Payton Pritchard did not win the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award for the 2024-25 season with his defense. But the University of Oregon native is aware that he still needs to get better on that side of the ball if he wants to become a bona fide starter in this league.
Pritchard spoke with the media after a camp practice this weekend, and his growth as a defensive player came up in the scrum. Specifically, what it has been like working on improving his defensive game for the season ahead, when Boston will lean on him harder than ever to be a positive defender. “I mean, it’s just competing at a really high level, especially in practice,” he explained. “I feel like for every person … defensively, you can impact the game in different ways.”
“So, how do you best impact the game?” the West Linn native asked. “You know, for me, it’s not going to be by like blocking shots necessarily and all that, but it can be from hands being active, stealing a pass, stuff like that.”
As to what that will look like for him, Pritchard replied that “it’s being more aggressive defensively, picking up more. I did it at times, but it’s more of a full-team effort to emphasize ball pressure, picking up full court, picking up the pace more.”
Sporting a scratch on his neck, Pritchard has embraced a new physicality with Boston. “It’s definitely been a war out there. I’m tired, but it’s good to push the body to these limits to get ready for the season.”
GRAND FORKS — After UND’s win last Saturday in the postgame locker room area on Northern Iowa’s campus, Fighting Hawks head coach quickly addressed his team’s focus.
UND snapped an eight-game road losing streak in dominant fashion against the Panthers, but Schmidt had his team thinking about Youngstown State quickly.
The Hawks, who rose two spots in the FCS Top 25 on Monday and now rank No. 13, kick off with the Penguins at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Alerus Center.
“I think that our guys are confident, and they understand what the work it takes in order to be a winning football team,” Schmidt said. “You’ve got to respect that every week. We have to be able to handle success, too. You go on the road and have a good result, but, man, that doesn’t change how we handle (Sunday).
“It doesn’t change how we start preparing on Monday and our coaches have got to do a great job of that because I think sometimes when you’re hurting it’s easy to come back and want to play better. When you have a positive result, maybe some things that you put on tape that aren’t sound, that shows up. That’s going to get exposed throughout the rest of the year. We have to go reset. We know we have a really good team coming to our place. You get to earn your way into big-time games at your place. I can’t wait to see our place. Saturday afternoon is going to be a great environment. It’s going to be a huge football game.”
UND lost in overtime at Youngstown State last season, missing a two-point conversion to win the game.
The Hawks improved to 3-2 with the win over UNI, while Youngstown State is the top team receiving votes just outside the Top 25.
The Penguins are also 3-2 after leading No. 2 South Dakota State 17-7 at halftime before falling 35-30 in Youngstown, Ohio.
“Even after a game like that, we got in the film room (Sunday), and there’s a lot to learn from and a lot to correct,” UND sophomore quarterback Jerry Kaminski said. “I think that’s the fun part about it. You put up 28 points on offense, and there’s so much to correct and there’s so much to get better at. I think it just makes you so much more excited for that next week. I think that’s what keeps us ready to go is just watching that film and knowing how much better we can play.”
UND offensive coordinator Isaac Fruechte wasn’t pleased with himself and the offense in third-down situations and red-zone time against the Panthers.
“The exciting thing is they’re still starving to get better,” Fruechte said. “We had a good day (Sunday) in terms of learning from the film and getting better, then working to apply what we’re doing. It’s awesome to have a leadership council that says, hey, we want to get more reps on a Sunday. It shows us some commitment and falling in love with the process.”
Miller has covered sports at the Grand Forks Herald since 2004 and was the state sportswriter of the year in 2019 (NSMA, NDAPSSA), 2022 (NSMA, NDAPSSA) and 2024 (NDAPSSA).
His primary beat is UND football but also reports on a variety of UND sports and local preps.
He can be reached at (701) 780-1121, tmiller@gfherald.com or on Twitter at @tommillergf.
Mike Vrabel didn’t shy away from calling the Patriots’ matchup with defending AFC East champion Buffalo a chance to gauge where they were at this point in the season.
New England’s response on the field — a 23-20 win over the previously undefeated Bills — underscored a confidence that the Patriots coach said he already had in a group that announced itself as a division contender after years of being out of the mix.
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This marks the first time since 2019 that the Patriots (3-2) have opened the season 2-0 in AFC East play.
“We talked about how we need to improve along the way, and this was the next step that we needed to take,” Vrabel said.
Those strides were evident all over the field.
Defensively, the Patriots kept Bills quarterback Josh Allen mostly in check while forcing three turnovers. Buffalo’s 20 points marked a season low.
Offensively, quarterback Drake Maye didn’t throw a touchdown pass but was 13 of 14 for 182 yards passing over the final 30 minutes of the game. His steadiness helped set up a pair of second half TD runs by Rhamondre Stevenson, along with kicker Anthony Borregales’ go-ahead field goal with 15 seconds left.
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It was also the first game-winning drive of Maye’s NFL career.
“I think it speaks volumes that we are taking steps in the right direction,” receiver Stefon Diggs said. “But don’t get too high or too low about it. It’s early in the season — second quarter of the season. We are trying to do some of the right things. We did some good things out there. Obviously, a lot of things to correct because we felt we left a lot of plays out there. But a win is a win.”
What’s working
The connection between Maye and Diggs is growing stronger with each game. Diggs pulled in 10 receptions for 146 yards against his former team. Maye’s longest pass of the game was in the third quarter when Maye scrambled and found Diggs for a 32-yard strike. Stevenson scored from 4 yards out on the next play to put New England in front 13-10 and the Patriots never trailed again.
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What needs help
Penalties continue to be an issue for this team. On Sunday, they had eight infractions, costing them 93 yards. For the season, New England’s total is up to 43, which is tied for the second-most in the NFL.
Stock up
Stevenson. His two TDs marked his first two scores of the season. It was also his first multi-touchdown game since he had two in last season’s Week 8 win over the Jets.
Stock down
As good as Stevenson was around the goal line, he also lost a fumble on a run early in the first quarter. It was his third of the season. But Vrabel said his belief in Stevenson still is strong.
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“I think Rhamondre is an excellent protector of the other people with the ball, whether that’s in blitz pickup or chasing the ball, being around it and doing all those little things,” Vrabel said. “So, I think it’s just a fine line of making decisions.”
Injuries
Vrabel didn’t have an immediate update on the status of running back Antonio Gibson after he left in the second quarter with a knee injury following a hit by Cam Lewis. But ESPN reported Monday that testing revealed a season-ending ACL tear for Gibson.
Key number
2019 — Prior to Diggs’ effort on Sunday, that was the last year that the Patriots had a receiver (Julian Edelman) post back-to-back 100-yard receiving games. Diggs also became the first Patriots player since Randy Moss to post at least 25 catches and 350 yards in their first five games with the team.
Carlos Ulberg ready to fight everyone to ‘shut up’ critics
Carlos Ulberg spoke to MMA Junkie and reporters backstage at UFC 320.
LAS VEGAS – Carlos Ulberg expects his next fight to be for the UFC light heavyweight title. However, he’s more than willing to continue to prove he’s the man for the job.
Ulberg, a top contender at 205 pounds, is not going to play the politics game and campaign for a shot at gold. He thinks his work speaks for itself, but should the UFC want him to further cement his claim at the belt, he has no problem doing so. Ulberg was present at Saturday’s UFC 320, which saw Alex Pereira reclaim his light heavyweight belt against Magomed Ankalaev in the main event of the card. The event also served as the scene for a violent KO from Jiri Prochzaka – who Ulberg would fight if he doesn’t get the shot at “Poatan.”
“They know what it is. They know who deserves the spot,” Ulberg said backstage, speaking to reporters at the T-Mobile Arena. “I definitely know that I’m next in the spot. I’ve earned my due, but I’m not going to call for anyone. I will fight anyone. If I have to, if I have to, just to prove to any of the critics or anyone in the division, anyone, I will fight Jiri or Khalil, whoever wins between the two. I’ll fight them just to make sure everyone can shut up, and I’m next.”
Ulberg hasn’t lost since getting stopped in his UFC debut back in 2021. He’s currently on a nine-fight winning streak, with his last win being a KO over former title challenger Dominick Reyes last month in Perth, Australia. The City Kickboxing product knew he’d one day be at the top of the game, and is not surprised by his recent success in MMA.
“I’ve always believed,” Ulberg said. “I got a lot of belief in myself. I’ve always had that belief that I was going to be in this spot. It’s always been there, and now that we’re here, I’m shining.”
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Emari Demercado was discussing a play from Sunday that will live in Arizona Cardinals infamy — his carelessness when he dropped the ball before crossing the goal line on a potential 72-yard touchdown run and sparked one of the worst collapses in franchise history.
He’s right. But there’s also no excuse for what happened over the entire second half as the Cardinals (2-3) coughed up a 21-6 lead and fell 22-21 to the previously winless Titans, a loss that changed the trajectory of the season and might have altered the job outlook of this coaching staff.
Demercado might be an easy villain to single out, but he was far from the only one.
There was a premature snap that hit quarterback Kyler Murray in the helmet and was recovered by the Titans. There was a comedy of errors on a play that began with an interception by the Cardinals, followed by a fumble and a loose ball getting kicked into the end zone, which led to the Titans closing the gap to 21-19 with 4:53 remaining.
There were defensive breakdowns in the secondary that allowed Calvin Ridley to get two big catches. There were head-scratching play calls late in the fourth quarter when the Cardinals needed one first down to escape with the win.
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It’s the kind of loss that is hard to shake. Especially since it was Arizona’s third last-second defeat in a row.
“That was bad all around,” Murray said. “It was bad.”
Coach Jonathan Gannon’s job appeared secure before the season, but losses like Sunday’s might change that. The third-year leader went 4-13 in his first year before improving to 8-9 last season. There was hope Arizona would make another jump this fall, but the early returns aren’t promising.
Gannon seemed to realize the gravity of the collapse.
“From staff, to the coaches to the players — to everybody in there, the clock is ticking,” Gannon said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a number one overall pick, a Pro Bowl safety, a third-year head coach, a first-year assistant. It doesn’t matter.
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“We have to do a better job and close out games.”
What’s working
Despite losing their top two running backs over the previous two weeks, Arizona’s run game was solid against Tennessee.
Demercado, Murray, Michael Carter and Bam Knight combined to rush for 168 yards. That’s a good sign for the Cardinals considering veteran James Conner (foot) is out for the season and backup Trey Benson (knee) will miss at least three more games.
What needs help
The offensive play-calling was questionable during the game’s final minutes. Arizona was leading 21-19 and needed one first down to close it out, but coordinator Drew Petzing called three straight running plays for Carter that gained a total of 2 yards.
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Considering Murray is a franchise quarterback making roughly $45 million this year, it might be good to let him have a crack at getting the first down. Gannon has been supportive of Petzing during the skid, but the coordinator’s conservative approach hasn’t been working.
Stock up
Much-criticized WR Marvin Harrison Jr. had one of his best games this season, catching four passes for 98 yards, including a tough 43-yard grab over two Titans defenders that set up the Cardinals’ first touchdown.
Stock down
Gannon has been well-liked and well-respected during his two-plus seasons in Arizona, but his leadership will be tested in the coming weeks. Now only are the Cardinals losing, but they’ve been extremely sloppy. Owner Michael Bidwill spent a lot of money upgrading the roster during the offseason — mostly on defense — and can’t be happy with the results. There were loud boos from the home crowd throughout the fourth-quarter collapse.
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Injuries
TE Tip Reiman was carted off with an ankle injury in the third quarter and didn’t return. Reiman doesn’t catch many passes, but is instrumental in the running game. LB Cody Simon (concussion) also left and didn’t return.
Key number
3 — The Cardinals have lost three straight games on the final play of regulation, which is the first time that’s happened in NFL history, according to Sportradar.
Next steps
It doesn’t get any easier for the Cardinals, who visit Indianapolis on Sunday. The Colts (4-1) just whipped the Raiders 40-6.
Bill Belichick and the unaccountable band of cronies and flunkies that followed him to North Carolina have failed to grasp one fundamental principle of college sports.
Even for the most successful coach in the history of the NFL, the program and the players always come first.
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That means you don’t bring the petty feuds that followed you from the New England Patriots into the building. It means you don’t fly off to Nantucket with your girlfriend during the bye week when your team is failing on practically every front. It means that when you gut a roster from the previous regime to bring in your own people, you better actually upgrade the talent instead of throwing darts at the transfer portal like it doesn’t matter because you don’t believe the competition is worthy of trading X for O with your genius.
Belichick has failed on every account because those around him either don’t understand the job or don’t take it seriously, and as a result they have reached the midway point of the season as one of the biggest laughingstocks in the recent history of the sport.
Sure, North Carolina fans and boosters were fired up when Belichick arrived last December to begin a unique experiment that had the potential to work if done correctly. But interpreting that excitement as a mandate to replace with Tar Heel brand with Belichick, his various trademarks and Jordon Hudson’s film projects is a fundamental misreading of the job he took.
Bill, here’s some free advice: At North Carolina, they don’t care about you enough to put up with all this.
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You’re not one of them. They merely hired you to do a job. And if you don’t want to do it, rest assured they will find someone else who will.
Maybe Monday’s kerfuffle will be a wake-up call.
UNC coach Bill Belichick and the Tar Heels are off to a rocky start this season. (Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
(Julio Aguilar via Getty Images)
It started with a social media post from Inside Carolina, which claimed — citing anonymous sources — that North Carolina’s official accounts had not promoted anything about former Tar Heel quarterback Drake Maye’s fantastic performance Sunday night because the social media staff was under a directive not to post anything related to the Patriots.
It’s a believable story for two reasons. For one, North Carolina’s official account on X/Twitter posted video of Maye’s highlights after the Inside Carolina story started blowing up. And secondly, Belichick admitted a couple weeks ago that Patriots scouts were not allowed in North Carolina’s building.
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“It’s clear I’m not welcome there around their facility,” he told reporters. “And so they’re not welcome at ours. It’s pretty simple.”
There has rarely been a clearer example of a college coach publicly and proudly putting his own ego ahead of his players’ interests. There are only 32 NFL teams. How does it serve the players or the program to ban one of them from practice because the head coach has a grudge against an NFL owner that fired him?
But this kind of over-the-top arrogance isn’t a one-off. It’s been the attitude around North Carolina since they got there.
Here’s another example. Back in March, several reporters trekked to Chapel Hill — including this one — for North Carolina’s first pro day under Belichick. The reason was simple: For decades, new coaches have used pro days as an opportunity to generate media attention during a lull in the calendar and to publicly show support for players who are ostensibly going to represent your program in the NFL.
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It’s perhaps a small thing, but it’s just part of what you do as a college coach to connect past with future, to deepen relationships and to show you care about guys who wore the uniform even if you didn’t coach them.
Belichick never showed his face even for a minute. Nor did Mike Lombardi, the Tar Heels’ general manager.
The explanation from UNC officials who were there? Those were Mack Brown’s guys. Belichick and Lombardi were busy trying to put together their team.
Given that North Carolina has lost to its three power conference opponents by an average of 29 points, just imagine how much worse things might be if Belichick had taken 45 minutes out of one day in the spring to demonstrate publicly that he cared about the entire program rather than just himself.
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Then again, maybe we shouldn’t have expected these guys to understand what’s important in college football when they’ve spent every day since demonstrating clearly that they do not.
UNC coach Bill Belichick’s girlfriend Jordon Hudson has been a fixture on the sidelines of Tar Heels games this season. (Lance King/Getty Images)
(Lance King via Getty Images)
Here’s what Belichick doesn’t seem to get: North Carolina fans cared about that program long before he got there and will care long after he’s gone. They own it. He is simply passing through.
So when Drake Maye is the talk of the country for winning an NFL game, you can either use that to promote the college program he played for or resist it because the current jersey he’s wearing is inconvenient to the head coach’s interests.
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And when you see something like that and realize how narrowly Belichick and his inner circle view the job they have, all their other mistakes make perfect sense.
Making Steve Belichick the defensive coordinator and Brian Belichick the defensive backs coach? Good for the Belichicks, bad for North Carolina.
Making Matt Lombardi the quarterbacks coach? Good for the Lombardis, bad for North Carolina.
Having Hudson on the field for pre-game warmups where everyone can snap pictures of her? Good for Hudson, bad for North Carolina.
Going on a promotional tour for Belichick’s book this past summer? Good for Belichick, his literary agent and the never-ending content machine, but how did any of that help North Carolina land a recruit?
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Skipping town during the bye week after getting blown out by UCF only for photographers to catch Belichick and Hudson holding hands on the boardwalk in Nantucket? Unnecessary, unprofessional and wholly unserious.
If Belichick wants to treat this job like the NFL, he and his staff need to recruit players who are talented enough to get there — period.
The genius act doesn’t work in college football. It never has and never will. Nobody understood that better than Nick Saban, who famously asked former athletics director Mal Moore on the flight from Miami to Tuscaloosa whether he thought Alabama had just hired the best coach in the country.
When Moore said yes, Saban immediately corrected him.
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“Well, you didn’t – I’m nothing without my players,” Saban said, according to a 2015 biography by Monte Burke. “But you did just hire a helluva recruiter.”
This is a talent procurement game, and every bit of effort that is not deployed in the service of getting great players to North Carolina makes Belichick’s résumé irrelevant and diminishes his legacy as a coach.
At some point before it’s too late, somebody in Chapel Hill needs to knock on his door and make that crystal clear.
So far, every moment of the Belichick experience has been about him, his girlfriend, his family and his friends. That’s not going to work.
It can only be about the players and the program. And if Belichick doesn’t understand that, it won’t be his to captain for very long.
The Cincinnati Bengals have a major question mark at the most important position in the NFL.
Following the injury to Joe Burrow, which will keep him out until at least mid-December, the team has been relying on Jake Browning, who has been nothing short of horrible over the last three weeks.
Just days after giving Browning his “unwavering” support, Bengals head coach Zac Taylor quickly changed his tune on the signal-caller after his putrid Week 5 performance and left the door for a change at the position.
“After a game like that, we’re going to look at all personnel to make sure we’re doing the right thing,” Taylor said about Browning moving forward, per ESPN’s Ben Baby. “I won’t shy away from that because it’s a very fair question after the amount of turnovers that we had.”
So, when can we expect a decision to be made for Week 6?
Well, Taylor said on Monday that he is anticipating a decision being made by the time the team takes the practice field on Wednesday, according to The Athletic’s Paul Dehner Jr.
“Taylor said he expects to have the QB vs Green Bay established by the time they take the practice field on Wednesday,” Dehner Jr. reported.
If Browning doesn’t start, the Bengals will have to choose between Brett Rypien, Mike White and Sean Clifford, none of whom are guaranteed to be better than Browning.
However, the team has to try and do something because clearly the current situation is not working out.
The team should also explore a trade for guys like Russell Wilson, Kirk Cousins, Jameis Winston and Joe Flacco, but it remains to be seen if that will happen.
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Green Bay Packers wide receiver Christian Watson has returned to practice as he moves a step closer to playing again after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament nine months ago.
“I’ve got to knock a little bit of rust off, obviously,” Watson said after Monday’s practice. “Been a while since I was able to go out there and play football.”
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Watson tore his right ACL on Jan. 5 during the Packers’ 24-22 loss to Chicago that closed their 2024 regular season. The Packers placed him on the physically unable to perform list before this season.
His return to practice starts a 21-day window before the Packers must activate him in order for him to play this year.
“I haven’t really taken a day off since my surgery,” Watson said. “I mean, it’s just been a long road. I’ve just trusted in my doctors and my team back home and trusting in the training room as well and just getting after it.”
Watson, a 2022 second-round pick from North Dakota State, has 98 career catches for 1,653 yards and 14 touchdowns. He also has two career touchdown runs.
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He had 29 receptions for 620 yards and two touchdowns last season.
The 26-year-old Watson expressed confidence Monday about the condition of his knee.
“My trust and confidence in the knee is honestly 100%,” he said. “I’ve tried to remove any doubt or negative thoughts about it, just trusting the work that I put in and understand the things that I did today, I’ve done them thousands of times at this point.”
The Packers (2-1-1) return from a bye week to host the Cincinnati Bengals (2-3) on Sunday.
The No. 9 Georgia Bulldogs are scheduled to host the No. 4 Ole Miss Rebels in Week 8 of the 2025 college football season. Georgia (4-1, 2-1 SEC) plays at Auburn the week before playing Ole Miss. The Rebels (5-0, 3-0 SEC) play a nonconference game against Washington State on Saturday and have already been preparing to play Georgia.
Georgia missed out on having a night game against Mississippi. Instead, Georgia will host the Rebels at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Oct. 18. The Georgia-Ole Miss game will be televised on ABC, who opted to give the Alabama-Tennessee game the night slot.
Georgia lost 28-10 at Mississippi last season and is looking to bounce back in 2025. The Bulldogs dominated Ole Miss at home during the 2023 season when Georgia won 52-17.
Georgia coach Kirby Smart is 1-2 in his Georgia career against Mississippi including 1-1 during the Lane Kiffin era. Georgia leads the all-time series 33-14-1 against Mississippi. The Bulldogs have won eight of the last 10 meetings between the two schools.
TV, kickoff time for Ole Miss at Georgia
TV channel: ABC
Date: Saturday, Oct. 18
Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
Location: Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia
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It was clear before kickoff that there was something different about the New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills’ Sunday Night Football game.
There were plenty of spotlight-worthy headlines entering the game—Drake Maye’s primetime debut, Stefon Diggs’ return to Buffalo, the Bills’ stranglehold over the AFC East and the Patriots’ inability to string together back-to-back wins since the 2022 season.
And yet, nothing encapsulated it more than Diggs’ impassioned pregame speech to the team at Orchard Park.
“Lean on your brother. Play for your brother. We all we got, we all we [expletive] need,” Diggs told his teammates. “Play hard, play smart. Offense, let’s go be us. Defense, special teams—if it don’t got a blue jersey on, hit that [expletive]!”
The Patriots clearly responded in a big way by going on to upset the Bills on the road in a stunning 23-20 victory.
Diggs led the charge by hauling in 10 receptions for 146 yards against his former team. It was a statement performance for a Patriots team that went from a perennial contender to an AFC East punching bag. There is still plenty of room for growth, but this is no longer the doormat team from recent years.
