NFL:
The Pittsburgh Steelers are 5-3 after Ben Roethlisberger’s 50th game-winning drive of his 18-year career.
The Steelers coughed up a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter before Chris Boswell drilled a 40-yard field goal with 26 seconds left to send Pittsburgh past the Chicago Bears, 29-27. Roethlisberger directed the Steelers 52 yards in seven plays on the winning drive, aided by Chicago’s 12th penalty of the night.
Rookie tight end Pat Freiermuth (FRY’-ur-mooth) caught two touchdown passes and rookie running back Najee Harris found the end zone for a fifth straight game as the Steelers earned their fourth win in a row. Roethlisberger completed 21 of 30 passes for 205 yards without an interception.
Justin Fields found Darnell Mooney for a 16-yard strike with 1:46 remaining to give the Bears a 27-26 lead. But Chicago fell to 3-6 by allowing the Steelers to earn their 20th straight Monday Night Football home win.
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson has been cleared to return to football activities barely a month after undergoing surgery on the middle finger of his throwing hand.
Wilson’s surgeon says he has never encountered a player so committed to his postop therapy and with so much conviction to return to the same, if not better, level of performance as he had pre-injury. Wilson was hurt in Seattle’s Week 5 loss to the Los Angeles Rams when his hand hit the arm of Rams defensive lineman Aaron Donald.
The Seahawks have gone 1-2 since Geno Smith became the starting QB.
In other NFL news:
Panthers quarterback Sam Darnold went for an MRI on his throwing shoulder Monday after experiencing soreness following Carolina’s 24-6 loss to the Patriots on Sunday. Coach Matt Rhule said he will wait until Wednesday to get a better grasp on Darnold’s injury status before making a determination on who’ll start Sunday at Arizona.
Jets quarterback Zach Wilson is expected to return to practice this week and could start again as soon as Sunday against Buffalo. Coach Robert Saleh said Monday that Wilson would be the team’s starting quarterback when he was fully healthy. The second player taken in this year’s draft has missed two games with a sprained right knee ligament.
Wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. has been formally waived by the Browns and can now be taken by any NFL team at a $7.25 million price tag for the rest of this season. If Beckham clears waivers by Tuesday at 4 p.m., he’ll be a free agent and can sign with any team. In that case, the Browns will have to pay him $4.25 million for this season, saving them $3 million.
The Raiders have now dropped each of the two players they took in the first round of the 2020 draft after waiving Damon Arnette. General manager Mike Mayock said the move was necessary in response to a social media post with Arnette brandishing a gun and threatening to kill someone. The move to cut Arnette comes less than a week after No. 12 overall pick Henry Ruggs III was released following a fatal DUI crash.
49ers right tackle Mike McGlinchey will miss the rest of the season with a torn quadriceps. The 2018 first-round pick got hurt during Sunday’s loss to the Cardinals in the latest injury blow for San Francisco.
NBA:
The New York Knicks have stopped the Philadelphia 76ers’ winning streak at six games.
Julius Randle scored 31 points, including eight straight during a key fourth-quarter stretch that carried the Knicks past the Sixers, 103-96. Randle also had 12 rebounds and RJ Barrett added 15 points in New York’s second win in five games.
Philadelphia was without four-time All-Star Joel Embiid and three others due to the NBA’s health and safety protocols. The Sixers wouldn’t confirm an ESPN report that said Embiid had tested positive for the coronavirus.
Andre Drummond started in place of Embiid, and had 14 points and 25 rebounds.
Checking out Monday’s other NBA action:
The Warriors earned a 127-113 win over the Hawks as Stephen Curry scored an NBA season-high 50 points with nine 3-pointers, 10 assists and seven rebounds. Only Hall of Famers Wilt Chamberlain and Rick Barry had registered a game with 50 points and 10 assists in Warriors franchise history. Curry scored Golden State’s first 13 points, then 10 straight down the stretch in the third.
Anthony Davis, Carmelo Anthony and Russell Westbrook carried the Lakers to a 126-123 overtime win against the Hornets. Davis scored six of his 32 points in OT and grabbed 12 boards, while Anthony had a season-high 29 points. Westbrook had his first triple-double with the Lakers, finishing with 17 points and 14 assists and 12 rebounds.
The Bulls ended the Nets’ five-game winning streak by dominating the fourth quarter of a 118-95 win in Chicago. The Bulls outscored the Nets, 42-17 in the final period, including 13 straight after Brooklyn took an 80-76 lead. DeMar DeRozan sparked the run with two straight buckets and finished with 28 points.
Nikola Jokic had 25 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists before the NBA MVP was ejected in the Nuggets’ 113-96 verdict over the Heat. Jokic was tossed for violently slamming his shoulder into Markieff Morris with 2:39 remaining. Will Barton scored 25 points for Denver, which held the opposition to under 100 points for the seventh time this season.
Memphis trailed by 16 with 7:30 left in regulation before a 21-4 rally carried the Grizzlies to a 125-118 overtime win against the Timberwolves. Ja Morant poured in 33 points and Brandon Clarke had 20 points and nine rebounds for Memphis. Minnesota dropped its sixth in a row despite Karl-Anthony Towns, who hit a 3-pointer to end regulation and finished with 25 points and 13 rebounds.
Luka Doncic provided 25 points and the Mavericks overcame a sluggish start for a 108-92 victory over the Pelicans. Tim Hardaway Jr. and Jalen Brunson added 17 apiece and led a 12-0 run that gave Dallas a 93-71 lead. New Orleans led by 11 in the first quarter before suffering their seventh straight loss and falling to a league-worst 1-10.
Cameron Payne delivered a season-high 24 points in 22 minutes off the bench to help the Suns earn their fifth consecutive win, 109-104 versus the Kings. Devin Booker had 18 points, nine rebounds and six assists for Phoenix, while Chris Paul and Mikal Bridges scored 16 apiece. Harrison Barnes had 26 points and De'Aaron Fox scored 24 for Sacramento.
The Cleveland Cavaliers’ strong start has been marred by an injury to Collin Sexton.
The starting guard is out indefinitely after suffering a knee injury in Sunday’s win at New York. The Cavs said Sexton has a torn meniscus but didn’t mention the need for surgery.
Sexton is averaging 16 points and 3.3 rebounds, one reason for the team’s 7-4 start.
NCAA:
The NCAA has set the stage for a dramatic restructuring of college sports.
Proposed changes include reshaping of Division I that will tackle revenue distribution, how rules are made and enforced and access to the most-high profile and lucrative NCAA events such as the men’s basketball tournament. There’s also the question of just how big the tent should be at the top of college sports.
The rewritten constitution focuses more on the NCAA’s broad goals of athlete welfare and athletics as part of an academic experience instead of governing procedures and operations. Both matters have come under increasing criticism.
NHL:
The New York Rangers have prevented the Florida Panthers from tying the best 12-game start in an NHL season.
Igor Shesterkin made a season-high 42 saves and the Rangers built a 4-0 lead before holding off the Panthers, 4-3. Chris Kreider and Adam Fox each had a goal in the first period before K’Andre Miller and Ryan Strome scored 30 seconds apart in the second.
Florida tallied three times in the third, twice in the final 1:26 before falling to 10-1-1.
Elsewhere on NHL ice:
Alex Ovechkin scored his 741st career goal and set up two others as the Capitals defeated the Sabres, 5-3. Ovechkin tied Brett Hull for fourth on the all-time goals list and helped Washington end a three-game losing streak. Tom Wilson added two goals and Evgeny Kuznetsov contributed his ninth, 10th and 11th assists for the Caps.
Jonathan Quick made 33 saves and the Kings earned their fifth straight win by blowing past the Maple Leafs, 5-1. Phillip Danault had two goals and an assist to help Los Angeles end Toronto’s fifth-game winning streak. Andreas Athanasiou chipped in a goal and an assist in the victory.
MLB:
The Major League Baseball Writers Association of America has announced the finalists for the major postseason awards.
Those up for the MVP Awards are Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Angels designated hitter Shohei Ohtani and Toronto’s Marcus Semien in the American League, and Philadelphia’s Bryce Harper, Washington’s Juan Soto and San Diego’s Fernando Tatis Jr. in the National League. None of the six players appeared in a postseason game this year.
NL Cy Young Award finalists are Dodgers right-hander Max Scherzer, Phillies right-hander Zack Wheeler and Milwaukee ace Corbin Burnes. Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, Chicago’s Lance Lynn and Toronto’s Robbie Ray are up for the AL Cy Young Award.
Also around the majors:
Astros third baseman Alex Bregman has undergone surgery on his right wrist, less than a week after ending the World Series in a prolonged slump. The team said the two-time All-Star is expected to resume baseball activities in January and should be OK to begin spring training.
The Dodgers have agreed to an $8.5 million, one-year contract with free agent left-hander Andrew Heaney, according to a person with knowledge of the deal. The 30-year-old Heaney split this year between the Angels and Yankees, going 8-9 with a 5.83 ERA.
Former Padres manager Jayce Tingler has landed on his feet, hired as bench coach of the Twins. Tingler guided San Diego to the 2020 playoffs, but a second-half swoon led to his dismissal last month.
Former Mets reliever Pedro Feliciano has died at age 45. Friends and former teammates told the Mets that Feliciano was found dead in his sleep Monday at home in Puerto Rico. The left-hander led the majors in appearances from 2008-10, earning him the nickname “Perpetual Pedro.”
COLLEGE FOOTBALL:
Texas Tech has named Baylor assistant and longtime Texas high school coach Joey McGuire as its next head coach. He will take over immediately at the end of the season. Sonny Cumbie will continue as interim head coach until then.
McGuire is replacing Matt Wells. The former Utah State coach was fired in the middle of his third season with the Red Raiders.
Elsewhere in college football:
Washington has suspended head coach Jimmy Lake without pay following a sideline incident during the Huskies’ game against Oregon. Lake is suspended from all team activities for the week and will return to his coaching responsibilities on Sunday. Defensive coordinator Bob Gregory will serve as the interim coach for Saturday’s game against Arizona State.
Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson injured a knee dancing in the team hotel the night before losing at South Carolina. Coach Dan Mullen says Richardson’s “MRI came back clean” and adds that “he’s fine.”
COLLEGE BASKETBALL:
Pittsburgh has suspended junior guard Ithiel Horton indefinitely following his weekend arrest on charges of aggravated assault, among others. Authorities say Horton struck an officer in the face with his cell phone after becoming angry that his car was being towed in the city’s popular South Side bar district.
Horton averaged 8.9 points in 22 games last year for the Panthers.
In other college basketball news:
Terrence Shannon Jr. will miss Texas Tech’s season opener and be held out of games while the school reviews to ensure there are no eligibility issues. The 6-foot-6 junior forward went through the NBA draft process over the summer before withdrawing his name to return to school. TShannon is Tech’s top returning scorer after averaging 12.9 points last season.
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