Friday’s 6-pack:
NBA leaders in net points per game from their bench:
4.3— Miami Heat
3.2— San Antonio Spurs
2.9— Houston Rockets
2.8— Oklahoma City Thunder
2.6— Toronto Raptors
1.4— Portland Trailblazers
Quote of the Day
“The journey began with great expectations with my own vision of how to get there. Sometimes the journey does not end the way we hope.But when I think of our time together, I will remember and appreciate what we did accomplish. … The roar of Death Valley when we beat Alabama. The losses will always hurt, but I will remember all the wins.”
Former LSU football coach Brian Kelly
Friday’s quiz
Who is the all-time leader in passing yards for NC State?
Thursday’s quiz
Before Shohei Ohtani, Albert Pujols was the last player intentionally walked with the bases empty in a World Series game.
Wednesday’s quiz
Bruce Arians was the Arizona Cardinals’ coach the last time they won a playoff game.
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Broncos won their last seven games.
Five of their last six wins were by 4 or fewer points.
Total yardage in game: Denver 220, Raiders 188
Penalty yardage in game: Denver 78, Raiders 83
Raiders’ only TD was on a 41-yard drive, on their 2nd possession.
Raiders the rest of the game: 44 plays, 86 yards, zero points.
Denver’s first four drives: 12 plays, 17 yards, four punts.
QB Bo Nix is 18-10 as an NFL starter.
— More and more, coaches just answer “…..analytics” when they’re asked to explain why they go for it and 4th down or don’t go for it, but here is a piece of analytics that gets ignored.
The team that scores first usually wins; best eight teams scoring first this year and their records:
Cardinals 3-5
Colts 7-2
Eagles 6-2
Lions 5-3
Packers 5-2-1
Houston 3-5
Bears 5-3
Chargers 6-3
— Remember the movie Moneyball, about the Oakland A’s front office? Jonah Hill’s character in that movie is in real life Paul DePodesta, who for the last ten years has worked for the Cleveland Browns in the NFL. He played football in college but worked for the A’s/Dodgers before going to Cleveland and switching to football.
Well, the Colorado Rockies are hiring DePodesta to be their head of baseball operations, after they lost 119 games this past season. Right now, Colorado is the only team without a manager for 2026; they haven’t made the playoffs since 2018 and the last three years, they lost 119-101-103 games.
From what you read, Colorado is way behind other teams in terms of what you need to have to be a successful team, as far as resources, both $$$ and baseball-wise.
By the way, the reason the A’s were really good in the Moneyball era was that they had Hudson, Mulder, Zito as great starting pitchers, and Miguel Tejada was a superstar at shortstop. They kind of left that part out of the movie.
— San Diego Padres named Craig Stammen their new manager; he was pitching in the majors just three years ago, and when the interview process started for this job, Stammen was one of the guys doing the interviewing.
Last two years, Padres went 93-69/90-72; this is a good job. San Diego has made the playoffs four of the last six seasons.
— Chicago White Sox named Zach Bove their new pitching coach; Bove was a hitting coach at the high school/college level (Central Florida) before becoming a pitching coach.
Last three years, Bove served as an assistant pitching coach for the Royals, who ranked sixth in the majors with a 3.73 ERA this past year. White Sox dumped four coaches from last year’s staff after they went 60-102, bossing 100+ games for the third year in a row.
— Arizona Cardinals put QB Kyler Murray on the IR with a foot injury; Jacoby Brissett is the starter, with Kedon Slovis the backup.
— If you need another reason to visit Las Vegas, A’s-Angels are playing a couple of spring training games in Las Vegas March 7-8th.
— Famous birthdays, November 7th
Jim Kaat, 87
Tom Moore, 86
Danny Smith, 71
Billy Giilispie, 65
Kris Benson, 51
Sonny Gray, 36
— Georgia Southern 25, Appalachian State 23
Eagles led 19-3 at halftime, hung on for the win.
Georgia Southern QB French threw for 352 yards and a TD
App State QB Swann threw for 348 yards, 2 TD’s.
— South Florida 55, Tex-San Antonio 23
USF scored defensive TD’s on the Roadrunners’ first two drives.
Bulls led 45-10 at halftime.
USF ran the ball 32 times for 238 yards.
— Akron 44, UMass 10
Zips outgained UMass 467-169.
RB Gant ran ball for 153 yards, two TD’s.
0-9 UMass trailed 27-10 at halftime.
— Ohio U 24, Miami 20
Game was 3-3 at halftime.
Bobcats drove 75 yards, scored winning TD with 2:15 left in the game.
Ohio QB Navarro threw for 201 yards and a TD.
— Ball State 17, Kent State 13
Cardinals drove 37 yards, scored game-winning TD with 1:53 left.
Kent outgained Ball State 301-238, but had 78 yards in penalties.
Ball State stopped Kent twice on 4th-and-1 situations.
— Toledo 42, Northern Illinois 3
QB Gleason threw for 309 yards, two TD’s.
Rockets led 28-3 at halftime.
Toledo was 9-14 on third down, NIU 2-16.
NBA leaders in net points per game from their bench:
4.3— Miami Heat
3.2— San Antonio Spurs
2.9— Houston Rockets
2.8— Oklahoma City Thunder
2.6— Toronto Raptors
1.4— Portland Trailblazers
Quote of the Day
“The journey began with great expectations with my own vision of how to get there. Sometimes the journey does not end the way we hope.But when I think of our time together, I will remember and appreciate what we did accomplish. … The roar of Death Valley when we beat Alabama. The losses will always hurt, but I will remember all the wins.”
Former LSU football coach Brian Kelly
Friday’s quiz
Who is the all-time leader in passing yards for NC State?
Thursday’s quiz
Before Shohei Ohtani, Albert Pujols was the last player intentionally walked with the bases empty in a World Series game.
Wednesday’s quiz
Bruce Arians was the Arizona Cardinals’ coach the last time they won a playoff game.
**********************************************
Friday’s Den: Random stuff with the weekend here……
— Broncos 10, Raiders 7Broncos won their last seven games.
Five of their last six wins were by 4 or fewer points.
Total yardage in game: Denver 220, Raiders 188
Penalty yardage in game: Denver 78, Raiders 83
Raiders’ only TD was on a 41-yard drive, on their 2nd possession.
Raiders the rest of the game: 44 plays, 86 yards, zero points.
Denver’s first four drives: 12 plays, 17 yards, four punts.
QB Bo Nix is 18-10 as an NFL starter.
— More and more, coaches just answer “…..analytics” when they’re asked to explain why they go for it and 4th down or don’t go for it, but here is a piece of analytics that gets ignored.
The team that scores first usually wins; best eight teams scoring first this year and their records:
Cardinals 3-5
Colts 7-2
Eagles 6-2
Lions 5-3
Packers 5-2-1
Houston 3-5
Bears 5-3
Chargers 6-3
— Remember the movie Moneyball, about the Oakland A’s front office? Jonah Hill’s character in that movie is in real life Paul DePodesta, who for the last ten years has worked for the Cleveland Browns in the NFL. He played football in college but worked for the A’s/Dodgers before going to Cleveland and switching to football.
Well, the Colorado Rockies are hiring DePodesta to be their head of baseball operations, after they lost 119 games this past season. Right now, Colorado is the only team without a manager for 2026; they haven’t made the playoffs since 2018 and the last three years, they lost 119-101-103 games.
From what you read, Colorado is way behind other teams in terms of what you need to have to be a successful team, as far as resources, both $$$ and baseball-wise.
By the way, the reason the A’s were really good in the Moneyball era was that they had Hudson, Mulder, Zito as great starting pitchers, and Miguel Tejada was a superstar at shortstop. They kind of left that part out of the movie.
— San Diego Padres named Craig Stammen their new manager; he was pitching in the majors just three years ago, and when the interview process started for this job, Stammen was one of the guys doing the interviewing.
Last two years, Padres went 93-69/90-72; this is a good job. San Diego has made the playoffs four of the last six seasons.
— Chicago White Sox named Zach Bove their new pitching coach; Bove was a hitting coach at the high school/college level (Central Florida) before becoming a pitching coach.
Last three years, Bove served as an assistant pitching coach for the Royals, who ranked sixth in the majors with a 3.73 ERA this past year. White Sox dumped four coaches from last year’s staff after they went 60-102, bossing 100+ games for the third year in a row.
— Arizona Cardinals put QB Kyler Murray on the IR with a foot injury; Jacoby Brissett is the starter, with Kedon Slovis the backup.
— If you need another reason to visit Las Vegas, A’s-Angels are playing a couple of spring training games in Las Vegas March 7-8th.
— Famous birthdays, November 7th
Jim Kaat, 87
Tom Moore, 86
Danny Smith, 71
Billy Giilispie, 65
Kris Benson, 51
Sonny Gray, 36
— Georgia Southern 25, Appalachian State 23
Eagles led 19-3 at halftime, hung on for the win.
Georgia Southern QB French threw for 352 yards and a TD
App State QB Swann threw for 348 yards, 2 TD’s.
— South Florida 55, Tex-San Antonio 23
USF scored defensive TD’s on the Roadrunners’ first two drives.
Bulls led 45-10 at halftime.
USF ran the ball 32 times for 238 yards.
— Akron 44, UMass 10
Zips outgained UMass 467-169.
RB Gant ran ball for 153 yards, two TD’s.
0-9 UMass trailed 27-10 at halftime.
— Ohio U 24, Miami 20
Game was 3-3 at halftime.
Bobcats drove 75 yards, scored winning TD with 2:15 left in the game.
Ohio QB Navarro threw for 201 yards and a TD.
— Ball State 17, Kent State 13
Cardinals drove 37 yards, scored game-winning TD with 1:53 left.
Kent outgained Ball State 301-238, but had 78 yards in penalties.
Ball State stopped Kent twice on 4th-and-1 situations.
— Toledo 42, Northern Illinois 3
QB Gleason threw for 309 yards, two TD’s.
Rockets led 28-3 at halftime.
Toledo was 9-14 on third down, NIU 2-16.
