FRISCO, Texas -- Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott is likely to play Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles without taking any meaningful snaps in practice during the week because of his sprained right shoulder, according to a source.

Prescott was limited at a practice for the first time in his career on Wednesday. He did not take a snap and will likely also be listed as limited over the next two days, with the club looking to be cautious with his health heading into a de facto NFC East championship game against the Eagles.

With a win, the Cowboys would clinch the division for the second straight year and third time in Prescott's four seasons as a starter. With a loss, they would need to win their season finale against the Washington Redskins and hope the Eagles lose to the New York Giants.

Prescott suffered the injury in the first quarter of last week's win against the Los Angeles Rams on a 7-yard run in which linebacker Clay Matthews landed on the quarterback. Prescott did not miss a snap, but he attempted a season-low 23 passes and tied his season low with 212 yards. The Cowboys, however, ran for 263 yards, with running backs Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard going for more than 100 yards each, so Prescott was not required to throw much.

Prescott underwent an MRI after the Rams' win, and Jason Garrett said, "Everything seems to be OK." Elliott added that Prescott had a sprained AC joint. Prescott is also dealing with an injury to his right index finger as well as an issue with his left wrist.

"Knowing Dak, you'd have to kill him to get him off the field," Pro Bowl guard Zack Martin said.

Said Elliott, "I think he's just resting up by making sure that thing is right as it can be by game time. I've dealt with some AC joints and they're tough. I couldn't imagine having to throw with it. But I know Dak. I know his toughness. I know he'll play."

If Prescott suffers a setback before or during the game, the Cowboys would turn to backup Cooper Rush, who has played five snaps this season and has thrown three passes in his career.

August seems like forever ago in NFL terms, but it really has been only 15 weeks. So much can change in the course of four months, and what might have seemed controversial or even absurd over the summer has turned out to be obvious and factual. In going back through the 2019 season, I can sit here now and say things that would have absolutely shocked me back in the preseason.

Let's run through 15 of the biggest surprises from this NFL season. I'll also try to get a sense of how sustainable or likely to reoccur each is, although some are self-evident. And let's start with the most dominant player of 2019:

Jump to a topic:
Dak's dominance | Cratering 2004 QBs
The Pats' legendary D | A surprise sacker
Running QBs | A decent Bucs defense?!
Cousins: MVP candidate? | Foles' quick exit
A historic receiving season | Horrific kicking

Lamar Jackson would blow away Tom Brady -- as a passer

After Jackson threw for 324 yards and five touchdowns in a season-opening blowout of the Dolphins, I was impressed. When Brady proceeded to start carving apart the Steelers in prime time that night, I decided to crack a joke on Twitter:

yeesh, Tom Brady looks like Lamar Jackson out there

— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) September 9, 2019

The following morning, I wrote about Jackson's performance and pointed out that his record-setting day wasn't simply a product of playing the tanking Dolphins, who still had Minkah Fitzpatrick in their secondary. I finished the Jackson section with this: "If anyone thinks they shouldn't be scared of what Jackson can do as a passer, Sunday should be a wake-up call."

Little did I know. I'd like to say that I saw what was coming, but I didn't. Jackson, of course, has picked apart just about every team he has faced this season. The guy who fell back below league average after a hot start to the season was Brady, who began 2019 with three great games and hasn't been the same since. Out of 31 qualifying quarterbacks since Week 4, Brady ranks 28th in completion percentage, 31st in yards per attempt and 27th in both passer rating and Total QBR. Two weeks ago, I wrote that Brady's numbers were comparable to those of Mitchell Trubisky, but the Bears quarterback has now pulled ahead.

Even when we factor in those three impressive games in September, Brady's full-season performance isn't remotely close to what Jackson has done strictly as a passer:

Even though Brady has thrown 181 more passes than Jackson, Jackson's efficiency means he has generated more cumulative expected points added (EPA) as a passer (62.8) than Brady (51.8). The 2018 first-round pick has completed a much higher percentage of his passes despite the fact that his average pass has traveled 8.5 yards in the air, more than a yard beyond Brady's average of 7.1 air yards per attempt.

The excuses you might try to make for Brady don't apply, either. The Patriots quarterback has played one of the easiest schedules in football, not Jackson. Brady's receivers have dropped a higher percentage of his passes, but when you remove those plays for both passers, Jackson is still nearly 16 points ahead of Brady in passer rating. And Brady has been pressured more frequently, but Jackson's passer rating when pressured is a league-best 103.7, while Brady is down at 39.6. That's not a product of scrambling, either; Jackson has a 102.2 passer rating when he is pressured and makes a throw from the pocket.

Purely on cumulative passing EPA, Jackson ranks 14th in the NFL, right around what Aaron Rodgers has produced this season. By passing EPA per attempt, Jackson is seventh. That's more than enough when you consider what Jackson generates as a runner, where his 43.9 EPA is more than double the guys ranked second (Deshaun Watson) and third (Daniel Jones) combined and better than any running back in football. Jackson is an incredibly special player and an easy pick for 2019 MVP.

Three quarterbacks would lead their team in both passing and rushing yards, and one of them would be ... Ryan Fitzpatrick

Since the merger in 1970, there have been six quarterbacks to lead their team in both passing and rushing yards: Bobby Douglass, Randall Cunningham, Donovan McNabb, Cam Newton, Russell Wilson and Josh Allen.

Three quarterbacks are in line to join this group in 2019. Lamar Jackson is no surprise in Baltimore. While David Johnson has disappointed in Arizona, people could have easily imagined a scenario in which he struggled to stay healthy and Kyler Murray was the focal point of the running game. The rookie No. 1 overall pick is 87 yards ahead of Kenyan Drake and could be usurped by the midseason trade acquisition and fantasy playoff hero by the end of the season.

Drake was expected to be the rushing leader in Miami, but how far would you have needed to go down its preseason list before landing on Fitzpatrick as the Dolphins' leading rusher? He has only 219 rushing yards, but with Drake in Arizona, Mark Walton having been released and Kalen Ballage on injured reserve, the next-closest competitor is Patrick Laird, who has 130 rushing yards with two games to go. The Dolphins gave Myles Gaskin (78 rushing yards) a chunk of Laird's workload during Sunday's loss to the Giants.

Before the season, I would have guessed that Fitzpatrick would be playing for another team by the time December rolled around. It seemed like the Dolphins were going to use their tanking season to evaluate Josh Rosen. But after Rosen struggled mightily in three starts, new coach Brian Flores went back to Fitzpatrick. Rosen, a first-round pick by Arizona in 2018, hasn't been seen since and probably isn't long for the Dolphins' roster.

Over the ensuing nine games, Fitzpatrick has played some of the best football of his career. He is eighth in QBR over that time frame while throwing 339 passes, which ties him with Mitchell Trubisky for the most in football. A top-10 quarterback who soaks up this much volume is pretty valuable! Fitzpatrick is third in passing EPA and sixth in rushing EPA over that nine-start stretch, and he has done so by playing behind an offensive line that might charitably be described as a work in progress.

The more cynical among us might note that the Dolphins' chances of claiming the No. 1 pick in the 2020 draft have fallen from 89.1% to just 7.1%, according to the ESPN Football Power Index, but it's not Fitzpatrick's job to keep the tank alive. He has helped keep the Dolphins competitive, which is impressive for a 37-year-old on a team going nowhere.

The league leader in sacks would be a Broncos castoff

I did not see the Shaq Barrett season coming. An undrafted free agent in 2014, he showed some promise when he debuted the following season, racking up 5.5 sacks and 12 knockdowns while playing 45% of the defensive snaps. Buried behind DeMarcus Ware, Von Miller and Shane Ray, Barrett finally got a chance to start in 2017 and disappointed. He racked up four sacks and 12 knockdowns across 67% of Denver's defensive snaps, and the Broncos promptly used the fifth overall pick on Bradley Chubb, bouncing Barrett back to the bench.

Barrett seemed like a competent third rusher who would be stretched in a starting role, so it wasn't much of a surprise when he got a one-year deal with $3 million fully guaranteed. He has turned out to be the biggest bargain of the free-agent window. He has a league-high 16.5 sacks for the Buccaneers and 31 knockdowns, the latter figure tied with T.J. Watt for best in NFL.

It seemed like Barrett might have been a flash in a pan when he followed a run of nine sacks in four games to start the season by picking up just 1.5 sacks over the following four. That has not been the case. He has responded with five sacks and 14 knockdowns over his past four games. It's not fair to compare him to a generational athlete and former teammate, but if Miller has preternatural, almost-impossible bend to help get around tackles, Barrett is not far behind.

Barrett isn't going to get Miller's six-year, $114.5 million contract this offseason, but as Bruce Arians admittedly recently, Barrett "ain't going anywhere." The Bucs could use their franchise and transition tags to keep Barrett and Jameis Winston in-house for the short term, and it wouldn't be a surprise if they negotiated a multiyear deal with their star pass-rusher.

Dak Prescott would have the best season of the Class of 2016 quarterbacks

With Jared Goff coming off of a Super Bowl appearance and Carson Wentz gathering serious MVP chatter before the campaign, it seemed like Prescott would be battling to prove himself during 2019. When the 2016 fourth-round pick and the Cowboys failed to agree on a contract extension before the season, it became clear he was embarking on one of the most significant contract years in recent memory.

While Prescott hasn't been perfect, he has clearly been a cut above his competition. With Ezekiel Elliott struggling through his worst campaign as a pro and Amari Cooper battling various injuries for most of the season, Prescott has become the focal point of the Cowboys' offense.

Prescott also has outperformed his more expensive classmates in the process, each of whom have already received contract extensions:

On top of that, Prescott leads this foursome with 235 rushing yards and three touchdowns. For a player who often is criticized as a product of his environment, he hasn't benefited from much help this season. Dallas receivers have dropped 4.8% of his passes, which is the second-highest rate in the NFL, behind Fitzpatrick.

In all, Prescott is grossly exceeding expectations. NFL Next Gen Stats suggest he should have completed 62% of the passes he has thrown this season. Even given that significant drop rate, he has instead completed 65.5% of those passes. The 3.5% gap between his expected and actual completion rates is the fifth best in football among regular starters, while Wentz (-1.4%), Jacoby Brissett (-3.0%) and Goff (a league-worst -4.3%) are all below league average in the same category.

Dallas' midseason dip in form before Sunday's blowout win over the Rams led the offense to come in for criticism, but it hasn't been the problem. The Cowboys rank second in offensive DVOA, 22nd in defensive DVOA and dead last on special teams. It might seem for naught if a clearly banged-up Prescott struggles in Sunday's division-tilting game rematch with the Eagles, but he has been one of the best quarterbacks in football this season.

Pittsburgh's playoff hopes would depend on Devlin Hodges finding a connection with James Washington

I've written about this recently, but it is staggering to look back toward August and think about just how different the Steelers' offense has been from what we expected heading into this season. This was already going to be a team in transition, what with Antonio Brown traded to the Raiders and Le'Veon Bell officially parting ways to join the Jets, but the offense still had guys around such as Ben Roethlisberger, James Conner and JuJu Smith-Schuster.

Those three offensive cornerstones played a total of 41 snaps together before Roethlisberger left at halftime against the Seahawks in Week 2 with an injured elbow and never returned. Conner and Smith-Schuster have hobbled through difficult seasons with various injuries. Donte Moncrief was cut after a horrific start to the year to lock up the compensatory pick the Steelers were in line to receive for Bell. Jaylen Samuels and Vance McDonald have missed games. The Steelers have had to go deep into their depth chart at every single skill position.

The Steelers had to turn to Hodges after nominal quarterback of the future Mason Rudolph suffered a concussion and then again after Rudolph simply didn't play well. And while Hodges led the Steelers to three straight wins to get them to 8-5, he looked badly overmatched against a great defense in Sunday's 17-10 loss to the Bills. Mike Tomlin seemed to give thought to a reunion with Rudolph, before eventually confirming Hodges as the starter against the Jets in Week 16.

The Steelers finish their season against a Ravens team that might be playing its backups, given that Baltimore can clinch the top seed in the AFC with a win over the Browns in Week 16. Hodges is unquestionably limited, but the time to go after a veteran with a higher floor such as Ryan Fitzpatrick or Colin Kaepernick passed months ago. The Steelers believed in Rudolph and were quickly convinced of their mistake. While Smith-Schuster could return this weekend, Hodges is going to have to make it work in the passing game with Washington and Diontae Johnson, receivers who were really supposed to be backups in 2019.

Believing in Rudolph had the effect of causing the Steelers to send a first-round pick to the Dolphins for Minkah Fitzpatrick, and while I was critical of the deal at the time, it has worked out brilliantly for the Steelers in Year 1. Fitzpatrick likely will be an All-Pro for the first time, and his arrival has transformed the Pittsburgh defense. The Steelers have allowed a passer rating of 131.3 to opposing quarterbacks with Fitzpatrick on the sidelines or in Miami this season; with their star safety in the lineup, the opposing passer rating has fallen all the way to 72.3. Fitzpatrick isn't solely responsible for that improvement, but he has been a huge influence at a safety spot that Pittsburgh has struggled to fill since the peak of Troy Polamalu's career.

The Class of 2004 would crater

This isn't the end of one of the most storied quarterback classes in league history, but that day doesn't seem far off. After pretty routinely racking up an average about 10.5% of the league's passing yards and passing touchdowns from 2006 to 2018, the Class of 2004 was responsible for just over 5% of passing yards and under 4% of its passing touchdowns this season. The last time the Class of 2004 struggled to top 5% of the league's passing production was, well, in 2004. I'm not sure that class is going to climb much in the years to come.

I already discussed what happened to Roethlisberger. The elbow injury was a surprise for a quarterback who actually had gotten healthier as his career went along. I didn't think he would age well thanks to his injury history, but the 37-year-old had missed only five games due to injury from 2013 to 2018, before missing almost all of the 2019 campaign.

It also wasn't a surprise to see Eli Manning benched for rookie first-round pick Daniel Jones, with the two-time Super Bowl winner eventually coming back when Jones suffered a high ankle sprain. Manning sits on the cusp of immortality at a career record of 117-117, and with Jones recovered and trending to start the final two games, Manning could be done in New York.

What happened to Philip Rivers, though, is surprising. He made the Pro Bowl in 2018 at the helm of a 12-4 Chargers team, and while Los Angeles went through a predictably frustrating start to the season, he didn't seem to be the problem. After the Week 9 victory over the Packers, he was completing nearly 67% of his passes and averaging 7.8 yards per attempt and had thrown 12 touchdown passes against seven picks. The Chargers were 4-5 and still on the outskirts of the playoff race in the AFC.

Rivers has (mostly) cratered over the ensuing five games. While he posted a near-perfect passer rating in a blowout win over the Jags, he has been a mess in Los Angeles' four other losses. The crafty veteran has completed just 61.6% of his passes, averaged 7.5 yards per attempt and thrown just six touchdown passes against 11 picks. Two of those interceptions came while down 29 points to the Vikings last week, but his nine other picks took place while the game was within seven points or fewer.

Six weeks ago, there was no speculation that the Chargers were about to move on from their longtime quarterback. Now, it would be a surprise if they brought him back for 2020. The franchise likely saved itself tens of millions of dollars by not signing Rivers to an extension before the season; he would instead hit unrestricted free agency for the first time this offseason.

I do think Rivers will have suitors if he wants to keep playing, although whichever team is interested will need to be able to protect the former NC State star. The Chargers have one of the worst tackle situations in football when Russell Okung has been out, and Rivers has been a different quarterback with his left tackle on the field. Just under 25% of his dropbacks have come with Okung on the field this season, but he has averaged nearly 10 yards per attempt and posted a passer rating of 104.2 in those plays. Without Okung, he falls to 7.4 yards per attempt and a passer rating of 84.3.

Manning, who also will be a free agent in 2020, seems far more likely to retire. Roethlisberger might be the only member of the Class of 2004 left standing by this offseason, and given that he reportedly has refused to shave until he is able to throw a football, it appears he is likely to return for 2020. Roethlisberger's $8.5 million salary in 2020 is guaranteed for injury, and the Steelers surely would welcome back the future Hall of Famer with open arms.

Michael Thomas would keep doing historic things

Receivers aren't supposed to do what Thomas did last season. In 2018, he caught 84.5% of the passes thrown in his direction. Running backs can do that on a smaller sample size when they're only being thrown screens and dump-offs. Christian McCaffrey caught 86.3% of the passes thrown in his direction last season, but his average target traveled just under 1 yard downfield. Thomas' average target traveled nearly 8 yards downfield.

We have average depth of target and catch rate data going back through 2007 at ESPN, and no wideout had combined Thomas' catch rate with target depth. Heck, no wideout with 100 targets in a season had posted a catch rate over 79% over that time frame, let alone Thomas's 84.5% rate.

We didn't know back in August that Teddy Bridgewater was going to play the better part of six games for the Saints, but if we did, I would have assumed that Thomas' catch rate would have dropped off to somewhere in the 70% range. That still would be among the best in football, especially for a wideout with his usage rate, but a major drop-off from his 2018 campaign.

Thomas has indeed fallen off in 2019. His catch rate through 14 games is all the way down to ... 83.6%. That's unreal, and his work with Bridgewater shows that it isn't strictly a product of playing with Drew Brees. Among the wideouts with 100 targets in 2019, the second-highest catch rate in football belongs to the Bucs' Chris Godwin. The newly named Pro Bowler is at 71.7%. The average catch rate for guys in this group -- almost all of whom are regarded as superstars -- is 65%.

Godwin catches deeper passes on average than Thomas, but even after you adjust for depth of target, nobody is coming close to doing what Thomas has done over the past two years. You could make a case that Thomas was the best wideout in football last season, although I would have argued for DeAndre Hopkins. Right now, nobody else is on Thomas' level.

Marcus Peters would make it to the Pro Bowl ... as a Ravens player

This one was surprising for all kinds of reasons. It didn't seem like the Ravens needed to add a cornerback before the season, but once slot standout Tavon Young suffered a season-ending neck injury, Jimmy Smith went down with a sprained knee and safety Tony Jefferson tore his ACL, the Ravens needed to add help in the secondary.

Peters never seemed to find steady footing in Los Angeles. The Rams grew frustrated with him attempting to jump routes and/or ending up on a different page from the rest of the defense, which led to at least one long, crucial touchdown. The Rams sent Peters to the Ravens in what was really a salary dump at midseason, as Los Angeles freed up $5.9 million in advance of acquiring Jalen Ramsey later that day.

What has happened next has been nothing short of shocking. Peters immediately stepped into the starting lineup and came up with a pick-six of Russell Wilson in a 30-16 road win over the Seahawks. Peters has been one of the league's best cornerbacks since. The guy who the Rams couldn't trust has become the corner the Ravens depend upon; it's no coincidence that Peters was the one on John Brown in Cover Zero on the Bills' last play of the game two weeks ago, when the Bills failed to convert on fourth down.

The Ravens have been a drastically better defense with Peters on the field. Opposing quarterbacks have posted a 62.4 QBR against the Ravens without him this season, a mark that falls to 30.9 with Peters on the field. He is a free agent after the season at a position the Ravens already have addressed, but it's almost impossible to imagine them letting him leave. Whatever happens, Peters has reestablished himself as a No. 1 cornerback and a player who will get a big new contract this offseason.

The Patriots would have one of the best defenses in league history

The numbers for the Patriots are still astounding. A defense that was good (if not great) last season and lost its best pass-rusher in Trey Flowers is allowing a passer rating of 57.4, with 25 interceptions against just 10 passing touchdowns. Opposing offenses have scored 16 touchdowns against the Patriots in 14 games. The Pats have responded with five defensive touchdowns of their own. Bill Belichick's defense continues to allow less than 1 point per possession at 0.91 points per drive.

To put this in context, I went back through the merger and looked at how many points every defense allowed to opposing offenses, removing return touchdowns and safeties from the equation. Then, since we're playing in a scoring-friendly era, I compared each defense's points allowed to league average and built a standardized score to allow us to compare the defenses across eras.

The Patriots are allowing 11.2 points per game to opposing offenses. That's the fourth-best defense ever through 14 games. The 1970 Vikings rank as the best defense through 14 games, which was the entirety of their regular season, but the Patriots are right up there with some great defenses of more recent times. Here's the top 10, with their performances all translated to the scoring environment of 2019:

And while some attribute New England's success to an easy schedule, the reality is that just about every great defense needs an easy schedule to hit this sort of peak. According to Football Outsiders, the Patriots' average opponent has posted an offensive DVOA of minus-5.0%, making for the second-easiest slate of opposing offenses in football.

Go back through these great defenses and you'll see a similar trend. The 2002 Buccaneers faced the easiest slate of opposing offenses in football. The 2000 Ravens, 2013 Seahawks and 2017 Jaguars were each going up against the second-easiest schedule in the league, like the 2019 Patriots. DVOA doesn't exist for the 1970 Vikings, but if it did, I suspect it would find that the Vikings faced a pretty easy slate of opponents too. (DVOA, by the way, has the Patriots as the fourth-best defense since 1985 through 14 games.) This is a historically dominant defense, and it is one nobody expected to play at this level before the season began.

The Bucs' defense would be decent

With two weeks to go in the regular season, the Buccaneers rank ninth in defensive DVOA. Ninth! That's just ahead of the Saints. The Seahawks are behind the Bucs. The Eagles and Packers aren't as good on defense. The Chargers, Cowboys and Panthers all look up at Tampa Bay. This from a defense that ranked last in the league in both 2017 and 2018. What on earth happened here?

Finding a league-leading pass-rusher in Shaq Barrett for nothing in free agency obviously helped, but the Bucs finally built an effective defensive line. Jason Pierre-Paul has 3.5 sacks and 11 knockdowns in half a season since returning from his neck injury. Ndamukong Suh has played like Ndamukong Suh and bizarrely scored two touchdowns. Carl Nassib, a waiver-wire acquisition from the Browns last year, has rounded into form as an effective third defensive end.

The other breakout star on the line has been Vita Vea. The 2018 first-round pick missed time as a rookie, and his most notable play of the season might be catching a 1-yard touchdown pass in a win over the Falcons, but he has emerged as a serious problem for opposing defenses. He might never produce huge sack totals, but his athleticism on the interior is ridiculous.

Where Vea has really been valuable, though, is as a run-stopper. Tampa Bay leads the league in rush defense DVOA. It has allowed one 100-yard rusher all season, and that was when Chris Carson got to 105 yards in a November shootout with the Seahawks. The Bucs rank second in yards per carry allowed, first in yards before first contact and fourth in first-down rate. They have allowed 217 fewer rushing yards than any other team.

Stopping the run doesn't mean as much as it used to in a league that is so pass-happy, but Tampa Bay's long-miserable pass defense actually has rounded into competency this season. This is a recent development, and the improvement has been driven partly by the benching and release of former first-rounder Vernon Hargreaves after the Week 10 win over the Cardinals.

Since cutting Hargreaves, the Bucs have blossomed. Through the Cardinals game, Tampa Bay ranked 24th in both passer rating and QBR. When it didn't get pressure on the opposing quarterback, its young secondary was overmatched and frequently made mistakes, producing a passer rating of 117.5, the third-worst mark in football.

In a five-game sample, Tampa Bay's defense suddenly has rounded into form. It ranks fifth in QBR allowed and 11th in passer rating. When its pass rush doesn't get home, its passer rating is at 83.5, which is the sixth-best mark in the league. Some of this is due to a schedule that has included Nick Foles and David Blough, but the Bucs also have faced Drew Brees and Matt Ryan over this stretch. There's something to monitor here, with a lot of young players and a wildly underrated defensive coordinator in Todd Bowles all coming back next season.

Some of the improvements derive from the sort of sheer regression to the mean I suggested was likely to occur in my preseason column pegging the Bucs to improve. The Buccaneers have been healthier. Their historically bad red zone defense has gotten dramatically better. After allowing 5.9 points per red zone trip in 2018, they are down to 4.8 points per opportunity in 2019, which ranks 17th in the NFL. I thought the Bucs couldn't do much worse on defense in 2019, but if they actually finish in the top 10 in DVOA, it should be considered a huge feather in Bowles' cap.

Kirk Cousins would be a down-ballot MVP candidate

Forget before the season. As recently as the Week 4 loss to the Bears, Cousins was essentially a national punchline as an $84 million millstone around the Vikings' necks. The Vikings, who had been hoping to buy a 10-win floor for their great defense by signing Cousins during the spring of 2018, appeared to have capped their team's chances of succeeding in the process.

Here's where Cousins ranks in a few key categories from Week 5 on:

Not bad, huh? As I mentioned in the playoff kryptonite column, he has been absolutely lethal off play-action in 2019, posting a passer rating of 136.3 when the Vikings use a play fake. This also has come during a stretch in which Adam Thielen has played just under 24% of Minnesota's offensive snaps while dealing with a hamstring injury.

At the very least, if Cousins' inconsistent 2018 and frustrating start to 2019 were evidence that his presence doesn't guarantee the Vikings a playoff berth, what has happened since is a reminder that his ceiling is higher than his critics suggest. Cousins has been one of the league's most lethal quarterbacks over his past 10 outings.

Nick Foles would be benched after four starts with the Jaguars

There were plenty of reasons to think Foles might struggle in his new gig with the Jaguars. His track record of staying healthy isn't great, so it wouldn't have been shocking to find out that he suffered an injury that cost him some time.

To see all of this happen so quickly, though, is staggering. Foles went down with a broken collarbone before the end of the first quarter of his first start. Upon being restored to the lineup, he lasted 2½ games before being benched for rookie sixth-round pick Gardner Minshew. Realistically, Foles lost his starting job without completing three full games for Jacksonville. No one saw that coming.

As is the case for just about everybody with Jacksonville, Foles' future with the team remains uncertain. Minshew has been adequate in Foles' stead, and he helped lead a late comeback victory over the Raiders last week, but the Jaguars might hire a coach who wants to restore Foles to the lineup this offseason. If not, they might need to eat a significant portion of Foles' remaining guaranteed salary and/or send off a draft pick to move on from the former Super Bowl MVP. This could go down as one of the worst free-agent signings in recent memory.

Kickers would have their worst collective season in years

As The Ringers' Rodger Sherman documented earlier this year, kickers have been peculiarly disappointing this season. There was a real danger that kickers would fail to hit 80% of their field goal tries for the first time since 2003. The various place-kickers topped out at 86.5% in 2013, and they hit 84.7% of their tries a year ago.

There isn't one obvious answer as to why. Kickers aren't trying more difficult field goals; 14.3% of attempts this season have been from 50 or more yards, down from 16.1% a year ago. Their accuracy has dropped dramatically on both field goals in the 40- to 49-yard range (down from 76.3% in 2018 to 69.7% this season) and from 50 yards and up (63.8% to 56.9%). If anything, teams have been more aggressive going for it on fourth down in places where they typically would have attempted long field goals in years past.

Injuries have stricken kickers such as Michael Badgley, Stephen Gostkowski and Ryan Succop, but that isn't the story. Thirty-eight kickers have attempted at least five field goals this season, identical to the number we saw a year ago and down from 39 in 2017. Age struck for veterans Adam Vinatieri and Matt Bryant, each of whom saw their success rates fall precipitously in 2019, but even younger kickers such as Ka'imi Fairbairn and Aldrick Rosas have had disappointing campaigns.

Blocked field goals are up, but not enough to make a difference. We're at 16 blocks through 14 weeks, which is up from 10 a year ago but still well on pace to come up short of the 23 we saw from the league in 2017. And we haven't been stricken by a run of nasty weather across the country; if anything, we should be seeing the worst kicking now in December, under the threat of snow.

I'm inclined to argue that this is a one-year blip amid a decadeslong trend of kickers improving their field goal accuracy. Justin Tucker is still his usual 23-of-24 on field goals. If the Ravens superstar starts missing kicks, it will be time to start a serious investigation.

Ryan Tannehill would be one of the league's best quarterbacks

I've covered this a couple of times recently, including naming Tannehill as my All-Underrated team's quarterback, but there was little reason to expect him to play as well as he has this season.

The Dolphins had to swallow $5 million of Tannehill's deal to net a draft pick in dealing him to the Titans; Tennessee has come away with a Pro Bowl-caliber quarterback for less than $2 million in 2019. The 8-6 Titans have a 56.7% chance to make the playoffs, according to FPI.

The Air Raid would have been neither a colossal success nor a miserable failure

Two years ago, the offense I was most excited to see heading into the 2018 season was Jon Gruden's in Oakland. After a decade away from the game, I figured he had either melded cool ideas from every coach in the game into a super offense or stuck with outdated concepts from his Buccaneers playbook. Instead, the Raiders' offense has been somewhere in between.

Likewise, the preseason chatter this year surrounding Kliff Kingsbury's Air Raid attack in Arizona seemed to revolve around the same extremes. While just about every NFL team has incorporated Air Raid plays into their offense, his scheme was going to be the closest thing the NFL had seen to a pure Air Raid attack. Kingsbury and first overall pick Kyler Murray were either going to revolutionize football or fall flat on their faces.

Again, neither polar outcome has come true. The Cardinals sit 12th in the league in offensive DVOA, which is a huge improvement when you consider that Arizona ranked last in the same category a year ago. Skeptics who thought NFL defenses would laugh at what Rex Ryan called a "boring" offense before the season were unquestionably wrong. Kingsbury, who was simultaneously an out-of-the-box hire and a trendy pick, is certainly going to get a second season in Arizona.

At the same time, though, the Cardinals' offense has succeeded in ways I don't think we would have expected. Arizona ranks 23rd in pass offense DVOA, but it has the second-best rush offense DVOA. And while the Cardinals spent the 2019 offseason stocking up on wide receivers to play in what seemed likely to be an offense for which the base set would be 10 personnel, they have been better when adding tight ends to the picture. According to NFL Next Gen Stats data, the Cards have posted a success rate of just under 43% with no tight ends of the field, with that mark rising to nearly 48% with one or more tight ends in the lineup.

The fairest thing to say is that the offense is still a work in progress. Kingsbury should have more opportunity to add weapons at wide receiver this offseason around Christian Kirk, who has gone from playing in the slot almost exclusively earlier this season to now running the vast majority of his routes outside. Second-round pick Andy Isabella has barely played, while fourth-rounder Hakeem Butler has spent the season on the injured reserve list. Kingsbury's offense isn't a one-trick pony, but the best might still be yet to come.

The Milwaukee Brewers have reached an agreement with free agent first baseman Justin Smoak on a one-year, $5 million deal, a source told ESPN's Jeff Passan on Thursday.

The deal includes an option for 2021, the source said.

The 33-year-old Smoak's offensive production declined for the third straight season with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2019, hitting just .208 with 22 home runs and 61 RBIs in 121 games. He missed 12 games in June with a left quad strain.

He made $8 million last season after the Jays picked up a fifth-year option following the 2018 season.

The veteran switch-hitter had a career season for the Blue Jays in 2017, earning his only All-Star nod while setting career highs in most offensive categories, including batting average (.270), home runs (38), RBIs (90) and games played (158). However, he fell off the following season, hitting .242 with 25 homers and 77 RBIs.

Smoak is the third bat added by the Brewers this week following the additions of outfielder Avisail Garcia on Monday and infielder Eric Sogard on Wednesday. Milwaukee had lost starting catcher Yasmani Grandal and starting second baseman Mike Moustakas earlier this offseason in free agency to the Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds, respectively.

Eric Thames, who hit 59 homers in three seasons with the Brewers, played the majority of games at first base for Milwaukee last season, but the team declined a $7.5 million option for the 2020 season.

Premiership Rugby have announced a "comprehensive review" of their salary cap regulations after champions Saracens were docked 35 points last month.

Sarries were also given a £5.36m fine for breaching salary cap regulations over three seasons.

"The success of Premiership Rugby is based on a group of fiercely competitive clubs who agree to play by the same set of rules on and off the pitch," Premiership Rugby's chief executive Darren Childs said.

"The salary cap has been fundamental to promoting competition since its introduction and, while we continue to apply the existing regulations robustly, this review is designed to ensure that we have a world-leading framework in place for the future."

It is hoped any new regulations that come out of the review, which is being led by former government minister Lord Myners, will be put in place for the 2020-21 season.

Premiership Rugby also confirmed that they were "in active dialogue" with Saracens to confirm the club were complying with salary cap regulations this season.

The European champions chose not to contest their punishment, with chairman Nigel Wray saying the club "made mistakes" and accepted the penalties "with humility".

After five games of the league season they are now on -18 points, 22 points adrift of second bottom Leicester Tigers.

What's the background?

Saracens were charged in relation to a failure to disclose player payments in each of the 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons.

The club previously claimed they "readily comply" with salary cap rules and were able to spend above the £7m cap because of the high proportion - almost 60% - of home-grown players in their squad.

Sarries have several of the game's biggest stars on their books, including seven of the 31-man squad that represented England at the World Cup in Japan, such as captain Owen Farrell and forwards Maro Itoje and Billy and Mako Vunipola.

The days are dwindling in 2019. The new year means new opportunities, a clean slate and renewed hope in the NHL.

This week's Power Rankings focus on the hopes and aspirations of teams in 2020, on the ice and off the ice.

How we rank: The ESPN hockey editorial staff submits selections ranking teams 1-31, and those results are tabulated to the list featured here. Teams are rated through Tuesday night's games, taking into account overall record, recent success and other factors such as injuries. The previous ranking for each team is its spot in last week's edition.

1. Washington Capitals

Previous ranking: 1

That Nicklas Backstrom and his agent, Nicklas Backstrom, will be able to work out an amicable contract extension that keeps him with the Capitals ... but maybe not for eight more seasons.

2. Boston Bruins

Previous ranking: 2

That GM Don Sweeney is aggressive, since the Bruins have all but one of their 2020 draft picks, salary-cap room can be finessed and there will be second-line wingers available at the trade deadline.

3. Colorado Avalanche

Previous ranking: 5

That backup Pavel Francouz (9-2-1), who is 16th in goals saved above average per 60 minutes (0.369), continues to be one of the most pleasant surprises of the season among netminders.

4. St. Louis Blues

Previous ranking: 4

That the Blues can continue to excel without Vladimir Tarasenko, who played in only 10 games this season before dislocating his shoulder. If and when the star winger returns, expect that 3.06 goals per game average to improve.

5. New York Islanders

Previous ranking: 3

That denial of their elite status as a regular-season team is a dwindling sentiment. The Islanders are fourth in the league in points percentage (.653) going back to the start of 2018-19, thanks to their NHL-best 2.38 goals-against average in that span.

6. Carolina Hurricanes

Previous ranking: 6

That they can remain a puck possession monster in the new year. The Canes are the best 5-on-5 team in shot attempt percentage (54.77) in the NHL, one of the reasons why Carolina is fifth in goals-against average this season (2.62).

7. Pittsburgh Penguins

Previous ranking: 12

That Tristan Jarry keeps this up, after he wasn't traded. Oh, there were opportunities, as plenty of teams could use goaltending help. With Matt Murray having the season he's having, it turns out one of those teams was the Penguins. And Jarry has a .940 save percentage and a 1.85 goals-against average in 15 games.

8. Arizona Coyotes

Previous ranking: 9

That ownership and management believe in this group. The Taylor Hall trade followed the Phil Kessel trade in the Coyotes aggressively trying to improve their offense. If the opportunity presents itself at the deadline, and the cap space works, one assumes owner Alex Meruelo will greenlight more aggressive plays -- although it's unclear if he'll fire up the private jet for them like he did for Hall.

9. Winnipeg Jets

Previous ranking: 8

That goalie Connor Hellebuyck continues to have the season he's having, with a .692 quality starts percentage and 11.6 goals saved above average.

10. Dallas Stars

Previous ranking: 11

That the shocking coaching change, in which Jim Montgomery was fired for "unprofessional conduct," may not derail their campaign under interim coach Rick Bowness. In a small sample, the defense still looks stout.

11. Vegas Golden Knights

Previous ranking: 14

That the worst could be behind them. The Knights are 8-2-1 in their past 11 games, and have averaged 3.18 goals per game during that stretch.

12. Philadelphia Flyers

Previous ranking: 7

That Carter Hart can start every home game if necessary. Why not? Hart is 9-1-2 with a .944 save percentage and a 1.57 goals-against average. On the road, he ... isn't.

13. Edmonton Oilers

Previous ranking: 10

That no matter what happens this season, GM Ken Holland is going to have 10 unrestricted free agents off his books this summer. Combine that with their four RFAs, and that's close to $24 million in cap flexibility.

14. Florida Panthers

Previous ranking: 13

That Sergei Bobrovsky is finally starting to look like Sergei Bobrovsky again. He's just 3-3-0 in December, but with a .953 save percentage and a 1.69 goals-against average.

15. Calgary Flames

Previous ranking: 16

That Geoff Ward not only turns out to be the right person to turn to after the resignation of Bill Peters, but that he coaches well enough to shed the interim tag.

16. Buffalo Sabres

Previous ranking: 15

That Jack Eichel has taken the leap and landed firmly into elite status. As our Dimitri Filipovic noted: "The Buffalo Sabres have scored 40 goals in the 380 minutes Jack Eichel has been on the ice. The Buffalo Sabres have scored 16 goals in the other 650 minutes he's been on the bench."

17. Toronto Maple Leafs

Previous ranking: 19

That on top of improved 5-on-5 play and an uptick in the standings, the Leafs can take solace that their coach and their general manager are very much on the same page. You know, for a change.

18. Tampa Bay Lightning

Previous ranking: 18

That there's very little chance the Lightning will face the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round of the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs. Yes, there are several ways in which to interpret this.

19. Montreal Canadiens

Previous ranking: 20

That 2020 is one year later than 2019, which means Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Nick Suzuki and Ryan Poehling will all be a little bit more experienced, hence a little bit better, hence a smaller target for criticism from Claude Julien.

20. Nashville Predators

Previous ranking: 21

That Pekka Rinne (.894) and Juuse Saros (.899) are going to end up much better than their current stats, because it's inconceivable the Predators have a team save percentage of .892 after it was .914 last season.

21. Vancouver Canucks

Previous ranking: 17

That maybe, just maybe, the core will stay healthy. The Canucks have played 35 games. So have Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat.

22. Minnesota Wild

Previous ranking: 24

That the Wild have 28 games left to play at home this season. That's where they're 9-1-3, the best home record in the Western Conference.

23. New York Rangers

Previous ranking: 22

That next summer might officially mark the end of the rebuild. After adding Jacob Trouba and Artemi Panarin last summer, they'll have another $16 million-plus in cap space to play with in 2020.

24. San Jose Sharks

Previous ranking: 23

That Bob Boughner has vowed to get the Sharks back to their identity as an attacking, pressuring offensive team. While they may no longer have the horses, they're certainly going to try.

25. Columbus Blue Jackets

Previous ranking: 26

That Matt Duchene didn't re-sign, which means that the Ottawa Senators do not get the Blue Jackets' first-round pick, which at the moment would seem rather important for Columbus.

26. Anaheim Ducks

Previous ranking: 25

That Jakob Silfverberg is proving his worth. He signed a five-year extension in March, and currently has his best goals (0.35) and points (0.71) per game averages of this career.

27. Chicago Blackhawks

Previous ranking: 27

That Brent Seabrook's contract expiration date is now four years away.

28. Los Angeles Kings

Previous ranking: 29

That the Kings have "one of the best and deepest prospect pools in the entire NHL," according to ESPN's Chris Peters, and it's a year closer to maturation.

29. Ottawa Senators

Previous ranking: 28

That they either have something special in Anthony Duclair, who has 19 goals, or have a player they can sell high on later this season.

30. New Jersey Devils

Previous ranking: 30

That Mackenzie Blackwood now has a .948 save percentage since the coaching change. Now, if only the Devils could find another goalie to pair with him ...

31. Detroit Red Wings

Previous ranking: 31

That the season ends on April 4.

Lucas Herbert and Brett Rankin shared the first-round lead at the Australian PGA Championship after carding 5-under 67s on Thursday at Royal Pines.

The Australian pair were one clear of a group of five players including New Zealander Ryan Chisnall, while Adam Scott and Stewart Cink were three back after opening 70s. Two-time defending champion Cameron Smith was 2 over.

Herbert went birdie-birdie-eagle in still morning conditions to begin his round before a run of three bogeys. He added four birdies on the back nine to finish before the breeze picked up.

Scott and 2009 British Open winner Cink were among the later starters and had to deal with trickier conditions.

Scott, the 2013 Australian PGA champion, made long-range putts for eagle and birdie to stay in touch despite a double bogey on the par-4 13th hole, when he hit into the water off the tee.

''I'm putting good. I'm playing good. Unfortunately I really miss-hit that drive off 13 and it cost me,'' said Scott, who is chasing his first title since 2016. ''Other than that, it was pretty much stress free. I was very happy with it because it wasn't very easy out there.

Smith, aiming to be the first player in more than 100 years to win three straight Australian PGA titles, said he lacked energy after an emotional Presidents Cup last week in Melbourne, where he and Scott were part of the International team that gave up an early lead before losing to Tiger Woods' U.S. team.

He was even at the turn but had two bogeys and a double-bogey in a three-hole sequence.

''I'm just tire. Just a long couple weeks. It was as easy as it's going to get out there this morning, so it was pretty disappointing to shoot what I shot,'' he said.

Veteran journalist Tim Rosaforte has announced his retirement, effective at the end of the year.

One of the most well-respected voices in the game, Rosaforte, 64, joined Golf Channel as an Insider in 2007 while also working as an award-winning senior writer for Golf Digest and Golf World. He increased his role within the company in 2018, reporting exclusively on the game’s top players and trends for “Morning Drive,” “Golf Central” and “Live From,” in addition to his weekly notes column for GolfChannel.com.

“Tim Rosaforte has been a stalwart of golf journalism for more than 40 years, first as a newspaper reporter in South Florida, then as a magazine writer for Sports Illustrated, Golf Digest and Golf World, and finally as a television insider for NBC and Golf Channel,” said Geoff Russell, executive editor of Golf Channel. “As our industry evolved, Tim evolved with it. No matter the platform, he excelled and established the standard for the rest of us to try and match. Golf Channel will miss him, and so will the entire golf community. But our loss is his family’s gain. No one I know deserves a happier retirement more than Tim Rosaforte.”

Since 1980, Rosaforte has covered more than 125 majors and 17 Ryder Cups. He has been honored with more than 40 writing awards, including first-place recognition in all four Golf Writers Association of America annual awards categories. He is a recipient of both the PGA Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism, as well as the Lincoln Werden Journalism Award, and is the author of three books.

Rosaforte first appeared on Golf Channel in the mid-1990s, during the company’s infancy. He also was the former host of “PGA Tour Sunday.”

Cristiano Ronaldo's stunning jump to head home the winning goal for Juventus united the soccer world in its astonishment ...

The Toe Poke Daily is here every day to bring you all the weirdest stories, quirkiest viral content and top trolling that the internet has to offer, all in one place.

Cristiano Ronaldo quite literally reached new heights on Wednesday when he took to the skies in remarkable fashion to score the decisive goal in Juventus' 2-1 win over Sampdoria (stream the replay on ESPN+ in the U.S.).

Meeting a looping cross at the far post, Ronaldo sprang into the Genoa night air, hung in stasis for what felt like an age and then powered his header past the goalkeeper.

As part of their official match report, Juventus described Ronaldo's leap as "worthy of Michael Jordan" and claimed his feet reached an altitude of 71 centimetres (2 feet, 4 inches) -- which is roughly one-third the height of a regulation crossbar.

Sky Italia also reviewed the footage and assessed that Ronaldo's head reached a maximum height of 2.56 metres (8 feet, 5 inches) as he hung in the air for 1.5 seconds.

Like many who witnessed the gravity-defying goal in real time, Sampdoria coach Claudio Ranieri was still completely befuddled by it after the final whistle.

"When they score these type of goals you can only shake their hands, those are worth the price of the ticket," Ranieri told Sky Italia.

"Ronaldo did something you see in the NBA, he was suspended for an hour-and-a-half. There's nothing to say, only compliments."

Maurizio Sarri's response was a little more succinct, with the Juve coach summing up his initial reaction to Ronaldo's goal in just two words, one of which required bleeping out.

"F*** wow!"?

Maurizio Sarri revealed his reaction to @Cristiano's gravity-defying leap against Sampdoria ?⚽️ #Ronaldo #CR7 #Juventus #SerieA pic.twitter.com/UinIVxgSla

— Omnisport (@OmnisportNews) December 19, 2019

Ronaldo himself chose to play the goal down, possibly because he's become accustomed to breaking the laws of physics.

"I didn't know these numbers. I'm very happy to have helped the team win. The important thing is to give Juve a hand and win titles," he said.

"We had a good attitude for 90 minutes and it's a deserved victory."

How very diplomatic of a man who has just returned from near-Earth orbit.

Ronaldo has just scored a far post header where his feet were higher than the crossbar....it's only a slight exaggeration. Ridiculous leap.

— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) December 18, 2019

Messi can't do this... https://t.co/KoePBYqLFv

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) December 18, 2019

My three year old daughter watching that Ronaldo goal "how does he fly like that?!" An absolute show of athleticism ???#Ronaldo

— Fiona Moore-McGrath (@fionamoore10) December 19, 2019

Cross delivered - Ronaldo is hanging
Ball leaves foot - Ronaldo is hanging
bathroom break - Ronaldo is hanging
Ball takes flight - Ronaldo is hanging
back from break- Ronaldo is hanging
A lifetime later...After changing his shirt and had a drink,comes down and the net rattles

— Andile Ncube (@AndileNcube) December 19, 2019

Perhaps the only person not shocked by Ronaldo's display of immense physical prowess was former teammate Medhi Benatia.

In an interview with RMC Sport last week, Benatia recounted a Juventus game that he and Ronaldo had both spent on the bench and the exchange of texts thereafter that outlined just how "not normal" his ex-colleague is.

"When we were on the bus returning to Turin, Ronaldo sent me a message saying, 'What are you going to do now?'"

"I replied: 'It's 11 at night and I'm going home, why?' He replied: 'Do you feel like having a gym session? I didn't sweat today and I must. You want to come with me?'

"I told him 'I just want to go home and sit down and watch TV.'

"Ronaldo eventually went to the gym while the rest of us went home. I just thought he is not normal. He has sacrificed his life for football."

Of course, it's not like Ronaldo hasn't made a habit of out-jumping defenders during his career.

He's always had an explosive spring on him, as was highlighted when he had his physical abilities scientifically tested and analysed by Castrol EDGE in the 2011 film "Ronaldo Tested to the Limit."

In the film, Ronaldo leaps 78 cm (2 feet, 7 inches) into the air -- which we're informed is higher than the average basketball player.

Forget the NBA: Wherever Ronaldo is playing, that's Where Amazing Happens.

Sri Lanka 64 for 3 (Abbas 2-21) trail Pakistan 191 (Shafiq 63, Babar 60, Kumara 4-49, Embuldeniya 4-71, Vishwa 2-31) by 127 runs

A flat surface had been expected at Karachi. Instead the first day delivered 13 wickets, eight of them in a manic final session, as Pakistan first nosedived to 191 all out, losing their last six for 24 runs, before Sri Lanka limped their way to 64 for 3 at the close.

The day belonged to all manner of bowlers - speedsters, seam-bowling wizards, ambling spinners - but if one stood out from the crowd, it was Sri Lanka's Lahiru Kumara. He touched 150kph at times in the morning, and kept his pace up all day, sending down hostile bouncers in stretches, and teasing the outside edge at other times. He had most success going full, straight and fast, however, nailing Abid Ali and Yasir Shah lbw, and cleaning up Mohammad Rizwan with an inducker on his way to 4 for 49 from 18 overs.

Lasith Embuldeniya, the left-arm spinnner, was the perfect foil, recovering from a wayward first session to settle into an alluring rhythm later on. He had excellent drift from the outset, but once he'd settled into his work after lunch, he had flight, dip, bounce and spin at his command as well. He took the vital wicket of Babar Azam early in the second session, getting one to spit past the face of his bat as he ran down the pitch at him, Niroshan Dickwella completing an easy stumping. Just before that middle session finished, Embuldeniya also trapped Haris Sohail in front of the stumps with another sharply-turning delivery. Taking two tail-end wickets as well, he finished with 4 for 71.

Their middle and lower orders having collapsed abysmally either side of tea, Pakistan's bowlers were then called upon to haul their side back into the game. Hunting as a pack in the dying light, Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah both delivered searing pace - Naseem the quicker of the two, frequently breaching the 145kph mark. Shaheen made the first breakthrough, nicking off Oshada Fernando in the seventh over with a full delivery outside off stump that prompted a fatal drive.

Mohammad Abbas had perhaps been a little underwhelming in his first spell, sharing the new ball with Shaheen, but was at his conniving best in the second. He angled one across Dimuth Karunaratne before jagging it back off the seam - Karunaratne managing only to drag the ball back onto his stumps after attempting to cut. Abbas' next dismissal - the one to round off the day - was superbly characteristic of his best bowling. He sent a length ball just outside off stump at Kusal Mendis, who is especially vulnerable in that area, wobbled it away, and drew an outside edge that flew low to second slip.

Barely 90 minutes previous, Pakistan had been reeling, after their sudden surrender with the bat. By the end of the day, they could see a path back into this game.

The collapse had been partially the result of good Sri Lanka bowling, but perhaps it did not need to be quite so dramatic. Pakistan had seemed to be building a decent score, at 167 for 4, when Haris was nailed in front by Embuldeniya. Then first thing after tea, Kumara delivered the over of the day to really set Pakistan's decline in motion.

He sneaked a ball between bat and pad to rattle Rizwan's stumps, then next ball hit Yasir Shah on the boot to effect a plumb lbw. Sri Lanka would lose a review trying for a third wicket a few balls later, but Kumara nevertheless completed a double-wicket maiden that transformed the outlook of the game. From then on, it was a question of how many Asad Shafiq would manage to squeeze out in the company of the tail. It would turn out it wasn't many.

Shafiq, who made 63, was day one's top scorer, and was the only other half-centurion after Babar had lit up the morning with 60 off 96 balls. Through those early sessions, Pakistan's batsmen looked largely comfortable, and there didn't seem to be much to fear from the surface. Babar drove majestically as usual, and ran down the pitch once to clobber Embuldeniya over long on for six. His dismissal was almost certainly the result of telegraphing another advance against Embuldeniya, who saw the batsman coming and slipped in a shorter ball that spun.

When Sri Lanka's third wicket fell with about 15 minutes to go till stumps, Embuldeniya came out as the nightwatchman. He will have Angelo Mathews for company when play resumes on day two.