Good Morning, Stumpers!

The day is Monday. The feeling is joy (or anger depending on your allegiances). The artist today is Foreigner. And the wether is 72 with a 100% of STUMP.

Let’s go folks, LOTS of football to unpack. Can somebody tell me what is going on in Indy? Is that really Daniel Jones or is that a time-machined Peyton wearing a Daniel Jones mask?! Hope everybody is fired up for the week!

The Rundown

🚀 What the hell is going on in Indy?!

🚌 A look at the Struggle Bus in the landscape of College Football

🏈 A STUMP DUMP of yesterday’s NFL action!

🎸 Yeah, we’re going with Foreigner today…WOOOOOOO!

On This Day

⚾️ Nolan Starts His Career Off Right in NY

Yesterday Russell Wilson threw for 450 yards in their OT game against the Cowboys. It was a shootout! A 300 yard game is a common metric of a good passing performance, 450 is out of this world!

On this day in 2002, Rich Gannon started his streak of what was then a record-tying 6 straight 300-yard passing games! He tied the record held by Steve Young and Kurt Warner. At the time this was an unreal performance by Rich, and even today 6 straight 300-yard games is a great stat! This record would go on to be broken a decade later….

Today’s Trivia

Glue Guy of the Day

🚀 Indiana. We Have a Problem….and a Schrader!

Was I the only one watching yesterday’s Colts-Broncos game thinking “Who the heck is this guy and what have they done with Daniel Jones?” Indiana Jones looked incredible yesterday in the Colts 29-28 win over Denver.

One of my biggest pet peeves in the sports media culture is the immediate overreaction that happens after a single game. You can’t watch one or two games and then just like make absurd statements about them.

That being said the Indianapolis Colts will be representing the AFC in the Super Bowl this year, and they will most likely blow out their opponent by 30 in February!

Just kidding… 👀

If you wanted a list of things nobody was saying two weeks ago, at the top of the list would be “Watch out for Daniel Jones and the Colts.” After two weeks, Dimes and Co. have been a well-oiled machine on offense, ferocious on defense, and PERFECT in special teams.

Johnathan Taylor on the ground has 165 yards yesterday against a great Denver defense. In the passing game, instead of avoiding reigning Defensive Player of the Year Pat Surtain, THEY ATTACKED HIM! It takes a certain kind of sicko to scheme that up, and Shane Steichen might just be that sicko. Tyler Warren has been a BOOM of a rookie, and WRs like Pittman, Downs, and Pierce look reinvigorated after a stagnant year in the pass game a year ago.

Last but certainly not least is the second year kicker out of Notre Dame Spencer Schrader. He lined up for a 60-yarder for game, and after a colossal penalty from Denver to turn it into a 45-yarder. SS was money to call game. Making him 9-9 on the year.

The Colts are 2-0, and they have the Titans and Rams ahead of them for their first quadrant of the season. Giants fans may not like to hear it, but Jones looked money throughout the game, hitting key throws on third down and being an all-around playmaker!

Lot of ball left, but let’s keep an eye on the Colts!

The BIG Moments

🏈 NFL Stump Dump!

The Stump Short Story: A bunch to go over….

• Lions BLUDGEON Bears, 52-21, in Ben Johnson’s return to Detroit. Woah! This one felt personal. The Lions heard all the noise this week after their bad loss to Packers, and they made it seemed like no matter who they went up against, they were going to run them out of the building. Former OC Ben Johnson had to be sick watching Caleb throw a mind-numbing interception in the second-quarter! Amon-Ra had a HAT TRICK of TDs and Jared Goff threw for 334 yards and 5 TDs in the rout!

• Heartbreaker for G-MEN, Cowboys win in OT, 40-37. It isn’t always pretty, but Russ and the Giants left every ounce of them on that field. Within the final 55 seconds of the game, there were three scores that took place that sent the game to OT! This was an instant-classic and no doubt the game of the day. WATCH HIGHLIGHTS HERE. There were 41 points scored in the fourth, including two RUSS-BOMBS to Wan’Dale and Nabers! The Cowboys stayed resolved throughout and were able to get the win. Heartbreak. Brandon Aubrey is a certified weapon! Definitely watch the highlights of this one!

• Bengals win, but at what cost. 31-27 over Jags. Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no. Joe Burrow went down with a toe injury and reports are saying that the franchise QB could miss up to 3-months due to surgery needed for turf toe. We’ll learn more today, but man what a bad break this would be for Cincy. Chase Browning came in and despite throwing 3 INTs, was able to win the game and bring the Bengals to 2-0.

• Eagles repeat February result! Defeat Chiefs 20-17! This was not a shootout, but the lack of weapons for the Chiefs is hurting them. You can’t lose your top 2 weapons and expect business to go as usual. This one got close late, but Philly seems to have been on cruise control these last two weeks and they dispatched of two good teams. A.J. Brown and Devonta Smith combined for 80 yards in the game but still well below their usual numbers. Eagles are now 2-0, and the mighty Chiefs fall to 0-2

Read More: Week 2 Grades…Who went up, who went down? (CBS Sports)

🚌 The Struggle Bus…CFB Edition

The Stump Short Story: A few different passengers on the struggle bus:

• Texas A&M STUN Notre Dame on last-second TD, win 41-40 in THRILLER! Un. Be. Lievable. The Aggies for a while now have been waiting for the big one. The big road win to solidify themselves as a powerhouse. Well they got their first ranked road win since 2014! Notre Dame falls to 0-2 and although their schedule lightens up going forward, this is not the way last years runner-ups wanted to start the season. BUT HOW BOUT THEM AGGIES!

• FIRINGS! Virginia Tech fires Pry , UCLA fires Foster. Virginia Tech carded their first 0-3 start since 1987, and the embarrassing home loss on Saturday against Old Dominion was the straw that broke the Camels back for Brent Pry. Going back to last weeks loss to Vanderbilt, the Hokies had given up 65 unanswered points! Woof. UCLA on the other hand….well, maybe ‘on the other hand’ isn’t the phrase, because it’s been UGLY over there too. Tennessee transfer QB Nico Iamaleava was supposed to light the comp up with less lights on him, but after his massive NIL payday, it has been nothing but disappointment for the Bruins.

• Arch. He’s still young, he’s still figuring things out, but man the critics are licking their lips at the chance to start writing negative stuff about Arch Manning. He’s 3 starts into the year now, and even in their win over UTEP this week, things did not look smooth. It’s crazy because in college a 27-10 win could mean that the sky is falling down. He had a string of 10 straight incompletions, and ended with only 114 passing yards with 1 TD and 1 INT. We’ll see what happens next, but postgame he let us know that he “needs to play better”

Read More: College Football Week 3 Storylines! The Pretenders and Contenders (CBS Sports)

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🔗 Quick Links

🏈 VINTAGE RUSS!

⛳️ There are fireworks heading into Bethpage! BUCKLE UP!

🏈 Texas A&M! MADNESSSSSSSSSSS!

What To Watch

🏈 We’ve got a MNF Double-Header! Because why not?

• Buccaneers @ Texans (7:00 PM ET)

• Chargers @ Raiders (10:00 PM ET)

  • A 10 PM start time for us east-coast folk is insanity. Only sickos stay up on a week night to watch that… 👀 

⚾️ MLB Slate. 12 games left!

• Yankees @ Twins (7:40 PM ET), Rangers @ Astros (8:10 PM ET), Phillies @ Dodgers (10:10 PM ET)

🏀 We’ve got some Game 2s tomorrow evening….

• Dream @ Fever (7:30 PM ET - Dream lead 1-0)

• Aces @ Storm (9:30 PM ET - Aces lead 1-0)

Of! The! Day’s!

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