Deion’s big loss, Ohio State’s narrow escape and an epic Week 4 that lived up to the hype
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David Hale, ESPN Staff Writer
The first three weeks of the season came with some genuine drama, some true upsets and roughly a billion stories about Coach Prime, but it was all little more than an appetizer to Week 4 — a Bloomin’ Onion to Saturday’s 64-ounce sirloin.
This was a day with six matchups between ranked teams.
This was a day in which Deion Sanders would finally be tested, Florida State could assert its place atop the ACC, and Alabama‘s masked defensive coordinator would finally be revealed.
This was the day a nation watched New Mexico and UMass go to overtime.
Before Saturday, the narratives were paper thin, the contenders vast, the signature wins rare.
Week 4 gave us big-boy football.
Ohio State toppled Notre Dame by about an inch and a half with one second left on the clock.
Florida State survived a heavyweight battle in overtime.
Penn State delivered a statement that it was a true contender in the Big Ten, and James Franklin was officially removed from Brian Ferentz’s Christmas card list.
Washington State won the battle of the last two remaining Pac-12 teams, which we’re pretty sure earns it a trophy of some sort. It might just be the old Civil ConFLiCt trophy with a Beaver duct-taped to the top, but a trophy nonetheless.
Nick Saban proved once again that Lane Kiffin might win every news conference, but he’s got no hope of toppling Alabama on the field.
Saturday gave us Dan Lanning’s takedown of Coach Prime, a shootout in Baton Rouge, a near-perfect performance from Spencer Rattler, a left-handed touchdown pass from Drake Maye, and Curt Cignetti asking the officials to hilariously record his voicemail greeting (or at least that’s what we choose to believe he was doing).
‘It’s clear, zebras!’ pic.twitter.com/jRT9fJq591
— Tim Holt (@TimmayHolt) September 24, 2023
In South Bend, Sam Hartman and a methodical ground game had Ohio State on the ropes and Notre Dame oh-so close to a signature win. It was not to be. Kyle McCord led a 15-play drive, hit Emeka Egbuka for a 21-yard pickup to the 1 on third-and-19, then helped push Chip Trayanum just barely over the goal line with a second left to play. If the Big Ten has given us myriad 17-14 games over the years that felt like watching paint dry, Ohio State’s win was more akin to a Godzilla-versus-Mothra showdown of titans, in which every inch of real estate earned felt momentous.
In Clemson, the Tigers looked as dynamic and intimidating as they have in three years, and it still wasn’t enough to upend ascendant Florida State. Jordan Travis and Kalen DeLoach, two players who arrived under Willie Taggart’s doomed tenure, rallied the Seminoles to a come-from-behind win in overtime.
In Tuscaloosa, the Crimson Tide’s offensive woes continued, but Saban proved he — or someone — still knows how to design a defense. After Kiffin promoted the conspiracy theory that Saban had secretly changed defensive playcallers a week ago (and also helped fake the moon landing, we assume), the Tide held Ole Miss to just 3-of-14 on third down, 301 total yards, and 10 points.
On the Palouse, Washington State fended off a late push by Oregon State to survive 38-35. It marked yet another in a long run of Oregon State hoping for a last-minute reprieve, only to face certain relegation to the Mountain West. It also served as a reminder that Cougars QB Cameron Ward is one of the nation’s best. He threw for 404 yards (averaged 11.9 per pass on 34 attempts) and four touchdowns in the win.
Around the country, 12 teams that entered Week 4 undefeated left with a loss.
In other words, Saturday’s games had genuine resonance — a moment when heavyweights traded blows, Cinderellas became pumpkins, Ryan Day gave the most incoherent speech about Ohio since Howard Dean, and a band member wielded a trident.
There is so much more to the story of the 2023 season still to be written, but Saturday felt like the moment when the main characters were fully fleshed out, the plot began in earnest, and stakes were made clear.
FSU, Clemson go the extra mile
The story began with a man on the beach, just hoping to enjoy his last few weeks before starting a new job. It was a story Dabo Swinney, quite presciently, predicted would either be “great or terrible.”
Indeed, there are great man-on-beach stories, such as “Weekend at Bernie’s,” and there are terrible ones, like “Weekend at Bernie’s 2.”
Alas, Saturday was the latter for Clemson.
The Tigers, in need of help in the kicking game, brought in Jonathan Weitz on Monday to take over the starting job. Weitz had been Clemson’s backup for four years, but he’d assumed his college career was done after the 2022 season ended, he left for a study abroad in Paris — “He spent the spring looking at the Eiffel Tower,” said Swinney, who we assume also believes everyone in St. Louis lives under the arch — then moved to Charleston, South Carolina, where he was taking online classes.
But Clemson needed a kicker, Swinney placed a call, and Weitz arrived Monday to join the team. Due to NCAA acclimation period rules, Saturday was his first day in pads.
The story began like a Shakespeare play, with Weitz drilling his first kick to give Clemson an early 3-0 lead, but it ended in tragedy, with Weitz missing a chip shot from 29 yards out with 1 minute, 45 seconds to play.
(Note: We haven’t read a lot of Shakespeare. We’re assuming they all have happy endings.)
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Florida State survives Clemson in OT to remain undefeated
Florida State moves to 4-0 on the season as it gets help from a Clemson missed field goal and clutch play in overtime.
The miss left the game tied, and in overtime, Florida State prevailed 31-24 thanks to the second touchdown of the day from receiver Keon Coleman. It will certainly not be lost on frustrated Clemson fans that it was one of FSU’s transfers who proved to be the difference. Swinney has notoriously shied away from the portal. The beach, of course, is another story.
“I wish I’d been perfect today,” Weitz said afterward. “But that’s my story right now.”
It’s hard to imagine that anyone at Clemson envisioned the story of the Tigers’ 2023 campaign to look like this either.
After a shocking loss to Duke in the opener, Clemson is 0-2 in ACC play for the first time since 2010, Swinney’s second full season on the job. The Tigers have won at least 10 games every year since.
It was, for so long, a game that seemed destined to end with a win, with Swinney delivering another memorable-if-goofy quip (“BYOK, bring your own kicker”), with the coach lording it over the collected doubters that, once again, he was right, and they were wrong.
And then the kick went wide left, FSU scored in the first frame of OT, quarterback Cade Klubnik checked into a poorly timed screen pass on third-and-1, and Clemson’s hopes for another ACC title were all but extinguished.
Jordan Travis, playing with a wounded left arm, gutted out 289 yards and three touchdowns on a day when the running game offered just 22 yards for the Seminoles. Two years ago, he’d nearly quit football. Saturday, he presided over Florida State’s biggest win since at least 2016.
Kalen DeLoach, a holdover recruit from the Willie Taggart era, delivered the fumble return that kept FSU alive. It was almost enough to make FSU fans forget the turnover backpack.
All 289 yards of passing offense for the Seminoles came via transfers. It was a treatise on how to win in this new age of college football.
For the Seminoles, Saturday’s game was a statement. Their time is now.
For Clemson, the ending was less definitive.
Florida State is now firmly in command atop the ACC. Clemson’s title hopes are all but done. And yet, afterward, Klubnik quite reasonably said he hoped the fans saw how good the Tigers played.
Perhaps that’s the takeaway here. Florida State had its own long walk through the wilderness, but a steady accumulation of talent has the Seminoles on the mountaintop.
Clemson might not be in its own wilderness, but it’s certainly stuck in I-85 traffic, at least.
There was a time, not that long ago, that Swinney could pluck a kicker off the beach, throw a jersey on him and turn him loose, knowing — at Clemson — there was a steady supply of magic in the air.
The story ended differently Saturday, as it has all too frequently of late.
The magic belongs in Tallahassee now.
Ducks dump Deion
There are things most college football coaches think but would never say. Things like, “It’d be better to just pay the players” or “NIL is a sham” or “I’m honestly not sure which state Ball State is in.”
On Saturday, however, Oregon head coach Dan Lanning gave voice to all those coaches too uneasy to speak their own minds on Coach Prime.
“The Cinderella story’s over, men,” Lanning said in a fiery pregame speech. “They’re fighting for clicks; we’re fighting for wins.”
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Lanning: Colorado’s fighting for clicks; we’re fighting for wins
Dan Lanning fires his team up pregame with a couple of shots at Colorado.
In fairness to Colorado, everyone knows that clicks are a terrible metric, and the Buffs are actually fighting for engagement and advertiser click-throughs, but that’s splitting hairs.
The important takeaway is Lanning and the Ducks put their money where their mouths were, walloping Colorado 42-6, an abrupt ending to the season’s biggest storyline.
Bo Nix accounted for four touchdowns, and Oregon’s defense was dominant. Many of the cracks in the 3-0 façade finally played havoc with the Buffaloes, with the ground game managing next to nothing, the O-line struggling badly, and the suspect secondary getting burned early and often. In the end, the Colorado die-hards, many of whom have lived and died with this team for upward of four weeks now, were given a cold dose of reality.
More than the on-field issues, however, Lanning’s speech underscored the frustration so many coaches have trying to compete with Deion Sanders, whose big personality and unconventional approach to program building threaten to upend the status quo. In other words, fans love Colorado for the same reason coaches hate the Buffs.
Don’t expect Saturday’s struggles to completely end the Cinderella story, however. Colorado has USC next week, a chance to jump-start the bandwagon. But the Buffs have already exceeded most reasonable expectations, and the buzz around Coach Prime isn’t new and won’t dissolve with a loss or two.
Considering each offseason in college football is as much about brand building and balance sheets, playing for clicks certainly seems like an entirely reasonable way to ultimately land more wins, too.
Did you say ‘Utes’?
The most overlooked team in the country through four weeks? That might be Utah.
The Utes are 4-0. They’ve beaten two ranked opponents. And they’ve done it without their starting QB.
Utah’s offense was far from electric in a 14-7 win over UCLA, but Nate Johnson — starting for the injured Cameron Rising — did enough to win, while the defense was absolutely dominant, including holding the Bruins to 3-of-17 on third-down tries.
The lack of offensive fireworks is probably one reason the Utes have largely been overlooked. In a Pac-12 defined by QB play, Utah has now won games while scoring 24, 20 and 14 and has a total of three touchdown passes in four games — something Caleb Williams or Michael Penix Jr. manage before halftime most weeks.
But credit Kyle Whittingham, who is 23-6 in the past two calendar years. That’s a better record than Clemson, Notre Dame or Oregon and trails only Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State and Alabama in that span.
Ugly win for the Gators
Florida welcomed Biff Poggi and Charlotte to The Swamp in Week 4, and we can only assume the 49ers head coach felt right at home in jean shorts and a sleeveless sweatshirt. Indeed, he probably spent Friday night jamming with a Tom Petty cover band, spearfishing for mermaids and wrestling a 19-foot python to a draw.
On the field, Charlotte looked pretty comfortable, too, largely stifling Florida’s offense that didn’t find the end zone after an early first-quarter score.
Instead, the highlight for the Gators was Ricky Pearsall‘s utterly ridiculous one-handed grab.
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Florida’s Ricky Pearsall channels OBJ with must-see grab
Florida WR Ricky Pearsall needs just one hand to make a spectacular catch for a first down.
Pearsall finished with six catches for 104 yards, but the bulk of the offense came from kicker Trey Smack, who booted five field goals in the game. Ironically, “Trey Smack” is also the pseudonym Poggi uses when checking into hotels so he can’t be tracked by the Yakuza.
Rock, chalk, unranked Jayhawks
A blind résumé comparison through Week 3 …
Team A: 3-0, +11 points-per-game margin, a win over a bad Mountain West team and a win over a solid but underwhelming Power 5 opponent. It played an undefeated opponent in Week 4.
Team B: 3-0, +16.3 points-per-game margin, a win over a bad Mountain West team and a win over a solid but underwhelming Power 5 opponent. It played an undefeated opponent in Week 4.
Team A, you might have guessed, is Colorado. The Buffaloes were the toast of college football and entered Week 4 ranked 19th nationally.
Team B, you might not have guessed, is Kansas, a team largely ignored thus far despite playing extremely well.
So what happened in Week 4?
Colorado was blown out by undefeated Oregon.
Kansas easily beat previously undefeated BYU behind three TD throws from Jalon Daniels.
On offense, Kansas has topped 30 points in five straight games dating to last season. The Jayhawks’ D held BYU to 9 — 9! — total rush yards and had three takeaways in the triumph.
In other words: Rank the Jayhawks!
Heisman Five
Week 4 marks our first Colorado-free Heisman Five. The Buffs will be missed, but we also assume Deion Sanders will take offense to this and earn his revenge at a date to be determined.
1. Washington QB Michael Penix Jr.
The level of competition has not been elite thus far, but a quick recap of what Penix and the Huskies have done …
Week 1: 28-12 Washington with four Penix TD passes
Week 2: 22-3 Washington with two Penix TD passes
Week 3: 35-0 Washington with four Penix TD passes
Week 4: 45-12 Washington with three Penix TD passes
Oh, we’re sorry. That’s what Penix and the Huskies have done this season … in the first half!
2. USC QB Caleb Williams
Arizona State made things interesting, and it was far from a world-beater performance for USC; but ultimately, Williams still emerged with two passing TDs, two rushing scores and more than 300 yards of offense. Next week, he gets his real challenge though: Stealing the show from Coach Prime.
Nix had four total touchdowns in a dominant win over Colorado and, as we all know, when you defeat Coach Prime, you absorb his powers. That’s just science.
4. Florida State QB Jordan Travis
Travis said after the game he felt disrespected because Clemson played so much man defense against him and his cadre of top-tier wide receivers. Dabo Swinney insisted that wasn’t true. He just was too afraid of Travis’ legs to worry about his arm. And that, in a nutshell, is why the Seminoles are so dangerous.
5. North Carolina QB Drake Maye
OK, his numbers might not exactly be Heisman-worthy at this point, but you throw a touchdown left-handed, you make the list.
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Drake Maye throws a TD … left-handed?!
Drake Maye pulls out his best Patrick Mahomes impression and throws a left-handed touchdown.
Under-the-radar play of the week
Louisville‘s 4-0 start under Jeff Brohm is so exciting, it has the Cardinals players doing cartwheels.
Or something like that.
On what appeared to be a trick play, Louisville’s Willie Tyler — a 6-foot-7, 320-pound offensive lineman — lined up in the slot and attempted to distract Boston College by waving his arms and then doing a cartwheel.
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Louisville lineman does a cartwheel midplay
Louisville offensive lineman Willie Tyler does a cartwheel before the Cardinals fumble the ball out of bounds.
It didn’t exactly work, as Jack Plummer and the rest of the offense flubbed away their part of the ruse, but points to Tyler for some serious skill.
Having said that, it was hardly an effective distraction. Everyone knows if you want to distract someone from Boston, you just yell, “Brady sucks!” and then let them throw empty Sam Adams cans at each other for the next 45 minutes.
Under-the-radar game of the week
If you enjoyed Miami vs. Miami in Week 1, then Week 4 had just the matchup for you.
In Houston (a city named for Sam Houston) on Saturday, Houston (a school named after the city named for Sam Houston) faced off against … Sam Houston (a school named for Sam Houston but not the city of Houston because it’s actually located Huntsville, Texas, which, of course, is named for famed frontiersman Tiberius K. Huntsville).
Certainly it seemed like Houston was the better team, but then, Sam Houston had 100% of the Sam in this one. It would be like a mid-’90s battle of the bands between The Verve and The Verve Pipe. Sure, “Bittersweet Symphony” was a banger, but how do you account for the pipe?
As it turned out, Houston (the team) was entirely too much for Sam Houston (the team, not the man), winning 38-7 behind 105 yards and three rushing TDs from Parker Jenkins. Also, believe it or not, Sam Houston (the man) was actually born in Virginia.
There will be a quiz on all this later.
Harbaugh’s return
Michigan‘s long wait for the return of its head coach came to an end Saturday. Yes, Jim Harbaugh had to pack up his model trains, put away the ham radio and sign out of Netflix with four seasons of “The Big Bang Theory” left to watch and get back to the business of embarrassing Rutgers.
In his absence, Michigan won all three games — all vs. lesser competition, all in convincing, if not entirely satisfying, fashion.
So, what happened with Harbaugh back on the sideline? A win against lesser competition in convincing, if not entirely satisfying, fashion — this time 31-7.
Rutgers scored first on a 69-yard touchdown pass from Gavin Wimsatt to Christian Dremel, and Michigan’s offense largely puttered through the first half, leading just 14-7 at the break.
But like Harbaugh’s three-week relaxation retreat, the fun had to come to an end eventually, with the Wolverines’ D netting a pick-six and running back Blake Corum finishing the job. J.J. McCarthy averaged better than 10 yards per throw, Corum scored twice, and the defense held Rutgers to 3-of-13 on third and fourth down. It was, like each of the Wolverines’ games so far, fine. And given that Michigan’s next five games are also against lesser competition, fine is likely more than enough to keep it chugging along.
Oh, sorry for the chugging reference. We know Harbaugh misses his trains.
Paint the town Orange
Garrett Shrader threw for a touchdown and ran for one — his sixth straight multi-TD game — while the Syracuse defense frustrated Army‘s option en route to a 29-16 win.
Syracuse is now 4-0 in consecutive seasons for the first time in 63 years. Back then, Syracuse traveled to road games via the Erie Canal, and Varsity Pizza had just been promoted from the freshman pizza team to JV.
Up next for the Orange is Clemson, a team they had on the ropes a year ago with a 7-0 start to the season in their sights. In that game, however, the Tigers marched back from a 21-7 deficit and won 27-21 after holding the Orange scoreless in the second half, and Syracuse dropped six of its final seven games.
Johnson emerges for A&M
Fun fact: Max Johnson is still playing college football.
Yes, he somehow feels older than his Super Bowl champion dad, Brad, but that’s only because time moves differently at Texas A&M thanks to Jimbo Fisher’s offense breaking the space-time continuum.
Nevertheless, it’s good for the Aggies that Johnson is still around because they desperately needed someone who could sling it against Auburn on Saturday.
After two early field goal drives, A&M’s offense went three-and-out on three straight drives to end the half. Starting QB Conner Weigman went down with an injury, and offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino was already getting his agent to send over his CV to apply for Fisher’s job. (We’re kidding, of course. Fisher dodges job-security concerns better than he dodges Auburn defenders.)
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Auburn DB dodges Jimbo Fisher en route to defensive TD
Auburn’s Eugene Asante picks up the loose ball and dodges Jimbo Fisher as he runs down the sideline for a 67-yard touchdown.
Instead, Johnson came on and tossed touchdown passes on consecutive drives to open the second half, and a 67-yard scoop-and-score put the game out of reach early in the fourth quarter. The Aggies won 27-10.
On the flip side, Auburn’s passing game was a complete mess. Payton Thorne, Robby Ashford and Holden Geriner all took snaps and finished a combined 9-of-23 passing for just 56 yards, with Auburn’s lone TD coming via the defense. And that performance might have reminded Petrino that he still has an application on file with Auburn’s human resources department.
NEW YORK — The Jazz Age is in full swing at Yankee Stadium.
Whether with his bat, his glove, his arm or his smile, Jazz Chisholm Jr. is energizing the New York Yankees and their fans.
Chisholm hit a second-inning, go-ahead homer and a bases-loaded triple while making three sparkling defensive plays at third base Sunday in a 12-5 romp over the Athletics.
“That’s why we got him. That’s what the Yankees do. They go after guys that are going to make an impact,” said New York captain Aaron Judge, who homered twice to reach 30 for the sixth time.
Chisholm is batting .318 with six homers, 18 RBIs and four stolen bases since returning from a strained right oblique on June 3, raising his season totals to .242 with 13 homers, 35 and 10 steals in 53 games.
“I feel like me. I feel I’m back in my era, that I was younger just going out there and just hitting, just not worrying about stuff,” the 27-year-old said. “Just not worrying by my swing, not worrying about striding too far. Everything just feels good and I’m just going.”
After a four-RBI night against Boston in his fourth game back, Chisholm made the unusual assertion he was thriving by giving 70% effort and not stressing.
With New York seeking to reopen a 1½-game AL East lead, he drove a first-pitch sinker from former Yankee Luis Severino into the right-field seats for a 1-0, second-inning lead. Ever exuberant, he raised his right hand and made a peace sign toward the Yankees bullpen after rounding first.
Chisholm snagged Jacob Wilson‘s two-hopper with two on and one out in the third, bounded off third base for the forceout and balletically arced a throw to first for an inning-ending double play.
With the bases loaded in the bottom half, Chisholm hit a changeup to the right-center gap that rolled past center fielder Denzel Clarke. He pulled into third base standing up and raised three fingers.
“It’s like a blackout situation,” Chisholm said. “I didn’t even realize I put up three at third base.”
With the bases loaded in the sixth, he made a diving stop near the dirt behind third on Luis Urías‘ 102.1 mph smash, popped up and followed with a one-hop throw to first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. Then he caught Tyler Soderstrom‘s foul pop in the eighth inning while falling against netting in the narrow space next to the rolled-up tarp.
“Jazz’s defense I think was better than even his day at the plate,” said pitcher Marcus Stroman, who won in his return from a 2½-month injury layoff. “He was incredible over there: a bunch of huge plays that helped me out in big spots, plays that are not normal plays.”
New York acquired Chisholm from Miami last July 27 for three minor leaguers. Since then, he has hit .257 with 24 homers, 58 RBIs and 28 stolen bases in 99 games.
“His game’s so electric, and he can change the game and kind of affect the game in so many different ways in a dynamic fashion,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “So, when he is playing at a high level, I think it does energize everyone.”
Chisholm briefly caused worry in the sixth. He grimaced in pain after stopping his swing at a 1-2 fastball from Elvis Alvarado, which sailed high and outside. Chisholm went to the dugout and immediately up the tunnel to the clubhouse.
Then he reappeared at third base for the start of the seventh.
“The bat kind of slipped out of my hand and hit me on the finger,” he said. “It just hit the bone and when you get hit on the bone, it’s kind of funny, it’s just feels weird. So, it was kind of scary at first, but we’re good.”
Judge, meanwhile, didn’t allow Athletics reliever Tyler Ferguson to make good on last year’s wish of striking out the Yankees slugger.
Ferguson, who set his goal last year after making his debut with the Athletics following nine seasons in the minor leagues, was one strike away in his first matchup with Judge on Sunday. Instead, he gave up a two-run shot off a 95.5 mph four-seam fastball in the seventh to become the 261st pitcher to give up a homer to the slugger.
Judge said he had been unaware of Ferguson’s comment.
Ferguson turned around and watched the 426-foot drive as YES Network play-by-play announcer Ryan Ruocco proclaimed: “The King of Fresno.”
“That’s why you don’t talk in public,” YES Network analyst and former reliever Jeff Nelson said on the telecast. “You don’t make a comment that I want to strike out Judge in public. You keep it to yourself.”
Ferguson graduated from Clovis West High School in Fresno when Judge batted .308 as a sophomore at Fresno State in 2012.
“First time facing him, best hitter in the league,” Ferguson said. “So I was looking forward to that at-bat. I was able to get ahead and then wasn’t able to execute a couple of pitches and he was able to get it back to 3-2 and I didn’t get the ball quite as high as I would have liked and he made a good swing on it.”
Judge reached 30 homers for the fifth straight season and fourth time before All-Star break. He also became the sixth player in team history with six 30-homer seasons, and he joined Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio as just the third to do so in the first 10 years of his career.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
If you picked the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers to be the first team to win 50 games this MLB season, you weren’t alone.
You were also wrong.
If you picked the Detroit Tigers, congratulations! We’re not sure we believe you, but we’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.
The Tigers won their 50th game on Tuesday, a full day before the Dodgers, and they got there thanks to big contributions all season from ace Tarik Skubal, the red-hot Riley Greene and the resurgent Javier Baez, among many others.
But are they really as good as they’ve played so far? Are they even the American League’s best team? Could they defeat the Dodgers (or whichever team comes out of a stacked National League) in the World Series?
We asked MLB experts Bradford Doolittle, Tim Keown, Jeff Passan and David Schoenfield to tackle all things Tigers before they play host to the Minnesota Twins on “Sunday Night Baseball” (7 p.m. ET, ESPN and ESPN2).
Who is the biggest threat to Detroit in the AL — and would you take the Tigers to beat them in an ALCS showdown?
Doolittle: The Yankees still have the AL’s best roster and remain the favorites in the circuit, even with the Rays and Astros closing in fast on both Detroit and New York. This feels like a season in which, by the time we get to October, there’s not going to be a clear-cut front-runner in the AL. But if we zero in on a possible Tigers-Yankees ALCS, I like the interchangeability of the Detroit staff, which we saw in action late last year. Max Fried and Skubal cancel each other out, so it really comes down to the number of favorable matchups A.J. Hinch can manipulate during a series of games between two postseason offenses likely predicated on timely multi-run homers.
Keown: It’s obviously the Yankees — unless it’s the Rays. Tampa’s lineup is deep and insistent, and the pitching staff is exactly what it always seems to be: consistent, stingy and comprised of guys only hardcore fans can identify. They’re really, really good — by far the best big league team playing in a minor league ballpark.
Passan: It’s still the New York Yankees. They’ve got Aaron Judge, they’ve got Fried and Carlos Rodon for four starts, they’ve got better lineup depth than Detroit. Who wins the theoretical matchup could depend on how aggressively each team pursues improvement at the trade deadline. Suffice to say, the Tigers will not be trading Jack Flaherty this year.
Schoenfield: I was going to say the Yankees as well, but as I’m writing this I just watched the Astros sweep the Phillies, holding them to one run in three games. As great as Skubal has been, Hunter Brown has been just as good — if not better. (A couple of Brown-Skubal matchups in the ALCS would be super fun.) Throw in Framber Valdez and you have two aces plus one of the best late-game bullpens in the biz. The offense? Nothing great. The difference-maker is clear: getting Yordan Alvarez healthy and hitting again.
Who is the biggest threat to Detroit in the NL — and would you take the Tigers to beat them in a World Series matchup?
Doolittle: The Dodgers are the team to beat, full stop. In many ways, their uneven start to the season, caused by so many pitching injuries, represents the lower tier of L.A.’s possible range of outcomes. And the Dodgers still are right there at the top of the majors. I can’t think of any good reason to pick against them in any 2025 competitive context. In a Tigers-Dodgers World Series — which would somehow be the first one ever — I just can’t see the Tigers scoring enough to beat L.A. four times.
Keown: The Dodgers. No need to get cute here. The Dodgers are the biggest threat to just about everything baseball-related. And while the matchup would be a hell of a lot of fun, filled with all those contradictory juxtapositions that makes a series riveting, let’s just say L.A. in seven.
Passan: It’s still the Los Angeles Dodgers. They’re getting healthier, with Shohei Ohtani back on the mound and still hitting more home runs than anyone in the National League. Will Smith is having the quietest .300/.400/.500 season in memory. Freddie Freeman is doing Freddie Freeman things. Andy Pages is playing All-Star-caliber baseball. Even Max Muncy is hitting now. And, yes, the pitching has been a problem, but they’ve got enough depth — and enough minor league depth to use in trades — that they’re bound to find 13 more-than-viable arms to use in October.
Schoenfield: A Tigers-Dodgers showdown would be a classic Original 16 matchup and those always feel a little more special. Although who wouldn’t want to see a rematch of the 1945, 1935, 1908 or 1907 World Series between the Tigers and Cubs? Those were split 2-2, so we need a tiebreaker. But I digress. Yes, the Dodgers are still the team to beat in the NL — especially since we’ve seen the Phillies’ issues on offense, the Cubs’ lack of pitching depth and the Mets’ inconsistency. The Dodgers have injuries to deal with, but there is still time for Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow and everyone else to get back.
One game, season on the line, who would you want on the mound for your team: Tarik Skubal or any other ace in the sport?
Doolittle: I’d go with Skubal by a hair over Zack Wheeler, with Paul Skenes lurking in the three-hole. The way things are going, by the end of the year it might be Jacob Misiorowski, but I’m probably getting ahead of myself. Anyway, Skubal has carried last season’s consistent dominance over and he’s just in that rare zone that great starters reach where you’re surprised when someone actually scores against them. He and Wheeler are tied with the most game scores of 70 or better (18) since the start of last season. Their teams are both 17-1 in those games. It’s a coin flip, but give me Skubal.
Keown: Skubal. There are plenty of other candidates — Wheeler, Fried, Jacob deGrom, and how about some love for Logan Webb? — but I’m all but certain a poll of big league hitters would reveal Skubal as the one they’d least like to face with everything riding on the outcome.
Passan: Give me Skubal. Even if others have the experience and pedigree, I’m going to bet on stuff. And nobody’s stuff — not even Skenes’ — is at Skubal’s level right now. He doesn’t walk anyone. He strikes out everyone. He suppresses home runs. If you could build a pitcher in a lab, he would look a lot like Skubal.
Schoenfield: I’m going with Wheeler, just based on his postseason track record: He has a 2.18 ERA over 70⅓ career innings in October, allowing no runs or one run in five of his 11 career starts. Those are all since 2022, so it’s not like we’re looking at accomplishments from a decade ago. And Wheeler is arguably pitching better than ever, with a career-low OPS allowed and a career-high strikeout rate.
What is Detroit’s biggest weakness that could be exposed in October?
Doolittle: I think elite October-level pitching might expose an overachieving offense. It’s a solid lineup but the team’s leading run producers — Greene, Spencer Torkelson, Zach McKinstry, Baez, etc. — can pile up the whiffs in a hurry. If that happens, this is a team that doesn’t run at all, and that lack of versatility concerns me.
Keown: The Tigers are the odd team that doesn’t have a glaring weakness or an especially glaring strength. They have a lot of really good players but just one great one in Skubal. (We’re keeping a second spot warm for Riley Greene.) They’re managed by someone who knows how to navigate the postseason, and they’ve rolled the confidence they gained with last season’s remarkable playoff run into this season. So take your pick: Any aspect of the game could propel them to a title, and any aspect could be their demise. And no, that doesn’t answer the question.
Passan: The left side of Detroit’s infield is not what one might consider championship-caliber. With Trey Sweeney getting most of the at-bats at shortstop, the Tigers are running out a sub-replacement player on most days. Third base is even worse: Detroit’s third basemen are barely OPSing .600, and while they might have found their answer in McKinstry, relying on a 30-year-old who until this year had never hit is a risky proposition.
Schoenfield: I’m not completely sold on their late-game bullpen — or their bullpen in general. No doubt, Will Vest and changeup specialist Tommy Kahnle have done the job so far, but neither has a dominant strikeout rate for a 2025 closer and overall the Detroit bullpen ranks just 25th in the majors in strikeout rate. How will that play in the postseason against better lineups?
With one month left until the trade deadline, what is the one move the Tigers should make to put themselves over the top?
Doolittle: The big-ticket additions would be a No. 3 or better starting pitcher or a bona fide closer — the same stuff all the contenders would like to add. A lower-profile move that would really help would be to target a shortstop like Isiah Kiner-Falefa, whose bat actually improves what Detroit has gotten from the position just in terms of raw production. But he also adds contact ability, another stolen base threat and a plus glove. For the Tigers to maximize the title chances produced by their great start, they need to think in terms of multiple roster-filling moves, not one big splash.
Keown: Prevailing wisdom says to beef up the bullpen and improve the offense at third base, which would put names like Pete Fairbanks and Nolan Arenado at the top of the list. But the pitching and offense are both top-10 in nearly every meaningful statistic, and I contend there’s an equally good case to be made for the Tigers to go all in on a top-line starting pitcher. Providing Sandy Alcantara a fresh environment would deepen the rotation and lighten the psychic load on Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize. (Every word of this becomes moot if the MLB return of 34-year-old KBO vet Dietrich Enns is actually the answer.)
Passan: Bring Eugenio Suarez home. The third baseman, who currently has 25 home runs and is slugging .569, signed with Detroit as an amateur in 2008 and spent five years in the minors before debuting in 2014. That winter, the Tigers traded him to Cincinnati for right-hander Alfredo Simon, who, in his only season in Detroit, posted a 5.05 ERA in 187 innings. Suarez’s power would fit perfectly in the Tigers’ lineup and is robust enough to get over the fence at Comerica Park, one of the largest stadiums in MLB.
Schoenfield: This is the beauty of the Tigers: They can go in any direction. As good as the offense has been, it feels like several of these guys are ripe for regression in the second half: Baez, McKinstry, maybe Torkelson and Gleyber Torres. That group is all way over their 2024 level of production. If those guys fade, an impact bat might be the answer. But is one available? Arenado certainly isn’t an impact bat anymore and might not be traded anyway. Maybe Eugenio Suarez if the Diamondbacks fade. But the likeliest and easiest answer: bullpen help.
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