The New York Times - USA (2020-10-15)

B10 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES SPORTSTHURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2020

FOOTBALL SCOREBOARD

BASEBALL M.L.B. PLAYOFFS LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES (Best-of-7; x-if necessary) American League (All Games on TBS) Tampa Bay 3, Houston 0 At San Diego Sunday. Oct. 11: Tampa Bay 2, Houston 1 Monday, Oct. 12: Tampa Bay 4, Houston 2 Tuesday, Oct. 13: Tampa Bay 5, Houston 2 Wednesday, Oct. 14: Tampa Bay (Glasnow 5-1) vs. Houston (Greinke 3-3) x-Thursday, Oct. 15: Tampa Bay vs. Houston, 5:05 p.m. x-Friday, Oct. 16: Houston vs. Tampa Bay, 6:07 p.m. x-Saturday, Oct. 17: Houston vs. Tampa Bay, 8:37 p.m. National League (Fox or FS1) Atlanta 2, Los Angeles 0 At Arlington, Texas Monday, Oct. 12: Atlanta 5, Los Angeles Dodgers 1 Tuesday, Oct. 13: Atlanta 8, Los Angeles Dodgers 7 Wednesday, Oct. 14: Los Angeles Dodgers (Urias 3-0) vs. Atlanta (Wright 2-4) Thursday, Oct. 15: Los Angeles Dodgers (Kershaw 6-2) vs. Atlanta (Wilson 1-0), 8:08 p.m. (Fox and FS1) x-Friday, Oct. 16: Los Angeles Dodgers (May 3-1) vs. Atlanta, 9:08 p.m. (FS1) x-Saturday, Oct. 17: Atlanta vs. Los Angeles Dodgers (Buehler 1-0), 4:38 p.m. (FS1) x-Sunday, Oct. 18: Atlanta vs. Los Angeles Dodgers, 8:15 p.m. (Fox and FS1) WORLD SERIES (Best-of-7; x-if necessary) At Arlington, Texas (All Games on Fox: Times TBA) Tuesday, Oct. 20 Wednesday, Oct. 21 Friday, Oct. 23 Saturday, Oct. 24 x-Sunday, Oct. 25 x-Tuesday, Oct. 27 x-Wednesday, Oct. 28

N.W.S.L. SCHEDULE Saturday, Oct. 17 North Carolina at Orlando, 4 p.m. Utah at Reign FC, 8 p.m.

N.F.L. STANDINGS AMERICAN CONFERENCE East W L T Pct PF PA Buffalo .......4 1 0 .800 139 142 N. England ....2 2 0 .500 97 92 Miami ........2 3 0 .400 136 113 Jets .........0 5 0 .000 75 161 South W L T Pct PF PA Tennessee ....4 0 0 1.000 122 90 Indianapolis ....3 2 0 .600 126 88 Houston ......1 4 0 .200 110 140 Jacksonville ....1 4 0 .200 109 147 North W L T Pct PF PA Pittsburgh .....4 0 0 1.000 118 87 Baltimore .....4 1 0 .800 149 76 Cleveland .....4 1 0 .800 156 149 Cincinnati .....1 3 1 .300 102 126 West W L T Pct PF PA Kansas City ....4 1 0 .800 149 110 Las Vegas..... 3 2 0 .600 151 152 Denver .......1 3 0 .250 82 98 L.A. Chargers... 1 4 0 .200 110 125 NATIONAL CONFERENCE East W L T Pct PF PA Dallas ........2 3 0 .400 163 180 Phila. ........1 3 1 .300 113 145 Washington ....1 4 0 .200 89 142 Giants .......0 5 0 .000 81 133 South W L T Pct PF PA Carolina ......3 2 0 .600 122 118 New Orleans... 3 2 0 .600 153 150 Tampa Bay ....3 2 0 .600 139 112 Atlanta .......0 5 0 .000 122 161 North W L T Pct PF PA Green Bay ....4 0 0 1.000 152 101 Chicago ......4 1 0 .800 105 100 Detroit .......1 3 0 .250 99 127 Minnesota .....1 4 0 .200 132 152 West W L T Pct PF PA Seattle .......5 0 0 1.000 169 135 L.A. Rams .....4 1 0 .800 136 90 Arizona .......3 2 0 .600 128 102 San Fran. .....2 3 0 .400 124 114 Monday, Oct. 12 New Orleans 30, L.A. Chargers 27, OT Tuesday, Oct. 13 Tennessee 42, Buffalo 16 Sunday, Oct. 18 Washington at Giants, 1 Jets at Miami, 4:05 Houston at Tennessee, 1 Cincinnati at Indianapolis, 1 Atlanta at Minnesota, 1 Chicago at Carolina, 1 Detroit at Jacksonville, 1 Cleveland at Pittsburgh, 1 Baltimore at Philadelphia, 1 Green Bay at Tampa Bay, 4:25 L.A. Rams at San Francisco, 8:20 Open: Las Vegas, New England, New Orleans, Seattle

SOCCER

M.L.S. STANDINGS EAST W L T Pts GF GA Toronto FC... 11 2 4 37 28 16 Philadelphia... 10 3 4 34 30 14 Columbus .....9 3 4 31 26 12 Orlando City... 8 2 6 30 28 16 N.Y.C.F.C. .....8 7 2 26 22 15 New England... 6 4 7 25 17 14 Red Bulls .....7 8 2 23 20 21 Montreal ......6 9 2 20 25 32 Chicago ......5 8 4 19 22 26 Atlanta .......5 9 3 18 17 20 Nashville SC... 4 6 6 18 12 16 Inter Miami CF.. 5 10 2 17 17 26 Cincinnati .....3 10 4 13 8 27 D.C. United ....2 10 5 11 13 30 WEST W L T Pts GF GA Seattle .......9 4 3 30 35 17 Portland ......9 4 3 30 36 27 Kansas City ....9 5 2 29 29 22 Los Angeles FC. 7 6 3 24 38 31 Minnesota .....6 5 5 23 26 21 FC Dallas .....5 4 6 21 21 17 San Jose .....5 7 5 20 24 43 Colorado ......5 4 4 19 25 20 Houston ......4 6 7 19 24 27 Vancouver .....6 11 0 18 20 38 Real Salt Lake.. 4 7 6 18 22 28 LA Galaxy .....4 8 3 15 21 30 Sunday, Oct. 11 New England 2, N.Y.C.F.C. 1 Los Angeles FC 3, Seattle 1 Chicago 2, D.C. United 1 Toronto FC 1, Cincinnati 0 Philadelphia 2, Montreal 1 Kansas City 2, Nashville 1 Portland 3, San Jose 0 Columbus at Orlando City ppd. Minnesota at FC Dallas ppd. Wednesday, Oct. 14 N.Y.C.F.C. at Orlando City Red Bulls at Toronto FC Columbus at Cincinnati New England at Montreal Philadelphia at D.C. United Nashville at Houston Atlanta at Miami Chicago at Minnesota Kansas City at FC Dallas Portland at Real Salt Lake Colorado at Seattle Los Angeles FC at Vancouver San Jose at LA Galaxy ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE Team GP W D L GF GA Pts Everton .......4 4 0 0 12 5 12 Aston Villa .....3 3 0 0 11 2 9 Leicester ......4 3 0 1 12 7 9 Arsenal .......4 3 0 1 8 5 9 Liverpool ......4 3 0 1 11 11 9 Tottenham .....4 2 1 1 12 5 7 Chelsea ......4 2 1 1 10 6 7 Leeds........ 4 2 1 1 9 8 7 Newcastle .....4 2 1 1 6 5 7 West Ham .....4 2 0 2 8 4 6 Southampton... 4 2 0 2 5 6 6 Crystal Palace.. 4 2 0 2 5 7 6 Wolverhampton. 4 2 0 2 4 7 6 Man City ......3 1 1 1 6 7 4 Brighton ......4 1 0 3 8 10 3 Man United ....3 1 0 2 5 11 3 West Brom ....4 0 1 3 5 13 1 Burnley .......3 0 0 3 3 8 0 Sheffield United. 4 0 0 4 1 6 0 Fulham .......4 0 0 4 3 11 0 Saturday, Oct. 17 Everton vs. Liverpool Chelsea vs. Southampton Man City vs. Arsenal Newcastle vs. Man United

TRANSACTIONS N.F.L. BUFFALO BILLS — Signed CB Lafayette Pitts to the practice squad. CHICAGO BEARS — Placed OL James Daniels on injured reserve. Promoted OL Sam Mustipher to the active roster. CLEVELAND BROWNS — Signed CB Robert Jackson to the active roster. DETROIT LIONS — Designated G Joe Dahl, RB Bo Scarbrough and DB Mike Ford to return from injured reserve. JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS — Designated RB Devine Ozigbo to return from injured reserve. JETS — Designated WR Denzel Mims, CB Arthur Maulet and OL Cameron Clark to return from injured reserve. Signed DL Tanzel Smart and K Sergio Castillo to the practice squad. Released WR Donte Moncrief. PITTSBURGH STEELERS — Designated OL Stefen Wisniewski to return from injured reserve. TENNESSEE TITANS — Activated WR Adam Humphries from reserve/COVID-19 list.

These are dark days for New
York football.
Though both the Jets and the
Giants have had their share of
bad seasons, this is the first in
which both teams have started
with an 0-5 record.
Just how bad are these teams?
And is there any hope for ag-
grieved New York football fans in
the weeks ahead?

Has New York City ever started
0-10 before?

No, this is a first.
The Giants have staggered to
an 0-5 start on five previous
occasions, most recently in 2017
on the way to a 3-13 season. That
debacle was particularly dis-
tressing since it followed a 11-5
regular season and a playoff
appearance in 2016.
This season is actually the
third 0-5 start in a decade for the
Giants, who also started 0-6 in

They also failed to win in
the first five games in 1987 (two
losses by the real team, then
three by a particularly poor
group of strike-breaking play-
ers), 1979 and 1976.
Although the Jets did not start
0-5 that year, 1976 was probably
the nadir for New York profes-
sional football... at least so far.
Both local teams finished with
3-11 records. The Giants began
the season 0-9, the worst start
for a New York team... again, so
far. The Jets came perhaps as
close as a team can to a winless
season while still winning. The
only teams they beat were the
0-14 Buccaneers and the 2-12
Bills (twice).
This season is only the third
0-5 start in Jets history. The most
recent came in 1996, a season in
which they lost the first eight
games, then finished 1-15. The
much reviled Coach Rich Kotite
left after the season with a two-
year record of 4-28. Their other
0-5 start came in 1980, after
Jimmy Snyder, the oddsmaker
better known as Jimmy the
Greek, had inexplicably selected
them to go to the Super Bowl.
And then came 2020, when the
two MetLife Stadium tenants’ 0-5
starts have for the first time
coincided in a grim syzygy.

What do the statistics say? Pick a category. The Jets and Giants are probably near the bottom of it. Let’s start with the smallest building block of football suc- cess: the yard. Going into Week 6, the Giants and Jets rank 28th and 29th of the 32 N.F.L. teams — and two of the three teams behind them have each played one fewer game. A bigger building block is the point. The New York teams don’t have many of those either. The Giants and Jets rank 31st and 32nd in points scored. On the defensive side, the Jets rank tied at 30th for points allowed, while the Giants are at least mediocre, ranking 20th. Ultimately, N.F.L. teams win by passing the ball efficiently. The Giants and Jets rank 28th and 31st in net pass yards per attempt. And while the teams’ receivers and their game plans must take some blame, the bulk of it always falls on the quarter- back. Of the 28 quarterbacks with at least four starts this season, the Giants’ Daniel Jones ranks 26th in adjusted yards per pass while the Jets’ Sam Darnold ranks 27th. Only Carson Wentz of the Philadelphia Eagles is lower. (Joe Flacco, who subbed for an injured Darnold last week, was at least a little better.) The running game doesn’t usually help a team that’s losing, and the Jets threw up a white flag this week by releasing running back Le’Veon Bell after they couldn’t find any team willing to trade for him.

What are the coaches and players saying? Adam Gase does not like Mon- days. After Sunday losses, the Jets’ head coach has had several tough conversations with players regarding personnel changes, injury accommodations and scathing tape reviews to figure out how to change the outcome the following weekend. Injuries, including Darnold’s belabored absence, have forced the team to adjust in reaction to who’s available, and recently that’s been nearly game-day decision-making. The exception:

This week, Gase released running back Le’Veon Bell Tuesday night, shocking some in the locker room. “I had no idea it had even happened, I had people calling me and telling me about it,” said wide receiver Breshad Perriman, who is hoping to play in the Jets’ next game. “It was surprising to all of us,” tight end Chris Herndon said. “We’re all wishing him the best for wherever he lands next.” Gase, by contrast, was placid in the face of yet another roster move, one that he’d had control over. “We’re going to try to figure out what’s best for us going forward, who we want to use in the backfield and at wide receiver and all those things,” he said Wednesday. With slightly more roster consistency than the Jets, Giants Coach Joe Judge said he was focusing on individual conversations with each of his players to bolster the team. “We’re very blunt, open and honest,” he said. “I’m going to tell you the truth every day.” Giants coaches said quarter- back Daniel Jones has been particularly hard on himself because of the team’s start and that practices emphasize working on the passing, running and kicking games. So, most things. “It’s just doing your job and

executing at a high level, play in and play out,” Jones said Wednesday. “You don’t know which play is going to ultimately decide the game.”

Which team is worse? The Jets. The Giants have some results that are at least creditable. A 4-point loss at the 4-1 Bears in Week 2. An 8-point loss at the 4-1 Rams in Week 5. You might give the Jets a nod for losing their season opener to the surprising Bills by only 10. But since then it’s been ugly, capped by a home loss to the otherwise winless Denver Bron- cos and a 20-point shellacking, again at home, at the hands of the Arizona Cardinals. The number crunchers who rate teams agree that the Giants are bad and the Jets are abysmal. The Sagarin, SRS, Inpredictable and Massey ranking systems use various methods to rate each team's overall ability. The all rank the Giants either 30th or 31st in the league. They all have the Jets dead last.

What does the weekend look like? The Giants might actually win. Their opponent, the Washington Football Team, may be as bad as the New York squads. Washing- ton is 1-4, and its single win came against the struggling Philadel- phia Eagles. Home field means the Giants are actually a 2 1/2-

point favorite, though you might not want to bet a fortune on them. The Jets probably won’t win. Though their opponent, the Mi- ami Dolphins, are no one’s idea of elite, they are 2-3, coming off a hammering of the 49ers on the road, and are playing the Jets at home. That’s good enough to make them an 8-point favorite.

Is there any hope on the horizon? The Giants have a big built-in advantage. They play in the N.F.C. East. That means they still have two shots at the abysmal Football Team and the almost-as- bad Eagles. Throw in a game against the still-finding-themselves Cincinnati Bengals, and the Giants definitely have the opportunity to grab a few wins this season. The Jets’ schedule looks wor- rying. Their divisional rivals include the resurgent Bills, the ever-dangerous Patriots and the decent-enough Dolphins, a much tougher lineup than the Giants face. Throw in road games against the Chiefs, the Chargers and the Seahawks, and the hypothetical losses keep piling up. Even a game that looked promising before the season started, at home against the Browns, sud- denly doesn’t look so easy. The Jets’ best chance at a win may be their home game against the Dolphins on Nov. 29, and a few other home games may be winnable. But they could find themselves as huge underdogs in most of their remaining road games: perhaps two touchdowns to the Chargers, Seahawks, Patri- ots and Rams, and maybe even three touchdowns in a potentially ugly game on Nov. 1 at the Chiefs. Feeling a bit more optimistic? Of the 158 teams that have started the season 0-5, dating to the 1922 Columbus Panhandles, five managed to claw back to a .500 record, most recently the 2009 Tennessee Titans. And an 0-5 A.F.L. team, the 1962 Buffalo Bills, somehow finished 7-6-1. But no 0-5 team has made the playoffs. Yes, the playoffs have been expanded to 14 teams this year. No, that won’t help.

KEEPING SCORE

Are the Jets and Giants Just Awful? Or Worse?

By VICTOR MATHER and GILLIAN R. BRASSIL

Things weren’t a lot better last year. The masks worn by these fans at a 2019 Jets-Giants game weren’t aimed at stopping germs.

STEVEN RYAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Nick Saban, the football coach
at the University of Alabama and
one of the most powerful figures in
college sports, said Wednesday
that he had tested positive for the
coronavirus, deepening the pan-
demic’s turmoil throughout the
Southeastern Conference.
Saban, whose second-ranked
team is scheduled to play No. 3
Georgia on Saturday, said in a
statement that he was asymptom-
atic and isolating at his home in
Tuscaloosa. Alabama’s athletic di-
rector, Greg Byrne, also tested
positive, the university said.
“Both immediately left the facil-
ity and went to their homes to self-
isolate after receiving that infor-
mation,” Dr. Jimmy Robinson,
Alabama’s team doctor, and Jeff
Allen, the football team’s head ath-
letic trainer, said in a statement.
“At this point in time, the positive
tests are limited to those two indi-
viduals. All individuals who are
considered high risk contacts
have been notified and will follow
quarantine guidelines.”
During a news conference con-
ducted by Zoom on Wednesday
night, Saban, wearing a face mask
around his neck, said that he had
been “very surprised” by the pos-
itive result, which Alabama de-
tected during its daily testing for
its football program.
“I personally think I did a really
good job of trying to manage my
personal space,” Saban said. “And
that would be what I’ve informed
our players to try to do because
you have to respect this disease
and the spread of this disease.”
Saban, who is 68, suggested
that he could have contracted the
virus when Alabama traveled to
Mississippi last weekend.
The announcement from Ala-

bama, which had spent months saying vanishingly little about the spread of the pathogen within its athletic department, was a fresh shock to a league grappling with its most perilous week of virus-related crises. On Wednesday, the conference postponed Saturday’s game between Florida and Louisiana State after at least 21 Florida players and two assistant coaches tested positive for the virus. Earlier in the week, a contest between Missouri and Vanderbilt was postponed because of an outbreak at Vanderbilt. But word that Saban, who is 68 and has been an active public pro- ponent of wearing masks and so-

cial distancing, may have far greater reverberations on the sport and perceptions of playing it during the pandemic, in part because of the renown he has culti- vated during his 14 seasons at Ala- bama. During his tenure at the university — whose fans spent the years before he arrived in 2007 longing for the dominant teams they had known under Bear Bryant, who died in 1983 — Saban has won five national championships. Now, ahead of a game that will go far to determine whether Ala- bama reaches another College Football Playoff, Saban will be working from home. Steve Sark- isian, the Crimson Tide’s offensive

coordinator, will take on a greater role in preparations for the game against Georgia. And Alabama also seemed to be harboring a sliver of hope on Wednesday that another test might show Saban’s initial result to be inaccurate. Saban told his team of his test result during a Zoom call on Wednesday afternoon, the university said, hours after he addressed reporters during a regular tele- conference and discussed plans for the Georgia game, assessing the Bulldogs’ defense and reflect- ing on his own evolution as a coach. On Wednesday evening, Sa- ban’s daughter, Kristen Saban Se-

tas, wrote on Twitter that her fa- ther, widely known in college football for endlessly obsessing over the smallest of details, was “lit- erally coaching practice from a Zoom call.” Indeed, Saban said that one of Alabama’s managers had been tasked with holding a phone during practice. “If I wanted a play repeated, I said ‘I want that play repeated, so and so messed up,’ ” Saban said, wryly noting later that Alabama had run “a lot worse practices when I’m there.” The pandemic has disrupted college football repeatedly as the sport plowed ahead this fall. So far, 29 games in the Football Bowl Subdivision, college football’s premier tier, have been postponed or rescheduled for reasons related to the virus. A handful of head coaches, including Kevin Sumlin of Arizona and Mike Norvell of Florida State, have tested positive, as have hun- dreds of players and staff mem- bers nationwide. The Southeastern Conference commissioner, Greg Sankey, warned coaches and athletic di- rectors in recent weeks to follow virus protocols fervently or risk derailing the season, which some critics have said should not be happening at all. Sankey wrote in a memo last week that teams would “need to be fully attentive every day to reach the objective of a healthy and complete season.” Clusters within athletic depart- ments have been part of an even broader problem with cases on university campuses across the country. Alabama has had nearly 2,800 cases campuswide since March, most of them reported in the fall semester as students came back to campus.

Alabama’s Saban Tests Positive for the Coronavirus

By ALAN BLINDER

Nick Saban, 68, an advocate of mask use, is said to be asymptomatic after contracting the virus.

ROGELIO V. SOLIS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

ATLANTA — For the second
time this week, the Southeastern
Conference has postponed a col-
lege football game because of the
coronavirus pandemic, unnerving
the league less than a month into
its season and escalating the
threat to one of the South’s eco-
nomic and cultural juggernauts.
The decision to postpone Satur-
day’s game between No. 10 Flor-
ida and Louisiana State came af-
ter 21 players at Florida tested
positive for the virus. The univer-
sity’s athletic director, Scott
Stricklin, said Wednesday that the
test results were central to why

the Gators would have had fewer than 50 scholarship players for the game in Gainesville, Fla., be- low the league’s 53-man thresh- old. At least two assistant coaches tested positive for the virus. “We’ve reached a point where we don’t think it’s appropriate that we try to play the game this weekend,” said Stricklin, who added that football activities at Florida had been suspended indefinitely. Since August, 29 games in the Football Bowl Subdivision, college football’s premier tier, have been canceled or postponed because of the pandemic. Before the decision on Wednesday, two other

high-profile games that had been planned for this weekend were postponed because of increases in virus cases: a Big 12 Conference matchup between Baylor and Ok- lahoma State and an SEC game between Missouri and Vanderbilt. Officials said Wednesday that it was not clear whether Florida’s next game, a contest against Mis- souri, would take place as planned on Oct. 24. The L.S.U. game, though, was tentatively rescheduled for Dec. 12, a week before the league championship game. Flor- ida, currently second in its divi- sion, could be in contention to play in that game.

Florida officials believe their team’s outbreak could be linked to last weekend’s trip to College Sta- tion, Texas, where the Gators lost to Texas A&M. Stricklin said Wednesday that some players had mild symptoms — congestion, headache and the like — during the trip, but attributed them to al- lergies and did not tell the team’s medical staff about any concerns. Stricklin said he learned early Monday that some players had reported symptoms. He said the university had moved to daily virus testing for its football program. On Saturday, after the Gators lost in Texas, Coach Dan Mullen

said he wanted Florida adminis- trators to take advantage of the easing of his state’s virus restric- tions and allow fans to “pack the Swamp,” as Ben Hill Griffin Sta- dium is known. (University lead- ers balked at Mullen’s pressure and held to their plans to allow about 17,000 fans, roughly 20 per- cent of the stadium’s capacity, at games in Gainesville.) Tuesday yielded word that Flor- ida had paused football activities because of “an increase” in virus cases, and on Wednesday, hours before the postponement was made official, Mullen backtracked and apologized.

L.S.U.’s Game at Florida Is Postponed as Gators Face Virus Outbreak

By ALAN BLINDER

The New York Times - USA (2020-10-15)

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