Aaron Rodgers is not human, plus U.S. golf dream team wins Ryder Cup

Hello sports fans, it’s Shanna McCarriston. I hope you all had a fabulous weekend! As usual, I watched football all day Sunday. But now I’m back and ready to give you all the sports news you need to know on this Monday.

Today we will recap everything that went down in the NFL yesterday, Ryder Cup results, what is turning into a wild MLB postseason picture and more.

Let’s get started.

📰 What you need to know

1. NFL Week 3 recap: Breaking down Aaron Rodgers‘ latest heroics 🏈

It was another fun weekend of football (even if the Patriots looked terrible) and if you couldn’t catch it all, don’t fret, I’m here to recap it all. A few undefeated teams finally met their match, including Tom Brady and company. Brady coming off a loss is usually dangerous and next week he makes his return to Foxboro to face his old team. With the Patriots showing a less-than-impressive display on Sunday, that could shape up to be a blood bath for New England.

The 3-0 teams still remaining are the Raiders, Broncos, Rams, Cardinals and Panthers. Here are some of the major stories across the league from Sunday’s action:

• The Packers defeated the 49ers, 30-28, on Sunday night with a walk-off field goal. The field goal came after one of Aaron Rodgers’ most impressive last-second drives 
  
  
• Ravens‘ kicker Justin Tucker made history by kicking an NFL-record 66-yard last-second field goal for a win over the Lions
• The Chargers defeated the Chiefs with a last-minute touchdown to put Kansas City at 1-2
• The Browns sacked Justin Fields nine times in the Bears‘ loss to Cleveland 
  
  
• Matthew Stafford shined in the Rams’ win over the defending champion Buccaneers 
• The Raiders won in overtime against the Dolphins to advance to 3-0

What Rodgers did to lead the Packers to victory was nothing short of remarkable. Let’s set the stage:

• Green Bay was down by one point with 37 seconds on the clock
• Rodgers had no timeouts at his disposal
• The drive began at Green Bay’s own 25-yard line

That’s not exactly a recipe for success, but it didn’t matter. Rodgers had to be perfect to give the Packers a shot to win, and he was. He found Davante Adams for a 25-yard gain on the first play of the drive and then another 17-yard gain a couple plays later. That set the stage for Mason Crosby‘s game-winning kick.

As far as our grades go, the Bills earned an “A” this week for their dominating performance against the Washington Football team. To see all the other grades we handed out, click here.

Oh, and we still have one more game to look forward to tonight: an NFC East battle between the 1-1 Cowboys and the 1-1 Eagles. Notably, it is Dak Prescott‘s first home game since his gruesome ankle injury at AT&T Stadium last October.

2. United States dominates, wins Ryder Cup 🏆

The wait is over. The United States clinched the Ryder Cup on Sunday, reaching the minimum 14.5 points needed for the victory. They went on to defeat Europe, 19-9, making history with the largest margin of victory in the modern era of the Ryder Cup. 

• Heading into Sunday the United States had an 11 to 5 lead, which marks the largest advantage in the Ryder Cup’s final session since 1975
• This is the third Ryder Cup win for the United States this century, putting their record at 3-7
• The United States has won back-to-back Ryder Cups on home soil for the first time since 1979 and 1983
  
  

Collin Morikawa was the one who gave the Americans the number of points needed for them to later hoist the trophy. He clinched it with a put that guaranteed at least a half point. 

• Morikawa said: “It means so much. … To clinch this and bring the cup back to home soil, it feels so good … The guys pulled through. We didn’t let up, and looking at the leaderboard, hopefully we can keep going and hit the 18.5 or get past that.”

Before yesterday, 18.5 was the scoring record in the event’s recent history. The 19 points the Americans secured is the most for Europe or the United States since the rest of Europe joined Great Britain and Ireland at the event in 1979 and the most since 1975. 

We’ll leave you with this quote from U.S. captain Steve Stricker.

• Stricker: “This is the greatest team of all-time right here” 

3. Winners and losers from Week 4 of college football 🏈

College football continues to deliver exciting and surprising weeks of play. Week 4 was no different and gave us two AP Top 10 teams falling and four top-25 teams losing as well.

• No. 9 Clemson lost in overtime to NC State
• No. 4 Oklahoma was saved by a last-second field goal to beat West Virginia in yet another low scoring game for the Sooners.
• No. 7 Texas A&M lost to No. 16 Arkansas to wrap up a wild week

Let’s break down the winners and losers of all the action:

Winners:

• Arkansas: Defeating Texas A&M, who were expecting to reach the playoffs, 20-10, is something for Arkansas to celebrate
• Notre Dame’s defense: The defense hasn’t shown the most consistency, but impressed this week with a 41-13 win over No. 18 Wisconsin
• Baylor: Beating bad teams is one thing, but Baylor defeating No. 14 Iowa State puts them on our radar
  
  

Losers:

• ACC favorites: If you were an ACC favorite chances are you didn’t have the best week, with L’s from many teams
• Oklahoma: This marks the third straight Big 12 game where Oklahoma scored 27 points or fewer, while before this they didn’t have any games under 28 points during Lincoln Riley’s time as head coach
• Vanderbilt: The team was losing 35-0 against No. 2 Georgia in the first quarter

For full commentary on the winners and losers of the week, plus overreactions, click here

4. MLB playoff picture: Yankees sweep Red Sox to gain control of Wild Card ⚾

Welcome to the final week of the MLB regular season. 

Here are the teams who have already punched their ticket to the postseason:

• Rays: clinched AL East
• White Sox: clinched AL Central
• Giants: clinched playoff spot
• Dodgers: clinched playoff spot
• Brewers: clinched playoff spot

The race to watch right now is the AL Wild Card. The Yankees and Red Sox are battling it out for the top spot. That’s what made it more fun to watch their three-game series at Fenway Park over the weekend. The Yankees swept the series, wrapping up their trip to Fenway Park with a 6-3 win. Giancarlo Stanton was a big reason for the sweep, as he had 10 RBI in the three games.

The Yankees now have a one-game lead over Boston at the top of the AL Wild Card standings. The Blue Jays are just one game back of the Red Sox. It’s going to be a crazy final week, so sit tight.

📝 Odds & Ends

• Arch Manning, Archie’s grandson and the nephew of Peyton and Eli, showed off and scored five touchdowns for Isadore Newman
  
  
• Utah defensive back Aaron Lowe, 21, was killed in a house party shooting in Salt Lake City early Sunday morning
  
  
• A woman and child were killed in a fall from the concourse at Padres’ Petco Park on Saturday
  
  
• Denny Hamlin won the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to advance to the round of 8 in the playoffs
  
  

📺 What to watch tonight

🏈 Eagles vs. Cowboys, 8:15 p.m. | DAL -3.5 | TV: ESPN

⚾ Athletics vs. Mariners, 10:15 p.m. | SEA -105 | TV: MLB.TV

🏅 Best thing I saw on the internet

I mentioned in a previous newsletter that I find the Arizona Cardinals a ton of fun to watch and this week was the same. The Cardinals turned a flea-flicker attempt by Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars into a pick-6 on Sunday. The only thing more fun than watching a successful flea-flicker is watching one that ends up in a touchdown for the defense. Arizona went on to win 31-19 and now sits at 3-0.

2021 Ryder Cup gear now available