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The Pittsburgh Steelers have their first winning streak of the 2025 season after taking care of business against the Minnesota Vikings in Dublin on Sunday.

While it certainly wasn’t pretty, the Steelers might have played their most complete game of the campaign, as the pass-rush was all over Carson Wentz and the offense did just enough to seal the deal thanks to big days from DK Metcalf and Kenneth Gainwell, both of whom lent a big helping hand to Aaron Rodgers.

Sitting at 3-1 entering Week 5, the Steelers are in the driver’s seat in the AFC North early as the rest of the division is in total disarray.

The Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns are both 1-3, and the Ravens are now dealing with a Lamar Jackson injury and have countless others up and down the roster.

Meanwhile, the Bengals are 2-1 going into Monday night but won’t have Joe Burrow until at least December with his Grade 3 turf toe.

But there’s still a long way to go and for now we want to see if any experts have the Steelers cracking the top 10 in their NFL power rankings going into Week 5.

NFL power rankings Week 5

Vinnie Iyer, Sporting News: 9 (+4)

Iyer: “The Steelers’ defense erupted in Dublin with the pass rush raising to new needed heights. Aaron Rodgers and the offensive drama isn’t there; just results.”

Matt Johnson, Sportsnaut: 11 (+7)

Johnson: “Some questionable decisions from Mike Tomlin nearly proved costly for the Pittsburgh Steelers in Dublin, but they still came out of Week 4 with a win. Pittsburgh’s defense still has some real issues defending the pass, but this pass rush has 11 sacks in the last two games and that has correlated to one of the highest takeaway rates in the NFL. It’s also become a more balanced team, with Kenneth Gainwell running well and Aaron Rodgers playing efficient football. Riding a two-game win streak into the bye, the Steelers are starting to look like a playoff-caliber team again.”

Taylor Wirth, NBC Sports: 10 (+16)

Wirth: “DK Metcalf finally had his welcome-to-Pittsburgh moment. But in Dublin, Ireland. Any concerns about the defense have been quelled for now.”

Sayre Bedinger, NFL Spin Zone: 13

Bedinger: “The Steelers didn’t go over to Dublin on Aaron Rodgers’ preferred timeline, but they did get a timely big performance from Rodgers and the offense as they came away with a tight win against Carson Wentz and the Vikings. And frankly, the Steelers aren’t going to scoff at getting a little bit of help from Wentz. They’re now 3-1 and well on their way to Mike Tomlin’s inevitable 9 or 10 wins this season, but they obviously have some issues. When you’re on the brink against a team being led by its backup quarterback, and a guy who hasn’t started much in the last couple of seasons, you’ve got to plan on playing in tight games pretty much every week.”

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The bond between Marc Marquez and Mick Doohan was forged out of two seemingly opposing forces: success and pain. Perhaps for that very reason, Marquez turned to the Australian’s advice when he found himself at his lowest, when the injury to his right arm – one that required four surgeries – brought him to the brink of retirement.

Until that crash at Jerez in 2020, Marquez had been on a meteoric trajectory: both in that race, where he stormed back from last to second, and in his career overall, with six titles in seven years. The fall from such heights was abrupt and brutal, and for Marquez, nearly incomprehensible.

It was precisely because of this that he sought answers from someone who had endured something similar and had found a way out. Few voices could carry more weight in that regard than Doohan’s. More than 30 years earlier, he had faced a comparable ordeal – and emerged from it every bit as strong as Marquez has today.

“Marc and I spoke several times during that recovery period. There aren’t many people in the world you can have those kinds of conversations with, because not many of us have gone through that sort of situation. That’s what surely helped him,” Doohan recalled over the phone with Motorsport.com.

In 1992, as Honda’s spearhead, the Gold Coast rider was leading the 500cc world championship after winning five of the first seven races and finishing second in the other two. That streak ended abruptly in Assen, where a crash nearly forced doctors to amputate his left leg. From that fall in the Netherlands until he finally celebrated the first of five consecutive world titles (1994–1998), his life was defined by pain and sacrifice – two concepts Marquez knows all too well.

“There are many similarities with my case, because I was also dominating before I crashed at Assen. It also took me several years to recover. The drive that has pushed Marc to give everything is the desire to keep racing, the same as mine. Marc had unfinished business, and nothing motivates more than that to empty yourself completely,” added the five-time world champion, now focused on supporting his son Jack, who raced for Alpine in Formula 1 before moving back to a reserve driver role mid-season.

Race winner Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team, Mick Doohan

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

In Doohan’s words, there are echoes of both resignation and strength. Resignation, because pain was unavoidable; strength, because from that trauma came the fuel that powered his comeback. What for most would have been the end became, for Marquez and Doohan alike, a chance to rewrite history.

“Mentally, what Marc has achieved shows just how strong he is. So many injuries and so many operations take you to the deepest part of yourself, as an individual. All the effort behind what he has done explains why he’s such a humble guy,” the former Honda star underlined.

The parallels between them – separated by three decades yet bound by the same wound – tell a story of survival that transcends motorcycling. Doohan and Marquez share the fate of riders who once had everything, lost it in an instant, and somehow found the strength to reinvent themselves without betraying the essence that made them legends.

“This title will be especially rewarding for Marc, above all because he came close to retiring. The time he spent injured felt endless and incredibly hard. But I am sure that now, looking back, he sees it as a period that was worth enduring,” Doohan concluded.

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Depending on what side of the fence you stand on regarding this season, it’s either a must win game on Monday night for the Jets against the Miami Dolphins or just another in yet another rebuilding season under Aaron Glenn.

The Jets have shown some toughness and played with some passion early in the year, but they’re still very much a work in progress as they make the same careless mistakes and have yet to shed the old habits that have plagued them under previous coaching regimes. Whether it’s bad penalties or poor tackling, we can argue that had the Jets cleaned up these issues sooner, we would be talking about a team that is potentially 2-1 instead of 0-3.

It’s been mostly the same culprits each and every week that have hurt this team at the worst times. Fans and writers are calling for Glenn to make some changes and cut players as quickly as he did Xavier Gipson. If the Jets lose to the Dolphins on Monday night and fall to 0-4, will it be time to make some changes to the starting lineup?

Here are five Jets who could be on borrowed time with another poor performance in Week 4:

Brandon Stephens

The coaching staff is doing the best they can to defend Stephens, but everyone can see right through it.  He’s been awful and it’s fair for the team to continue receiving the criticism for giving him a $36 million contract in free agency.  His tackling has been poor, he takes awful angles and his effort on the James Cook touchdown in Week 2 probably used up any good will Stephens may have had with Jets Nation.  

With that being said, the Jets didn’t pay him that much money in free agency to sit on the bench after only four games into the season. GM Darren Mougey moved quickly after last week’s loss to the Buccaneers, acquiring Titans cornerback Jarvis Brownlee, Jr. for a draft pick swap. Mougey and Glenn are sending a message that they’ve grown tired of his struggles. It’s doubtful he will be benched, but a move to safety is the most likely outcome to replace….

Andre Cisco

This was a low-risk, high reward signing the Jets made after Cisco struggled last season with the Jaguars. You would figure that a player who is from New York and grew up a Jets fan would play much better for his childhood team, even after signing a one year, prove-it contract  But, Cisco has frustrated many with his poor coverage as well as poor tackling. While he has a PFF grade of 70.5, ranking him 41st out of 124 safeties, opposing quarterbacks have a passer rating of 116.7 and he allows an average of 18.3 yards per reception, ninth worst in the league.

The plan was to groom rookie Malachi Moore to take over either later in this season or in 2026. Due to the poor play of Cisco as well as Tony Adams, Moore now has to grow up quickly as he could be playing a bigger role in this Jets secondary sooner than expected. He played well in a small window in Week 3 against Tampa. Another disappointing week for Cisco and Moore could be the new starting safety when the Jets return home in Week 5 against the Cowboys.

Arian Smith

It’s tough to crush a rookie so early in his career, especially when he was selected in the fourth round, but after an impressive training camp and some good work in preseason games, Smith has looked completely overmatched.  He has blazing speed, which is what the Jets loved about him, but they also haven’t used that speed to their advantage on offense either. Frustrating matters worse is seeing receivers selected after Smith such as Titans rookie Elic Anomayor off to a better start.

Smith has contributed very little to the offense in three games with only 10 yards on three receptions. He’s had some drops and had an offsides penalty for not standing behind the line of scrimmage….on offense!  The Jets did not make any significant moves to improve at wide receiver, electing to sign fringe players like Josh Reynolds and Tyler Johnson, hoping to tap into their potential. Reynolds has missed two games with a hamstring injury, but should be back in Week 4. Johnson, like Smith, has contributed very little on offense this year.

It’s been about as rough of a start to a career that you can have for Smith.  But, he’s only played in three NFL games as a rookie so it’s more forgivable for him to go through these struggles.  Despite the slow start, expect him to get plenty of reps as the season progresses to hopefully move up the depth chart.

Micheal Clemons

Aaron Glenn is right.  Clemons looks the part of a pass rusher.  The problem is he’s simply not smart enough to find ways to get the upper hand on the opposition without getting penalized.  He humiliates the defense each and every week with a personal foul penalty and the clip of him getting completely manhandled by Bucs tight end Cade Otton, who is 20 pounds lighter than him, that led to the game winning field goal for Tampa Bay in Week 3 should be enough to release him.

Anyone is better than Clemons at this stage and even if there is no one currently on the Jets roster ready to replace him, it’s still addition by subtraction if they cut him.  Jermaine Johnson is still dealing with an injury and won’t play in Week 4 and that’s probably the only reason Clemons is still on this roster. At this stage, it would be better to roll the dice on Braiden MacGregor, Eric Watts or rookie Tyler Baron than trust Clemons in a big spot.

Steve Wilks

This is most likely not going to happen, but the Jets defense has looked abysmal in their first three games under Wilks. They’ve yet to force a turnover which is an all-too familiar trend with any Jets defense.  His blitz heavy scheme has only produced six sacks and the defense is allowing over 340 yards per game.  It’s not entirely his fault as players who thrived under Robert Saleh like Jamien Sherwood and Michael Carter II have really struggled out of the gate. Injuries to Johnson, Quincy Williams and Marcelino McCrary-Ball are not helping matters either.

Wilks will get all the time in the world to get the defense playing well.  But, at the same time, Glenn may not have patience for anymore poor play.  They were embarrassed by James Cook and the Buffalo Bills in Week 2 and Aaron Rodgers torched the defense for four touchdowns in Week 1. They were less than two minutes away from their first win last week, but the Buccaneers got down the field quickly and beat the Jets on a game-winning field goal as time expired. The Jets next five opponents all have losing records.  If his defense is going to start showing some signs of life, this is the week to do it.

Max Verstappen was victorious in his first GT3 race at the Nurburgring on Saturday to cap off a sensational month of triumphs for the F1 star.

After obtaining his A-licence a fortnight ago to race the infamous 12.94-mile Nordschleife circuit, known as “The Green Hell”, Verstappen teamed up with British 22-year-old driver Chris Lulham to compete in the four-hour NLS (Nurburgring Langstrecken-Serie) race on Saturday.

Verstappen and Lulham qualified in third, but the Dutchman took the lead at the start before opening up an astonishing one-minute lead on the rest of the 100-plus field.

Lulham, who races for Verstappen’s team in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup as well as the Dutchman’s sim racing outfit, Team Redline, then took over and sealed the win by 24 seconds.

It concludes a remarkable September for four-time F1 world champion Verstappen who, alongside his Nurburgring exploits, won grands prix in Italy and Azerbaijan and now only trails F1 championship leader Oscar Piastri by 69 points with seven races to go.

“The first two stints went really well, the car worked perfectly in the dry,” said a delighted Verstappen, after the race on Saturday.

“We had a bit of bad luck in qualifying, but in the race everything with the traffic worked out fine. I think I didn’t make any major mistakes in those two stints. And to win here on my very first attempt, that’s just fantastic.”

Verstappen, 27, drove a Ferrari 296 GT3 and impressed throughout the weekend, also setting the fastest lap of the race by more than

The Dutchman could seek a place at the prestigious 24 Hours of Nurburgring event next year (16-17 May), particularly given it falls on a weekend with no F1 race, in between grands prix in Miami and Canada, and the Red Bull F1 driver refused to rule out competing in the event.

“Of course, I would really like to compete in the 24 Hours at some point,” Verstappen said on Saturday. “If it happens next year, I’ll say so – but we still need more experience. That’s the way it is, so hopefully we’ll do more races here next year.

“For me, it’s very important to be able to do those things [outside F1]. Of course, how much I can do during an F1 season is a bit tricky. Also, next year, new regulations, it’s already hard enough in Formula 1, but yeah, we’ll just see how everything goes.

“It depends on how next season goes with the new rules. It’s impossible to say now if I can compete in other things outside of that.”

Verstappen will next be in action in Formula 1 at the Singapore Grand Prix – a race he has never won – this weekend.

The Jonathan Kuminga saga has reached its inflection point, and it’s playing out exactly as anyone who’s watched his three-plus years in Golden State could’ve predicted. Here’s a young wing with undeniable physical tools—explosive athleticism, defensive versatility, the kind of raw power that makes highlight reels—stuck in contract purgatory because neither side can agree on what he’s actually worth.

The Warriors have put three offers on the table: two years at $45 million, three years at $75.2 million, or three years at $54 million without the team option Kuminga desperately wants to avoid. That team option is the sticking point. From Golden State’s perspective, it’s insurance on a player whose feel for their intricate offensive system remains stubbornly inconsistent. From Kuminga’s camp, those team options feel like a vote of no confidence after “years of confusion about his role” under Steve Kerr. So he’s not showing up to media day, and if nothing changes by Wednesday night, he might just sign that $7.9 million qualifying offer and bet on himself for unrestricted free agency next summer—the nuclear option that would leave everyone worse off.

What makes this particularly brutal is that the basketball tells us everything we need to know. Coach Nick’s breakdown on BBall Breakdown isn’t just some random YouTube video. It’s a damning forensic analysis of why Kuminga’s athleticism hasn’t translated into consistent winning within the Warriors’ sophisticated ecosystem. The cuts come late, the reads come slow, the chemistry with Steph and Draymond feels perpetually out of sync. You can have all the bounce in the world, but if you can’t process the game at Warriors speed, you’re a luxury item on a team that needs functional parts.

Apparently Golden State isn’t trying to lowball him out of spite; they’re trying to protect themselves from paying starter money to a player who hasn’t proven he can consistently execute their high-IQ system. And Kuminga? He’s betting that somewhere else—maybe Phoenix in those stalled sign-and-trade talks, maybe Sacramento—will see the raw materials and believe they can unlock what Steve Kerr hasn’t. It’s the classic standoff between potential and production, and right now, neither side is blinking.

And to be honest I had been avoiding watching this BBall Breakdown video. Not because I don’t like the channel; I LOVE Coach Nick’s breakdowns. He and Eric Apricot have helped mold my brain to learn more about the game that I love. That and dominating in NBA 2k for 20 years.

So I’ve really tried to keep up with Coach Nick’s stuff to admire his basketball genius and learn more about the nuance of the NBA game. This classic video here during the Death Lineup era when the Warriors employed Kevin Durant and ran roughshod through the league in brutally entertaining fashion.

So now this basketball mind is taking the scalpel to the Kuminga experiment, and it’s lowkey grim folks. I STILL BELIEVE THOUGH! He just needs more time! IN THEORY.

The Packers botched the clock management in overtime, costing themselves a chance at a win and nearly costing them a tie.

As it was, they left unsatisfied after settling for a red-zone field goal by Brandon McManus on the final play of overtime in a 40-40 tie with the Cowboys. It was the highest-scoring tie since the merger in 1970.

“It’s just one of those situations where the operation right there just too long,” Packers quarterback Jordan Love said. “We were wasting too much time right there. That’s really it.”

The Packers trailed by a field goal in overtime and were looking for a touchdown to win it. They reached the Dallas 25 with 1:15 left in overtime, the Dallas 19 with 52 seconds left, the Dallas 12 with 32 seconds left and called a timeout.

They got only two plays off after that, before the field goal, and had only one shot into the end zone, and it was not a good shot.

“We moved the ball well,” Love said. “Obviously, the sad part is we didn’t get to take any shots to the end zone until that last play. I think we had a good play called, and they didn’t play the way they were going to play, like they had defended the play before that.

“I think there’s a lot of stuff we still have to clean up. Just throwing the ball in bounds in a running-clock situation right there. There is stuff that we’ve got to figure out and be better at right there in those situations.”

The Packers called their only overtime timeout with 28 seconds left after Trevon Diggs tackled Matthew Golden for a 3-yard loss.

“Obviously the play call sucked,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said.

After the timeout, on second-and-13 from the 15, Love checked the ball down to Emanuel Wilson after the Cowboys didn’t give them the same look they did on the previous play and instead played Cover 2. Wilson lost a yard, and the Packers were slow getting back to the line.

They snapped the ball with six seconds left, had no real shot at a touchdown and left only one second on the clock after the incompletion landed. It was nearly a disaster.

“The operation was just way too slow,” LaFleur said. “I don’t know if our guys didn’t know we were in two-minute or what. But ultimately, the communication has got to get better. . . . That’s the bottom line.”

A tie? A tie.

The NFL’s first tie in nearly three years belongs to the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers, and the result might feel a bit empty for those who watched what was an exhilarating game. 

Sunday night’s contest began with all eyes on Micah Parsons exactly one month after he was traded from Dallas to Green Bay, but Parsons just wasn’t much of a factor in regulation. A relentless player, Parsons’ breakthrough seemed inevitable — and it came in overtime, where he changed the game with one play.

Here’s what you need to know about the “Sunday Night Football” 40-40 tie and how Parsons shifted the game.

MORE WEEK 4:

Cowboys-Packers tie, explained

As strange as it might seem, ties are possible in the NFL. Every so often, fans and even players themselves are abruptly reminded that not every game has a winner. No one leaves feeling particularly satisfied, but no one leaves totally empty, either.

That can be said for both the Cowboys and Packers, who had chances to win but also had moments in which they seemed destined to lose. Dallas trailed 13-0 early on and saw its defense get gashed by Josh Jacobs and Romeo Doubs nearly every time it reclaimed the lead.

The Packers, meanwhile, faced the possibility of a loss when the Cowboys forced a long field goal attempt at the end of regulation. Green Bay was also one fourth down play away from coming up short in overtime and never getting the chance to run Brandon McManus out for a game-tying field goal. McManus ultimately got that chance and forced a tie, but only after the Packers nearly ran out of time on the previous play.

A tie is better than a loss, but it wasn’t what the Cowboys or the favored Packers showed up to AT&T Stadium looking for.

While ties aren’t common in the NFL — the most recent before Sunday night was a 20-20 draw between the Giants and Commanders on Dec. 4, 2022 — it might only be a matter of time until they start to happen more regularly again. There were seven ties between 2018-2022 after the NFL shortened overtime periods to 10 minutes, and under new rules for 2025, each team now has a chance to possess the ball.

That means the Packers still would have gotten a chance to match the Cowboys even if Dallas scored a touchdown on its initial drive, though one would have to think the Packers would have attempted a two-point conversion and played for the win rather than settling for the tie in that scenario.

That scenario never played out because of a play made by Parsons. Here’s a look at his sack of Dak Prescott and how it changed the game.

MORE: Inside Micah Parsons’ night against former team

How Micah Parsons’ OT sack prevented a Cowboys win

Parsons was held in check in regulation, as the Cowboys limited him to two assisted tackles and no sacks, but he started to make his presence felt in overtime. After getting in Prescott’s face on what turned out to be a beautiful completion to Jalen Tolbert a few plays earlier, Parsons chased down his former teammate in the red zone and potentially prevented a touchdown.

Micah Parsons might have saved a TD on this play 😤 pic.twitter.com/WGGFdSTOFo

— NFL (@NFL) September 29, 2025

Edgerrin Cooper could have had a shot at Prescott if the Cowboys quarterback continued on toward the end zone, but Parsons didn’t let it get that far. Because Parsons took Prescott down for no gain, the play was recorded as a sack.

The Cowboys settled for a field goal, giving the Packers a chance to tie or win the game, and Green Bay ultimately had to settle for a field goal of its own with one second on the clock to force a 40-40 tie.

Had the Cowboys scored a touchdown, perhaps the Packers would have approached their drive more aggressively and found the end zone anyway. As it stood, though, Parsons’ sack limited Dallas to three points, and a matching three points was all Green Bay could muster.

Look at the positive side of a tie: the math on potential playoff scenarios for the Packers and Cowboys later in the season just became much simpler.

MILWAUKEE – A rollicking, careening, whiplash-inducing six months of baseball landed the Cincinnati Reds in the playoffs on the final day of the season Sept. 28 in Milwaukee.

They got in by the narrowest of margins after rebounding twice in September from crushing days and stretches that dropped their season record under .500 three times over the final 22 days of the season.

The five biggest victories of the season that got them to October:

1. Sept. 26 at Milwaukee — Trade-deadline acquisition Zack Littell and the bullpen held the Brewers to a run, and trade-deadline acquisition Miguel Andujar drove in a run as the Reds moved back into playoff position with a 3-1 victory that set the stage for their first series win over the Brewers since August 2022 and clinching their first full-season* playoff berth in 12 years on the final day of the season.

2. Sept. 15 at St. Louis — Reeling from crushing sweep at the hands of the Athletics at their minor-league ballpark in Sacramento that dropped the Reds’ record below .500 with 13 games to play, the Reds shuffled the lineup — dropping All-Star Elly De La Cruz from the third spot for the first time all year — and beat the Cardinals 11-6. De La Cruz doubled and walked twice. The win started the Reds on a 6-1 surge that included a four-hame sweep of the Cubs and put the Reds in playoff position with six games to play.

3. Sept. 6 vs. New York Mets — The night after what might have been the most deflating loss of the season (a one-run loss after the Reds loaded the bases in the ninth with none out and failed to score), the Reds rebounded to beat the Mets 6-3, then won the next night to win that series and secure the tiebreaker advantage over New York.

4. Sept. 25 vs. Pittsburgh Pirates — With the Reds clinging to a 2-1 lead and trying to avoid a devastating sweep at the hands of the last-place Pirates in Game 159, Bryan Reynolds lifted a high fly over the right field wall with one out in the ninth. And right-fielder Noelvi Marte, a converted infielder who never played outfield in his life until July, pulled the ball back from the seats — and the season from the brink in the process. 

5. June 24 vs. New York Yankees — Right-hander Chase Burns, one of the top pitching prospects in the game, makes his major league debut less than a year after being drafted second overall out of Wake Forest, strikes out eight Yankees — including the first five he faces — in five innings, without a walk, in a game the Reds won in 11 innings. “There’s a reason why he was drafted second overall and why he flew through the minor leagues,” Aaron Judge said. “He’s got an electric arm.” Burns was a key in the rotation during Hunter Greene’s injury absence and has since become a 100-mph weapon in a velocity-boosted, playoff-caliber bullpen.

*-The Reds made an expanded, 16-team playoff field during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.