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CFB Saturday: Manning shines, and Noles crater

Yesterday’s most notable moment in college football: After Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers, a Heisman contender, left the game against UTSA with an oblique muscle injury, backup Arch Manning threw for five touchdowns, including this 67-yard run that showed he’s much better than his famous uncles:

CAN’T TOUCH HIM 😮‍💨@ArchManning photo.twitter.com/65nR57qIR5

—Texas Football (@TexasFootball) September 15, 2024

We’ll wait to learn more about Ewers’ status. Nearly a month until Texas’ next big game, against rival Oklahoma.

Now let’s talk about Florida State. Since 1977, Bobby Bowden’s second season in Tallahassee, the Noles have started 0-3 only two seasons.

Coach both seasons? Mike Norvell, now including 2024. After losing 20-12 at home to Memphis yesterday, FSU became only the second preseason top 10 team since the 1980s to lose its first three games.

Another insult: Memphis was the team Norvell left for Florida State, and now the Tigers (3-0) are favorites for an automatic 12-team playoff bid.

• How did this happen? Last year, FSU went 13-1, powered by nine transfers who were subsequently drafted. The portal gives! But “there just hasn’t been enough development from the players that Norvell has recruited from the high school ranks,” Manny Navarro explained yesterday.
• How bad is this going to get? It’s not too hard to imagine that FSU’s November game against Florida (1-2 after yesterday’s miserable loss to Texas A&M) would play no significant role at all in bowl season.

Elsewhere in CFB:

• Last night, No. 1 Georgia suffered its biggest regular-season scare in more than a year, edging out Kentucky 13-12. The Dawgs have next week off, visiting No. 4 Alabama.
• Big winners: No. 14 Kansas State shook No. 20 Arizona, No. 6 Missouri survived #24 Boston College, Bama the ship set back on course for Wisconsin, No. 16 LSU won a crazy game in South Carolina and No. 18 Notre Dame unleashed feelings on Purdue.
• Rivalry weekend doesn’t start until Thanksgiving, but we got a taste of it yesterday. Washington State got some revenge on Washington through the redistricting, but Oregon State got nothing of the sort against No. 9 Oregon.In the meantime, Pitt came back to beat West Virginia, and Deion Sanders University achieved a regular football victory over Colorado State.
• The review of yesterday: “Whooping cough outbreak forces Portland State to cancel game against South Dakota.”

For even more news, expect Until Saturday to appear in your inbox soon.

NFL Viewing Guide: Find a bank, buddy

Time to feed more football data into our brains and find out who’s better than who. Our list today (all times ET):

1:00 p.m.
Pirates at Lions — We have a few matchups like this today, where one team (Tampa Bay) looked like a real contender in Week 1, but we don’t know for sure yet. Detroit now earns contender status after last season’s playoff run … which included a home playoff win over the Bucs. Television: FOX

4:25 pm
Bengals at Chiefs — Everyone is worried about Cincinnati and no one is worried about Kansas City. These two started the season as likely AFC playoff opponents. I’m following Cincy closely here. Is the September crisis here again? Television: CBS

8:20 pm
Bears at Texans — This is a full-fledged Statement Game, as C.J. Stroud and the Texans can announce themselves as legit Super Bowl contenders with an easy win here. Meanwhile, Caleb Williams didn’t look great last week, and the Texans’ defense is better than Tennessee’s. The QB matchup alone is worth watching. Television: NBC

News to know

McCaffrey to miss extended playing time
Christian McCaffrey is going on IR with calf soreness and Achilles tendonitis, meaning he will miss at least the next four games. After already missing Week 1, the two-time All-Pro’s earliest return is Oct. 10 against the Seattle Seahawks.

We pinged fantasy bigwig Jake Ciely to ask how panicked fantasy owners should be, on a scale of 1-10. Here’s what he had to say:This is at least an 8. First, McCaffrey isn’t guaranteed to be 100 percent when he returns. Second, the 49ers have a Week 9 bye, which means they might be too cautious and hold off on CMC until Week 10. Add those two together and you might not get 100 percent CMC until Week 11 … or worse.” Phew.

Another record for Clark
If it feels like we’ve been writing about some new Caitlin Clark accomplishment every weekend lately, that’s probably because the star rookie added to her record Friday by adding the most assists in a season (she already held the rookie record and the record for most in a single game). Ben Pickman has Clark’s full list of accolades here.

More news

• The man accused of killing a Blue Jackets star Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew, who were involved in a drunk-driving accident, will remain in jail while the case goes to trial, a judge has ordered.
• Tiger Woods underwent surgery for a pinched nerve in his lower back. It was his sixth back surgery and the first since 2021.
• Dodgers manager Dave Roberts indicated there is a “small” — but not zero — chance Shohei Ohtani could pitch in the postseason.
• Lionel Messi scored twice for Inter Miami last night against Philadelphia Union in their return to MLS, a 3-1 victory.

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Explanation: Why Taylor Swift is back on your timeline

Hello again to Hannah Vanbiber! Take it with you:

Everyone was mad about Taylor Swift last week. To quote Swift herself: We need to calm down.

What’s going on? She’s been busy! A summary:

• Her premiere in season 2 of the NFL attracted a lot of attention. She went to the NFL season opener to support her boyfriend Travis Kelce — which, predictably, irked some people. It was a Chiefs-Ravens game that drew a record 28.9 million viewers, with what felt like 100 million more expressing their opinions online.
• The hug was heard around the world. The discourse around Swift moved into the political sphere, first when Donald Trump shared a fake AI-generated endorsement of Swift, and then when Brittany Mahomes liked, then disliked, then hammered Trump on a post. Swift then attended the US Open finals with Kelce, as well as Patrick and Brittany Mahomes. Taylor and Brittany huggedwhich sent the Internet into a downward spiral and perhaps reading too much into it, as the Internet does.
• The approval. Two days later, after the presidential debate, Swift posted a Harris-Walz endorsement. The post generated more than 400,000 visits to a linked voter registration website in 24 hours. It has more than 10 million likes on Instagram, including one by WNBA star Caitlin Clark.
• To win. Swift was back in the news the next day at the VMAs, winning the most awards of the night and thanking Kelce for his support, setting records and reminding us of her cute soccer boyfriend!

Key points:

1. Swift is more famous and popular than ever (among menat!). Her impact, which even Roger Goodell called the “Taylor Swift effect,” is undeniable and has been amplified in her relationship with Kelce.
2. Maybe it’s time to touch the grass, as the kids say! Could it be that we are projecting our cultural fears and desires onto Swift – and that it is more about us then she? I’m going outside now.

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Watch and listen

📺 MLB: Dodgers at Braves
7:10 p.m. ET on ESPN
Yes, there are playoff implications, but I’m here to see if Shohei Ohtani can break the 50-50 barrier. It’s crazy to think he’s doing all of this in his first year with the Dodgers.

📺 WNBA: Sun at Aces
6:00 p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network
These teams have three games left in the season that could impact playoff seeding. I just want to see how each team performs heading into the postseason, by the way.

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Kirk Irwin / Getty Images

Pulse picks

Don Waddell leads the Blue coats through the unimaginable Johnny Gaudreau tragedy and, as Pierre LeBrun wrote beautifully on Friday, it is an unfortunate echo from Waddell’s past. Make time for this.

Have you seen? MLB Helmets getting ads this postseason? Tyler Kepner says it’s a tasteless money grab.

We actually don’t talk enough about the Royal incredible transformation this year. The reshuffle was more last minute than you think.

The man who falls outside the Tom Brady media circus: Greg Olsennow Fox’s No. 2 analyst, who was candid with Richard Deitsch about how he’s coping with the demotion he knew was coming. Olsen is also great right now.

The Pac-12 is back, in case you missed it. Chris Vannini has a roadmap for how the reborn conference can complete its impressive rebuild.

Most clicked in the newsletter Friday: Our story about Caitlin Clark’s comments about voting in the upcoming presidential election. Read it here.

Most read on the website yesterday: Dianna Russini’s weekly column “What I’m Hearing,” in which she shares a detail from Deshaun Watson’s contract that could prove important.

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(Top photo: Scott Wachter/USA Today)