MNF DOG. GIANTS +7. BOARD IS 6-6.
THE GAME
• NYG at LAR. ABC/ESPN. 8:15 ET. SoFi.
• Line: LAR -6.5 to -7. Giants +6.5 / +7. Total 47.5.
• Weather: none. Canopy. 74° and calm.
WHY THE POINTS PLAY
• Giants already did the hard thing. Beat Dallas on Sunday night. Dart 23-of-29, three scores, zero picks. Third down: 81.8 percent. Red zone: perfect.
• Rams just got buried in Melbourne. 27-7. Stafford 155 yards, zero TDs, a pick. That is not a 7-point home favorite tape.
• Myles Garrett is on IR. The edge that made this a Super Bowl line in August is not dressing.
• Puka is trending the wrong way. Schefter: not promising. If he sits, Stafford’s Week 1 problem stays the Week 2 problem.
• Donald coming off the couch is a headline, not a rebuilt defense. One legend does not cover a 20-point opener and a missing WR1.
• Adebo is out. That’s the Giant hole. It is not bigger than Garrett plus a likely-missing Nacua.
• Cross-country dog after a short week is the tax. Seven points is the refund. You need a field goal and a leftover. Dart already showed he can keep a game in that window. The market is still pricing last year’s Rams and this year’s logo. The tape from Australia is the tape. New York can lose by 3 and cash. That’s the spot.
First Whistle. 6-6 YTD. Confirm Puka at 6:45. The seven still works if he’s out.
🏈0-2 MORGUE. THE MATH DOES NOT LIE.
THE GRAVE Nine clubs are already in the hole. Rams still play tonight.
•AFC: MIA, HOU, IND, TEN, LAC
•NFC: WAS, TB, ATL
•Since 2002: 24 of 200 teams that started 0-2 made the playoffs. That’s 12 percent.
•17-game era: closer to 1-in-5.
•Last two years got sloppy: 6 of 19 crawled in. Do not bet the league suddenly got nicer.
•Merger average for an 0-2 team: 5.4 wins. Super Bowls after 0-2: three. Dallas ’93. Patriots ’01. Giants ’07. That’s the list.
COOKED
•BUCS. 0-2. Lost at home to Cleveland, 23-19. Mayfield was chaos. Bowles: “Nobody’s coming to save us.” First 0-2 start since 2014. NFC South already has Carolina and New Orleans at 1-1. Five wins would be a bounce. Ten more games of this staff and this tape is a funeral. Agree. Cooked.
•FALCONS. 0-2. Got dropped 34-3 at home by Carolina. Penix out. Rush under center. 16 points in two weeks. That’s not a quarterback problem. That’s a roster problem.
•DOLPHINS. 0-2. 26 points scored, 62 allowed. Tua already a ghost. AFC East has Buffalo 2-0. The math is cruel.
•TITANS. 0-2. Lost a home one-score game to Philly and still look like a rebuild. Ward is the future. October is not.
ALIVE, BARELY
•COLTS. 0-2. Dropped 33-30 in OT at Arrowhead. That’s a loss you can live with. Jones put up 30 on the road at night. One more ugly loss and they’re with Tampa. One win and they’re the 0-2 that historically survives.
•CHARGERS. 0-2. Home losses to Arizona and Vegas. Six fumbles Sunday. Herbert is still Herbert. The schedule after this is a meat grinder. Talent says live. Tape says dead.
•TEXANS. 0-2. Stroud threw for 353 and they scored 6. That’s a defense and a red-zone corpse. Houston has climbed out of 0-2 before. Not like this.
•COMMANDERS. 0-2. Daniels ran, Dallas still dropped 37. NFC East is Philly 2-0. Washington needs a heater. Possible. Not probable.
THEORY 0-2 is not a vibe. It is a 12-percent ticket with a 5-win mean. Tampa is the cleanest “season’s over” tape in the league. Atlanta is next. Miami is a body. Indianapolis is the only 0-2 that just played a real game. Everybody else is hoping 2024-25 luck repeats. Luck is not a plan.
First Whistle.
⚾️OCTOBER REPORT CARD. STARTERS MATTER. THIS IS THE REST.
FIELD
•Bye track: MIL 98-58. LAD 96-60.
•WC: ATL 92-64 hosts PHI 86-70. CHC 87-69 hosts SD 87-69.
•Series start Sept. 29.
MANAGERS
•MIL / Pat Murphy. A. Back-to-back NL Manager of the Year. Just extended. Best in-game feel in the league.
•LAD / Dave Roberts. A. Two rings. Knows a short series. Does not panic a bullpen.
•CHC / Craig Counsell. A-. October résumé is real. Lineup chess is the job.
•ATL / Walt Weiss. B+. First year. Took a 76-win club back to 92 and a division. Still proving October.
•PHI / Rob Thomson. B. Veteran hand. Clubhouse stays upright.
•SD. B. Pen usage will decide them more than the binder.
ONE-RUN DNA
•Midseason snapshot still tells the truth: Phillies were 19-6 in one-run games while they were a .486 team in everything else. That’s a closer, not a slugger.
•Brewers were a coin flip in the close ones and still ran away with 98 wins. They beat you by three. Different animal.
•Braves bled some one-run games early. Home park papered it over.
•October is a one-run league. PHI and SD live there. MIL and LAD can skip that test if the starter goes six.
HOME / ROAD
•Home monsters: MIL 52-26. ATL 51-27. LAD 50-28. SD 49-29.
•Road that travels: MIL 46-32. LAD 46-32. PHI 45-36.
•Soft road: SD 38-40. That’s the tell. Petco is a fortress. Wrigley in a WC is a different building.
•CHI 45-33 / 42-36. Balanced. Not scary either way.
•ATL 41-37 on the road. Fine for a 3-seed hosting. Not a road-kill club.
BULLPENS
•Grades by relief ERA: ATL 3.39. MIL 3.41. SD 3.48. LAD 3.87. CHC 3.91. PHI 4.34.
•SD has Mason Miller. That’s a series-changer if they steal a lead.
•MIL: Megill plus depth. 51 saves. They can play chess after the sixth.
•ATL: quiet and nasty. 1.19 WHIP class.
•PHI pen is the hole. 4.34. A 2-1 game in Atlanta gets loud late.
•CHC: 34 saves on 62 chances. That’s not a lockdown ninth. Counsell will live in the sixth and seventh.
•LAD: middle of the pack. Needs the starter to eat. Ohtani as a bat helps. Ohtani as a ninth-inning idea is not this week.
WHO STANDS OUT
•Milwaukee wins the non-ace card. Manager. Home. Pen. Record. They don’t need one-run magic because they already won the other 120 games.
•San Diego’s pen is the WC wrecking ball. Their road record is the leash.
•Philadelphia’s close-game luck meets Atlanta’s home and Atlanta’s pen. That’s a bad draw if you’re the 6.
•Cubs have the bat. They do not have the ninth. Wrigley helps. It does not close.
THEORY Aces get you to the fifth. These four columns get you to the next round. Milwaukee is the only club that grades clean across the sheet. Padres can steal a short series with Miller. Phillies need the starter to go 7 or they’re walking into Weiss with a leaking pen. That’s the NL without talking fastballs.
First Whistle. Seeding still moves this week. The report card doesn’t.
Today is September 20, 2026 - the border is CLOSED, the streets are SAFER, we’re BUILDING things in America again, and Donald J. Trump is the President of the United States of America. 🇺🇸
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NYC IS FALLING APART AND MAMDANI’S HOSTING A GLOBAL MAYOR SUMMIT.
Ambulance times up five years straight. Council says he scrapped 600 new officers and the Bronx crime spike followed. Half the kids can’t read at grade level. A $126 billion budget up nearly 10% and the city is staring at a fiscal cliff. His answer is Helsinki, TikTok potholes, and global cosplay.
That is not governing. That is influencer politics with a city as the set. Do your job. Fix the streets. Put cops on them. Get the ambulance there before the funeral.
Communists love a summit. New Yorkers need a mayor.
When Biden was installed in the White House, he would almost never talk to the press, and when he attempted to - the fake news press would ask him pre-written questions, then he'd read a pre-written answer (that he didn't even write)
So spare me pretending these are real journalists.
🚨 JUST IN: President Trump reveals at the request of the military and for national security, he is converting the Triumphal Arch in DC to a MILITARY complex/arch that will “house, store, and have the rapid ability to use large numbers of drones, plus Snipers” 🔥
“On both the roof and plaza areas, and additionally have and hold large quantities of sniper ammunition in storage.”
“There will be no facility like this anywhere in the World. Out of the 59 top cities and Capitals, Washington, D.C., IS THE ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD THAT DOES NOT HAVE A TRIUMPHAL ARCH, but it will now and, by far, the greatest of them all!“
47 left Camp David last night to return working at the White House
He’s already up on a Sunday morning working hard!
Hopefully an activist judge doesn’t BLOCK the construction. Rogue judges are out of control
Ukraine/NATO just hit more oil refineries outside of Moscow last night.
This is despite President Trump publicly demanding that Zelenskyy stop destroying the last BIG refineries producing diesel that is supplying Europe.
This will only drive up diesel prices globally..
Theo Von, proving every day how he is incredibly low IQ, says Israel’s response to Hamas terrorists in Gaza is “the biggest atrocity of our lifetime.”
How anti-American does someone have to be to say this when they know all about 9/11?
9/11 is hands down the biggest atrocity of our lifetime and anyone who was born before September 11, 2001.
Can you believe there are people who not only watch Theo Von but encourage people to watch his anti-American, Islamic sympathizing podcast as well?
The Doomer Grifters are incapable of saying anything positive, EVER!
It's a 24/7 negative feedback loop for people who like to stay miserable all day.
I honestly don't understand how anybody can swallow their never-ending, pessimistic garbage on a daily basis.
They desperately need to pull you into their blackpill bubble to keep those clicks alive.
Some people who get sucked into their negative feedback loop, never come out.
What a horrible way to live.
Trump just turned a Civil War-era arch fantasy into a national security hammer and the soft crowd is going to lose their minds.
At the military’s request, he’s converting the planned Triumphal Arch by Arlington Memorial Bridge into a military complex.
Drones. Snipers. Ammo storage. Rapid response on the roof and plaza. Washington is the only major capital without a triumphal arch. Now it gets the greatest one, and it actually means something.
The left wanted a monument for Instagram. He wants a capital that can defend itself. That is the difference. Strength over aesthetics. Security over feelings.
Good. Build it. Make the weak ones nervous.
This doesn’t make sense.
If the FBI stopped 1,100 terror attacks, you’d know about it.
There would be 1,100 indictments.
I’m on every major media email distribution chain, I would have covered it.
Also, the DOJ was the ones who got the Islamic terrorist removed from the country, why is the FBI taking credit? They helped but the heavy lifting is DOJ.
This whole thing is just so strange to boast about.
As you assumed, I’m following up with the FBI for the details on the so-called 1,100 terror attacks they prevented.
Appalling the way that Ed Sheeran has been bullied by the mob. It shows the strength, power and reach of the Islamist network.
Their demands won't stop at Gaza.
If we want to save our countries from Islamism- Britain and the USA - we have to defund these people and build alternative infrastructure that can beat them.
Individual bravery is not enough.