We're a winning sports town?

Wings start hot. Lions take breather. UM improves to 7-0.

October 19, 2022

Well, this is a first.

In what has become your Wednesday morning dose of hopelessness, this newsletter is proud to finally report something new - a winning week.

That's right. Wings went 2-0-1. Michigan 1-0. And even the hard-to-watch Spartans notched a W. It also really helped that the Lions didn't play and the Tigers season ended two weeks ago. But let's not worry about the details, we'll take it.

And we'll also take any support you can give us, like forwarding this newsletter to even just one person you know.

It can be your dad, your old college roommate or even that guy who married your high school crush who you're cool with but deep down kind of hate (even though you never even attempted to shoot your shot with her).

Sorry. We're gassed up about the wins.

Vamonos!

Refreshing: Lions Don't Play

The Lions (1-4) 'enjoyed' a much needed bye week after getting completely drubbed by a third sting QB in New England week 5.

Now, if you're following any bit of Detroit Lions social media, you probably saw this crusty-ass meme.

This joke has been going on since roughly 1993. And every year the Lions have their bye week, this joke/meme/graphic spreads itself around the web faster than when Campbell said he was going to bite kneecaps.

Is it lame? Yes. Is it overused? Yes. Is it still relevant? Unfortunately, yes. This team still stinks so the idea of them losing on a week they aren't playing still plays as an applicable joke.

And while we opened this newsletter saying we had mostly good news, we are leading with the Lions so we'll leave you this to chew on.

Lions are back in action Sunday vs the Cowboys (4-2) at 1pm in Jerry World.

Wings Have Electric Start to Season, But Lose Bertuzzi for 4-6 Weeks

If you're not on the 2022-23 Detroit Red Wings bandwagon, now is the time to jump on.

Our Wings opened the season winning 2/3 games, picking up 5 of a possible 6 points, posted a shutout and saw 5 players score their first goals as Wings.

Vs Montreal:

  • After a stalemate through 2, Elmer Soderblom, the rookie 6'8 behemoth of a Swede scored his first NHL goal on an aerial rebound to make it 1-0

  • Two empty net goals late in the third (Rasmussen, Maata) would seal the Wings first W

  • Husso, in his first start for the Wings, would pick up the shutout, stopping 29 shots.

@ New Jersey:

  • On the second leg of a back-to-back, the Wings handled the devils to the tune of 5-2. The Devils opened up scoring in the first, but it was the Wings who would take over in the second, scoring four goals to New Jersey's one. The highlights coming from Vrana's snipe and Larkin's buzzer beater.

Vs Los Angeles: 

  • In a game missing Bertuzzi and Vrana (see above tweet), we got to see the likes of Kubalik on the top line with Larkin and Raymond, and saw Zadina play for the first time.

  • The Wings did not play their most complete game, giving up 4 goals and trailing 4-3 with under two minutes to play. But what they got was the play of the year from Captain Dylan Larkin.

Click to watch

Unfortunately, after tying the game with under a minute and sending it to overtime, the Kings would win the game off a fluke bounce that ricocheted of Hronek and snuck by Husso.

Click to watch

2-0-1 and sitting second behind Boston in the Atlantic. Hell of a start for our boys in red and white.

Next up:

Looking Ahead: Who Stays & Who Goes?

It should be a pressure packed off-season for newly anointed President of Baseball Operations, Scott Harris who is tasked with cleaning up the 'mess' left by the Avila regime.

The Tigers payroll last season came in at $135 million, ranking 19th in the MLB and third in the AL Central. By comparison the payroll ranked 4th in the MLB in 2017. (Freep)

You can expect so see the following players, barring surprise retirements, at Spring Training in 2023.

Via Freep: The Tigers have two players with expiring contracts: Tucker Barnhart ($7.5 million) and Daniel Norris ($700,000). The other impending free agents — Robbie Grossman, Michael Fulmer, Michael Pineda and Wily Peralta — were either traded or released during the season.

Very likely to return:

  • Jonathan Schoop, player option for $7.5 million. He won't earn anywhere close to this kind of money in free agency. He will serve as the Tigers everyday second baseman or a utility player.

  • Andrew Chafin, player option for $6.5 million. Chafin will have to decide whether to stay with the Tigers or enter the free-agent pool for the third consecutive offseason. Signs point to a return to the Tigers, simply because of comfortability and distance from home.

Arbitration Eligible Players:

  • Joe Jimenez (2.6MM), Austin Meadows (4MM), & Gregory Soto (3.1MM) are all arbitration eligible, but should be tendered contracts.

Probably back:

  • Tyler Alexander (1.6MM) & Kyle Funkhouser ($800k)

Bubble boys:

  • The other six players, either for salary or roster reasons, appear on the bubble: Candelario, Cisnero, Reyes, García, Harold Castro and Willi Castro.

After all that, the Tigers will have more than 20 players on the 40-man roster due for pre-arbitration contracts, including Riley Greene, Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal and Matt Manning. (Freep)

Pistons 2022-23 Season Opens Vs Orlando Today

The Detroit Pistons' season kicks off this evening at Little Caesars Arena vs the Orlando Magic.

While there is definitely a buzz of excitement around this refreshed Pistons team, many so-called 'experts' are not convinced this team is going to fight for a play-in game as many fans might have hoped.

Trick Plays & Timely Turnovers Give Sparty (3-4) An Unexpected Double Overtime Win vs Wisconsin

After MSU went three-and-out for negative eight yards and let Wisconsin score on their opening drive, they got stopped on fourth and goal due to a poor play call... it seemed like MSU was setting up for yet another Big Ten blow out.

But the tide quickly turned as MSU's LB Jacoby Windmon picked off Wisco QB Graham Mertz just two plays later, which set up a Jalen Berger 12-yard TD run. Windmon, the UNLV transfer, had a bear of a day, notching 11 tackles, two TFL's, and one pick.

The Badgers would respond on the very next drive and take a 14-7 lead, which they would hold onto until half.

State would score two more touchdowns in the second half to Wisconsin's one, with their most impressive driving going 97 yards in 8 plays, highlighted by a 72 yard pass from Thorne to WR Maliq Carr.

Via The Athletic: Michigan State’s win against Wisconsin marked the first time the Spartans were not trailing the entirety of the second half since Week 2.

Wisconsin would tie the game with just over 2 minutes remaining in the game on a fourth and goal from the Spartan three.

Overtime is where we would see the magic, on the very first play this happened:

Yes, that's Jayden Reed going 25 yards to a blanketed Keon Coleman to take a touchdown lead in overtime.

Wisconsin would answer with a 25-yard touchdown pass of their own to tie it. The Badgers next possession would not be as fruitful, as they would fumble on the very first play and MSU would recover.

Via Freep: Facing third-and-12 and needing only a field goal in double overtime to beat Wisconsin, Thorne spotted a linebacker walking toward the line of scrimmage, something the Badgers hadn’t shown all game.

Maybe it meant a blitz. Maybe it was a ruse and would disrupt Jay Johnson’s original call to the left. But it undoubtedly meant Reed had single coverage on him to the right. Getting a touchdown was the only thought in Thorne’s mind.

“I said screw this,” he said, “let's protect this thing up and throw it and let's go get in the end zone.”

And that's exactly what happened. Thorne to Reed for a Spartan W, their first in the Big Ten for 2022.

Next up: A bye week before heading to Ann Arbor to take on the big bad undefeated Wolverines.

Michigan (7-0) Passes Toughest Test of the Season By Beating the Breaks Off Penn State

U of M faced their toughest test of the year on Saturday, taking on the undefeated and the number 10 ranked Penn State Nittany Lions in Ann Arbor.

Michigan dominated this game on both sides of the ball throughout the entire day. There seemed to really only be two mistakes made by the Wolverines: A quarterback keeper for 62 yards and a ricochet interception off a player’s helmet for a pick-6, actually giving the visiting team a lead in a game they had no business leading. (Via Freep)

The start of the game could be described as frustrating for the Wolverine faithful, settling for field goals and watching two chunk plays erase their lead just before half.

But the way Michigan was playing, it was only a matter of time before they broke out and pulled away, which they did to the tune of a 41-17 final, outscoring Penn State 25-3 in the second half.

Complete and utter domination in the ground game is what eventually turned this top ten matchup into a blowout. Donovan Edwards and Blake Corum combined for 44 carries 339 (!!) yards and four (!!!) touchdowns.

Via Freep: Remember that Penn State came into the game with one of the best run defenses in the country. Teams had averaged less than 80 yards a game against them. But on Saturday, Michigan was a giant pair of scissors and Penn State was a little white ribbon.

Michigan is now 7-0 and ranked fourth in the country, two behind arch rival Ohio State.

Michigan enters a bye week before hosting other arch rival Michigan State in Ann Arbor, Saturday, October 29th at 7:30pm.

Until next week, remember, Detroit is a winning sports town.