By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor
(CHIEFS)—The Chiefs are 8-0 for the first time since 2013 but they had to go into overtime to nail down the win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last night 30-24. The Chiefs have won their first eight games only three times in their long history. The other time was 2003.
They hope to avoid the collapse at the end of both seasons this time. In 2003, they went 5-3 the rest of the way and in 2013, they limped to the finish going 3-5.
The Chiefs now have won 14 games in a row and hit the 30-point mark for the first time since last November 26, twenty-two games ago.
Acquisitions Kareem Hunt and Deandre Hopkins were keys, Hunt grinding out 74 yards on the ground and Hopkins getting eight catches for 86 yards and two touchdowns. Hunt rushed for 74 yards.
The Chiefs again failed to score in the third quarter, allowing the Buccaneers to take a 24-17 lead before the comeback that tied the game late and forced it into overtime. Patrick Mahomes led them on a 78-yard 15-play drive at the start of overtime with a 15-play, 78-yard drive that ended with a five yard pass to Hopkins.
Mahomes finished 34-44 for 291 yards and three touchdowns, no interceptions. Travis Kelce had his biggest game of the year with 14 catches for 100 yards.
(MIZROUNDBALL)—21 in a row in a familiar way for the Tiger men’s team; a big disappointment in Vermont for the women.
Missouri played a good first half against Memphis State last night and then couldn’t stop the home team in the second half.
Missouri was up by ten at the half but had no answer for Memphis’s P. J. Haggerty who picked up 22 of his 25 points in the second half and Missouri forgot how to hit free throws. Missouri finished 15 of 23 in free throws while Memphis shot 58% in the last twenty minutes. Haggerty started the second half with five points as Memphis went on a 16-2 run to rally from eleven down to go ahead 58-55 and an 83-75.
The Tiger men have a half-dozen softer opponents next as they try to get things sorted out.
The Tigers women’s team handed Vermont its first win ever over a Southeastern Conference team last night, scoring only 26 points in the last three quarters and falling 62-46, thanks to 26 turnovers that helped Vermont outscore Missouri 30-15 on TOs. Coach Robin Pingeton said afterwards that her players failed to play team basketball. (zou)
(BASEBALL)—Some folks live with the philosophy that if they can’t root for their home team in the World Series, they’ll root for the team that beat the home team in the playoffs. As hard as it might have been, some Royals fans found themselves rooting for the Yankees against the Dodgers and found themselves disappointed again when the Dodgers took the New Yorkers in five games. But the Royals had a satisfying year and fans in KC are looking for the good times to continue.
The Cardinals? Who knows how their offseason is going to shape up, given comments from the money folks in the front office.
(ROYALS)—The Royals have started the offseason by retaining part of the pitching staff that put them into the playoffs for the first time since 2015 while the Cardinals began the process of jettisoning some of the players who gave them a winning season in a rather torturous year.
Sunday, the Royals announced they have signed Michael Wacha to a three year deal that guarantees him $51 million with a potential of $72 million if a team option is exercised. Wacha had been considered a mid-rotation arm in the post-season bidding.
Wacha is 33, a seven-season starter for the Cardinals who never reached the expectations of some that he would be the next-in-line dominant starter in the Carpenter-tradition. He has bounced around with the Rays, Mets, and Red Sox in recent seasons. But he says his family “fell in love with the city, fell in love with the team, the staff here, everyone involved in the stadium, and it was something where we didn’t want to go somewhere else…It was honestly a no-brainer.”
Wacha was a solid 13-8 for the Royals this year with a 3.35 ERA in 29 starts. His signing retains the front-line starting rotation of Seth Lugo and Cole Ragans. The two remaining slots are expected to be a competition between Kyle Wright, Alec Marsh and Brady Singer. Some forecasters say the signing of Wacha frees the team to sign someone who can add muscle to the offense. Perhaps with the addition of some power in the outfield.
(CARDINALS)—For some Cardinals fans, Wacha’s re-signing in Kansas City ruined their hopes that he might come back to St. Louis. But the front office has not been talking about big-contract off-seasons acquisitions and at the first move that has been made is to sign a hardly-all-star arm.
The Cardinals started the off-season by letting six guys enter free agency right off the bat, so to speak: Paul Goldschmidt, the NL MVP just a year ago although the team has said it might retain him “under the right circumstances.”; Lance Lynn, gone again despite continuing to be a solid inning-eating pitcher the ‘birds needed; and right-handed pitchers Kyle Gibson, Keyann Middleton—who didn’t play all year because of injury—and Andrew Kitteridge; and Matt Carpenter, who played sparingly and hit .234 in only 137 at-bats. Carpenter has shown interest in coming back next season. He will be 39 and has hit above .200 in just two of the last five seasons. He’s young yet and is considered to have potential.
(MIZFB)—The Tiger football team is in the second week of recovery from the beat-down at Alabama that left Quarterback Brady Cook even more battered, a hand injury adding to his high-ankle sprain. Missouri heads into next weekend’s game against Oklahoma ranked 22nd in the AP poll. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:45 at Faurot Field. Oklahoma is unranked, 5-4 after whipping the Maine Black Bears 59-14 in Norman on Saturday. The Sooners are only 1-4 in the SEC. Missouri is 2-2.
The game is the first between these two former Big 12 rivals since 2011 and the first one in Columbia since 2011, a year before Missouri joined the SEC. Oklahoma has not won a game in Columbia since 2006. They’ve lost in Columbia only twice in the last 44 seasons (1983 and 1998).
The Sooners are 67-24-5 all-time against Missouri. Oklahoma gave Missouri its worst loss ever, 77-0 in 1986. Missouri’s biggest win against Oklahoma was 44-10 in 1969. Missouri last beat Oklahoma in 2010 when Gary Pinkel’s Tigers won 36-27. Before that, it was Larry Smith’s Tigers that beat the Sooners 20-6 in 1998. The last time Missouri beat Oklahoma in consecutive seasons was under Dan Devine in 1965 and ’66.
The last word from Coach Drinkwitz on the status of Cook? He expects him back at some point.
The Tigers are bowl-eligible with their six wins. Various forecasters are forecasting several bowl possibilities but nobody thinks they’ll meet the pre-season hype about making the playoffs.
(MIZBB)—Dennis Gates’ third edition of Tiger basketball officially opened last night—and against a significant opponent, unlike the football team and some other major basketball teams start the season against some small college marshmallows. Missouri is waiting until the opener to play the s’mores schools—Howard, Eastern Washington State, Mississippi Valley State, and Pacific, Arkansas State, and Lindenwood before facing Cal and then number one Kansas. -0-
Moving along to moving along—
(NASCAR)—NASCAR’s chaotic season seems to grow more chaotic by the week. As the season has wound down, some teams have sued the series on what amounts to antitrust issues. On the track, allegations of race-fixing have ratcheted up as the playoffs have narrowed to four contenders for next weekend’s championship finale. Whoever finishes highest will be the champion even if they don’t win.
Defending champion Ryan Blaney had to win at Martinsville last weekend and he did, joining Tyler Reddick, Joey Logano, and William Byron.
After the race, charges and counter-charges came thick and fast, starting with allegations that Bubba Wallace slowed on the final lap and allowed fellow Toyota driver Christopher Bell to pass him and gain enough points to tie Byron for the final playoff spot. Bell had the tie breaker because of a higher finish in an earlier race. But after Bell passed Wallace, his car slid up the track in the third turn and banged against the wall through the fourth turn, a situation that was later deemed a violation of NASCAR rules against riding the wall to improve a position. That put Byron into the finals and led some competitors to suggest Wallace’s slowing was intentional. He denied it and said something happened with his car and he was trying to avoid causing a last-lap crash.
Bell, on the other hand, suggested Chevrolet drivers Ross Chastain and Austin Dillon blocked other drivers from passing Byron, also in a Chevrolet, from being passed by other competitors, and dropping back in the points.
The race next weekend in Phoenix matches Byron and Reddick against two former champions in Joey Logano and Blaney.
(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen’s 10-race winless streak has come to a spectacular end in San Paulo, Brazil to put himself on the verge of wining his fourth straight championship. Verstappen, relegated to 17th starting position gained six cars on the first lap and ten more on the second and finished more than 19 seconds ahead of the next competitor—and it was done during an intensifying rainstorm. He has extended his points lead to sixty over Lando Norris with only three races left.
(picture credits: Kansas City Royals, NASCAR/Fox Sports)