Second Chances, Double Plays, and Two Seasons ✌️
We’re a day late this week… can we make it up to you with a post that’s packed with highlights?
Let’s jump right in, starting with…
NFL Week 6 👔🏈
Best game: How about a little countdown of the closest games?
The Colts beat the Cardinals by four points, 31–27.
🎥 This touchdown run by Jonathan Taylor sealed it after a back-and-forth game.
The Panthers upset the Cowboys by three points, 30–27.
🎥 This walk-off field goal by Carolina finished a 6-minute, 15-play drive.
The Broncos beat the Jets in London by two points, 13–11.
🎥 Denver had nine sacks in the game, including this one to clinch the win and send the Jets to 0–6.
And that means our best game was decided by just one point!
Monday Night Football. Chicago Bears at Washington Commanders. Their game last year?
🎥 It ended like this.
🎥 Click here to see if the Bears got revenge this time!
With all of those close games, let’s zoom out to the…
Biggest news: Two surprising teams have 5–1 records at the top of the NFL standings: the Indianapolis Colts and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Why are they surprising?
The Colts are led by QB Daniel Jones.
He was drafted by the Giants and spent six years in New York before they released him last year.
It looked like he might be done as a starter in the NFL… until he turned into a superhero with the Colts this year.
He leads the league in a statistic called quarterback rating, or QBR.
🧠 Think of QBR as a score from 0 to 100 that shows how much a quarterback helps their team win. It looks at every pass, run, sack, and penalty and figures out if the QB made their team’s chances of scoring go up or down.
50 is average, and anything over 70 means you played awesome. Jones so far this year? Nearly 80.
Not far behind him is Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield (71 QBR).
See if this sounds familiar…
He was drafted by the Browns and spent four years in Cleveland before they traded him to Carolina.
It looked like he might be done as a starter in the NFL… until he joined the Bucs a few years ago.
Now, he’s having the best year of his career. And experts say he’s right there with Patrick Mahomes in the race for NFL MVP.
That’s a lot of QB talk!
The running backs are getting jealous. Let’s move on to…
Wildest play: Atlanta’s Bijan Robinson is one of the fastest players in the NFL. And one of the hardest to tackle.
🎥 So it shouldn’t be surprising when he makes plays like this…
But it’s still fun to watch every time.
Robinson finished with 170 rushing yards, 68 receiving yards, and a 24–14 upset over the Bills.
By the way… Baker Mayfield played in college at Oklahoma. And Bijan Robinson played at Texas.
Which reminds us to move on to…
College Football Week 7 🎓🏈
Best game: You know I want to pick Texas crushing Oklahoma, 23–6.
But we try to keep things fair at Smallball.
So we took a hard look at #8 Alabama’s 27–24 win over #14 Missouri.
Alabama now has five wins in a row and is tied with Ole Miss and Texas A&M at the top of the SEC standings.
But we’re going with the battle of undefeated teams. #7 Indiana at #3 Oregon.
🎥 Hit play and see who kept their perfect season going!
Biggest news: How did Indiana and Oregon move in the new top 25 rankings?
They almost switched spots! Indiana’s up to #3 and Oregon’s down to #8.
Ready to play spot the difference?
👀 How many teams didn’t move at all?
🕵️ Did you and your grown-up get the same answer?
🏅 Want extra credit? Are there more top 25 teams this week with green as their primary color or orange?
💬 Drop your answer in the comments!
Wildest play: No green. No orange. Just red, white, and blue.
🎥 Watch the last 55 seconds of this game between BYU and Arizona!
What a comeback! And what a finish in double overtime.
We’re already ready for next Saturday!
But before then, let’s check on the…
MLB Playoffs ⚾️
Baseball is down to the final four teams!
That’s because the Mariners beat the Tigers and Brewers beat the Cubs in a pair of Game 5s.
Now, it’s Mariners vs. Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series (ALCS).
And Dodgers vs. Brewers in the National League Championship Series (NLCS).
Who’s got the early lead in these best-of-7 series?
Well, Seattle won Game 1 and Game 2 in Toronto. Now, they’re heading home up 2–0 with a chance to make their first ever World Series trip.
The NLCS has a little more drama so far.
🎥 Roll these Game 1 highlights!
Clutch strikeout to end it with the tying run on third base and winning run on second.
But let’s go back to that first play you saw!
What happened?!
The Dodgers almost hit a grand slam. But it bounced off the center fielder’s glove and then off the wall.
Because it hit the wall, the ball was still live. That means every Dodgers runner needed to advance to the next base.
But they got confused, thinking it might’ve been caught for an out.
The Brewers threw home for one out.
Then tagged third base for another.
The result? A wild double play!
In Game 2… the drama didn’t come from the scoreboard.
The Dodgers won 5–1, so they’ve also got a 2–0 series lead.
No, the fireworks were from Los Angeles pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto. He threw a complete game (that means he pitched all nine innings).
It’s a rare accomplishment: the first postseason complete game since 2017!
And speaking of history…
By Friday, we’ll be through ALCS Game 4 and NLCS Game 3. So we may have a pretty good view of who’s heading to the World Series!
Let’s finish with the…
WNBA Playoffs 🏀
Where we have a 2025 champion!
And it’s A’ja Wilson and the Las Vegas Aces. They finished a 4–0 sweep of the Phoenix Mercury on Friday night.
Just like most of you predicted.
🎥 Here’s what it looked like!
That’s three championships in the last four years for the Aces. Dominant.
And with the WNBA season over, we’re ready for the NBA season to start.
We’ve got your questions. We’re excited to answer them on Tuesday.
And that night we’ll get to watch the first two games!
Get excited! And we’ll see you Friday!
Smallball is just for fun.
All trademarks, images, and videos are used for educational and fair use purposes only.
If you have any questions or concerns, please just email us.
3 Green,2 Orange and two stayed!!!!!!!!!!
3 Green, 2 Orange!!!!!!!!!!!!