November Showdowns
The Key for the week of November 4, 2024
A “Key” vote this week…
No, not the one that Ben and his friends fought for…the first vote in the newly-reimagined College Football Playoffs is this week. The Top 25 selections will give us an idea of which teams will make the expanded field of 12, and which teams have work to do. Oregon, of course, is comfortably leading the pack with its undefeated run, while Georgia and Ohio State are close behind, waiting for the Ducks to make a mistake. The larger playoff field means losses by top teams to other top teams aren’t necessarily going to disqualify you from the post season (but the Notre Dame loss to Northern Illinois looks worse and worse by the week). After this week’s CFP vote, the rankings will be updated weekly until the final bracket is announced December 8.
That didn’t take long…
To the surprise of hardly anyone, Stephanie White returned to the Indiana Fever after a short stint with the Connecticut Sun to take over coaching Caitlin Clark and company. White played for the Fever after college and coached them as well, so this is truly a homecoming for the Indiana high school basketball star. White preaches defense, one part of the game that the Fever need to improve upon, so putting her stamp on the team could be the tweak the Fever need—with all this talent—to make a deeper run in the playoffs next season.
A needed home win
Yes, the Raiders are 2-7 and yes, they are at the bottom of their division, but the Bengals needed to beat up on somebody to get their first home win of the season (who would have thought it wouldn’t come until November??). The 41-24 win was as about as complete of a game as we have seen this season from the Men in Stripes, forgetting for a second the ugly interception Joe Burrow tossed toward the end of the game. The celebration is short-lived, though, as the Bengals return to the division for a road contest Thursday against the Ravens, who start the week an almost full touchdown favorite. The road to getting to 500 won’t be easy this month.
Ben’s Best Bet
After a tight home win last weekend against NYCFC, FC Cincinnati stumbled in Game 2 on the road, forcing a Game 3 in the first round of playoffs back at TQL Stadium. The Orange and Blue are favored to take the best of three series by Bet MGM, and Ben says go with the home team to advance in the post season. With the defending champion Columbus Crew already eliminated, that just may give FC Cincinnati added incentive to make a deep run in the playoffs.