The Arizona Cardinals lost on Sunday in embarrassing fashion, a 45-17 drubbing from the Los Angeles Rams in front of the home fans at State Farm Stadium. They started playing well on offense, scoring 10 points in their first three drives, but then things fell apart as they didn’t score again until it was 45-10.

The Cardinals gained 314 yards of offense on 61 plays. They had only 17 first downs. They went 4-for-12 on third down.

What did we see from the offense against the Rams?

Michael Wilson a monster again

In three games over the last month when Marvin Harrison Jr. has been out, Wilson has been producing like a star. On Sunday, he had 11 catches for 142 yards and two scores.

He is up to 61 receptions for 712 yards and three scores on the season, but his three games as the No. 1 option at receiver have totaled 36 receptions for 445 yards. Of course, all three games have been losses, so he had been putting up numbers in bad games for the team.

They’re not even trying to run the ball

The Cardinals totaled 51 rushing yards on the afternoon against a Rams unit that has struggled to stop the run. There were only 10 run plays to the running backs. 22 of the Cardinals’ 51 yards came from quarterback Jacoby Brissett scrambling.

McBride ties record

With five catches, McBride tied Travis Kelce’s league record of 15 consecutive games with at least five receptions by a tight end.

It took a a cheap one late in the game to get there, but there isn’t anything wrong with that.

More volume numbers for Brissett

Jacoby Brissett had another game with over 250 passing yards (271) and with two touchdown passes. Of course, he is now 1-7 in eight games and in the five games since he was named the starter (even if Kyler Murray had not been hurt), the Cardinals are 0-5 with a minus-75 point differential. He is out there operating the offense with volume numbers but no efficiency.

Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.

This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Rams 45, Cardinals 17: Observations from their offensive performance

Philip Rivers’ first child is older than this many Indianapolis Colts players originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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With the Indianapolis Colts trying to lure Philip Rivers out of retirement, there are all sorts of fun age-related facts to talk about.

Yes, you read that correctly: the Colts are trying to lure Rivers out of retirement to play quarterback after losing Daniel Jones for the rest of the season due to a torn Achilles.

“The Colts are planning to bring potential Hall of Fame QB Philip Rivers into their facility Tuesday to work out to see if he may join their practice squad, per me and Mike Garafolo,” NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported.

Rivers is now 44 years old and hasn’t played in the NFL since 2020, when he started in all 16 games for the Colts that season.

That’s right, Rivers hasn’t played since the NFL moved to a 17-game season.

Incredibly enough, Rivers’ oldest child, Halle, who was born on July 6, 2002 and is 23 years old, according to People, is older than some players who could be Rivers’ teammates soon.

Here’s the list of players who are on the Colts’ practice squad, active roster and injured reserve lists who are younger than Rivers’ oldest child.

• S Reuben Lowery: 23 (July 30, 2002)
• QB Riley Leonard: 23 (Sept. 13, 2002)
• CB Justin Walley: 23 (Sept. 22, 2002)
• DT Tim Smith: 23 (Aug. 9, 2002)
• S Trey Washington: 22 (Dec. 9, 2002)
• JT Tuimoloau: 22
• DJ Giddens: 22
• S Hunter Wohler: 22

Along with those eight players, the Colts have six other players who were born in the months before Rivers’ eldest kid, including Anthony Richardson, Tanor Bortolini, Jaylon Jones, Riley Leonard, Jalen Travis and Tyler Warren.

If you aren’t rooting for the 44-year-old Rivers to come out of retirement and join the Colts, you need to check yourself for a pulse.

It would be so much fun to watch Rivers take the field again, no matter the result.

More NFL News

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• Travis Kelce, Rashee Rice dodge accountability after crucial drops
• Will Joe Mixon, Tank Dell play in 2025? Injury updates on Texans stars
• Will Josh Simmons return in 2025? Latest injury update on Chiefs LT
• George Pickens responds to Richard Sherman’s criticism with NSFW rant

NEW YORK (AP) — The NBA has issued a $35,000 fine to Orlando Magic guard Desmond Bane for forcefully throwing the ball at an opponent “in an unsportsmanlike manner.”

The league announced the fine Monday.

The sequence happened on a transition play with 6:13 left in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s road loss to the New York Knicks. Bane grabbed a loose ball and rifled it at Knicks forward OG Anunoby, who was laying on the ground near the basket support, to trigger an out-of-bounds call.

The ball bounced off Anunoby’s back and Anunoby immediately got up and confronted Bane with a shove. Bane received a technical foul for the play.

___

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

The Philadelphia Eagles are back in action to take on the Los Angeles Chargers in a Week 14 edition of Monday Night Football.

The Birds are looking to snap a two-game losing streak by beating the Bolts, who’ve won four of their last five games. We’ll see if Philly can move one step closer to clinching the NFC East or if they continue to collapse down the stretch.

Follow along here for live score updates, highlights, injury news, analysis, and more before this article ultimately turns into our game recap. The best place to actually discuss the game as it happens is still in our open threads for each quarter, the first of which you can find here.

FIRST QUARTER

• Updates to come …

SECOND QUARTER

• Updates to come …

THIRD QUARTER

• Updates to come …

FOURTH QUARTER

• Updates to come …

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EAGLES LINEUP NOTES

• Marcus Epps took first-team reps at safety next to Reed Blankenship in pregame warmups.

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EAGLES INJURY NEWS

• Updates to come (but hopefully not) …

Who should be 49ers’ MVP for the 2025 season? originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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A year after a bitterly disappointing 6-11 season, the San Francisco 49ers head into the season’s final stretch at 9-4, which not only has them firmly in the mix for a postseason spot but gives them a reasonable chance at winning the NFC West and even earning the No. 1 seed in the conference. While the 49ers have had several heroes in the 2025 season, there’s only one choice for the team MVP.

Christian McCaffrey. 

McCaffrey has many accomplishments this season that make him the team’s MVP, which we’ll get to. But before looking at this year, let’s look back at 2024. 

While a lot went wrong for the 49ers in 2024, McCaffrey missing all but four games tops the list. The team went 6-11 overall and 5-8 in games without McCaffrey. San Francisco sustained plenty of key injuries in 2024. That said, the 49ers got 15 games out of Brock Purdy, George Kittle and Deebo Samuel, seven games from Brandon Aiyuk, 15 from Nick Bosa and 17 from Fred Warner. In 2025, Purdy has missed 8 games while Kittle has missed 5. Samuel is gone and Aiyuk has yet to (and probably won’t) play a game. On defense, Bosa and Warner are both out with season-ending injuries, suffered in Weeks 3 and 6, respectively. 

As bad as 2024 was for the 49ers, 2025 should be going worse. Certainly, McCaffrey isn’t the only reason for that (Mac Jones deserves a lot of praise), but when we see how much the 49ers have relied on McCaffrey, his value is undeniable. 

McCaffrey has 237 carries for 849 yards with eight rushing touchdowns. As would be expected, those totals all easily lead the team, as Brian Robinson Jr. is second in all three categories with 72 carries for 328 yards with two touchdowns. But as a receiver, McCaffrey has also caught 85 passes for 806 yards with five touchdowns. The reception and yardage totals both easily lead the team (Jauan Jennings and Kendrick Bourne are second in receptions and yards, respectively, with 41 and 482). The five touchdown catches are tied for the most with Jennings and Kittle. 

That puts McCaffrey on pace for 1,110 rushing yards, 10 rushing touchdowns, 111 receptions, 1,054 receiving yards and seven catching touchdowns. As a reminder, the 1,000/1,000 club consists of Roger Craig (1985), Marshall Faulk (1999) and McCaffrey (2019). Running backs with 100 receptions in a season are Larry Centers (1995), LaDanian Tomlinson (2003), Matt Forte (2014), McCaffrey (2018 and 2019) and Austin Ekeler (2022). 

Sure, there are things to pick apart. McCaffrey’s 3.6 yards-per-carry average is unimpressive. That said, anyone who saw the state of San Francisco’s offensive line in the early part of the season would completely understand that total. In fact, anyone who saw the state of San Francisco’s offensive line in the early part of the season might wonder how McCaffrey managed even 3.6 yards per attempt. 

McCaffrey’s versatility has masked a lot of the team’s other issues. Given where the 49ers stand, despite all that has gone wrong for them, there’s a reasonable argument to be made that McCaffrey should be the MVP of the league. Of course, that’s largely a quarterback award and there are other quality candidates.

But San Francisco’s MVP? That’s as easy as CMC.

Brandon Moreno doesn’t agree with how his fight was officiated Saturday.

A former UFC flyweight champion, Moreno (23-9-2 MMA, 11-5-2 UFC) lost by second-round TKO to Japan’s Tatsuro Taira on the main card of UFC 323 – which went down this past Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The final sequence ended with Taira (18-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) taking his back as he landed ground-and-pound.

The fight was stopped by referee Mark Smith despite Moreno being conscious as he covered up. Immediately after the stoppage, Moreno postured up, looked at Smith and said, “Really?”

Many online, and even the UFC commentators, believed the fight was prematurely stopped. Now, a couple of days removed from the defeat, Moreno went to Instagram to address his supporters, along with the controversial stoppage.

“Hey, guys, how are you? Just here to tell you guys that I’m OK, and that everything is excellent,” Moreno said in Spanish in a video posted on Instagram. “I didn’t post anything yesterday because it was my birthday and I wanted to have a good time and spend time with my family and my daughters playing Mario Kart. I just wanted to tell you guys that I’m OK. Reflecting on the fight, who knows, but I me personally, I think that the referee stopped the fight too soon. But maybe I’d just be there taking extra punishment, or maybe I would’ve escaped and pulled off the comeback. You never know. It was a really strange fight. The only thing I can do now is keep my head up, keep moving forward, and enjoy the holidays, spend time with family and wait for 2026 to see what it brings us. Blessings to all, take care and happy holidays.”

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This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Brandon Moreno critical of referee stoppage in UFC 323 loss

The final day of LPGA qualifying will be a sprint to the finish. After weather delays forced Final Qualifying to be reduced from 90 holes to 72, the event has already stretched to a Tuesday finish.

Most players have nine holes or less to make something happen in chilly Mobile, Alabama. The fourth and final round was suspended at 4:15 p.m. local time due to darkness.

The top 25 players and ties will earn LPGA cards for the 2026 season. The cut line currently sits at 4 under par. USGA champion Erica Shepherd, a rare lefty in the women’s game, is among those one shot outside the number along with 17-year-old Gianna Clemente. Shepherd has seven holes left while Clemente has nine.

Other notables needing to make a late run include Amari Avery (1 under), former U.S. Women’s Open champion Jeongeun Lee6 (1 under) and Kate Smith-Stroh (2 under), the pro with a graphic design business.

Former British Open winner Hinako Shibuno is currently on the cut line at 4 under for the tournament. She has seven holes left on the Crossings Course. LPGA winners and Solheim Cup players Ryann O’Toole (T-8) and Jodi Ewart Shadoff (T-15) are in position to secure their cards.

Meanwhile at the top of the board, China’s Jin Yang, who was a rookie on the LPGA a decade ago, is on a tear – 4 under through 10 holes in the fourth round – to take the lead at 11 under. Germany’s Helen Briem, the 6-3 power player, is in a share of second at 10 under with Kokona Sakurai, a five-time winner on the JLPGA.

England’s Mimi Rhodes vaulted up the board after a third-round 66 that began with a hole-out for eagle on her first hole of the day. Rhodes, 23, won three times on the LET this year.

Kim Kaufman, the veteran player who was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, is well outside the cut line in a share of 75th.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: LPGA Q-School: Major champion, 17-year-old rising star on the bubble

Preparation begins now for the No. 7 Texas A&M Aggies as they study the film of the Miami Hurricanes, whom they will host on December 20 at Kyle Field.

Although kickoff is at 11 a.m., A&M fans are among the most loyal in the nation, and that was demonstrated this season when they produced a sellout crowd in the early game against Samford just a week before facing the Texas Longhorns. Considering how strong the Miami defense is, the Aggies will need every advantage of a home crowd to ensure the offensive game plan flows smoothly in critical situations.

Another minor issue that should not be a hindrance, but is still worth mentioning, is how coach Mike Elko is choosing to manage the offensive coordinator position moving forward. With coach Klein accepting the Kansas State job, he is performing double duty, and coach Elko is tasked with conducting a coaching search during a playoff run.

Nevertheless, if there is anyone capable of handling that responsibility, it’s head coach Mike Elko and his staff. Below is everything he shared during the Monday press conference.

Texas A&M HC Mike Elko’s opening comments

“We woke up today. We had a good practice. We’re getting ready to go. Miami, obviously, a really good team. We’re excited for the opportunity.”

Coach Elko on Carson Beck

“He’s an extremely talented quarterback. You see that throughout the year. He does a really, really good job of delivering the football. They have an extremely explosive passing attack… Finding a way to get that out of rhythm will be critical. Not a lot of teams have been able to do that.”

Coach Elko on injuries

“They’re great. I knew exactly where we were going with that, and they all appear to be great.”

Coach Elko on the teams mindset

“Very quickly, it shifted to now we have an opponent, we have a focus. You could feel the energy lift.” “The first step is getting in, but we want to try and do more than that.”

Coach Elko on Cashius Howell

“It’s awesome. For him to be a kid that we recruited very early on, I’ve referenced him as the OG on this defense because he was one of the first kids to buy in and believe in what we wanted to be about.”

“He’s a phenomenal story. He’s a great kid.”

Coach Elko on balancing the game plan with OC Collin Klein

“One, it’s probably a lot more collaborative to begin with. Collin (Klein) isn’t the only one. It’s a very collaborative process we go through on offense. I have a ton of confidence in who he is as a man and as a competitor that he’ll give the energy and focus to doing this the right way.”

Coach Elko on the OC search

“Our intentions right now are to get through the season and let that play out, but we’re in a really good position.”

Coach Elko on maintaining consistency

“We have to understand the urgency of the moment, we have to understand what it takes to focus, play in and play out.”

“You can’t play tight in the game of football because if you play tight, you’re going to get beat. … The more opportunities we get to play in those times of games, the better it will be for our program.”

Coach Elko on the offensive scheme moving forward

“If you look at our program from the two years at Duke to the two years at Texas A&M, there are some strong similarities to what we look like on offense. Those are some of the philosophical standpoints that I’d like us to look like on offense, but each offensive coordinator will have a different slant on what that will look like.”

Coach Elko on players deciding to stay for 2026

“For us being in the playoff, we don’t want to get into next-year conversations and rocking the boat on next year. Our main focus is on right now.”

“For now, it’s focused on Miami and playing our best football.”

Coach Elko on refocusing

“When you’re winning, you talk a lot about what needs to get fixed and changed. Sometimes, when you get slapped in the face a little bit, you have to readjust. That will happen from the loss.”

Coach Elko on Miami’s defense

“It’s the best combination of defensive ends that we’ve seen in my time here, going back to 2018. These two kids can destroy a game.”

“There’s just a lot of length and athleticism in the back two levels of the defense. They’re really talented. I don’t think they’ve given up more than 20 points in the last two months. It’ll be a big challenge for our offense.”

Coach Elko on his team’s response after the loss to Texas

“The natural reaction to not getting done what you wanted to get done is usually a new energy, a new intensity and a new focus to get better. I’m happy to see that from our guys, but obviously expected that to be the case.”

Coach Elko on Miami WR Malachi Toney

“What an unbelievably talented football.”

“He’s an absolute dude of a young player and will certainly grow into a top-five pick when this is all over. … We’ll certainly have our hands full with him.”

Coach Elko on mentality going into the CFP

“The magnitude is larger. The process is the same. What it takes from a mentality standpoint is us executing championship-level football at a rate that allows us to be successful.”

“We’ve been on this stage quite a few times since I’ve been here. We’ve had our successes. We’ve had our failures. I’m excited to get out there again in a really big football game.”

Coach Elko on place-kicking duties

“We’ll make that decision when the time is right. Trying to do the best we can to get both of those guys into a place where they’re performing at a level they’re capable of performing.”

Coach Elko on the loss at Texas

“It’s a product of playing a good football team. At the end of the day, they made more plays than we did in the second half… That’s going to happen when you play in this league and you play night games in this league. That’s just part of it. It sucks from the magnitude of it, and it sucks that it happened against those guys.”

Coach Elko on the transfer portal window

“It’s the best we can get. Everybody will continue to point out all of the fallacies in the system, but there’s not really a solution.”

“You can’t change free-agency windows in college football because you have semesters… We’re binding by things we can’t control.”

Coach Elko on playing at 11 a.m.

“I think playing in Kyle Field is an advantage for the home team. I’m excited for that. I’m excited for our students to turn out. I’m excited for our fans to turn out.”

Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes, and opinions. Follow Jarrett Johnson on X: @whosnextsports1.

This article originally appeared on Aggies Wire: Everything Texas A&M HC Mike Elko said on Monday after the CFP reveal

Juan Soto will likely have to move to DH at some point during his 15-year deal with the Mets, but don’t expect it in 2026.  

Carlos Mendoza indicated on Monday at the Winter Meetings that he will continue to use Soto consistently in RF this season.

“He doesn’t like DHing,” the skipper said. “He takes pride in being a good defender and he will continue to do so. The schedule will dictate sometimes dealing with physical stuff and you’re trying to keep his bat in the lineup, the DH may come in to play, but if he’s feeling good enough he’s going to be out there in right field.”

Soto appeared in just three games as the DH during his first season in Queens. 

He worked hard with outfield coach Antoan Richardson on improving defensively during spring training, but still finished with a -13 Fielding Run Value and -12 Outs Above Average during his first season in Queens. 

Still, David Stearns indicated earlier this offseason that the team believes he can turn things around with the glove. 

“Juan is one of our players we believe can perform better defensively than he did last year,” he told Mike Puma of the NY Post. “I think he believes that he’s going to work hard on it this offseason — he’s motivated to do that, and he’s proven at previous times in his career that he can perform better in right field.”

Keeping Soto regularly in right leaves the DH spot open for a potential Kyle Schwarber addition in free agency. 

Pete Alonso could also be in the mix for more DH at-bats if he were to return to the club.