TWIST: What You Need to Know to Talk Sports This Week

You don’t love professional sports, but your livelihood and/or personal happiness depends upon your being able to converse intelligently about it. It’s a common dilemma with a simple solution: you need to learn a new language. You need to learn how to talk sports. And we’re here to help! The TWIST is our weekly Dandelion Chandelier guide to what’s happened on the field, on the court and on the ice. Every Sunday you’ll find the three (and only three) things you need to know this coming week to speak cogently about professional sports with the boss, the gang at the office, your barber, your barista, your secret crush, or your in-laws. Do the TWIST every week and we promise you’ll know how to talk about sports like a champion.

This week’s edition of TWIST: This Week in Sports Talk is proof that the end of GoT for the season doesn’t mean that bloodbaths, ancient curses and head-spinning reversals of fortune are gone from television. They’ve just moved from HBO to ESPN. For Those Who Do Not Follow Professional Sports, here’s what you need to know (and not a single thing more).

3 for the week of September 10, 2017:

1. The US Open draws to a close. Must know: Yesterday in the women’s final, Sloane Stephens faced Madison Keys. It was the first Grand Slam final match for both players. Stephens made an incredible recovery after suffering a foot injury last year that sidelined her for months, defeating her hero Venus Williams in the semifinals; she went on to win her first Grand Slam and US Open championship. The friendship between Stephens and Keys is deep and inspiring — their camaraderie at the end of the match was touching. In the men’s final, top seed Rafael Nadal easily defeated 28th-seeded Kevin Anderson for his third US Open championship. Nice to know: For the first time since 1985, there were four American women in the US Open semifinals. And the American superstar Serena Williams wasn’t even playing. It’s generated a lot of excitement about the future – the Executive Editor of our Sports Desk predicts “it’s going to be a 5-year period of American women dominating the tennis circuit.” Extra Credit: Fans were crushed by Roger Federer’s defeat in the quarterfinals, as they were hoping for a Federer-Nadal semifinal match. Over the 20 years of their careers, the two men have never played a match in the US open – ever. Maybe next year. BTW, can we just say that we love how Nadal rocked the black, bordeaux and neon pink color combo? Did you see his shoes? Sensational.

2. MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers fade. Must know: In a previous TWIST, we noted the Dodgers’ incredible run and possible history-making season. But they’re in a serious slump right now: they’ve lost 15 of their last 16 games. Nice to know: The Dodgers still sit atop the National League West division, and remain the favorites for the division title, with the Arizona Diamondbacks still 9 games back as of this posting. But the Dodgers still have almost 20 games to play. And the “D-backs” are on a roll, having won 13 games in a row as of our deadline. Extra credit: Sports Illustrated ran an August 22 cover story headlined: “The Dodgers Might be the Greatest Team of All-Time.” Their slump began four days later. This could be just the latest example of the dreaded “Curse” at work: being on the cover of SI has frequently been the kiss of death.

3. The Patriots are trounced by the Chiefs. Must know: The first game of the NFL regular season saw the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots meet the high-powered Kansas City Chiefs at the Pats’ home field. In a shocking upset, the Pats lost, 27-42. Nice to know: It was, in the words of one super-fan, “an ignominious defeat,” full of record-setting stats: 42 points is the most points ever allowed by a Bill Belichick-coached Patriots team (that’s across 307 games). The Chiefs notched their first regular-season win in New England since 1990; they become the first AFC team to beat quarterback Tom Brady at home since the Jets in 2006. You get the idea. But hey, some folks left happy: the Chiefs’ rookie running back Kareem Hunt scored three touchdowns and set a record for yards from scrimmage in his NFL debut. Extra credit: The game started out with what in hindsight was a show of excessive hubris: the Pats’ stands were full of fans wearing T-shirts with the face of NLF Commissioner Roger Goodell wearing a clown’s nose; before the game began, the team unveiled its Super Bowl LI Championship banner and the crowd roared. Then the bloodbath began. And you thought the Red Wedding was a bad scene.

For the remainder of the college football and NFL seasons, we’ll highlight the key weekend games you need to know about. If we go to press before the games are over, it will be up to you to find out the final scores before hitting the office on Monday morning. Remember: you always need to know how “your” team did. Here are the other key match-ups that the sports-minded will want to discuss this week:

College Football Games:

• #5 Oklahoma beat #2 Ohio State 31-16
• #15 Georgia squeaked past #24 Notre Dame 20-19
• #6 USC rolled over #14 Stanford 42-24
• #3 Clemson defeated #13 Auburn 14-6
• Sacred Heart beat Lafayette 38-24

NFL Games:

• The Dallas Cowboys defeated the New York Giants 19-3; running back Ezekiel “Zeke” Elliott won an injunction against his 6-game suspension, setting off a protracted legal battle now that the NFL has filed an appeal seeking to enforce the suspension. The Giants’ Odell Beckham Junior (“OBJ”) remains on the injured/reserve list, and didn’t play.
• The Baltimore Ravens shut out the Cincinnati Bengals 20-0; this was a key AFC North divisional match up that didn’t turn out to be even close.
• The Green Bay Packers won their match-up against the Seattle Seahawks 17-9; this NFC West contest might be a playoff preview.
• The Oakland Raiders beat the Tennessee Titans at home 26-16; Derek Carr returned as Raiders quarterback after a season-ending injury last year and threw for 262 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions.

That’s it. You’re good to go. See you next week.

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