This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.
Whew, that was a close one. The Cincinnati Bengals’ season isn’t quite over just yet.
The Bengals were lucky. Monday night’s win was a best-case scenario situation for Cincinnati. Because things could’ve ended a whole lot worse than they actually did.
Remember when Joe Burrow tweaked his calf last week? Yeah, that was scary, right? Well, the Bengals allowed him to play this week.
The reasons are obvious. He’s one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks when healthy and the team didn’t want to go 0-3. It’s really that simple. But, again, he’s been dealing with this same calf injury since training camp. He could’ve re-injured himself or even made it worse — Burrow said so himself:
“There is risk to go out there and potentially re-injure it, but there’s also a risk to go out there and be 0-3. So I wanted to be out there for my guys, and I was confident I was going to be able to do what I needed to do to get the win.”
We’ve seen how these calf injuries can end up. We saw Kevin Durant playing with a calf injury back in the 2019 NBA Finals that led directly to a torn Achilles. These things are no joke. They can end up being catastrophically bad.
The thing about this situation is that it didn’t even really seem to be worth it. Burrow wasn’t even good, honestly. He only averaged 5.3 yards per passing attempt, finishing with 259 yards and an interception. He was clearly not himself out there.
The Bengals were able to win for two reasons — Ja’Marr Chase was one of them. He carried the Bengals’ offense with a career-high 12 receptions for 141 yards. This is one of the best games he ever played and he had it when both the team and Joe Burrow himself needed it the most.
The second reason is the Cincy’s defense. The unit looked Super Bowl-worthy. The Bengals sacked Matt Stafford six times, intercepted him twice and only allowed one Rams touchdown on the night. Plus this elite celebration.
Elite celly from the Bengals defense 🤣 (via @NFL)
— Overtime (@overtime) September 26, 2023
Always a winner in my book.
Look, it’s cool that the Bengals were able to pull this one out. Cincy needed that. There’s no doubt about it. But the cost could’ve been catastrophic. I hate to be the party pooper here, but if the franchise keeps tempting fate with Burrow’s calf, things could get bad.
Burrow is always going to say that he can play. That’s just his mentality as a player. If the team allows him to play then he will. The Bengals have to be ready to save him from himself. They’re clearly not willing to do that here.
I don’t know about you, Bengals fans, but I don’t feel too great about that.
We’re in for a photo finish with MLB
The final week of MLB’s season is finally here and there’s still plenty of intrigue along the way.
— Things still aren’t decided in the AL East with the Orioles (97-59) sitting 2.5 games ahead of the Rays (95-62). The winner of this division will be crowned the No. 1 seed in the American League.
— The AL West isn’t done yet, either. The Rangers (88-68), Astros (86-71) and Mariners (84-72) are climbing for the top. The Rangers hold a 2.5-game lead over the Stros and a 4-game lead over the Mariners. One of these teams isn’t making the playoffs, y’all.
— The Diamondbacks (82-74), Cubs (82-74) and Marlins (81-75) are all within a half-game of each other for the final two Wild Card slots in the National League. Fun!
Check out the full MLB playoff bracket here as of Tuesday morning.
Headed to the Six?
Damian Lillard and his representation have very clearly been angling to get him to Miami with Jimmy Butler and the Heat since the All-Star point guard demanded a trade back in May.
For the first time since then, we’re hearing that that may not actually happen. The Toronto Raptors seem to have interest in trading for Lillard, according to Andscape’s Marc Spears.
"The hottest name that I'm hearing right now of interest is the Toronto Raptors." — @MarcJSpears
Could Dame end up in the 6? 👀 pic.twitter.com/ISkyyxAY8v
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) September 25, 2023
“The hottest name that I’m hearing of interest is the Toronto Raptors, actually. Talked to high ranking team executives today and they said Toronto is the front-runner and they wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up in the 6.”
Looks like the homie Prince Grimes was spot on. The Kawhi Leonard trade is the blueprint — literally. The Raptors weren’t afraid to trade for Leonard to try and win a title even if he didn’t want to be there. The team seems to be willing to do the same thing for Lillard here, too. Though it’s clearly not what Lillard wants, that’d be a pretty solid team in the East.
What’s clear here is that Miami needs to be aggressive if it wants Lillard. The Heat have sat back and tried to let things play out because Lillard destroyed Portland’s leverage by demanding to go to Miami and Miami only. Now that there’s another suitor, though, things get a bit spicier.
We’ll see how they turn out. With training camp just around the corner next week, I have a feeling something will materialize quickly.
Quick hits: Oregon did it for clicks, too … The perfect picture … and more
— Oregon’s dropped a WWE-esque hype video documenting the moments leading up to the Colorado game and, boy, it’s pretty incredible theater. Shilo Sanders was talking cash to the Ducks. Charles Curtis has more.
— Meghan Hall found the perfect photo to sum up the Dolphins absolutely destroying the Broncos. This is wild.
— Tyler Nettuno has Week 4 winners and losers from college football. Yes, Lane Kiffin is still a loser. Sorry to my boss for that one.
— This Miguel Rojas interview is just the coolest thing ever. Andrew Joseph has more.
— Christian and Robert put together NFL power rankings heading into week 4. The Dolphins, man. They’re real contenders.
— Josh Dobbs has a little too much dip on his chip with this troll of Micah Parsons. But it’s a good one, though! Cory Woodruff has more.
That’s all, folks! Happy Tuesday.
