bukie

Which makes today's US-Wales result all the more important, as Wales will likely get a resting England in the 3rd game.

He has a really bad tendency to wait too long for some giant hole to develop, and all it does is give the defense time to end the play.

Two plays in a row where the Falcons rush 4 against 6 blockers and someone comes right up the middle untouched

In game decisions continue to make me think the staff actively works to keep the opposing team in the game.

A little disappointed Ecuador only got 2 here, but there are still 2 games against likely better opponents for Qatar to get blitzed.

I mean, if you are 1-14 from the game with a game worst -19 +/-, maybe just sit this one out.

Sencire Harris made a difference in the game. [tweet] [/tweet]

So far this season, Illinois' personnel strategy has been "keep putting new guys in there with Shannon until something works". Tonight it's Harris, Epps and Dainja. Mayer has stepped up some. Clark has had a good second half after a bad first half. Hawkins and Melendez just don't have it today for whatever reason, but Illinois still leads #8 UCLA late in the 2nd half. It's a good sign.

This is the first I've heard of anything untowards happening out of Qatar for this World Cup.

Well, better than 6 days after the world cup ends. I'd rather see all of Pulisic, Reyna, Aaronson, and Weah on the pitch than, say, Acosta or Roldan just because.

Through 3 games, Terrence Shannon Jr leads Illinois in minutes, leads the nation in fouls drawn, and has not been called for a foul yet.

In the first half tonight, Monmouth took 24 shots. Illinois had 23 makes.

Is this...is this what an NFL offense should look like?

Good week so far for the B1G. Only one loss, by 1 on an aircraft carrier to #2 Gonzaga by MSU. No upset losses, almost everyone winning handily (side-eyes Michigan). In fact, the only ranked team to lose so far has been Villanova at Temple.

Chris Richards injured himself in his last game and won't be at the World Cup. That leaves who left for CB? Ream, Zimmerman, Long, CCV? Really nervous about the up the middle defense for the World Cup.

Memphis is in a weird spot this year. [tweet] [/tweet]

Assuming UCLA doesn't blow a 16 point lead, the entire top 25 will have won today. Biggest upset of the day is Florida State losing at home to Stetson (or USC losing at home to Florida Gulf Coast, but FSU was getting AP votes).

Looks like Baylor's going to be able to hold on, leading 112-50 with 2 minutes to play.

Probably won't be Baylor. They're up 35-10 on Mississippi Valley St If someone is going to lose I'll pick George Mason over Auburn. George Mason is a fringe top 100 team and Barttorvik has Auburn lower than their ranking. Though Barttorvik has Michigan 39th so screw them :D I guess Michigan could get upset too. Their entire rotation except for Hunter is new (there are holdovers but taking bigger roles) and Purdue FW won the Horizon league last year and brought almost everyone on their team back. Meanwhile, Illinois returns just Coleman Hawkins and RJ Melendez from last year's team (and Luke Goode but he's out with a broken foot and won't play for months). The entire starting 5 and 10 of their 13 players with significant iminutes are gone, replaced by 5 freshmen (one a preferred walk-on) Skyy Clark, Ty Rodgers, Sencire Harris, Jayden Epps, and Paxton Warden, a Baylor transfer that is technically a redshirt soph in Dain Dainja, and top 10 transfers Terrence Shannon (Texas Tech) and Matthew Mayer (Baylor). They'll be a completely different team, and I expect them to play much faster paced and aggressive defensively without having to sit back and rim-protect when Kofi was around. I think they'll be really good, particularly at the end of the season, but I'm curious how everything will mesh together early, especially since they get basically one week of warmup games before going up against 2 of UCLA, Baylor and Virginia.

#5 Baylor is the first one to play today, and already leads KP #361 Mississippi Valley State 42-12 about 15 minutes in.

Season officially tips off today, with every top 25 team in action today for the first time ever. Do all top 25 teams win today (all are double digit favorites) or is there a monumental upset on the docket today?

Holy cow, a Bears opponent feels like they need to go for it on 4th down because they can't stop the Bears offense.

The first one to Claypool had to be that high to get over the defender, it was effectively a throw away. The second was to Brown who cut off the route while Fields threw a go. I don't understand why there's just this pressing need to bag on Fields from this thread when he's having his 3rd solid week in a row.

1. Georgia 2. Tennessee 3. LSU 4. Alabama

The titans of Scotland finish the group stage 0-10-2, with 6 goals for and 37 against. On the flip side, both Portuguese teams, Porto and Benfica, win their groups, Porto wins group B ahead of Leverkusen and Atletico Madrid, Benfica ahead of PSG and Juventus.