Happy Friday, we hope you enjoyed the close thriller from last night’s NFL opener. We’ve got more where that came from. Another lineup of college football tomorrow and a full NFL schedule on Sunday. Weekends feel normal again.

Let’s dig into a few topics and then you can go back to daydreaming about football.

Thursday Night Football

What a game to kick of the NFL season with. Was it a thriller? That might be a stretch… Were you still entertained? Most likely.

Should we call it a Thursday Night Stunner? Definitely.

Here’s what happened other than the Lions winning 21-20.

1. The Detroit Lions are not the same team as of 10 years ago. They play hard, they play with grit, and they have some talent

2. Patrick Mahomes threw a pick 6, that didn’t help as the Chiefs defense was playing pretty good and the offense was having some trouble without Travis Kelce

3. The Chiefs defense overperformed in my eyes for a majority of the game

4. The Lions offense is really tough and ready to go 4 quarters, and that’s when the O-Line started to push around the Chiefs front. The Lions also had some great blocking schemes using pulling guards, tackles, and TEs and David Montgomery made great decisions when he was running the ball

5. My last point and the most important point. You can have the best quarterback in the league but unfortunately for the Chiefs, YOU STILL NEED TO CATCH THE BALL! The Chiefs had dropped balls in big spots and none was bigger than the pick 6. It was a perfectly thrown ball that the receiver just couldn’t handle and Brian Branch brought it back to the house in his first career NFL game.

Congrats to the Lions on the opening win. Let’s see how they fare against the Seattle Seahawks and all their weapons next Sunday.

US Open

Men’s Singles

We’ve got two great semifinal matchups later today in the Men’s Singles.

No. 2 Novak Djokovic will take on American Ben Shelton at 3 pm ET on ESPN.

After that, top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz will take on Daniil Medvedev on ESPN.

Winners of the matches will face off on Sunday in the final.

Women’s Singles

No. 6 Coco Gauff defeated No. 10 Karolina Mucho, 6-4, 7-5, in an exhilarating match in what was both competitor’s first time in the US Open semifinals.

American and No. 17 Madison Keys blanked No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka 6-0 in the first set of their semifinal match last night in Queens. The two power hitters battled it out in the final sets with Aryna taking both 6-7, 6-7.

The Women’s Final is set for Saturday between Gauff and Sabalenka. Match time is still TBD.

Check out the Keys vs. Sabalenka highlights.

FIBA World Cup

Anthony Edwards, Jalen Brunson and the rest of Team USA face Dennis Schroeder, Mo Wagner and Team Germany in the FIBA World Cup semifinals today at 8:40 am ET on ESPN2.

While Germany has some NBA talent and will likely be the toughest test for Team USA, the US has a full group of NBA starters. This should be a W for the US if they can get the offense rolling today but Germany should cover the 9.5-point spread.

That’s A Lot Of Disqualifications

In 2017, during the Mexico City Marathon, around 6,000 runners were disqualified for cheating. Problem solved. Not nearly.

The problem persisted and the following year, over 3,000 participants were removed from the results for cheating.

Okay so runners cheat and they are disqualified… they understand now. Right?

WRONG!

At this year’s Mexico City Marathon, there were even more cheaters! 11,000 runners were disqualified from the race for missing checkpoints. 30,000 people ran the race. That’s 1/3 of the runners who were cheating and some of them took mass transit.

Maybe just try a half marathon next time.

Sports On TV Today

Looking for something to watch other than tennis?

Here you go.

MLB

• Miami Marlins at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:05 pm ET on ESPN+

College Football

• Illinois at Kansas, 7:30 pm ET on ESPN2

That’s all for today. Enjoy them happy hours!

-The Daily Breakroom