Sports

10/24/22 Hometown Broadcasting Sports Monday

24 October 2022 Sports

Monday Sports

From Wayne Mausser.

Aaron Rodgers and the offense sputtered, penalties occurred at the most inopportune moments and the Packers lost their third game in a row, 23-21 to the Washington Commanders on Sunday for their longest skid since 2018.

Nursing a sore thumb and out of sync with receivers, Rodgers was 23 of 35 for 194 yards and the Packers went 0 of 6 on third down. Green Bay (3-4) had just 232 total yards of offense to Washington’s 364 and lost Allen Lazard to a shoulder injury, making him the team’s third wide receiver to go down during the first losing streak under coach Matt LaFleur.

“We just got to play better — all of us,” said Rodgers, who taped his throwing hand at halftime after jamming the thumb on a couple of snaps. “There’s probably a number of plays in every phase that we could’ve done better. The margin of error is so tight, a couple calls don’t necessarily go our way and we don’t execute at all on offense in certain situations. …

“It’s not winning football.”

The negatives outweighed the few positives: a 63-yard pick-6 of Taylor Heinicke by De’Vondre Campbell and two touchdown passes from Rodgers to Aaron Jones — the second of which completed a 75-yard drive aided by Washington penalties that pulled the Packers within two with 3:26 left in the fourth quarter and gave them one final chance to end the skid before falling short.

Playing behind a remade offensive line without All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari, Rodgers struggled to find a rhythm, missing wide-open receivers at times and others putting the ball in their hands for ill-timed drops. The Packers rushed for just 38 yards.

The Packers had no third-down conversions for the first time since 1999 — 370 games ago with Brett Favre at quarterback and before Rodgers graduated high school. It added up to the Packers “losing to teams that we feel like we’re better than,” Jones said, and the losses rarely go like this for a team used to winning.

With no blitzing necessary and a basic defensive scheme, Washington’s front four also played a role in frazzling Rodgers and making him look more like a rookie than a 38-year-old four-time NFL MVP. Only a series of penalties on the Commanders (3-4) made the game close in the final minutes.

Heinicke, making his first start of the season in place of injured Carson Wentz, threw for two touchdowns and was 20 of 33 for 200 yards after starting 1 of 7 for 14 yards with the interception. One of those TD throws was a perfect pass to Terry McLaurin.

Packers LB Rashad Gary was evaluated for a concussion in the second half. David Bakhtiari (knee) was inactive after being added to the injury report Saturday. Green Bay was also without wide receiver Randall Cobb and reserve interior lineman Jake Hanson, who went on injured reserve.

The Packers visit the Buffalo Bills (5-1)Sunday night. The Bills had their bye week.

Minnesota and Chicago were off and Detroit plays at New England Monday night.

In Sunday Night Football Miami hung on at home over Pittsburgh 16-10.

In the ALCS Sunday Houston won its series 4-0 over the Yankess with a 6-5 win at New York to advance to the World Series. In the NLCS Philadelphia advanced to the World Series with a 4-3 victory over San Diego, winning their series 4-1. The World Series begins October 28^th with Philadelphia playing at Houston.

On the PGA T our Rory McILroy won the CJ Cup in Ridgeland, South Carolina Sunday by one stroke over Kurt Kitayama. Both shot final round 67’s. McILriy finished 17 under parat 267.

Kyle Larson has led a lot of laps and come awfully close to hoisting a trophy at Homestead-Miami Speedway. On Sunday, he finally did both, winning the Dixie Vodka 400 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race in dominant form.

Larson swept both stage wins and led 199 of the race’s 267 laps in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to pull away to a 1.261-second victory over Florida native Ross Chastain in the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevy.

Kaulig Racing’s AJ Allmendinger was third, with Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon and RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski rounding out the top five. It is the 2012 series champion Keselowski’s first top-five finish since becoming co-owner of the organization this season.

The win was 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Larson’s third of the year and 19th of his career – but the first at the 1.5-mile Homestead oval after a pair of previous near-misses. He led a race-best 132 laps in 2016 but finished runner-up. He led 145 laps in 2017 and finished third.

Graham Mertz threw for two touchdowns, Braelon Allen rushed for 113 yards and a score and Wisconsin defeated Purdue 35-24 on Saturday.

John Torchio had two interceptions, including a 31-yard return for a touchdown for the Badgers (4-4, 2-3 Big Ten Conference), who rebounded from a 34-28 double overtime loss at Michigan State.

The game marked the first home win for Wisconsin interim coach Jim Leonhard, who took over for Paul Chryst on Oct. 2.

Allen, who surpassed 100 yards for the fifth time this season, went to the injury tent late in the third quarter with a left arm injury but returned in the fourth.

Mertz went 13 of 21 for 203 yards with two touchdowns for the Badgers, who have won 16 straight games against Purdue.

Purdue’s four-game winning streak was snapped and the Boilermakers (6-2, 3-2 Big Ten) fell one game behind Illinois for the lead in the Big Ten West standings.

Less than one minute later, Torchio picked off Aidan O’Connell and dashed 31 yards for a touchdown. for the score that increased Wisconsin’s lead to 14-0. Mertz capped an 80-yard drive with a three-yard pass to Chimere Dike and it was 21-0 after one quarter.

Allen’s 14-yard touchdown made it 28-3 in the first minute of the second half.

The Boilermakers capitalized on an fumble get a short field, scoring an an eight-yard pass from from O’Connell to Payne Durham. But that was quickly negated with a 54-yard burst by Isaac Guerendo 90 seconds later.

Devin Mockobee ran for 108 yards and a touchdown for Purdue with O’Connella going 31 of 46 for 320 yards.

Wisconsin has an open date next weekend. The Badgers host Maryland on Nov. 5.

Ripon College 19, University of Chicago 16. The Red Hawks improve to 7-0 overall and 6-0 in the conference.

UW-Oshkosh 19, UW-Stout 14-The Titans improve o 4-3 overall and 2-2 in the conference.

Beloit College 56-Lawrence University 0

Aurora University 28, St. Norbert College 6

Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 44 points and became Milwaukee’s career free throws leader as the Bucks rolled to a 125-105 victory over the Houston Rockets on Saturday night.

Antetokounmpo went 8 of 13 from the foul line to increase his total to 3,508 free throws out of 4,891 attempts (71.7%). Sidney Monrcrief made 3,505 free throwns with the Bucks from 1979-89.

The two-time MVP played less than 28 minutes but still had 12 rebounds. Antetokounmpo shot 17 of 21 from the floor, including 2 of 3 from 3-point range.

Antetokounmpo left for good with 8:08 remaining and the Bucks ahead 107-85.

This game began a six-game homestand for the Bucks, who won their season opener 90-88 at Philadelphia on Thursday night.

The Rockets were playing one night after a 129-122 home loss to Memphis. Eric Gordon, who scored 17 points against the Grizzlies, didn’t play Saturday due to what the team described as maintenance of an injured right groin.

Houston also was missing Bruno Fernando, who had left the Grizzlies game with a sore left knee.

Jalen Green led the Rockets with 22 points. Kevin Porter Jr. had 18, Kenyon Martin Jr. 14, Jabari Smith Jr. 13 and Tari Eason 11.

The Bucks scored the game’s first 13 points and never trailed. The Rockets never got the margin below 12 points in the second half.

Jrue Holiday, who shot 2 of 15 and had just six points in the Bucks’ victory over the 76ers, exceeded that scoring output in the first two minutes of Saturday’s game and finished with 19 points. Bobby Portis had 13 and Grayson Allen added 11 as the Bucks shot 56.5% from the floor.

The Bucks host Brooklyn Wednesday night.