ending) Hail Mary that only happened because officials put time back on the clock first. The Big Ten reviewed it and says the call was correct — and Western Michigan has decided to accept that and move on rather than fight it.
- A legend goes out on top: Irish boxing star Katie Taylor retired after beating Flora Pili at Dublin's Croke Park, finishing her career as undisputed junior welterweight champion (meaning she holds every major belt at once).
- Football is back: The NFL season opens Wednesday with Patriots-Seahawks, and the biggest name to know is Tua Tagovailoa — the former Miami Pro Bowler was just named the starting quarterback in Atlanta, the Falcons' sixth different Week 1 starter in six years.
- Across the pond: Arsenal, the reigning Premier League powers, got past title hopefuls Chelsea, while Manchester United have already dropped points twice in just three games.
- One more tonight: College football's opening week ends this evening with No. 19 SMU visiting Florida State, where coach Mike Norvell's job security is a hot topic after recent struggles.
Minnesota Teams
Honest answer: it was a quiet day on the Minnesota wire — nothing specific on the Vikings, Twins, Wolves, Wild, Lynx, United, or Gophers in this morning's feed. The closest thing to local relevance is that the NFL's full league previews dropped this week: ESPN ranked all 32 teams and CBS predicted final records for every club, Vikings included, ahead of Wednesday's season opener. We'll pass along anything Purple (or Twins-related, with about a month left in their season) as soon as it shows up.
NFL
The season kicks off Wednesday night with Patriots-Seahawks in the annual Kickoff Game. Early betting lines for Week 1, per CBS Sports, have the Cowboys favored on the road against the Giants, and the Panthers in what CBS calls a "familiar position" against the Bears — read: underdogs again.
The Tua story is the one making rounds: Atlanta handing him the job means a fresh start after his Miami years, and his debut comes against the Steelers, per CBS. Predictions season is also in full swing — CBS projected the entire season including a Super Bowl LXI champion and MVP, and ESPN played out one of its 10,000 computer simulations, which happened to end with a Lions-Chargers Super Bowl. (Emphasis on one simulation — don't bet the house.)
Meanwhile, the 49ers are already in Australia for the first regular-season NFL game ever played there. Coach Kyle Shanahan had reservations about the trip, but ESPN reports he's come around since arriving Friday, calling it "right" and a "cool experience."
MLB
The regular season has less than a month left, and ESPN's panel of experts published their final-month predictions — division winners, wild-card races, and which stars will dominate September. No specific picks made it into our feed summary, but the piece is the place to look if you want to know who's expected to make the playoffs.
For the fantasy players out there: CBS's Week 25 preview tabs young arms Andrew Painter and Eury Pérez as prime two-start pitchers this week, alongside Dylan Cease and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
College Sports
The Michigan-Western Michigan ending is the story of the weekend: Michigan got a second chance at a Hail Mary after the clock controversy and connected to win 13-12. The Big Ten confirmed officials correctly added time back; CBS reports Western Michigan's leadership chose "acceptance over outrage," deciding to move forward rather than protest — an unusually graceful response to a genuinely painful loss.
The holiday weekend's other headliners were Wisconsin-Notre Dame (Notre Dame's pursuit of a College Football Playoff spot opener) and a ranked-vs-ranked Louisville-Ole Miss showdown in Nashville — final scores for those didn't make our feed this morning. And Week 1 wraps tonight with No. 19 SMU at Florida State, where CBS wonders whether the Seminoles are poised for an upset — and whether a bad home loss would turn Norvell's hot seat "scorching."
Other Sports
Soccer: ESPN's takeaway from the weekend is that Arsenal keep clearing every hurdle in the Premier League — this time beating back London rivals Chelsea, who are trending upward. Manchester United, meanwhile, are already leaving points on the table twice in three matches and looking very much like a work in progress. In transfer-rumor land, ESPN reports Chelsea are front-runners to sign Bournemouth midfielder Alex Scott as a potential Enzo Fernández replacement.
The Champions League — European club soccer's biggest competition — starts this week. ESPN published its first power rankings of the season, and Tuesday's slate features José Mourinho meeting his old club Inter at the Bernabéu. CBS marked the occasion by ranking the best players he's ever coached (Cristiano Ronaldo, Diego Milito, and Samuel Eto'o among them).
Elsewhere: Katie Taylor's farewell was the boxing moment of the year so far — a near-flawless performance on an emotional night at a packed Croke Park. And CBS flagged a big weekend for the Americans at both the US Open tennis and the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup, though details were thin in our feed — worth a scroll through the headlines if tennis or hoops is your thing.