Good Morning! Today is Monday, October 13. Here’s what happened over the weekend in the world of sports.

NCAA FOOTBALL

We’re starting with college football today because Saturday was just that fun. No preamble necessary, it’s time to recap some games:

• How ‘bout the Hoosiers! Indiana went into Eugene and upset Oregon, ending the Ducks’ 18-game home win streak. Each time Oregon made a move to take control of this one, the Hoosiers had an answer. I cannot overstate how impressive the impressive nature of this 30-20 victory.

• Elsewhere, (1) Ohio State continues to look like the best team in the country. The Buckeyes took down (17) Illinois 34-16.

• Texas is back in the win column after shutting down (6) Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry… (14) Mizzou failed to capitalize on a golden opportunity, losing their first game of the season 27-24 to (8) Alabama… (10) Georgia escaped with a nervy win against Auburn… and USC lit up the scoreboard in a 31-13 upset over (15) MIchigan.

• Nothing went right for (22) Iowa State, who had to put an offensive lineman in the game as their fourth-string kicker. The Cyclones lost to Colorado 24-17.

• Somehow the story of the weekend remained Penn State. The Nittany Lions dropped their third game in a row, falling at home to Northwestern. The sudden drop in quality and disappointing results have seemingly come out of nowhere for a program that has consistently won the last few seasons. But given the recent run of form, it was not a shock yesterday afternoon when the university fired head coach James Franklin. Time will tell if it will work out on the football field, but the decision to move on from Franklin was very, very expensive. And to make matters worse, QB Drew Allar is out for the season.

NFL

Thursday Night Football was unusual for more than one reason, but ultimately pretty fun if you’re a Giants fan. That primetime game was miles more entertaining than Sunday morning in London; you can look up the Broncos-Jets game on your own time, I refuse to talk about it. Let’s get into yesterday’s action:

• Carolina! Bryce Young and the Panthers upset the Dallas Cowboys 30-27 on a field goal in the final moments. I hope you had this guy on your fantasy team– former Cowboy Rico Dowdle ran all over the Dallas defense. He’s just the seventh player since 1970 with two consecutive games of 225+ yards from scrimmage.

• Colts! It was much closer than expected against a banged-up Arizona team, but Indianapolis is 5-1 on the season. Daniel Jones and Jonathan Taylor are leading one of the best offenses in all of football.

• Chargers! LA almost blew the game against the Miami Dolphins, but Justin Herbert came up with one of the most magical plays of the year on the way to a game-winning field goal:

• Baker Mayfield was magnificent yesterday against Christian McCaffrey and the 49ers practice squad (everyone in San Francisco is injured!). The potential NFL MVP threw for 256 yards and two TDs, plus he came up with all the big plays in the biggest moments. Tampa Bay beat San Francisco 30-19 and moved to 5-1 on the season.

• And for those concerned about the Kansas City Chiefs… don’t be. Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid orchestrated a complete-game win over the Detroit Lions on Sunday Night Football. Just as it’s been for so many years now, all the little things went their way and the stars made big plays when they needed them most. Kansas City won a fun one 30-17. (and then a fight broke out after the game? An odd way to end the weekend, that’s for sure)

MLB

Very quickly, let’s wrap up the Division Series (here’s a link to the Mariners-Tigers recap from Saturday morning):

• The Dodgers beat the Phillies in four games. With respect to all the Philly natives out there, I won’t spend too long on the walk-off error that ended their season…

• The other NLDS went the distance, as the Cubs defended Wrigley Field and forced a game five back in Milwaukee. But on Saturday night, the Brewers buckled down and secured a victory. Three solo homers and a four-hitter by the bullpen was enough to advance to the next round. The Brew Crew will host LA today in game one of a seven-game series, with a chance to go to the World Series on the line.

Now that we’re all caught up… yesterday was the start of the ALCS, as Seattle had just one day between their 15-inning spectacular and first pitch all the way across the continent in Toronto. You wouldn’t blame the Mariners if they weren’t ready to go for game one, or if their over-extended pitching staff didn’t have the energy to cover another nine innings. But that is not what happened in the slightest…

WNBA

We’ve got a champion! The Las Vegas Aces swept the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA Finals, winning their third title in four years. A’ja Wilson was named Finals MVP– she also won the regular season MVP and Defensive Player of the Year. "You have your Mount Rushmore; she's alone on Everest," Aces coach Becky Hammon said. "There's no one around."

NHL

Well the hockey season is officially up and running– other games may have also happened, but it’s going to be tough this season to beat the wackiness of this late-game sequence in San Jose:

NEWSWORTHY

LeBron James will miss the first month of the upcoming NBA season due to sciatica. Pro athletes, they’re just like us.

Coming into last week, Valentin Vacherot was ranked 204th in the world. His career prize money was just under $500,000. Not a bad career in pro tennis, but certainly not the most notable. All that changed in Shanghai– Vacherot went on a dream run all the way to the finals. He even beat Novak Djokovic in the semis! If that wasn’t great enough, his opponent for the Masters 1000 trophy was Arthur Rinderknech… his cousin! The most incredible week of tennis concluded with one million dollars, his first career ATP title, and family memories that will last for generations. Congratulations to Valentin!

THIS WEEK’S BIG GAMES (all times Eastern)

MONDAY:

• Mariners @ Blue Jays, 5:03 PM on Fox

  • Logan Gilbert vs Trey Yesavage

• Bills @ Falcons, 7:15 PM on ESPN

• Bears @ Commanders, 8:15 PM on ABC

• Dodgers @ Brewers, 8:08 PM on TBS

  • Blake Snell vs TBD

TUESDAY:

• Lightning @ Capitals, 7 PM on ESPN

• Dodgers @ Brewers, 8:08 PM on TBS

  • Yoshinobu Yamamoto vs Freddy Peralta

• Wild @ Stars, 9:30 PM on ESPN

WEDNESDAY:

• Blue Jays @ Mariners, 8:08 PM on Fox

  • Shane Bieber vs TBD

• Blackhawks @ Blues, 9:30 PM on TNT

“It was adrenaline. Red-Hot on the arm, coffee in the pre-workout. The fans are going crazy, 50,000. At that point, you don’t feel anything,” –Mariners starter Logan Gilbert, after his appearance as a reliever in the 15-inning marathon

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