The first NFL Sunday was full of upsets, plus the Subway Series finale was spicy

Hello everyone and I hope your Monday is a happy one. It’s Shanna McCarriston here, so excited to discuss the weekend of football with you all. If your favorite team or your fantasy team won this week, I’m sure that makes another work week a little easier to handle and if not I’m sure this Monday is extra rough.

For me, the Patriots didn’t win (thanks to turnovers) but I was impressed by Mac Jones‘ debut. He looked composed and made some fantastic throws. Looking around the league, today we will discuss all the action from the first weekend of the NFL regular season. We’ll keep the football theme going and talk some college football, giving our picks for winners and losers of the week, and of course we need to talk about that US Open Final and those late-night Subway Series fireworks.

Let’s get to it.

📰 What you need to know

1. NFL Week 1 grades and recaps 🏈

Anyone else sit on their couch all Sunday? I’m back to my football ways, lazier than ever and recording maybe a couple hundred steps in the day. If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s screaming about sports while eating on NFL Sundays.

Here are some of the main stories that come out of the first Sunday of the season:

• The Browns gave the Chiefs a run for their money, but a last minute Kansas City pick sealed their first win
  
  
• Jameis Winston’s five touchdown performance helped lead the Saints to a blowout win against the Packers
  
  
• The Steelers came back from a 10-point deficit to defeat the Bills, thanks in part to a blocked punt returned for a score
• Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray showed off yesterday in Arizona’s 38-13 win over the Titans
  
  
• Sam Darnold led the Panthers to a win over the Jets, his former team

For full Week 1 scores, highlights and takeaways, click here.

Below are the teams that received the highest grade possible for their performances on Sunday: 

• Cardinals: A+
• Texans: A+
• Broncos: A+
• Saints: A+

For a deeper look at our grades for every team, click here. Now let’s move on to tonight.

We have the Raiders taking on the Ravens in the first ever regular season game with fans at Allegiant Stadium. Baltimore lost running back J.K. Dobbins to a knee injury in the preseason and RB Gus Edwards also has an injured knee, so the Ravens will be relying on players further down their depth chart — and quarterback Lamar Jackson — to find their groove on offense. 

Meanwhile, the Raiders have missed the playoffs 17 of the last 18 seasons and will once again be looking to Derek Carr to make something happen this season.

2. Daniil Medvedev stops Novak Djokovic from making history at US Open 🎾

Novak Djokovic had the chance to make history yesterday, but Daniil Medvedev shocked The Joker to win his first Grand Slam title. With a win, Djokovic’s would’ve become the first man to win all four majors — the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open — in the same year since Australian legend Rod Laver did it in 1969.

Medvedev stopped that from happening, defeating Djokovic 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

He also ruined Djokovic’s shot to pass Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal for the all-time record of Grand Slam singles titles in men’s tennis. Each member of that trio has 20 Grand Slam titles. Medvedev, 25, is now the first player of his generation to defeat any of those “Big Three” players.

On the women’s side of the tournament, history was made when Emma Raducanu, 18, defeated 19-year-old Leylah Fernandez in the Final on Saturday. Raducanu not only won her first career Grand Slam, but also became the first qualifier to ever win a Grand Slam. 

3. Mets top Yankees in dramatic Subway Series finale ⚾

A player hitting three home runs, benches clearing, a close ninth inning… Sunday’s final game of the season between the Yankees and Mets featured just about everything — and the Mets came out on top with a 7-6 win.

The Mets were carried by shortstop Francisco Lindor, who played hero with three homers, including the eventual game-winner. He also played a role in both benches clearing.

• Benches cleared after Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton homered to tie the game in the 7th inning. During his home run trot, he had some words for Lindor and things escalated from there
• Stanton appearing to tell Lindor he shouldn’t be talking trash was a reference to Lindor’s homer earlier in the game, when the Met did this
• Nothing happened when the benches cleared, but Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner did provide a humorous moment by flashing two thumbs down in the direction of Lindor and Javier Bàez. A few weeks back Bàez said the thumbs down motion was the Mets’ version of booing their fans
• Speaking of humor, Lindor got the last laugh in all of this, because he hit his third home run of the game — becoming the first player to ever do that in a Subway Series game — an inning later to seal the win

The Mets (72-72) are now three games back of the second wild card and five out in the NL East. The Yankees (79-64) are now one game back of both wild card spots.

4. Winners and losers from the weekend in college football 🏈

Another weekend of college football has given us a lot to talk about. Two top 10 teams suffered upsets and others that were ranked high fell to lower ranked opponents. A major upset we saw was No. 3 Ohio State falling to No. 12 Oregon. It’s the Buckeyes’ first home loss since 2017.

Just as we did last week, we are going to recap the week and give our picks for which players, coaches and teams succeeded and which did not exactly deliver.

Here’s a look at winners and losers from Week 2:

Winners

• Oregon: They were 15-point underdogs heading into the game against No. 3 Ohio State, but won 35-28
• Iowa: They are looking like a real Big Ten contender and so far have possibly the most impressive resume
• Florida QB Anthony Richardson: He threw for 152 yards, two touchdowns and rush for 115 yards and a touchdown in the seven total plays he had in Florida’s 42-20 win over USF
• Virginia QB Brennan Armstrong: He threw for a program record 405 yards and five touchdowns in a win over Illinois and through two games has completed 71.6% of his passes for 734 yards and seven touchdowns
• This cat

Losers 

• Ohio State defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs: The defense is playing with injuries, but is not prepared to stop anything that comes their way
• Texas: Texas was outclassed against Arkansas, who rushed for 333 yards and four touchdowns in a 40-21 win over the Longhorns
• Florida State’s prevent defense: Just watch the last play of Jacksonville State’s 20-17 upset victory over Florida State
  
  

For full commentary on winners and losers, as well as overreactions from Week 2, click here.

📝 Odds & Ends

• Dodgers pitcher Max Scherzer recorded his 3,000th career strikeout against the Padres
• After his US Open win, Medvedev did a FIFA celebration to commemorate his first Grand Slam title
• Maia Chaka became the first Black woman to officiate a Week 1 NFL game

📺 What to watch tonight

🏈 Ravens vs. Raiders, 8:15 p.m. | BAL -210 | TV: ABC

⚾ Rays vs. Blue Jays, 7:07 p.m. | TOR -130 | TV: MLB.TV

⚾ Cardinals vs. Mets, 7:10 p.m. | NYM -105 | TV: MLB.TV

Best thing I saw on the internet 🏅

This almost turned out to be the worst thing on the internet. We have seen animals in sports venues before, but this time we saw a cat hanging off a higher level of Hard Rock Stadium, holding on for dear life. The cat was hanging on with its claws and eventually fell, but thankfully someone was right under with a flag to catch the feline.