By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor
(GENERALLY)—A team that tried to give away a game wins. A team about to give away a game keeps it. And a guy who once was on the outside is at the top of the heat. It was a weekend of virtual sports whiplash.
(FOOTBALL)–The gods of football giveth. And the gods of football taketh away.
(MIZ)—It’s interesting to see what two weeks of taking all of the snaps with the number one unit does for a backup quarterback whose credentials are better than many Missouri Tiger fans know.
Drew Pyne had been less than impressive in his two previous appearances this year. But this is a guy who stepped in after a bad start at Notre Dame and led the Irish to an 8-2 record during a 9-4 season that saw them win a Gator Bowl championship.
Missouri beat Oklahoma 30-23 in a game that focused almost all of the excitement in the closing minutes of the last quarter.
Scores had been hard to come by and the Tigers trailed 9-3 at the half, their only score coming from Missouri’s longest drive of the half—24 yards. But Missouri took a 10-9 lead in the third quarter. Nobody was expecting a fourth quarter that featured four touchdowns and three field goals.
Missouri got the action started on a 5-yard TD pass from Pyne to Brett Norfleet but the extra point was missed, giving Missouri a 16-9 lead.
But Oklahoma answered with 3:48 to play on a trick play that saw quarterback Jackson Arnold become a receiver on an 18-yard play that put Oklahoma up 17-16. And then the roof seemed to fall in when running back Jamal Roberts fumbled with 2:06 left and the ball was scooped up by OU Safety Billy Bowman Jr, who took it to the end zone, giving the sooners a 23-16 lead.
But Oklahoma couldn’t stop Missouri and with 1:03 left in the game, Pyne with time and downs running out, Pyne, on a third and 16, found Luther Burden III for a catch and run that went 33 yards. He then hit former Oklahoma receiver Theo Weese who kept the tip of his toe in bounds and, with the extra point, tied the game at 23.
Oklahoma still had some time to get back to field goal range But with three seconds left, But linebacker Triston Newson forced an Oklahoma quarterback fumble that as scooped up by defensive end Zion Young, who ran the ball into the end zone. The extra point made it 30-23.
Oklahoma still had about 30 seconds to answer but the Sooners ran out of space on the field and on the clock and Missouri moved to 7-2, winning a game that was all but lost. All but.
The wind, exciting as it was, barely moved the needle in the rankings for the week. Oklahoma is not the usual Sooners. They’re now just 1-5 in their first SEC year, 5-5 overall. The rankings announced yesterday returns Missouri to the AP poll at 24. The coaches poll puts them 21st.
Missouri goes to South Carolina for a late Saturday afternoon game next weekend. South Carolina is 6-3 but only 4-3 in the SEC. (ZOU)
(CHIEFS)—How many more times will the Kansas City Chiefs keep pulling rabbits out of hats this year?
They beat Denver Sunday in a game they had all but lost. Denver was ready to kick a 35-yard field goal as time ran out but the Chies again made the play they had to have when Leo Chenal broke through and the kicked ball hit him just below the palm of his hand and rolled away.
Chiefs are now 9-0 and the record has NFL statisticians shaking their heads. Here are some key “shake your head” stats;
No team in NFL history has started the year 9-0 with a points differential lower than the Chiefs plus-58, an average winning margin of 6.4 points. They have won 15 games in a row, the most since the Packers ran off 19 in 2010-11 and the most in franchise history. Twelve of those fifteen games have been won by one score. They are 9-0 in games in which they have trailed by seven or more points in the third quarter, the longest streak in NFL history. They have spent more time trailing than being ahead in five of their games.
Patrick Mahomes’ Chiefs are 19-14 in games where they have been down by ten or more points. They are 39-19 during his career when they have trailed by seven or more points. They have eight comeback wins this year, tying the NFL record.
The Chiefs’ 24.3 ppg ranks 11th this year. They are giving up 17.9 ppg, fifth in the league. They are 21st in rushing with 115.1 yards per game. They’re tenth in passing with 245.3 yards per game.
Individually, Travis Kelce has tied Tony Gonzalez for the most touchdown passes in franchise history, 76.
All they do is win, it seems.
But next weekend will be a huge challenge. They’ll be in Buffalo to play the 8-2 Bills.
—Our third improbable story takes place on a racetrack.
(NASCAR)—NASCAR’s champion for 2024 started the playoffs as a man who wasn’t there. Now he’s the king of the series for the third time, only the tenth driver in all of NASCAR history to have three or more championships.
A month ago, Joey Logano thought he was out of the competition for his third national championship. Alex Bowman had finished ahead of him in the NASCAR race at Charlotte, becoming the eighth and final driver in the semi-final round of runoff races.
Hours after the race, however, NASCAR ruled Bowman’s car because it was underweight, putting Logano back in the hunt.
He immediately won his second race of the year to put himself into the final four and at Phoenix he held off teammate, and defending champion, Ryan Blaney to nail down his third championship.
His win, however, has triggered renewed criticism of NASCAR’s playoff format that automatically places anyone who wins a race in the 16-driver first round.
Logano would have been 15th in the regular season points chase if NASCAR used the format it had used for most of its history, crowing a champion based entirely on points. The playoff format, however, has allowed drivers who did not lead the series in points to take home the NASCAR Cup.
Logano brushed aside criticism that the NASCAR playoffs were unfair to the drivers who have consistently better seasons than he did, telling reporters after the race, “The playoff system in other sports is not much different than what this is. You can have a great regular season. It seeds you better for the playoffs. That doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to go all the way to the Super Bowl or the Stanley Cup Finals or the NBA Finals. It doesn’t matter. It might help you.”
But sports with long seasons—and NASCAR’s season goes for nine months—often pay off for the team that gets hottest at the end, as Logano’s team did.
The list of drivers with three or more championships now adds Joey Logano to Seven-time champions Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt Sr., and Jimmy Johnson; four time winner Jeff Gordon; three time winners Tony Stewart, Darrel Waltrip, David Pearson, Lee Petty, and Cale Yarborough.
Logano has been racing for the NASCAR Cup for 17 years but he still has many more to go it he wants to continue. He’s only 34; he drove his first Cup races when he was 17. The only drivers in his first race who are still running fulltime in the Cup Series are Martin Truex Jr., who ended his career with the race at Phoenix, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, and Michael McDowell.
The Phoenix race ended a record winning streak for Kyle Busch. He had gone nineteen years in a row with at least one victory.
NASCAR is done until February when the gang goes to Daytona.
(INDYCAR)—INDYCAR won’t be running hot and fast again until March 2 at St. Petersburg. The series is expecting 27 teams to be involved, pretty much the maximum, says series president Jay Frye (the Indianapolis 500 has 33 starters). The top twelve drivers in this year’s standings will be back. Ten other drivers have seats and teams with open cockpits have plenty of veterans and newcomers to choose from.
The 500 is expected to draw Helio Castroneves in a one-off deal for 2025 along with NASCAR’s Kyle Larson making his second attempt to run 1100 miles in one day with the 500 in the afternoon and the 600-mile race that night in Charlotte, and former 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay.
(Photo credit: Logano at Brickyard 400: Rick Gevers)