NFL Is Back, US Open Week 2, Mexico-USA, CFB Saturday and More to Watch
Happy fall (unofficially), everybody. We're in September, and that means many things: college and pro football from Thursday until Monday every week, playoff races in the final month of the MLB regular season, the final week of tennis's final major and, for good measure this week, both the United States men and women are in action on the pitch.
Must Watch: NFL Returns
College football started last weekend, and the NFL kicks off this week. The season opens Thursday night (8:20 p.m. ET on NBC) with one of the league's most iconic rivalries: Green Bay Packers at Chicago Bears.
After the Bears won the NFC North last season, perennial MVP candidate Aaron Rodgers will look to make the first statement in taking it back. But he'll have to do it against one of the best and nastiest defenses in the league, led by Khalil Mack, Roquan Smith and Leonard Floyd.
This weekend brings the wonderful first NFL Sunday of the year, which features 13 games. For odds and lines of each game, go here. Here are the matchups and storylines to watch Sunday while you do absolutely nothing else (all times Eastern):
- Tennessee Titans at Cleveland Browns, 1 p.m. on CBS: The Browns have had all the hype this offseason; now they have to play back it up on the field.
- Los Angeles Rams at Carolina Panthers, 1 p.m. on Fox: The reigning NFC champions are looking to find the explosive offense that was lacking in the Super Bowl. Rams running back Todd Gurley is from North Carolina, so you know he'll want to have a big game back home.
- Kansas City Chiefs at Jacksonville Jaguars, 1 p.m. on CBS: What will last season's MVP, Patrick Mahomes, do for an encore?
- Indianapolis Colts at Los Angeles Chargers, 4:05 p.m. on CBS: The first game of the post-Andrew Luck era for the Colts.
- New York Giants at Dallas Cowboys, 4:25 p.m. ET on Fox: Focus on the running backs in this one: Can New York's Saquon Barkley top his rookie season, and will Dallas' Ezekiel Elliott, in the middle of a contract holdout, even be there?
- Pittsburgh Steelers at New England Patriots, 8:20 p.m. on NBC: The defending Super Bowl champion Patriots will raise another title banner and face their frequent AFC playoff opponent Pittsburgh, which (happily?) begins the post-Antonio Brown era, led by Ben Roethlisberger and JuJu Smith-Schuster.
Watch This: U.S. Open Concludes
After an eventful first weekend in New York during which both defending champions and top seeds lost within a little more than 12 hours of each other, the U.S. Open rolls on into its second week, beginning with the men's and women's quarterfinals Tuesday and Wednesday.
A left shoulder injury forced men's No. 1 Novak Djokovic to retire from his match against No. 23 Stan Wawrinka on Sunday while already down two sets, opening that half of the draw potentially for No. 3 Roger Federer to reach the final. On Monday women's No. 1 Naomi Osaka fell in straight sets to No. 13 Belinda Bencic while appearing to struggle with a left knee injury. In a fun coincidence, both players who pulled off the upsets are Swiss.
Tuesday's men's quarterfinals feature former U.S. Open champion Wawrinka vs. No. 5 Daniil Medvedev in the afternoon session and Federer vs. Grigor Dimitrov at night. Wednesday's quarters will pit No. 24 Matteo Berrettini vs. No. 13 Gael Monfils and No. 20 Diego Schwartzman vs. No. 2 Rafael Nadal, who had a big fan cheering him on Monday.
In the women's draw, the pair of Tuesday quarterfinals are No. 5 Elina Svitolina vs. No. 16 Johanna Konta during the day and No. 8 Serena Williams vs. No. 18 Qiang Wang at night. On Wednesday it will be No. 15 Bianca Andreescu vs. No. 25 Elise Mertens and Bencic vs. No. 23 Donna Vekic.
The women's semifinals are Thursday night at 7 p.m., with the men's the following day starting at 4 p.m. Both tournament finals begin at 4 p.m., with the women's on Saturday and men's on Sunday. All of these matches will air on ESPN. For the complete schedule of play, go here. And for the latest scores and updated brackets, go here.
More to Watch
1. College Football Saturday
Was the first Saturday of college football everything you imagined? It had upsets (hello, Georgia State), insane finishes (sorry Oregon...to Auburn again) and the general weirdness (read: insanity) we've come to know and love (paging Hugh Freeze). This is how we were all feeling at the end of the day's action.
And the best part is we get to do it all again in just a few days. These are the games to watch in the second week of college football:
- No. 12 Texas A&M at No. 1 Clemson, 3:30 p.m. on ABC: This is the first home game for the reigning champs Clemson, the first heavyweight on the Aggies' unrelenting schedule and the first meeting between Dabo Swinney and Jimbo Fisher since the latter left Florida State, where they faced off annually in the ACC. One Aggie is already boldly calling an upset:
- Central Michigan at No. 17 Wisconsin, 3:30 p.m. on Big Ten Network: OK, this one doesn't jump off the page, but Wisconsin has junior running back and Heisman Trophy candidate Jonathan Taylor, who totaled 183 yards and four touchdowns in the Badgers opener. He'll be a fun player to watch all season no matter for which team you support.
- No. 6 LSU at No. 9 Texas, 7:30 p.m. on ABC: College GameDay will be in Austin for this SEC-Big 12 clash as the Longhorns hope to make another statement against the SEC after beating Georgia in the Sugar Bowl last season.
- Miami at North Carolina, 8 p.m. on ACC Network: First-year ACC head coaches Manny Diaz and Mack Brown square off in an important conference opener for both teams.
Plus some "Pac-12 After Dark" action:
- California at No. 14 Washington, 10:30 p.m. on FS1: Huskies quarterback Jacob Eason debuted Saturday with a career-high four touchdown passes, adding a big arm to Chris Petersen's offense that hasn't been there in past seasons.
- No. 23 Stanford at USC, 10:30 p.m. on ESPN: The Trojans looked not great in barely getting by Fresno State in their first game, and a loss at home to rival Stanford will thoroughly heat up coach Clay Helton's seat already. It doesn't help that starting quarterback JT Daniels is out for the year after an ACL injury.
2. Mexico vs. USA
The 70th edition of Mexico vs. United States takes place Friday (8:30 p.m. on FS1 and Univision) in a rematch of the CONCACAF Gold Cup final from this summer, a 1-0 El Tri win. The match in New Jersey is the first of two friendlies for the USMNT during this international window, the second of which is next week against Uruguay in St. Louis.
Ajax defender Sergino Dest gets his first U.S. call-up, and he'll face his club teammate Edson Alvarez, a fellow defender. Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie will lead the Americans in attack and midfield, respectively, and another player getting his first senior-team action, Atlanta United defender Miles Robinson, will strengthen the back line. Mexico gets a boost with the return of several standout players who missed the Gold Cup with injuries or needing rest, including Hirving Lozano, Jesus Corona and the country's all-time leading scorer, Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez.
3. USWNT Victory Tour
The U.S. women's national team defeated Portugal 4-0 last week and will get a rematch Tuesday night during the Americans' World Cup victory tour.
Their matchup last week in Philadelphia had an attendance of 49,504, setting a record for the most ever for a stand-alone women's friendly. The team expects another big crowd Tuesday in Minnesota as it goes for 16 wins in a row, its most since 1996. Watch the United States vs. Portugal at 8 p.m. on ESPN2.
4. HBO Sports double feature
With the NFL starting this week, that brings us to the season finale of Hard Knocks. The series has followed the Oakland Raiders throughout training camp and the preseason with new head coach Jon Gruden and wide receiver Antonio Brown. The final episode airs Tuesday at 10 p.m. on HBO.
After the credits roll on Hard Knocks, a new episode of LeBron James' The Shop: Uninterrupted premieres at 11 p.m. This edition features Maverick Carter, Rob Gronkowski, Kevin Love, CJ McCollum, Kevin Hart, Lil Nas X, Charlamagne Tha God and Paul Rivera. Watch a trailer for the episode here.
5. Huge Division Series in MLB
The first weekend of September, the final month of the MLB regular season, is stacked. Four massive division series can get tighter, or the leaders can send the teams behind them firmly into focusing on the wild-card race.
Check out the current standings, and here are the series to watch, with pitching matchups. MLB.TV games are also televised locally:
New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox
- Domingo Herman (NYY) vs. TBA (BOS), 7:10 p.m. on MLB.TV
- J.A. Happ vs. David Price, 4:05 p.m. on FS1
- Masahiro Tanaka vs. Rick Porcello, 8 p.m. on ESPN
Washington Nationals at Atlanta Braves (series starts Thursday, all on MLB.TV)
- Stephen Strasburg (WAS) vs. Max Fried (ATL), 7:20 p.m.
- Patrick Corbin vs. Dallas Keuchel, 7:20 p.m.
- Joe Ross vs. Julio Teheran, 7:20 p.m.
- Max Scherzer vs. Mike Soroka, 1:20 p.m.
Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee Brewers (all on MLB.TV)
- Cole Hamels (CHC) vs. Zach Davies (MIL), 8:10 p.m.
- Yu Darvish vs. Gio Gonzalez, 7:10 p.m.
- Kyle Hendricks vs. Adrian Houser, 2:10 p.m.
Cleveland Indians at Minnesota Twins (all on MLB.TV)
- Adam Plutko vs. Michael Pineda, 8:10 p.m.
- Aaron Civale vs. Jake Odorizzi, 7:10 p.m.
- Mike Clevinger vs. Jose Berrios, 2:10 p.m.
6. International Break Soccer, Euro Qualifying
The first international break of the new club soccer season is upon us, and it brings important matches in Euro 2020 qualifying and an intriguing friendly in South America.
Thursday's top European qualifiers:
- Armenia vs. Italy, 12 p.m. on ESPNews
- Romania vs. Spain, 2:45 p.m. on ESPN+
- Finland vs. Greece, 2:45 p.m. on ESPN3
- Ireland vs. Switzerland, 2:45 p.m. on ESPNews
Thursday's international friendly:
- Chile vs. Argentina, 10 p.m. on ESPN Deportes: These teams have played seven times since 2012, all in either Copa America or the FIFA World Cup, and every match has been close. Chile has two wins, both in the Copa, both after 0-0 scores in regular time and both to penalties. Argentina has won the other five but each by only one goal, including a 2-1 win earlier this summer in the latest Copa.
Weekend Euro 2020 qualifying:
Friday
- Germany vs. Netherlands, 2:45 p.m. on ESPN2
- Slovakia vs. Croatia, 2:45 p.m. on ESPN3
- Wales vs. Azerbaijan, 2:45 p.m. on ESPN3
Saturday
- England vs. Bulgaria, 12 p.m. on ESPN+
- France vs. Albania, 2:45 p.m. on ESPN+
- Serbia vs. Portugal, 2:45 p.m. on ESPN+
Sunday
- Finland vs. Italy, 2:45 p.m. on ESPN+
- Spain vs. Faroe Islands, 2:45 p.m. on ESPN3
- Sweden vs. Norway, 2:45 p.m. on ESPNews
What's on B/R Live
ONE: Immortal Triumph
The ONE Championship holds its debut event in Vietnam with a muay thai-filled card in Ho Chi Minh City, Friday morning. ONE: Immortal Triumph will feature top-to-bottom ONE Super Series Muay Thai bouts, headlined by Thailand's Nong-O Gaiyanghadao defending his title belt in the bantamweight world championship against Algeria's Brice Delval.
The full seven-bout main card, which you can view here, begins Friday at 9:30 a.m. ET on B/R Live. Watch ONE: Immortal Triumph for free here.
Quick Catchup
1. All Out Went All-Out
All Elite Wrestling's second pay-per-view event delivered the goods Saturday night. All Out crowned AEW's first world champion and set the stage for even more to come.
Next up for AEW is the premiere of its weekly program, which is barely more than a month away now. The Wednesday night show will debut Oct. 2 on TNT. If you missed All Out, you can still buy it to watch on B/R Live. If you already purchased it on B/R Live, you can watch the full replay as many times as you want. Stream All Out here.
2. BIG3 Champs
Joe Johnson scored 28 points and drilled another game-winner to secure the BIG3 title.
3. Oh how we missed you, college football
Dedicating the remainder of this section to the best moments from the return of college football, presented with as minimal context as possible.
Feedback or suggestions on our newsletter? Contact us at brlivenewsletter@turner.com.
