B's Stories of the Week #1 (October 1st)

If you ask me, it is the most wonderful time of the year. From the start of the baseball playoffs to the College Football and NFL seasons seeing games grow with more intensity and importance as the weather gets colder and the days get shorter. The English Premier League is seeing a season involving true competition that looks sustainable for the first time since the 2019/20 season. All of these sports are seeing competition which is the theme of this week's first edition of B's Stories of the Week.

1. The best team in a league of parity. (NFL) - I think it is strange how people talk about the parity in the NFL and say, "this team might be the best in the NFL." There is one team in the National Football League that is the best and they are definitively the best. Nobody and I mean no one, contrary to how many points a team put up in one week or another is better than the San Francisco 49ers. The knock on them is that their schedule has not been good but as my dad always said to me, you can only judge a team on the opponents they have beaten. Only one team of the ones they have played was able to finish the game within not one but two possessions. That game was against their divisional rival, the Las Angeles Rams who some forget is one year away from being Super Bowl Champions.

No team in the NFL has been anywhere close to as consistent as San Francisco. I love the Miami Dolphins team, but they went from scoring seventy points in a game to giving up forty-eight the next. Despite the dominance that has been on display from the Bills in recent weeks, they found a way to lose to a Jets team that lost its starting quarterback and replaced him with undisputedly the worst quarterback in the league. Finally, although they are undoubtedly the second-best team in the league, the Philadelphia Eagles have had one convincing win in three weeks against no teams with winning records.

Where the 49ers did what they are supposed to the Eagles escaped which is why although it is a slight edge, the advantage goes to the Eagles. The final thing to note about contenders in the NFL is Dallas is among them, but I need to see some true consistency from them to be able to respect them. They are on a remarkably similar pedestal as the Buffalo Bills which will be something I will continue to cover.

2. College Football Conference Play - Conference play in College Football is always my favorite sporting event in American Sports. It is eight to nine weeks of rivalries and upsets but chaos and unpredictability of which we have already seen. From Georgia's dangerous encounter with the Auburn Tigers to Texas' along with Texas A&M's domination and redemption from lackluster years in recent history. There are so many interesting stories in college football this week that there will be some I miss but these are the most important to me.

The most shocking result of this weekend's games might have come from a game that's outcome did not surprise anybody. The score did. The Texas Longhorns saw a hot Kansas team at home and unlike in years prior where they would succumb to the pressure, they exceeded the hype. They won by a score of forty to fourteen against the 24th ranked team in the nation to add to an already impressive resume. This week they will play Oklahoma where they have a chance to become the #1 team in the nation if they win because they already beat Alabama on the road.

The #1 ranked team in America, the Georgia Bulldogs looked shaky this weekend against Auburn and Texas A&M won big respect points from college football fans as a result. Last week A&M demolished Auburn from start to finish and the top ranked Bulldogs had the lead for a total of seven minutes and twenty-eight seconds against a team who had less than a hundred yards total on the day. This coming week they will face Kentucky (certainly a contender for top five games of the week) at home but considering how they played against Auburn they will be on upset watch.

Texas A&M will be hosting Alabama this coming week in a game in which they can make a huge statement. That statement being that they belong in the top twenty-five which is a point that I personally believe they have already made. Alabama will try to make a statement of their own in saying the SEC West is still their nut given how they have struggled against A&M in recent years including a loss the last time they went down to College Station; we will certainly be in for an entertaining watch.

3. The Premier League is wide open. – A few teams in the Premier League are good and a few are not. That is with any league. Some teams though, are atrocious like the Wolves of Wolverhampton and some teams are phenomenal like Manchester City. Now Manchester City who coming into last week had not drew or lost a game all seasons lost to Newcastle in a national tournament. They plain and simply were outplayed the same way they were on Saturday when they lost to Wolves by a score of 2-1. In neither game did they hold a lead.

About thirty minutes after the conclusion of that fixture, Liverpool who was second in the league, played Tottenham Hotspur (Spurs) in Spurs stadium in North London. Liverpool showed the most resilience I have ever seen in a team, losing two players, and having a good goal get called back because of a communication error with the video assistant. They were so close to achieving a one-point draw until they let in a goal in the very last minute of the game. This game shows resiliency of both teams and that both are here to stay and compete with the best in the league. Spurs need to be better on attack and Liverpool need to be more disciplined but overall, these are undoubtedly two of the three best teams in the league.

Arsenal who also has shown resiliency, has yet to lose a game like Spurs and is tied with their North London counterpart for second place in the league. They have had some questionable performances thus far but given they have no losses they are right in the conversation to win the Premier League this year again too. They have shown signs of consistency and are going to get a Manchester City team at their worst all year. For Arsenal to be true contenders for the league title, I am going to need to see them beat Manchester City in London to get over the wall that they could not climb last year.

There is so much happening in the Premier League this season and it is the most open I can remember it being. This is without mentioning the streaking hot teams like Brighton, Newcastle, and Aston Villa. There are seven teams with the potential to be in a true race for the Premier League and over these next few months I do not expect a whole lot to change.

In the coming weeks, I will be sure to update you all on everything that I find important in the sports world. If there is something you find quite interesting and I didn't cover it please feel free to reach out to me. I will cover the baseball playoffs and I will be covering a team in the coming weeks that you might have found missing in the NFL section. Hope you all have a great week and I will see you later this week.