PPM

   The PPM is back with the next to last week of regular season play in college and the final week of byes in the NFL.

Last Week: 11-5

Overall: 110-47

College

Ohio State over Minnesota 35-10

Texas Tech ove Central Florida 31-24

Toledo over Bowling Green 34-21

UTSA over South Florida 31-14

Middle Tennessee State over UTEP 29-21

N.C. State over Virginia Tech 23-16

Georgia Southern over Old Dominion 29-25

Boise State over Utah State 27-17

Oregon State over Washington 37-35

Arkansas over Florida International 32-14

Games of the Week

Utah over Arizona 31-30

Kansas State over Kansas 35-31

NFL

Browns over Steelers 17-14

Chargers over Packers 35-27

Games of the Week

Chiefs over Eagles 34-32

Bills over Jets 24-17

Boxing Challenge; Stevenson bores, Junior Lightweights war

  On a rare Thursday night event with elite fighters and two world titles, Las Vegas was the site as ESPN wanted their broadcast partner for boxing, Top Rank, to help with the start of a huge sports weekend in Las Vegas that would culminate in the Formula One race on Saturday.

The stage was set for Shakur Stevenson to continue his rise to stardom with a national audience viewing his attempt to grab the WBC lightweight title vacated by Devon Haney.

Stevenson succeeded in taking the title but didn't win any fans as Stevenson "won" a unanimous decision over Edwin De Los Santos in one of the most boring fights you'll see at the world-class level.

Neither fighter landed double-digit punches in any round, and the pair combined according to Compubox (Boxing's stat-keeping organization) for a combined forty punches, an all-time low for a twelve-round fight in the thirty-eight years of Compubox's existence.

Neither man took any chances and since no one would, the advantage swung to the more skilled fighter, and Stevenson did enough to win under the circumstances.

Stevenson won by scores of 115-113 and 116-112 (x 2), I scored Stevenson the winner at 117-111.

Stevenson didn't take advantage of De Los Santos's reluctance (despite his reputation for power) and Stevenson didn't make anyone scream to see him fight Devin Haney or anyone next time out after such a boring fight.

Stevenson is always going to look better against fighters that attack and at least gamble for a victory, which De Los Santos refused to attempt but neither Devin Haney nor Vasyl Lomachenko are aggressive fighters which makes me wonder if a Stevenson fight against either man would be much more exciting than this fight was, although I'm not sure if any fight could be more boring than this.

Fortunately, the co-feature saved the day as Emanuel Navarrete retained his WBO junior lightweight championship with a majority draw with Robson Conceicao.

Navarrete knocked Conceicao down in the fourth and sixth rounds and those knockdowns would be key in the decision as one judge ruled for Navarrete 114-112 (a draw without the knockdowns) and the remaining two judges even at 113-113 (Conceicao wins without them) as same as my score.

Conceicao managed to slow the usual non-stop attack of Navarrete just enough to reach him with counters and mixed in (especially in the last few rounds) enough right hands to earn the majority draw and perhaps an eventual rematch since the fight was an entertaining one.

It makes sense for Navarrete unless first, he can sign a unification match against WBC champion O'Shaquie Foster, who signed a contract with Top Rank last week.

Conceicao would make sense to face the winner of a Navarrete-Foster match and considering his two defeats to Oscar Valdex and Shakur Stevenson had faded his star a little bit, it seems to me that despite the draw, Conceicao was the biggest winner of the evening.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 170 Pts (2)

Ramon Malpica: 154 Pts (2)

Vince Samano: 112 Pts (2)

Boxing Challenge

     It's a rare Thursday night in the boxing challenge as Top Rank and ESPN are live from Las Vegas with two title events.

The main event pits Shakur Stevenson, who is trying for his third divisional title in his relatively short career, and Edwin De Los Santos for the WBC lightweight title that Devon Haney placed on hold before his challenge of Regis Prograis for the WBC junior welterweight title next month.

Stevenson impressively stopped Shuichiro Yoshino in six rounds in April for his debut in the division and looked very strong at the weight.

De Los Santos is the opponent in a rare Top Rank vs PBC pairing and has rattled off his four biggest wins since his only loss, a split decision to William Foster in January 2022.

De Los Santos ripped through then-undefeated prospect Jose Valenzuela in September 2022 and won every round in a July unanimous decision win over Joseph Adorno.

De Los Santos accepted the fight after Frank Martin refused to fight Stevenson, turning down his largest career payday and first world title shot due to what he claimed was not enough purse parity between Martin and Stevenson.

De Los Santos is a good puncher (14 of 16 wins via knockout) but he's dealing with an entirely new level of opponent in Stevenson, who can eventually be the top pound-for-pound fighter in the sport.

In the co-feature, exciting WBO junior lightweight champion Emanuel Navarrete defends his title against former title challenger Robson Conceicao.

Navarrete returns after his fan-friendly battle against former champion Oscar Valdez in August with Navarrete winning a unanimous decision.

Conceicao, a former Olympic gold medal winner, has lost just twice, losing a somewhat controversial decision to Oscar Valdez before dropping a much wider decision to Shakur Stevenson last year.

Conceicao could bring an interesting style to face Navarrete, who struggled a bit in being knocked down by Liam Wilson in his fight before the Valdez victory.

Did Navarrete look so good against Valdez because Valdez's style was made for him?

Or was the Wilson win the outlier for Navarrete and just an off-night?

Boxing Challenge

Vacant WBC Lightweight Title 12 Rds

Shakur Stevenson vs Edwin De Los Santos

All; Stevenson Unanimous Decision

WBO Junior Lightweight Title. 12 Rds

Emanuel Navarrete vs Robson Conceicao

R.L: Navarrete KO 7

TRS: Navarrete Unanimous Decision

V.S: Conceicao Unanimous Decision

DeShaun Watson Out for Year

   Just as DeShaun Watson seemed to be showing signs of the player that the Cleveland Browns traded for, word from the team today stated that Watson had suffered a broken bone in his shoulder and would miss the remainder of the season.

Andrew Berry said that Watson should fully recover from his eventual surgery and be prepared to start the 2024 regular season.

Watson completed all fourteen of his passes in the second half in rallying the Browns to a 33-31 win in Baltimore over the Ravens to improve the team to 6-3 and only a half-game behind Baltimore for first place in the AFC North

Watson exits the season with 1,115 passing yards, seven touchdowns, and four interceptions in six games. While Watson seemed to be turning the corner just as his year concluded, it's not unfair to say that the Browns still will have questions about the quarterback position entering next season.

Kevin Stefanski announced that rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson will be the starter for Sunday's game against Pittsburgh.

Thompson-Robinson was overmatched in his only start of the year, getting less than an hour's notice of the start with no first-team preparation before throwing three interceptions in a 28-3 defeat against Baltimore.

The hope is that with a week of practice and work with the first team, Thompson-Robinson will be able to improve his performance and help the Browns get by against Pittsburgh, if not the remainder of the season.

The Browns are 6-3 with eight games to go and the schedule isn't overwhelmingly difficult.

Home games against Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, Chicago, and the New York Jets and road games against the Los Angeles Rams, Denver, Houston, and Cincinnati.

4-4 against that schedule would make the Browns 10-7 which might get them into the playoffs, 5-3 and 11-6 is highly likely to get them into the postseason.

However, even against the weakest of teams, the Browns can't assume that they will receive even average play at the quarterback position, so none of these games can be guaranteed wins.

While DeShaun Watson has been disappointing, Andrew Berry didn't want to spend money for Jacoby Brissett, thought Dorian Thompson-Robinson could do the job better than Joshua Dobbs (the jury is still out there) before the season, and didn't trade (we don't really know if Berry tried to re-acquire one or both) for Brissett or Dobbs at the trade deadline to have insurance against a Watson injury.

This is the situation that faces the Browns- either an untested day-three rookie QB will have to succeed in an unexpected situation or a veteran quarterback that hasn't proven himself as a starter must come through as an average starter.

Thompson-Robinson can surprise, just last season San Francisco received play from seventh-round rookie Brock Purdy that was good enough to help the 49ers reach the NFC title game but one certainly cannot count on that happening.

No matter what, I can't blame Kevin Stefanski for whatever happens in the final nine games without Watson but I do have blame for Andrew Berry.

It was Berry that was all-in on Dorian Thompson-Robinson's impressive pre-season and he may eventually be right.

For the sake of the Cleveland Browns, he better be. 

Browns Rock Ravens 33-31 at the gun!

    Dustin Hopkins connected on a forty-yard field goal on the game's last play to give the Cleveland Browns a stunning come-from-behind victory over the Baltimore Ravens in Baltimore.

The 33-31 win saw the Browns trail from seconds after the game began until the final kick by Hopkins as the Browns constantly hustled and scrapped to make up deficits that multiple times were fourteen points.

DeShaun Watson battled through an ankle injury to complete each of his fourteen second-half passes to lead the comeback.

Jerome Ford rushed for 107 yards and Amari Cooper led the receiver with ninety-eight yards on six catches.

Cleveland improved to 6-3 with the win and moved to within a half-game of the AFC North-leading Ravens.

The Browns will host the also 6-3 Pittsburgh Steelers next Sunday in Cleveland.

Brownie Bits

1) The day started poorly when Baltimore Safety Kyle Hamilton blitzed in on DeShaun Watson, tipped Watson's pass into the air and then grabbed it to cruise into the end zone for a touchdown uncontested.

Hamilton is a terrific young safety and I have a feeling that we will see many big plays from Hamilton against the Browns before his career is over.

2) A key play in the game was another fortunate bounce in a season filled with them was the fumble recovery by Wyatt Teller on the game-winning drive on a Baltimore strip sack on DeShaun Watson.

In the past, Baltimore recovers the ball and the game ends. 

3) DeShaun Watson may not have been allowed to go down the field by the Baltimore defense (his longest completion was 28 yards) but especially in the second half, Watson took what was given and put the ball where it needed to be.

That hasn't always been the case for Watson but the short-range accuracy is exactly what the Browns hoped for when they paid a punitive price for him.

4) Dustin Hopkins has been so dependable this season since the Browns acquired him from the Chargers and I actually felt sorry for him when he missed what would have been the game-tying extra point in the fourth quarter.

Trust me, that is not a common feeling from me on Browns kickers and I felt really good for Hopkins when he drilled the game-winner and avoided the goat horns.

5) Greg Newsome's pick-six in the final quarter was the first career interception for the former first-rounder and took some horns off himself for an earlier defensive holding penalty in the end zone that negated an interception that would have ended the drive for Baltimore but instead resulted in a Ravens touchdown.

Considering Newsome was injured for most of the weekend with an uncertain game status, it was quite a game for the Northwestern product.

6) I would be surprised if Denzel Ward was able to play this week after sustaining a neck injury in the first half.

Ward was trying to tackle Ravens receiver Zay Flowers when suddenly tackle Ronnie Stanley charged into the picture and spears Ward helmet-first.

Ward was unable to return after the cheap shot and Stanley is likely to pay a hefty fine after the NFL reviews all the games this week.

7) DeShaun Watson's biggest throw came on the final drive as the Browns faced a second and nineteen on their own twenty-two with Watson firing a dart to Amari Cooper for seventeen yards to bring the Browns to a reasonable third and two situation.

Jerome Ford ran for six yards to gain the first down but a big-time throw from Watson when the team needed it most.

8) James Proche had looked good returning punts last week in his Browns debut but his muffed punt in Baltimore led to the Ravens touchdown in the fourth quarter, so the Browns haven't solved their return problems yet.

9) The Browns grit came through on two occasions in the fourth quarter, one with David Njoku carrying defenders down the field for yardage and on Kareem Hunt's carry on the final drive, the Browns lineman pushed Hunt down the field for several extra yards that brought Dustin Hopkins into field goal range for the game-winning kick.

10) Jordan Elliott blocked a Justin Tucker field goal attempt in the second quarter for the second block of his career.

The other block of his career? Also against Justin Tucker.

11) The Browns defense kept Lamar Jackson under control, sacking him three times, intercepting him twice, and allowing Jackson to throw only one touchdown.

It wasn't easy or even pretty but it was enough to allow Cleveland to crawl back into the game.

12) I thought Baltimore would win a close game and I thought Cleveland had to win both this game and the following week's game against Pittsburgh to have a shot at winning the division due to tiebreakers inside the division as a loss to either would make 3-3 the best mark that Cleveland could have with a split.

The Browns now have a chance to win both and while the 6-3 Steelers are struggling on offense and overachieving a bit, their defense is the real deal as well.

Cleveland needs this game for many reasons, take the Steelers lightly at your own peril.

PPM

   The PPM is back with another football weekend as the college regular season roars down the stretch.

Last Week: 10-6 

Overall: 99-42

College

Ohio State over Michigan State 41-10

Kansas over Texas Tech 37-34

Bowling Green over Kent State 29-21 

N.C. State over Wake Forest 27-17

Middle Tennessee State over Florida International 30-28

Arkansas over Auburn 28-24

Oregon State over Stanford 41-21

Georgia Southern over Marshall 24-21

Boise State over New Mexico 35-17

UTSA over Rice 34-17

Games of the Week

Michigan over Penn State 27-14

Georgia over Ole Miss 31-24

Pro

Ravens over Browns 21-17

Chargers over Lions 31-26

Games of the Week

49ers over Jaguars 24-14

Saints over Vikings 27-21

I Tell Ya' Herbie

Back with more from the college football universe with I Tell Ya' Herbie.

I Tell Ya' Herbie: 

                             Right now, the biggest injustice in the sport isn't Connor Stallions or the other "honorable" Michigan Men involved in their sign-stealing scandal.

It's the NCAA for stubbornly sticking to their bowl ban for undefeated James Madison for moving up to 1-A and daring to go unbeaten thus far.

The Dukes still have to win have to win home games against UConn and Appalachian State along with a road trip to Coastal Carolina but if they finish unbeaten and things fall right with one loss teams such as the AAC's Tulane and the Mountain West's Air Force and Fresno State, the NCAA needs to do the right thing by an unbeaten team and say no adjustment time needed and allow the Dukes to take the automatic bid to the New Years Day bowl in its final year.

It's the right thing to do.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                             The most interesting conference race at this stage might be in the AAC mentioned above with three undefeated teams at 5-0 in the league (Tulane, SMU, and UTSA) and a 4-1 team lurking behind the three leaders in Memphis.

And sadly with each team with three games to play, there are only two scheduled between the four with SMU traveling to Memphis and UTSA visiting Tulane.

It's too bad there isn't more interaction between the four down the stretch.

I Tell Ya' Herbie;

                             The most anticipated game of this week has to be Michigan traveling to State College for the first test of note for the third-ranked and scandal-scarred Wolverines this season.

While Michigan has steamrolled all opponents, their best wins have been over Rutgers and UNLV, neither of whom would be confused with the sport's powerhouses.

Penn State failed their big test in Columbus but their best wins are better than those of Michigan to date with wins over West Virginia and Iowa.

This one is in State College, so Michigan's first test will be away from home, and considering the sign-stealing scandal, the crowd will be especially strong against the Wolverines.

This may be Drew Allar's last chance to score a career-changing win this season but from what I saw in Columbus, even at home this game may be more advanced than he can handle.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            The coach of the year in the Big 12 might be Mike Gundy for the rally-saving season for his Oklahoma State Cowboys.

The Cowboys have won five straight since losing to South Alabama at home and Iowa State on the road with wins over Kansas, Kansas State, and most importantly to them, the final (for now) Bedlam against Oklahoma which gives Oklahoma State final bragging rights and may have knocked the Sooners out of the Big 12 championship game.

Gundy has moved from the hot seat to the possible coach of the year and should the Cowboys win out against Central Florida (4-5), Houston (4-5), and BYU (5-4), it will be Oklahoma State as the Sooner State's representative in the league title game.