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Good morning! Be like Ashton Jeanty today.
While You Were Sleeping: Yankees smash, again
The story from last nightâs Yankees 6-3 win couldâve been the errors on the basepaths. Twice, New York runners â Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Anthony Rizzo â snuffed out possible runs in the dumbest fashion. In most playoff series, these would be maddening, losing mistakes.Â
Last night? They didnât matter. The Yankeesâ bats were too good. The pitching worked well enough. And New York is one game closer to the World Series, up 2-0 as this matchup heads to Cleveland.Â
There was more drama in New York yesterday, too:
Reunions: Are the Jets too late?
I keep coming back to one word about the Jetsâ last two weeks: fraught. Everything feels desperate and tenuous. The roads are failing, the wires are shorting out and thereâs no time to fix any of it.Â
To recap: The Jets have fired their head coach, replaced the play caller and now traded for one of the best wide receivers in football, Davante Adams, to reunite with his old Green Bay quarterback, Aaron Rodgers. It is only Week 7.Â
Two aspects here:Â
- Ownership clearly wants to salvage this season as soon as possible, and the numbers suggest the Jets are actually a good team despite a 2-4 record. Three of those losses, including Mondayâs against Buffalo, came by one possession. The defense is elite. The offense needs a fix, and thereâs still room to reverse course and make the playoffs. Theoretically. Vegas still has them as a slight underdog to make it, but the trade did not change the odds much.
- And yet this deal almost feels excessive. Rodgers is 40 and has already been hobbled this year. The rest of the Jetsâ schedule features winnable games, yes, but the Jets have been very bad at those over the last two seasons. A bad two weeks would put them out of the playoff picture.Â
Stress. Oh, and the Pro Bowl defensive end they traded for? Haason Reddick now has clearance to seek a new trade without ever playing a down for New York. Also, Bill Belichick, maybe the all-time biggest Jets antagonist? He thinks firing Robert Saleh was a mistake.Â
What will the Jets do today? Canât wait to find out.Â
- Playing copycat yesterday: The Buffalo Bills, in a much better spot than the Jets, traded for Browns wideout Amari Cooper, a seismic move for teams heading in opposite directions. The 4-2 Bills get a legit No. 1 option, while the Browns start a possible firesale in a disastrous year. Cooper must be thrilled.
News to Know
Stewartâs wife receives homophobic comments
Marta Xargay Casademont, wife of New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart, reported a threatening email to police that contained homophobic language, Stewart said yesterday. The hateful comments come at a time of increased interest and scrutiny around the WNBA. See our full report here.
Jerry Jones hisses at radio hosts
In a radio interview yesterday, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones snapped at the showâs hosts after a critical line of questioning, saying: âIâll get somebody else to ask these questions. Iâm not kidding.â Spicy. Sassy, even? Jones is clearly tired of chatter about his offseason activity, or lack thereof, as the Cowboys navigate a 3-3 season thatâs featured two embarrassing blowouts at home. Vibe check = failed. Jones later explained his comments in an exclusive interview with The Athletic.
More news
- Officials might close the loophole Oregon coach Dan Lanning used in the Ducksâ big win over Ohio State on Saturday.
- Despite an early postseason exit, the Phillies extended manager Rob Thomson through 2026.Â
- The new Boston NWSL team will be known as BOS Nation FC (pronounced âboss nationâ), the club revealed yesterday. Hm.
- Hawaii is joining the Mountain West in all sports in 2026, giving it the necessary members to remain in FBS.
- Atlanta will host the Super Bowl in 2028.
Stats to Melt Your Brain: The absurd specter of Ashton Jeanty
By this point, Boise State is far from the plucky mid-major it was in the early 2000s, when it was just known as the team that had blue turf. The Broncos are a legitimate Group of 5 powerhouse, one of the more stable college football programs of this century.Â
Yet the numbers that star running back Ashton Jeanty is producing are still hard to believe. Letâs start with the basic excellence:Â
- Jeanty leads all FBS rushers with 1,248 yards this season through six games, a staggering 311 yards beyond his nearest FBS competition (Iowaâs Kaleb Johnson). Jeanty is just 99 yards shy of matching his season total from last year in half the time.
- This all comes as he has left at halftime in two of those six games, and heâs averaging a staggering 9.9 yards per rush. That would beat the record by an entire 1.7 yards.
- Itâs not like Boise is playing scrubs. Their only loss came against Oregon, whom Chris Vannini put No. 1 this week in his ranking of all 134 FBS teams. Jeanty had 192 yards against those Ducks. This is all very real.Â
I asked Chris if heâs ever seen a season like Jeantyâs:Â
âThe only comp for Jeanty right now is Barry Sanders. Midway through the season, Jeanty is on pace to technically break Sandersâ single-season FBS rushing record of 2,628 yards at Oklahoma State in 1988, though Sandersâ number is actually 2,850 yards when you include his bowl performance. So Jeanty would also need a College Football Playoff game or bowl game to pass the mark. Sanders also did that in 12 games, while Jeantyâs pace needs 14 games, but Jeanty could also out-pace his first half â heâs only played five full games this year, sitting out two second halves. Regardless of the specifics, this is an unreal run Jeanty is on right now. He is must-see TV.â
Jeanty is No. 1 in our Heisman straw poll this week, and I can only assume heâll win if he keeps this pace. Sorry to Travis Hunter. Also, in Fridayâs Scoop City, draft guru Dane Brugler slotted Jeanty as a top-20 pick in next yearâs draft.
(Top photo: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
