Christian McCaffrey's back is aching, understandably so. His 399 touches are the most ever in a 49ers' season. The 49ers' offensive workhorse has yet to miss a game this season, but a "stiff" back kept him from Tuesday's 5 p.m. walk-through practice at Levi's Stadium, ahead of Saturday's high-stakes kickoff against the Seattle Seahawks for the NFC playoffs' No. 1 seed. Also shelved Tuesday were left tackle Trent Williams (hamstring), fullback Kyle Juszczyk (hip) and defensive lineman Keion White (groin). Tight end George Kittle was cleared to practice in a limited capacity, a week after spraining an ankle at Indianapolis and missing Sunday night's 42-38 win over the Chicago Bears.
Just two games to go. The excellent Rams face off against our Falcons in primetime, a game that carries some playoff seeding stakes for the Rams and pride-related stakes for Atlanta, who can show they're progressing and make the first round pick they owe to Los Angeles land a bit later. To win, the Falcons will need to be excellent in all three phases; the Rams simply need to be pretty good to make that an extremely difficult proposition.
Purdy was up to the challenge. Behind Purdy's five total touchdowns (two rushing, three passing), the Niners outlasted the Chicago Bears 42-38 in a wild shootout on Sunday Night Football. It's San Francisco's first time scoring 40-plus points in back-to-back games since November 1995. With the win, the 49ers improved to 12-4 and will host the Seattle Seahawks on Saturday night with a whole lot on the line: the NFC West division title, the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs.
It was second-and-goal from the 9-yard line Monday night and quarterback Brock Purdy rolled to his right and attempted to squeeze in a pass to tight end Jake Tonges, who had a sliver of space before he went out of bounds in the end zone. Tonges caught the ball but it was ruled incomplete. Upon closer inspection, it appeared Tonges actually caught the ball and managed to drag both toes just before going out of bounds.
When one team has a tie in its record and another team doesn't, all of that other stuff goes out the window. It comes down to the basic comparison of overall records, and particularly each team's winning percentage. Let's say Dallas finishes the year with a 9-7-1 record: nine wins, seven losses, and one tie. That is a better record with a higher winning percentage (.559) than a 9-8 (.529) record. It's also a worse record than 10-7 (58.8), still keeping things simple.
Spots in the rankings can be tenuous, as Washington, Memphis, Iowa and ACC contenders Virginia and Louisville found out the hard way Saturday. Even teams much higher in the rankings, such as Oregon and Vanderbilt, came away from narrow wins with areas to clean up for the all-important games ahead. BYU certainly has things to assess on offense after being held to seven points and only 67 net rushing yards in its first loss of the season, at Texas Tech.
The longest regular season in WNBA history has finally arrived at its last day, and there's plenty at stake heading into Thursday's finales. Eight teams -- the Atlanta Dream, Golden State Valkyries, Indiana Fever, Las Vegas Aces, Minnesota Lynx, New York Liberty, Phoenix Mercury and Seattle Storm -- open the 2025 WNBA playoffs Sunday, but through Wednesday's games, the seeds are set for fewer than half of the teams and only one of four first-round series matchups is determined.
They've been nondescript and largely underwhelming all year. Suddenly, though, the New York Yankees have a puncher's chance at a prime time spot in the playoffs. The Yankees finished off their season series with the first-place Toronto Blue Jays by winning two of three at Yankee Stadium and suddenly, with 19 games left in the season, are just two games out of the American League East lead.
The Tigers lost to the Chicago White Sox, 7-5, on Friday night, allowing a golden opportunity to trim their magic number slip out of their grasp. Detroit (81-61) managed to score five runs, even though no hitter in the lineup had more than one hit. Parker Meadows was the only Detroit hitter with a home run. Tigers starter Jack Flaherty had a rough game, giving up six hits and four earned runs in 4.1 innings.
