MILAN, Italy -- "This could be the team I need," Romelu Lukaku said. Sitting in a conference room in Porta Nuova, Milan's emerging business district, he was making the case that Football Club Internazionale Milano was the ideal setting for the resurrection of his career. "There's the love I have for this area," he said. "The love that I have for Inter. And it was the perfect moment for me to leave England. I didn't want to be there anymore."

It's not exactly coincidental that the club is counting on Lukaku, who spent the past two seasons struggling at Manchester United, to inspire its own revival. These are hard times for Inter, which won a Champions League trophy in 2010 to cap a five-year run of Serie A titles in 2010, but hasn't finished higher than fourth since then. Worse than that, despite a steadfast fan base that continues to nearly fill San Siro, one of Europe's largest stadiums, week after week, Inter has faded into international irrelevance. By winning each of the past eight scudetti and signing Cristiano Ronaldo, Juventus is the Italian team that matters at the moment.

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Steven Zhang, a dilettante banker with a Wharton degree, has vowed to change that. In 2016, his billionaire father bought Inter. Nine months ago, he handed it to Zhang, who at 28 is only two years older than Lukaku. Under Zhang, Inter has invested millions of euros in the club's rebranding as a hip, dynamic organization, and millions more in the actual team. Antonio Conte, who has won both Serie A and the Premier League, was hired as manager. The stalwart defender Diego Godin signed on as a free transfer from Atletico Madrid. A loan agreement for Alexis Sanchez, who scored plenty of goals at Barcelona and Arsenal and then a lot fewer of them at Manchester United, was secured at the end of the transfer window. But Lukaku, who seemed destined for superstardom when he left Everton two years ago, was the big catch. The 65 million transfer fee Inter paid broke the club record.

Lukaku's allure was never difficult to explain. You didn't even have to watch him play. Just seeing his cast-iron physique -- he stands 6-foot-3, broad-shouldered, rippling with definition -- was enough to conjure up images of him establishing a position at the edge of the box, holding off defenders to receive the ball, then wheeling toward goal. He also had surprising speed for his size; at Everton, it wasn't uncommon for him to beat a defender to a loose ball, then rumble down the periphery like a winger, or an NFL running back. "You can look a long time," says Sanchez, who played beside him at Manchester United, "and you won't find anyone else like him, anywhere in the world."

The problem is, Lukaku hadn't looked himself on the pitch for more than a year. Estimates vary, but he gained at least 15 pounds while in Manchester. His bloated body turns out to have been the result of a gastrointestinal problem, but at the time it seemed the perfect symbol of the club's dissolution. "Unforgivable," sniffed Gary Neville, the former Manchester United standout, who accused Lukaku of being unprofessional. "You can't be overweight."

What happens next for Lukaku will serve to define a career that so far has been more about his potential, and his eloquent responses to racial taunting, than any tangible achievement. Lukaku insists he's up for it. "This group of players we have here is a special group," he said. "And we have the right leader in front of us to take us to the right places. Inter is an ambitious club. It wants to get back where it needs to be."

Lukaku leaned forward in his chair. "I want to help them build something here," he said. "It's the right move for me."

The intensity that Conte brings to a club, both physical and philosophical, tends to have immediate effects. Bari was sinking fast in 2007 when he reversed its course and led it to promotion in 2009. In his first season at Siena, 2010-11, he returned the club to Serie A. The following year at Juventus, he won the first of his three scudetti there and added the Coppa Italia. His greatest bit of conjuring involved the jaded Chelsea squad he inherited from Guus Hiddink, who had inherited it from Jose Mourinho. Under Conte, Chelsea equaled a Premier League record by winning 13 games in succession, then won the 2016-17 title.

As at Chelsea, Conte has taken over a fractured Inter changing room and has brought it together with the force of his personality. "The guy can make a team," Lukaku said. "It's already like the guys have been there for many, many years together, even the ones who just arrived. It's the strangest thing." Conte does it, at least for a while, because he has a knack of convincing even the most hardened veterans to buy in. "When Conte speaks, his words assault you," Andrea Pirlo, who played for him at Juventus, wrote in his autobiography. Pirlo added, "I've lost track of the number of times I found myself saying, 'Hell, Conte said something really spot-on today. I was expecting him to be good, but not this good.'"

Conte had coveted Lukaku since 2014. He saw him as a unique brand of attacker --versatile, adaptable, a force of nature. Conte was at Juventus when he called Lukaku that summer. "Come play for me," Conte told him. Lukaku admits he was flattered, but he'd only just been transferred to Everton after playing there on one of Chelsea's endless loans, and he'd also just turned 21. He was turning heads playing for Belgium at the World Cup. "There was a side of me saying 'Just wait a little bit,'" he said. "In the end, I told him, 'I'm not coming to you now. But the next opportunity, I will be there.'" That turned out to be fortuitous. By the end of that summer, Conte had left Juventus and was coaching Italy.

Two years later, Conte came after Lukaku again. Conte's urgings had brought Chelsea that magical season, but he saw a juggernaut emerging on the horizon in Manchester City. He needed a special player, and he knew the one he wanted. Lukaku had emerged as one of the Premier League's brightest young stars, and Everton clearly didn't have the resources to keep him. "I thought it was done," Lukaku said. It wasn't. "Circumstances," Lukaku explained with a shrug. "Not my fault, not his." When he landed at Manchester United in 2017 instead, it was the shock of England's summer.

Earlier this year, when he heard that Conte might be headed to Inter, Lukaku took it as a sign that the planets were finally starting to align. He remembered watching the club win the UEFA Cup in 1998 and deciding the black and blue stripes were for him. "The first final of any kind I can remember watching," he said. "You never lose that." As unlike everyone else off the field as he is on it, Lukaku prepared for a move in his own way.

He started learning Italian.

Lukaku collects languages like supporters collect scarves. He grew up in Belgium speaking French at home, and Flemish, a variation of Dutch, at school. He communicated with his Congolese relatives in Lingala. Along the way, he absorbed English and Portuguese, Spanish and a little German. "Sometimes I get a headache," he said.

Lukaku had been watching Italian television off the satellite because his younger brother, Jordan, plays for Lazio. But he began his immersion in earnest in April, as the Conte rumors solidified. By May, he could express a few thoughts. By June, his command of Italian was limited only by his vocabulary. By July, he could "have a conversation with anyone," he said. When he arrived at Inter in August, he urged teammates to address him in Italian, not English, as if he'd come to Milan from Frosinone or Sassuolo. He wanted to meet them on their terms, not his. "They embraced me and I embraced them," Lukaku said. "It's like I've been part of it for many months."

He insists that speaking the local vernacular helps him on the field. "It's important for me to express myself to my teammates," he said. "It's important for me as a player that they understand me perfectly. How I want the ball. Where I want the ball. In front of the defender, beside the defender, behind the defender. I have to know those exact words in Italian because the subtleties are different in every language. There's no substitute for that."

The words have worked, in one language or another, nearly everywhere he has gone, from Belgium's Anderlecht to West Bromwich Albion, where Chelsea loaned him first after acquiring him in 2011, to Everton, where he punched home 68 goals over four seasons. He had played, if sparingly, under Mourinho at Chelsea in 2011, and after Mourinho signed him at Manchester in the summer of 2017, the reunion seemed mutually beneficial. Lukaku scored 11 goals in his first 10 games. But like everything else at Old Trafford during Mourinho's unsettled final months, Lukaku's play deteriorated. By the time Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took over last December, he was playing like a shadow of himself.

A shadow, too, in the sense of bigger, wider, all but formless. With the added weight, that ability to collect a ball and carry it into the attacking zone, which had served as a counterpoint to his strength as a target man, all but vanished. Instead he seemed plodding, a step behind. Solskjaer didn't start him in his first game after taking over, nor in the five that followed. "Solskjaer wants someone with a bit of energy, a bit of speed, someone who is going to work hard," former United standout Paul Scholes said of Lukaku, and he didn't mean it as praise.

As the team's designated star, Lukaku was being blamed for its failure by the time Mourinho was fired. "Scapegoated," Lukaku says now. "Meaning 'You. Are. The. Reason.'"

Under Solskjaer, who was committed to rebuilding, he never had a chance. "Lukaku and I trained very well," said Sanchez, who didn't score a Premier League goal under Solskjaer. "But we needed to play more in games to get to our best." In retrospect, Sanchez added, the situation wasn't suited for either of them. "It wasn't the right time for us to be at Manchester," he said. "Too many changes. When you change that much, it's tough."

Inter is working on a different kind of transition, one with the aim of winning now, or at least soon. Lukaku is only 26, but in Manchester he seemed part of the previous generation. Conte perceives him differently, as a talent who is still emerging. "I'm really pleased about the commitment that Romelu has made, the way he has behaved," Conte said. "He still has a lot of places to improve both technically and physically, and also tactically. But because he has the desire to improve, he could become one of the best strikers in the world."

As soon as Lukaku arrived in Milan, Conte sent him to a nutritionist for a consultation so detailed that it included a study of the decomposition of his body waste. Within hours, the determination was made that something was wrong. "Normally I have a fine digestive system," Lukaku said. "I digest everything very quickly. That's how it had been my entire life. But what the nutritionist said to me was, it had stopped working."

Limited to a highly specific regimen of mainly fish, sweet potatoes, shiitake pasta, and cooked and raw vegetables, Lukaku experienced a transformation. In 12 days, he lost nearly 10 pounds. When body fat was measured at the training facility in the first week of September, he was told that his ranked among the lowest on the team. "I'm good now," he said. "My body is in the zone."

But fitness is just the start of the process. Though Lukaku has mostly played as a single striker in various formations during his professional career, Conte wants to use him in his favored alignment, a fluid, pressurized 3-5-2. "Because of his physicality, he is well-suited to lead the line as a sole number 9," Roberto Martinez, who manages Lukaku with the Belgian national team and also managed him at Everton, noted in an e-mail to ESPN. Martinez did point out that Lukaku spent time playing right wing as a teenager in Belgium, and also partnered successfully, if briefly, with Arouna Kone at Everton. But that's not the same as sharing space in the box with a second striker week after week.

The other starting striker is Lautaro Martinez, who had nine goals across all competitions last season but managed to impress almost everyone who watched him play. At 5-foot-8 and not much more than 150 pounds, he is an entirely different kind of attacker, a burgeoning master of nuance and feel whose skills complement Lukaku's. "I can play one-touch to him and make another move," said Lukaku. "Go into certain spaces where I want to go, and he'll get me the ball."

Lukaku scored in Inter's opener, a 4-0 victory over Lecce. Then Lautaro scored in open play at Cagliari, where Inter rallied after falling behind. But Lukaku often seemed frustrated, pointing across the field when his passes to where he thought Lautaro would be heading turned out to be giveaways because the Argentine stayed back.

"If you analyze Conte's teams, you see there's a lot involved on every play," Lukaku said. "When the ball is in a certain area, we make a certain type of movement. If I make a movement, Lautaro should make the opposite movement. And if he makes a movement, I should make the opposite. We should know perfectly well where we need to go."

It was during that Cagliari match, which Inter won 2-1, that Lukaku was racially abused, after which Inter's Curva Nord Ultras issued a statement claiming that monkey noises and gestures aren't racist but a way for fans to help their club. "Football is a game to be enjoyed by everyone and we shouldn't accept any form of discrimination that will put our game in shame," Lukaku posted on Instagram. "I hope the football federations all over the world react strongly on all cases of discrimination ... Ladies and gentlemen it's 2019. Instead of going forward, we're going backwards and I think as players we need to unify and make a statement on this matter to keep this game clean and enjoyable for everyone."

This October, Inter plays Juventus in Serie A and Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League. While making up the 21 points that fourth-place Inter finished last season behind Juventus isn't necessarily a mandate, there's a growing sense in both the changing room and the boardroom that, after eight years, the opportunity is there for an enterprising team to topple Juventus. "I don't think you say 'You have to win,' Lukaku said. "New coach, new team, new way of playing, so it's one game at a time. We're learning. But we have to move the right way. And we have to make it clear that that every time you face Inter, it's a battle."

"I can feel the will here to achieve," Sanchez added. "This is why I'm here. That's why Romelu is here. Will it work? We will have a lot more to say about that at the end of the season."

Inter's trouncing of Lecce led to jubilant postings from supporters all over social media, as though it proved that the scudetto was all but theirs. But they would be wise to consider club history, in which almost nothing turns out quite as it should. "Not For Everyone," the club's new slogan, is tacit admission that Internazionale is in no sense a normal football club. "Pazza Inter," it's called -- Crazy Inter. Crazy in how it too often snatches defeat from the jaws of victory. Crazy in the head-shaking transfer decisions that management seems to make, bringing in the wrong player at precisely the wrong time. Crazy for firing Luigi Simoni in 1998 on the day after he received the award as Manager of the Year, for example, or for employing four managers in 2016 alone. Or, alternatively, in the utterly unexpected way that Mourinho led a conventionally talented but not exceptional team to the Champions League title in 2010. Conte has taken pains to establish that, under his reign, Inter will mature. To emphasize that, he has decreed that "Pazza Inter Amala," or "Crazy Inter, I love it!" the traditional team song that begins, "You know, for a goal I would give my life," will no longer be played before home games. It's as if he is trying to have the same effect on the entire culture of the club that he does in the changing room.

When the team clicks on the field, as it did against the admittedly nominal opposition of Lecce, it looks unbeatable. Even when it doesn't, it can be impressive to behold. In the 84th minute at Cagliari, winger Matteo Politano took the ball down the right wing and somehow found an opening to cross the ball to Lukaku, who was charging through the box like the those years in Manchester had never happened. The connection was exemplary, the diagrams on Conte's chalkboard coming to life, except that Lukaku steered the ball just wide to the right.

He turned away and hung his head for a moment, but only a moment. New coach, new team, new way of playing, he seemed to be saying. Then he headed back up the field to try again.

Durham 147 (Handscomb 54, Finn 4-41) and 191 (Robson 64) beat Middlesex 143 (Raine 5-26) and 151 (Robson 65, Carse 6-26) by 44 runs

Brydon Carse produced a career-best six-wicket haul as Durham beat Middlesex by 44 runs at Lord's.

The South-African born seamer took 6 for 26 including a match-winning post-lunch burst of 5 for 9 as Durham bowled out the hosts for 151 on the third afternoon.

Victory keeps alive Durham chances of promotion, while defeat for Middlesex means they will spend a third successive season in Division 2 in 2020.

Middlesex began the day needing 175 more to win, but it didn't take long for their chase to hit a bend in the road.

Nick Gubbins hit two early fours, but his stay was an all-too brief one as he nicked the 16th ball of the day bowled by Carse into the hands of Alex Lees at slip.

Stephen Eskinazi lasted just three balls before becoming Chris Rushworth's 61st victim of the season, trapped LBW after only getting half forward.

And when the home side's skipper and batting talisman Dawid Malan followed shortly afterwards LBW to Ben Raine, they were 45 for 3.

In contrast to his playing partners, Sam Robson (65) played with increasing authority, producing trademark square cuts and some beautiful on-drives in reaching 50 off 87 balls with 10 fours, the fifth time he had passed the landmark in Championship cricket this summer.

Max Holden, despite struggling to find any touch, provided valuable support in a stand of 54 before Raine returned to pin him in front shortly before lunch.

And when Rushworth ended Robson's vigil with just the fourth ball after the resumption, the hosts were struggling again at 107-5.

Under clear skies, a sharp contrast to much of the rest of the match, batting should have been an easier proposition. But Carse struck twice in the space of three balls, first finding the edge of George Scott's bat to give Ned Eckersley another catch, before removing the normally obdurate James Harris second ball for nought.

Debutante Miguel Cummins had shown some batting promise in the first innings but he too came under Carse's spell, a Yorker ending his brief stay.

The five-for came when Simpson, Middlesex's last hope of unlikely salvation, also had his furniture disturbed.

And the wicket which sealed the career-best brought victory when last man Tim Murtagh missed with a big slog, sending his stumps awry.

Pakistan fast bowler Wahab Riaz has decided to take an indefinite break from red-ball cricket in order to focus on limited-overs formats. He has also withdrawn from the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, just two days before the start of the tournament, where he was set to represent his domestic side Central Punjab.

Wahab, who made his Test debut for Pakistan in 2010 and has played 27 Tests, also added he wanted to focus on regaining fitness levels required for the longer format. The 34-year old has made just four Test appearances since January 2017, his last one being the first Test in October 2018 against Australia in Dubai.

"After reviewing my past couple of years' performances in red-ball cricket and the upcoming limited-overs cricket, I have decided to take time off from first-class cricket," Wahab said.

After a lot of thinking and discussions with my family and board, I have decided to take a break from red-ball cricket and maintain my fitness and focus on the shorter format for my country. It was a tough decision and I appreciate my Board's support and guidance during this time

— Wahab Riaz (@WahabViki) September 12, 2019

"During this period, I will like to focus on 50-over and 20-over cricket, and continue to access my fitness for the longer version of the game. At a stage I feel I cannot only return but also perform with the red-ball, I would make myself available.

"The PCB had been trying to convince me to pursue my career with red-ball, but today I met them to convey my decision. I am grateful for their understanding and support."

Somerset 199 and 269 for 5 (Abell 62, Hildreth 58) beat Yorkshire 103 (van der Merwe 3-14, Davey 3-30) and 127 (Davey 5-21) by 298 runs

Somerset's hopes of a first ever County Championship title were given a massive boost by a crushing 298-run victory over Yorkshire inside three days at the Cooper Associates County Ground, Taunton.

Set an unlikely 426 to win, the visitors were bowled out for just 127, with Will Fraine forced to bat at seven with a runner because of a knee problem and Ben Coad absent ill. Seamer Josh Davey claimed five for 21 from 11.2 overs.

Somerset had earlier built on their overnight second innings score of 269 for five before being dismissed for 329, George Bartlett making 47, Roelof van der Merwe 30 and Jamie Overton 18, including 2 two towering sixes.

Keshav Maharaj returned five for 122 for match figures of 10 for 176 to become Yorkshire's leading Championship wicket-taker this season with 38 in only five appearances.

Somerset took 19 points from the game to Yorkshire's three and, with Essex battling to save their Championship game against Warwickshire, the Cider county look set to enter the last two games in pole position to win the competition.

The day began with Somerset looking to add quick runs. They lost Lewis Gregory (39), Bartlett and Dom Bess early on, but van der Merwe and Overton produced some lusty blows to take the lead beyond 400.

There was a moment of humour when van der Merwe pulled a ball towards the boundary, ran while following the path of the ball, and crashed into bowler Tim Bresnan in mid-pitch. Both sturdily-built men went down, but with no injury resulting from an incident inevitably bound for Twitter.

When van der Merwe fell to Maharaj, it meant the left-arm spinner had taken 31 wickets in six innings against Somerset. But the home side were buoyant over what looked sure to be a winning lead and soon set about finishing the match.

Adam Lyth was well caught low down at third slip by Jamie Overton off Davey with only seven on the board and Gary Balance fell in the final over before lunch, caught behind off a snorter from Overton.

Jonathan Tattersall had replaced Fraine as Lyth's opening partner and he was unbeaten on 14 at the interval, with Yorkshire 47 for two.

That became 54 for three when Tattersall, on 20, was caught at first slip by James Hildreth looking to withdraw the bat from a delivery by Overton, who was working up good pace from the Somerset Pavilion End.

Harry Brook fell to a poor shot, bowled playing back to van der Merwe and it was 94 for five when Bresnan, who had pulled a defiant six off Gregory, was run out by a direct hit from Bess at backward point after a mix-up with Tom Kohler-Cadmore over a single.

Kohler-Cadmore edged another catch to Hildreth off the impressive Davey, who quickly followed up by pinning Maharaj leg-before for a duck and taking a return catch to remove the stricken Fraine.

Steve Patterson delayed the inevitable with a fighting 24 not out, but when Duanne Olivier was well caught by Bess over his shoulder at point off Davey the Yorkshire innings ended as Coad was unable to bat.

Davey, playing only his fourth Championship match of the season, returned match figures of eight for 51. It was Yorkshire's fifth heaviest first class defeat in terms of runs.

Somerset travel to the Ageas Bowl to face Hampshire next week before a potentially historic home game against Essex, starting on Monday September 23.

Kent 304 (Stevens 88) and 259 (Billings 100, Crawley 82, Ashwin 5-89) beat Nottinghamshire 124 (Stevens 5-39) and 212 (Stevens 5-53) by 227 runs

England's coach Trevor Bayliss made a rare incursion into the politics of England's professional game this week by suggesting the number of counties should be slimmed down to as few as ten. Inscrutable for so long behind those shades and floppy hat, it turns out he is just the latest employee in high office to adopt the clandestine corporate agenda. And there I was thinking that when he finally did speak out it would be something incredibly original.

For nearly half a century, somebody connected to a beaten England set-up has conveniently cast the blame upon county cricket. Bayliss' status and record means his opinion intrinsically has weight. But, oddly, nobody has ever heard Gareth Southgate suggest 92 professional football clubs competing in a democratic system (well, fairly democratic if you ignore the financial imbalance and the parachute payments) is bad for English football.

"Having fewer teams would help… surely the competition would be stiffer," Bayliss mused. But there is a divisional set-up in the Championship and that divisional set-up could be expanded across all competitions. Lots could still be done to condense the most talented players together. And by preserving 18 professional counties a game more widely available would produce more players.

Instead, only cricket - or at least only cricket people whose entire thoughts surround the England team - imagines that contracting the game would be a good long-term thing. Even Margaret Thatcher, 40 years ago, knew that by closing the mines because they were losing money the eventual outcome would be no more coal. Cut the counties and you'll get fewer players.

So anyway, the point is this: that's you gone then, Kent. You might just have thrashed Nottinghamshire by 227 runs by tea on the third day, you might be making an impressive fist of your return to Division One for the first time in nine years, you might be reviving memories of your great years, but you're so lost in your traditional way of thinking that you imagined winning and losing actually has anything to do with it. You poor deluded fools.

As for Darren Stevens, who took for 10 for 92 in the match, only the second 10-wicket haul of his career, not forgetting his 88 in Kent's first innings, you're 43 for heaven's sake. That's no good for England; your boundless commitment, great technical skill and shining example to anybody who feels middle age is upon them is not about to save you.

As for Nottinghamshire, they were pitiful. It's extraordinary how a coach as driven and organised and awash with team ethic as Peter Moores has found himself in charge of a side that in Championship cricket singularly fails to display those virtues. That's nine defeats and three draws in 12 matches, relegation is inevitable and there are now only two matches left to try to win one. Moores has yet to sign a new contract, but if he can't sort it out, it is hard to know who can.

But at least Notts have another T20 finals day. Their T20 nights are great occasions and they also have Trent Bridge, a ground fit for the modern age even if the Wetherspoons pub out the back is an intrusive reminder of the politics that is consuming us. Under the Bayliss theory, Notts would survive. They could lose until the end of time; they could survive entirely by pilfering players from Derbyshire and Leicestershire (not that they would actually exist anymore) and they would still be valued in the Bayliss shake-up.

At least Duncan Fletcher occasionally made unannounced visits to county cricket, although not as many as he liked people to think. He was the one occasionally seen glowering by the sightscreen, surrounding himself by a leave-me-alone force field to dissuade some old bloke from wandering up to ask him if he knew whether the tea room was open. Bayliss prefers to look at the data and watch an entire round of Championship matches on one of those nifty new apps that can reduce the essence of every game to about 35 seconds.

Come to think of it, 35 seconds would probably be enough to get the gist about Nottinghamshire's second-innings collapse. Their target was 440 and, believe it or not, a spectator in a Notts polo shirt and with a Corbyn-like grey beard, was heard to say as he entered the ground: "We're back in the match." Well, if you don't travel optimistically, it's best not to travel at all, but sifting the wisdom of greybeards is not always a useful exercise.

By lunch, Notts were 91 for 5 in 21.2 overs. Their state of mind was exemplified when a new opening pair strolled out. Instead of Jake Libby and Ben Slater, they presented Steven Mullaney, a captain in his first game back after a knee operation, and Ben Duckett.

The sight of Duckett playing those pootling defensive shots suggested that Notts might have decided to crash it. After a brief flurry, big inswingers from Stevens removed Mullaney (to a leave alone) and Chris Nash in the same over. Harry Podmore squeezed a good ball onto Duckett's stumps via his back forearm and he pootled off.

Libby, whose contract is up at the end of the season, and who still has not got his first-class average up to 30, came out at No. 4 with Slater at five. When Slater fell lbw to Stevens, he reached the landmark he had referenced the previous evening - 500 first-class wickets for Kent. Matt Milnes then bowled Libby with the final ball of the session.

When Tom Moores scythed a drive to point, Notts were six down for 108, but they finally rallied through Ravi Ashwin and Paul Coughlin which at least provided entertainment in the sunshine with a stand of 83 in 23 overs. The greybeard doubtless felt that victory was on again before they fell in successive overs, Coughlin to Stevens' outswinger, Ashwin essaying a curious two-footed leap in the crease before chipping a full ball to square leg. That Stevens should finish it all off with another outswerver (*I think that's what they called it when he started) was a perfect finale.

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- New York Jets quarterback Sam Darnold will be sidelined indefinitely after being diagnosed with mononucleosis, coach Adam Gase announced Thursday. Trevor Siemian will start Monday night against the Cleveland Browns.

The Jets, who lost starting wide receiver Quincy Enunwa to a season-ending neck injury this week, could be without Darnold for multiple weeks.

"Looks like it," Gase said. "Good thing we've got an early bye week."

The bye week falls in Week 4, following an away game against the New England Patriots. Darnold's earliest likely return is Week 5 at the Philadelphia Eagles.

Darnold isn't the only concern on offense.

Running back Le'Veon Bell will have an MRI on Thursday to evaluate shoulder soreness. Gase didn't sound alarmed, saying, "We don't think it's anything worse than that. We're just trying to be a little extra cautious."

Darnold received the diagnosis late Wednesday night, when Gase, offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains and a trainer showed up at his apartment near the Jets' facility.

"He knew something was up, when Dowell and myself showed up," Gase said of his second-year quarterback, who didn't practice Wednesday because of what the team called strep throat. "I wanted to make sure [the news] was delivered myself. I figured I could be the bearer of bad news on this one."

Weight loss and extreme fatigue are the most common symptoms with mononucleosis, which has been known to last multiple months in some cases.

Darnold expressed concern about recent weight loss. He dropped 5 pounds, according to Gase.

"That was something that was alarming to him, that he lost some weight already in the last couple of days," Gase said.

The Jets sent meals to Darnold's apartment because the team wants him to stay away from the facility due to the possibility of spreading the disease.

The team already has reached a pressure point in the season, coming off a crushing Week 1 loss to the Buffalo Bills in which the Jets blew a 16-point lead at home.

Darnold was lackluster in the opener, passing for only 175 yards, but he wasn't ill on Sunday, according to Gase.

Darnold's diagnosis, coupled with Enunwa's injury, will be costly for an offense that underachieved in the opener, managing only eight points.

Siemian, who signed as a free agent in the offseason, is 13-11 as a starter, but he hasn't played in a game since 2017 with the Denver Broncos. He spent last season with the Minnesota Vikings but didn't see any game action behind Kirk Cousins.

Luke Falk will be elevated from the practice squad to be the No. 2 quarterback.

Gase broke the news to the players in Thursday morning's team meeting.

"We talked about our next-man philosophy does not waver," the coach said. "It's about everybody doing their job. That's why Trevor is here. We signed Trevor specifically because of his 24 starts with a winning record. He has a lot of experience and has been on winning ballclubs. He has the respect of the locker room.

"The reaction I got, and the ways guys looked, was, 'Let's go.' There's confidence there."

The Caesars Sportsbook reopened with the Browns minus-4 and a total of 44.5. Before the Darnold news, the line had been Browns minus-2.5 with a total of 46. The line is as high as Browns minus-5.5 at other Vegas sportsbooks.

While we saw stunning performances from the Patriots and Ravens in Week 1, there were plenty of disastrous starts to the NFL season. We saw overmatched offensive lines, struggling quarterbacks and teams whose slim playoff chances seemed to extinguish into thin air before our eyes. (Sorry, Dolphins.)

Let's run through some of those wildly disappointing starts and take a closer look to try to figure out what happened. I'm expecting most of these guys to bounce back, but I'm rapidly losing faith in at least one player who was expected to hit new heights in 2019.

One player who won't show up is Baker Mayfield, as I already addressed his Week 1 performance in my Monday morning column. I evaluate five quarterbacks there and will get to three more here, including each of the starting quarterbacks we'll see in Thursday night's Bucs-Panthers matchup:

Jump to a disaster:
QBs: Newton | Winston | Roethlisberger & Co.
More: Vinatieri | Michel | Tunsil | Chubb/Miller

Cam Newton, QB, Carolina Panthers

What went wrong: One pass more than 20 yards downfield

When we last saw Newton playing meaningful football, the former NFL MVP was struggling mightily with a shoulder injury. He was horrific throwing downfield last season, posting a passer rating of 30.4 on passes 20 or more yards downfield. The league average on those throws was 93.4, and he had posted a passer rating of 93.2 on those same passes from 2015 to 2017. It was no surprise when Newton underwent shoulder surgery after the season.

In his return to meaningful football, Newton came back onto the field and ... didn't throw deep. The Panthers star threw just one of his 38 pass attempts 20-plus yards downfield in the Panthers' Week 1 loss to the Rams. That throw came on a third down in the fourth quarter, when Newton badly missed an open Curtis Samuel off a wheel route for what would have been a big gain. It felt like the Panthers only trusted him to make one deep pass and saved it for the biggest moment of the game, only for the pass to go awry.

To start, I don't think the fact that Newton threw one deep pass all game is particularly meaningful in itself. Drew Brees, for example, threw only one pass 20-plus yards downfield on Monday night, and nobody has suggested that his arm strength is compromised. Half of the league's starting quarterbacks had at least one start last season in which they threw only one 20-plus-yard pass, and guys such as Brees, Tom Brady, Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger had starts when they didn't even throw one.

Some of the decision to keep Newton from throwing downfield was a conscious part of the game plan. The Panthers wanted to keep Aaron Donald out of the game, which meant throwing quickly. Newton held the ball for an average of just 2.24 seconds before releasing his passes on Sunday, which was the quickest release for any Week 1 quarterback by a comfortable margin. (The league average was 2.75 seconds per pass.) He was sacked only three times, and two of those came on blown protections. The third was when Dante Fowler Jr. was matched up one-on-one against Christian McCaffrey.

After watching each of Newton's pass attempts again, though, there's a difference between the Cam of 2018 and the guy we saw against the Rams. Last year, I don't think Cam was capable of getting great velocity or the right depth on his passes downfield, especially as the season wore on. There might have been the occasional bullet, but most of his throws were essentially compromised.

In Week 1, though, Newton did have that sort of old zip on his passes, albeit on a part-time basis. He had more issues passing than the 20-yard figure might indicate, though. He seemed to be battling throughout the game, and while part of that was undoubtedly his post-surgery mechanics, it looks like he still has some discomfort in the foot he injured during the preseason. He seemed to be throwing more with his upper body and seemed uncomfortable planting and setting before his throws, especially early in the game.

As a result, several of the former first overall pick's passes sailed, including multiple attempts to open receivers on the sidelines. At the same time, he missed a leaping pass to Greg Olsen off a bootleg and sailed a drag route, neither of which were more than a few yards past the line of scrimmage. That's not arm strength; it's struggling with consistent mechanics.

The Buccaneers don't expect to present the same sort of defensive challenges as the Rams, although they did hassle Jimmy Garoppolo in a truly ugly game against the 49ers in Week 1. With a less imposing pass rush and secondary, we should get a better sense of where Newton is in his rehabilitation process. My suspicion is that we'll see more deep throws than in Week 1, but that there will still be a certain level of inconsistency in his accuracy. If he continues to average just 6.5 air yards per attempt and seems hesitant to hit open receivers downfield, there might be more cause for alarm.

Adam Vinatieri, K, Indianapolis Colts

What went wrong: Three missed kicks

For more than two decades, Vinatieri has been a rock on which his teams can rely. The 46-year-old Colts kicker has remained productive long past anyone's expectations. The most memorable kicks of his career came as a member of the Patriots, but as he enters NFL season No. 24, he has actually spent more years with the Colts (14) than the Patriots (10). He has essentially had two full-length kicking careers.

Vinatieri has remained productive into his mid-40s, but he likely cost the Colts a victory in their season opener against the Chargers. It was a shock when he pushed his first extra point attempt of the season wide, but when the veteran followed that up by missing a 46-yarder before halftime and a chip shot from 29 yards away in the fourth quarter, it seemed like something was horribly wrong. The Colts ended up losing in overtime, and Vinatieri didn't mince words in talking about his performance. "I had a lousy game," he said afterward. "I sucked."

Every kicker has a bad game here and there, and Vinatieri is no exception. The obvious concern with a kicker in his 40s, though, is that his leg might finally have hit the wall. He's in virtually uncharted territory. Including the playoffs, Vinatieri has attempted 762 field goals, more than any player in NFL history. Just two other kickers -- George Blanda and Morten Andersen -- have played anything close to a full campaign during their age-47 season; Andersen made it to 47 and Blanda to 48. (Vinatieri turns 47 in December.) Vinatieri has been an above-average kicker throughout his 40s, but Father Time arrives for everyone at some point.

Has that moment come for Vinatieri? To get a sense of where his performance from Sunday landed, I went through the entirety of his career and built a simple expected points model. I took each Vinatieri kick and assigned it an expected value given the league's success rate on kicks in that 10-yard range during the season in question. A 34-yard kick in 2003, as an example, would be worth 2.48 points, since a field goal is worth three points and kickers hit 82.7% of their attempts between 30 and 39 yards in 2003. (Since we have only one week of data for 2019, I used the 2018 percentages for his game on Sunday.)

The bad news: Sunday was Vinatieri's worst performance in nearly 20 years. By this model, he scored four points and should have scored 9.46 points, given the distance of his kicks. That 5.46-point difference is the largest in any of his performances since games against the Bills in 1996 and 1999.

For other games at the top of his list, Vinatieri has viable excuses. The 1999 game against the Bills included wind gusts topping 20 mph. The 1996 performance was the second game of his career. The 2017 appearance against the Bills was played in a snowstorm. None of those arguments applies here.

One game that narrowly misses the list, though, is the season opener in 2017 against the Rams. The kicks didn't matter much -- the Colts lost 46-9 in Sean McVay's first game in charge of the Rams -- but Vinatieri traveled to Los Angeles and missed both an extra point (wide right) and a 38-yard field goal (off the left upright). We could realistically have raised the same concerns about a then-44-year-old Vinatieri after the Rams defeat, but the performance didn't attract anywhere near as much attention in a game where those misses didn't cost Indy a victory.

Vinatieri promptly hit each of his next 21 field goal attempts, going 17-for-18 on extra points over that time frame. The bad game was just that. He also hit a 44-yard field goal in between his misses on Sunday and succeeded on each of his three kicks during the preseason, including a pair of extra points and a 49-yard field goal. If he has a bad month, it should be cause for concern. I'm inclined to chalk Sunday up to one bad afternoon until it's proved otherwise.

Sony Michel, RB, New England Patriots

What went wrong: 15 carries for ... 14 yards

Seemingly the only Patriots skill-position player who didn't have a big game against the Steelers on Sunday night, Michel was bottled up in his season debut. The 2018 first-round pick failed to average even 1 yard per carry, the first time a Patriots back has done that in a game with 10 carries or more since Bill Belichick took over in 2000. New England's other running backs carried the ball 13 times for 77 yards, averaging nearly 6 yards per carry, so they didn't have the same problems as Michel in Week 1.

Given how badly the Steelers were gashed through the air, I wondered whether Pittsburgh might have been selling out to stop the run. That strategy doesn't make sense against Tom Brady, and indeed, it's not borne out by the numbers. The NFL's Next Gen Stats track where defenders line up before the snap, and Michel didn't face a single loaded box of eight defenders or more even once. Seven of his 15 carries came against light boxes with six or fewer defenders, and while that was less often than his counterparts -- Brandon Bolden, Rex Burkhead and James White faced light boxes on 10 of their 13 carries -- Michel had a blocking advantage on each of his rushing attempts.

In watching those 15 running plays on tape, I didn't find too much fault in how Michel performed. He didn't try to extend anything and create a larger loss in the process until his final carry of the game, a sweep that lost 5 yards on a pitch when both James Develin and fill-in guard Jermaine Eluemunor whiffed on their blocks. You could argue that Michel didn't get more than what was blocked across his carries, but I don't think that's necessarily new; Michel's going to be a disciplined, north-south runner, and that's what the Patriots want.

Frankly, there were too many plays where the Steelers were on top of Michel before he had a chance to do anything. Mike Hilton sniffed out a draw on a run blitz. Stephon Tuitt cut all the way from outside of Marcus Cannon at right tackle to grab Michel in the A-gap on an early carry. T.J. Watt shoved aside Cannon to bring down Michel for a loss of 3 yards on another.

There were also moments where the blocking wasn't very good; on the sweep in which Cannon went down injured, you can count at least three other failed block attempts, including an almost-comical whiff by undrafted rookie receiver Jakobi Meyers. Michel gained 4 yards anyway.

What stood out more than anything, though, is that the Patriots are really going to miss Rob Gronkowski as a run-blocker. Ryan Izzo took over as the starting tight end and wasn't in Gronk's league as a blocker. There were a pair of runs in which Bud Dupree defeated Izzo on the edge and blew up runs in the process. It's still way too early to make any broad proclamations about Izzo's future, but it's a reminder of just how special Gronk was as a blocker, let alone what he offered as a pass-catcher.

I don't see any reason to change my expectations for Michel after Week 1. The Patriots will have better days as a run-blocking unit, likely as soon as this upcoming game against Miami. When they do, Michel's numbers will improve accordingly.

The Pittsburgh Steelers' offense

What went wrong: Scored three points in a loss to New England

While Michel had a frustrating day, the rest of the Patriots' offense thrived. The same couldn't be said for the opposing attack, as the Steelers had one of their worst offensive games with Ben Roethlisberger under center. Pittsburgh hasn't been shut out in a Roethlisberger start since the 2006 season, but it would have gone scoreless if not for a 19-yard field goal the Steelers attempted while down 20-0 in the third quarter.

It's hard to point to many things the Steelers did right on offense. There also wasn't one sole disqualifying factor. It's not as if Roethlisberger had an awful night, although he did have a few uncatchable passes. The game plan didn't work. When there were opportunities, the team generally didn't execute well. The Patriots looked like a better defense than most people would have expected, even without late scratch Kyle Van Noy. And there was also just the sort of randomness that comes in a one-game sample.

If there was one player who stuck out, though, it's a name Steelers fans aren't going to want to hear. This was a game in which Pittsburgh clearly missed Antonio Brown, because Donte Moncrief was a huge step down as the team's second wideout. The former Colts draftee was targeted 10 times and brought in just three of those passes for a total of seven yards. By the data at Pro Football Reference, Moncrief just recorded the seventh-fewest yards per target for any player targeted 10 times or more in a game since 1992.

The Steelers weren't going to win the game if they had replaced Moncrief with Brown, of course, but he would have extended drives. Take the fourth-and-1 the Steelers failed to convert in the second quarter. The Steelers run a Y-stick concept and get Moncrief isolated with leverage against safety Patrick Chung. This should be pitch and catch, and while Roethlisberger's throw isn't perfect, contact from Chung is enough to jar the ball loose. Moncrief also was unable to get to a third-and-goal pass in the end zone, which set up the lone field goal of the day. He even committed a false start during what Moncrief later called "his "worst game ever."

He wasn't the only one struggling to move the chains. Pittsburgh converted just three of its first 13 chances on third or fourth down, and one of those three came via penalty. It went 0-for-4 with one yard to go for either a first down or a touchdown on either third or fourth down. To put that in context, during the 2016 season, this team was 19-of-24 with a yard to go, coming up short just five times over the entire season.

Moncrief was responsible for the two failed conversions on passing plays. The other two were James Conner runs. On the first, you might argue that Conner chose the wrong hole given that he only needed a yard; Danny Shelton was able to shed David DeCastro and make the play at the line of scrimmage.

The other had nothing to do with Conner, as there was some sort of miscommunication between offensive linemen Ramon Foster and Maurkice Pouncey in how they were going to handle pass-rushers Michael Bennett and Jamie Collins. The logical thing would have been for Pouncey to block Bennett and Foster to reach for Collins. That's not what happened. Bennett shot into the backfield at the snap, and while the Steelers might have let Bennett shoot a gap on what was going to be a pitch play, Foster turned and attempted to block Bennett after the fact. That left Pouncey to try to reach Collins, who was standing over the tight end. No center is going to pull that off. The play lost 4 yards.

The Steelers aren't going to fail on every 1-yard conversion they try in 2019. I do wonder, though, whether the offensive line is going to take a step backward in 2019. As much as we talked about them losing Brown and Le'Veon Bell this offseason, they also quietly let offensive line coach Mike Munchak leave for the Broncos and replaced him with Shaun Sarrett, Munchak's former assistant, who became a lead positional coach for the first time. The Steelers aren't breaking in any new starters given that right tackle Matt Feiler started most of last season, but it's hard to imagine that the line won't suffer some after one of the best coaches in the league left town.

Pittsburgh likely thought it would be able to take advantage of its speed against New England's cornerbacks, especially the corners who weren't Stephon Gilmore. That didn't work. Roethlisberger did hit James Washington for one 45-yard completion, but on throws 20 or more yards downfield, he was 1-of-7 with an interception and a QBR of just 4.2. None of those passes went to Juju Smith-Schuster. While you can understand that the Steelers might be willing to sacrifice their star wideout to Gilmore in the hopes of winning one-on-one elsewhere, their receivers weren't good enough to win those matchups.

If we judged everyone by how they looked against the Patriots, the NFL would have somewhere between 29 and 31 bad teams each season. I'm not giving up on the Steelers after one bad game. Six of their next eight games are at home, where Roethlisberger averages nearly a full yard more in adjusted yards per attempt than he does on the road. It wouldn't surprise me if they fixed things against the Seahawks this week and looked good through the end of October.

It's also clear that there are some problems with this offense without those weapons and Munchak, and while I think they will adjust, I also wouldn't be shocked if they struggled to find the right solutions.

Laremy Tunsil, OT, Houston Texans

What went wrong: Three sacks allowed by ESPN's pass block win rate metric

One of the cool things we've developed at ESPN in recent years is pass block win rate (PBWR), which uses the NFL's Next Gen Stats and machine learning to estimate how effective players and teams are at blocking opposing pass-rushers. After Monday's thrilling game between the Saints and Texans, PBWR chalked up three of Deshaun Watson's six sacks to Tunsil, the Texans' new left tackle. The Texans, obviously, didn't trade two first-round picks and a second-round selection to acquire a tackle who gives up three sacks per game. What happened?

Giving those three plays a closer look, I'd hesitate to assign all of the blame to Houston's shiny new toy. Tunsil didn't have a great game in pass protection, but the issues the Texans had in pass protection generally weren't about Tunsil getting beat one-on-one.

The first sack, which came on third-and-15, was a tackle-end stunt with Cameron Jordan and Marcus Davenport lining up on the same side of the formation. Jordan teases like he's going to stay inside of Davenport before the snap before eventually settling in as a wide-nine rusher. Both Jordan and Davenport are outside of Tunsil before the snap and then twist afterward, with Davenport occupying Tunsil and guard Senio Kelemete failing to adjust quickly enough to account for Jordan coming around the backside. Tunsil doesn't get much more than a chip on Jordan before he's pushed aside by Davenport, but Jordan is not really Tunsil's man once he twists to the interior. This is really a team sack.

Later, the Saints would get a second sack under similar circumstances. Davenport lines up against Tunsil and slants hard inside at the snap, with linebacker A.J. Klein following in a blitz. Tunsil passes off Davenport and does a good job of sealing off Klein, which creates a lane for Watson to step up and away from Davenport's pressure on the interior. The problem is that P.J. Williams comes off the edge on a slot blitz, and while Carlos Hyde initially picked the blitz up well, Williams was able to shed Hyde and trip up Watson as he scrambled forward for a loss of a yard.

The third sack was the closest to a one-on-one defeat for Tunsil, with Trey Hendrickson beating Tunsil around the edge and sacking Watson for a 12-yard loss. It's hard to beat a tackle as athletic as Tunsil around the edge, though, and when you look at the player tracking data, you might be able to see what happened (animation courtesy of NFL Next Gen Stats):

Hendrickson looks offside. The line between offside and a perfect jump is small, and Hendrickson wasn't flagged, but I'm willing to chalk this up to either an uncalled penalty or the sort of jump no offensive lineman would be able to stop.

The biggest issue I saw between Tunsil and Kelemete was communication. The Texans struggled at times to pass off twists and stunts between linemen, letting Saints rushers either come in free or disrupt Watson's dropback. Given the issues the Texans had on the line last season, I'm not inclined to chalk that up to Tunsil. I think those problems should get better as Tunsil and his teammates adjust; by the end of the year, the Texans could very well be starting first-round pick Tytus Howard at left guard as opposed to Kelemete.

The other reality is simply that no line is going to turn Watson into Drew Brees. Research has consistently suggested that sacks are more a product of a quarterback than his offensive line, and while Watson was playing behind a subpar line in 2018, his style of play is going to inevitably attract hits. He has an incredible ability to extend plays while keeping his eyes upfield, and the Texans took advantage of that to convert a number of third downs on Monday. That same ability is going to drive hits and sacks, regardless of who's at tackle.

Tunsil wasn't a huge problem against the Saints, and I don't see any cause for alarm for the Texans.

Bradley Chubb and Von Miller, OLBs, Denver Broncos

What went wrong: No sacks, no hits

When Vic Fangio left the Bears to take over as the Broncos' new coach, he didn't have to worry about his new team needing follow in Chicago's footsteps to trade for a star edge rusher. Fangio inherited two in Chubb and Miller, who combined for 26.5 sacks and 47 knockdowns in their debut season together after Chubb was drafted No. 5 overall last year. The 61-year-old Fangio must have envisioned what his two charges would do in Denver's season-opening game in Oakland, where they would go up against debuting right tackle Trent Brown and second-year left tackle Kolton Miller, whom PBWR credited with 16 sacks allowed last season.

On Monday night, though, Oakland's tackles won the battle in a 24-16 victory. Von Miller, Chubb and the rest of the Broncos' defenders failed to knock down Derek Carr even once across 26 dropbacks. Carr was pressured on 29.4% of his dropbacks, which was just above the league average of 28.8%, but to have Carr go all game without hitting the turf was a huge victory for the Raiders. Chubb and Miller were held sack- and hit-less only once in 16 games last season, and unsurprisingly, the Broncos lost that game to the Jets by 18 points.

Did Fangio break his star tandem? I don't think so. Actually, Chubb and Miller were more effective than their sack and hit totals indicated. It was clear that Raiders coach Jon Gruden built his game plan around limiting the chances Chubb and Miller had to impact the game. Carr's average pass came after just 2.43 seconds, which was the third-quickest release in the league during Week 1. That isn't anything new; Carr had the league's quickest release during the 2018 season under Gruden.

The Raiders asked Kolton Miller and Brown to cut block against their star rivals, which was an interesting experience for two of the tallest players in the league. It's not easy for the 6-foot-8 Brown or the 6-9 Miller to get down quickly, and the Raiders clearly schemed plays on which they would ask one or both of their tackles to cut down the opposing edge rusher and throw either a screen or a stick route behind the presumably vacated area.

It didn't always go well. Gruden had both tackles cut on Oakland's second pass attempt, which resulted in a 9-yard completion. On the next play, Brown badly whiffed on a cut attempt, while Miller was badly beaten to the inside by Chubb. Carr got the ball out before Chubb could arrive.

Of the Broncos duo, Chubb had the far more impactful game. On Oakland's first touchdown pass, he got underneath Kolton Miller and pushed the Raiders tackle back into Carr, only for the Oakland quarterback to do a great job of staying upright and finding Tyrell Williams for an 8-yard score. Later in the first half, Chubb would fight off a cut attempt and nearly pick off a screen.

The Raiders seemed to give more help on the right side, where Von Miller spent most of the day. Oakland often chipped Miller and occasionally double-teamed him with tight ends Foster Moreau and Darren Waller, although a second-half snap in which Miller ended up one-on-one with Moreau ended up in a hurry and an incompletion. Oakland also went with a super max protect on one snap, bringing in a sixth offensive lineman and keeping nine blockers in while sending out Williams on a one-man route. The result was Oakland's biggest play of the day, a 43-yard completion.

Overall, I don't think there's a lot to be concerned about with Denver's dynamic pair. Chubb made a more notable impact as a pass-rusher than the numbers might indicate. Oakland had to adjust its game plan before getting on the field to account for the rush, and while the Raiders succeeded with that strategy, it's not always going to be as effective as it was on Monday night. If stopping pass rushes were as simple as getting the ball out immediately, teams would have shut down edge rushers decades ago. Throwing the ball quickly reduces the threat of fade and go routes, which allows defensive backs to squeeze and break on shorter routes, and that creates tipped passes and takeaways. Miller and Chubb will get theirs in the weeks to come.

Jameis Winston, QB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

What went wrong: A Total QBR of 7.3

First, a warning. I watched chunks of the 49ers-Bucs game live on Sunday and then watched it again in midweek for this column. Do not follow in my footsteps. The notion of Week 1 representing the new preseason is overblown given how effective other teams in the league were during their season openers, but this game would have been embarrassing even by preseason standards. It was a sloppy, brutal, ugly game of football played in oppressive heat with virtually no flow whatsoever.

Take the first third-down pass attempt of the game for Winston. The Bucs lined up in trips and tried to space out the field with five options in five different throwing lanes for Winston. The trips receivers were all covered. Did Winston work to the backside of the play, where he had two receivers matched up against one cornerback, Richard Sherman? No. Instead, Winston shuffled nervously in the pocket, ran into a hurry, threw a pass late to the sideline and then had that pass dropped. It was that sort of game.

Few quarterbacks are more frustrating to watch than Winston, especially when you're hoping to see signs of long-term growth. There were so many bad decisions against the 49ers. Even when you want to chalk up a play to something unlucky, there's seemingly a poor choice lurking underneath. Winston slipped as he attempted a first-quarter pass that was nearly intercepted by Kwon Alexander, but when you think about what would have happened if Winston hadn't slipped, you realize that Alexander would have still been in the same spot and in perfect position to intercept a better-thrown ball. You strangely end up giving Winston credit for slipping and throwing something less catchable.

To be fair, Winston didn't get much help from his line. Demar Dotson wiped off two different Cameron Brate touchdowns on one possession with holding penalties. Donovan Smith struggled badly against Nick Bosa in the latter's pro debut, including one snap in which Bosa casually shoved him aside and pressured Winston, who then proceeded to juke Bosa out of his shoes before completing a pass to Mike Evans. It was arguably Winston's best play of the day. Two pass attempts later, the Bucs set up what might have been a touchdown on a screen pass to Peyton Barber, only for Alex Cappa to whiff on his attempt to block Fred Warner.

Winston probably deserves to be absolved of some of the blame for one of his interceptions. The first pick-six he threw appeared to be his hot read, but despite the fact that Winston was under pressure from a free rusher, Barber didn't adjust his route or turn around to bring in the pass until it was too late.

The second pick-six, on the other hand, was a busted screen lobbed yards past the running back while under pressure. It's an inexplicably bad throw. Most college quarterbacks would be smart enough to avoid making that throw. Winston is making that pass in the fourth quarter of an eight-point game as he starts his fifth year in the NFL. He was flagged for intentional grounding after holding the ball for 4.11 seconds on a throw into the end zone in Week 1, and it wasn't even one of his three worst decisions on the day.

There might not be a player in the league who has more riding on 2019 than Winston. If he has a great season, a Bucs organization that has placed frankly unwarranted faith in Winston as both a quarterback and a person will be excited to offer him a lucrative extension. If he fails, there will be several organizations around the league uninterested in offering him a deal for both on- and off-field concerns. Others will likely take him on as a backup with upside, but it wouldn't be shocking to see him get a one-year deal. In guaranteed money alone, the difference between a successful year and a disappointing one for Winston could amount to $40 million.

The initial returns aren't promising. It seems reasonable to give him some benefit of the doubt as he works with Bruce Arians and Byron Leftwich's scheme for the first time at regular-season speed, but the decision-making has been a problem for the entirety of Winston's career, and he hasn't been good enough during Tampa's flashes of impressive play to make up for those awful choices. There's no reason for the Bucs to bench Winston anytime soon, given that his backups are the currently injured Blaine Gabbert and Ryan Griffin, but there wasn't much difference between the Winston of old and the guy who posted a single-digit QBR against the 49ers on Sunday.

The U.S. will leave the World Cup with its worst finish in a major international tournament, assured of finishing no better than seventh after falling to Serbia 94-89 in a consolation playoff game Thursday night.

The previous worst finish for a U.S. men's team in 45 tournament appearances was sixth at the 2002 world championships. The Americans -- the top-ranked team in the world -- will finish either seventh or eighth in China, depending on the outcome of their consolation finale Saturday.

Harrison Barnes scored 22 points for the U.S., which got 18 from Kemba Walker and 16 from Khris Middleton.

Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 28 for Serbia, which ran out to a quick 25-point lead and handed the U.S. its second loss in two days. Vladimir Lucic scored 15 for Serbia, which will play for fifth place Saturday.

A Serbia-U.S. meeting was widely expected to be one for gold this weekend. The prospects of that were hyped plenty going into the tournament -- especially after Serbia coach Sasha Djordjevic called out the Americans in a television interview by saying "if we meet, may God help them." But all that was on the line Thursday night was bragging rights and a few world ranking points.

Serbia led 44-40 at the half, a margin that may suggest the first 20 minutes were of the back-and-forth variety.

They were not. Instead, it was just two really big runs, one by each team.

Serbia won the first quarter 32-7. The U.S. won the second quarter 33-12. Serbia shot 64% in the first quarter and the U.S. shot 19%; in the second quarter, it was the Americans shooting 72%, Serbia 31%.

TIP-INS

U.S.: Jayson Tatum (left ankle) and Marcus Smart (left hand) were out with injuries, and neither is expected to play in the team's finale Saturday. ... The last time the U.S. dropped consecutive games at the World Cup level was 2002 at the world championships in Indianapolis, losing to Argentina by seven and Yugoslavia by three. The only times the Americans lost three straight were at the 1970 world championships and at the 2005 FIBA Americas tournament.

Serbia: Vasilije Micic, whose mother died during this tournament, stayed with the team instead of going home early. He scored 10 points. ... All-NBA center Nikola Jokic was quiet offensively, scoring nine points on 3-for-4 shooting. He did make two free throws with 20.2 seconds left to put Serbia ahead by six.

NO MEDAL

The U.S. has been sending teams to major international competitions -- the Olympics, the World Cup (formerly the world championship) and FIBA Americas -- since 1936, a span of 45 tournaments in all. This is only the fifth time the Americans won't medal; they were fifth at the 1970 world championship, fifth at the 1978 world championship, sixth at the 2002 world championship and fourth at the 2005 FIBA Americas. They've medaled in all 18 Olympic competitions, winning gold 15 times.

UP NEXT

U.S.: Faces Poland or Czech Republic in seventh-place game at Beijing on Saturday.

Serbia: Faces Poland or Czech Republic in fifth-place game at Beijing on Saturday.

DONGGUAN, China -- Sometimes the worst insult can be apathy.

Wednesday night, when France beat Team USA, some French players had tears in their eyes and star Rudy Gobert said he'd fulfilled a lifelong dream. Thursday night, when Serbia jumped out to a 25-point lead in the first quarter and went on to beat the Americans for the first time, 94-89, avenging a 30-point loss in the Olympic gold-medal game in 2016, there was ... nothing.

No emotion. The Serbian players just walked off the floor.

It's true the game had no material stakes. Team USA had already qualified for the Olympics and Serbia couldn't qualify and was just playing for pride. But when Australia beat Team USA in a friendly last month in Melbourne, the victors celebrated it as one of the great achievements in the country's basketball history.

Nikola Jokic, the first team All-NBA center the USA was fretting about facing for weeks, sort of went through the game at medium speed. He scored nine points and had seven assists, but Serbia didn't need him to be great.

"It goes in the books," said Sacramento Kings guard Bogdan Bogdanovic, who crushed Team USA with 28 points. "But it's just another game."

Man.

The full report is after falling behind by 25, the U.S. battled back with spirit. Gregg Popovich kept coaching, deploying different lineups and trying different things. Khris Middleton and Myles Turner led a meaningful comeback. Harrison Barnes had his best game of the World Cup with 22 points. Kemba Walker had 18 points despite a bothersome neck injury.

But ...

"We're not here to get moral victories, we're here to win," Donovan Mitchell said. "To lose two in a row stings."

Team USA will play for seventh place Saturday in Beijing. It will be the worst finish in a World Cup for the country -- and that positioning is probably about right. That's right where the Americans belong in this event. Had they pulled off the win over France, they likely didn't have the horsepower to win two more.

FIBA's promotion of Friday's World Cup semifinals came with the tagline: "The throne is empty." Let's translate that: The king is dead. Since leaving for Australia to play a three-game exhibition tour, this group is 7-3. Had Turkey not botched several chances to beat them last week, Team USA would be 6-4.

It's hard to judge this team. They have indeed showed character, they haven't taken shortcuts. Their intensity to start games could've been better. And it was curious that Popovich didn't hold a full practice for nearly two weeks despite a number of players struggling with shooting; the extra work might've paid off. They never bought into the ball-movement offense Popovich tried to install in training camp and it made them easier to guard. But honestly, these are nitpicks.

This team didn't underachieve, and that is sobering. Whether it's a call to action to more talented American players remains to be seen. But that's obviously the first step. Maybe Popovich will have to do some more recruiting over the next 10 months. Maybe Jerry Colangelo, who put the team together with other USA Basketball executives, needs to evaluate process. But they'd do that anyway, even if they'd won a medal. It's not an indictment.

Looking at this fairly, it's a true accomplishment they got the Olympic berth and didn't force playing in a series of qualifying games next summer. At this point, who knows what would happen there.

They were down to 10 players Thursday because Jayson Tatum (ankle) and Marcus Smart (leg injuries) were out. Losing Tatum was a killer. At his size and the way Popovich wanted to play, with wings moving down and guarding opposing bigs, Tatum was a crucial player. There just wasn't spare talent.

Brook Lopez, a quality player for the Milwaukee Bucks, hasn't made a shot all tournament and was rendered next to unusable. Mason Plumlee has a World Cup gold medal and is a great guy to have around the team, but he's an NBA backup in Denver and was playing against Jokic, the guy ahead of Plumlee on the Nuggets' roster. It was just a tough ask.

In the locker room after the game, the Americans looked at each other and realized there is a lot of work to do for the national team going forward. And many of them might not be asked back to do it.

Say whatever you want about this group, the players have had their eyes wide open this entire time. Their understanding of the situation, like the Serbs' collective indifference, just said it all.

"For some of us, potentially all of us, Saturday will be the last chance for us to wear a Team USA jersey," Barnes said. "We have to savor that opportunity."

The New York Yankees expect Luis Severino to make his first start of the season on Tuesday, manager Aaron Boone announced Thursday.

Severino, who has been on the injured list with right shoulder rotator cuff inflammation and a lat strain, last pitched in the majors in Game 3 of the 2018 ALDS, when he gave up six runs in three innings of a 16-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox.

"No question we're excited to get him back," Boone said Thursday. "Feel like he's been in pretty good place physically now for a couple of months and building really good momentum. I feel like his progression has gone really smooth.

"... He could be a game-changer guy for us, there's no question."

Severino, who made his final rehab start for Double-A Trenton on Wednesday night, will rejoin the Yankees in Toronto on Friday. The team faces the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday.

Boone hopes Severino can make three starts during the remainder of the regular season.

"Not far off at all," Boone said of Severino's rehab outing. "Now it's just a matter of really just getting real sharp. But you can tell he feels good, the stuff is there. Now it's getting sharp with it and getting that consistency.

Severino threw 64 pitches over 3 2/3 innings, striking out four with no walks while giving up five hits and four runs -- one earned.

"I feel pretty good," Severino told reporters after the game. "Today, I was looking forward just to seeing my arm. I was letting the ball go better than the first one. I was working on my secondary pitches. My changeup was down in the zone. I left a couple up, but I think that everything went well."