A new way to evaluate NFL QBs. Plus: Ole Miss barely escapes

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good morning! Home run today empty handed. Coming up:

• 🏈 NFL Preview, from A New statistics
• 🫥 Competitor is about to go down
• 🧢 MLB hat scandal to be continued

While you sleep: Two competitors, two escape

Ole Miss and Notre Dame are loaded with legitimate hopes this college football season. Coming off the best season in school history, the Rebels have a Heisman candidate at quarterback. The Fighting Irish are a timely pick to make a deep playoff run.

Both had their first game yesterday. We’ll start with the worst case scenario outside the SEC:

• No. 9 Ole Miss needed a last-second field goal to beat No. 24 Louisville 41-38. I don’t know how to review in game. Were the offenses great, and were the quarterbacks electric? Yes. Were the defenses too troublesome for both teams? Also yes.
• On the other hand, No. 4 Notre Dame Unranked Wisconsin went into halftime with a 13-10 lead. Having seen the Irish lose early in each of the last two seasons, it was easy to get paranoid. Notre Dame then went on a 28-3 run. That will do.

Let’s move on to the other football from this week:

More please: title

Over the last few weeks, we’ve said some version of “football back” far too many times. They accused me of having fun. But this week, it finally, completely, feels real.

After two weeks of real college football games, the NFL returns this week, and sooner than you think. With help from our friends, we’re working on five quick ideas for the looming season.

1. Yes, the season starts on Wednesday. The NFL has colonized many fall schedules, creeping further into other sports territories during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday windows. Now, in Week 1 of 2026, the season starts the day after tomorrow, with another game on Thursday before everyone else plays on Sunday.

2. Are they popular? Before we get into the clinics, we need to talk about that first. The Rams are the clear betting favorites, with the Bills, Ravens and Seahawks close behind. I have no quibbles there, especially since no one has played the game. Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow are your leading MVP candidates.

3. Takes hot, please. I thought I would never ask. To that end, I chatted with Charles MacDonald and Max Brown, the two hosts. Our new show “The Athletics LIVE” Launching tomorrow on YouTube. I asked them for a fresh take or a different prediction for the season:

💬 Charles: “You know I can’t get out of here without love for my man, Falcons running back Sesame Robinson. Atlanta head coach Kevin Stefanski and offensive coordinator Tommy Rees managed to get the best of Cleveland’s backs last year – I think Robinson is set for an all-time season this year (please don’t look at the rest of the team).

💬 High: “Starting Jets Kenyon Sadiq He will emerge and become one of the best fantasy tight ends on the market.

We have bold predictions for each team that are newly published today. See where your team lands

Mike Coppola/Getty Images

4. Wait, let’s go back. I want to talk about the quarter. great! I have two interesting things. First, I went back to Max, a former quarterback at USC and Pittsburgh, and asked which NFL QB will surprise us this year.

💬 “Kyler Murray. Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell has resurrected him before, and Kyler played better than Daniel Jones and Sam Darnold before arriving in Minnesota.

Amazingly, our Austin Mock It has started. A new QB metric is out this morning, called the Quarterback Index, or QBI. It’s a complicated formula that puts the “average” QB game at 100, drawing inspiration from some of baseball’s most advanced statistics. So, in QBI, over 100 means an above-average player, under it is below-average, and so on. Last year’s top three QBs, by QBI:

1. Burrow – 132
2. Matthew Stafford – 125
3. Brooke Purdy – 125

Read more about QBI here. We will use it more in the future.

5. There is only so much to look at. What am I missing? I turned back to Charles to finish us off:

💬 “I think the Detroit Lions could be the most exciting team to watch for neutrals in the league this season. They had a tough choice to make when they took Clemson offensive tackle Blake Miller with the 17th overall pick in this year’s draft, but rebuilding the talent level on their offensive line should give them a higher floor to score points this season. The pass rush may be a bit of a defense shortcoming, but it always makes for a more challenging middle defense.” It’s a blast to follow in the season.

Go lions? At least on the follow-up guide.

Be sure to subscribe to the “Athletics LIVE” feed here. They will host a live-stream on Wednesday. I think it will be interesting.

Let’s keep moving:

News to know

Justin Edmonds/Getty Images

MLB reprimands umpire.
Major League Baseball said veteran umpire Doug Eddings acted improperly Friday night when he told Cardinals starter Hansel Rincon to adjust his cap, leading to the firing of manager Ollie Marmol, sources said. The athletics. Eddings apologized, but the incident is still reverberating around the league four days later. Read our complete information.

WMU: Big Ten ‘disparity’ blamed
In a late meeting with Big Ten officials after Saturday’s football loss, Western Michigan president Russ Cavalhuna blamed a “perceived discrepancy” between the conference’s replay time and NBC’s game time and said nothing could be done about the ongoing controversy. There is no way to appeal what WMU, and many others, had a signature upset win the hour before the brouhaha. See the background here.

More news:

• Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani He could return to the lineup tonight, though he probably won’t pitch again this season. Interesting.
• ice Yankees starter Gerrit Cole Desperate Back-to-back-to-back homers Yesterday for the first three beats. Oops.
• Meanwhile, Red Sox closer Arldis Chapman He became the ninth pitcher in MLB history to hit 400 saves. It’s an amazing list..
• NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell He signed a contract through the 2030 season. He is probably the highest paid employee in the league.
• A riot Women’s College Volleyball The event at Wrigley Field was canceled last night due to moisture on the court. It was a scene..

📰 Get more news here 24/7.

See instructions

📺 Tennis: US Open fourth round
11 am-8:30 pm ET on ESPN and ESPN2
It’s the last day of the fourth round, the quarterfinals are slipping away. Top men’s seed Alexander Zverev is in action, while Coco Gauff, Naomi Osaka and Elena Rybakina play on the women’s side. The visit was good.

📺 FIBA ​​Women’s World Cup: Team USA vs Chechnya
2:45 p.m. ET on TNT and TruTV
The Americans are 2-0 in this tournament, while the Czechs are 0-2. This is probably an explosion, but You never know.. If you have good daytime TV time.

📺 MLB: Cardinals at Giants
8:10 pm ET on NBC and The Peacock
I’m excited to see St. Louis here, for the most part, still moving forward from the strange cap controversy from Friday. Maybe it will get them inside A busy race for the final NL wild-card spot.

Heart rate choices

Ours NFL Hope-O-Meter It’s back for Week 1. It’s no surprise that the Rams and Browns book the results, but there’s a plot at the center, and it’s always fun to read the responses. Enter here.

Candace Buckner’s column about what WNBA He needs a new one Commissioner It was really strong. Simply, the new hire Everything should be for everyone..

I appreciate this historical context from Scott Dochterman, who is from Saturday Michigan-WMU game, He trembled The 10 Most Controversial Finals in College Football History.

College football Fans should be familiar with some new stats this season: Temperature index. Reasons behind the record-breaking heat wave in the sport They are more stacked than you think to start the year.

The most loaded in the newspaper yesterday: Our history as a little league coach A tip for the team.

Most read on the website yesterday: Explanation on why Michigan I got one more second.