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Sports

Garrett Wilson: Week 5 against Dallas an "absolutely got to have it" game

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30 September 2025

Monday night's loss to the Dolphins dropped the Jets to 0-4 this season and it was the third time that their self-inflicted wounds loomed large in a one-score loss.

Head coach Aaron Glenn expressed his frustrations with the team's 13 penalties and three turnovers in the locker room as well as at his press conference by saying the team has to learn how to not lose games before they can expect to win them. That theme was carried over in comments from players after the game as well.

Wide receiver Garrett Wilson called the errors "ridiculous" because "it’s been preached, it’s been talked about, it’s been emphasized" during the team's preparations every week. Wilson went on to say that the team's Week 5 home game against the Cowboys is the moment they have to show that they're capable of doing something better.

"This past week was a ‘got to have it’ and the fact that we just played how we did, now this becomes an ‘absolutely got to have it,’" Wilson said, via a transcript from the team. "Got to have it. Got to get on the board. It’s a home game. Protect our home field and just at the end of the day, what do you want your legacy to be in this league? I look back on my time and man, we’ve got to go now. There’s no time, you know? We’ve got to have it this week and I’ll make sure to relay and they know that, but I’ll make sure to relay that to the team because I’m sure they all feel the same."

The issues that have plagued the Jets so far this season are ones that they struggled with before Glenn's arrival and completely eliminating them all at once has proven to be too big a task for the first-year head coach. Showing progress toward that goal would be reason to hope better days are ahead, however, and now would be a good time for that to happen.

Read more …

Getting Defensive: Week 5 fantasy plays led by Lions, Vikings; top streaming defenses

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30 September 2025

The new kickoff rules have made for a lot more returns this year. Those returns create the opportunity for D/ST fantasy points. This is a good thing.

But the story of 2025 so far hasn’t been those kickoff returns. It has been punt returns.

Last season, eight punts were returned for touchdowns. Through four weeks in 2025, seven have been—including three in Week 4 alone.
In New England, the Patriots waylaid the Carolina Panthers 42-13 in Week 4. However, the defense failed to produce much in the way of big plays—just a single sack. But thanks to Marcus Jones and his 87-yard punt return for a score, the Pats were a solid fantasy start,
As a matter of fact, in leagues that award points for return yards, Jones was that much more valuable—he had a 61-yarder too.

Now, chasing return touchdowns isn’t a sound strategy. It wouldn’t be all that strange if we don’t see punt return No. 8 for a score for six weeks—or more. But this flurry of touchdowns is putting some of the “special” back in special teams.

Plus, it just makes watching football every Sunday more fun.
Well, unless you’re on the wrong end of one.

NFL: Tennessee Titans at Houston Texans
Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Week 5: Woody Marks overtakes Nick Chubb
Woody Marks overtook veteran Nick Chubb on Sunday, scoring two touchdowns. He’s now one of the top waiver wire targets for Week 5.
  • DvorchakBW.jpg Kyle Dvorchak,

THE NO-DOUBTERS

Detroit Lions (at Cincinnati Bengals)

After getting beaten handily in Week 1, the Lions have peeled off three straight wins, and in Sunday’s beatdown of Cleveland the Lions allowed fewer than 250 yards of offense, forced three turnovers, logged three sacks and had a return score on the way to Week 4’s top fantasy finish among defenses. Now, the Lions travel to Cincinnati to face a Bengals team that has been outscored 76-13 the past two weeks and had almost as many penalties against Denver as they had points and first downs combined.

Minnesota Vikings (at Cleveland Browns)

The Vikings aren’t technically headed to the Factory of Sadness—they are staying in the UK after falling to Pittsburgh in Dublin, Ireland last week before taking on the Clowns Sunday in London—because apparently we like to punish the British with bad football. The Vikings haven’t been a great fantasy defense—one giant outing in Week 3 and three clunkers. But the Browns are excellent at making opposing defenses look good—only the hapless Titans are surrendering more fantasy points per game to the position.

Indianapolis Colts (vs. Las Vegas Raiders)

Remember when we thought that the Pete Carroll-led Raiders would be an improved team in 2025? That was a fun 15 minutes or so. It took Raiders offensive coordinator three games to remember Ashton Jeanty was on the team. Quarterback Geno Smith has been picked off a league-high seven times. And the Raiders are surrendering the fourth-most fantasy points to defenses this year. The Colts are quietly sixth in fantasy points among defenses and seething after a close loss in Los Angeles last week. They’ll take it out on Vegas.

Los Angeles Rams (vs. San Francisco 49ers)

The Rams may be the best team in the NFL that no one is talking about as one of the best teams in the NFL—their only loss this season was a nailbiter at Philadelphia in Week 3, and Los Angeles just handed the Colts their first loss of the season. The 49ers are similarly 3-1, but how they have managed that is a mystery, and both Ricky Pearsall and Jauan Jennings are iffy for Week 5. The Niners are also a plus matchup—eighth in fantasy points allowed to defenses this season.

Philadelphia Eagles (vs. Denver Broncos)

The Eagles are undefeated, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still plenty of, “What’s wrong in Philly?” talk. However, most of that centers on an inconsistent offense—defensively, the team sits eighth in fantasy points after a Week 4 effort against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that included two sacks, a pair of takeaways and a blocked punt returned for a touchdown. Denver looked much better on offense against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 4, but these days the Bengals are making everyone look good.

Syndication: Detroit Free Press
Fantasy Football Week 5 Defense (DST) Rankings and Streamers
Eric Samulski breaks down his fantasy football defense rankings for Week 5 of the NFL season
  • SamulskiBW.jpg Eric Samulski,

STREAMERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!

Arizona Cardinals (vs. Tennessee Titans)

Frankly, this one is a little unnerving for this analyst—this is the third time in five games that Cardinals defense has had what looks like an excellent fantasy matchup defensively, and so far it hasn’t worked out especially well. But no mortal man can resist the siren’s song of suck that is the Tennessee Titans. If there’s an offensive category that’s bad, the winless Titans are at or near the top of the league at it—including fantasy points surrendered to opposing defenses.

Buffalo Bills (vs. New England Patriots)

The Bills haven’t been anything to write home about defensively so far this season—the team ranks outside the top-20 in fantasy points and have hit double-digits just once in four games. The Patriots are also coming off of their best offensive showing of the season in last week’s blowout win over the Panthers. But the Bills will be playing at home in primetime, and the Pats have given up the 11th-most fantasy points to defenses, At the very least, Buffalo’s a good matchup play.

Cleveland Browns (vs. Minnesota Vikings)

On some level, you may be wondering why the Browns aren’t a “No-Doubter” this week—Cleveland is first in the NFL in total defense and run defense and fifth against the pass. The Vikings offense didn’t look great last week against Pittsburgh, either—Carson Wentz was sacked six times and threw a pair of interceptions. But the Cleveland offense is so trash that it’s sucking the fantasy value out of the defense—they have allowed over 30 points twice and sit outside the top-25 in fantasy points.

Houston Texans (at Baltimore Ravens)

Not that long ago, this would have been a matchup that should be avoided like a plague-carrying rat. But that was before Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson suffered a hamstring injury that leaves his Week 5 status in doubt. Cooper Rush is a capable backup quarterback with 14 NFL starts under his belt. And it helps to be able to just pound away with Derrick Henry. But the Ravens also lost left tackle Ronnie Stanley to an ankle injury, and Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter of the Texans are among the best pass-rush duos in the league.

New York Giants (at New Orleans Saints)

To be completely fair, with the exception of a Week 3 implosion in Seattle, the winless Saints have actually shown more fight than many expected—including on the road last week in Buffalo. But for the season, the team is still giving up the 10th-most fantasy points to defenses this season. The Giants showed flashes defensively of what they are capable of defensively in last week’s upset of the Chargers—especially where rushing the passer is concerned. They should have success in that regard again in Week 5.

Carolina Panthers (vs. Miami Dolphins)

This is a, “my defense is on a bye and the vultures in my league picked the waiver wire clean” play—the Panthers are a mediocre defensive team (at best) statistically in terms of both yards allowed and fantasy points scored. When we last saw Carolina, they were getting flattened by a Patriots team that is, um, average. But two weeks ago, Carolina opened a can at home against the Atlanta Falcons, and the Dolphins have given up the seventh-most fantasy points to defenses this season.

CAVEAT EMPTOR, FOLKS

Denver Broncos (at Philadelphia Eagles)

Four weeks into the 2025 campaign, the Broncos rank just inside the top-10 defensively in fantasy points. That’s not exactly what fantasy managers who made them the first defense off draft boards expected, but Denver has hit double-digits in three of four games. If you made that investment in the Broncos, the best play is probably just to ride what looks like a down week against an Eagles team allowing the 10th-fewest fantasy points to defenses despite their struggles on offense out. But for fantasy managers at 1-3 or worse, that’s easier said than done.

Gary Davenport is a two-time Fantasy Sports Writers Association Football Writer of the Year. Follow Gary on X at @IDPGodfather.

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Early Week 5 NFL bets to make right now: Back the Commanders

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30 September 2025

Four weeks of the 2025-26 NFL season are in the books and we have hit the unofficial quarter mark of the NFL regular season.

In terms of handicapping, being 25% into the season has a few implications. We can begin to place reliable importance on stats and observations from this season. Trends can be seen as patterns and not situational variance. We can downgrade the importance of preseason priors. How a team moved in preseason betting markets like season win totals matters less than what's happening in the market in the first few weeks of game action. And finally, an unfortunate truth is that we need to upgrade the importance of a team's health and its subsequent injury report.

As more games go on — and sadly, as more players get hurt — we start to see things like cluster injuries appear. A cluster injury refers to a team losing multiple players in the same unit (multiple offensive line injuries for the Minnesota Vikings or Los Angeles Chargers, for example).

Let's use these strategies to attack the Week 5 odds and try to get ahead of the market. This Tuesday article has produced very consistent bets that kick off with closing line value. Last week all three closed ahead of the market, and ended up going 3-0 in results as well.

This week there are only two NFL spots I strongly recommend to bet now.

Odds courtesy of BetMGM.

Washington Commanders at Los Angeles Chargers (-2.5, 47.5)

This is a bet that aims to time the market perfectly on injury information, and puts weighted information on a cluster injury group. 

I expect the Commanders to get Jayden Daniels back for this game. Despite being ruled out a full day early last week against the Falcons in Week 4, Daniels did get some practice time, being listed as a limited participant as early as last Wednesday. By Thursday of this week, it would be no surprise to see Daniels upgraded to a full participant and outright removed from the injury report, which would have major implications on the betting market. 

On the Chargers side, Rashawn Slater was lost in preseason to a torn patellar tendon, while right guard Mekhi Becton missed last week's game with a concussion. Then Joe Alt, who moved from his right tackle position to the other side and took over as the coveted left tackle, departed Sunday's game with a high ankle sprain. The most recent reports show Alt is going to get a second opinion, but according to Adam Schefter he is “unlikely to miss a lot of time.” High ankle sprains usually mean a few weeks are missed; and even if Alt plays he should be limited in his capabilities. If Alt or Becton continue to miss another game, it is easy to classify this situation as a cluster injury to the Chargers’ offensive line.

The Chargers have the highest Pass Rate Over Expectation (PROE) through the first four weeks of the season. Injuries to the offensive line are going to disrupt QB Justin Herbert’s time to evaluate his options down the field and will force the Chargers to change the game plan that has gotten them off to a 3-1 start this season.

Given all of these factors, including a slight upgrade on the Chargers side and a slight downgrade on the Commanders side for performance thus far, I currently have these teams dead even in the power rankings. This line should be closer to Chargers -1.5, making the early week value on the Commanders.

Bet: Commanders +2.5 (-102) and ML +125

Kansas City Chiefs (-3.5, 45.5) at Jacksonville Jaguars

The handicap to this game factors increased importance to what we are seeing on the field this season and downgrading our preseason priors. Both the Kansas City Chiefs and Jaguars are top six in the pass rate over expectation, which measures how often a team in a running down situation actually opts for a pass play. Obviously passing attempts increase the yards gained per play, and decrease the game-time between plays because incompletions stop the clock. Teams with high PROE teams are ones to bet towards the over. 

[Check out all of Yahoo's sports betting content here in our new betting hub]

Last season’s Jacksonville team wasn’t even in the top 10 in this advanced stat. Similarly, despite the Chiefs always throwing a lot in the Mahomes era, they had a very low rate of explosive plays last year. Kansas City used short passes as a de facto run game. They averaged just 22.6 points per game, ranking 15th in the NFL. This season, they’re already up to just over 24 PPG through four games. The addition of Xavier Worthy for Kansas City in Week 4 showed to be significant to their downfield playmaking abilities, and the result was a season high in scoring against the Baltimore Ravens.

The betting market has already taken this total up from a Week 5 open of 44.5 to a consensus 45.5, but I think there is another full point of value to be gained, and this will close next Monday night at 46.5 or higher.

Bet: Over 45.5

Read more …

More Articles …

  1. Pete Carroll: Maxx Crosby's play is just crazy good
  2. Fantasy Football Week 5 Defense (DST) Rankings and Streamers
  3. Jets coach Aaron Glenn reportedly yelled at team so loud after Week 4 loss he could be heard in the next room
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