The Bears’ awful, thrilling win over the Vikings, plus Carolina’s mess
This is the digital version of The Pulse. If you want it earlier, start every morning with The Pulse delivered to your inbox. Sign up here .
Good morning! Please don’t eat the Pop-Tart.
While You Were Sleeping: A fun, bad game
For about 55 minutes of game play, Justin Fields and Josh Dobbs were proving Tom Brady right . The quarterbacks combined for six turnovers, each more spectacularly awful than the last. Dobbs pitched the interceptions (four) and Fields contributed the lost fumbles (two). Woof.
And yet it was still an exciting game, a 12-10 Chicago win as Bears kicker Cairo Santos drilled a game-winning field goal the horn.There were stakes — the 4-8 Bears playing for a clearer picture of the franchise’s future, while the 6-6 Vikings are still trying to cling to playoff contention. That makes for tension, even amid the trash football. Tense trash is fun, I guess.
An NFL team won last night by scoring zero touchdowns in a game that featured 22 combined points. Iowa’s influence , clearly.
Hot Potato: The Panthers’ multi-layered mess
Carolina fired Frank Reich yesterday just 11 games into his tenure, putting the offensive-minded coach into unfortunate and rare company as one of the shortest-tenured head coaches in NFL history . And, frankly, all this might not totally be his fault.
It’s hard to comprehend how bad things are for the Panthers right now. Let’s quickly recap:
, when Carolina traded some picks — including their 2024 first-rounder — plus talented wideout D.J. Moore (who was fantastic last night) to Chicago
for the No. 1 overall pick
, with which they chose Bryce Young. It was largely hailed as an aggressive move to help Carolina escape mediocrity.
The Panthers are 1-10, en route to earn the 2024 No. 1 overall pick just so Chicago can use it. Young has been underwhelming (check out this company ), while C.J. Stroud — who went No. 2 behind Young — looks like a future All-Pro. Losses everywhere for Carolina.
Including interims, the Panthers have employed
head coaches since 2019, when Carolina owner David Tepper fired longtime coach Ron Rivera. Matt Rhule lasted less than two years. Reich got 11 games. Mike Jones wrote a searing column on the situation, aimed at billionaire owners
who are clearly bad at this
Who’s next? There are plenty of qualified options , including the dude coaching at Michigan right now. Franchise legend and current FOX color commentator Greg Olsen is interested, too . By definition, the owner’s job security can’t really suffer from bad hires, but sheesh, if another coach flames out, who would want to go there anyway?
News to Know
A weird day for LeBron
The Los Angeles Lakers got blown out in Philadelphia last night, 138-94, on a day of milestones — good and bad — for LeBron James. While suffering the most lopsided loss of his professional career, the 38-year-old surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for most minutes played in NBA history. He also failed to record a rebound — just the fourth time that’s happened in his career. Afterward, James said “a lot” needs to change for the 10-8 Lakers.
Cardinals land Gray
Free agent starting pitcher Sonny Gray agreed to a three-year, $75 million deal with the St. Louis Cardinals yesterday, sources confirmed to . Gray was awesome last year in Minnesota at age 33, finishing second in AL Cy Young voting to Gerrit Cole. He was clearly the Cardinals’ top target, too. That means No. 7 is officially off our Top 40 MLB Free Agent Big Board .
Top QB hits portal
Kansas State signal caller Will Howard has entered the transfer portal, he announced yesterday, instantly becoming the biggest name in the portal so far. Howard was a four-year starter for the Wildcats and even won the Big 12 in 2022. Expect a ton of interest . Also entering the portal yesterday: Miami QB Tyler Van Dyke .
Raiders release Peters
Marcus Peters is out in Las Vegas , Raiders interim coach Antonio Pierce confirmed yesterday. The 30-year-old Peters has largely disappointed this year and was benched during the team’s 31-17 loss to the Chiefs on Sunday. Our Vic Tafur hinted at this in his column Sunday , which I thought was great.
More news
fired coach
Dean Evasonafter a disastrous start
and, per sources, have already hired his replacement: former Devils and Predators coach
John HynesAt 34,
Jason Heywardis back with the
a one-year deal
. It’s nice to see him thrive late in his career.
As expected,
the new No. 1
in the
AP college men’s basketball rankingsdefensive assistant Chris Partridge
denied having any involvement
with the school’s ongoing
sign-stealing scandal. Partridge was fired two weeks ago.
fired football coach Rick Stockstill afterseasons. It’s been a slow descent for the program, formerly one of the 2010s’ most consistent Group of 5 teams.
Oddities: Who’s eating the forbidden Pop-Tart?
A confession: I have fallen for a marketing ploy, but maybe not for the reason the brand hoped.
The Cheez-Its Bowl dumped its namesake snack onto the winning coach. The Idaho Potato Bowl does fries. The Duke’s Mayo Bowl even does a gross slather , which makes for great TV.
And this year’s Pop-Tarts Bowl, formerly the esteemed Cheez-Its Bowl, is one-upping the recent trend of ridiculous food-based celebrations across the bowl spectrum.
The Pop-Tarts Bowl will feature an edible mascot , which is something else entirely, and I can’t stop thinking about it. I get the thought: “How can we hop on this trend and differentiate ourselves?”
But ... did they have to put eyes on the edible mascot? Just look at the poor Tart:
Is the mascot happy to be eaten? Or is there fear behind the empty smile, which contains Pop-Tart filling? Is this sentient pastry excited that multiple large men will hunt it down after winning a semi-exhibition game, hungry from tackling other people for three hours?
The mascot “will run around the stadium interacting with fans and, when the final whistle blows, transform into a game-winning snack for the victors,” according to a press release. I hope the Tart finds peace.
Watch This Game
NBA: Bucks at Heat
A resurgent Milwaukee trots out the Damian Lillard software upgrade against old nemesis Jimmy Butler for the second time, but this one has In-Season Tournament stakes. More on that in Pulse Picks below.
NCAAM: No. 8 Miami at No. 12 Kentucky
The Hurricanes are 5-0 after last year’s Final Four run and head to Rupp Arena, where 5-1 Kentucky awaits, having only lost to then-No. 1 Kansas. A fun night for flipping back and forth between hoops games.
Pulse Picks
At one point, Mark Scheifele was an idol for Cole Perfetti. A few years later, Scheifele — a Winnipeg Jets veteran by that point — was teasing Perfetti — the Jets’ new hope — about sashimi. Loved this story from Murat Ates about the bond between old and young propelling the Jets.
John Hollinger catches us up on more wild NBA In-Season Tournament details with a look ahead at the final group games and upcoming quarterfinal possibilities. Still into this.
This was really great: Cardinals linebacker Jesse Luketa got a flat tire en route to Arizona’s game Sunday and hitched a ride with a family of five who’ll never forget a wild Sunday .
The newest College Football Playoff rankings come out tonight. We have potential chaos ahead .
I thought Sam Khan Jr.’s postmortem on the Dana Holgorsen era at — I’m still surprised they fired him — was excellent. It’s one of the more fascinating jobs in college football.
What’s the worst free agent contract still on the books? Cody Stavenhagen takes a look at some candidates in a fun, but cringey list here . I said “oof” five or six times.
I frankly still don’t believe that incredible interception from a Michigan high school game over the weekend is real.
:
The Bounce The Windup Full Time Prime Tire Until Saturday
(Photo: Todd Rosenberg/)
