Chaotic Labor Day Weekend: 🏈 College Football, ⚽️ EPL, 🎾 Tennis, ⚾️ MLB, and More!

Good Morning, Blitzers!

Hope your Labor Day was filled with plenty of sports, fun, and relaxation. We only have a four-day week ahead and a lot of sports to cover, so let’s jump right into things!

WTF Stat: Big win for USC on Sunday, knocking off #13 ranked LSU. It’s always tough to take down a top-25 opponent, but from 2002 to 2006, USC won 16 straight games against opponents ranked in the AP Top 25. The streak began on Oct. 19, 2002, when the No. 19 Trojans beat No. 22 Washington Huskies 41-21 and didn’t end until Jan. 4, 2006, when they lost 41-38 to No. 2 Texas in the BCS National Championship Game.

🏌️‍♂️ Scottie Scheffler capped off an extraordinary season by winning the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup and earning a $25 million prize. His victory in the Tour Championship, secured with a four-shot lead, marked his eighth win of the year, including the Masters and an Olympic gold medal. Scheffler's season earnings totaled nearly $62.3 million, making it the best golf season since Tiger Woods' dominance in 2006.

• 🔥 Take: At only 28 years old, this should only be the beginning. He’s held the #1 ranking for 103 weeks now, he’s the favorite for every tournament he enters. If he can win two majors next year I think the Tiger Woods comparisons start to become much more prevalent.

🎾 Make that three major upsets so far at the US Open, with Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, and Coco Gauff all seeing unexpected exits. A few of the top seeds still remain, on the women’s side, #1 Iga Swiatek and #2 Aryna Sabalenka both advanced to the quarterfinals, and #1 seed Jannik Sinner is headed to the quarterfinals as well after last nights win in straight sets against Tommy Paul.

• 🔥 Take: Personally I’ll be jumping on the Emma Navarro bandwagon, the 23-year old New York City native will be the local favorite. For the men’s side I’ll be pulling for some big upsets from the two 26-year old Americans Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe. The quarterfinals will be played today and tomorrow.

Two unfortunate stories to pass along:

🏒 NHL star Johnny Gaudreau and his younger brother, Matt, were tragically killed in New Jersey on Friday, when their bicycles were struck by an SUV driven by a suspected drunk driver. The incident occurred on the eve of their sister's wedding, where both were set to serve as groomsmen. Johnny Gaudreau, known as "Johnny Hockey," was a beloved player who had recently signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets after a successful tenure with the Calgary Flames. Tributes poured in from across the sports world, mourning the loss of Gaudreau and his brother.

🏈 The San Francisco 49ers placed rookie WR Ricky Pearsall on the reserve/non-football injury (NFI) list after he was shot in the chest during a robbery attempt in San Francisco. Pearsall will miss at least the first four games of the season as he recovers. The shooting occurred near Union Square, where a 17-year-old attempted to rob Pearsall, resulting in a struggle during which both were shot. Pearsall was hospitalized but quickly released in stable condition.

College Football Roundup

The Shocker

Vanderbilt 34 - Virginia Tech 27 (OT): Despite squandering a 2 TD lead at the half and going down late, the Commodores rallied to shock the Hokies in OT.

Statement Games

#1 Georgia 34 - #14 Clemson 3: The #1 Bulldogs outscored an anemic Clemson 28 to 3 in the 2nd half.

#7 Notre Dame 23 - #20 Texas A&M 13: A game only a kicker could love, a pair of 2nd half rushing TDs lift the Irish over the Aggies.

#17 Miami 41 - Florida 17: QB Cam Ward had a “let me re-introduce myself” game against Florida at the Swamp.

Boston College 28 - #10 FSU 13: Going to be a long season for Seminole fans. That’s it. That’s the statement.

That Could Have Been Embarrassing

South Carolina 23 - Old Dominion 19: A loss to Old Dominion would have made this viral meme a lot funnier

#3 Oregon 24 - Idaho 14: Big yikes. The Ducks needed a late TD to stave off FCS Idaho at home.

UCLA 16 - Hawaii 13: A last minute FG saves the Bruins from tasting defeat at the hands of the Rainbow Warriors

Michigan State 16 - FAU 10: MSU didn’t score after the half, but held on to beat the Owls at home.

Video Game Stats

RB Ashton Jeanty (Boise State) - 20 rushes, 267 yds, 6 TDs

WR Tetairoa McMillan (Arizona) - 10 rec, 304 yds, 4 TDs

QB Jaxon Dart (Ole Miss) - 22-28, 418 yds, 6 total TDs

Top Ten Power Rankings

*Note this isn’t an AP Top 25, this is who I think are the best ten teams after this week. Come at me.

1. Georgia - W vs. Clemson, 34-3

2. Alabama - W vs. Western Kentucky, 63-0

3. Ohio State - W vs. Akron, 52-3

4. Ole Miss - W vs. Furman, 76-0

5. Texas - W vs. Colorado State, 52-0

6. Penn State - W vs. West Virginia, 34-12

7. Oregon - W vs. Idaho, 24-14

8. Tennessee - W vs. TN-Chattanooga, 69-3

9. Utah - W vs. Southern Utah, 49-0

10. Miami - W vs. Florida, 41-17

CFB Picks ATS Audit: 3-5 last week

English Premier League

Chuffed

1. Liverpool - 3-0 crushing of rival Manchester United at Old Trafford.

2. Bournemouth - Down 2-0 in the 85th minute, scored 3 goals in a span of 10 minutes to snatch 3 points on the road against Everton.

3. Newcastle - Picked up a big home win against visiting Tottenham, 2-1.

Gutted

1. Everton - The Toffees may be a mainstay in this section, are now at the very bottom of the league with 3 losses and a -8 goal differential.

2. Arsenal - Could only manage a 1-1 draw at home against Brighton.

3. Chelsea - Similar to the Gunners, had a winnable game at home against Crystal Palace, alas they drew 1-1.

Five Stars

1. Erling Haaland (Man City) - Back-to-back hat tricks for the Norwegian, it was his 8th EPL hat trick overall. That number ties him with some big names: Harry Kane, Thierry Henry, and Michael Owen.

2. Luis Diaz (Liverpool) - Two goals in 7 minutes vs. Man United

3. Bryan Mbeumo (Brentford) - 2 goals in 3-1 win vs. Southampton

4. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) - 2 assists

5. Dominic Calvert-Lewin - Goal, assist in a losing effort vs. Bournemouth

The Mint Matches of the Week

Saturday

Manchester City vs. Brentford - 10:00 AM EST

Sunday

Tottenham vs. Arsenal - 9:00 AM EST

Wolves vs. Newcastle - 11:30 AM EST

MLB - Top Games

• Guardians 4, Royals 2: Gavin Williams had his best start since coming back from injury, going 7 innings, allowing 1 run and striking out 6. Both

  José Ramírez and Josh Naylor now have over 100 RBIs.

• Dodgers 11, Diamondbacks 6: The top of the Dodgers lineup went off, the top 5 hitters went a combined 13 for 20, with 9 runs, and 10 RBIs.

• Yankees 8, Rangers 4: Gerrit Cole struck out nine in six innings of 1-run ball. Giancarlo Stanton hit his 25th home run of the season, making it the 10th season he’s hit that mark.

See the full MLB scoreboard here and the current standings here.

On this day in 1977, Japanese baseball superstar Sadaharu Oh hits his 756th career home run. Surpassing Hank Aaron as the all-time home run leader at the time (Oh hit his HRs in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball League). Oh would finish career with 868 home runs, and an OPS of 1.080. Interestingly enough he didn’t end up reaching the 3,000 hit mark (he finished with 2,786), likely due to the 2,390 walks he took, 427 of them being intentional walks.

Friday’s Trivia Time Answer

13 schools have produced No. 1 draft picks in both NBA and NFL, what is the only school to have #1 picks in the same year?

D. Utah - Surprising right? In 2005, Utah’s football star QB Alex Smith and basketball star C Andrew Bogut were selected #1 overall in the NFL and NBA drafts. Check out the full list of schools that have had #1 overall picks in both sports here.

Check back in tomorrow for today’s trivia answer and more info!