They've lowkey been better than we thought, I think the reason secondary might've looked worse than this probably says it has is because of 1) Colton Hood needing to play and clearly not being ready to start and 2) Having to face both Matthew Stafford and Dak thus far
Either way, this is very encouraging to see
Source: NextGenStats
Teams to be bottom of the PL after 5 games:
2019 - Watford
2020 - Fulham
2021 - Norwich City
2022 - Leicester City
2023 - Luton Town
2024 - Wolves
2025 - Wolves
2026 - Spurs
Wolves in the 24/25 season were the only team to stay up, but they were bottom after 5 games again last year and got relegated
The 2014 Packers lost 36-16 at Seattle in week 1, before losing again at Seattle in the NFCCG later that same season
The last team to even win a playoff game after losing by 20+points in week 1 was Myles Garrett's previous team the Cleveland Browns in 2020, after losing 38-6 to Baltimore in week 1, and then beating the Steelers in the Wild Card round later that season
The Rams will likely still make the playoffs, but that division and their chances of even making the Super Bowl are far from a guarantee based on recent history.
>"I'm not going to tell you who is playing in the game. I'm not going to tell you who is starting, what package we have in, what play we're running. I'm not going to tell you any of that. So we can make it great and have a great press conference, or we can make it uncomfortable. I'm not going to tell you because what you know, the Cowboys know, and every other team knows. That's not in the competitive interest of our football team. I think you can respect that."
- John Harbaugh
My coach is standing on business against the media today, I love it lol
Pre-snap shift/motion:
-2026 preseason: 54.9% (10th)
-2022-2025 regular seasons: 49.3% (29th)
-2022-2025 preseasons: 29.7% (29th)
Pressure rate allowed:
-2026 preseason: 21.2% (2nd)
-2022-2025 regular seasons: 40.1% (32nd)
-2022-2025 preseasons: 34.7% (29th)
Some good early signs for the Giants' offense
Any opinion you see online, whether positive or negative, needs to have a definitive conclusion rather than leave the door open for things to either change or for you to change your mind on it.
“X is ruined forever/is never gonna be bad again”
“My favorite sports team/movie/tv show/artist is never gonna be bad or good again”
“These people are all good/all bad and have no faults or redeeming qualities”
The concept of nuances doesn’t exist, in one of the main reasons for it is because when you see so much pertaining to so many different things online, it’s hard to keep a meaningful track of everything at the same time. So instead of watching a full story unfold with your undivided attention, you just get a lot of screenshots of parts of a story and you never get the full catharsis of seeing it play out all the way through. You’ll see a piece of bad news and it will make you feel a certain way, but because there’s so much stuff bombarding you every day on your feed it’s hard to even keep track of every single story. You see all of the time, so if that thing gets resolved, you might not even see it and even if you do, it doesn’t come across like a satisfying conclusion to a problem, because so much other stuff is distracted you along the way.
Essentially, it’s showing you a bunch of stuff that may or may not even matter in a day week or a month from now, but the emotional reaction it sparks in you still lingers. That’s not how people are engineered to engage with the world, and the concept that things can change, evolve, adapt, improve, and even worse sometimes makes us more grounded and rational.
If the result of all the biggest finals from this year were reversed, this is what that would look like:
* Argentina would’ve won the World Cup for the second straight time, which would be embarrassing given how they played and how their players acted after they lost
* Arsenal would’ve won the Champions League over PSG, and like with the WC Final, entertaining football would’ve lost and the Arsenal UCL memes would die too.
* The Vegas Golden Knights, who won less than half of their games this past season, would’ve been the Stanley Cup champions, which would be embarrassing on multiple levels (2nd title in first 10 years of existence which is more than many other teams, The Canes misery compounding, the fact that fucking Carter Hart would win a cup 🤢)
* The San Antonio Spurs would’ve won the NBA finals instead of the Knicks ending their drought, their sixth title since 1999, in their first playoff appearance of the Wemby era, right after being gifted another superstar by the draft lottery.
* The UConn Huskies would’ve won the March Madness championship for the 7th time since 1999 and become the first real “dynasty” of the tournament since UCLA in the 70s, winning 3 titles in 4 years. No one wants to see UConn have EVEN MORE success obviously
* And last but not least, the New England Patriots would’ve won their seventh Super Bowl ring of the 21st-century, with cheater Mike Vrabel as their head coach, and in their first playoff appearance with Drake Maye after he played like shit for most of the playoffs. Plus the Darnold redemption arc never happens too!
Imagine a world where all of these things happened, not a single good outcome here lol
I know this isn’t just NASCAR related but a weird coincidence I found involving the NBA:
The last NASCAR race before Kawhi Leonard’s contract on the Raptors expired in 2019: Chicagoland (June 30th)
The first NASCAR race after Kawhi Leonard gets traded back to the Raptors this year: Chicagoland (this Sunday)
They were 22-to-1 to win the title prior to the playoffs, which is the longest odds any team has ever had prior to the start of the NBA playoffs since the stat was recorded.
The previous record was 18-1 by the 2011 Mavericks and 1995 Rockets
https://www.covers.com/sportsoddshistory/nba-championship-favorites-entering-the-playoffs/
From 2022 to 2025, Jordan Staal had 6 goals in 55 playoff games played for the Hurricanes. In the Stanley Cup Final, he has 6 goals in 5 games.
The only other team to do it in NBA history was the 1993 Bulls vs the Phoenix Suns (Sorry Chuck and Shaq lol)
This is only since the Finals adopted its current home away format.
If the San Antonio Spurs win the NBA Finals, they will have the longest pre-season odds of any team to win the Finals in NBA history at 66-to-1 , or at least since odds have been tracked which is around 1984. The current record is the 2015 Warriors at 28-to-1. It would also be the 4th longest odds of any eventual champion among all 4 major US sports, behind the 1999 Rams, 1991 Twins, and 2003 Marlins
However, if the NY Knicks win the finals, that would also be historic in a slightly different way. They were 22-to-1 to win the NBA Finals prior to the start of the playoffs, factoring in their regular season. That would be the longest odds any eventual champion had prior to the start of the playoffs in NBA history (or since the oldest record in 1976). The current record is a tie between the 2011 Mavericks and 1995 Rockets, both at 18-to-1. In fact, the Knicks' odds of 22-to-1 would also be tied for the 3rd longest odds among any eventual champ in all 4 major US sports, with only the 2007 Giants (50-to-1) and the 1997 Marlins (25-to-1) having longer odds prior to the playoffs starting, and tied with the 2011 Giants and 2012 LA Kings.
Here is table of every NBA FInals since 1981 where one team's PD was 30 or better than their Finals opponent. The Knicks have a playoff point differential that is +86 better than the Spurs (+271 vs +185)
| Eventual Winner (PD) | Eventual Loser (PD) | Difference in PD prior to the NBA Finals |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 Thunder (+173) | 2025 Pacers (+66) | +107 |
| 2024 Celtics (+141) | 2024 Mavericks (+69) | +72 |
| 2023 Nuggets (+125) | 2023 Heat (+76) | +49 |
| 2020 Lakers (+111) | 2020 Heat (+75) | +36 |
| 2018 Warriors (+150) | 2018 Cavaliers (+22) | +128 |
| 2016 Cavaliers (+177) | 2016 Warriors (+109) | +68 |
| 2012 Heat (+143) | 2012 Thunder (+100) | +43 |
| 2011 Mavericks (+107) | 2011 Heat (+70) | +37 |
| 2004 Pistons (+102) | 2004 Lakers (+65) | +37 |
| 2001 Lakers (+170) | 2001 76ers (+32) | +138 |
| 1999 Spurs (+98) | 1999 Knicks (+65) | +33 |
| 1997 Bulls (+101) | 1999 Jazz (+70) | +31 |
| 1996 Bulls (+167) | 1996 Sonics (+53) | +114 |
| 1994 Rockets (+77) | 1994 Knicks (+21) | +56 |
| 1993 Bulls (+111) | 1993 Suns (+20) | +91 |
| 1991 Bulls (+150) | 1991 Lakers (+69) | +81 |
| 1990 Pistons (+115) | 1990 Blazers (-22) | +137 |
| 1987 Lakers (+180) | 1987 Celtics (0) | +180 |
| 1986 Celtics (+149) | 1986 Rockets (+114) | +35 |
| 1985 Lakers (+177) | 1985 Celtics (+72) | +105 |
| 1982 Lakers (+82) | 1982 76ers (+26) | +60 |
The other teams (since 1979) being the:
What's wild is that each of these other 4 teams signed or traded for an already established star player that prior offseason to turn their fortunes around into a finals appearance (CP3 to the Suns in 2020, AD traded to the Lakers in 2019, Lebron going back to Cleveland in 2014, Jason Kidd traded to the Nets in 2001)
The Spurs didn't do that this past offseason. Their biggest trade was for Kelly Olynyk and their biggest FA signing was...Luke Kornet? They genuinely just developed into a finals team in one season after not having a single playoff appearance since 2019. Yes there's Wemby but this is his 3rd season already, he was on the team the last two years when they missed the playoffs
This is his first NBA Finals since 2007, a span of 19 years. I think the record was actually broken by Rick Carlisle last season too.
I'm not counting his appearances as the assistant with the Warriors, only as the head coach
* 2023 Heat
* 2024 Celtics
* 2025 Pacers
* 2026 Knicks
Will it be Cleveland continuing this next year?
This was his first win since that three wide finish at Atlanta in 2024. He had the same sponsor in that race, and Kyle Busch was a part of that photo finish as well.
Kinda poetic in a way.
| Franchise | Year | PD | Record | First | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York Knicks | '25/26 | 234 | 11-2 | Apr 18, 2026 | May 23, 2026 |
| Golden State Warriors | '16/17 | 225 | 13-0 | Apr 19, 2017 | Jun 4, 2017 |
| Los Angeles Lakers | '86/87 | 193 | 12-1 | Apr 23, 1987 | Jun 2, 1987 |
| Milwaukee Bucks | '70/71 | 192 | 11-2 | Mar 29, 1971 | Apr 30, 1971 |
| Chicago Bulls | '95/96 | 184 | 12-1 | Apr 26, 1996 | Jun 5, 1996 |
| Oklahoma City Thunder | '24/25 | 183 | 10-3 | Apr 20, 2025 | May 22, 2025 |
