The Las Vegas Raiders have been notorious this year for having an underwhelming offensive unit. They have struggled to score points this year and in 13 weeks, they were 27th in the league for total points. Raiders fans have been disappointed all year by the offensive output, and this frustration came to a T when the Raiders couldn’t manage a single point against the Vikings in week 14. Because the Raiders’ offense has been so underwhelming, no one expected a high-scoring game of any sort in their matchup with the equally disappointing Chargers on Thursday Night Football. A high-scoring game is exactly what the fans got though.

The Raiders beat the Chargers with an astounding 63-21 victory. The Raiders had 42 points in the first half, and the rookie Aidan O’Connell had 4 touchdowns through the air. The Raiders put on a show in the first half. They gained a substantial lead, but when head coach Antonio Pierce was asked about the plan for the second half, he said the Raiders were just going to press harder.

In the second half, there was more defensive scoring from the Raiders than offensive. The Raiders started with a trick play after driving down to the Chargers’ 3-yard line. Aidan O’Connell took the snap and immediately tossed the ball back to Jakobi Meyers, who then passed to a wide-open Davante Adams towards the back of the end-zone. 

Then it was all defense. The Raiders started it off with a Malcolm Koonce strip-sack on quarterback Easton Stick. The ball was then picked up by Jonathan Jenkins, and taken nearly 40 yards for a touchdown. The GPS clocked the 327-pound defensive lineman at 17 miles per hour while running toward the end zone, but the announcers hilariously doubted this stat. 

So the Chargers got the ball back after the score, but the Raiders’ defense was locked in. On the first play of the next drive, the Raiders shut the Chargers down quickly with a tackle for loss, and on the second play, Jack Jones read a screen pass perfectly. He jumped in front of the intended receiver and made a spectacular mid-air interception. He then ran it back for the Raiders’ second defensive touchdown within the span of 3 plays. 

At one point in the game, the Raiders were leading the Chargers 49-0. This game was an absolute disaster for the Chargers. The Raiders were able to hang 63 points on their defense through only 45 minutes and 25 seconds of play. Fans online were already talking about Brandon Staley, the Chargers’ head coach being fired before the game was even over. 

Brandon Staley was fired the morning after the loss to the Raiders. The NFL on ESPN said that his firing was “past due”. He has led a team full of talent to nothing but mediocrity in his tenure with the Chargers. He had an even .500 win percentage with the Chargers, with 24 wins and 24 losses. The Chargers have too much talent to be .500 over the last couple of seasons. They have Khalil Mack, Joey Bosa, Austin Ekeler, Justin Herbert, Derwin James Jr., and many other players who deserve to be on a winning team. The loss to the Raiders was simply the last straw for Staley, but some fans have realized that he isn’t the answer long before the Raiders game. 

When a team has this much talent, you must blame the one who puts it all together if the team still doesn’t win. Brandon Staley just couldn’t quite put this team together, and the Chargers are hoping to find someone who can. When they do, they will be able to hang with any team in the league. 

How about from the Raiders’ perspective? The Raiders gained some confidence in week 15, as teams often do with a blowout victory. They managed this 63-21 victory without their star running back (and star player) Josh Jacobs, which must feel even better for them. The players will surely be happy with the interim head coach, Antonio Pierce. He has a 3-3 record and a .500 win percentage (which is better than Josh McDaniels, the former head coach of the Raiders). 

The Raiders had a challenge in week 16, as they played the Kansas City Chiefs in Kansas City. The last time the teams met, the Raiders were able to go up by 14 points immediately, but the Chiefs came back in the second half, outscoring the Raiders 31-3 (in that half). The Chiefs are a second-half team, and the Raiders’ defense just had to keep doing what they have been over the past couple of weeks to win, which they did. The defense for the Raiders has been stellar for the last few weeks, and they added to their accomplishments with two defensive touchdowns and a victory over the Chiefs, a massive upset.

Though the Raiders took a loss to the Colts by only three points, they are still excited about playing for their new head coach, Antonio Pierce. Pierce finished the regular season with a record of 5-4, adding a win to the record with a 27-14 victory over the Broncos in week 18.

The College Football Playoffs this year are set: Michigan, Washington, Texas, and Alabama will be the 4 teams who will compete for a national title in 2023. If you follow college football closely though, or if you live in Florida, you know that the Florida State Seminoles went undefeated, and star quarterback, Jordan Travis, has a 10-1 touchdown-interception ratio, one of the best in college football. 

You may also notice that Florida State isn’t on that list of 4 teams that qualified for the playoffs. If they haven’t lost a game this season, and they have incredible player and team stats, why aren’t they in the playoffs? 

The sports world agrees that the Florida State Seminoles should have a shot at the national title. What is disagreed on is if the Seminoles deserve that shot more than any of the other 4 teams that made it. Yes, these 4 teams did great things in the regular season, and none had more than 1 loss. The College Football Playoff (CFP) organization has ultimate say in who makes it and who doesn’t, and much of the decision is subjective. 

Unlike the NFL, college football rankings and qualifiers aren’t just based on the record of the teams. Teams are instead selected based on how entertaining and competitive the playoffs will be with them competing against each other. For reasons that will be explored in this article, Florida State was found by the College Football Playoff organization to be a less competitive team than the others. 

Though many Florida State fans are understandably upset with the outcome of the college playoffs team selection, the CFP organization has its reasons for not including the Seminoles. The largest reason was because of the untimely injury of their star quarterback, Jordan Travis. The impact that this young man has had on the Florida State team cannot be overstated. In the short 13-game season, he amassed 20 touchdowns through the air and an additional 7 on the ground. He also only had 2 interceptions on the year, and his passer rating was one of the highest in the league: if he was in the NFL, it would be the second-highest passer rating in the league (second only to Brock Purdy, of course). 

So he was great in the regular season, but this injury he sustained wasn’t just a cut or a scrape. He suffered from a lacerated liver earlier in the season, and a leg injury later. He has been riddled with injuries throughout his short career with the Seminoles, but his worst injuries have come this year. He missed the last three games of the regular season.

Though the CFP organization may be somewhat justified in not allowing the Seminoles, there is still controversy. The last three games of the season for the Seminoles were played without their star quarterback. If his injury really hindered the team from performing well, why did the Seminoles win all three of these games?

This is why the Seminoles team and fans (and even Ron DeSantis) are so upset: the Seminoles were still playing at a very high level without their star quarterback, and they beat legitimate opponents, including Florida, Louisville, and North Alabama. Their backup quarterback, Tate Rodemaker had a great game against Northern Alabama too, with 217 yards, 2 touchdowns, and no interceptions. The Seminoles put up 58 points in this game, with 5 players scoring rushing touchdowns. This game proved to the Seminoles fans that they were still a legitimate team without their quarterback.

This is the first time in history that an undefeated team in this conference didn’t make the playoffs. Though the circumstances are unique, Florida State is still one of the best football teams in college sports. Not much can be done now about who’s in and who’s out of the playoffs, but Ron DeSantis is trying to take some action for the team in his state. He has requested funding to sue the CFP organization for excluding Florida State because the college and state lost money from publicity when they were excluded. It could be argued that Florida State is getting a lot more publicity now than it would if they were included. 

But the CFP is a business, and they thought that the games simply wouldn’t draw as much attention and viewership if Florida State was playing. It backfired on them though, and they are now facing a potential lawsuit and disdain from Florida fans. The reaction from Florida fans has been overwhelmingly negative, but many experts think the CFP organization made the right decision. Paul Finebaum and Urban Meyer both think that the CFP made the right decision and that Texas and Alabama are the stronger teams now that Jordan Travis is out. 

This issue will not be present going forward though, as the CFP was set to expand to a 12-team tournament in 2024, even before all of the controversy. This means that there will likely never be another undefeated team that doesn’t qualify to compete for a national championship. Even with only 4 teams, there was almost always at least one team with a loss, and this year there are 2. With 12 teams competing, the quarterfinals won’t be skipped, and every team who deserves to be in will be. 

As many Montanans know, the Grizzly football team is the best it has been in decades. They took 1st place in their conference, the Big Sky conference, for the first time since 2009 and won all but one game against division opponents. This conference includes 12 teams from 8 different states. 

The Griz have played great this year, and they had an overall record of 9-1 in the regular season. This gave them the ticket for the 1 seed in their conference. After winning in the playoffs by a considerable margin (winning by 30 in the brawl of the wild), they were 10-1 overall going into the 2nd round of the NCAA FCS tournament. Their large win against Montana State had the Griz ranked number 2 in the tournament. They would then have to play Delaware, a member of the Colonial Athletic Association Conference. Delaware was 9-3 going into the game, but the Conference they are in is competitive enough that a 9-3 record only got them 5th place in their conference.

Either way though, Delaware was coming off of a win streak, and they weren’t going to go down without a fight in the game against the Griz. The game started off with what looked like it was going to be a solid drive being ended by an interception off of a deflection in favor of Delaware. But when Delaware got the ball, they were unable to do anything with it against the stout Montana Griz defense. The Griz got the ball back, and started the blowout with a field-goal drive that was kept alive and made possible by a pass-interference call downfield. 

In the Griz’ second drive, they were able to establish the run game and wear out the defense just a little more. Delaware still has to receive some credit though, as they didn’t let the Griz convert on 3rd and 13, when Clifton McDowell (the Griz’ quarterback) missed an open receiver after a first and second-down stop. 

Another Delaware drive stopped short by the strong Montana defense led to the Griz getting the ball back, and scoring the first (of many) touchdown(s) of the game. Clifton McDowell threw to Xavier Harris on the sideline, and he was able to break free for a long touchdown catch and run. This gave the Griz a lead of 10-0 very early into the game, and they would continue this pace until they secured a strong victory, with a score of 49-19. Winning by this much in the second round of the playoffs sends a message to the other teams in this branch of the tournament: the Grizzlies are a legitimate team, and they will not go down easy. 

The Griz have played great all season, and they only have 1 loss, which was to Northern Arizona University. The Griz are averaging a massive 29.5 points per game, and their offense has mostly led them to success this season. Clifton McDowell has been playing great, and he has excellent receivers to rely on. Running back Nick Ostmo has also been great, and he puts together a solid game almost every time. He is a pinnacle of consistency and will help the Griz get even further into the playoffs. The Griz’ next game is in Missoula against Furman college. The game will be a challenge for them, but the Griz are likely to win this one. 

12/11 UPDATE: 

The Griz were able to hold on in overtime to win 35-28 against Furman. Furman was extremely successful in stopping the Griz’ running backs, but the they couldn’t stop Clifton McDowell, the quarterback from getting more than 100 yards on the ground and a touchdown. The quarterback’s rushing performance propelled the Griz forward, and the Griz will play North Dakota State University on December 16th. The Griz’ offense has just been getting better and better, and North Dakota State has to be able to stop it if they want to win.

Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson will have to have surgery on a fractured shoulder he sustained after the Browns’ win against the Ravens on Nov. 12. He has played only 12 games since he got his new contract at the beginning of last season. The contract consisted of 230 million dollars over 5 years, fully guaranteed. This means that even though he is injured, he still receives the same amount as if he were playing.

Deshaun played 12 games over the last 2 seasons, and he will not return this season. This means that the Browns paid him 46 million dollars to play only 12 games. This averages out to almost 4 million per game he played.  In 2023, he had a below-average 84.3 Quarter Back Rating (QBR), and in 2022, the Browns only managed to win 7 games. Deshaun was also injured for the majority of last year. 

The Browns are not getting their money’s worth out of Deshaun so far into his contract. Through 2 years he only has 2,217 yards. To put this in comparison, C.J. Stroud, the rookie quarterback for the Texans has had more yards in his first 10 games than a quarterback commonly deemed as “elite” hasn’t been able to do this in 2 years of football.

Deshaun Watson was lackluster even when he was healthy. He had a QBR of 79.1 in the games he started in 2022. This was after he came back from a year-long suspension for sexual misconduct in 2021. Though his poor performance in the last two years can be blamed mostly on injury and being out of the league, Browns fans are still disappointed in his performance thus far in his stint. 

This injury will make it even harder to return to his former performance level when he was with the Texans. Browns fans just have to hope that the injury will not prevent him from at least being at practice camp next year, so he gets back into the groove. Deshaun was on an upward trend though right before the injury. His average QBR was up, and he won 5 out of 6 of his starts, despite the stat sheet not showing greatness. 

So will Deshaun be an overall bad investment for the Browns? Or will he be able to return to his previous form, and impress and satisfy the fans? Browns fans just have to remain hopeful for the future of their team.