Lions come crashing back to earth after 38-6 loss at Ravens – WSJM Morning Sports

NFL – National Football League – Week 7
Yesterday
Baltimore Ravens 38, Detroit Lions 6
Chicago Bears 30, Las Vegas Raiders 12
Cleveland Browns 39, Indianapolis Colts 38

Ravens 38, Lions 6 – Lamar Jackson almost flawless as Ravens rout Lions 38-6 in a matchup of division leaders
Lamar Jackson guided Baltimore to touchdowns on its first four possessions of a dominant first half, and the Ravens trounced the Detroit Lions 38-6. This matchup of division leaders was lopsided from the start. Baltimore was up 28-0 before the NFC North-leading Lions even managed a first down. It was the most complete performance of the season by the Ravens, and a resurgent Detroit squad fell flat while facing a major test on the road. Jackson went 21 of 27 for 357 yards and three touchdowns, finishing with a near-perfect passer rating of 155.8. He also ran for a TD. Jared Goff had a day to forget: 33 for 53 for 284 yards, but most of those numbers came after the game was all but decided. He was sacked five times and fumbled twice.  The Lions can only hope to learn from this defeat and come out with a better performance — and different result — in their next outing, a Monday night game against the Las Vegas Raiders.

Bears 30, Raiders 12 – Rookie Tyson Bagent leads 3 TD drives in place of Justin Fields, Bears beat Raiders 30-12
Rookie Tyson Bagent led three touchdown drives with Justin Fields sidelined, D’Onta Foreman ran for two scores and caught a TD pass, and the Chicago Bears beat the Las Vegas Raiders 30-12. The Bears won for the second time in three games after dropping 14 in a row. They won a showdown of backup quarterbacks after both teams’ starters were injured the previous week. Fields dislocated his right thumb in a loss to Minnesota, while Las Vegas’ Jimmy Garoppolo exited a win over New England with a back problem. Brian Hoyer threw for 129 yards and two interceptions, and the Raiders got blown out after winning back to back games.

Browns 39, Colts 38 – Kareem Hunt’s late TD helps Browns rally past Colts 39-38 in topsy-turvy game
Kareem Hunt scored on a 1-yard touchdown plunge with 15 seconds left to help the Cleveland Browns rally for a 39-38 victory at Indianapolis. P.J. Walker used nearly all of the final 2 1/2 minutes to engineer his second straight comeback, this time thanks to back-to-back debatable defensive penalties against the Colts. Walker replaced the injured Deshaun Watson in the first quarter after Watson made his first start since Sept. 24. Indy lost its second straight as Gardner Minshew committed four turnovers even though his 75-yard TD pass to Michael Pittman Jr. with 5:38 left gave Indy a 38-33 lead.

Other Week 7 Scores
Jacksonville 31, New Orleans 24
Atlanta 16, Tampa Bay 13
N.Y. Giants 14, Washington 7
New England 29, Buffalo 25
Pittsburgh 24, L.A. Rams 17
Seattle 20, Arizona 10
Denver 19, Green Bay 17
Kansas City 31, L.A. Chargers 17
Philadelphia 31, Miami 17

Open: Cincinnati, Houston,
N.Y. Jets, Tennessee,
Carolina, Dallas

Tonight
San Francisco 49ers at Minnesota Vikings, 8:15 p.m.

NHL – National Hockey League
Yesterday
Detroit Red Wings 6, Calgary Flames 2

Red Wings 6, Flames 2 – DeBrincat notches hat trick as the Red Wings win fifth straight by downing Flames 6-2
Alex DeBrincat continued his hot start with his fifth career hat trick and the Detroit Red Wings extended their winning streak to five games by defeating road-weary Calgary 6-2. DeBrincat, acquired in an offseason trade with Ottawa, increased his season goal total to a league-high eight. Joe Veleno scored his third goal in two games and Dylan Larkin supplied a goal and an assist. Jake Walman scored his first goal this season, while Justin Holl and Lucas Raymond added three assists apiece. James Reimer made 29 saves for the Red Wings.  Detroit was playing the second game of a back-to-back after winning 5-2 at Ottawa on Saturday afternoon.  Andrew Mangiapane and Yegor Sharangovich scored for Calgary. Dan Vladar stopped 24 shots for the Flames, who finished 1-3-1 on a five-game road swing.  The Red Wings host Seattle on Tuesday night.

NCAAFB – College Football – Week 8
Saturday
(2) Michigan 49, Michigan State 0
Ohio 20, Western Michigan 17
Ball State 24, Central Michigan 17
Northern Illinois 20, Eastern Michigan 13
(15) Notre Dame (bye week)

NCAAFB – MSU suspends employee involved with allowing Hitler’s image on videoboards
Michigan State athletic director Alan Haller said he has suspended an employee involved in allowing Adolf Hitler’s image to be shown on videoboards before playing No. 2 Michigan. The employee was not named Sunday will be paid pending an investigation that will help to determine potential action in the future. The creator and producer of The Quiz Channel on YouTube that includes Hitler’s image as part of a quiz said the school didn’t ask for permission to use his content or pay him for it and defended his decision to include the question on his platform.

NCAAFB – Investigation of Michigan stems from NCAA rules to curb financial advantages
The NCAA banned in-person advanced scouting in 1994 in part because not every school could afford to do it. Now Michigan is being investigated for a sign-stealing scheme that allegedly involved people secretly being sent to record opponents’ games. The school suspended a low-level football staffer who is a focus of the investigation. NCAA rules don’t directly ban the stealing of signs. There are rules against using electronic equipment to record an opponent’s signals, but what’s mostly at issue with Michigan is NCAA Bylaw 11.6.1: “Off-campus, in-person scouting of future opponents (in the same season) is prohibited.”

NCAAFB – Georgia is No. 1 for 19th straight poll
Georgia extended its streak of No. 1 rankings in The Associated Press college football poll to 19 straight weeks, the third best in the history of the rankings. No. 9 Alabama moved back into the top 10 after being out for five weeks. The Bulldogs received 38 of 63 first-place votes, their second-lowest total of the season, after an off week but still bested No. 2 Michigan. Georgia’s No. 1 streak, which started last October, is behind only Miami’s streak of 21 weeks from 2001-02 and Southern California’s 33 in a row from 2003-05. North Carolina dropped seven spots to No. 17 after losing to unranked Virginia.

MLB – Major League Baseball – League Championship Series – Best of seven
Last Night
American League Championship Series
Texas Rangers 9, Houston Astros 3                                                           (Series tied 3-3)

Rangers 9, Astros 3 – Eovaldi remains perfect, Rangers slug their way to 9-2 win over Astros to force Game 7
Nathan Eovaldi remained perfect this postseason, and Mitch Garver and Jonah Heim homered early before a ninth-inning grand slam by Adolis García helped the Texas Rangers avoid elimination with a 9-2 win over the Houston Astros in Game 6 of the AL Championship Series. The road team has won every game in this series going into the decisive Game 7 on Monday night in Houston. Cristian Javier is scheduled to pitch for the Astros against three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer. Javier beat Scherzer in Game 3 at Texas. Eovaldi, who also won Game 2, yielded two runs in 6 1/3 innings to improve to 4-0 with a 2.42 ERA in the playoffs this year.

Tonight
National League Championship Series
Arizona (Kelly 12-8) at Philadelphia (Nola 12-9), 5:07 p.m.                            (PHI leads 3-2)

American League Championship Series
Texas (Scherzer 13-6) at Houston (Javier 10-5), 8:03 p.m.                            (Series tied 3-3)

MHSAA – High School Sports
Saturday
8-Man Football
Battle Creek St. Philip (4-5) 38, Bangor (4-5) 20

Tonight
Volleyball
South Haven at Three Rivers, 6:00 p.m.
Gobles at Bloomingdale, 7:00 p.m.

MHSAA – 2023 High School Football Playoffs
The MHSAA announced the pairings for the 2023 football playoffs.  288 total teams will be in contention for a state championship in 10 different divisions.  Teams are awarded points on their number of wins and their strength of schedule.  There is no longer any automatic qualifiers.  Teams qualify based on their point totals.  Tickets for all playoff games will only be available through GoFan.co.  Here are the local pairings.

Division 3
Region 2, District 2
Harper Creek (6-3) at Parma Western (8-1)
Lakeshore (5-4) at St. Joseph (6-3) – Friday 7:00 at Steve Upton Field at Dickinson Stadium
The game will be on News/Talk/Sports 94.9 WSJM and 97.5 Y-Country

Division 2
Region 2, District 1
Byron Center (8-1) at Portage Central (8-1)
Portage Northern (8-1) at Caledonia (7-2)

Division 4
Region 2, District 1
Vicksburg (4-5) at Niles (8-1)
Edwardsburg (5-4) at Paw Paw (8-1)

Division 5
Region 2, District 2
Benton Harbor (4-5) at GR Cath. Central (8-1)
Berrien Springs (5-3) at South Haven (6-3)

Division 6
Region 3, District 1
Olivet (3-6) at Constantine (8-1)
Buchanan (6-3) at Kalamazoo United (5-4)

Division 7
Region 2, District 1
Union City (6-3) at North Muskegon (9-0)
Schoolcraft (7-2) at Lawton (8-1)

Division 8
Region 3, District 1
Saranac (5-4) at Saugatuck (7-2)
Centreville (5-4) at White Pigeon (9-0)

8-Man Division 1
Region 4
Marcellus (7-2) at Martin (7-2)
Mendon (7-2) at Gobles (7-2)