Good Morning! Today is Monday, September 8. Here’s what happened over the weekend in the world of sports.

NFL WEEK ONE

The NFL kicked off Thursday night with standout Eagles defensive tackle getting ejected for spitting on Cowboys QB Dak Prescott… after that ignominious beginning, Philly beat their division rival, and the season began in earnest. Let’s recap some games, shall we?

• The Chiefs and Chargers met for a classic Friday Night Football game in Brazil, streaming live on YouTube. And just as this game took place in another hemisphere, the result flipped our expectations upside-down, too. Justin Herbert was masterful against the defending AFC champions, leading LA to a 27-21 victory.

• After struggling on offense last year, the Steelers and Jets swapped quarterbacks this offseason. It doesn’t make too much sense, but the swap appears to have worked. Aaron Rodgers and Pittsburgh won a thrilling back-and-forth affair 34-32, but New York and Justin Fields showed a lot of promise.

• How about the Colts! Daniel Jones and Indianapolis scored on every single possession, absolutely crushing the Miami Dolphins 33-8.

• Three great divisional rivalries produced notable results yesterday: the Bucs escaped the Falcons 23-20, San Francisco overcame an injury to George Kittle to beat the Seahawks 17-13, and watch out world for the 2025 Packers: Green Bay rolled against the Lions, cruising to 27-13 win. 

That brings us to Sunday Night Football, where the visiting Baltimore Ravens looked unstoppable for most of the evening against the Buffalo Bills. Derrick Henry had 169 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Lamar Jackson threw for two TDs and pulled off unimaginable twists and turns on runs like this one. Baltimore led 40-25 late into the fourth quarter and it felt like the game was over. But if you give Josh Allen a chance for a comeback, he’s going to take it. The reigning MVP led a touchdown drive to cut the deficit to 40-32 with 3:56 remaining. A crucial Derrick Henry fumble on the next possession set up an Allen touchdown run– after a missed two-point conversion, the score was 40-38. When the Bills defense forced a three-and-out, Allen led his team 66 yards down the field for the game-winning field goal as time expired! The cherry on top of this storybook sundae, kicker Matt Prater was just signed to the roster on Thursday! Truly, this was one of the more entertaining football games in recent memory between arguably the two best teams in the league. Here’s to hoping they meet again in the playoffs.

NCAA FOTBALL

We had some fun games on the college gridiron this weekend, too:

• (16) Iowa State and quarterback Rocco Becht held on for a nail-biting 16-13 win against rival Iowa. The Missouri Tigers, meanwhile, won the game known as the Border War. Mizzou earned a spot in this week’s top 25 after an impressive 42-31 win over Kansas.

• (15) Michigan looked overmatched, falling 24-13 at (18) Oklahoma in the only ranked vs ranked matchup of the week. Watch out for Sooner QB John Mateer in the Heisman race…

• Baylor took down (17) SMU in a wild double-overtime thriller. The most exciting upset of the week, however, came courtesy of Mississippi State. The Bulldog fans stormed the field and took down the goalposts after this unbelievable last-minute comeback win over (12) Arizona State. Watch this game-winner:

• And finally… let’s go USF! The Bulls followed up their week one upset over (25) Boise State with a stunning last-second victory in Gainesville against (13) Florida. South Florida has vaulted into the top 25 and play (5) Miami this weekend for the crown of best-in-state.

US OPEN FINALS

First of all, the US Open semifinals on Thursday and Friday gave us four of the best matches of the year. Aryna Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula played three incredible sets of tennis, only for Amanda Anisimova and Naomi Osaka to play three more that were even better. On the men’s side, Felix Auger-Aliassime was just the second player to take a set off Jannik Sinner before the final, while Novak Djokovic, the clear number three player in the world, may have officially passed the baton to the next generation after giving it his all in a straight-sets loss to Carlos Alcaraz. Now, onto the finals…

Aryna Sabalenka is the number one player in the world– and now she's got a Grand Slam in 2025 to back up her ranking. Sabalenka defended her title and won the US Open for the second year in a row, taking down the young American Amanda Anisimova. A tightly contested affair, Sabalenka won by a score of 6-3, 7-6. She’s 20-1 in tiebreakers this year. I guess what they say is true: the best players are at their best in the biggest moments.

On the men’s side, it was another edition of the budding Sincaraz rivalry. Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz met in their third consecutive Grand Slam final, with the number one ranking in the world on the line. Alcaraz won the first set 6-2, displaying the breathtaking speed, creativity, and court coverage that have become his trademarks. Sinner fought hard to battle back and win the second set 6-3, but it was all he could muster. Carlitos was simply too good yesterday, taking the next two sets 6-1, 6-4 and claiming his sixth career Grand Slam. Sinner was the only opponent to win a set against Alcaraz, who after an otherworldly two weeks in New York, has taken over the title as the best player in the world. Alcaraz and Sinner have won the last eight Grand Slams, and there’s no sign of them slowing down anytime soon. "It will be very difficult for me in the future to overcome the hurdle of Sinner [and] Alcaraz, in the best-of-five [in] the Grand Slams,” said Novak Djokovic on Friday evening. If it’s difficult for Novak, imagine how the task seems to anyone else on tour! But while the rest of the tennis world figures out how to break through, we’ll just keep enjoying the show.

MLB

The AL wild card race is really heating up… more on that Thursday. Today, we’ve got a few great highlights:

• Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto was one out away from the first no-hitter of 2025. That’s when Jackson Holliday connected on a home run to right-center field, and the wheels came flying off for LA. The Dodger bullpen completely blew the game and the Orioles came back to win 4-3. It ain’t over till it’s over!

• Aroldis Chapman is the best reliever in baseball? What year is it? The Red Sox closer found the fountain of youth and is once again unhittable. Check out his ninth inning yesterday, when he struck out four batters (yes, four!) on the way to yet another save.

• To round things out, we’ve got another edition of “Which catch was better?”

A FEW MORE NOTES…

After missing most of the summer with an injury, Caitlin Clark has been officially ruled out for the remainder of the WNBA season. The Indiana Fever have been crushed by the injury bug this year, and with just over a week to go in the regular season, they may even drop out of the playoffs.

Congratulations to Matt Stafford, who became the 10th quarterback in NFL history to reach 60,000 passing yards.

THIS WEEK’S BIG GAMES (all times Eastern)

MONDAY:

• Vikings @ Bears, 8:15 PM on ESPN

TUESDAY:

• Tigers @ Yankees, 7:05 PM on TBS

WEDNESDAY:

• Mets @ Phillies, 6:45 PM

Hope your week is as fun as… whatever this is:

That’s all for now– see you on Thursday!