Category: Sport

Los Angeles Rams star receiver Puka Nacua won’t play in Sunday’s matchup towards the Jacksonville Jaguars in London, coach Sean McVay introduced Friday.

Nacua didn’t observe Wednesday whereas recovering from a sprained left ankle he suffered within the second quarter of the Rams’ 17-3 victory over the Baltimore Ravens final Sunday whereas trying to catch a move ultimately zone. He returned to the sport within the third quarter however didn’t have one other goal.

McVay additionally dominated offensive sort out Rob Havenstein out for a 3rd straight sport due to an ankle harm.

On Monday, McVay mentioned the group was “inspired” by scans taken of Nacua’s ankle, including he didn’t suppose it might be a long-term harm.

Nacua entered the sport towards the Ravens main the NFL in receptions and receiving yards and had probably the most catches by a participant in his group’s first 5 video games of a season in league historical past.

Nacua had two receptions for 28 yards earlier than the harm, giving him 54 catches for 616 yards and two touchdowns this season.

ESPN’s Sarah Barshop contributed to this story.

Week 8 of the school soccer season brings one other heavy throwback slate and homecoming matchups, much like Week 7.

Florida will debut its Nineteen Seventies throwback uniforms in opposition to Mississippi State. Florida hasn’t worn this explicit look since 2021, which incorporates the traditional interlocking “UF” emblem and blue jerseys with white pants for a glossy mixture.

Most notably, per GatorsOnline, Florida is undefeated when carrying throwback uniforms in homecoming video games, courting again to 2006.

Listed here are the highest uniforms from Week 8 of the school soccer season.

After beginning 0-4, UCLA is on a two-game win streak and can look to maintain that momentum going in opposition to Maryland. The Bruins will convey out the powder blues for the homecoming sport.

The look honors UCLA’s 1954 nationwide championship successful crew and was worn from 1954 to 1970. A powder blue jersey contains white stripes on the sleeves, whereas gold pants full the mixture.

Arizona State formally introduced its 1975 throwbacks in September, however didn’t point out a date, teasing its debut in October. The debut will certainly happen on Saturday in opposition to No. 7-seeded Texas Tech.

The white-and-gold mixture boasts a traditional ASU sunburst emblem on the lid, similar to the 1975 crew’s.

It’s been 30 years since Northwestern’s memorable 10-2 season, the place it reached the Rose Bowl Sport for simply the second time in program historical past. Northwestern is paying homage to that run with its all-black threads in opposition to Purdue on Saturday.

A handful of groups are going with icy whites this week, led by Oregon and Cincinnati.

Going through Florida’s throwback uniform, Mississippi State will counter with an all-white look themselves, whereas Ole Miss has a blue lid to finish its ensemble.

No completely different than Mississippi State in opposition to Florida, Texas Tech goes with a monochromatic look in opposition to Arizona State’s throwbacks. Nonetheless, the Crimson Raiders will don a clear all-red mixture.

Typically it takes an professional’s eye to see one thing earlier than everybody else does, reminiscent of Tyler Herro ending No. 13 on the Participant Rater, or Ivica Zubac placing up 16.8 PPG and 12.6 RPG, like every of them did final season.

How many individuals noticed this coming?

For those who did, you had a serious leg up on the competitors in your fantasy basketball leagues — that’s for positive!

With that in thoughts, we gathered our fantasy basketball specialists — André Snellings, Eric Moody, Eric Karabell, Jim McCormick and Steve Alexander — and tasked them with detailing their boldest fantasy predictions for 2025-26.

At present going eighty fifth on common in ESPN dwell drafts, Miller’s teaching employees already trusts him to seek out his personal shot, and his capacity to create offense for others is simply rising. With the potential to loft an absurd variety of 3-pointers per sport and his knack for amassing defensive numbers, he might comply with the Trey Murphy III path to changing into a particular 3-and-D fantasy wing as early as this season. Few gamers his dimension are this expert at each slashing and taking pictures, making Miller an outlier at his place. — McCormick

Embiid and Leonard are each ultra-elite fantasy hoops performers on a per-game foundation which have a historical past of lacking important portions of time. Final season, they missed a mixed 108 of the doable 164 video games. However I search for this season to be bounce-backs for each. Each are coming into the season comparatively wholesome and all it will take is 60-65 video games at their typical ranges to succeed in these milestones. — Snellings

No staff has tried and made extra 3-pointers than final season’s Boston Celtics, and that can hardly change simply because star Jayson Tatum is out for many, if not the whole lot, of the season. 4 Celtics — Payton Pritchard, Derrick White, Anfernee Simons and Sam Hauser — will end among the many prime 10 in 3s made this season, whereas a fifth (main scorer Jaylen Brown) will come shut. — Karabell

I foresee the Bulls beginning him and giving him round half-hour per sport, and his stat set is constructed for fantasy, hopefully offering blocks, steals, 3-pointers, rebounds and blocks. He’s being ignored till later in drafts after final season’s less-than-stellar numbers, however he has as a lot upside as nearly any participant on this 12 months’s drafts. I’m making an attempt to get him all over the place. — Alexander

Ball has elite fantasy upside when he’s on the ground. Everybody is aware of that. He averaged 25.2 PPG, 7.4 APG, 4.9 RPG and three.8 3-pointers final season, displaying his all-around affect. The difficulty has all the time been well being, with simply 105 video games performed over the previous three seasons. I believe that is the season Ball performs greater than 70 video games. He’s solely 24, is absolutely recovered from ankle and wrist surgical procedures, and Charlotte’s added depth ought to assist handle his workload. If he stays on the courtroom, he has top-15 fantasy potential. — Moody

Liverpool supervisor Arne Slot stated “outcomes don’t lie” after a three-game shedding streak as he known as for defensive enhancements forward of Manchester United’s go to to Anfield on Sunday.

The Premier League champions gained their opening seven video games of the season in all competitions, however poor performances have been masked by a collection of late targets.

Liverpool suffered defeats to Crystal Palace, Galatasaray within the Champions League and Chelsea earlier than the worldwide break, leaving them to fall one level behind title rivals Arsenal.

After romping to the title final season, Liverpool splashed out almost £450 million ($604 million) on new signings, paying club-record charges for Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz, neither of whom have but scored a Premier League objective.

On the different finish of the pitch, Slot’s males have conceded two or extra targets in 4 of their seven Premier League video games.

“We’ve performed 10, gained seven and misplaced three. The three loses have been by shut margins,” Slot stated at his pre-match press convention on Friday.

“However as I hold saying, we shouldn’t be depending on such margins.

“Outcomes don’t lie — in case you lose three in a row then it’s a must to do higher. We’re conscious of that and we’ve to react.”

Mohamed Salah’s sensational type propelled Liverpool to the title final season, however the 33-year-old Egyptian has up to now struggled to regulate to the modifications made to the aspect through the switch window.

Slot pinpointed a scarcity of game-changing moments from his star-studded ahead line and issues at set-pieces.

“We haven’t created as many possibilities as final season and there’s a purpose for that — the taking part in type of the opponent, and we’ve to seek out solutions to that,” he stated.

“The primary reply is to not concede as many targets as we did. If a crew scores one or two targets then we want three targets.

“Within the first half of final season we primarily acquired these targets from a particular second from one in all our entrance three. The second half (of the season) we would have liked set items towards a low block.

“This season we haven’t had these particular moments and we haven’t scored from set items.

“It’s clear that conceding 4 targets from set items is way an excessive amount of for a crew that desires to compete.”

Goalkeeper Alisson Becker stays out with a hamstring harm, however there was higher harm information for Liverpool as Ryan Gravenberch is match to face United regardless of coming off injured for the Netherlands through the worldwide break.

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CINCINNATI — Ten days in the past, Joe Flacco didn’t know whether or not he’d get to expertise once more what he felt Thursday evening.

Final week, Flacco was a quarterback who had been benched in his 18th NFL season. On Thursday evening, he celebrated one other comeback win within the AFC North.

9 days after his commerce to the Cincinnati Bengals, he led his new membership to a 33-31 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers at Paycor Stadium. Needing factors on the ultimate drive to win, Flacco propelled the offense down the sector, with kicker Evan McPherson’s 36-yard area purpose with seven seconds left sealing the victory.

Flacco acknowledged the uncertainty he had felt about getting again to the place he was in Thursday evening.

“It felt like I may not, to be sincere with you,” Flacco mentioned. “It’s fairly particular.”

Within the second recreation following his commerce from the Cleveland Browns, the 40-year-old helped Cincinnati snap a four-game dropping streak. He was 31-of-47 passing for 342 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. It was the primary win for the Bengals (3-4) since beginning quarterback Joe Burrow suffered a turf toe harm in Week 2.

Burrow watched from the sideline with a strolling boot on his left foot as Flacco made performs within the closing minutes to forestall Cincinnati from a devastating collapse. The Bengals trailed by some extent after main for the majority of the competition when Steelers tight finish Pat Freiermuth caught a 68-yard landing cross from Aaron Rodgers with 2:21 left.

However in his twenty third regular-season recreation towards the Steelers (4-2), Flacco delivered. With Cincinnati on the cusp of area purpose vary, he hit extensive receiver Tee Higgins for a 28-yard completion down the left sideline that made McPherson’s kick a comparatively straightforward one.

McPherson is amongst those that have loved having the veteran quarterback on their group.

“I like his angle and what he brings to the group,” mentioned McPherson, who now has eight profession tying or go-ahead kicks within the ultimate two minutes of a regular-season contest. “He’s finished a very good job connecting with guys on a very quick discover.”

Flacco did most of his connecting with Higgins and extensive receiver Ja’Marr Chase towards the Steelers. Chase set a franchise file with 16 catches for 161 yards and a landing. It was his ninth recreation with greater than 150 receiving yards, passing Jerry Rice for the second most within the first 5 seasons of an NFL profession.

Chase once more praised the franchise’s resolution to amass Flacco to be the beginning quarterback.

“It’s actually good having him right here for us,” Chase mentioned. “Group made an enormous bounce on him. We believed in him. We obtained him. He got here in, doing his factor and exhibiting off for us.”

Bengals coach Zac Taylor mentioned Flacco’s expertise was essential in a recreation that Cincinnati “wanted to have.” And the veteran virtually made it look easy.

“It’s straightforward for him,” Taylor mentioned. “And it’s not, as a result of he’s placing within the work. He’s so skilled on this state of affairs. You acquire quite a lot of confidence from that as a result of he goes on the market [and] it’s not too huge.”

Final week, Flacco was taking place Interstate 75, speaking to Taylor on the telephone because the coach began explaining as a lot of the playbook as rapidly as doable. Regardless of his expertise, Flacco wished to verify he didn’t waste a chance.

On Thursday evening, Flacco talked in regards to the reduction his household in all probability felt to see him full one other recreation. In his postgame information convention, Flacco mentioned he was keen to listen to how that reduction morphed into pleasure.

“I can’t wait to speak to my spouse tonight and simply hear it in her voice and all these issues,” Flacco mentioned. “Speaking to [family] reminds you of how particular that is.”