Panthers’ McCaffrey exits game with ankle injuryPanthers’ McCaffrey exits game with ankle injury
Christian McCaffrey suffered an ankle injury with 13:30 remaining that sidelined him for the remainder of Sunday’s game.
Day: September 20, 2020
New York Giants lose Barkley, fall to 0-2 under coach JudgeNew York Giants lose Barkley, fall to 0-2 under coach Judge
Daniel Jones committed two more turnovers. The offensive line had another uneven day, and the defense took a while to find its stride. Saquon Barkley left New York’s 17-13 loss at Chicago on Sunday with a right knee injury, potentially sidelining the star running back for an extended period.
Justin Herbert starts for Chargers vs. Chiefs; Tyrod Taylor listed with chest injuryJustin Herbert starts for Chargers vs. Chiefs; Tyrod Taylor listed with chest injury
Justin Herbert was the surprising starting quarterback for the Chargers against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday. Tyrod Taylor has a chest injury.
49ers fear torn ACL for DE Nick Bosa, uncertain for DL Solomon Thomas49ers fear torn ACL for DE Nick Bosa, uncertain for DL Solomon Thomas
San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said Nick Bosa could have a torn ACL. There’s hope for something less severe for Solomon Thomas
Taylor makes hefty workload pay off as Colts beat VikingsTaylor makes hefty workload pay off as Colts beat Vikings
Jonathan Taylor looked right at home in his first NFL start. The 21-year-old running back rushed 26 times for 101 yards and scored a touchdown in his first NFL start, leading the Indianapolis Colts past Minnesota 28-11. Taylor celebrated his first win inside Lucas Oil Stadium, after losing three Big Ten championship games in the stadium, in front of about 2,500 fans.
How ’bout that comeback!?! Cowboys win thrillerHow ’bout that comeback!?! Cowboys win thriller
It took a wild onside kick, but the Cowboys completed an insane 20-point comeback to beat the Falcons on Sunday afternoon and avoid falling to 0-2.
Matthew Wolff comes up short in first U.S. OpenMatthew Wolff comes up short in first U.S. Open
MAMARONECK, N.Y. - The kid will live to fight another day. Matthew Wolff, the 54-hole leader by two, just didn't have it for the final round of the 120th U.S. Open at Winged Foot on Sunday. He shot a final-round 75 to finish even par and in solo second, six behind Bryson DeChambeau (67), who shot the low round of the day by three. "I played really tough all week," Wolff said. "I battled hard. Things just didn’t go my way. But first U.S. Open, second place is something to be proud of and hold your head up high for." Wolff blinked first when he hit a wild hook and bogeyed the third hole. DeChambeau caught him with a birdie at the fourth hole, and took a lead he would never relinquish with a par at the fifth. Both eagled the par-5 ninth to remain separated by just one shot, but it was no contest from there as DeChambeau kept the pedal down while Wolff shot a 39 coming in. "My advice?" said Zach Johnson (74, T8) "Leave this parking lot with the positives because, my guess, there’s a slew of them. Whatever he’s doing right now is not ineffective. "... He’s going to slice and dice today," Johnson added, "and he needs to really focus in on some of the things that he did the previous three days, I think more so than today." The two main combatants have a history of butting heads. When Wolff won the 3M Open last year, DeChambeau tied for second. When DeChambeau won the Rocket Mortgage Classic in July, Wolff was second. Both tied for fourth at the PGA Championship last month. DeChambeau said he expects to run into Wolff again in the future, and it seems likely. Wolff is too good to just go away, and he's also irrepressible, approaching golf as a game, not science. While DeChambeau had ear buds in prior to the final round, Wolff was on the phone cracking up laughing. Although he said he would play his usual "rip dog" game, he was just a little off. "I really didn’t feel that nervous out there," he said. "Maybe at the start I did, but at the start I played pretty well. I don’t think it was nerves that were holding me back. I just think it wasn’t meant to be." A few breaks here and there, he said, and he might have made it closer. The final pairing further accelerated a youth movement that was already in gear. Wolff (21) and DeChambeau (27) combined to make up the second youngest final pairing in the last 50 majors, behind only Jordan Spieth (22) and Smylie Kaufman (24) at the 2016 Masters Tournament. Wolff's youthful exuberance will almost certainly come away from Winged Foot unscathed. "He's just a kid," said fellow Oklahoma State product Rickie Fowler (79, 17 over). "Some of the things he'll say, you sometimes forget that you're around someone who's - you look at him as one of our peers, someone you play against and compete against, but he'll say something and you're like, yeah, he's still a kid. He's 10 years behind us. "There's really no course that doesn't suit him," Fowler added, "just because he's able to work the ball both ways easily. He's a great ball-striker. His extra length, with the way the rough is, it helps on a lot of holes out here because you're going to miss fairways, and to potentially have between two and four clubs less out of the rough, that makes a big difference." That's the case on any course, and Wolff will almost certainly be a force on many of them.
Bryson DeChambeau cruises to U.S. Open titleBryson DeChambeau cruises to U.S. Open title
MAMARONECK, N.Y. - This was already the least conventional U.S. Open ever. It was the first not played in June since 1931. There were also no spectators, a necessary evil in the COVID era but one that was felt even more acutely at a New York metropolitan area major. So maybe it was fitting that on top of all that strangeness we got the 1:30 p.m. final twosome of iconoclasts Matthew Wolff and Bryson DeChambeau. After a year-long physical transformation that raised eyebrows, DeChambeau validated his methods by swinging away and winning his first major at Winged Foot, his final-round 67 good for a six-shot victory over Wolff (75). "I think I’m definitely changing the way people think about the game," DeChambeau said. "Now, whether you can do it, that’s a whole different situation. There’s a lot of people that are going to be hitting it far. Matthew was hitting it plenty far today. RELATED: Final leaderboard | What's in Bryson's bag? "A couple of putts just didn’t go in for him today and kept the momentum on my side." DeChambeau his just 41 percent of the fairways but proved that he could pick apart the course from the rough. His final round was the best of the day by three, and he was the only player to finish the tournament under par. It was his seventh PGA TOUR win and first major. His eyes welled with tears after he signed his scorecard and was presented with a video link to his family. Louis Oosthuizen (73) finished third, eight back. Harris English (73) was fourth. The winner said his confidence was at an "all-time high" and he played like it Sunday. "Where's the flag?" DeChambeau asked his caddie Tim Tucker as they stood on the tee at the 444-yard, par-4 14th hole. At this point DeChambeau, who has always sought every piece of information available, was already three up on a faltering Wolff. "Twelve on and four off the left," Tucker said. With that, DeChambeau swung from the heels and ripped a 296-yard drive - into the wind. Did it hit the fairway? Oddly enough, DeChambeau made that question a moot point. He hit six of 14 fairways Sunday and 23 of 56 for the week, but thrived, anyway. That flew in the face of the conventional wisdom that there was absolutely no way to play Winged Foot from the rough. "Everyone talked about hitting fairways out here," said Xander Schauffele (74, 4 over, solo fifth). "It’s not about hitting fairways. It’s about hitting on the correct side of the hole and hitting it far so you can kind of hit a wedge instead of a 6-iron out of the rough. "Yeah, he’s sort of trending in the new direction of golf," Schauffele added, "and he said he wanted to do everything he’s doing, and yeah, happy for him. He’s playing unbelievable." DeChambeau has engineered his approach every step of the way, forever using math and science to try and outsmart the competition. The single-length clubs, the one-plane swing, and now the emphasis on protein shakes and gaining weight in order to bludgeon drives and stack the deck in his favor. It's all clearly working; this was his second victory of 2020. "No chance," said Rory McIlroy (75, T8), when asked if he could have foreseen a player hitting so few fairways and winning. "I don’t really know what to say because that’s just the complete opposite of what you think a U.S. Open champion does. "Look, he’s found a way to do it," McIlroy added. "Whether that’s good or bad for the game, I don’t know, but it’s just - it’s not the way I saw this golf course being played or this tournament being played. It’s kind of hard to really wrap my head around it." One of the confounding things about DeChambeau is that while he generates the most buzz with his driving, he's not one-dimensional. His 67 was the best final round by three shots over Dustin Johnson, Erik van Rooyen and Taylor Pendrith. Was it all just brawn? Hardly. DeChambeau also tied for fifth in greens in regulation and tied for 11th in putting. "You still have to be able to control your ball," said Shane Lowry (72, 15 over), "you still have to be able to chip and putt. If it was just about hitting the ball long, the long drivers would be out here playing in these major championships and they’re not." The putting, in particular, has been a long time coming for the winner. "The putting has gradually improved over the course of my career," DeChambeau said. "I was dead last when I came out on TOUR, and the SIK guys, SIK golf, they helped me understand how a ball needs to roll in order to give me the best chance to hole a putt. "Over the course of these four years, every year I’ve gotten a little bit better," he added. How much better can he get? He doesn't know, he said, but he intends to find out. He intends to keep powering through, ignoring the doubters, and changing the game. "I’m not going to stop," he said. "Next week I’m going to be trying a 48-inch driver." DeChambeau has a major, and the Bryson DeChambeau experiment gets more interesting by the day.