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This week, Brewers flamethrower and National League Cy Young favorite Jacob Misiorowski will conclude one of the most overpowering, unhittable seasons ever recorded by a starting pitcher. No qualified starter in modern baseball history has ever surrendered a lower opponent’s batting average than what Misiorowski is allowing now (.159). Take away the shortened 2020 season, and only one starter — Gerrit Cole in 2019 — has ever generated a higher strikeout rate over the course of a full season than Misiorowski’s 38.2% mark this year. So, it might seem strange that MLB’s velocity king — whose triple-digit heat has reached as high as 105.5 mph, the fastest ever recorded by a starting pitcher — grew up idolizing a pitcher whose average career four-seam velocity clocked in around 90 mph. Adam Wainwright, who can count on one hand how many big leaguers have ever told him he was one of their favorite players, was taken aback when I told him that he was Misiorowski’s childhood idol. “He might’ve gotten the first 92, 93 mph from me,” Wainwright quipped. “The other 12 are on him.” As of a month ago, Misiorowski had never met or talked to Wainwright. But as a kid in the Kansas City area with little winning baseball to watch in the early 2000s, Misiorowski was drawn to the St. Louis right-hander — not because Wainwright overwhelmed his competition with sheer force, the way Misiorowski can do, but because he was unflappable. “The biggest thing was his demeanor on the mound,” Misiorowski told me last month. “Something bad happens, move onto the next pitch. There’s no care, no emotion with it. I took that into just pitching in general. Whenever I give up a home run or something like that, ‘OK, so be it, they got to me, next pitch.’” That, admittedly, was not always so easy for Misiorowski. “They used to tear me up, and I’d get really upset on the mound,” Misiorowski said. “Then I started watching other guys. I kind of thought about Wainwright and his demeanor and just everyone in the past and kind of was like, ‘That’s what I need to do. I need to forget about it.’” Along with harnessing his control, adding to his powerful arsenal and maturing into his 6-foot-7-inch frame, Misiorowski’s mental growth on the mound is part of the transformation that has helped the raw prospect with elite tools develop into MLB’s most dominant starter over the course of just one year. The best pitcher on the best team in baseball leads MLB in ERA, WHIP, strikeouts, strikeout rate and opponents’ batting average, among a litany of categories. “Emotionally, he’s in a way better place,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy told me. “I always say, your first year you’re on rollerskates. You don’t feel the concrete on the ground. It’s a little slippery. I feel like he’s taken off the rollerskates. He’s not all the way there. He’s not all the way matured. He’s going to face more adversity. But he’s handled what adversity has come his way pretty darn well.” ‘Unlike Anything You Ever See’ Despite his junior college background, Misiorowski’s stuff was never a question. The velocity that “Miz” generated from his long levers was enough to convince the Brewers to spend a second-round pick in 2022 on the gangly right-hander from Crowder College, who would otherwise have been transferring to LSU for his junior season. In his first full pro season in Milwaukee’s system in 2023, Misiorowski jumped from Low-A to High-A to Double-A, combining to strike out 110 batters in 71.1 innings. Days before Misiorowski’s first Double-A start against the Montgomery Biscuits, his pitching coach, Will Schierholz, saw him throw in person for the first time. The first pitch of the bullpen session clocked in at 98 mph. Then Misiorowski spun a slider at 92. “We had some pretty good arms, some major league arms, on that staff, and you’re awestruck when you watch Miz throw up close for the first time,” Schierholz, who’s now a Brewers assistant pitching coordinator, told me. “It’s unlike anything you ever see.” In Misiorowski’s last three starts that season, he struck out 29 batters in just 14.2 innings. He’d spike curveballs into the dirt, and opponents would still chase. He’d fire fastballs three feet above the zone, and hitters would still helplessly offer. Many times, they were simply guessing as soon as the ball left his hand. “Every time he touched the mound, he knew hitters did not have a chance,” Schierholz said. “If he made his pitch, they didn’t have a chance.” The problem, however, was that Misiorowski often didn’t know where the ball was going. In five starts at Double-A that season, Misiorowski walked 16 batters and hit 11. “He was always ultra, ultra competitive, it just wasn’t always a consistent mindset on the mound when things maybe didn’t go his way,” Schierholz recalled. “So to see kind of where that’s gone over the last couple years here, to see him have that consistent mindset, calm and collected at all times, that’s come a long way since he came up to Biloxi in 2023.” As the strikeouts continued to rack up a year later, so did the free passes. Over 79.2 innings at Double-A in 2024, Misiorowski struck out 105 batters, walked 50 and plunked 10. When he was promoted to Triple-A that August, the Brewers put him in the bullpen, in part to limit his innings. He clearly had a big-league arm, but his lack of control threatened to make him a reliever long-term. “I think that was always in the back of everybody’s head, right?” Schierholz said. “Especially for a guy with that prolific stuff. Just in general, you don’t see starters have the stuff that he has. But I think the thing that always kept all of us optimistic is the arsenal’s deep. He didn’t have a big injury history, and he was still so young that we had time to make sure this played out in a positive way.” Misiorowski returned to starting at the beginning of the 2025 season at Triple-A. The control issues lingered, which was part of the reason he was MLB’s No. 68 overall prospect that year and not a top-10 talent. Over a five-start stretch, he struck out 38 batters in 30.2 innings with a 0.79 ERA. But then came four starts in which he combined for 12 walks over 14 innings. Still, despite Misiorowski’s volatility, depth issues in the Brewers’ big-league rotation spurred action. They called up the 23-year-old, who did not look overwhelmed by the promotion. After just five MLB starts, the last of which was a six-inning, 12-strikeout gem against Clayton Kershaw and the reigning champion Dodgers, Misiorowski was named an All-Star. Some scoffed at MLB’s decision, but he looked deserving of the honor when he threw a scoreless eighth inning in an eventual National League win. “He’s taken the game straight out of the firehose,” Brewers pitching coach Chris Hook told me. “It was a lot. I thought he did an incredible job for as much as was thrown at him.” But adversity beckoned, as it does so often for rookies. An Early Turning Point Opponents went from hitting .138 against Misiorowski in the first half to .257 in the second half. Lefties feasted on his slider, his strikeout rate declined, his control and command remained spotty, and the Brewers wanted to be cautious of his workload, considering he had never thrown even 100 innings in a professional season. Hook sensed Misiorowski was wearing down, both physically and mentally. “The intensity here is higher, and then you’re pitching more often,” Hook explained. “At the end of September, he felt it. It was a lot of strain.” After Misiorowski registered a 5.45 ERA in nine starts out of the break, he was moved to the bullpen at the end of the season. He didn’t like the way he was handling himself or how he handled getting hit around. So, he thought back to Wainwright. About the mindset. About letting go. Then, he rose to the occasion with the lights at their brightest. In a bulk relief role, Misiorowski recorded a 1.50 ERA over 12 playoff innings. His postseason ended with five innings of one-run ball at Dodger Stadium, where he struck out nine batters in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series. It wasn’t enough to lift his Brewers over the eventual back-to-back champs, but he looked at that moment as a turning point in his career. “I went through the struggles at the end of the year, and really was trying to battle through it,” Misiorowski said. “Then, postseason rolled around, had the success, and I kind of brought it into this year, still on that momentum.” He demonstrated his ability to control his emotions on baseball’s biggest stage. Then he focused on everything else within his control — his body, his arsenal, the strike zone — to ascend into a starting pitching marvel. “When you fail, and you’ve been one of the best pitchers on the planet and quickly one of the youngest All-Stars of all time, I’m sure that can take a toll on anybody,” Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold told me. “But he’s a mature kid. He’s grown up to be a man right in front of us, and he’s a guy that you want at the front of any rotation. He’s the best pitcher in the game, in my opinion.” Controlling His Body Over the offseason, Misiorowski went to work on building his slender frame, knowing he needed more force and stamina to hold up over the long haul of a season after last year’s dropoff. “It was definitely more lower-body focused,” he told me. “I wanted to get my legs as strong as possible. That’s where most of my power comes from.” He ended last year around 185 pounds. Crossing the 200-pound mark this winter was a milestone moment. He didn’t stop. He said he came into camp at around 215-220 pounds and is now around 210-215, a 30-pound increase from last year. He didn’t change his diet entirely, but he acknowledged there were fewer 3 a.m. visits to Taco Bell with his friends. “Eating well, eating better,” Misiorowski explained, “not crappy, like I was. Really working on finally maturing into my body.” Where does he see the weight helping most now? “The biggest is definitely stamina,” he said. “The effort isn’t max effort every time. You can still get to the 100s, and it’s an easier effort compared to last year when I was hitting 100 and it was full go.” Of all the improvements Misiorowski has made, it’s the velocity jump that stands out most to Schierholz, his old minor-league pitching coach. What Misiorowski is doing is unmatched and unprecedented. Prior to this season, the fastest average four-seamer for a qualified MLB starter over the course of a full season belonged to Noah Syndergaard at 98.9 mph in 2016. Misiorowski is averaging 100.6 mph this year, up more than a tick from a season ago. There have been 365 occasions of a starting pitcher crossing the 102-mph mark this season. The Pirates’ Bubba Chandler did it twice. So did Dodgers reliever Edgardo Henriquez, when he was used as an opener. The other 361 times are courtesy of Misiorowski, who has also eclipsed 103 mph 143 times, 104 mph 22 times and 105 mph once. A year ago, he threw just 22 pitches over 102 mph, including the postseason. “I think we try to lay out plans for the guys, but all the credit goes to him, the work that he put in,” Arnold said. “You gotta want to be great, and I think Miz is exactly that kind of kid. He knew what he needed to do to get better, and he did it himself.” And now, Misiorowski has a better idea of where his four-seamer is going — even if he’s not entirely sure why. Controlling The Zone Misiorowski’s fastball gets the highlights and acclaim, but arguably the most dramatic and important change Misiorowski made this year has nothing to do with his power. He has cut his walk rate down from 11% last year to 6.6% this year, the largest year-to-year drop among all qualified MLB starters. But he can’t explain how. “I honestly have no clue,” Misiorowski told me. “I wish I could tell you and help everyone out. I honestly have zero idea on how I’m doing it. It’s one of those things I’m looking at like, ‘That number ain’t right.’” Many of his teammates assumed he must be pounding the strike zone a lot more, but he’s actually in the zone less this year than he was last season. That might seem confusing, but his pitching coach has an explanation. “You can’t wait him out,” Hook said. “He’s throwing 105 [mph], and it’s like, ‘I gotta go if he’s throwing a strike.’” “It’s going to be hard to put the ball in play,” Arnold added, “so teams are probably wanting to be aggressive and see if they can hop on something.” It helps that Misiorowski is throwing a first-pitch strike 8% more this year than last year — also the largest year-to-year jump from any qualified starter this season. And it plays into Brewers closer Trevor Megill’s theory. “You make one pitch a strike on the corner, then the one off the corner by three inches looks like it’s closer than it is,” Megill told me. Misiorowski’s chase rate (35.2%) is up nearly 7% from last season. Meanwhile, his whiff rate (37.2%) is the highest among all qualified starters and is also up significantly from a year ago (29.7%) — again, that’s the biggest year-to-year jump for a starting pitcher in MLB. Misiorowski’s enhanced ability to harness his stuff has led to shorter innings, longer outings and even a game between him and his pitching coach. One time earlier this year, Misiorowski was coming off a 12-pitch frame when Hook issued a test. “I said, ‘Hey, can you make it a 10 next?’ He made it a 10,’” Hook recalled. “I said, ‘Can you make it a nine?’ We just like having those challenges inside the game.” Controlling His Arsenal Earlier this year, Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn watched Misiorowski’s fastball up close and followed up with a question. Why the hell are you throwing anything else? “It was funny,” Misiorowski recalled. “But on the flipside, I’m like, ‘I can’t just do that.’” In some ways, though, Misiorowski has heeded Wynn’s advice. His four-seam usage is up this year, and no starter in baseball throws their heater more. With a fastball that averages over 100 mph and is responsible for 163 of his MLB-leading 247 strikeouts, you can understand why. At the same time, Misiorowski is still adding to his repertoire. “It seems to me like he went home and said, ‘You know what, the postseason was fun, I want to get back there again, how can I be a great pitcher and not just a thrower?’” Wainwright said. “That is the nature of how great players mature. That’s the nature of how great players grow in the game. They don’t get comfortable in who they are. They don’t get stuck.” Last year, lefties hit .385 and righties hit .267 against Misiorowski’s slider, which averaged 5 mph slower than his four-seamer. The Brewers wanted to find another offering that would create more of a separation in velocity. So, Misiorowski added a slower slider with more depth to his arsenal this year, which righties are hitting .188 against. Meanwhile, he turned last year’s slider into his cutter, which lefties are hitting .089 against this season. “I’ve gotten a lot of strange looks, strange emotions, from it, just in the fact that the cutter’s kind of closer to the heater,” Misiorowski said. “You get some swings where some guys see the spin, and then they’re like, ‘Oh, shoot, it’s on me.’” In addition to his curveball and changeup, the new additions to his arsenal give opponents more to think about this season beyond his velocity. “He kind of does things on the fly a little bit,” Hook said. “I’m not saying he’s a lab kid, per se. He’s naturally gifted, and he’s like, ‘I’m going to do this,’ ‘I can do that,’ and he makes the adjustment.” Along with a lower walk rate, Misiorowski’s strikeout rate is up 6.2% from last season and is the highest in MLB. He won’t win the triple crown — Phillies ace Cristopher Sánchez has three more wins than him — but he leads the sport in both ERA and strikeouts, despite ranking 23rd in innings pitched. His triple-digit heat combined with better control and command certainly help, but so does the tweak in his repertoire. He’s also gaining a better feel for game-planning and why his catchers are calling for certain pitches in certain situations. “At the start of the year, we were definitely more, ‘Whatever you think, let’s just roll with it. You’re obviously seeing something that’s working,’” Misiorowski told me. “And it’s gotten to the point where it’s like, ‘OK, I’m kinda seeing it too. I understand where you’re going with this.” ‘This Guy Is Built For This’ More often than not, though, he relies on his catchers to help him navigate a game, as William Contreras did during his 15-strikeout, one-hit, complete-game shutout on 95 pitches against the Phillies in June. Contreras also helped Misiorowski work around trouble two months later, when the pitcher made his return to the mound at Dodger Stadium for the first time since the NLCS. A year ago, Misiorowski was stupefied watching Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman sign his jersey at the All-Star Game. In some ways, he’s still that wide-eyed kid, pinching himself about his new reality. “I don’t think that will ever get to a point where it’s just normal,” Misiorowski told me. Only now, he’s starting to gain the poise of the idols he grew up watching. The day before his start on Aug. 15, Misiorowski’s newfound confidence was on full display when he gave away his attack plan against Ohtani. “He knows what I’m going to do: I’m going to throw a heater,” Misiorowski vowed. “Good luck. Here it is.” Sure enough, he followed up on those words by attacking Ohtani with six straight fastballs in his first at-bat, all over 102 mph, to induce a popout. But it’s what Misiorowski did in his final at-bat against Ohtani that exemplified why he is so much more than the novice flamethrower he was a year ago. After three straight singles off Misiorowski in the fifth inning, Ohtani stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and one out. This time, at Contreras’ behest, Misiorowski switched it up. He got a swinging strike on a curveball, a called strike on a four-seamer, then sent Ohtani back to the dugout swinging through a slider. “He’s thinking more like a pitcher,” Contreras told me, “and not just wanting to throw hard.” One batter later, Misiorowski used the slider again to fool Freddie Freeman on a strikeout and escape the threat. He pumped his fist and let out a scream before returning to the dugout. As he attempts to follow Wainwright’s lead with his composure on the mound, he’s not losing himself in the process. “That part of his game hasn’t changed, which I’m happy to see,” Schierholz said. “That’s part of what makes him special, is the competitiveness and pitching with emotion, as long as he continues to rein it in and keep it in control.” The Brewers are counting on that as they rumble toward the best record in baseball for a second straight season, this time hoping their Cy Young favorite can help them author a new ending to their franchise’s winningest chapter. “Obviously, it’s a different animal when you get into October,” Misiorowski said. “But it’s going to be exciting, and I think we have a team that can make a run at it.” “This guy,” Hook added, “is built for this.”​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

Whether you like hearing this or not, here’s where we stand when it comes to the 138 teams that play in the so-called Football Subdivision: There are only four teams that appear to be without flaws. That is to say, among the teams still undefeated — Tulsa! — only a handful have beaten their early season opponents with such ferocity and blatant disregard that we must award them style points. Damn, Arkansas. Remember, my fellow sickos and curious casuals, that our sport is the only one in the world where we actually have serious debates about which team has the best loss and which team has the best win. We really are the tools of our own demise. In a sport where winning every game you play is only as good as the competition an athletic director and the conference home office will allow, scheduling is a bit like a 12-sided die roll. The cupcake on your schedule three years ago could turn out to be juggernaut Indiana by the time you actually play them. So we’re left to sort through the 400-plus games played so far and identify the early frontrunners to win the national title, based on our preconceived notions about how good a team — and a conference — should be at the start of Week 1 and how well those teams have met our expectations heading into Week 4. Yes, the previous sentence was a run-on. But I needed you to hold your breath reading it, underwater, to feel how hard this exercise is. And while I have come to the conclusions below, make no mistake: This list will change, and the debate will rage on for another 10 weeks. Here’s a look at my 2026 Ain’t Played Nobody rankings! Indiana, king in this here barren and cheaply held land of Ain’t Played Nobody, with such nauseating wins as North Texas, Howard and Western Kentucky. These are hardly the kind of teams the Hoosiers would have to play to defend their national title. However, Indiana didn’t play anybody in non-conference play in 2025, and that worked out just fine for the Hoosiers. Just ask Alabama. Add to that the fact that the Hoosiers have been devastating defensively over the last two games, pitching back-to-back shutouts, and suddenly there’s a little more substance behind the early-season résumé. On Friday, Indiana finally gets to play not just a Big Ten team, but an undefeated one in Northwestern. Perhaps the Wildcats can probe and identify a flaw in Curt Cignetti’s Hoosiers — one that might be readily apparent by the end of the game, even if Northwestern loses. The Hurricanes feel a lot like the Hoosiers: thin on teams to test them, thick on just how good they still might be. They haven’t kept the score close against any of their 2026 opponents, beating everybody by double digits. But those opponents have been about as much of a challenge for Mario Cristobal’s Canes as white Kleenex is to punch through with a flamethrower. Admittedly, it doesn’t get tougher for the Canes, who play Central Michigan on Saturday. But they’ll do it with not one, but two Heisman candidates on offense in quarterback Darian Mensah and wide receiver Malachi Toney. Mensah has been so accurate and so unbothered in the pocket that he’s thrown fewer incompletions (eight) — 71 of 79 passing this season — than touchdowns (11). Toney has amassed 444 receiving yards in just three games, and the defense hasn’t given up more than 20 points in a game this year. Their game against Notre Dame can’t come fast enough. The Fighting Irish look like one of the most balanced teams in the sport, with an offense that has rounded into one that can depend on its quarterback play to win games and a rushing attack that looks like it has recovered nicely from losing two first-round NFL Draft picks last season. Nothing about quarterback CJ Carr has led me to believe he can’t be as good this season as former Notre Dame star Riley Leonard was in 2024, when the Fighting Irish made their run to the national championship game. Defensive coordinator Chris Ash has put together a defense that has held Wisconsin, Rice and Michigan State to 13 points or fewer, but my eyes — like yours — are on their Nov. 7 date with Miami. The only team that looks like it could give Notre Dame trouble between now and then is BYU on Oct. 17. Still, it’s Notre Dame. And because it’s Notre Dame, we must remain vigilant: You never know when Northern Illinois is going to beat them — at home. Kirby Smart’s Dawgs are boring and devastating. Their scoring differential through three games is 178-40. They possess the SEC’s best scoring defense, they don’t bother to throw the ball unless they have to — and they’ve rarely had to — and, quiet as it’s kept, have won the last two SEC Championships. At this point in the season, they’ve not shown a weakness any team can readily exploit. Oklahoma no longer looks anything like a team capable of troubling the Dawgs, with a quarterback in John Mateer who is still too erratic in his play, an offensive line that can’t protect him and expectations that are out of reach for a program that hasn’t played for a national championship in nearly 20 years. Just Missed: Texas: The No. 1-ranked team in the AP Top 25 Poll is undefeated and has the best win in the sport — at home against previous AP No. 1-ranked Ohio State. However, the Longhorns needed to fight back from a 23-3 deficit to win that game by a single point and one egregious clock management class by OSU coach Ryan Day. Ohio State: The loss to Texas showed the biggest flaw the Buckeyes must address — not getting superstar Jeremiah Smith a single touch in the final 23 minutes of the game. What good is having John Stewart wielding the power of the Green Lantern on the perimeter if you don’t get him the ball in Winning Time? Ole Miss: Ole Miss is undefeated but also needed late — and quite amazing — play from Heisman frontrunner and quarterback Trinidad Chambliss to defeat not just a top-10 LSU team, but a top-25 Louisville team, too. The Rebels led LSU by 17 before giving up that lead and led the Cardinals by 14 before blowing that lead. It’s a team that can’t finish — yet. There’s football left to play. There are upsets coming, especially with six ranked matchups on the TV guide this Saturday. The “Ain’t Played Nobody” rankings aren’t likely to change this week, but their time is coming. For now, it’s tree-shaking time for the rest of the top 25. Let’s see who else falls out. Let’s see who else proves they can hang. Sooner or later, everybody gotta play somebody.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

Is Jayden Daniels in danger of following the fate of a cautionary quarterback tale? Is Dak Prescott on his way to winning his first NFL MVP Award? And speaking of QBs, is second-year Saint Tyler Shough already one of the NFL’s best at the position? NFL fans brought the heat with their takes to our @NFLonFOX Instagram after Week 2. I selected a handful of them to decide whether they’re on target or miss the mark. Let’s dive in: Fact or Fiction: Fiction I hate that we’re going down this road, but the comparisons between Daniels and former Commanders quarterback Robert Griffin III are inevitable at this point. After missing 10 games last season, Daniels is facing another extended absence after dislocating his left elbow for the second time in 10 months in Washington’s loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. To this point, a variety of injuries have prevented him from truly building off his historic 2024 rookie season. It’s all frighteningly similar to the trajectory of RGIII. Like Daniels, Griffin was a No. 2 overall pick by Washington and a dual-threat quarterback who won Offensive Rookie of the Year. Unfortunately, RGIII never built off his early success, in large part due to injuries. In Daniels’ case, injuries have slowed him ever more: Entering Week 3 of Year 3, Griffin had appeared in more games (30 regular-season appearances) than Daniels has (26). The only solace I can offer Commanders fans is this: Daniels’ story is still unfolding. This is how his career has started, but that doesn’t mean it will be how it ends. We don’t know how long he’ll be out with this latest elbow dislocation. We don’t know if he can stay healthy in his ensuing years. Through two weeks of Daniels’ third NFL season, we can’t define his career — even if we’re in the territory of catastrophizing. So I won’t compare Daniels to RGIII. Not yet. I will say, though, that this is setting up a fascinating offseason for the Commanders. As I outlined in my Best and Worst piece earlier this week, Daniels is extension eligible in 2027. How do the sides approach contract negotiations? Because of the injuries, will Washington and Daniels’ camp kick that can down the road? How do the Commanders approach getting insurance at the quarterback position? In Washington, there’s plenty in limbo. But let’s not paint a broad brush on Daniels’ story right now. Fact or Fiction: Fiction I can’t blame you for thinking that way. Prescott torched the Commanders’ defense in Week 2, completing 83.9% of his passes for 279 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. His 143.8 passer rating was the fourth-highest mark of his career and his best since Week 18 of 2022. Entering this season, monster numbers for Prescott felt inevitable, given that he was entering Year 2 with arguably the league’s best wide receiver tandem in CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens. Prescott started poorly in Week 1 against the Giants, but he bounced back big against the Commanders and confirmed our expectations of what he’s capable of this season. Still, I don’t see him winning the league MVP — and it has nothing to do with Prescott. Saying he’ll win MVP is not just saying that he’ll put up MVP-caliber numbers. It’s also saying that the Cowboys will finish as a top-two seed in the NFC. For context, 12 of the past 13 MVPs (all quarterbacks) led teams that finished the regular season in first or second place in their conference. The outlier in that group is 2025 MVP Matthew Stafford, whose Rams played in a division with two other teams that also won 12-plus games (Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers). And I don’t see the Cowboys being that good, even though I think they’ll make the playoffs this season. Dallas has legitimate issues running the football (just 135 rushing yards through two games), and its defense is too much of a wild card right now under first-year coordinator Christian Parker. Fact or Fiction: Fact Talk like this is warranted! For one, Brian Flores is the best coordinator in football right now. His blitz-heavy scheme held a Bears offense that had scored 59 points in Week 1 to three points (!) in Week 2. That’s the second-largest drop-off by any team from Week 1 to Week 2 in NFL history, according to Next Gen Stats. Caleb Williams’ injury midway through the fourth quarter doesn’t take away what Flores did to Chicago through the first three-and-a-half quarters, frustrating one of the NFL’s most potent offenses. And this was just a week after Flores wreaked similar havoc on the Packers’ talented offense. Quarterback Jordan Love was pressured on a career-high 50.0% of his dropbacks, per NGS. Don’t be surprised to look up at the end of the year and see that Minnesota has a top-five defense. These 2-0 Vikings become truly scary if Kyler Murray, returning from concussion protocol this week, can be just a competent quarterback for coach Kevin O’Connell. Minnesota already has impressive talent at the offensive skill positions — led by superstar wide receiver Justin Jefferson — and on the offensive line. Last season, the Vikings went 9-8 with essentially the same supporting cast despite below-average quarterback play from J.J. McCarthy, Carson Wentz and Max Brosmer. Minnesota doesn’t need Murray to be what Wentz was in relief in the season opener against Green Bay (12-of-19 for 133 yards, three touchdowns, a two-point conversion, 123.5 passer rating). But if Murray recaptures the Pro Bowl form from his early Arizona Cardinals days, all of sudden the Vikings will belong in the conversation with the top NFC contenders. Fact or Fiction: Fiction I’m a massive Tyler Shough fan. He’s leading the league in completions (62), first downs passing (30) and passing yards (662) through two weeks. He has the Saints looking like a contender to take the NFC South — they’re coming off an upset victory at Baltimore, where they scored 15 unanswered points to win. Given Giants QB Jaxson Dart’s knee injury and Titans QB Cam Ward’s uneven play, Shough is the one passer from the 2025 draft class positioned to be a true franchise quarterback right now. He’s a star in the making. With that said, he has a long way to go to becoming a truly elite quarterback. Elite quarterbacks can consistently put together great performances for full games. Shough still needs to show that he can play at a high level for one full game. Through two weeks this season, he’s been lights out in the fourth quarter and overtime — a 78.4% completion rate for 350 yards and four total touchdowns with no turnovers. But Shough has left much to be desired during the first three quarters — a 62.3% completion rate for 312 yards with no touchdowns and three giveaways, including two interceptions. Even if you want to look at Shough’s rookie year, the three games in which he had a 100-plus passer rating came against the Tennessee Titans and the Carolina Panthers (twice), both of whom were below .500 teams last season. We haven’t seen Shough play at a high level for four quarters against a great team yet. I think he’ll get there. Remember, he’s started just 11 NFL games so far. The late-game prowess tells you what he’s capable of. But he’s not elite right now.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

International soccer is back, and the World Cup stars are heading straight into a new World Cup cycle. The first international window since the World Cup is a three-week break in which countries can play up to four matches each, and most soccer leagues will not resume until Oct. 9. The Nations League competition begins Thursday, qualifying for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations starts, and several new national team coaches take charge of their team for the first time. Lionel Messi has one game left for Argentina, Cristiano Ronaldo is still in Portugal’s squad, and the U.S. and Mexico are using the window to give opportunities to teenagers. Messi announced his retirement from international soccer after the World Cup, and Argentina’s federation organized a farewell match for him on Oct. 6 against Benin in Buenos Aires. Arranging it took work. The federation had to find opponents willing to travel to Argentina and deal with a FIFA punishment for the behavior of fans and players at the World Cup, which limits Argentina’s first match of the window, and possibly the second, to half of a stadium’s capacity. Messi finished the World Cup with eight goals, did not score in Argentina’s last three games, and lost the final to Spain. He is expected to appear only in the Benin match. The two games before it, against Bolivia and Burkina Faso, will be the first look at Argentina without him. The question for Lionel Scaloni is who takes the No. 10 role? Portugal is the reigning Nations League champion and Cristiano Ronaldo, 41, is in Portugal’s squad for new coach Jorge Jesus’s first games, starting Thursday at home against Wales. New coach Jorge Jesus replaced Roberto Martínez and has kept most of the group that lost in the round of 16 at the World Cup. Portugal lost to eventual champion Spain in the World Cup. Ronaldo started at the World Cup, and some pundits have called for Portugal to move on from Ronaldo. He has scored three times for Al-Nassr this season. Ronaldo has 146 goals for Portugal, and is 21 short of his stated goal of 1,000 career goals. Portugal’s other two opponents in group play are Norway and Denmark, and the Norway matches put Ronaldo opposite Haaland twice, first in Norway on Sept. 27 and then in Portugal in early October. Spain is the team to beat as the Nations League begins, and its opener is a trip to Wembley on Saturday to face England in a repeat of the Euro 2024 final. Spain won the World Cup this summer by beating France in the semifinals and then beating Argentina 1-0 in extra time on a goal by Ferran Torres, and it conceded once in eight matches. The core of the squad has barely changed since Euro 2024, with World Cup golden ball winner Rodri, Marc Cucurella, Pau Cubarsí, and Barcelona standout Lamine Yamal still operating as the base of the team. The main risks are complacency and keeping Yamal content. The Barcelona forward arrived at the World Cup after a hamstring injury and has said he was not fully satisfied with how he played. England finished third at the World Cup, its best result in 60 years, but the squad will have some new faces, including Trent Alexander-Arnold and Cole Palmer, who many believed should have been at the World Cup. After Spain, England travels to Czechia and Croatia and closes the calendar with a home match against Czechia. Kylian Mbappé won the World Cup Golden Boot with 10 goals and became the first player to win the award at two World Cups. Mbappé also became the tournament’s all-time leading scorer with 22 goals. France opens the Nations League on Friday at Türkiye, the first match for Zinédine Zidane as coach. Mbappé remains captain, but he missed training Tuesday with flu-like symptoms and has not been ruled out. France plays four matches in 11 days: Türkiye, Belgium on Sept. 28, Italy on Oct. 2 and Belgium again on Oct. 5. Erling Haaland had an unforgettable summer in the States as he scored seven goals at his first World Cup, leading Norway to the quarterfinals for the first time before losing 2-1 to England in extra time. Haaland looks to lead Norway to more history as the nation now plays in the top division of the Nations League for the first time. It hosts Denmark on Thursday in Oslo and hosts Portugal on Sept. 27 before playing at Wales and at Portugal in early October. Haaland has 62 goals in 55 appearances for Norway and scored seven goals in his first seven games for Manchester City this season. Jürgen Klopp and Xavi Hernández both make their debuts on Thursday when Germany visits the Netherlands. Klopp is taking his first national team job after Germany’s exit in the round of 32 at the World Cup. He named an extended 44-man squad that will be split across two groups for this block of four matches. Hernández will have longtime Netherlands captain Virgin Van Djik, but has left off former national team regulars like Memphis Depay and Wout Weghorst from his first roster as the boss of the national team. France icon Zidane replaces Didier Deschamps, who coached France for 14 years and won the 2018 World Cup and runners-up in 2022. Zidane’s first 23-man squad includes five players earning their first and leaves out N’Golo Kanté. The opening matches include two Nations League catchups against Belgium, coached by Mark van Bommel, and one against Italy, coached by Roberto Mancini. Both teams who also under new management. Mexico’s Rafael Márquez debuts Saturday against Colombia in Baltimore. Mexico also plays Peru in New Jersey, the U.S. in Phoenix on Oct. 3 and Chile at the Rose Bowl on Oct. 6. Speaking of El Tri, the USA and Mexico meet Oct. 3 in Glendale, Arizona, looking toward the 2030 World Cup after co-hosting the previous edition of the tournament. Mauricio Pochettino, who signed a new contract through the next World Cup, left Christian Pulisic off the roster and named a group that has no one over 30, 12 players who could make their national team debut and seven teenagers. Pochettino has described the window as a different approach, since the World Cup is four years away, and it also looks toward the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. The U.S. plays Peru on Sept. 26 in Orlando, Chile on Sept. 29 in St. Louis, Mexico on Oct. 3 and Canada on Oct. 6 in St. Paul. 16-year-old wunderkind Cavan Sullivan is the name that stands out on Pochettino’s latest roster. The Philadelphia Union midfielder became the second-youngest American to receive a senior call-up after Freddy Adu, and has agreed to sign with Manchester City when he turns 18 and his teammate Mathis Albert is the other. The 17-year-old Dortmund winger became the youngest American to play in the Bundesliga at 16 years and 340 days and has the least senior experience in camp. Mexico has 11 players who are 23 or younger, including Gilberto Mora, who is 17 and the youngest in the group. Hugo Camberos is the 19-year-old Chivas winger receiving his first senior call-up. He and fellow Chivas teenager Santiago Sandoval combined for seven goal contributions as Mexico won the Concacaf under-20 championship in August and qualified for the 2028 Olympics, and both are regular starters for Chivas. Márquez was recently spotted at a Chivas training session and has called up six Chivahermanos in his first camp, coming off a summer where the Guadalajara-based club was the backbone of the national team with five players called up during the World Cup. The North American giants begin a new chapter this weekend.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports