‘Monday Night Football’ turned into a national commercial for Kentucky
Random notes:
▪ The first game of the opening-week doubleheader of “Monday Night Football” was a national advertisement for Kentucky football. On offense, Pittsburgh’s Benny Snell rushed for 113 yards. On defense, the Steelers’ Bud Dupree harassed New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones all night long. In fact, it was Dupree who forced Jones to throw an interception in the end zone, a key play in Pittsburgh’s 26-16 win.
▪ Yes, in his NFL debut, Joe Burrow mustered just a 66.1 passer rating (not good) and made a horrible decision that led to a shovel pass-turned-interception on Sunday. But the Bengals’ new quarterback was terrific on Cincinnati’s final drive, marching the home team — with no timeouts — from its own 18 to the Los Angeles Chargers’ 3-yard line with seven seconds remaining.
Alas, A.J. Green was called for interference. And Randy Bullock missed a 31-yard field goal, handing the Chargers a 16-13 win. Still, if you’re a Bengals fan, you had to like your first look at the NFL’s No. 1 overall pick.
▪ We need to show Keelan Cole some love. Not only is the 27-year-old former Kentucky Wesleyan star still on the Jacksonville Jaguars’ roster, he led the team with five catches for 47 yards and a touchdown in their 27-20 win over Philip Rivers and Indianapolis on Sunday. Now in his fourth NFL season, the Louisville native has 109 career catches.
▪ One more NFL note: Former Franklin County star Logan Woodside is the Tennessee Titans’ No. 2 quarterback behind starter Ryan Tannehill. Drafted in the seventh round by the Bengals in 2018, Woodside was on the Titans’ practice squad in 2018 before playing for the San Antonio Commanders of the now-defunct AAF in 2019. Woodside played his college football at Toledo.
▪ Agreed with the online critics who praised the broadcast team of Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit for the Steelers-Giants game Monday night on ESPN. Just goes to show that two pros, who have good chemistry, can call anything. I’d leave them on college football, however.
▪ Speaking of ESPN broadcasters, props to Maria Taylor. After Chicago radio host Dan McNeil said Taylor’s outfit on MNF was appropriate for an “adult film awards show,” Taylor fired back on social media, “Well Danny Dearest …“ Footnote: McNeil lost his job Tuesday.
▪ One more broadcasting note: CBS’ new No. 2 NFL broadcast team of Ian Eagle and Charles Davis is going to be really, really good. The two showed great chemistry, especially for a duo that had not worked together before. Davis came over to CBS from Fox.
▪ The Sun Belt Conference blanked the Big 12 by a 3-0 mark in college football Saturday. Arkansas State defeated Kansas State. Coastal Carolina defeated Kansas. And Louisiana defeated Iowa State. West Virginia head coach and former UK offensive coordinator Neal Brown knows something about both leagues. He was the head coach at Troy before leaving for Morgantown.
“The Sun Belt probably hasn’t gotten the attention or the respect it deserves,” said Brown on the Big 12 teleconference Monday. “There’s a difference, week in and week out, the grind in our league. But those teams that won are really well-coached.”
▪ Did the Reds’ bats wake up just in the nick of time? We’ll see. After Tuesday night, there are just 10 games left on the Cincinnati schedule. If the Reds do manage to squeeze into the postseason, they could be dangerous in a best-of-three series thanks to a rotation of Trevor Bauer, Luis Castillo and a hopefully healthy Sonny Gray.
▪ Tennessee football All-American Bill Johnson died on Sunday at age 84. A two-way guard, Johnson played for the Vols from 1955-57 and was later on UT’s board of directors. Writing for Knoxville Today, longtime Knoxville News-Sentinel sports editor Marvin West relayed this anecdote about Johnson and the Kentucky-Tennessee rivalry of the 1950s
“Old Vol tackle Jim Smelcer has a story, too. ‘Kentucky game, 1956, Lou Michaels, one of the best players in Kentucky history, broke Bill Johnson’s face mask. Bill got up and came to the huddle with a piece of plastic sticking through his cheek. He didn’t realize what had happened.”
Tennessee won that day 20-7.
