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DODGER STADIUM (Los Angeles) – With Chris Sale unavailable, and with the Braves needing two bullpen games to get through the first two games of the National League Division Series on the road against two Cy Young Award winners, they still found a way to return to Atlanta with the series tied at one game apiece. Dodgers deadline addition Tarik Skubal came “as advertised” in Game 1, but Blake Snell couldn’t pick up where Skubal left off. The Braves patiently waited out the lefty, who couldn’t find the zone in a short outing, and held the high-powered Dodgers offense to one run until two outs in the ninth inning, when Max Muncy cut his team’s deficit in half with a solo shot off reliever Didier Fuentes. Down to his last out, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts summoned rookie Josue De Paula for his first career playoff appearance. Braves manager countered with closer Raisel Iglesias, who induced a pop-up to end the 3-2 win. Here are my takeaways: On one side was Blake Snell, a two-time Cy Young Award winner. On the other was Ray Kerr, a two-time junior college attendee. Naturally, it was the latter who departed the game with a 1-0 lead. This is Ray Kerr’s October, and we’re all just living in it. “Ray Kerr is amazing, man,” Weiss said. “He did it again.” Kerr found out he was starting Sunday’s bullpen game the morning of the game. “I was like, ‘All right, let’s get it,” Kerr said. “Just another Sunday, right?” It certainly looked that way, the way he calmly handled the high-pressure stakes. Considering his journey, and the will and resilience it took for the 32-year-old to get to baseball’s grandest stage, maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise. Kerr grew up in foster care, attended junior college, became academically ineligible, returned home to Reno, Nevada, worked at 7-Eleven and a movie theater and figured that might be what the rest of his life looked like. But then he made his way to another community college, pitched well, excelled during Alaska summer league, got noticed by the Mariners, signed a minor-league deal and worked his way up the professional ladder. He was coming off a two-year hiatus following Tommy John surgery when he returned to a big-league mound this year for the first time since 2024. After making nine regular-season appearances for the Braves, he got the ball to start the deciding Game 3 of the wild-card series and outdueled the Phillies’ Aaron Nola with 3.1 scoreless innings. For his encore, he was only expected to go an inning or two. Instead, he outpitched Snell over 2.2 scoreless innings, striking out four batters and setting the stage for the Braves’ upset. “That was a huge start, or open, or whatever you call it, in two huge games for us,” catcher Drake Baldwin told me. “It says a lot about him.” If the Dodgers’ postseason rotation was supposed to be impenetrable, indomitable, unconquerable, Sunday night demonstrated otherwise. Early last October, Snell looked like the pitcher the Dodgers paid for, combining to allow two runs with 28 strikeouts and five walks over 21 innings in his first three starts of the 2025 postseason. That was not the version of the left-handed pitcher who showed up Sunday in his first start of the 2026 postseason. Snell allowed five free passes in Game 2 of the NLDS alone, looking rusty after dealing with a late-season groin injury that limited him to just five innings of work over the final two weeks of the regular season. Lacking control, it took Snell 90 pitches to labor through his 3.2 innings. He needed four pitches or more against each of the last 10 batters he faced and was unable to get out of the fourth inning following his fifth and final walk of the day. “He just was fighting himself with his delivery all game,” Roberts said. “I think that just, overall, it wasn’t the groin. He just wasn’t sharp tonight.” He did, however, limit the Braves to just one run after Brock Stewart entered and retired Ronald Acuña Jr. to clean up his fourth-inning mess. Still, it was hardly the outing they expected out of Snell after he recorded a 1.13 ERA in his final eight starts of the regular season after returning from an elbow procedure. A troublesome right knee had sapped Freddie Freeman’s power in the season’s second half, playing a role in the star first baseman hitting just one home run after the All-Star break and one extra-base hit in all of September. But he tends to find a different gear when the calendar flips to October. On Sunday, he found it. The man who hit a walk-off grand slam (plus three more home runs) in the 2024 World Series and who ended an 18-inning World Series Game 3 marathon against the Blue Jays last year with another walk-off blast made his first major mark on the 2026 postseason Sunday with a game-tying solo shot off Grant Holmes in the fourth inning. The blast finally gave the Dodgers some momentum and a crowd of 50,729 fans, who had been quieted by Snell’s shaky performance, a reason to get rowdy. But Michael Harris II ensured that was short-lived. Dodgers reliever Kris Bubic, pitching for just the sixth time as a Dodger after returning from an elbow injury, was one pitch away from a perfect fifth inning. He breezed through the first two batters, then got Harris down 0-2 before the Braves center fielder poked a sweeper well outside the zone the other way. The ball carried, and carried, and carried, eventually up and over the outstretched arm of left fielder Teoscar Hernandez, whose circuitous route and failed attempt to make the play allowed the ball to ricochet off the wall and helped Harris stretch his double into a triple. “I knew I didn’t fully get it,” Harris told me. “I knew it was slicing away from them. As I got closer to first, I was kind of blocked by his body, so I didn’t know if he caught it or not. Then I had seen it bounce off the wall, and I just had to keep digging. Getting to third was consequential, as Bubic then fired a wild pitch to bring in the go-ahead run. It was one of three hits on the day for Harris, who also singled and doubled and is leaving his imprint on the 2026 postseason. Harris’ three-run home run off Nola in Game 3 of the wild-card series helped send the Braves to the NLDS. It’s about as star-studded of a pitching matchup imaginable for Game 3. The Braves played a dangerous game using Sale to face the final five batters in Game 3 of the wild-card series, two days after he started Game 1. That extra work between starts meant he was unavailable for Games 1 and 2 of the NLDS in Los Angeles, a risky proposition in a best-of-five series. “We needed to win that series, and that was our best chance to do it,” said Weiss. “So, I have zero regrets about pitching Chris Sale in that last game.” The decision did not come back to burn him in Los Angeles, as the Braves still managed to steal Game 2 despite missing their ace, setting them up nicely for Sale to pitch in Atlanta in Game 3 on four days of rest since his wild-card relief appearance and six days of rest since his last start. The Dodgers also have to feel good about their chances, too, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto beginning his World Series MVP postseason follow-up campaign.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

If you’re a fan of offensive battles, then you must have enjoyed Sunday night’s Detroit Lions-Carolina Panthers game. The Panthers improved to 2-2 thanks to a dominant performance from wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, defeating the Lions 32-26. Both offenses logged over 440 yards in a matchup that felt like no one could be stopped by the time the fourth quarter rolled around. However, Carolina was able to make a pair of fourth-down stands on Detroit’s final two possessions of the game, sealing the win. Here are my takeaways from the Panthers’ impressive win over the Lions. When Carolina put up 37 points in Week 1, it was overshadowed by their defense giving up 59 to the Bears in the same game. A 34-3 rout of the Falcons validated that in Week 2, and Sunday night’s 32-26 win over the Lions allows us to appreciate how well Bryce Young is playing in his third season with Dave Canales. Young’s connection with second-year receiver Tetairoa McMillan was the centerpiece against Detroit — the two connected 14 times for 192 yards and two touchdowns (on 16 targets, no less). Add in a solid 120 rushing yards for Chuba Hubbard, and the Panth ers were over 400 yards of offense in improving to 2-2 on the season and, for a day at least, sole possession of first place in the NFC South. Carolina has already picked up Young’s fifth-year option for 2027, so there was a commitment in place, but games like Sunday will put Young in the $50 million-a-year club, and arguably ahead of his draft-class contemporary, Houston’s C.J. Stroud. Consider his four-year passing numbers, going from 11 touchdown passes as a rookie to 15 in his first year with Canales to 23 last year and now on pace for 38 (!) in 2026. The team single-season record is 36, thrown by Steve Beuerlein in 1999, two years before Young was born. For all the excitement about the Lions getting back to playoff form this season, their defense has been a major liability, literally giving up more points than any defense in the league. The Lions went into Sunday night giving up 31.7 points per game. The Panthers topped that midway through the fourth, putting them on track to have one of the worst scoring defenses ever. At 31.8 points allowed per game, the Panthers are on pace to allow the third-most points per game in NFL history. And the Lions were ranked 31st in three key categories entering Sunday: total defense (416 yards per game), third-down defense (56 percent) and red-zone defense (90%). Detroit can point out that defensive backs Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch are still out with injuries, but its problems run deeper than that. Carolina’s resounding win is all the more impressive considering how many key players it was missing Sunday night. The Panthers put both starting corners — Jaycee Horn and Mike Jackson — on injured reserve this week, meaning they won’t have either for at least four games, but Akayleb Evans stepped up in a big way in his first start in two years, with nine tackles. The Panthers were also without two solid receivers in Jalen Coker and Xavier Legette, but that didn’t stop Young from throwing for more than 300 yards. Backups Brycen Tremayne and John Metchie, who had combined for six catches in the first three weeks, had five for 69 on Sunday.  And Carolina had to play without guard Damian Lewis, with second-year pro Corey Bullock getting his first NFL start and playing without penalty. Carolina won’t get healthy anytime soon, but their schedule has a run of middling teams that aren’t nearly as difficult as they seemed going into the season — their next three are at the Eagles, home against the winless Buccaneers and at the Packers, with a tough game against Denver after that. The NFC South is very much wide-open, so Carolina’s chances of repeating look more promising if it can continue to win while playing at less than full strength.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

LINCOLN FINANCIAL FIELD (Philadelphia) — The Los Angeles Rams’ dream season was on the verge of becoming a full-fledged nightmare. For three-plus quarters on Sunday, they looked much like they had for most of the first three games: an overrated mess. But then they reminded everyone why the world was so high on them in the first place. When they’re clicking on all cylinders, they (still) are capable of being the best team in the league. That’s what separates these Rams from the NFL’s last supposed “Dream Team” — the overrated Eagles of 2011 that went 8-8. These Rams are capable of greatness, as they demonstrated by scoring two touchdowns in the final four minutes of a 24-20 road win against the overrated Eagles of 2026. The Rams’ comeback was quite a departure from the first 50-plus minutes, in which they appeared old, feeble and tired. It was as if the jet lag from their poorly planned trip to Australia in Week 1 never wore off. But great teams know when it matters most, and that’s when the Rams suddenly woke up. With the game on the line and their season perched on the brink, they played like the Super Bowl-bound juggernaut they were supposed to be. “That says that they’re mentally tough,” a giddy Sean McVay said of his team. “And I think that will serve us well. Tough times don’t last. Tough people do. They found a way. It was really cool to see.” The emergence of the real Rams couldn’t have come at a better time. In a division with the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks and the powerful San Francisco 49ers, there would’ve been no coming back from a 1-3 start. Only the 2001 Patriots have opened a season 1-3 and won the Super Bowl, and the Rams were two yards away from falling into that hole. Stops on third- and fourth-and-goal with less than eight minutes remaining gave Matthew Stafford and Co. an inch. They responded by taking a mile — driving 98 yards for a touchdown and then, after the defense forced a three-and-out, executing a second 10-play drive for the go-ahead score. The defense then sacked Jalen Hurts twice to force a turnover on downs and seal the 10-point comeback. That’s championship mettle. The three huge defensive stops were even more impressive when considering star pass-rushers Myles Garrett and Aaron Donald were sidelined. Stafford, who looked every bit of his 38 years as he struggled through a two-interception day, overthrowing and misfiring to most of his receivers, went 12 for 15 for 140 yards on the final two drives. The final eight flawless minutes served as a reminder of what the Rams are capable of, and of why the hype surrounding them always had a stronger base than their “Dream Team” predecessor in Philadelphia. The 2011 Eagles were built on a foundation of good (but not great) free-agent additions and a high-risk, high-reward QB in Michael Vick. These Rams are backed by the reigning MVP and were a play away from reaching last season’s Super Bowl, where they would have been heavy favorites against the Patriots. And that was before they traded for Garrett, lured Donald out of retirement and added stellar cornerbacks Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson. In other words, the Rams were on the cusp of greatness a year ago, and there’s still no reason to think they won’t be great again. Their wild comeback on Sunday proved they still have the talent to make a Super Bowl run. And maybe that was the wake-up call they needed to come out of their slumber and remind even themselves that they’re still good enough to achieve all of their dreams. “If you don’t have belief, then what are you doing?” Stafford said. “That’s what you put in all the work for. … Not every game is going to go exactly how you want it. Sometimes you’re going to have to find ways to win football games. “That’s what we did today.” The Eagles were about to shut the door on the Rams (and perhaps their 2026 title chances) when Nick Sirianni found a way to prop it open. Then the Eagles left the door open to the NFC East as well. After blowing a game they absolutely should have won, the Eagles are tied with the Dallas Cowboys and one game behind the New York Giants, in a division they’ve basically owned for the better part of the past three seasons. That’s not all on Sirianni, but his decisions are certainly fodder for his critics — particularly choosing to go for it twice on fourth-and-2 in the second half against the Rams. The first time was from the Eagles’ own 38, though the failed Tush Push didn’t ultimately hurt the Eagles. The second one was from the Rams’ 2-yard line when a field goal would’ve put Philly up by two touchdowns with less than eight minutes remaining. That was a killer. Sirianni inexplicably ignored that his team was already 0 for 10 on third downs Sunday and was missing receiver DeVonta Smith, running back Saquon Barkley, tight end Dallas Goedert and two offensive linemen. Simply put, he overplayed his analytical hand. “I’m very well aware of how important that decision was as the head coach,” Sirianni said. “That’s on me.” Indeed it was, even if there was some logic in leaving the Rams in “a true backed-up scenario” once his offense failed. He never imagined the Rams would drive 98 yards the other way, nor did he think his Eagles couldn’t pick up the two yards they needed for a 17-point lead. But sometimes a head coach has to know his team better than he knows the math. And Sirianni’s team has struggled offensively all season long. And that goes back to another Sirianni decision: turning his offense over to 34-year-old, first-time coordinator in Sean Mannion, who’s in just his third season as an NFL assistant. There’s still plenty of time for Mannion to piece this dysfunctional and battered Eagles offense together. But at the moment, he looks like Sirianni’s third swing and miss at the position in the past four years. And if you don’t think that puts Sirianni on the hot seat, you are underestimating the pressure of Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie. This is an organization that expects to be playing in the Super Bowl. There’s no excuse for giving away games like this, much less a division this weak. The San Francisco 49ers play in a division with the defending Super Bowl champions and the superteam many expect to win Super Bowl LXI. Yet four games into the season, they’re looking down in the standings at both the Seahawks and the Rams. In fact, the 4-0 49ers are looking down at everyone. They’re the best team in the league. They showed that pretty clearly Sunday with a convincing 24-14 victory against the Denver Broncos — who remain one of the best teams in the AFC. And the Niners did it by showing off their remarkable versatility. They got 218 yards and two touchdowns from QB Brock Purdy, 140 rushing yards from a combination of five ballcarriers and nine catches for 146 yards from TE George Kittle and WR Mike Evans. No team in the NFL has as many ways to win as San Francisco, which can beat you in the air and on the ground or with its stout defense. That shouldn’t come as a surprise given that Kyle Shanahan’s club went 12-5 last season despite being battered by injuries. While this year’s Niners are notably banged up on the defensive line and at receiver, they boast the league’s best point differential. Should they ever get healthy, which can never be assumed with the 49ers, they may prove impossible to beat. Jaguars head coach Liam Coen showed last year that he’s a brilliant offensive strategist, capable of turning his Trevor Lawrence-led team into a contender. It’s time the Jaguars get credit for their top-notch defense, too. That unit, led by defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile since 2025, got the best of the high-octane Cincinnati Bengals in a 22-17 Jacksonville win on Sunday. Yes, the Jags gave up a lot of yards to Joe Burrow — 428 passing yards in all. But he had to throw 54 times to hit that total and was picked off twice, including once at the Jacksonville 10-yard line in the fourth quarter. The Jags also stuffed the Bengals’ running game so much that they simply stopped trying, running just 15 times for 23 yards. It was the third time this season a Jaguars opponent failed to score 20 points. In fact, they’ve given up just 53 points total this season — the second-fewest in the league. That’s why the 44-year-old Campanile is soon going to appear on a lot of head coach hot lists. More importantly, it’s why the Jaguars need to be taken seriously as a Super Bowl contender. For three games, Drake Maye looked like the worst quarterback in football. We all should’ve known he wasn’t that bad. The 24-year-old was still far from his 2025, near-MVP self, but he was finally at least good Sunday as the Patriots knocked off the Bills in Buffalo. Maye completed 22 of 37 passes for 269 yards with three touchdowns and one interception, while running eight times for 54 yards. And that included going 4 for 7 for 68 yards on the game-winning drive, including a 23-yard touchdown. That flash of his talent is exactly what the Patriots needed, and why it’s still too early to concede the AFC East race to the Bills. Maye showed last year that he was capable of carrying a flawed Patriots team a long way — all the way to the Super Bowl, in fact. His ability didn’t just mysteriously vanish. He’s clearly capable of doing it again. It’ll be harder this season, against a much tougher schedule. And it’ll be hard for a few more weeks until top receiver A.J. Brown returns. But this could be the performance that finally gives Maye his confidence back and lets him settle into a groove he was clearly missing. If so, we can’t count the Patriots out just yet. In NFL Fallout, Ralph Vacchiano breaks down the impact of the biggest events every Sunday.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports