By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor
(The sports entry for last Tuesday never made it into print and we blame our computer. The opening segment about Missourians at the Paralympics in Paris was the lead article and we have moved it to today because it’s important that they be honored for their efforts, even if we are a week late. The same is true for our roundup of Missouri football players and the NFL).
(PARALYMPICS)—Several Missourians have been competing for Olympic medals in the last few days in Paris—at the Paralympics.
Colleen Young, who was born with albinism and is legally blind, was in her fourth Paralympics as a swimmer, a silver and bronze medalist in the Tokyo games and a bronze medalist at Rio de Janeiro. She brought home a bronze medal in the 100m breaststroke. She is part of the women’s 200 meter Individual Medley team. She was part of the women’s 200m individual medley that finished seventh.
St. Louis University Occupational Therapy Professor Sarah Adam is the first woman to make the USA wheelchair rugby team, which knocked defending champion Great Britain of the tournament. Team leader Chuck Aoki, who passed to Adam for the backbreaking score in the game said, “Sarah is a dynamic player offensively, and defensively too – she’s so fast and able to find gaps in the defense and attack, and that makes my job easier. Sarah is an absolute massive contributor.” Also on the team is Eric Newby, a graduate of Maryville University in St. Louis, who was the co-captain of the team after winning silver medals in the last two Paralympics. The USA team, however, lost in the gold medal game to Japan. Adam returns to her job at St. Louis U with a silver medal.
University of Missouri-Columbia sophomore Amaris Vazquez Collazo carried the Puerto Rican flag in the opening ceremonies as a competitor in the long jump. Her parents moved to St. Louis when she was three years old, a year after she received her first prosthetic leg. She says she has told everybody since she was eight years old that she was going to compete in the 2024 Olympics. You can see her story at Bing Videos. She finished 12th in the long jump.
Spencer Seggebruch of St. Louis is the pilot in paracycling, an event that matches a sighted “pilot” and a visually impaired stoker in the second seat of a two-person bike. He’s partnered with Branden Walton, a Windsor, California native who began losing his vision due to macular degeneration at age four. Their time of 4:10.29 in the 4000m qualifying race left them sixth and out of the running for the next round. They finished eighth in the trial for the 1000 meters.
Rachel Watts of St. Joseph nurse, who was diagnosed in 2018 with multiple sclerosis that fully affects her right side, finished her triathlon in 13th place in 1:42:15. She told KSHB-TV in Kansas City she would use the Paris experience to prepare for future competition, “I get to go learn how to race better at this level and really prepare for LA in 2028.”
(MIZ-NFL)—All NFL teams have finalized their 53-player rosters and a flock of former Missouri Tigers have made the big time or are sticking around to start another season. But some are not.
Cody Schrader impressed a lot of folks with the San Francisco 49ers but not enough to crack the backfield for the season. Almost immediately after he was waived, the Los Angeles Rams picked him up. He showed versatility for the 49ers with 48 yards rushing on 19 carries, four kick returns for 30 yards, and two pass receptions for eight yards. He’s likely to be a special teams guy with the Rams, a team that has three running backs on its roster already.
Darius Robinson, who went to the Arizona Cardinals in the first round of the draft, will miss the first four games of the season because he’s on the inured reserve list. He incurred a calf injury during training camp.
The Detroit Lions have kept cornerback Ennis Rakestraw and the Broncos start the year with cornerback Kris Abrams-Draine. Ty’Ron Hopper is on the Green Bay Packers roster. The Jacksonville Jaguars have kept tackle Javon Foster. The Indianapolis Colts have safety JC Carlies.
Where is Drew Lock now? New York Giants. But he got hurt in training camp.
Mekhi Wingo, who committed to Mizzou out of high school and spent one season in Columbia before transferring to LSU, made the Lions’ initial roster.
Some guys we remember didn’t make it on the opening game roster but will be on a practice squad. Tyler Badie is with the Broncos practice squad for a third year.
Also homeless are former Tigers Xavier Delgado, let go in the last round by the Buccaneers. Likewise for placekicker Harrison Mevis, waived by the Carolina Panthers.
Former Tiger DE Shane Ray appears to have called it a career. He’s been dogged by injuries throughout his career but has been healthy enough to pick up a Super Bowl ring with the Broncos in 2016 and a Grey Cup Canadian Football League championship with the Toronto Argonauts last year. (NFL-ZOU)
(TIGERS)—Missouri’s 38-0 win over Buffalo has boosted the Tigers in the polls. They’re up to 6th in the AP Poll, 8th in the coaches poll.
Next up is Boston College, just outside the top 25 after wins at then 10th ranked Florida State and against Duquesne. The Missouri defense, which has posted two straight shutouts, will face its stiffest test of the young season BU quarterback Thomas Castellanos, who has completed 75% of his passes this year and has seven all-purpose touchdowns. He hit 90% of his passes in the first half (9 of 10, 234 yards and four touchdowns) as the Eagles broke out to a 42-0 halftime lead.
(CHIEFS)—The Kansas City Chiefs have established a toehold on their campaign for a third straight NFL championship with a 27-21 win over the Baltimore Ravens, the team they beat last year for the right to go to the Super Bowl.
A record number of season-opening game viewers watched the matchup, an average audience of 28.9 million, a million-plus more than watched the Patriots-Steelers opener in 2015. The audience peaked at 33 million in the second quarter.
The Chief took the lead after Baltimore scored the first touchdown and led the rest of the way in the intense game, but for a few minutes faced the possibility they’d have to stop a two-point conversion to get the win.
Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson hit Isaiah Likely in the back of the end zone as the clock ran out and for a few minutes, Arrowhead fans held their breaths before referees ruled Likely’s right toe was out of bounds.
Patrick Mahomes broke Len Dawson’s all-time Chiefs record for passing yards in the first quarter and relied on receivers Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy for most of the night’s longest plays. Rice caught seven passes of 103 yards. Worthy, a rookie burner, scorched the Ravens with a 21-yard rushing touchdown and another one receiving, finishing with two catches for 47 yards.
When Mahomes was asked to comment on the overruled last-gasp touchdown, he suggested Likely wear white shoes in the future.
Next up for the Chiefs: the Cincinnati Bengals, upset by the New England Patriots 16-10. The Patriots held the Bengals to 224 total yards. Cincinnati was missing its star wide receiver, Tee Higgins, who has a hamstring injury. His status for the Chiefs game is uncertain.
(ROYALS)—The Kansas City Royals have bounced back from a season-high seven-game losing streak that dropped them out of a tie for the division lead by sweeping a three game series with the Minnesota Twins, their biggest competitor for the second division wild card playoff slot. The sweep, coupled with the Guardians’ loss to the Dodgers Sunday, pulls the Royals to within 2½ games of the Guardians. Former Cardinals pitcher Jack Flaherty shut out the Royals into the seventh inning before leaving. He’s 5-1 with the Dodger since moving over from Detroit, where he started the year 7-5, and is seen by some as LA’s number one starter going into he playoffs.
Former Cardinals pitcher Michael Wacha polished off the Twins Sunday with seven scoreless innings, giving up only five hits. He’s now 12-7. While the Royals have surged after the losing streak, the Twins have been going 6-14 in their last twenty.
The Royals are having a strong season on the mound as well as at the plate, led by four pitchers and three hitters. Seth Lugo is 15-8 with a 3.05 ERA; Cole Ragans is 11-9 but has an ERA of 3.33. Brady Singer’s ERA is 3.35 although he’s only 9-10. And Michael Wacha is 12-7 and 3.34. Lugo and Ragans have the only two complete games this season, out of 142 games played.
On the hitting side, three players were or are headed for 100 RBIs. Salvador Perez is at 95 RBIs with 25 homers. Bobby Witt Jr., is 30 and 98. Before he went on the DL with a broken thumb, Vinnie Pasquantino was 19-97.
(CARDINALS)—The cardinals are a game over .500 after letting the Mariners score five times in the first inning Sunday and then five more times the rest of the way to be the Birds 10-4. Miles Mikolas took the loss to drop to 8-11 for the year. He lasted just two innings, and gave up seven runs on nine hits. Mikolas is 7-6 on the road but at home he’s only 1-6 and his Busch Stadium ERA is 6.54.
Speeding along—-
(Since our sports column wasn’t posted last week and because of important developments in IndyCar and NASCAR, we’ll recap races in those two arenas as we report on the newest stuff)
First—NASCAR wrapped up its regular season and then on Sunday started its 10 race playoffs. Here’s the regular-season wrap-up followed by the results of Sunday’s first playoff race.
NASCAR1)—Chase Briscoe wrote a bit of a Cinderella ending to the regular NASCAR season by winning the last race that could give him a place in the championship runoffs. But his win meant curtains for the hopes of a couple of other drivers who were scrambling to get in.
Only sixteen drivers are eligible for the first three playoff races, after which the field is cut to twelve. Drivers who win one of the first 26 races are guaranteed a spot among the sixteen regardless of how many points they accumulate.
Briscoe’s win left only two spots open for winless drivers to get in on points—Martin Truex Jr., and Ty Gibbs. Gibbs and Truex ranked 9-10 in the regular points standings. It also meant that a fight between Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace, and Ross Chastain for one of those spots became moot. Briscoe was 17th in the regular season points but his win put hm in the top sixteen. Buescher had the 11th best regular season points total but he’s out, as is Wallace, who was 12th in regular season points. Kyle Busch, whose mid-season poor finishes ruined his playoff chances, finished 16th in regular season points, but Briscoe leapfrogged him with the win.
Also in the playoffs is Harrison Burton, who finished 34th in the regular points standings. But he won a race, which guaranteed him a spot. One other winner was left out—Austin Dillon, 28th in overall points. But NASCAR ruled that his win would not count because he wrecked two competitors intentionally to finish first.
Tyler Reddick, who battled a severe stomach ailment throughout the race, finished tenth, confessing afterward that, “At one point, I was just waiting to puke all over myself. Thankfully they kept that from happening. A whole lot of other gross stuff.” He appreciated his crew that was “feeding me the right stuff in the car to help me manage it best as I could. Just smart people. Able to put the right stuff in my drink to help calm my stomach down.” His persistence earned for him the regular season championship by one point over Kyle Larson.
Briscoe’s win is only his second career Cup victory and it comes at a bittersweet moment. He drives for Stewart-Haas Racing, a team that will not exist next year because co-owner Tony Stewart is withdrawing from NASCAR. He’s moving to Joe Gibbs Racing next year and will replace Truex, who is retiring from fulltime Cup racing at the end of this year.
(NASCAR2)—Joey Logano had the lead when the last caution light came on in NASCAR’s first playoff race of the year and locked up a position in the next playoff round, when twelve drivers will remain in competition for this year’s title.
Logano will be going for his third Cup championship, tying Tony Stewart, Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, and David Pearson for fourth on the most championships list.
Two playoff drivers exited early when Kyle Larson lost control on the 56th lap and crashed into last week’s winner, Chase Briscoe, taking both cars out of the race. An earlier wreck knocked Martin Truex Jr., out of the lead playoff pack. He’s now 15th in the standings, 18 points under the cutoff point for the next round. He has two races to either win his way into the round of 12 or to rack up enough points to squeak in.
Larson’s early crash wiped out a big points advantage he had going into the race. He’s now tenth, just 15 points above cut line. Briscoe is last in the field of sixteen, twenty points below the line and likely needing to win again if he wants to make it to the second round.
Tyler Reddick, who won the 26-race regular season title, came in sixth despite problems on pit road.
(INDYCAR)—Will Power has won 65 poles and 42 races including the 2018 Indianapolis 500 but is still looking for his first IndyCar championship. He’s 43 now, and in his career twilight but still running strongly.
He had a chance to take the IndyCar championship points lead in the most recent race, at Milwaukee. But it slipped away and he goes to Nashville trailing leader Alex Palou by 33 points. IndyCar ran two races on the historic Milwaukee Mile—the oldest race track in continuous operation in the world—with Power finishing second to Pato O’Ward on Saturday, trimming eleven points off of Palou’s lead.
Then on Sunday, Palou’s entire season appeared in peril when his car would not start because of an electrical problem and he re-entered the race many laps down while Power was leading or running with the leaders and the Palou points lead was rapidly disappearing. But Palou soldiered on, gaining points as other drivers dropped out. Then things went sideways for Power who spun out while running in the top five. Power wound up the last car on the lead lap, in tenth place, while Palou, still 29 laps behind, had run enough laps to finish 19th.
(Powers’ teammate Scott McLaughlin won Sunday’s race, by the way)
IndyCar heads to Nashville next weekend for its last race of the season with Palou up by 33 points, and headed to his third IndyCar championship in four years.
(Photo credits: Screenshot of toe is from NBC Sports; Briscoe by Bob Priddy; Power by Rick Gevers; Logano and the playoff drivers, NASCAR)