9/11/23 Hometown Broadcasting Sports Monday
11 September 2023 Sports
Jordan Love looked like he might be ready to follow in the footsteps of Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, throwing for three touchdowns to lead the Green Bay Packers to a 38-20 season-opening victory over the Chicago Bears on Sunday.
Love spent three years waiting for this moment behind four-time MVP Rodgers. He shook off a slow first half and helped propel the Packers to a lopsided win.
Aaron Jones ran for a touchdown and caught one, helping the Packers pull away in the second half for their ninth straight win over the Bears. Green Bay was 25-5 against Chicago with Rodgers, including an NFC championship game win at Soldier Field in the 2010 season, and the Packers were 22-10 in games Favre started.
For the Bears, it was more of a same for a team that went 3-14 to set a franchise record for losses last season. Chicago came into the season expecting major improvement after a series of offseason upgrades.
Love completed 15 of 27 passes for 245 yards and posted a 123.2 rating. His only previous start was a loss at Kansas City in 2021 when Rodgers was sidelined with COVID-19.
Jones caught two passes for 86 yards. He turned a screen into a 51-yard gain that led to a scoring run for him in the third, and added a 35-yard touchdown off a short pass on the next drive.
Romeo Doubs had two touchdown catches. Quay Walker returned an interception 37 yards for a TD, and the Packers won for the 13th time in 14 games at Soldier Field.
Fields was 24 of 37 for 216 yards. He had a touchdown pass and an interception in a performance that did little to answer biggest question hanging over the team: Can he become the passer the Bears need him to be?
Fields also ran for 59 yards.
Prized acquisition DJ Moore was targeted just twice and had two catches for 25 yards. Darnell Mooney added 53 yards receiving and a TD.
The Packers scored touchdowns on their first two possessions in the second half to break open a four-point game.
Jones set up a TD on the opening drive of the third when he took a screen from Love — throwing off his back foot and across the field — and turned it into a 51-yard gain to the 7. Jones ran it in from the 1.
The Packers’ Jayden Reed returned a punt 35 yards to the Chicago 42, leading to another score. Love hit Jones on a slant for a 35-yard TD, making it 24-6.
The Bears pulled within 10 with about a minute left in the third when Darnell Mooney caught a 20-yard TD pass from Fields. Khalil Herbert converted the 2-point run.
But the Packers quickly quieted the crowd with a 61-yard touchdown drive. Love found a wide-open Luke Musgrave for a 37-yard pass to the 4 after fumbling the snap and threw TD to Doubs on the next play, making it 31-14 with 13:30 remaining.
On the injury front Aaron Jones (hamstring) came up limping on his 35-yard touchdown catch. LaFleur hopes it’s just a cramp and Quay Walker was evaluated for a concussion.
Elsewhere in the NFC North Tampa Bay won at Minnesota 20-17. Detroit opened its season Thursday night with a 21-20 win at Kansas City.
In Sunday Night Football Dallas won at New York over the Giants 40-0. In Monday Night Football Buffalo plays the Jets in New York.
Milwaukee rookie Sal Frelick preserved a no-hit bid with a leaping catch in the 10th inning that kept the game scoreless, but the New York Yankees rallied to beat Brewers 4-3 on Sunday when Giancarlo Stanton hit a two-run homer in the 12th and Kyle Higashioka hit a winning double in the 13th.
After Corbin Burnes pitched eight hitless innings and Devin Williams worked a 1-2-3 ninth. With two on in the 10th against Abner Uribe, one the automatic runner the other on a walk, Anthony Volpe hit a drive to right and Frelick made a lights-out catch. He leaped against the wall, knocking out the lights on the video board, and caught the ball as he elbowed center fielder Joey Wiemer in the mouth.
Tyrone Taylor hit a run-scoring single in the 11th off Nick Ramirez and with Milwaukee bidding for the first 11-inning no-hitter in major league history, Oswaldo Cabrera hit a tying RBI double with one out off Joel Payamps.
Joey Wiemer had an RBI double and Andrew Monasterio a sacrifice fly off Ramirez in the 12th, but Stanton homered off Andrew Chafin in the bottom half and Higashioka doubled in the 13th off Hoby Milner (2-1), a drive over Taylor in left that scored automatic runner Everson Pereira for Higashioka’s first walk-off hit.
New York won despite being held to three hits for the 13th time, matching the 1913 for the most in Yankees history.
Anthony Misiewicz (2-0) pitched around a walk in a hitless 13th, combining with Gerrit Cole, Clay Holmes, Tommy Kahnle and Ramirez on a six-hitter. New York ended a streak of seven straight extra-inning losses, one shy of the team record.
Burnes struck out seven and walked two in eight innings, throwing 70 of 109 pitches for strikes. Burnes’ pitch count was one shy of his season high and six short of his career high.
The 2021 NL Cy Young Award winner retired his first 12 hitters before walking Giancarlo Stanton on his 54th pitch. Burnes, a 28-year-old right-hander, has not thrown a complete game in 103 big league starts.
Cole allowed three hits in seven innings, lowering his AL-leading ERA to 2.79, Cole struck out nine and walked none, and with 204 strikeouts became the Yankees pitcher with three 200-strikeout seasons.
Brewers OF Christian Yelich (back) is day-to-day and could return Monday. Burnes tweaked an ankle fielding Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s grounder to end the seventh but said he feels fine.
Brewers RHP Brandon Woodruff (4-1, 2.30) opposes Miami LHP Jesús Luzardo (9-8, 3.59) in the opener of a four-game series Monday in Milwaukee. First pitch is at 6:40.
In the Midwest League Sunday the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers won at home over Cedar Rapids 8-5. The T-Rats finished the season at 62-68.
Novak Djokovic defeated Daniil Medvedov 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3 on Sunday to win the US Open and claim a historic 24th major championship, matching Margaret Court for the most Grand Slam singles titles in tennis history.
It was the latest record-setting milestone for Djokovic, who was already atop the men’s Slam list and has now moved one major singles title ahead of Serena William to become the first player to win 24 in the Open era. Court also collected a total of 24, but 13 of those came before professionals were admitted to the Slam events.
Djokovic has now won titles at exactly one third of the majors he has played in (24 titles in 72 major appearances). He has reached the final in exactly half (36) of the Slams in which he has competed.
With a bold move to the front of the field in overtime, Tyler Reddick won Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 and left his car owner frustrated at the end of the second NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race at Kansas Speedway.
Reddick beat Joe Gibbs Racing driver and 23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin to the finish line by 0.327 seconds. Hamlin led 63 laps and was more than two seconds ahead of Reddick when playoff driver Chris Buescher blew a right-rear tire on Lap 261 of a scheduled 267 to cause the ninth and final caution.
Diverging strategies then gave Reddick the opening he needed to gain automatic entry into the Playoffs’ Round of 12. Daniel Suárez stayed out on 31-lap-old tires and inherited the lead. Erik Jones, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano made two-tire stops and restarted second, third and fourth.
Kyle Larson finished fourth after leading a race-high 99 laps and winning the first stage. Logano came home fifth, thanks to the two-tire call by crew chief Paul Wolfe. Chase Elliott was sixth, followed by Kyle Busch, pole winner Christopher Bell and Brad Keselowski, who won the second stage.
Cameron Ward passed for 212 yards and two touchdowns and added another 43 yards rushing, Nakia Watson scored on a 1-yard run with 5:30 remaining and Washington State upset No. 19 Wisconsin 31-22 on Saturday night.
Ward scrambled for runs of 23 yards and 14 yards during a pivotal fourth-quarter drive to help the Cougars avoid a second-half meltdown and beat the Badgers for the second straight season. Watson capped the drive with his 1-yard plunge.
Washington State (2-0) hosted its first Power Five nonconference opponent since 1998 and played its first home game since the collapse of the Pac-12 this summer. Facing an uncertain future as a Power Five program, Washington State put on a show in the first half to race to a 24-6 lead.
“In this moment, it’s everything. We belong in the Power Five,” Washington State coach Jake Dickert said on the field as it was flooded by celebrating fans after the upset. “These kids have worked their (tails) off. I’m so damn proud of them.”
Wisconsin (1-1) scored 16 straight points and was driving in the fourth quarter with a chance to take the lead before running back Chez Mellusi fumbled near midfield.
The Badgers lost three fumbles and had little go right in the first half. Nathanial Vakos made three field goals in the first half, but Wisconsin didn’t find the end zone until Mellusi’s 2-yard run midway through the third quarter that cut Washington State’s lead to 24-16.
Mordecai hit Skyler Bell on a 16-yard touchdown pass late in the third quarter to pull Wisconsin to 24-22, but the two-point conversion attempt failed.
Mordecai was 25 of 40 for 278 yards and fumbled twice, both on sacks by Ron Stone Jr. One of the fumbles was recovered by Brennan Jackson for a touchdown in the first half.
Wisconsin hosts Georgia Southern on Saturday.
Ripon College 31, Grinnell College 12. The Red Hawks improve to 1-1 and host Illinois College on Saturday with the tipoff at 1:00.
Wheaton College (Ill.) 30, UW-Oshkosh 21. The Titans fall to 1-1 and on Saturday play at East Texas Baptist University with the kickoff at 1:00.
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