game recap – Syndication Server

Overmatched Cowboys add more injuries to insulting play in fifth straight loss, 34-10 to Texans

The Cowboys drop to 3-7 on the season as they lose their fifth-straight contest.

The Dallas Cowboys placed QB Dak Prescott on injured reserve prior to Monday night’s contest against the Houston Texans. The Week 11 move was anticipated for the last several weeks, but the fact it took so long to make was a significant admission. There’s no cavalry coming, so the need for the roster spot wasn’t really a pressing issue for the 3-6 Cowboys.

Make that 3-7, as the club was once again in a street fight without any weapons in falling to the Texans 34-10. The club’s fifth straight defeat came with the required number of head scratches and face palms pretty much from the onset of the game. Dallas gave up big plays, turned the ball over and had a myriad of new injuries to keep piling on the miserable season.

Dallas saw three different starting offensive linemen leave the contest with injuries, along with their starting tight end. Jake Ferguson suffered a concussion early on, and then the second half saw Tyler Guyton, Zack Martin and Tyler Smith all get knocked out; the latter two within three plays of each other.

With Cooper Rush continuing to struggle to push the ball downfield on a regular basis, the Dallas defense was once again asked to do something they were incapable of doing. The Houston offense scored on a 77-yard opening play that was called back, but were undaunted with numerous big plays.

CJ Stroud released the ball quickly, often finding his returning star WR Nico Collins, on the way to 257 passing yards. He didn’t throw for a score, but it wasn’t necessary with RB Joe Mixon adding three touchdowns on 109 rushing yards.

In comparison Rush threw for over 300 yards, but Mike McCarhty’s non-existent commitment to the running game saw Dallas rush just 16 times compared to over 50 passing attempts.

The Cowoys offense remains disfunctional as the team lost their sixth straight home game

Lions blow away the Jaguars and also some franchise records in the process

Last week’s Detroit Lions game went down to the wire, full of drama and suspense. The Lions won in Week 10 in Houston 26-23 on the last play of the game after trailing the Texans almost all night.

There was no such drama with Sunday’s Week 11 matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Ford Field. Detroit was in complete control of the visitors from Duval almost from the opening kickoff. The Lions rolled to a 52-6 home win in a game that wasn’t close after the opening possessions.

The Lions scored every time they touched the ball in the first half, going 4-for-4 on touchdown drives. All four gained at least 64 yards, with the Lions outgaining the Jaguars 306-104 at the half.

Halftime was but a delay in the ongoing onslaught. Detroit’s starting offense scored touchdowns on all three possessions it played in the second half, rolling the lead to 49-6 before head coach Dan Campbell inserted the reserves early in the fourth quarter.

Jared Goff completed 24 of his 29 pass attempts, netting 412 yards and four TDs. Three of his five incompletions were intentional throwaways en route to a perfect 158.3 passer rating. Just for good measure, Goff outrushed Jagaurs starting RB Travis Etienne, 21 to 17, while the Lions starters were still playing.

Detroit’s defense also came to play, suffocating a banged-up Jaguars offense missing QB Trevor Lawrence. The Jaguars went 3-and-out four times in their first eight possessions, with Kerby Joseph ending another with an interception off Mac Jones. Jacksonville gained just 170 net yards.

In the end, the Lions set a new franchise record for most yards gained in a game with 644. They also picked up a team-best 38 first downs. Both are in the top 10 single-game performances in NFL history.

Instant takeaways from Florida basketball’s win against Florida State

Walter Clayton Jr. takes the Florida State rivalry personally and his 25 points helped the Gators come out on top against the Seminoles on Friday night.

Florida took down rival Florida State on the hardwood Friday night, 87-74, in a game that could have been a 20-point blowout but stayed within range until a pair of dagger threes in the final minutes.

[autotag]Walter Clayton Jr[/autotag]. led all scorers with 25 points, followed by [autotag]Alijah Martin[/autotag] with 17 and [autotag]Sam Alexis[/autotag] with 12 for Florida. Seminoles star Jamir Watkins scored 19, and three other Florida State players reached double figures.

The biggest difference between the two squads was the physicality Florida played with, made evident by an 18-rebound differential at the final buzzer. [autotag]Alex Condon[/autotag] missed his first double-double of the season by three points, but he dominated the boards all night.

Despite the 13-point margin on the scoreboard, Florida did not play its best basketball. The Gators turned the ball over 19 times, giving the Seminoles 16 points off turnovers. [autotag]Todd Golden[/autotag] set a goal of 12 or fewer ahead of the game, and Florida made this game closer than it needed to be by exceeding that total.

Still, a win is a win, especially when it comes against Florida State — even though the Seminoles haven’t won this matchup since the 2020 season.

The Gators move to 4-0 on the season with a chance to close out the first month of the season undefeated. Florida A&M, Southern Illinois and Wake Forest remain on the schedule.

Walter Clayton Jr. likes playing Florida State

Clayton dropped 19 against Florida State last year and didn’t hold back when discussing his feelings on the Seminoles in the post-game press conference. He followed that performance up with a 25-point outburst, most of which (12) came during the bookends of the game.

A shoot-first guard, Clayton can take over games when he needs to for Florida. The Gators have several scoring options, but Clayton can stroke it from deep and drive the lane when the defense gives it to him. He’s also 12-of-13 this year from the free-throw line, which means there’s no way to stop him from scoring without forcing a turnover.

Against Grambling State and Jacksonville, Clayton seemed more focused on distributing the ball rather than scoring. Tonight, he wanted to outplay Watkins and lead his team to a convincing victory. His team-high plus-minus of 15 confirms he was the X-factor in this win.

Another dominant night on the boards

Florida State has some big bodies down low, and they play defense better than other teams Florida has seen this year. But the Seminoles were no match for the Gators on the boards.

Florida’s 47 rebounds against FSU are the most so far this season, surpassing the 45 grabbed against Grambling State at the beginning of the week. Condon is the biggest contributor, securing 11 defensive rebounds and one offensive. He simply out-physicals the other big bodies in the paint, and those 12 boards came over just 28 minutes.

Not to be forgotten is [autotag]Thomas Haugh[/autotag], who had five defensive rebounds and four offensive for a total of nine over 20 minutes off the bench. It’s a luxury for Todd Golden to be able to rotate these two in and out, and there’s really no need for them to see the floor at the same time except for the fact that they are best friends.

[autotag]Rueben Chinyelu[/autotag] matched his season-high with six rebounds (three defensive, three offensive), and all three starting guards — Clayton, Martin and [autotag]Will Richard[/autotag] — added five apiece to the team total. When you get that kind of production on the glass from your starting five, it’s pretty easy to find a path to victory.

Too many turnovers

The scary about wins like this for Florida is that the Gators aren’t playing their best basketball. Clayton, Condon and Chinyelu all turned the ball over four times, and Martin added three more. Urban Klavzar traveled on his first touch of the season, and Denzel Aberdeen threw the ball to waste a possession.

And the Gators still won by 13 points.

There’s no doubt that the turnover margin needs to be cleaned up, but there’s reason to be excited about a team that can overcome a 19-8 differential with relative ease.

Richard was the only starter without a turnover tonight and it’s because he’s not a primary ball handler. Clayton’s trying a little too hard to prove he can dish the rock, and Martin is the second option. With Klavzar in the mix, it might be wise to let him take the ball up more, but he only played five minutes tonight. Aberdeen is another option at the point.

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Lions stun the Texans and a national TV audience with an epic comeback win

The Lions stun the Texans and a national TV audience with an epic comeback win in Week 10

The Detroit Lions are 8-1 and alone in first place atop the entire NFC. For about 58 minutes of Sunday night’s game against the Texans in Houston, it sure looked like the Lions were headed for a second loss.

Not this team. Not Dan Campbell’s gritty Lions.

Despite five interceptions from Jared Goff, some really shaky offensive line play much of the night and falling into a 23-7 halftime hole, the Lions pulled off a comeback for the ages. First-year kicker Jake Bates squeezed a 52-yard field goal about six inches inside the left upright as time expired to lift the Lions to a 26-23 win.

The Lions overcame so much in this one, with many of those obstacles being self-imposed. Goff was uncharacteristically off all night, not just on the interceptions. The run game did nothing for the first three quarters, a combination of poor blocking and designs that the Texans defense was more than ready to defend. There were costly penalties on both sides of the ball.

Aaron Glenn’s undermanned defense played strong enough to keep the struggling offense within striking distance. Carlton Davis intercepted C.J. Stroud twice in the second half, the second one in the end zone with an incredible effort that prevented a sure-fire touchdown.

Detroit’s defense shut out Houston in the second half. The Lions offense got one last chance to win after Texans kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn missed badly from 58 yards. Bates had just made a close-shave inside the right upright from 56 to tie it up. Jahmyr Gibbs and Amon-Ra St. Brown picked up enough yards to get Bates in range, and the Houston-area native delivered.

It was a thrilling comeback for the Lions, one that left the NBC broadcast crew stunned. The grit to pull this one off, on the road against the AFC South-leading Texans in prime time, is the sort of victory that will earn these Lions more “team of destiny” type of talk.

Abysmal, atrocious Cowboys offense give worst showing since 2002, fall 34-6 to Eagles

The Cowboys turned in their worst offensive performance in over 20 years, signaling they may not have reached rock bottom just yet. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys defense did what they could. For one half, they made efforts to keep the game close. They stopped Eagles RB Saquon Barkley, allowing him just 24 yards through two quarters. They harassed Philadelphia QB Jalen Hurts, sacking him five times and forcing him to commit two turnovers, including his first interception since September.

But ineptitude found it’s level for the Cowboys’ offense. Playing in their first of likely nine games without quarterback Dak Prescott, it became immediately apparent just how much suffering he had been masking. The Cowboys’ offense managed just 36 passing yards in 17 attempts in the first half. Along with an egregious fumble into the end zone by Ezekiel Elliott, they were fortunate to be down just 14-6 at the break.

Then the wheels fell off in the second half en route to a 34-6 drubbing. Dallas ended up with just 146 yards on offense, their lowest total since 2002. They gave the ball away five times.

The defeat drops the Cowboys to 3-6 on the year with another home loss at AT&T Stadium.

That’s the scene of next week’s crime, too, when the in-state rival Houston Texans come on the heels of this loss to the Cowboys’ chief division rival.

The Cowboys started Cooper Rush, hoping he’d recapture some of the 2022 magic when the team won his first four starts despite mediocre play. Well, he didn’t even deliver mediocre on Sunday. Rush finished 13 of 23 for a paltry 45 yards, losing two fumbles as well.

He was relieved for a few plays by Trey Lance, and then later for the remainder of the game. Getting the first regular season action of his Cowboys career, Lance was able to show his legs some, rushing for 17 yards, but he didn’t fare much better in the passing game either. The fifth-year pro finished 4 of 6 for 21 yards and an interception where Jalen Tolbert never looked for the pass.

On defense, Dallas got an exceptional performance by first-year linebacker DeMarvion Overshown, who had two of the five sacks in the first half. He left for a brief moment with an injury scare, but was able to return. At the time he left midway through the third quarter, he led the team with 11 tackles.

The club also welcomed back Micah Parsons, who hadn’t played since Week 4 against New York thanks to a high ankle sprain. His presence was obvious as the Cowboys had their best pass-rush of the season. Parsons logged two sacks himself.

Sharp Lions cut through mistake-prone Packers in rainy Week 9 road win

The sharp Detroit Lions soundly defeated the sloppy Packers in rainy Green Bay in Week 9

The Detroit Lions proved beyond any shadow of a doubt they are the kings of the North. Dan Campbell’s Lions roared into Lambeau Field and soundly defeated the Green Bay Packers, 24-14, in a driving rainstorm that flooded some distance between the first-place Lions and the rest of the division.

Chants of “Ja-red Goff” broke out in the Packers home stadium as the Lions went into victory formation, cementing Detroit’s third straight win in Green Bay. The Lions ran for 124 yards and scored 24 straight points after the Packers opened the game with a long and impressive field goal drive.

Detroit wasn’t seriously threatened after running out to a 24-3 lead with Jahmyr Gibbs’ 15-yard TD run on the opening drive of the second half. The Packers tacked on a late touchdown, but the Lions offense calmly ran out the clock. The Lions did not turn the ball over.

The Packers were certainly complicit in their own demise. Green Bay made the mistakes the Lions largely avoided, and several of the home team’s errors came in crucial situations. Among them:

A missed field goal with the score 7-3 Lions, which gave the Lions enough field position to kick a field goal of their own
Six dropped passes, notably a should-be touchdown in the fourth quarter where Jordan Love threw behind a wide-open Dontayvion Wicks. It wasn’t an easy catch opportunity but he got both hands on it, albeit in the driving rain.
One of the worst decisions you’ll ever see a quarterback make, with Love gift-wrapping a pick-six for Lions safety Kerby Joseph.
Six pre-snap penalties, notably a 4th-down encroachment penalty that set up Detroit’s first touchdown.

The Lions played a much cleaner game despite it being their first outdoor game of the season. Jared Goff completed 11 of his first 12 passes and avoided turning the ball over once again. Goff finished 18-of-22. He netted just 145 passing yards, but that was all the Lions needed.

Other than a controversial ejection to star safety Brian Branch — his penalty was certainly merited but the ejection was highly suspect — Detroit played smartly. The defense was stingy in coverage despite an almost complete absence of a pass rush, not allowing a passing touchdown and holding Green Bay to just 3-of-12 on third-down conversions.

With the impressive divisional road win, the Lions improve to an NFC-best 7-1 record. Green Bay falls to 6-3.

Cowboys fall to Falcons, 27-21, drop to 3-5 as season is slipping away

The Cowboys lost their quarterback and lost the game. The season isn’t too far behind. | From @KDDrummondNFL

It’s tough for a fanbase to maintain hope for a season when their team isn’t winning. As long as there are games remaining on a schedule, anything is possible, but when a club continues to suffer major injuries to augment their self-inflicted wounds, sooner or later people stop believing.

And that’s for the ones who believed in the first place. The Dallas Cowboys lost quarterback Dak Prescott to a hamstring injury in the third quarter of their game against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 9. He wasn’t the only one who was knocked out of the contest, either. Wideout CeeDee Lamb had several instances where he was in clear shoulder pain.

In the end, it may not have mattered whether they were healthy for the full contest, as the Atlanta Falcons defense was able to corral the Dallas offense while their own O was efficient throughout a 27-13 win.

The defeat drops the Cowboys to 3-5 on the season, with back-to-back home dates against the Philadelphia Eagles and Houston Texans next up on the slate.

In this contest, Prescott had been playing well, completing 75% of his throws without turning the ball over. Rush acquitted himself well in relief, adding 115 passing yards and a late score to Jalen Tolbert to give Dallas a last-second chance until the on-side kick failed.

No Aiyuk, no McCaffrey, no problem as 49ers pummel Cowboys before hanging on, 30-24

The Cowboys fell way behind yet again, and weren’t able to complete the comeback yet again. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys spent their bye week trying to focus in on saving their season despite sitting at .500 with a 3-3 record. The club may have had an even record, but their 42 point differential entering Week 8 was the third-worst in the NFL. They seemed competitive for a half, with Mike McCarthy’s troops taking a four-point lead into the half. At one point they held a seven-point lead, their first time leading by more than three points in 30 days.

But the 10-6 halftime advantage saw them allow the San Francisco 49ers 21 straight points in the third quarter. In the blink of an eye, Dallas was being blown out yet again. And like their game against Baltimore, they tried to rally in the fourth quarter only to fall short in a game that wasn’t as close at it appeared.

The 49ers held on for a 30-24 victory in a loss that dropped Dallas to 3-4 on the season. San Francisco improved to 4-4 on the year.

Quarterback Dak Prescott threw two interceptions, upping his total to eight through seven games. There was not much rhythm at all until the two fourth-quarter drives that featured CeeDee Lamb scoring two touchdowns on 13 reeptions for 146 yards.

It was the first 100-yard game of the season.

Both teams had a ridiculous amount of injuries with numerous starters and stars missing. The Cowboys played without All-Pros Micah Parsons and DaRon Bland, along with Pro Bowler DeMarcus Lawrence. The 49ers were without Christian McCaffrey, Brandon Aiyuk and Talanoa Hufanga.

Dallas will return home to try and figure things out yet again before getting back on the road to take on the NFC South leading Atlanta Falcons in Week 9.

Lions roar past Titans in Week 8 blowout win

The Detroit Lions blew out the visiting Tennessee Titans in eek 8 thanks to defensive takeaways, special teams and opportunistic offense

The Detroit Lions were favored to beat the Tennessee Titans in Week 8 by the team’s largest margin since 1996. The 11.5-point line proved to be woefully inadequate.

The mighty Lions roared past the hapless Titans, 52-14, in a game that wasn’t competitive after the middle of the second quarter. After a strong start by the Tennessee offense caught the Detroit defense sleepwalking a little in the earlygoing, the Lions completely dominated all phases of the game. A 14-14 tie early in the second quarter morphed into a 35-14 rout at halftime.

Two quick Kalif Raymond touchdowns after the half, one on a punt return and another on a reception from Jared Goff, quickly opened up the margin even more. Garbage time saw the Lions tack on a Jake Bates 51-yard field goal to complete the scoring.

The Lions scored 52 points despite gaining just 225 net yards of offense; Detroit ran just 47 offensive plays. They didn’t need more, thanks to four defensive takeaways and three long special teams returns continually set up the Lions offense with short fields. Tennessee’s defense was competitive early but couldn’t keep up with the Lions’ bevy of offensive weapons and great field position.

With the win, the Lions improve to 6-1. Tennessee drops to 1-6.

Lions prevail over Vikings in Week 7 thriller

The Detroit Lions pulled off a thrilling 31-29 victory in Minnesota over the Vikings in a Week 7 game that lived up to the billing

The Week 7 matchup between the Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings was hyped up as the preeminent game of the week, if not the middle part of the NFL season. The two best teams in the NFC through six weeks battled for divisional supremacy and the top seed in the conference.

The game action did not disappoint, nor did the finals score–for Detroit fans. The Lions survived and advanced into the top spot in the NFC with a 31-29 win on enemy turf.

Minnesota surged out to a 10-0 lead early, with Detroit’s offense unable to do anything on the first three drives. Detroit then answered with authority, scoring 21 straight points in the second quarter to seize the halftime lead. The second half was played with the intensity of a playoff game, with both teams unloading their A-games in the quest to win.

Minnesota took the lead late on a David Montgomery fumble, which Vikings LB Ivan Pace scooped up and returned for a touchdown. The failed 2-point conversion kept the margin to just one point. Both defenses held strong on subsequent drives, setting up Jared Goff and the Lions for one final shot.

Goff impressively drove the Lions into field goal range for first-year kicker Jake Bates. With 15 seconds left, Bates drilled home a go-ahead field goal from 44 yards out.

Minnesota had one last gasp, but Trevor Nowaske sacked Vikings QB Sam Darnold on the final play to secure the win.

Goff finished nearly perfect, completing 22 of his 25 passes for 280 yards and two TDs. Amon-Ra St. Brown caught six of those passes for 112 yards and a touchdown in the win.

The Lions and Vikings are both 5-1, with Detroit holding the tie-breaker with the head-to-head win.