Good Morning. Summer’s kind of over, so we’ll ease you back into the work week. While we get ready for our Tuesday.. can we talk about that Monday night? It wasn’t the NFL, but man did that college game deliver.

Let’s dig in.

Duke Blue Devils Bring The Noise

The Duke Blue Devils sent the Clemson Tigers to purgatory last night after the Blue Devils stunned Clemson in a week 1 opener. Clemson’s coach Dabo Swinnney described the loss as “indescribable”. Yeah, I’d say the same about a 28-7 loss that my team was originally 11.5-point favorites in.

Here’s the deal, Clemson dominated in first downs, led in yards gained (both passing and rushing) but they struggled so much where it matters. Clemson had two fumbles on first and goal opportunities and two short field goals blocked, which was somewhat hilarious because the broadcasters were raving over the Clemson kicker and his 70-yard field goal potential, which if attempted before the end of the first half inevitably would’ve been blocked too. (btw: blocks aren’t the kicker’s fault, most of the time)

So, was it really just the turnover and blocked field goals that made the difference? PRETTY MUCH!

There was one other game-defining moment too. Clemson QB Cade Klubnik scrambled on 4th quarter, 4th down pass play and was heading for the first down, and instead of diving or lowering a shoulder, he started his slide well before the first down mark. During his slide, he took a hit, and the defender was ejected for targeting. Because it was 4th down and the QB initiated his slide, the play was over, so the targeting was a dead ball foul and Duke got the ball back. This ultimately ended any chance of a comeback.

Don’t get me wrong, Clemson had its breaks too. Duke muffed a punt that Clemson recovered and that led to the Tiger’s first scoring drive where they had amazing field position. Duke also had 7 penalties and opened up a lot of chances for Clemson.

If you play this game 9 more times, I bet Clemson wins them all.

Let’s talk Duke quickly. They had opportunities, and they took advantage. QB Riley Leonard didn’t throw for any TDs but he had a huge run for one. He finished with 98 rushing yards on 8 attempts. RB Jordan Waters also ran for 63 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries. Also on defense, RJ Oben and Aaron Hall both had sacks on very timely plays.

Back to the Tigers…. So does this completely ruin Clemson’s playoff chances? Maybe not. They need to beat Florida State in a few weeks and they also have a tough November. Win out and they might have a chance(if the other conferences cannibalize themselves)

The ACC has some strong teams, but I think only one is coming out of the conference to make it to the College Football Playoff, and to get there, the team will need to be undefeated. The Big10, Pac-12, SEC, and Big12 all have too much talent where a 1-loss team will inevitably get in over 1 loss ACC team.

Pick The Worst

Does Anyone Think It’s Odd

That Kyler Murray is a captain for the Arizona Cardinals?

It’s the fourth year that Kyler Murray has been a captain for the Arizona Cardinals. Head coach Jonathan Gannon says he’s everything he wants in a leader but I do find it odd that you have to put certain clauses in your captain’s contract to make sure he watches film and doesn’t play video games.

#Rantover

Cooper Kupp Setback

Did you take Cooper Kupp for fantasy football? You’ll want to make sure you keep him on the bench for a few more weeks as he had a setback with his hamstring recovery. Kupp injured his hammy on August 1 and still hasn’t fully recovered. He was in Minnesota yesterday to see a specialist and work out some of his issues that don’t seem to be going away. He’s listed as day-to-day, but if he’s seeking out a specialist, I imagine he’s another month away from being 100%.

Grand Slammies

We wrote about Minnesota Twin’s rookie Royce Lewis 7 days ago after he had back-to-back grand slam games. Well, he’s done it again. Another grand slammy. That’s three in 8 games and four career grand slams in 56 games. The four in 56 games is an MLB record.

Lewis had the grand slam and 6 RBIs for the Twins in last night’s beatdown of the Cleveland Guardians where the Twins won 20-6. Check out grand slam here where you can hear the boos from the Guardian fans.

US Open

Let’s do a quick recap of Monday’s action and let you know what’s coming today in the quarterfinals

Men’s Singles

• Alexander Zverev, Andrey Rublev, Daniil Medvedev, and Carlos Alcaraz all advance to the quarterfinals with Monday wins.

• Quarterfinals for the Men start today as American Taylor Fritz will battle Novak Djokovic and two Americans will face each other in the other match of the day with Francis Tiafoe facing Ben Shelton

Women’s Singles

• Aryna Sabalenka, Qinwen Zheng, Marketa Vondrousova, and Madison Keys all advance to the quarters.

• Quarterfinals for the Women also start today with American Coco Gauff taking on Jelena Ostapenko and Karolina Muchova taking on Sorana Cirstea

You can watch all the tennis action on ESPN starting at Noon today.

FIBA World Cup

Team USA is in the quarterfinals of the FIBA World Cup and they face Italy at 8:40 am ET today. You can watch the game on ESPN2. If Team USA loses, they’ll be eliminated from the tournament.

That’s all for today. Enjoy the start of a short week!

-The Daily Breakroom