Cade York should be thanking his lucky stars.
York was bailed out by Joe Burrow and his Cincinnati Bengals teammates from being a huge scapegoat on Saturday night. Cincinnati defeated the Denver Broncos 30-24 at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, to remain in the playoff race. Their playoff hopes were almost crushed on a doink by York.
The two teams had traded possessions in overtime without scoring, and the Bengals got the ball at their 46. They moved it to the Denver 15 with 2:49 left in overtime and had York attempt a 33-yard field goal to win it. York pulled his field goal attempt left and it hit off the upright for a miss.
That gave the ball back to the Broncos, who went 3-and-out for the second straight possession. The Bengals got the ball back, and this time, Burrow finished off the drive with a touchdown pass to Tee Higgins to win the game.
Burrow had a monster game and went 39/49 for 412 yards with 3 touchdowns. He also rushed for a score. All three of Burrow’s touchdown passes went to Tee Higgins, who finished with 11 catches for 131 yards.
York went 1/2 on field goals and 3/3 on extra point attempts. He has missed two field goals and an extra point in four games with Cincinnati this season. He’s very lucky that his team came back to win the game and keep themselves alive in the playoff race. Had they lost or tied Denver, their postseason hopes would have ended.
Los Angeles Rams cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon picked the perfect time to record his first interception of the 2024 season.
The Rams were holding on to a 13-9 lead over the Arizona Cardinals with 42 seconds left at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. The Cardinals had 1st-and-goal from the Rams’ 5-yard line.
With four cracks at gaining just five yards for a potential go-ahead touchdown, an Arizona game-winner appeared inevitable. But Witherspoon had other ideas.
Murray tried to hit tight end Trey McBride on a flat route just a yard shy of the end zone, but the ball ricocheted off McBride’s helmet and floated up in the air. Witherspoon somehow managed to switch gears with just enough time to make a diving interception to end the game.
Check out Witherspoon’s sick defensive play from another angle.
Witherspoon’s clutch pick all but wrapped up the NFC West division title for the Rams. The team improved to 10-6, which is one game ahead of the 9-7 Seattle Seahawks.
The Rams would automatically advance with a victory over the Seahawks in Week 18. But even if the Seahawks win, Seattle would need several results around the league to go their way to earn the strength of victory tiebreakerer over Los Angeles.
Oct 2, 2019; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Dodger pitcher Walker Buehler during a press conference before a team workout at Dodgers Stadium. Buehler is the National League Divisional game 1 starter against the Washington Nationals. Mandatory Credit: Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports
Walker Buehler on Friday revealed what jersey number he will be wearing with the Boston Red Sox.
Buehler signed a 1-year, $21.05 million deal with Boston last week. He signed for the exact amount that qualifying offers pay out in 2025.
This will be Buehler’s first season with a team other than the Los Angeles Dodgers, and he will celebrate the occasion by wearing a new number.
Buehler posted on X Friday to greet Red Sox fans. In the process, he referred to himself as “#0.”
So there you have it: Buehler will wear number zero with the Red Sox. That’s a change for the pitcher, who wore No. 64 during his rookie season with the Dodgers in 2017 and No. 21 thereafter.
The Red Sox are hoping to get the 2021 version of Buehler next season. The two-time All-Star went just 1-6 with a 5.38 ERA in 75.1 innings last season as he returned from Tommy John surgery. In 2021, Buehler was dominant with a 16-4 record and 2.47 ERA.
Sep 26, 2021; Paradise, Nevada, USA; A detailed view of the Las Vegas Raiders shield logo at midfield at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Several Las Vegas Raiders fans saw the silver lining in the team’s recent tarmac troubles.
The Raiders had a flight to Louisiana scheduled Saturday morning ahead of their Sunday game against the New Orleans Saints. However, mechanical issues kept the team grounded for most of the day.
The team reportedly had to find an entirely different plane before they could depart. The Raiders’ replacement aircraft finally took off just after 7 p.m. PST.
Some Raiders fans would have been completely fine had the team never left at all. Several of them joked on X that the team should have just forfeited their game against the Saints.
The Raiders’ fan base is clearly still upset about the team winning its Week 16 contest against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The victory gave Las Vegas three wins for the season, which put them behind the New York Giants and New England Patriots in the race to the bottom for the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft.
The Raiders’ 3-12 record has them in a four-way tie with the Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Tennessee Titans for the third-worst record in the NFL.
While Raiders fans hoping for a forfeit didn’t get their wish, the lengthy travel delay surely won’t help the team’s performance on the field against the Saints. The Raiders would be lucky to settle into their hotel rooms before midnight for a game kicking off less than 12 hours later.
An Arkansas lineman is taking heat after video emerged of him seemingly committing a dirty play during Friday’s bowl game.
Arkansas defeated Texas Tech in the Liberty Bowl by the final score of 39-26. A day after the game on Saturday though, Texas Tech cornerback CJ Baskerville called out Arkansas offensive lineman Fernando Carmona and accused Carmona of intentionally stepping on his ankle during the contest.
Baskerville provided video evidence as well, which indeed showed Carmona stepping on Baskerville’s ankle with force in the fourth quarter after a play that had already been blown dead. Additionally, Baskerville said that Carmona said something profane to him after stepping on him.
“There’s no denying that Arkansas played a great game last night, I am not taking that away from them,” Baskerville wrote in a post to X. “But #55 Fernando Carmona blatantly stepping on my ankle and pressing down on it on purpose is straight up dirty. Proceeds to say “got your b**** a***.” Do better @RazorbackFB.”
Here is a closer angle of the moment that Carmona stepped on Baskerville.
Carmona is a redshirt junior who in his first year with Arkansas (after transferring over from San Jose State). He made 10 starts for Arkansas this season and was twice named the SEC’s Offensive Lineman of the Week. But now Carmona’s season is ending on a very shameful note, despite his team’s bowl game triumph.
One of the officials in the Go Bowling Military Bowl between East Carolina and NC State at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Md., was left bloodied on Saturday during a scuffle between the teams.
An altercation between the in-state rivals broke out with East Carolina leading 26-21 with under a minute left. There were two different areas where players were fighting. At one point, an East Carolina came over to shove an NC State player. The Pirates player didn’t realize there was an official in front of the NC State player. The official, umpire Rod Tucker, ended up getting knocked in the face by a helmet.
Eight players were ejected from the game with 38 seconds left for their roles in the fight. The Pirates got the win over the Wolfpack to improve to 8-5, while NC State finished the season 6-7.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander may have given an opponent the cold shoulder after Saturday’s game.
Gilgeous-Alexander led the way for the Oklahoma City Thunder with a game-high 22 points in a 106-94 win over the Charlotte Hornets. After the final buzzer, the television broadcast caught Hornets forward Miles Bridges seemingly asking Gilgeous-Alexander to do a jersey swap with him, a customary postgame practice for NBA players.
Bridges started to take off his jersey, but Gilgeous-Alexander pointed in the other direction and explained something to Bridges, who then nodded his head and walked away. You can see the video of the moment here.
The explanation could have been as simple as Gilgeous-Alexander having already promised to give his jersey to a fan before the game. But the moment drew extra scrutiny because Bridges is a very unpopular figure these days.
The former lottery pick Bridges, who was drafted one pick after Gilgeous-Alexander in 2018, has a troubling history of legal issues. That includes a 2022 arrest on felony domestic violence charges as well as a separate 2023 arrest for violating a protective order stemming from his original case.
Bridges avoided prison time by pleading no contest in the 2022 case (later serving a 30-game suspension from the NBA too) and eventually had all of the charges dropped in his 2023 case. But those legal troubles are still what most fans associate him with these days (though it is obviously unclear if that played any role here in Gilgeous-Alexander’s jersey swap snub).
H/T NBA Reddit
Jan 2, 2022; Cincinnati, OH, USA; Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor paces the sideline in the first quarter during a Week 17 NFL game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Jan. 2, 2022, at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati. Mandatory Credit: Kareem Elgazzar-USA TODAY Sports
The Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday kept their playoff hopes alive with a win over the Denver Broncos. But that did not spare Bengals head coach Zac Taylor from being criticized over his poor clock management.
The Bengals scored a touchdown to go ahead 24-17 over the Denver Broncos with 1:29 left at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio. Quarterback Joe Burrow scored his second rushing touchdown of the season on a QB sneak with the Bengals facing 2nd-and-goal at the 1.
While Burrow went viral for his fun touchdown celebration, several Bengals fans on X wished he had never scored at all. Some felt that Taylor should have opted for Burrow to take a knee twice to milk the clock. Then Cincinnati could have kicked a field goal with minimal time left for Denver to come back and score.
Luckily for Taylor, Burrow erased his mistake by coming up big in the overtime period. The Bengals QB found Tee Higgins for a game-ending 3-yard TD to keep Cincinnati’s playoff hopes alive.
Taylor gave all the credit to Burrow after the game.
“I don’t know that anybody can stand on the field and watch Joe Burrow and say he’s not the best player in the world,” Taylor told reporters during his postgame press conference.
It’s hard to disagree with Taylor given Burrow’s performance on Saturday.
Burrow went 39/49 for 412 yards with 3 touchdowns. It’s his eighth straight game with at least 250 passing yards and 3 passing touchdowns.
Joe Burrow on Saturday celebrated his second rushing touchdown of the season in style.
The Cincinnati Bengals and Denver Broncos were tied at 17 with just over a minute left at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio. Facing 2nd-and-goal at the 1, the Bengals ran a successful QB sneak play that allowed Burrow to score.
Burrow is one of the most prolific passers in the game. But he does not get to be the one to cross the end zone very often.
The Bengals star savored his TD moment with a perfectly executed Griddy dance.
Burrow’s celebration ended up being short-lived. In what has been an ongoing theme for Cincinnati this season, the Bengals gave up a game-tying touchdown on the other end to send the game to overtime.
The extra period gave Burrow one more moment to shine. With 1:07 left in OT, Burrow iced the game with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Tee Higgins.
Cincinnati’s signal-caller put up another monstrous stat line in the win. Burrow went 39/49 for 412 yards with 3 touchdowns. It’s his eighth straight game with at least 250 passing yards and 3 passing touchdowns.
More importantly for the Bengals, the win kept their postseason hopes alive; Cincinnati improved to 8-8 with the win.
Despite the win, the Bengals still have a pretty arduous road to the playoffs. They’ll need to win their season finale against the Pittsburgh Steelers, while the Broncos need to lose theirs against the Kansas City Chiefs’ B-squad. Both the Indianapolis Colts and Miami Dolphins also need to lose one of their two remaining games.
But if all those things happen, Burrow could very well be dancing the Griddy in the AFC Wild Card round.
Jan 17, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) dribbles before their game against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports
Victor Wembanyama switched sports on Saturday after the San Antonio Spurs played back-to-back road games in New York.
It all started on Friday when the Spurs star asked his fans on X about the best chess spots in New York City. The next morning, Wemby shared his location and challenged his fans to a game of chess.
“Who wants to meet me at the SW corner of Washington Square Park to play chess? Im [sic] there,” wrote Wembanyama.
True to his word, the Frenchman showed up ready to play. Several fans braved the rain and icy winds to either play Wemby or watch him take on all comers.
“I don’t know. I was just feeling like it. That’s enough of a reason. It was a lot of fun. I learned a lot,” Wembanyama said of his decision to play.
Wembanyama added that he lost games against two professional chess players. But he did beat his little brother Oscar Wembanyama, who has become a viral sensation in his own right.
Wembanyama has the height and length that makes him perfect for the game of basketball. But that has hardly stopped him from trying out different things where his size does not matter as much. The Spurs superstar is clearly a man of many talents.
