Plus the men’s and women’s college basketball seasons tip off

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Nov 3, 2025 at 8:50 am ET • 8 min read

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Happy Monday, everyone! It’s Zach Pereles, and let me tell you, this is one heck of a weekend for my return! One of the greatest World Series games ever. Craziness in football, both professional and collegiate. College basketball getting underway tonight. If you’re a sports fan – and something tells me you are – this weekend was awesome, and having that leftover Halloween candy by your side makes things even sweeter.

Let’s get right to it.

👀 Five things to know Monday

1. Was Game 7 of the World Series the greatest baseball game ever? I am not one for exaggeration, so I hope you know I mean this: The Dodgers’ 11-inning, 5-4 win over the Blue Jays in Game 7 of the World Series is one of the greatest games in baseball history. Maybe the greatest. Here’s a list of heroes: Miguel Rojas, Andy Pages, Will Smith and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The Dodgers are the first team to repeat since the Yankees won three straight titles from 1998-2000, and it truly took everyone. More on this in a bit.
2. **Mahomes-Allen X was another classic. **The 10th showdown between Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen did not disappoint, and just as most of their regular-season meetings ended, Allen was the winner. The Bills superstar quarterback threw for 273 yards and a score and also ran for two touchdowns in a 28-21 win. Mahomes, meanwhile, made some incredible plays to keep Kansas City close but struggled overall, completing just 15 of 34 passes for 250 yards and an interception. It’s the first time he completed fewer than 50% of his passes.
3. Bears! And Bengals! And Bears! Oh my! The craziest (NFL) finish of the weekend, if not ever – again, not exaggerating – belonged to the Bears and the Bengals. Chicago led 41-27 when Tremaine Edmunds appeared to have a pick six to seal the game. Replay showed he was touched down, though, Cincinnati forced a three and out, and Joe Flacco found Noah Fant for a touchdown. The Bengals then recovered the onside kick, and Flacco threw a touchdown to Andrei Iosivas. In less than two minutes, the Bengals went from down 41-27 to leading 42-41. Then Caleb Williams threw a 58-yard touchdown to Colston Loveland to win the game, 47-41, thanks in part to some truly inexcusable defense from Cincinnati. Just how bad is it? Doug Clawson broke down the historic futility.
4. Commanders dealt yet another harsh blow. Quarterback Jayden Daniels suffered a gruesome elbow injury late in Washington’s 38-14 loss to the Seahawks. I was at the game and wrote about what a nightmare this season has been for Washington.
5. College basketball gets underway. Isaac Trotter ranked the men’s title contenders by tier, and Matt Norlander’s annual United States of College Basketball is a must-read. Remember, we also ranked the Top 100 And 1 teams and the Top 100 and 1 players. On the women’s side, UConn tops Isabel Gonzalez’s Power Rankings. South Carolina, Texas, UCLA and LSU round out the top five.

🏆 Do not miss this: Dodgers win classic Fall Classic to repeat as World Series champions

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An all-time World Series, fittingly, finished with an all-time Game 7. It was so crazy that Matt Snyder’s top seven craziest moments also included five crazy moments that didn’t even make the cut! Let’s look at some other craziness:

• In the top of the ninth, trailing 4-3, Miguel Rojas, the No. 9 hitter, swatted a home run off Toronto closer** Jeff Hoffman**. Rojas had one home run off a righty all year, and it was a position pitcher!
• In the bottom of the ninth, the Blue Jays loaded the bases with one out. In came Yamamoto, one day after pitching six innings in Game 6. Daulton Varsho hit a grounder, and Rojas made a nifty play to nail Isiah Kiner-Falefa at home.
• With two outs and the bases still loaded, Pages ran down a deep Ernie Clement drive, collided with **Kiké Hernández **and held on to the ball. To extras we went ...
• Smith crushed Shane Bieber’s hanging breaking ball in the top of the 11th inning for a solo home run.
• Yoshinobu Yamamoto finished out the game. He earned World Series MVP for one of the most remarkable pitching performances we’ve ever seen.

For an objective viewer, what more could you want? And while we’re at it naming Dodgers heroes, how about some credit to** Dave Roberts**, the manager who was once known best for his postseason failures. He’s now one of just 11 managers ever to win three World Series. Pages was a defensive replacement. Rojas proved to be a hero with his bat and his glove. Roberts squeezed just enough out of a maligned bullpen.

He has helped build a dynasty. Yes, the Dodgers are officially a dynasty, Julian McWilliams writes.

• McWilliams:* “Dynasties don’t come in shiny suits. Oftentimes, they appear in battered form, pushed to the limit. Worn. Bloodied. The Dodgers wore that crown. Proudly. ... Then in the ninth inning, the tides turned. For all the money spent on the big names, like Shohei Ohtani and Blake Snell, just as important to a dynasty are players like Miguel Rojas, a veteran glue who helps keep his team grounded. That’s the genius of the Dodgers empire. Yeah, they have deep pockets. And they use them to acquire everything necessary to win. The superstars and the superglues.”*

Here’s what’s next for the Dodgers and for the Blue Jays, who came so painfully close. Plus ...

• 2026 World Series odds
• What hat will Freddie Freeman eventually wear in Coopertown?
• Speaking of future Hall of Famers,** Clayton Kershaw** goes out on top.
• Dodgers parade details

🏈 Bills beat Chiefs, several upsets highlight NFL’s Week 9 slate

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There is not any doubting of the impressiveness of the Bills’ win over the Chiefs, but we’ve seen this movie before. Allen is now 5-1 against Mahomes in the regular season (no other quarterback has beaten him more than twice) but 0-4 against him in the playoffs. So for now, we’re impressed with Buffalo, but both of these teams will ultimately be judged by what happens in January.

As for a team just trying to get to playoffs, the Steelers halted a two-game skid with a huge 27-20 win over the Colts thanks to six turnovers. Yes, that’s six turnovers, the most Pittsburgh forced in a game since 2010. Daniel Jones threw three interceptions and lost two fumbles. Pittsburgh edge rushers T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith took over the game, combining for three sacks and two forced fumbles. But perhaps most importantly, a defense that’s been gashed recently limited Jonathan Taylor to just 45 yards on 14 carries. Pittsburgh earned an “A” in John Breech’s Week 9 grades.

But that wasn’t the most stunning upset. Not even close. The Panthers shocked the Packers, 16-13, with the defense forcing a pair of turnovers and** Ryan Fitzgerald** knocking through a 49-yard field goal as time expired. What a huge win for Carolina, which is now 5-4, but what on Earth happened, Green Bay? The Packers lost to the** Browns** earlier this year, too. Are they frauds? Tyler Sullivan says no, but this is a bad loss, and Tucker Kraft’s likely ACL tear makes it even worse.

And completing the trifecta of NFC North madness – remember the Bears were in a wild one, too –** J.J. McCarthy** returned from an ankle injury and led the** Vikings** to a 27-24 win over the** Lions**. McCarthy was among Cody Benjamin’s Week 9 winners, and Tyler Sullivan has high praise in Cover 32.

• Sullivan: “His stat line wasn’t eye-popping as he completed 14 of his 25 passes for 143 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception. He also rushed for 12 yards and a touchdown, while being sacked five times (nine total quarterback hits). And that’s sort of what makes Minnesota’s potential so fascinating. ... With a healthy McCarthy reinstalled, the offensive ceiling has risen, which creates a path for Minnesota in the NFC North race.”

🏈 More madness among top-10 in college football

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The topsy-turvy nature of the weekend’s results were not limited to the NFL. Three top-10 college football teams fell this weekend:

• NC State beat** No. 8 Georgia Tech**, 48-36.
• No. 20 Texas beat** No. 9 Vanderbilt**, 34-31.
• SMU beat** No. 10 Miami**, 26-20.

Let’s focus on that middle result. The final score was much, much closer than the game was, as Arch Manning threw for 328 yards and three touchdowns. The Longhorns team that was voted No. 1 in the preseason polls is finally showing up, Chris Hummer writes.

• Hummer: “QB1 will draw the national headlines ... and Sarkisian said Manning’s growth this season is obvious. ... Texas moved senior center Cole Hutson to left guard, replacing struggling freshman Nick Brooks, and inserted junior Connor Robertson at center. The results were instantaneous: Zero sacks and just one tackle for loss for a Vanderbilt defense that entered the week 26th in pressure rate.”

The other results are a disaster for the ACC.** Mario Cristobal** is bungling yet another talented roster, Shehan Jeyarajah writes, and the conference’s hopes for multiple playoff teams are all but gone.

And then there’s Clemson. Forget the playoff; the Tigers are in danger of missing a bowl game altogether, something that hasn’t happened since 2004.** Dabo Swinney** was going off on officials and his own team. Then he made a joke about getting fired in front of his own athletic director. Yikes.

Here’s more:

• AP Top 25 and Coaches Poll
• Week 10 grades
• Winners/losers
• Bowl projections

👍👎 The best (and not-so-best) of the rest

Getty Images- Cam Little made an NFL-record 68-yard field goal. The Jaguars also stopped an overtime two-point conversion attempt to defeat the Raiders, 30-29.

• Auburn fired** Hugh Freeze** after a brutal 10-3 loss to** Kentucky**. The Tigers are 4-5 overall and 1-5 in the SEC. They have some big-name candidates to look at during their coaching search. Freeze’s future is ... not great.
• Dylan Raiola (fibula) is out for the season.
• Colorado got rolled by** Arizona**, 53-7. Here’s what Deion Sanders said.
• These are the MLB Gold Glove winners.
• Trae Young (sprained MCL) is out four weeks.
• The** Grizzlies** suspended** Ja Morant** one game.

📺 What we’re watching Monday

🏀** No. 7 Duke vs. No. 16 Baylor (W), noon on ESPN 🏀 No. 3 Florida vs. No. 13 Arizona (M), 7 p.m. on TNT/truTV 🏈 Cardinals at Cowboys, 8:15 p.m. on ABC/ESPN 🏀 Villanova vs. No. 8 BYU (M), 9:30 p.m. on TNT/truTV 🏀 Lakers at Trail Blazers**, 10 p.m. on NBA TV