🎧Sports Brief: Surprising Indiana Plays a Game for the Ages; Army Aims to Upset Notre Dame; Harbaugh Brothers Meet in AFC Grudge Match

Indiana players, including offensive lineman Bray Lynch (74), celebrate with the Old Brass Spitoon after defeating Michigan State in an NCAA college football game in East Lansing, Mich., on Nov. 2, 2024. AP Photo/Al Goldis

Greetings sports fans, and welcome to The Epoch Times Sports Brief for Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. I’m Bill Thomas, we’ve got some monumental highlights to share with you right now, and here’s what’s happening in the thrilling world of sports.

A colossal clash pits a pair of top-five teams in a battle for a spot in the Big Ten championship, an unbeaten military academy heads to the Big Apple for its biggest game in half a century, and a couple of lookalike brothers match wits in a prime-time NFL tussle.

Also, a surprising rookie is lighting up the NBA, and big league baseball hands out its top awards—we’ll tell you who went home with the little golden statues.

We’ll get to each of these humongous stories in a bit, but we begin at the Big Horseshoe in Columbus, Ohio, where a perennial doormat is about to play the most important game in school history, and everything’s on the line—check it out!

Surprising Indiana Plays a Game for the Ages

The unbeaten Indiana Hoosiers are everyone’s darling and tomorrow they can take their Cinderella season to a whole new level when they bang helmets with the big bad Ohio State Buckeyes in front of 100,000 screaming fans.

Their motto is “win and in,” because a victory puts the No. 5 Hoosiers in the conference title game against top-ranked Oregon, and just a year ago—when they only won a single Big Ten contest—that would have been unthinkable.

A week ago, the man who engineered the team’s remarkable turnaround, first-year head coach Curt Cignetti, who’s about as talkative as my 89-year-old Aunt Martha, was rewarded for his extraordinary efforts with a brand new 8-year contract, and a consequential win against the Buckeyes would further cement his legacy. True story—she doesn’t talk much, but Aunt Martha tunes in to the Sports Brief every single Friday.

Meanwhile, the second-ranked Buckeyes have only lost once—to Oregon—and they’re amped up for a rematch in the Big Ten championship. However, a formidable Penn State squad is waiting in the wings, and the boys from Ohio must win tomorrow, and again next week against Michigan, if they hope to earn the chance.

The excitement in Columbus will be sky high, Hoosier fans have been waiting decades for a game this big, and the winner gets a shot at the college football playoffs.

There’s another crucial game tomorrow with significant playoff implications, and this one takes place at Yankee Stadium between a surprising U.S. military academy and a beloved team with a nationwide fan base, and here’s what’s up.

Army Aims to Upset Notre Dame

Tomorrow night in New York, the undefeated Army Black Knights will try to topple Notre Dame, and whoever loses this critical dustup can kiss their playoff chances goodbye.

Mighty Notre Dame has only lost once, they’ve rolled off eight wins in a row, and they have a very good defense. However, they’ve played a relatively weak schedule—and if Army knocks them off, they’ll drop out of the playoff race entirely.

Meanwhile, the Black Knights haven’t beaten the Golden Domers since 1958—when gas cost 30 cents a gallon—and they’re longshots to pull off the upset tomorrow night.

By the way, Army runs a triple-option wishbone offense that went out of style with the crewcut all those years ago, but they have the number one running game in the country, and a victory tomorrow night keeps them firmly entrenched in the battle for an at-large spot in the playoffs.

It’s well known that the Fighting Irish pride themselves on their coast-to-coast fan base, but military veterans—and football purists everywhere—will be pulling for the underdog cadets to stun the nation in this primetime clash of legendary programs.

Let’s head now to the big leagues where the grown ups play, and an exciting family affair which matches a pair of rival brothers and a couple of hard-hitting Super Bowl contenders.

Harbaugh Brothers Meet in AFC Grudge Match

This week, the Baltimore Ravens fly to the West Coast to take on the L.A. Chargers in a battle of tough-nosed AFC contenders, and the winner takes a giant leap toward securing a spot in the postseason tournament.

The Charger in charge, Jim Harbaugh, has been a winner wherever he’s coached, and when he returned to the pro sidelines earlier this year, people expected that he would eventually turn the team around—but no one thought he’d pull it off this rapidly.

Don’t look now, but only 10 games into his tenure, the Chargers are 7–3, the team is knocking the stuffing out of its opponents, and the defense is the stingiest in the entire league.

Quarterback Justin Herbert has only thrown only one interception all year, rookie right tackle Joe Alt is blowing people off the line, first year receiver Ladd McConkey appears to be a diamond in the rough, and running back J.K. Dobbins looks like the comeback player of the year.

Meanwhile, for the Ravens, Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry are both money and they lead one of the league’s most potent offenses. However, big brother John Harbaugh’s gladiators have been up and down all season long, and we never know which “Jekyll & Hyde” Baltimore team is gonna show up.

So you know, last night in Cleveland, the first-place Steelers were upset by a lousy Browns squad, and the loss gives the Ravens enormous motivation to vault right back into the division race.

By the way, the last time these brothers coached against each other was a dozen years ago in Super Bowl 47—big bro won—and whoever wins this backyard brawl will get bragging rights at this year’s Thanksgiving dinner—along with a gigantic turkey drumstick and an extra helping of mom’s pumpkin pie.

We’ll head now from the grass to the hardcourt, where an unexpected rookie just tied an astonishing record, he plays next to King James, he’s the talk of the NBA, and here’s everything you need to know.

Lakers Connect With Rookie Sensation

Earlier this week, L.A. Lakers first-round draft pick Dalton Knecht introduced himself to the league when he dropped 37 points against the Jazz, and the early buzz suggests that this kid may be the real deal.

The 6-foot-6 wingman from Tennessee “connected” on a rookie-record-tying nine 3-pointers in the game, shocking just about everyone—except for fans of the SEC, where he won last season’s player of the year award.

Earlier this year, the Lakers drafted “Westside” Knecht with the 17th overall pick, and according to early returns, they might have hit the jackpot.

He’s only been a starter for a handful of matchups, but he’s averaging nearly 25 points a pop in those starts, and the Lakers have never looked better in each of those games.

They’re now a surprising 10–5, and tomorrow, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and their blossoming rookie will host the Denver Nuggets for a Saturday night showdown. It’s uncertain whether the amazing Joker, three-time MVP Nikola Jokic, will suit up for this one, but either way, all eyes in Tinseltown are gonna be focused on the newest star to take Hollywood by storm.

We’ve got time for just one more story and yesterday, major league baseball handed out some highly coveted hardware to a couple of gigantic superstars, and here’s the skinny.

Baseball Hands Out Postseason Awards

The great Shohei Ohtani will have to clear more space on his top shelf for yet another MVP trophy, after bagging the treasured award for the third time in his prestigious career.

The phenom from Japan may have been stuck playing DH in his first year with the Dodgers, but he became the league’s first 50/50 man, won his first World Series, and snagged every single first-place National League vote from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

Not bad for a guy with a bum arm who doesn’t play defense.

Over in the American League, Aaron Judge also snagged every first-place vote and took home the big prize, after an extraordinary regular season which was followed by a dreadful Fall Classic—but who am I to judge.

You may recall that just last month, Judge and his Yankees got educated by the Dodgers in the World Series, and now the gentle giant will have to settle for this consolation prize, along with any bonus money in his contract that comes with it.

And now, Sports Brief Host commentary ... I got nothin’.

In case you missed it, earlier this week, MLB handed out its Cy Young awards to a pair of lefties, Tarik Skubal of the Tigers and 35-year-old Chris Sale of the Braves, who was rewarded for a spectacular comeback season with baseball’s biggest prize for pitching.

Congratulations to all of this year’s big winners and our condolences to the losers, especially the Chicago White Sox. Keep on swinging, there’s always next year, and remember, spring training is only a few months away.

It’s time for us to shuffle off to Buffalo, but first, we’ve got just enough time to recognize one of the most inept, incompetent, moronic, and infamous plays in sports history—one that’s so dreadful it’s got its own name: “the butt fumble.”

Sorry to pile on, Jets fans, but with plays like this, you’ve got it coming. In case you don’t recall, quarterback Mark Sanchez bumped into the back side of one of his offensive linemen, dropped the ball like a doofus, and then watched one of the Patriot defenders run it all the way back for a touchdown.

In honor of that legendary blunder—which took place on this very day a dozen years ago—the illustrious Sports Brief council has just voted Sanchez as our Buffoon of the Week. Congratulations, Mark. You may not have won the Heisman, the Super Bowl, or MVP, but if you send us an email, we’ll score you one of those colorful jester caps with bells on it as a prize.

Note to current Jets QB Aaron Rodgers: Hey Aaron, if you check in with us too, we’ll send you an Epoch Times mug. You can use it to sip tea in a couple of months, when you’re watching the playoffs from your couch, while pouting and blaming everybody else.

Hey, we’re out of time now, but we’ll be back next week with another edition of the potentially award-winning Epoch Times Sports Brief ... who are we kidding?

If you have any thoughts about the Sports Brief program, we’d love to hear from you, and you can find us at [email protected], but only if you have gushing, kind, complimentary kudos for the extraordinary, multi-talented Sports Brief crew.

For all of us here at The Epoch Times Sports Brief, I’m Bill Thomas.

Today’s Sports Brief program was written by Dr. Davey Ross, PhD. I checked and his PhD is in Sports Briefing. Full disclosure—his PhD was found at the bottom of a box of Lucky Charms cereal.

Thank you for making us your one-stop source for a concise, accurate, and engaging rundown of all the sports stories you absolutely need to know about.

Enjoy another great weekend of sports, stay safe, and remember, let’s all continue to watch out for one another, have a superb day today, and don’t forget to keep your eyes on the game. Bye for now.