I don’t envy Malik Willis.

On a personal level, I wish him nothing but good things in his life on and off the football field. Is he nevertheless going to end up like Jordan Love, Caleb Williams, and Baker Mayfield in Week 4? The NFL’s QBs have all been struggling to overcome what Vikings DC Brian Flores has been bringing.

The image I have in my mind is that of branches being fed into a living, breathing wood chipper that is the Vikings’ defense.

Mr. Willis, an ascending talent playing for a team intent on undergoing a terrible descent, is in a terrible setting in Miami. Worse yet, he’s working without running back De’Von Achane (torn ACL). The Dolphins’ passer therefore appears to be the next in line of promising passers who get demolished by the waves of pressure from Coach Flores.

The NFL’s QBs and the Brian Flores Defensive Machine

Consider some of the basic statistics for the passers who have come up against the Minnesota Vikings:

• Week 1: Jordan Love — 4 Sacks & 10 QB Hits
• Week 2: Caleb Williams & Tyson Bagent — 4 Sacks & 4 QB Hits
• Week 3: Baker Mayfield — 6 Sacks & 3 QB Hits
• Week 4: Malik Willis — ?

Note that neither of Williams nor Mayfield got out of their Vikings game uninjured. In fact, each are still in the process of recovering from injuries sustained against the Vikings. Now, there’s zero reason for glory or applause in that basic fact; nobody should be celebrating when somebody gets hurt. The point is a basic observation: hanging in for a full fight against the Vikings’ defense looks very, very difficult.

Brian Flores is like a heavyweight fighter who is throwing haymakers over and over again. So far, the NFL’s QBs haven’t been able to figure out a way to continue dodging the massive punches.

The 0-3 Miami Dolphins are working with the 31st-ranked offense in the NFL, meaning they’re a single spot away from being in last place. The Dolphins are swimming to a measly 12 points per game. Part of the problem is that there’s a talent deficit all around the roster, a problem that grows worse with the absence of Achane to carry the pigskin.

— READ MORE: Vikings Pull Off 8 Roster Moves —
— READ MORE: Know Your Enemy: The Miami Dolphins —
— READ MORE: And Now the Vikings’ Practice Squad Gets Nourished —

Willis hasn’t been flawless out there. Miami’s QB1 is completing 57.0% of his passes; his 1 touchdown has been paired with 2 interceptions. Nobody is going to be impressed by his 74.1 passer rating. Nor, for that matter, will anyone be particularly scared by the threat he poses, in no small part due to the complete lack of support around him.

Very seldom, if ever at all, does a team so nakedly commit to tanking as the 2026 Miami Dolphins. Sunday could therefore get really ugly.

In 2026, Willis has been blitzed a total of 26 times, per Pro Football Reference. Brian Flores may double that total in a single game. The DC is going to identify weaknesses and then attack these vulnerable spots with a relentlessness that few can match. If a lineman (or two) can’t keep up, Flores is going to go directly at that spot.

Willis, no doubt, has a role to play. Be decisive out there. Run out of bounds when possible. Make the correct pre-snap adjustments. Throw the ball away when necessary. Do all of the little things well to avoid getting suplexed and to keep his side competitive.

Truthfully, though, that’s not going to be enough. Miami’s coaching staff needs to recognize that a juggernaut of a defense is coming for its passer. Failing to equip that passer with consistently clever, simply sophisticated solutions means getting to a bad spot by the end of the game.

The issue is that Minnesota’s coaching staff is almost certainly better than Miami’s. The roster talent certainly is, so that make things doubly difficult.

Kickoff for the Vikings and Dolphins is scheduled for 3:05 p.m. CT on Sunday, October 4th inside of U.S. Bank Stadium.

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Perhaps the enduring image of this Houston Astros season will be that of their ace exiting the first inning of a must-win playoff game, done in partly by the deficiencies around him, accompanied by the boos of a meager crowd at Daikin Park, with no clear direction for its displeasure.

It felt aimed beyond the pitcher walking from the mound, perhaps at the overall performance of a team unable to meet the standards set by a dominant decade, or its architects. All bear some responsibility in the season that came to an abrupt end on Wednesday afternoon.

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It concluded with a 7-3 loss to the Chicago White Sox, who descended on Daikin Park and swept a best-of-three American League wild-card series to send the Astros into the offseason – and the uncertainties that await there shrouding this franchise’s immediate future.

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Despite two wild-card round appearances in the last three years, the Astros have not won a playoff game since 2023. Some holdovers remain from halcyon seasons, but the aura of inevitability that accompanied them is gone.

The Astros went 81-81 this season, becoming MLB’s first team to make the playoffs with a non-winning record in a full-length season. They had their fewest wins in a full-length season since 2014, when they lost 92 games in the final year of a rebuild.

Their direction since has never seemed less clear. The Astros have posted declining win totals in each of the last four seasons. They dismissed general manager Dana Brown in August, leaving owner Jim Crane overseeing a small group of executives running baseball operations down the stretch.

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Manager Joe Espada is not under contract beyond this year, leaving his status unclear. A porous major-league roster and poorly rated farm system will require whoever is running baseball operations for the Astros to evaluate the club’s long-term trajectory this winter.

For all that, the Astros won their eighth American League West title in 10 years, with every other team in the division finishing below .500. They overcame a brutal start for the second time in three years, rallying from 11 games under .500 on May 21 to go 61-50 the rest of the way.

They managed it despite a roster with myriad deficiencies. Houston‘s pitching staff posted the seventh-highest ERA in the majors. Its outfielders ranked second-to-last in OPS. It carried baseball’s seventh-highest opening day payroll, per the Associated Press, and finished with a negative-32 run differential.

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Houston’s front office acquired six pitchers on major-league deals last winter. They compiled a 5.52 ERA for the Astros this season, with only marquee free agent Tatsuya Imai – who lost his rotation spot and finished as a mop-up reliever – remaining on the active major-league roster at the end of the season.

Just two starters, Peter Lambert and Hunter Brown, reached 100 innings. Yordan Alvarez staged a Triple Crown bid and will likely be the AL Most Valuable Player, but the Astros offense proved much too reliant on its top three of Jeremy Peña, Alvarez and Isaac Paredes, with little depth in the lineup’s lower half.

The Astros led the majors in home runs, but just nine teams scored fewer runs from Aug. 1 through the end of the season. Veterans Jose Altuve and Christian Walker were inconsistent. No full-time outfielder on the roster posted an OPS-plus even MLB average, including lone trade acquisition Daulton Varsho.

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Houston claimed its division on the last day of the season, along with a home wild-card series. But as in 2024 against Detroit, it did not win a game in the opening round. The White Sox won a dueling bullpen game in Game 1 on Tuesday, outclassing Houston’s with its variety of looks and high-octane stuff.

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For Game 2, the Astros sent Brown, their ace and a Cy Young finalist last year, to the mound looking to prolong their season. Brown did not escape the first inning, as the White Sox scored four runs against him – aided by shoddy Houston defense – forging a lead they never relinquished.

The Astros pared it to 4-3. And in the fifth inning, they brought Altuve, the face of the franchise, up to bat with the bases loaded and two out. With a paid crowd of 36,015 on its feet, Altuve flied out. Chase Meidroth hit a three-run home run in the next half-inning, a blow that felt final.

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For Houston, then, another offseason begins. On the roster, Altuve, Carlos Correa, Alvarez and Walker are all signed for next season. So are Josh Hader, entering the fourth season of a five-year, $95 million contract, and starter Cristian Javier, who will be in the final season of an ill-fated $64 million extension. Imai seems unlikely to opt out of his deal after a poor first MLB season.

Peña, Paredes and catcher Yainer Diaz are under club control next season, as are starters Hunter Brown, Lambert, Hayden Wesneski and Mike Burrows. Key relievers Abreu and Steven Okert, along with Varsho, are the most notable impending free agents.

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Yet the infield is overcrowded with Correa, who had season-ending ankle surgery in May, expected back healthy next spring. Peña will be entering his last season of club control, meanwhile, the same situation in which the Astros traded right fielder Kyle Tucker two winters ago, inviting the question of whether an organization in transition could explore a similar move.

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The lack of outfield production begs to be addressed. What capacity Houston will have for that remains to be seen. Crane, who has not put forth a timeline or any details about the search for a new general manager, has declared that his team’s contending window will not close under his watch. Another early playoff exit makes it clear: That ambition is facing its toughest test.

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This article originally published at Astros’ season ends in a sweep, raising questions about what comes next for Houston.

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Image copyright Harry-Walsh

Manchester City’s defiant stance in the face of a landmark Premier League ruling has laid bare the depth of the crisis facing English football’s richest club, as executives across Europe wait to see how the fallout from an eight-year investigation will finally play out.

Chief executive Ferran Soriano struck an unbowed tone at a board meeting of European Football Clubs in Copenhagen this week, telling fellow executives that the process was far from over. According to reports of the private gathering, Soriano pointed out that it had “taken eight years to get here and it’s going to take a lot more time” — a reference to the Premier League’s investigation, which began in 2018. He left the meeting without taking questions from waiting media.

The comments came days after it emerged that City had been found guilty of the vast majority of the 115 charges brought against them by the Premier League, in a case centred on allegations that the club inflated sponsorship income from companies linked to its ownership and made undisclosed “off the books” payments to sidestep financial regulations designed to keep competition fair.

Club chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has already sought to reassure supporters, writing in a letter over the weekend that his confidence in the club’s ultimate vindication remains undiminished. “The Premier League process still has a long way to run, and our confidence and intent in proving the club’s innocence is just as strong as when this began,” he wrote, while acknowledging that legal confidentiality prevented him from sharing the details underpinning that optimism. Even the letter itself, he noted, had been through repeated legal vetting before publication.

What comes next remains genuinely uncertain. Sanctions have yet to be handed down, and the range of possible outcomes is unusually wide for a case of this magnitude — from a substantial fine to a points deduction, or even, at the extreme end, expulsion from the top flight. City have already signalled their intention to appeal whatever punishment is eventually imposed, meaning any resolution could still be years away.

The verdict has reverberated well beyond the Etihad. Rival clubs are reportedly taking legal advice on whether they might be entitled to compensation, given the scale and duration of the alleged breaches and the competitive advantage they are said to have conferred. Elsewhere in the game, senior figures have been quick to weigh in: La Liga president Javier Tebas has called for a “severe” sanction, while Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca’s predecessor-turned-England boss Mauricio Pochettino described the case as reflecting a “period of deception” in the sport. Even within English football’s own dressing rooms the case is a live topic, with figures such as former City goalkeeper Joe Hart publicly backing Al Mubarak’s insistence on the club’s innocence.

For all the noise, though, insiders suggest there is little appetite among Premier League clubs themselves for the nuclear option of stripping City of any of the titles won during the period in question — even as the threat of it lingers in the background of every conversation about sanctions. That tension, between a desire to see the case resolved decisively and a reluctance to unravel a decade of competitive history, is likely to shape the debate for months to come.

The saga arrives at an already fraught moment for the international game. Elsewhere this week, simmering political tensions surrounded a Nations League fixture between Israel and the Republic of Ireland, a reminder that football’s institutions are being pulled in multiple directions simultaneously — forced to police financial fair play at the elite club level while also navigating geopolitics on the international stage.

Whether the Manchester City case ultimately reshapes the Premier League’s approach to regulation, or simply confirms suspicions that its richest clubs operate by a different set of rules, will depend on decisions still to come. What is already clear is that City have no intention of accepting Friday’s findings quietly, and that the next chapter of English football’s biggest governance battle is only just beginning.

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England white-ball captain Jos Buttler believes Brendon McCullum’s controversial removal from the Test coaching role earlier this year may end up being a blessing in disguise for England’s Cricket World Cup ambitions, with the New Zealander now able to pour all of his energy into next winter’s tournament in southern Africa.

McCullum was stripped of his red-ball duties in July, with Stephen Fleming brought in to take charge of the Test side. The 44-year-old has continued to oversee England’s white-ball teams, working alongside specialist mentor Kevin Pietersen, and has since guided the side to an impressive 11 wins from 13 matches, including series victories over both India and Sri Lanka in the one-day format.

Speaking on his For the Love of Cricket podcast, Buttler said the narrower remit had allowed McCullum to commit himself entirely to solving England’s one-day problems ahead of the World Cup, rather than splitting his attention across formats.

“He’s only got one focus now and that is the white ball,” Buttler said. “It’s not that he couldn’t do everything, because he could, but your time is more spread and you’ve got more to think about with the Test team as well. Now he can focus solely on white-ball cricket – T20, yes, but mainly ODI cricket with that World Cup on the horizon.”

Buttler, who led England through their disastrous defence of the 50-over title in 2023, added that McCullum appeared to have channelled his competitive instincts squarely towards ending England’s recent struggles in the format that made them world champions in 2019.

“It seems like Baz is naturally all in on, ‘how do I win this World Cup with this team?’” he said. “I think he can sort of see that World Cup is not that far away. It’s a real target, now his remit has changed from four months ago being in charge of everything to, ‘right, I can really nail down on this’. He’s just got more time and more focus on that. ODI cricket for England has not been consistently great for a couple of years, so there’s some nice growth to go on that, and this summer’s been a really good start.”

England’s white-ball form since the coaching reshuffle has certainly given cause for optimism. A 3-0 clean sweep in the T20 series against Sri Lanka was followed by a 2-1 one-day series win that included a thumping 223-run victory at The Oval, though Sri Lanka did register a 16-run win at Headingley to prevent a whitewash.

The timing of any turnaround matters for England, who have looked short of their best in ODI cricket since claiming the trophy on home soil six years ago. With the World Cup now less than 18 months away, Buttler’s comments suggest the dressing room views the coaching split not as a demotion for McCullum but as a sharpening of purpose.

There was less positive news on the injury front, however. Buttler confirmed he will miss England’s forthcoming tri-series tour of Pakistan after suffering a hamstring injury during the second ODI against Sri Lanka, and is also a doubt for the November tour of Australia. That raises the prospect of England’s most experienced one-day batter missing as many as eight ODIs during a crucial stretch of World Cup preparation.

“I’ve had a scan and I’m waiting to see the specialist. Then we’ll know what the next steps are,” Buttler said of his recovery. “The unknown is often the tough part. Any cricketer just wants a physio or a doctor to tell you, ‘on this date you’ll be back playing cricket’. Unfortunately, they can’t do that just yet.”

With McCullum now singularly focused on the white-ball project and England building momentum in the 50-over format, the coming months will offer a clearer picture of whether the reshuffled setup can deliver when it matters most – though for now, the team’s talisman with the bat will be watching much of that build-up from the sidelines.

Football’s fixture pile-up has claimed another high-profile casualty, and the head of England’s players’ union says the game’s authorities only have themselves to blame.

Cole Palmer’s withdrawal from Thomas Tuchel’s latest England squad has become a lightning rod for a debate that has simmered for years but is now reaching boiling point. Speaking at the Fifpro performance summit in London, Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Maheta Molango did not mince his words, describing the current football calendar as “sick” and warning that stars of Palmer’s calibre are being sacrificed to a relentless scheduling machine.

Palmer was one of five England players — alongside Marcus Rashford, Declan Rice, Kobbie Mainoo and Tino Livramento — to pull out of the squad ahead of the recent Nations League window. For Molango, the sheer number of absentees from a single national squad should be setting off alarm bells across the sport.

“When England see five players who need to withdraw when the single most proud moment a player has is to be called up for the national team, you just ask yourself, what’s wrong about the industry?” Molango said. “You see people like Cole Palmer, someone who would have played four consecutive summers in a row had he gone to the World Cup, and you wonder why is he missing? He’s missing because he’s a victim of the calendar and that’s something that needs to absolutely trigger the alarm bells.”

The comments arrive after Tuchel appeared to take a swipe at Palmer directly, suggesting the Chelsea forward “misses too many opportunities” through injury and load management. Molango pushed back firmly against that framing, insisting the problem lies with the system rather than the individual.

“They love to play for England. They love to play for their national team,” Molango said. “But unfortunately your body puts a limit to it. You cannot cheat biology.”

He was quick to stress that this is not a purely English phenomenon. Recent withdrawals from other major European nations — including Germany’s Kai Havertz, Netherlands forward Brian Brobbey and France captain Kylian Mbappe — point, he argued, to a continent-wide crisis born of an expanded international calendar, a bloated Club World Cup, and a Champions League format that now demands more from players than ever before.

“Is that really the football that we want?” Molango asked. “Is it the football where the people who make us dream just cannot perform? For me it’s very worrying. What we’ve seen over the last few years is a system that’s sick, that’s ill, because it ultimately revolves around obtaining votes and power consolidation.”

He went further, framing the issue in stark commercial terms as well as human ones. “It’s a defeat for football that people like Cole Palmer and Phil Foden miss out on the World Cup,” he said. “They’re the people that you pay to see. People don’t pay for the journeyman Maheta Molango. People pay to see those type of guys.”

Molango’s prescription is straightforward, even if implementing it has proven anything but: a mandatory three-week summer break for players, followed by a further three weeks of “retraining” to prepare properly for the following season — effectively a six-week reset that the current fixture list simply does not accommodate.

The Premier League’s response suggests the appetite for change exists, even if the practical pathway does not. Rebecca Caplehorn, the league’s chief football officer, acknowledged the merits of Molango’s proposal but stopped short of committing to it.

“It’s something we’re really supportive of, conceptually, but the challenge is that it just doesn’t fit into the current calendar,” Caplehorn said. “There’s always something that’s preventing us having that six-week gap that we want. Without regulatory change and change to the calendar, it’s not possible for us to deliver that.”

That admission cuts to the heart of the dispute. Domestic leagues, continental competitions and FIFA’s own tournaments have each expanded independently in recent years, with little apparent coordination over the cumulative toll on the players who have to deliver on all of them. Molango’s language — “survival of the fittest” — reflects a growing sense among player representatives that welfare has been an afterthought in decisions driven instead by broadcast revenue and political influence within the game’s governing bodies.

For now, the immediate consequence is visible in team sheets rather than boardrooms: some of the sport’s most watchable players, from Palmer and Foden to Mbappe, sidelined not by loss of form but by simple physical exhaustion. Whether Molango’s intervention accelerates any genuine reform remains to be seen, but his message was unambiguous — without structural change to the calendar, supporters should expect to see more of their biggest stars on the treatment table rather than the pitch.

The last few years have been quite difficult for Trent Alexander-Arnold, who endured a poor debut campaign at Real Madrid and subsequently missed the World Cup squad.

But as part of the UEFA Nations League, the right-back has made his comeback to the national team and recently earned his first start for England since October 2024, as he started against Czechia.

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The former Liverpool star did not disappoint either, producing a brilliant performance in the right-back position and picking up the Man of the Match award.

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Trent’s performance against Czechia

The Real Madrid defender was at his creative best, capping his display with an assist and a string of standout numbers.

Trent created the most big chances in the match with one, added three key passes, and led the game for both accurate long balls (five) and accurate crosses (four).

Defensively, he chipped in with two interceptions, while also racking up 95 touches at an 88 percent pass accuracy, earning an excellent 8.07 rating from WhoScored.

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It was the kind of commanding, all-action showing that made him one of the finest full-backs in the world during his time at Anfield.

The Englishman also revealed the thinking behind his assist for Anthony Gordon, highlighting a clever half-time conversation.

“I spoke to Gordon at halftime, and I told him that I would move into the spaces and that I would look for him and that he just needed to get to the far post,” he said (h/t Independent).

“I saw the run and was able to execute the pass. He’s a fantastic player who makes excellent runs, and it’s great playing with him,” he added.

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A timely reminder of his quality

Can Trent get back to his best at Real Madrid? (Photo by Angel Martinez/Getty Images)

The display served as a statement from Trent, who has endured a testing period on both the club and international fronts.

The numbers behind his England career are remarkable too, with the Three Lions having won 74.1% of the matches he has started, a figure bettered only by Marcus Rashford among players with 25 or more starts.

For Real Madrid, a rejuvenated and confident Trent can only be a positive.

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Having impressed for the club against Malaga earlier in the season, this latest showing suggests the right-back is beginning to rediscover his best form, which can only be a good sign for Jose Mourinho.

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Matthew Schaefer will wear an “A” for the Islanders at 19, becoming the youngest official alternate captain in franchise history after winning the Calder Trophy.

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