ATLANTA – It was a moment that could have been made in Hollywood. KhaDarel Hodge was summoned from the Atlanta Falcons bench in overtime of an absolutely wild game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and then… 

He blacked out. 

Hodge took a short pass from Kirk Cousins on a simple stop route, eluded a defender, cut down the middle of the field and raced to the end zone for a 45-yard touchdown that punctuated a 36-30 victory against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  

If Hodge didn’t live it, he might not have believed it. After all, as the fourth receiver on an offense loaded with star power, Hodge would be one of the most unlikely heroes. 

Then again, these are the 2024 Falcons, who have been flowing with this knack for taking games down to the wire. In winning three of their past four games in such fashion, the Falcons (3-2) have catapulted into first place in the NFC South. 

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To survive this time, they needed to overcome an ugly crunch time interception by Cousins, get a 52-yard field goal from Younghoe Koo as time expired in regulation, win the overtime coin toss and then let the backup receiver bring it home. 

It seems so fitting that Hodge – a seventh-year pro with his fourth team since entering the league as an undrafted free agent from an HBCU, Prairie View A&M – was the Man of the Hour hoisted upon the shoulders of teammates when it was over. 

“I can’t make this up,” Hodge said, holding court in a festive locker room afterward. “It still, to me, feels like a movie. I checked in (for) one play and to go to the crib? Me? I don’t know what to say. When I scored, I kind of blacked out, and I saw the guys coming.” 

To mob him. Like a hero. 

Again. 

Four days earlier, Hodge was mobbed in the other end zone after diving into a pile and recovering a muffed punt for a touchdown that turned around to be rather critical in a victory against the New Orleans Saints that was achieved without the Falcons offense scoring a touchdown. 

Now, on a night that Cousins broke Matt Ryan’s franchise record with 509 yards – ironically, with Ryan in attendance as he was inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor at halftime – Hodge left the lasting impression. 

Someone asked him how it ranked among his most memorable NFL moments. He seemed startled by the question. He’s started seven career games. Respectfully, he confirmed that nothing topped Thursday night’s finish. 

Then he added a quick factoid. 

“This is my first time actually having two touchdowns in a season,” he said. 

It is easy to appreciate the dedication in players like Hodge, considering his journey. He was a quarterback at Mendenhall (Mississippi) High School, then played at Alcorn State and Hinds Community College before settling in for three years at Prairie View. After breaking in with the Los Angeles Rams, he had stints with the Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions before landing with the Falcons in 2022. 

He knows the odds of him becoming a smashing success were stacked against him. But he’s still in the league. Although his snaps on offense are limited, he’s made a mark as an outstanding special teams player. 

“It’s big, coming from an HBCU,” he said. “You’re fighting every year for a roster spot, the fourth or fifth receiver. You’ve got to go with the mindset, ‘I’ve got to get it out of the mud and take advantage of every opportunity, whether it’s on (special) teams or on offense.’ You’ve got to have that mindset to not quit.” 

Don’t quit. That’s surely a fair representation of these Falcons, but it also captures the game-winning play. Hodge maintains that for a player with few opportunities to touch the football, he’s always thinking of trying to take a catch for the distance. 

On his made-for-Hollywood play, Hodge had 41 yards of YAC (yards after the catch) after breaking free from Bucs cornerback Zyon McCollum, who took a bad angle with his man-to-man coverage. 

“I’ve got a little speed then,” Hodge said. “Guys were teasing me, saying I almost got caught. I’ve got to look at the film.” 

In another corner of the locker room, fellow wide receiver Darnell Mooney jokingly kept up the narrative.  

“He was running super slow,” Mooney said. “But I’m so proud of the guy.” 

Hodge can watch the replay over and over again. And it will be just as sweet, starring in a Hollywood ending that happened in real life. 

The first time Billy Shaw came to Buffalo, it was near the end of the inaugural 1960 season and the offensive guard from Georgia Tech wondered whether he’d be able to play in the frozen tundra.

The Buffalo Bills had just picked him in the second round of the 1961 AFL draft, which took place in November 1960 just after the college season ended, and he came to town and visited his new team at rickety War Memorial Stadium.

“It was about 55 degrees in that old locker room,” Eddie Abramoski, the Bills’ original trainer, recalled many years later. “He had a topcoat on and his eyes were flitting around. He leans over to (scout) Harvey Johnson and says, ‘Mr. Johnson, I don’t know if I can play in this cold weather’ and I’m thinking ‘Billy, you don’t know what cold weather is.’”

Abramoski recalls Johnson laughing at Shaw, a native of Mississippi who had always lived in the south, and reassuring him that he’d do “fine.”

“Fine” would be an understatement.

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Shaw went on to become one of the greatest players in the history of franchise and is the only player enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame who played his entire career in the AFL.

Friday, Shaw passed away at the age of 85 at his home in Toccoa, Georgia, with his wife Patsy and their three daughters at his bedside. The family cited hyponatremia as the cause of his death.

In a statement, Hall of Fame President Jim Porter said: “Billy Shaw holds the distinction of being the only member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame to play his entire career in the American Football League, but while that fact is worthy of noting and nice to recite, it comes nowhere near providing the reason he was elected as a member of the Class of 1999. Billy’s all-around athleticism brought a new dimension to the guard position and made the 1960s Buffalo Bills a formidable opponent capable of bruising opponents with a punishing rushing attack. And while Billy could be unforgiving to anyone in his way on the football field, he was the classic example of the ‘Southern gentlemen’ off the field to everyone he encountered.”

During his nine-year career with the Bills, you could point to any play of any game to see just how good a player Shaw was. Shaw leading Cookie Gilchrist around the corner, destroying would-be tacklers, was one of the most enduring sights in those early years of the franchise.

His skill was unmatched, his technique was perfect, his composure never wavered. And the defining game of his career – when all three of those attributes melded together in symphonic harmony – came appropriately enough in the most important game Shaw played as a Bill.

It was the 1964 AFL championship game against the San Diego Chargers at War Memorial Stadium, and that cold December day, Shaw, ignoring those elements he once feared, put on exactly the kind of performance that lands a player in the Hall of Fame.

Shaw’s opponent was Ernie Ladd, the mountainous star defensive tackle of the Chargers. Ladd was every bit as feared in the AFL as Deacon Jones in the NFL, a 6-foot-9, 290-pound quarterback-devouring, running back-swallowing machine. And while Ladd was a physical beast, his nickname “Big Cat” was derived from his unusual speed for a man his size.

However, before the game, Ladd fumbled away any physical advantage he may have had over Shaw.

“When they introduced the San Diego players, Ladd ran out between the goal posts, then pointed across the field at me,” Shaw remembered. “That’s what got me ready.”

Ladd had seven inches and 40 pounds on Shaw, but by the time Buffalo’s 20-7 victory was complete, the Big Cat had been reduced to a little kitten. The Bills rushed for 219 yards, including 122 by Gilchrist, most of them following in the cleat marks Shaw had implanted on Ladd’s body.

“When you had a game against the Bills, you had to bring your lunch because Billy would battle you for the entire game,” said former Kansas City linebacker Bobby Bell, also a Hall of Famer.

Shaw was selected in the second round of the 1961 AFL draft, the 11th player chosen overall. He had a solid rookie season, but when Lou Saban became head coach of the Bills prior to 1962, one of his first assessments of the team was that Shaw had the potential to be much better than he was.

“We studied the films of his play after we took over that winter,” Saban said. “He needed additional polishing to become a good player. That’s when we decided to put him up against Tom Sestak every day in practice. He had to get better if he wanted to survive in that matchup. I told him, ‘If you want to be the best, you have to go up against the best.’”

Shaw and Sestak pounded on each other every day, and both players benefited as they were selected to the AFL’s all-time team.

“Those were some battles,” Shaw said. “I like to think that I had some influence in the way Tom progressed as a player, and he certainly was instrumental in my becoming a better player.”

Abramoski, who was Shaw’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction, maintained in the 1990s when he was nearing his end as the Bills’ trainer that “Billy Shaw could have played today.”

Shaw was so talented that Tom Landry, the legendary coach of the Dallas Cowboys, thought he could have played linebacker in the NFL, even though he never played the position at Georgia Tech.

The Cowboys, who had also begun play in 1960, waited until the 14th round of the 1961 NFL draft to pick Shaw, and that was enough for Shaw to choose to sign with Buffalo rather than Dallas.

“I never played linebacker before and I just didn’t want to try to play a new position,” said Shaw. “I signed with the Bills because they were going to play me at positions that I was used to playing.”

From 1961 through 1969, Shaw never stopped rewarding the Bills for the faith they showed in him. He anchored Buffalo’s stout offensive line while playing his way into eight AFL all-star games and onto pro football’s all-decade team of the 1960s. More importantly, he helped the Bills win three straight AFL East Division titles and two AFL championships.

He had to wait 30 years after his career ended to earn the ultimate respect from the Hall of Fame voters who righted a long overdue oversight in 1999.

“Waiting 30 years made it very, very special,” Shaw said. “And to represent all of the guys that toiled in the AFL in obscurity for those many years makes it all much more special. If Ron Wolf (the former NFL executive who played a key role in his election) walked through my door, I wouldn’t know him because I don’t think I ever met him, but it means a great deal to me to hear what he said.

“I did what I thought I could do on the field and I had no control over whether I did or didn’t get in. I have my own private, personal feelings about my career and if other people didn’t share those, that’s the way life is. I didn’t make a big deal about it, but since it happened, it’s a major event in my life.”

And though he retired after the 1969 season, thus never getting the chance to play for the Bills in the NFL when it merged with the AFL in 1970, he never forgot his time in Buffalo and cherished every minute, even those cold, cold days at the old Rockpile.

“I came to Buffalo when I was 21, just married, my first child was born there, and I left when I was 30,” Shaw recalled. “So up to that point I lived a third of my life in Buffalo and it was the most important time of my life. I matured as an athlete, but more importantly I matured as a man. A lot of the characteristics and principles of the people of Buffalo are instilled in my character, and I cherish that.”

Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, and he has written numerous books about the history of the team. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana.

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NEW YORK — The NFL Players Association called for curbs on locker room interviews on Friday, saying that they were an invasion of players’ privacy and urging members to seek interviews outside the locker room during the week.

Reporters regularly mingle with players in the locker room on game day and on practice days, putting members of the media in close quarters with athletes courtesy of media policies that the players association called ‘outdated’.

‘Players feel that locker room interviews invade their privacy and are uncomfortable. This isn’t about limiting media access but about respecting players’ privacy and dignity,’ the NFLPA said in a statement.

‘We, the NFLPA Executive Committee, urge the NFL to make immediate changes to foster a more respectful and safer workplace for all players.’

The NFL did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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The Pro Football Writers of America said in a statement: ‘NFL players asking to speak outside the locker room has always been a part of the league’s media access policy.’

‘We are continuing discussions with NFLPA executives regarding the media access policy,’ the statement said. ‘The goal is to make everyone comfortable in locker room settings and to have players and clubs follow the NFL media policy.’

NFLPA player representative Ted Karras, a center for the Cincinnati Bengals, told reporters this week that players’ discomfort with locker room interviews has been a longstanding issue.

The topic was brought back to the fore, he said, after ‘a couple guys (were) naked on camera this year.’

Karras said the hope was that each team could come up with a plan to conduct interviews outside the locker room on practice days during the week, in order to ‘get cameras off guys in private moments’.

‘This has been a topic of discussion since COVID – with the COVID protocol where no one was in the locker room – it’s been brought up several times since then,’ said Karras. ‘And now we figure it’s the time to do it.’

One year ago, Michigan State University fired head football coach Mel Tucker amid allegations that he sexually harassed a rape survivor he had hired to teach his players about sexual assault prevention. On Friday, that woman filed a lawsuit against him for defamation.

Brenda Tracy, whose gut-wrenching story of being gang-raped by college football players in 1998 catapulted her to an activism career and national fame, alleges in a 30-page lawsuit that Tucker permanently tarnished her good name and reputation by claiming they developed a mutual romance. 

Her lawsuit, filed in Ingham County Circuit Court in Michigan, seeks a jury trial and unspecified damages. No dollar amount was given.

Tucker and his attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Karen Truszkowski, Tracy’s attorney, said in a statement: “The lawsuit speaks for itself.” She and Tracy declined to comment further.

Tracy says in the lawsuit that she lost future earnings and suffered psychologically and emotionally because of Tucker’s false statements, including his claims that she made up the allegations in a plot to extort him and the school for money. Among other counts, the lawsuit accuses him of breach of contract, stealing her business records and fraudulently accessing her email and personal accounts. 

Tracy filed a complaint with Michigan State’s Title IX office in December 2022 alleging that Tucker made a series of unwelcome sexual advances over the course of their yearlong business partnership, culminating in an April 2022 phone call in which he masturbated without her consent. As his defense, Tucker told MSU’s outside investigator that he and Tracy engaged in a one-time instance of consensual phone sex.

For eight months, MSU’s Title IX office quietly investigated Tracy’s complaint, while Tucker continued to coach the Spartans football team. The case spilled into public view in September 2023, shortly after Tucker led MSU to its second win of the season. Tracy gave USA TODAY access to her 1,200-page case file, which the news organization used to break the news with her permission. 

Hours after the story published, Michigan State athletic director Alan Haller and then-interim President Teresa Woodruff held an emergency press conference in which they announced Tucker would be suspended without pay for the remainder of the campus case. They said they had known the Title IX office was investigating a complaint against Tucker but did not know the details until reading them in USA TODAY. 

A week later, Haller notified Tucker of his intent to fire him for cause, cancelling the roughly $75 million left on the record 10-year contract extension Tucker had signed less than two years earlier. Even Tucker’s version of events – that he and Tracy had been engaged in a romantic relationship – constituted a fireable offense, Haller wrote in his termination letter. 

“It is decidedly unprofessional and unethical to flirt, make sexual comments, and masturbate while on the phone with a University vendor,” the letter said. “Your unconvincing rationalizations and misguided attempts to shift responsibility cannot and do not excuse your own behavior.” 

The university officially fired Tucker on Sept. 27, capping his stunning fall as one of the highest-paid coaches in all of sports. Meanwhile, the campus investigation moved forward.

MSU held a hearing in the case on Oct. 5. Instead of showing up, Tucker, his attorney, Jennifer Belveal, and his agent, Neil Cornrich, sent the media and MSU’s Board of Trustees a 106-page letter claiming they had obtained “new evidence” proving that Tracy falsely accused him in a money grab. 

The press release contained 98 pages of heavily redacted text messages they had obtained from the cell phone of Tracy’s longtime friend and business manager, who died that summer in a car crash. Among other things, the messages showed Tracy had consensually dated a basketball coach who had hired her years prior and that she was struggling financially at the time she filed her complaint with MSU. 

In her lawsuit, Tracy says Tucker released the information 14 minutes into the hearing ‘knowing that Tracy and her counsel would be taken by surprise and not able to respond.’

‘Tucker sandbagged Tracy in an egregious attempt to publicly humiliate her,’ the lawsuit says.

Tracy obtained an emergency restraining order the next day, barring Tucker and his associates from releasing more of the messages, which she alleged he obtained illegally. An Ingham County judge dismissed that lawsuit earlier this year. 

Several experts told USA TODAY the text messages were largely irrelevant. Outside attorneys hired by the university later concurred.

In a decision issued on Oct. 25, Virginia-based Title IX attorney Amanda Norris Ames concluded that Tucker sexually harassed and exploited Tracy on multiple occasions before, during and after the now-famous April 2022 phone call. Tucker’s repeated contradictory statements to the investigator, Ames determined, made his account difficult to believe. 

A separate outside appeal officer hired by MSU denied Tucker’s appeal in January, affirming Ames’ decision that Tracy’s account was more plausible, consistent and supported by the evidence than his. MSU permanently banned Tucker from future employment.

Tucker filed a lawsuit against MSU in July, alleging the university wrongfully terminated him, defamed him and discriminated against him based on his race. He alleged the school conducted an “improper, biased and sham investigation” designed to fire him. His attorney, Rita Glavin, said in a statement that MSU’s “conduct was not only shameful, it was illegal.” That lawsuit is ongoing.

Among Tucker’s allegedly defamatory claims about Tracy, Tucker claimed that Tracy told him she ‘wanted a sugar daddy’ to pay her $4,000 per month to be his girlfriend, and that she only filed a complaint against him because MSU refused to give her monetary compensation. He also alleged that she sent him a ‘provocative picture’ that prompted him to start masturbating during the April 2022 phone call. He said that the photo showed Tracy wearing ‘tight leather pants.’

Tracy included that photo as part of her lawsuit. It shows her and Tucker standing several feet apart inside the MSU football administration building on the day of one of her two visits to the MSU campus at Tucker’s behest, for the spring football game in which Tucker made her an honorary captain.

In the photo, she is fully clothed, wearing a long-sleeved black T-shirt and loose black athleisure pants – the same outfit she wore when she stood at the 20-yard line in Spartan Stadium as she was honored on the jumbotron.

Kenny Jacoby is an investigative reporter for USA TODAY covering sexual harassment and violence and Title IX. Contact him by email at kjacoby@usatoday.com or follow him on X @kennyjacoby.

Jacob Markstrom made 30 saves, including a highlight-reel stop, to help the New Jersey Devils beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-1 at the 2024 NHL Global Series in Prague, Czechia, on Friday.

Johnathan Kovacevic and Paul Cotter each had a goal and an assist for New Jersey in the league’s season opener.

Owen Power scored Buffalo’s lone goal and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 19 saves.

The two teams will face off again on Saturday (10 a.m. ET, NHL Network).

The Sabres had their best chance of the first period with three minutes remaining when Nicolas Aube-Kubel had a wide-open side of the net. But he was denied by a diving paddle stop by Markstrom, who was acquired by the Devils in the offseason after the team had subpar goaltending last season.

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Up 2-0 after 20 minutes, Nico Hischier extended the Devils’ lead at 3:29 of the second period. Nathan Bastian collected the puck below the goal line and sent it out front to the New Jersey captain, who wired a wrist shot from the high slot that went glove side on Luukkonen.

The Sabres started to pick up their game midway through the period and continued that pressure into the third.

They were finally rewarded at 10:07 of the final period. Defenseman Bowen Byram was in front to send a short pass to JJ Peterka. Peterka went behind the net before dishing over to Power, who was alone at the bottom of the right circle to cut it to 3-1.

Cotter scored an empty-net goal at 17:26 for the 4-1 final.

Stefan Noesen gave the Devils a 1-0 lead in the first period. Kovacevic intercepted Buffalo defenseman Mattias Samuelsson’s pass attempt and fed Noesen streaking into the right circle to beat Luukkonen blocker side at 8:39.

Kovacevic made it 2-0 at 15:38. Jonas Siegenthaler took a feed from Dawson Mercer and quickly fed it to Kovacevic, who fired a point shot through traffic that deflected off a Sabres player into the net.

Buffalo held a 4-2 advantage in shots on goal and had out-attempted the Devils 10-4 nearly six and a half minutes into the opening period. But the Sabres struggled to generate offense after that, going nearly nine minutes without a shot on goal.

As the NFL season marches into October, it’s time to add a little spice – pumpkin spice? – to our projections.

Even with only two undefeated teams remaining and a muddled middle of the pack, there’s still some separation emerging between the league’s top contenders and its also-rans. Still, any pecking order hardly holds firm on a week-to-week basis, with the Denver Broncos’ upset of the New York Jets last Sunday among the latest reminders that surprises are bound to materialize somewhere on the schedule.

With that in mind, here are the Week 5 bold predictions from USA TODAY Sports’ NFL writers and columnists:

Stefon Diggs will post his first 100-yard game as a Texan

The Buffalo Bills are coming to Houston. And it would be quite the Texas welcome if Stefon Diggs can mark his role as a host with his first 100-yard game in a Houston uniform…and remind his former team of his presence as one of the NFL’s best receivers.

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No, the Bills’ passing game hasn’t evaporated without Diggs, traded during the offseason for a second-round pick. Until last weekend’s beatdown in Baltimore, Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen was off to the best start of his career through three games, spreading the passes to an array of passes. Yet Diggs was the focal point in Buffalo for so many years, so it’ll be interesting to see how the trade works out for both of these teams envisioning a path to a championship.

As it stands now, Diggs is such an enticing subplot to this matchup of 3-1 AFC contenders. After all, he hasn’t posted a triple-digit receiving game since Week 6 of 2023 (10 catches, 100 yards vs. New York Giants). Maybe he’s overdue. After posting five 100-yard games in the first six games last season, Diggs has gone 17 consecutive games (including playoffs) without a 100-yard showing. That stretch includes his final 13 games in a Buffalo uniform – which coincided with the changeover that occurred with the offense after Joe Brady took over as coordinator and featured the rushing attack ignited by James Cook. Diggs, incidentally, had his most productive game as a Texan when he faced his other former team, the Minnesota Vikings, in Week 3. He fell just shy of cracking 100, though, with 94 yards on 10 receptions. It should also be noted that Buffalo, ranked sixth against the pass, has yet to allow a 100-yard receiver this season. Maybe now is the time for Diggs to distinguish himself in more ways than one.

— Jarrett Bell

0-4 Jaguars earn first win

The lone winless team in the NFL will finally get into the victory column.

Three of the Jaguars’ losses have been by one score. Jacksonville actually played its best game of the season last week, albeit in a loss. Brian Thomas Jr. notched a career-high in receptions (6) and Travis Etienne and Tank Bigsby combined for 140 rushing yards in Week 4.

If the Jaguars can build on those three performances, Trevor Lawrence plays consistent, and the defense gives up 24 points or less – which it has done three times already – the Jaguars should be able to get their first win in of the season against a Colts team that Jacksonville swept last year.

The Jaguars have lost nine of their last 10 games dating back to last season. Losing has taken place far too often for a talented Jags roster. Every Jacksonville loss raises the temperature on head coach Doug Pederson’s seat, but Lawrence deserves some of the blame as well for his inconsistent performances from week to week.

— Tyler Dragon

Rookies rally

When Week 5 wraps, I’m betting – or picking anyway – that all of the rookie quarterback who are starting (Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Bo Nix) will have their teams sitting above .500 and (very prematurely) projected into the playoff field. Said another way, for the second consecutive week, they will collectively go 3-0. Williams, the No. 1 overall pick of the Chicago Bears, is coming off the most efficient start of his nascent career and next takes aim at the team he might be playing for – Carolina – if circumstances were slightly different. Nix’s Denver Broncos have won two straight, partially because he’s taking better care of the ball, and they’ll now host the Las Vegas Raiders (and their various issues) at altitude. And not much else to say about Offensive Rookie of the Month Jayden Daniels, but even if he doesn’t quite sustain his historic accuracy over this last four-game stretch, still a very realistic shot the multi-talented 2023 Heisman Trophy winner can take down the struggling Browns.

— Nate Davis

Travis Kelce finally goes off 

Jason Kelce – Travis’ big bro – had a fun mini-rant on their “New Heights” podcast this week that echoed what the Chiefs have been saying since the start of the season: the stats don’t tell all of Kelce’s 2024 story.  

The Chiefs tight end started to be more of a factor in last week’s win over the Los Angeles Chargers, as he went for 89 receiving yards on seven catches (nine targets). Those numbers can nearly double against the New Orleans Saints despite the Saints having one of the NFL’s better defenses. Kansas City is without Rashee Rice and Isiah Pacheco; rookie wideout Xavier Worthy is a speed threat only at the moment.  Patrick Mahomes needs his ol’ pal Kelce more than ever. 

Kelce loves — loves! — the spotlight. “Monday Night Football” is center stage. Don’t be surprised if Kelce has not only his best game of the young season but what will end up being one of his best performances of the year. He’ll find the end zone, perhaps more than once, and will near the 150-yard mark. 

— Chris Bumbaca

Patrick Mahomes moves into NFL lead for interceptions, but Chiefs still win

While Mahomes’ run of five interceptions in his first four games – including at least one in each contest – has involved some bad luck, there’s little question that the two-time MVP is pressing. That problem could only get worse with top target Rashee Rice out and defenses likely to continue blanketing Travis Kelce.

Monday’s matchup against the Saints could provide a solid indication of just how far Mahomes is willing to stray from the more discerning style he has employed at a time when defenses dare him to be more patient and try to deny him anything deep. While New Orleans’ defense hasn’t been suffocating, it has managed to allow the sixth-fewest points thanks to the stingiest performance in the red zone, where the unit has allowed a touchdown on just 22.2% of its drives.

If the Chiefs fall in an early hole or get off schedule, they could face trouble against a unit that has already corralled six interceptions this season. That could prompt Mahomes into forcing the issue in certain spots, which might vault him into at least a tie with Will Levis – who is off this week – and Anthony Richardson for the NFL lead in interceptions.

Still, it’s too hard to pick against the undefeated two-time champs, especially with the defensive backing they enjoy. The Chiefs might escape unscathed, but it could be another close call.

— Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz

In a matchup that’s about as retro as Major League Baseball’s playoffs get, the Kansas City Royals will act the part.

Saturday, they’ll take the field at Yankee Stadium against New York for Game 1 of the American League Division Series, rekindling an October rivalry that simmered for four of five years between 1977 and 1980. And in this first clash in 44 years between the powder blue Midwestern upstarts and the pinstriped Bronx Bombers, the Royals will at least partly reject modern orthodoxy.

Oh, they’ll have the most cutting-edge scouting reports available, and constructed this surprising 86-win team – built from the ashes of a 106-loss debacle in 2023 – with plenty of contemporary analysis.

Yet in an era when the starting pitcher often just a pitching staff’s hood ornament in a playoff game, the Royals are unapologetic that their low-scoring, plucky squad’s backbone is riding their four horses as long as they can go.

In the big picture, that trust has already paid off: Young ace Cole Ragans, emerging talent Brady Singer and trusty veterans Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha all started between 29 and 33 games this season, their 126 starts the most of any playoff quartet.

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In the hyper-scrutinized world of playoff baseball, it’s vaulted them to New York: Ragans and Lugo combined to give up one earned run in their two wild-card series starts against Baltimore, with Ragans’ six overpowering shutout innings in Game 1 setting the tone for the two-game sweep.

And perhaps launch them on a deeper run.

Wacha will get the ball Saturday night in the Bronx, a Game 1 assignment against reigning Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole, 13 years after the two rookies announced their presence with sparkling starts for St. Louis and Pittsburgh, respectively, in a National League Division Series.

Now, Wacha is 33, long in the beard and reveling in the dynamics of a Kansas City staff that is leveraging the potency of its youth and the wisdom of its elders.

“I’ve been in this league for 10, 11, 12 years now, so that comes with some experience,” says Wacha. “Experiencing some of the highest of highs and some of the lowest of lows. I can kind of relate to a lot of different players. I’ll always try to be available to the younger guys, the rookies, ready to answer questions, help them out in any situation and give them their belief that they can succeed at this level.

“But as much as I feel like they can learn from me, I can learn just as much from them, as well.”

For now, they are all following Ragans’ lead.

‘We got something special’

The 26-year-old was an All-Star this season, and while his 186 ⅓ innings and 135 adjusted ERA could not match Lugo’s 206 and 140, he struck out 223 – second in the AL – and was an easy choice to anoint for Game 1.

His dominance of the Orioles – he struck out eight in six scoreless innings – was merely the next step on a progression that began when the flailing Royals acquired him from Texas for reliever Aroldis Chapman in June 2023.

“He’s become more than we thought,” says general manager J.J. Picollo. “When we got him in the trade we certainly thought he would be part of the starting rotation.

“But it was pretty apparent, when we ended the season last year, we got something pretty special.”

It’s a nice sample size: In 44 starts with Kansas City, Ragans has a 3.00 ERA and 312 strikeouts in 258 innings, blossoming with the runway afforded him.

Lugo can relate.

In seven seasons at the big league level for the New York Mets, he toggled between starter and reliever, closer and long man and swing guy. The talent was immense and evident; the role was not consistent.

He finally stretched out for good in 2023, signing a one-year deal with San Diego and pitching to a 3.57 ERA in 26 starts. And then Kansas City called.

After three 100-loss seasons since winning the 2015 World Series, yet with superstar shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., Ragans and other building blocks in place, Picollo sensed the time was right to spend. He viewed Lugo’s San Diego gap year impressively, and signed him to a three-year, $45 million contract.

Lugo merely led the major leagues in innings and will likely finish in the top five of AL Cy Young voting. But appreciation goes both ways.

“All the gratitude for the organization,’ says Lugo. “I know to throw as many innings as I did, you have to execute but you also have to get given the opportunity, and that’s what they did for me.

“Extremely grateful.”

‘One of the best brains I’ve been around’

After bouncing through four teams in four seasons, Wacha’s ears perked up when he saw Lugo join the Royals. The two were Mets teammates in the shortened 2020 season, and again in San Diego in 2023.

The Texarkana native always vibed well with the native Louisianan Lugo. Now, opportunity was beckoning again.

“JJ was kind of describing his plan and the team outlook,” says Wacha. “I saw Lugo had signed there probably about a week or two before I did, and pitching with him I knew what he brought to the table.

“He’s one of the best brains that I’ve been around, really, whenever it comes to that kind of stuff.”

Wacha agreed to a two-year, $32 million deal and proceeded to start the most games (29) since 2017 and throw the most innings (166 ⅓) since 2015. Perhaps most notably, he completed a foursome that came together about as well as manager Matt Quatraro could have imagined.

“Knowing Wacha how I knew him,” says Quatraro, the Tampa Bay bench coach during Wacha’s season there in 2021, “it doesn’t surprise me at all that he was going to help be that kind of a glue and knowing that Ragans is a sponge for anything baseball. Brady, as we’ve talked about for a couple years now, is so competitive and loves the environment, and he was on a mission to get back to his accustomed level.

“I did not know Seth at all prior to this year, but as soon as I saw him day one how he approached his bullpen and how much prep he did, and then he stayed out there to watch other guys throw bullpens, it started to look very organic early and that they just gravitated to each other.”

Now, they’re pitted in a classic major market vs. small market clash with the Yankees, whose $310 million payroll easily doubles Kansas City’s $122 million outlay. Yet they’re now on even footing, and by virtue of winning two games in Baltimore, the Royals will host their first playoff games at Kauffman Stadium in nearly a decade.

“I expect it to be electric,” says Lugo, in line to take his vaunted 10-pitch mix to the mound for a Game 3 start Wednesday in Kansas City. “I’m so happy for them.”

An off day after Game 1 would enable Ragans to start Game 2 at Yankee Stadium. He says the club knows that their formula is “good enough,” and now it will be severely tested.

Yet Ragans will bring to the mound not just his heavy 96 mph fastball and a devastating slider, but also the wisdom of those around him, from Lugo and Wacha to reliever Will Smith and the many seasoned vets who fill the roles that remain even as Ragans and Witt steal the headlines.

“When you bring in guys that have been here before, they have pitched in the playoffs, they know what it takes throughout the year to get to this point and continue to go further than this,” says Ragans. “There’s so much knowledge in the clubhouse. They have been around for a while. They are unbelievable humans. It’s so easy to talk to them about certain things.

“You know, obviously they are unbelievable baseball players. But they are even better human beings.”