Yahoo Sports AM: Where have all the points gone?
NFL scoring fell to a five-year low last season. So far this season, it’s even worse.
We hope you enjoy this edition of Yahoo Sports AM, our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.
🚨 HEADLINES
🏈 NFL eyes Spain, Brazil: The NFL anticipates hosting a 2024 game in either Madrid or Brazil as it continues to expand its global footprint.
🍿 The Netflix Cup: Netflix's first live sports broadcast will be a golf tournament on Nov. 14 in Las Vegas featuring four PGA Tour pros and four F1 drivers.
🏀 Women's poll: LSU is No. 1 the preseason poll for the first time. UConn, Iowa, UCLA and Utah round out the top five.
⛳️ TGL roster set: The 24-player roster is complete for the inaugural season of TGL, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy's tech-infused golf league. It includes seven of the world’s top 10 players.
🏈 WHERE HAVE ALL THE POINTS GONE?
NFL scoring fell to a five-year low last season as defenses adjusted to the modern passing revolution. So far this season, it's even worse, Jeff writes.
By the numbers: Teams are averaging 21.7 points per game, down from 21.9 last year and tied with 2017 for the fewest since the 2009 season. Teams are also averaging just 329.7 yards on offense, the fewest since 2008.
Anecdotally, this tracks, given we just completed a week in which four teams scored in single digits and another 14 failed to crack 20 points.
Those anemic offenses were in fact historic, with unders going 12-2-1 in Week 6 — the best week for unders in 27 years.
So, what's happening? Revamped pass defenses still appear at least partly responsible for the scoring decline, with teams so far scoring their fewest receiving TDs per game since 2008.
The league's six worst scoring offenses may also be to blame, as their ineptitude drags down league-wide performance.
The Bengals (16.7 points per game), Raiders (16.7), Falcons (16.5), Steelers (15.8), Patriots (12) and Giants (11.8) are averaging fewer points per game than any team did last season.
The other side: Kickers are crushing it, nailing their field goals at a record clip of 87% and their extra points at 97.9%, by far the highest since the league moved them back in 2015.
⚾️ PHILS ON FIRE
The Phillies blanked the Diamondbacks, 10-0, on Tuesday to take a 2-0 NLCS lead and continue their historically dominant playoff run.
By the numbers: Philly's +33 run differential so far is the largest ever in any eight-game postseason span, and their 15 HRs over their last four games are the most ever over a four-game postseason span.
Home sweet home: Those 15 homers have all come at Citizens Bank Park, where the Phillies are now 28-11 all-time in the playoffs — the best record in the postseason for any team at any ballpark.
⚾️ RINTARO SASAKI'S UNPRECEDENTED MOVE
Rintaro Sasaki is among baseball's most tantalizing prospects, mashing a Japanese high school record 140 home runs. Now, in an unprecedented move, the young slugger is coming stateside, Jeff writes.
Coming to America: Sasaki, 17, has opted to forgo the upcoming Nippon Professional Baseball draft, where he was the presumptive No. 1 pick, in favor of playing college baseball. Vanderbilt is rumored to be the early leader to land him.
Had Sasaki gone the same route as other elite Japanese prospects, he wouldn’t reach MLB until requesting to be "posted" by his NPB team (often after ~5-7 years) or waiting the requisite nine years to become a free agent.
Instead, he should be draft eligible by 2027, after spending three years in college.
"The Japanese Prince Fielder": An English-language NPB YouTube channel gave Sasaki that nickname, and at 6-feet, 250 pounds with serious pop, it's not hard to see why.
He walloped 140 homers during his high school career, obliterating the Japanese record by 29. His 70-grade raw power, per ESPN, would rate as the highest among all current Minor Leaguers.
He also had a triple-slash of .413/.514/.808 with twice as many walks as strikeouts.
Interesting NIL wrinkle: Once in college, Sasaki won't be able to take advantage of NIL opportunities because foreign student visas prohibit off-campus employment in the U.S.
There are workarounds, though: 2022 Naismith POY Oscar Tshiebwe, who is Congolese, fulfilled various NIL deals while on a trip to the Bahamas, earning $500,000 in seven days.
It wouldn't be surprising if Vanderbilt, or whichever school Sasaki chooses, plays exhibition games in Japan to give him that same opportunity, while gaining international exposure for their brand.
Fun fact: Sasaki plays for his father at Hanamaki-Higashi High School in the Iwate Prefecture. You may have heard of the school's most famous alum: Shohei Ohtani, who also played for Sasaki's father.
📸 IN PHOTOS: WOMEN'S-ONLY IRONMAN
More than 2,000 women competed in the 2023 Ironman World Championship on Saturday in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, marking the first time in the event's 45-year history that only women competed in Hawaii. The men's race was held last month in France, Jeff writes.
The Ironman comprises a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run. This year's prize purse was $375,000, with the winner earning $125,000 and the top 15 finishers all getting paid.
England's Lucy Charles-Barclay won in a course-record time (8:24:31), claiming a long-awaited victory after finishing second in four of the last five years.
🏈 DAILY RANKING: NEW NO. 1 IN HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL
There's a new No. 1 team in high school football, Jeff writes.
SoCal upset: St. John Bosco jumped five spots in this week's High School Football America poll after they upset Southern California rival and previous No. 1 Mater Dei, 28-0, on Friday night.
St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.)
Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas)
Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.)
Chaminade-Madonna (Hollywood, Fla.)
IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.)
Kahuku (Honolulu)
St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
Duncanville (Duncanville, Texas)
St. Joseph’s Prep (Philadelphia)
Mill Creek (Hoschton, Georgia)
The Big Game: This annual matchup has become the Super Bowl of high school football, with Bosco and Mater Dei winning five of the last six HSFA national championships. The California rivals almost never lose — unless they play each other.
St. John Bosco is 85-12 since 2016, with eight of those losses coming against Mater Dei.
Mater Dei is 90-5 in that same time span, with all five losses coming against St. John Bosco.
Notable alumni: Mater Dei boasts three Heisman winners in Bryce Young (Class of 2020), Matt Leinart (2001) and John Huarte (1961). St. John Bosco's biggest names include 2018 first-rounder Josh Rosen, 2022 first-rounder Trent McDuffie and current Oregon State QB DJ Uiagalelei.
📆 OCT. 18, 1974: STUFFING THE STAT SHEET
49 years ago today, Nate Thurmond recorded the NBA's first quadruple-double in the Bulls' 120-115 win over the Hawks, Jeff writes.
The rarest of feats: Thurmond's monster game (22 points, 14 rebounds, 13 assists, 12 blocks) was one of just four quadruple-doubles in NBA history, with Alvin Robertson, Hakeem Olajuwon and David Robinson later joining him.
🥇 1968: American long jumper Bob Beamon shattered* the long jump world record, soaring 29.2 feet at the Mexico City Olympics. Beamon's leap remained the world record for 23 years and still has yet to be bested at the Olympics.
🏈 2009: Tom Brady threw an NFL-record five touchdowns in a single quarter during the Patriots' 59-0 rout of the Titans, which is tied for the largest margin of victory in NFL history.
*The perfect jump: Most new long jump records come by hundredths of a meter, and before Beamon the biggest increase was .15 meters (half a foot) by Jesse Owens in 1935. When Beamon broke the record, he did so by .55 meters, or nearly two feet (!!!).
📺 WATCHLIST: WNBA FINALS GAME 4
The Liberty host the Aces tonight in Game 4 of the WNBA Finals (8pm ET, ESPN), needing a win to force a decisive Game 5.
Injury report: The Aces will be without 2022 Finals MVP Chelsea Gray (foot) and starting center Kiah Stokes (foot).
More to watch:
⚾️ MLB playoffs: Astros (down 2-0) at Rangers (8pm, FS1) … Max Scherzer* will make his first start since Sep. 12.
🏈 CFB: FIU (+5.5) at Sam Houston (7pm, CBSSN); NMSU (-3.5) at UTEP (9pm, ESPN2)
🏒 NHL: Penguins at Red Wings (7:30pm, TNT/Max)
⚽️ MLS: Miami vs. Charlotte (8pm, Apple TV)
⛳️ PGA: Zozo Championship (11pm, Golf/Peacock) … In Japan.
⛳️ LPGA: BMW Ladies Championship (11pm, Peacock) … In South Korea.
🏀 NBA preseason: Nets at Heat (7:30pm, NBA); Kings at Warriors (10pm, NBA)
*Fun fact: Scherzer has made a start in four straight non-pandemic postseasons, all with different teams: 2019 (Nationals), 2021 (Dodgers), 2022 (Mets), 2023 (Rangers).
⚾️ MLB TRIVIA
Kyle Schwarber hit his 17th and 18th postseason HRs on Tuesday, tying him for the most ever by a left-handed batter.
Question: Who is he tied with?
David Ortiz
Reggie Jackson
Babe Ruth
Jim Thome
Answer at the bottom.
⚽️ THE SOCCER ASHES: LOST AND FOUND
Australia beat New Zealand, 2-0, on Tuesday in England to claim the Soccer Ashes, a trophy that had been lost for nearly 70 years before miraculously turning up this past spring, Jeff writes.
A special trophy: The Trans-Tasman soccer series dates back to 1922. After the fourth meeting in 1923, the team captains shared a couple cigars, with the ashes used to craft a trophy that would represent both nations equally.
The ashes were placed in a razor case that had been to Gallipoli during World War I — "the most powerful cultural event that united Australia and New Zealand," notes historian Trevor Thompson.
That razor case was then placed inside a small wooden box that had been fashioned out of New Zealand honeysuckle and Australian maple.
Lost and found: In 1954, the trophy mysteriously disappeared, but this past spring relatives of the former chair of the Australian Soccer Football Association found it packed away in a garage — just in time for its 100th birthday.
___
Trivia answer: Reggie Jackson
We hope you enjoyed this edition of Yahoo Sports AM, our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.
