Durham 197 for 6 (Watling 83*) v Glamorgan

Before Marnus Labuschagne came to wider attention in the Ashes series, he set an unlikely event in motion: a Glamorgan promotion challenge. Few would have predicted that a year ago after they finished bottom of the heap in Division Two.

Those of fiercely patriotic bent were not exactly happy to see county cricket providing Labuschagne with a grounding in English cricket ahead of the Ashes. They would have moaned all the more if only they could have pronounced his name.

But it certainly worked for Glamorgan. By the time Labuschagne-or-however-you-pronounce-it had left, he had 1114 Championship runs at 65.53. Life has been tougher since then: Glamorgan have lost three of their last four, only finding relief with a win against the bottom club, Leicestershire.

But their 16-point deficit is not insurmountable, especially as the sides in second and third, Gloucestershire and Northants, are meeting at Bristol. The easiest route to promotion for Glamorgan is for Gloucestershire to lose against Northants while they pick up more bonus points than Gloucestershire in beating Durham at Riverside.

And yes, thank you, everyone knows it might rain. A survey once suggested that on average the English waste 10 months of their lives complaining about the weather - presumably nobody dared to ask the Welsh. That's 17 minutes a day which is obviously preposterous as the English don't spend half that long making polite conversation, but it serves as a reminder that the forecast is best ignored.

It's going to lash down all day Tuesday apparently.

Glamorgan restricted Durham to 197 for 6 in 71 overs on the opening day but they might have been hoping for better. They ran up against BJ Watling, the New Zealand batsman who was brought in for the last two games of the season because Durham envisaged a promotion challenge that immediately ran aground when they lost at Northampton last week.

Finding himself 12,000 miles from home for no good reason, Watling occupied himself as best he could, which in his case meant an unbeaten 83 on a pitch that was shifted at the last minute because rain had got under the covers.

It was repositioned well over to the Lumley Castle side of the ground, so much so that the ghosts said to haunt it might have complained to the council about the noise. Reputedly, the pitches on that side can do a bit, but considering it is September 23 in the north of England - the autumn equinox no less - this one behaved itself well enough. There was the occasional flame of rearing bounce but Glamorgan hoped for more.

It is Watling's first stint in county cricket and, although circumstance had dictated that Durham would have been better keeping the money in the bank, he looked a shrewd acquisition.

He played strongly through the off side, particularly against Marchant de Lange, who whether by accident or design he pretty much resisted single-handedly. De Lange can look a daunting sight, the 90 emblazoned on his broad back acting as a reminder of his potential speed, but Watling's seventh Test century, against Sri Lanka at the P Sara Stadium last month, was a reminder that, at 34, nothing fazes him.

What, one wonders, does Michael Hogan make off the possibility that he might be in Division One next season? He is 38 now - a strip of the lad compared to 43-year-old Darren Stevens who has finished the season so spectacularly with Kent - and retains a strong, high action and an accuracy that keeps batsmen honest.

Hogan took four of the wickets to fall. Three came to lbw decisions: Cameron Steel falling to an inswinger in his second over, Alex Lees' 45 coming to grief because of a mystifying leave-alone and Ned Eckersley beaten by one that seamed back. Solomon Bell, an 18-year-old on debut, also found him a bit hard to handle, contriving to play outside a back-of-a-length ball that struck his off stump.

Durham have made progress in four-day cricket this season and they will anticipate more of the same next season after announcing that they have re-signed Australian international Cameron Bancroft in all three formats for the 2020 season.

Somerset 75 for 4 (Cook 2-5) v Essex

James Hildreth gets inside the line of a ball from Simon Harmer and sweeps it to the boundary just to the right of Gimblett's Hill. The locals at the County Ground applaud the stroke and are momentarily buoyed by fresh hope. But it is a rare reverse for Harmer, who will shortly trap Hildreth and Tom Banton leg before wicket in the space of three balls. The offspinner has now taken 80 wickets in the Championship and is a bowler of rare skill and subtlety. He dismissed Hildreth for 32 when bowling round the wicket to cramp the batsman for room and then accounted for Banton in more conventional style from over the wicket. Both balls turned appreciably but this pitch has not yet behaved sufficiently erratically to send the pitch inspectors into a ferment.

Despite a dismal weather forecast there is a large crowd at Taunton, which is only fitting on the first morning of the match which will decide the destiny of the County Championship. Sky are covering the game and there is a bevy of radio commentaries, both local and national. Everyone is focused closely on the immediate moment and the destiny of the greatest prize in English domestic cricket. In order to accommodate other media, the written press are housed in Portakabins, just as they were when Tom Abell made his maiden first-class century four sweet summers ago. That rehousing was necessitated by the construction of the Somerset pavilion, which is only the latest of Taunton's new buildings and, in a glorious piece of eccentricity, the fourth of its pavilions.

And yet, even on a ground so obviously clothed in modernity, the past exerts a powerful hold, an effect achieved not simply by the large pictures and brief biographies of Somerset cricketers which are placed every few yards on the perimeter wall and inside the Ondaatje Pavilion. Somerset's history is fondly remembered partly because the county has been freakishly lucky in the quality of its cricket writers, many of whom worked in the old press box with its high desks and its scant acknowledgement of technological change.

This was a good day for Essex. Sam Cook removed Murali Vijay and Steve Davies inside the first 20 minutes of the morning and when the predicted rain arrived at 12.10pm Somerset were 75 for 4. Their chances of posting the sort of total that might help them to embarrass their opponents in the remainder of the game have been significantly damaged. Yet this has still been a fine season for Somerset cricket and one wonders what men like David Foot and Alan Gibson might have made of it.

Foot worked mainly for newspapers in the West Country and also for the Guardian. His books of essays, Beyond Bat and Ball and Fragments of Idolatry, are as good as that form has produced. Rich in knowledge and insight, they capture a cricketer's character in a phrase. Take this, for example, from "Twelve O'Clock Low", Foot's brilliant essay on Bill Andrews:

He was the most popular figure Somerset cricket ever had. Certainly Sammy Woods, who also liked the raucous chatter of a skittle alley and possessed the classless bonhomie that becomes an Aussie, was his only rival. Lionel Palairet's popularity was largely confined to the hotel lounge, Gimblett's to the Taunton (and Frome) grounds and fourth-form romance, Farmer White's to the harvest suppers around the Quantocks and Botham's to the pulp forests of the tabloid devotees.

Andrews' bowling action was known as "Twelve O'Clock High". The title of the essay refers to the depression with which this fine cricketer was cursed. Foot knew Andrews so well that he was able to see how an apparently extrovert character also suffered the sideswipes of fate.

The old wooden stand from which Foot watched countless days of county cricket is gone; the famous Stragglers Bar is gone; and the old press box with those desks and its hot water urn chuntering in the background is gone, too. Yet time was when at least one journalist used to sit in that box comforted by the fact that it was where Foot and Gibson had worked.

Alan Gibson's reports in the Times were favoured both by those who played the game professionally and those who simply watched it. Sometimes he did not write about the play so much as the experience of attending a match. Railway stations featured as frequently as pavilions, a fact beautifully reflected in Of Didcot and the Demon a glorious and very honest book, written and edited by Gibson's son, Anthony, and lovingly produced by Stephen Chalke's Fairfield imprint.

There were occasions when all the inspiration Gibson needed was a chance meeting. Take this from 1971:

I knew it was going to be a good day when I passed Jeremy Thorpe at Taunton station. "So do great ships pass in the night," he said, a remark I hereby pass on to my grand-children, with supplications to the compositor for no misprints. I might even have guessed that it would be a good day for Brian Close, another man who has been bludgeoned by fate but repeatedly emerged unbowed and unbloody, except in the strictly technical sense. Both, also, are not afraid to hit out at bowling of the slow left variety.

Gibson concocted fine soubriquets for his favourite cricketers. Robin Jackman was the "Shoreditch Sparrow"; Colin Dredge was the "Demon of Frome". As one watched Somerset battle away in this game they must win to take their first title, one wondered what Gibson would make of today's cricketers. Would the Overton twins be "The Instow Monoliths"? Would Jack Leach be "Sainsbury's Archivist"?

But that's the point about writers so rich in human sympathy and so bounteously endowed with talent as David Foot and Alan Gibson. Their writings live on, even through their palest imitators and even on damp days when the title may be slipping away from Somerset. "The past becomes the present inside your head," says Margrethe, Niels Bohr's wife, in Michael Frayn's play Copenhagen .

Ed Smith is a man who chooses his words wisely, but on this occasion, the message from England's chief selector could not have been clearer. Jonny Bairstow has been dropped from England's Test team, and if he wants his place back, he needs to take a long, hard look at his own priorities, and the needs of the team that will take on New Zealand next month without him.

Selection announcements tend to be a euphemist's paradise. Players in this day and age tend to be "rested" rather than chopped from the reckoning entirely - even Jason Roy was offered a verbal lifeboat by Smith despite an Ashes debut to forget - and it would have been entirely understandable had England taken a similar approach with the Bairstow announcement.

This is, after all, a player whose twin World Cup hundreds were such an important part of the team's fightback from the brink in the group stages of their most important campaign of the decade, and whose subsequently poor run of form in the Ashes could have been mitigated by any number of factors - burn-out, positional uncertainty and ODI-focussed technical tinkering among them.

After all, his failings this summer in Test cricket have been, on the face of it, little worse than those of the men around him in England's middle order. He averaged 23.77 in the Ashes, with a solitary half-century in ten innings, which is only fractionally less impressive than the 24.70 of Jos Buttler, the man who will be wearing the keeper's gloves in his absence this winter.

The difference, however, is of potential on the one hand, and perception on the other. Buttler's freakish methods lend themselves to a certain type of Test innings - generally counterattacking in the time-honoured image of Adam Gilchrist, and ideally from no higher than No.7 in the batting order, at which point the tone of the innings (for better or worse) will have been set, and the licence to have a go will have been established.

Bairstow, however, is an entirely different beast - and the challenge that Smith has laid down to him would appear to be rooted in two important considerations.

Firstly, and perhaps most obviously, Bairstow is a man who finds his motivation from rather different sources to his peers. His career has been fuelled by a curious rage against his doubters - most notably after his comeback century in Sri Lanka last year when he claimed to have been "castigated" for picking up an ankle injury while playing football, but again before England's World Cup revival in late-June, when he declared that England's media had been waiting for the team to "fail".

Therefore, in explicitly using the word "dropped" in announcing his omission from the Test leg of the New Zealand tour, Smith has sought to fuel that anger like a S(m)ith Lord, encouraging him to shove the indignity straight back whence it came, and make England all the more powerful as a by-product.

It also implies a removal of the kid-gloves now that England's summer-to-end-all-summers has finally ended. For the perception abounds that Bairstow has been indulged by the selectors in recent months, that his tendency to rock the boat with those off-message rages was a price worth paying given the pre-eminence of his form in the only format that really mattered at the time. And if that manifested itself in Jonny growling like a mongrel if anyone dared approach his wicketkeepers' gauntlets in Test cricket, then, well, a blind eye was probably the easiest option.

That now looks set to change, not least because of the other key aspect to the axing - the height of Bairstow's ceiling as a pure Test batsman. Smith was unequivocal on this point, and with good reason, given that it is not so long ago - three summers, in fact - since Bairstow's Test form was unquenchable. In the calendar year of 2016, he scored 1470 runs at 58.80 in 17 Tests and looked as likely as any man on the circuit to break into the game's upper echelons.

But ever since that season Bairstow's returns have been unworthy - three centuries in 76 subsequent innings. And, at a time when England are crying out for genuine Test batsmen, both to ease the pressure on the captain Root, and to prevent any more white-ball pegs being hammered in red-ball roles, one of the most obvious answers to their problems finds himself lurking at the wrong end of the middle order, and seemingly unwilling to front up for the greater good.

"I'm using my words carefully, He hasn't been 'rested', because to me, that would feel like a cop-out" Ed Smith on Bairstow's non-selection

"Jonny is a very talented cricketer," Smith said. "I'm using my words carefully. He hasn't been 'rested', because to me, that would feel like a cop-out. However, I do believe he has the potential to be a top, top player in Test cricket for England. This is an opportunity for him to reset and to work on one or two things, and then come back."

Bairstow's statistics back up this assertion about his potential, as Smith himself was at pains to point out. When first picked (as a batsman only), against South Africa in 2012, "Jonny was the outstanding young batsman in England," he said.

Furthermore, Smith pointed out his first-class average excluding Test matches is 50.31, which places him alongside Joe Root among his contemporaries and second to Ollie Pope among England-qualified batsman - although Pope's sample size of 28 matches is too small to compere, even if he is rightly one of the chosen men for the New Zealand tour.

Furthermore, in the period of time that Bairstow has been an England player, his non Test-match first-class average soars to 57. "That clearly shows his potential as a as a red-ball cricketer," Smith concluded, although it also speaks volumes for Bairstow's reaction on the last occasion that England jettisoned him, at the end of the calamitous 2013-14 Ashes.

He returned to Yorkshire to blitz his county to back-to-back Championship titles, racking up 1226 at 76.62 in the 2015 season alone, before cementing his England recall on that winter's tour of South Africa.

To point the finger at Bairstow alone, and blame him for all the ills that have recently befallen England's Test team would be disingenuous, not to mention grossly unfair. The priority of the past four years has been England's one-day side, and Bairstow's perseverance in, first, forcing himself in between Jason Roy and Alex Hales to become a ODI must-pick, and then, latterly, becoming the most reliable half of the most statistically outstanding ODI batting partnership of all time is a staggering achievement.

However, the trade-off for that dedication to white-ball walloping has been as clear as the daylight between his bat and front pad in red-ball cricket. By exposing his stumps to open up his cover-drive in ODIs, Bairstow has exacerbated a propensity to be bowled in Test cricket - 32 times in 69 Tests, a higher percentage any other batsman this century.

But it might also be a metaphor for the entire England set-up, as they embark on a new four-year cycle in which their Test fortunes will be far more rigorously judged than under the Trevor Bayliss regime.

"This is a real opportunity now to reset and focus on how he can go about being that becoming that really Top Test-match player," Smith said. "I would say he needs an opportunity to reset, in his own mind, how he can best contribute to Test cricket.

"If I was asked to give a prediction, my prediction is he comes back stronger and has a very good England career in Test cricket in the future."

Smith might also have added, go and lay a hefty bet on Bairstow being England's top-scorer in the five T20Is in New Zealand that precede the Test campaign. For the fury that this decision may unleash is precisely the sort of cheek-reddening rage that has propelled Bairstow to his most spectacular acts in an England shirt.

And, as a man who turns 30 next week, there's still ample time for more I-told-you-so moments in the near future. Assuming he takes this sacking in the spirit it was intended. And gets bloody livid before he gets even.

Houston senior quarterback D'Eriq King will not play the remainder of the season so that he can take a redshirt, the school announced on Monday.

Keith Corbin, the team's second-leading receiver and also a senior, will also sit out the rest of the season and redshirt, the team announced.

King, who set the American Athletic Conference record with 50 touchdowns responsible for last season, said in a statement that he plans to return to Houston next season.

"I came here to play football for the University of Houston and that is not changing," King said in a statement released by the school. "After carefully thinking through this process with my family and Coach [Dana] Holgorsen, I have decided the opportunity to redshirt this season gives me the best chance to develop as a player, earn my degree and set me up for the best success in the future. I'm looking forward to being a part of the success of this program going forward."

Said Corbin: "Having the opportunity to take time and focus on the completion of my degree, plus having the chance to develop as a student-athlete is why I have decided to redshirt for the remainder of the 2019 season. Coach Holgorsen, myself and my family both took time to make this decision. Being a Cougar has been one of the best decisions I have made, and I'm ready to take this time to help our program develop for the future."

King's father, Eric King, told ESPN on Monday that he felt like it was the best situation for his son going forward, both for his development as a player as it relates to his professional future and to avoid having a "wasted year." He said that returning to Houston was "absolutely" a possibility, but that the quarterback and his family would evaluate their options.

The Cougars are off to a 1-3 start with losses to Oklahoma, Washington State and Tulane. King has started all of them; Corbin has started three of the four. If they don't play another game, both can return for another season under the new redshirt rule instituted in 2018, which allows players to play up to four games and retain a year of eligibility.

Houston will turn to its backup, sophomore Clayton Tune, at quarterback for the team's game at North Texas on Saturday. Tune played in five games last season, including two starts after King suffered a season-ending knee injury.

King, who hopes to play quarterback in the NFL, is on his third head coach and fourth offensive coordinator since signing with Houston in 2016.

"That can take a toll, learning a new system every year and things of that nature," Eric King said.

Eric King added that D'Eriq is "not real comfortable," with the decision "but he knows his opportunities are greater later...at the end of the day sometimes you've got to be a little bit selfish and take care of you."

For those who might view the decision as a selfish one, Eric King said "sometimes, you gotta be, because he hasn't in the past. Not for UH, anyway."

"He played hurt, he played wide receiver, he played punt returner, he played kickoff returner, he played quarterback, he played running back, he's the most unselfish kid there is, but sometimes you got to be selfish to get what you want to get in life. There's only one you, there's only one life. So you've got to make sure your good."

Both King and Corbin will still work out with the team, a team spokesman said. Holgorsen did not return calls or text messages seeking comment on Monday afternoon.

Before the season Holgorsen expressed a desire to use as many redshirts as possible.

"If guys have redshirts available and they're third on the depth chart, I'm gonna try to redshirt 'em," Holgorsen said on Aug. 12. "I don't care if they're a senior. There's some guys that are going to their senior year who have redshirts available and if they're not going to be playing a whole bunch, then I'm gonna try to redshirt 'em. That's how you develop a program, that's how you build a program and develop kids. We've got some seniors who are 20 years old. That's crazy to me. My average starting age [at West Virginia] was 23 years old."

King and Corbin, who have started all four games for the Cougars thus far, weren't at the top of Holgorsen's mind when he made that statement, but it seems he's on board with it to improve Houston going into 2020.

"This four-game thing, that's important," Holgorsen said then. "We'll green-light guys and red-light guys and we'll do everything we can to win the game. But if it doesn't involve that specific guy, we're gonna save the game and if at the end of the year we can get it to where we can play him four games and gain a year then that's gonna be something we're interested in doing."

King has thrown for 663 yards and six touchdowns while completing 52 percent of his passes this season. A dual-threat, King is the team's leading rusher with 312 yards and six touchdowns. He has thrown and rushed for a touchdown in 15 consecutive games, breaking the FBS record previously held by Florida's Tim Tebow.

Corbin has caught 11 passes for 192 yards and two touchdowns this season. He started each of the last two seasons and was second in the American with 10 touchdown receptions in 2018.

Antonio Brown, one day after tweeting that he "will not be playing in the NFL anymore," has announced on social media that he has reenrolled at Central Michigan University.

Brown on Monday posted on his Instagram account a picture of a list of four classes with the message: "Back to school @cmuathletics."

The post shows a list of four classes that are offered online, including: Introduction to Management, Technical Writing, Death and Dying (a religion course) and Racism and Equality (a sociology course).

ESPN's Jeremy Fowler has confirmed that Brown enrolled in the four classes on Sept. 16, four days before he was released by the New England Patriots. Brown's enrollment was first reported by MLive.com.

As part of a Sunday morning Twitter tirade, Brown called out Patriots owner Robert Kraft and former Pittsburgh Steelers teammate Ben Roethlisberger after tweeting that he "will not be playing in the @NFL anymore," adding that "owners can cancel deals do whatever they want at anytime."

Brown attended Central Michigan and played football there for three seasons (2007-09). He was drafted by the Steelers in the sixth round (195th overall) in the 2010 draft, the 22nd of 27 receivers chosen that year.

Brown has been accused of rape and sexual assault by Britney Taylor, his former trainer whom he met while attending Central Michigan, and sexual misconduct by a female artist.

The NCAA's enforcement staff has charged the University of Kansas with lack of institutional control and Jayhawks basketball coach Bill Self with head coach responsibility violations, a source confirmed to ESPN on Monday.

Those are among the most serious charges levied against Kansas and Self in an NCAA notice of allegations the university received on Monday. The Jayhawks are charged with multiple Level 1 violations, the most serious under NCAA rules, as well as allegations related to the school's football program under former coach David Beaty.

Yahoo! Sports first reported details of the allegations on Monday.

Under NCAA rules, Kansas officials have 90 days to respond to the charges. Sources have told ESPN that Self and Kansas officials plan to fight the allegations.

Self, 56, has guided Kansas to at least a share of 14 consecutive Big 12 regular-season titles, three Final Four appearances and the 2008 NCAA championship. He was president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches in 2017-18.

NCAA bylaw 11.1.1.1 states that a "head coach is presumed to be responsible for the actions of all staff members who report, directly or indirectly, to the head coach. The head coach will be held accountable for violations in the program unless he or she can rebut the presumption of responsibility."

Under NCAA rules, a head coach can receive a show-cause order and be suspended up to an entire season for Level I violations and up to half a season for Level II violations. The length of the suspension is determined by the Committee on Infractions and depends on the "severity of the violation(s) committed, the level of the coach's involvement and any other aggravating or mitigating factors."

According to sources, of utmost concern to the NCAA enforcement staff is the Kansas coaching staff's relationship with Adidas and its employees. The sneaker company was at the center of a federal investigation into bribes and other corruption in college basketball over the past two years. The Jayhawks are the company's flagship program and signed a 14-year, $196 million apparel and sponsorship extension in April.

Earlier this month, former Adidas consultant T.J. Gassnola was sentenced to probation and fined for his role in pay-for-play schemes to steer recruits to Kansas and other Adidas-sponsored programs.

During closing arguments in a federal criminal case in New York in October, an attorney for former Adidas executive James Gatto told a jury that his client approved a $20,000 payment to current Kansas player Silvio De Sousa's guardian only after Self and Jayhawks assistant Kurtis Townsend requested the payment through Gassnola.

Gatto, former Adidas consultant Merl Code and aspiring business manager Christian Dawkins were found guilty on felony charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

The three were accused of paying money from Adidas to the families of recruits to ensure they signed with Adidas-sponsored schools and then with the sneaker company and certain financial planners and agents once they turned pro.

Gatto was accused of working with Gassnola to facilitate $90,000 from Adidas to former Jayhawks recruit Billy Preston's mother and agreeing to pay $20,000 to Fenny Falmagne, De Sousa's guardian, to help him "get out from under" a pay-for-play scheme to attend Maryland, which is sponsored by Under Armour.

Gassnola testified during the trial that Self and his assistants weren't aware of the alleged payments.

On Sept. 19, 2017, three days before Kansas announced the 14-year extension with Adidas, Gassnola texted Self and thanked him for helping the sponsorship deal get done.

Self responded: "I'm happy with Adidas. Just got to get a couple real guys."

Gassnola replied: "In my mind, it's KU, bill self. Everyone else fall into line. Too f---ing bad. That's what's right for Adidas basketball. And I know I am RIGHT. The more you win, have lottery pics and you happy. That's how it should work in my mind."

Gassnola, a former youth basketball director from Springfield, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty in April 2018 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his role in the alleged pay-for-play schemes. He testified during the October trial as part of his cooperation agreement with federal prosecutors.

The NCAA had previously alleged that Gassnola and Adidas were representatives of NC State's athletics interests when Gassnola provided $40,000 in cash to then-assistant coach Orlando Early in November 2015 to ensure star guard Dennis Smith Jr.'s commitment to the Wolfpack.

Josephine Potuto, a professor at the University of Nebraska College of Law and a former chair of the NCAA Committee on Infractions, said a corporation such as Adidas might fit under the NCAA's definition of boosters.

Under NCAA rules, an individual or entity can be identified as a booster if they "assisted or [have] been requested by the university staff to assist in the recruitment of prospective student-athletes."

"Typically, when you think about a booster, you think of somebody who is trying to assist a particular school," Potuto said, while not specifically talking about Kansas or any of the other schools involved in the federal government's investigation into college basketball corruption. "That's the normal definition and the normal way you think about it, but it's not exclusive.

"To the extent that one of the shoe companies was providing payments to a prospect or to the family members of a prospect, and the interest was getting the prospect to attend a particular school, that would sound as though that would fall within that [booster] provision."

David Ridpath, president of the Drake Group, a thinktank dedicated to protecting academic integrity in college sports, and an associate professor of sports business at Ohio University, said it's too early to tell whether the NCAA can make a dent in cleaning up college basketball corruption.

"[The notice of allegations] is not surprising," Ridpath said. "But it's one thing to allege and another to know what's going to be the end game. I think we saw that in the North Carolina case [involving alleged academic misconduct]. I have my doubts that the membership really truly, truly wants to punish these schools and punish coaches like Bill Self. At the end of the day, whether he knew or didn't know, he should have known or did know. My guess is Bill Self probably knew a lot more than he's letting on.

"If we're going to have these rules, they need to be enforced. Until we see the end game, I don't know how worried Kansas should be about these allegations, because it still has to go through the infractions process. The committee on infractions has shown in the past that it's very reticent to punish some schools. We'll have to wait and see. If they're doing their job, Kansas should be absolutely eviscerated."

LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- The NFL regular season is less than one month old, and the Chicago Bears find themselves in a precarious situation.

The Bears' top-ranked defense looks Super Bowl-ready, but quarterback Mitchell Trubisky looks far from it.

"[My confidence is] good. It's good," Trubisky said last week. "You just got to believe this week is going to be the week."

The Monday Night Football matchup against the Washington Redskins is Trubisky's 30th career start (including the postseason). Thus far, the 25-year-old quarterback's overall body of work has raised more questions than it has provided answers.

Trubisky puttered through a relatively nondescript rookie season in an offensive system that lacked any innovation or true playmakers outside of running backs Tarik Cohen and the since-traded Jordan Howard.

In 2018, Trubisky's second season, that changed. New head coach Matt Nagy ditched the archaic offensive style preferred by former coach John Fox. Nagy, an assistant in Kansas City under Andy Reid, brought a more dynamic, forward-thinking scheme.

He also worked wonders for Trubisky.

There were bumpy moments, but Trubisky finished with 3,223 passing yards (66.6 completion percentage), 24 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, 421 rushing yards, three rushing touchdowns and a quarterback rating of 95.4. The Bears also won the NFC North for the first time since 2010.

All signs pointed toward continued improvement in 2019.

So far, the opposite has happened.

Through two games in 2019, Trubisky's completion percentage (58.3), passing yards (348), touchdowns (zero), Total QBR (27.5), yards per attempt (4.8) and number of attempts that traveled 10-plus yards in the air (16) are substantially worse when compared to Trubisky's play in the opening two games of the 2018 season, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

"We haven't been executing the way we want to," Trubisky said. "There are definitely some things that we are missing on film, but we're coming together and we're correcting them."

Coming together won't be an issue. The young quarterback is popular inside the locker room, where he seamlessly meshes with teammates. Trubisky's work ethic has never been called into question.

"The biggest thing that I see is that the head coach is very hesitant to trust the quarterback," ESPN NFL analyst and former quarterback Dan Orlovsky said. "He's very hesitant to trust him with playcalls. When you get a playcaller that trusts you as a quarterback, they're constantly aggressive because they think, 'I know that if this guy doesn't make the throw here or if he doesn't like what he sees here, he'll check the ball down, get it out of his hands, and I'll call it again.' I'll call a chunk play again. And you don't see that from Matt Nagy right now."

Starting the season with the Green Bay Packers and Denver Broncos certainly isn't a good way to ease into the season. Both are giving up under 340 yards per game this year. And Nagy accepted blame for the uneven playcalling in the season-opening loss to Green Bay, when the Bears tried 50 passing plays versus 15 rushing plays.

But whatever the cause, the Bears' offense has lacked cohesiveness and explosive plays. The Bears have gained five or more yards on just 18 of their 51 first-down plays. That is in turn making it harder for Trubisky & Co. to keep drives going. Per ESPN Stats & Information, the Bears have faced third-and-7 or worse on 16 of 26 conversion attempts (62%). Last year, the Bears needed seven or more yards on just 43% of their third-down plays.

Trubisky hasn't helped his own cause much, often missing on the few deep throws he has attempted. Through two weeks, Trubisky has attempted just nine passes of 20 yards or more and thrown 19 balls at or behind the line of scrimmage. Trubisky's 4.8 yards per pass attempt ranks 32nd in the NFL.

"We just have to believe those explosive plays are coming," Trubisky said.

Trubisky has demonstrated big-play ability outside of the pocket. The former North Carolina Tar Heel is dangerous on the move, where he can use his exceptional athleticism to his advantage -- either as a runner or thrower.

But there are concerns about how Trubisky processes the game from inside the pocket.

"I just don't see enough consistency in the pocket," one NFC scout said. "I think when people pin him inside, you can see the wheels spinning a little bit. He'll make throws you like, sometimes ones you really like, but big-picture accuracy has to be better, and it's just an opinion, but I think if he had a better feel pre-snap of where [pressure] is coming from, he would do better with that first read and not force things."

Great quarterbacks are instinctual; it's almost as if they have a supercomputer in their brain that allows them to read a defense in milliseconds.

"He still looks like an athlete trying to play the quarterback position, rather than a quarterback with good positional instincts," former Bears receiver Tom Waddle said. "When he gets out on the edge and the play breaks down, he's brilliant, because he's just being an athlete and he doesn't have to process a ton of stuff."

Yet so far, that hasn't happened. Trubisky has attempted just nine throws outside the pocket. He has run the ball only four times.

"Let him run," ESPN analyst and former NFL defensive tackle Booger McFarland said. "Do what Baltimore is doing with Lamar Jackson. Let him run 10-15 times per game. Don't try to make him into something he's not. Just take what he is and build on it."

"He much more comfortable when things break down than when things are in structure, which is crazy, right?" Orlovsky added. "Normally it's the opposite thing for quarterbacks. He's a thrower that is a good athlete right now. He's not a quarterback that's a good athlete just yet. ...

"He also showed signs of being a quarterback that is a good athlete last year. That's the odd thing to me."

It's two games into the season, and although the Bears are 29th in total offense, Monday night could be a good starting point for the Bears and Trubisky to try to reach their form of a year ago. While Trubisky ranks 28th in Total QBR, Washington has the second-worst passing defense by Total QBR, where opposing quarterbacks are averaging an 89.0 rating.

"For Mitch and our offense, we have to make sure we have the earmuffs on and the blinders on," Nagy said. "It's hard in this world today. Because it's everywhere. People are talking and saying things and when you're doing real well, everyone's all about it. When you're not doing well, everyone's all about it. So we have to make sure that we control what we can control, and that's today's practice."

ASHBURN, Va. -- His introduction to Walter Payton occurred via the internet. A young Adrian Peterson searched for footage of the former Chicago Bears great. He saw Payton run over defenders; he saw him cut one way as a defender fell another; he saw him sprint past defenders on long touchdown runs.

Eventually, Peterson saw something else: himself.

"I would say I'm more similar to Walter Payton than anyone else," the Washington Redskins running back said as his team prepares to host Chicago on Monday (8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN). "A lot of people say Eric Dickerson because I run upright, but if you look at Walter's and my game, I would say it's similar as far as getting it by any means."

Which is why Oct. 14, 2007 -- a date Peterson loudly introduced himself to the NFL in Week 5 -- meant so much to him. He rushed for a Minnesota Vikings franchise record 224 yards against Payton's old team and at Soldier Field, Payton's former home. Nobody has rushed for more yards or gained more all-purpose yards (361) against the Bears.

All of this coming against a team whose defense led a run to the Super Bowl the previous season.

"That's what made it a big game for me," Peterson said. "It was something I was looking forward to, not only that but playing in this historical stadium where Walter Payton played. It's like, come on, how can you not be prepared to play there?"

There's a reason Peterson has his white No. 28 Vikings jersey from this game framed in a glass case at his home in Houston.

As Peterson prepares to play the Bears once more, it's worth remembering that game. Three weeks later, Peterson made an even louder pronouncement with 296 yards rushing against the Chargers. But Peterson never had more all-purpose yards in one game than he did against the Bears -- and it ranks as the third most in NFL history.

"I get in that zone and get locked in and my nose is smelling that end zone," Peterson said.

His nose must have been working like a bloodhound on a hunt: Peterson found the end zone three times. Here's how it went down:

Touchdown No. 1: 67 yards

Peterson's speed to the outside was among the reasons Minnesota drafted him No. 7 overall in 2007. But it stood out even more seeing it in person during the team's rookie minicamp. The quarterback in that camp, Jimmy Terwilliger, had a tough time on the outside zone handoffs.

"I remember how hard he had to run away from center to reach the ball out to stretch it to Adrian," said Brad Childress, the Vikings coach at the time and now a senior offensive assistant with Chicago. "You couldn't deny what kind of speed he had to the edge and watching him cut up was like: Holy cow!"

This play ended with another "holy cow." Peterson again ran untouched on an outside zone to the left, running through a wide gap in the defense five yards downfield. He remained untouched for the first 12 yards. Then Peterson took over: He broke a tackle at the 46-yard line, cut inside a safety sprinting from the middle, stutter-stepped and left cornerback Charles "Peanut" Tillman (a future first-team All-Pro) leaning backward as Peterson bounced around him to the right.

And then: speed.

"He was all-of-a-sudden, and once past that initial wave, be careful," former Bears All-Pro linebacker Brian Urlacher said. "That was his whole career. He was so all-of-a-sudden. You didn't want the DB to be one-on-one with him. You always had to make sure you took leverage with him and force to the help. It wasn't like you were tackling Jerome Bettis. That's not to say he was easy to tackle -- in no way shape or form was he easy. But once you got hold of him he went down. You just couldn't get hold of him."

Urlacher said the Bears were well aware of Peterson. He had rushed for 383 yards and a touchdown in the first four games that season. The linebacker had even seen highlights of Peterson from his Texas high school days.

"He might have come out of high school and been good in the NFL," Urlacher said.

Peterson made it look easy on this day, too.

"Just some great blocking and just the effort I was putting in there to get to the end zone," he said. "I was just out there playing football, enjoying myself."

Touchdown No. 2: 73 yards

Peterson has used vision and speed to help accumulate his 13,343 rushing yards. This play provided a perfect example of both. He starts right and, as the Bears linebackers flow hard with him, a gulf opens to the left.

Cornerback Danieal Manning has contain, but out of the corner of his eye Peterson saw him falling for quarterback Tarvaris Jackson's boot action. As Manning starts at Jackson, Peterson quickly stutter-steps and bursts to the middle of the field. He shakes another defender, cuts outside to the left and is off.

"That's a great example of feeling that flow," Peterson said. "You feel the flow and actually trusting your eyes and use your God-given ability and quickness, the explosive power to stop on a dime and get back and take over.

"Vision is key to everything. You can take care of the body and all, but you have to have the eyes to be able to see that crease, or to see a hole develop, or to see if a linebacker is scraping over the top."

As on the first touchdown, it became a footrace between he and Tillman. The cornerback dove helplessly at Peterson's feet at the 10-yard line.

"He went from zero to full speed in two steps," said Urlacher after rewatching the play. "It was amazing how fast he was running at the line; he hit the holes and it felt like he was running full speed every time. Maybe he wasn't, but it looks like he was. I saw Peanut trying to catch him; he's not gonna catch him."

Peterson said, "Tillman tried his hardest to get there."

Touchdown No. 3: 35 yards

Once again: excellent blocking from the line and speed from Peterson. A one-handed swipe at his legs nearly seven yards downfield failed, as did an attempt by Manning to knock the ball out at the 10-yard line.

"I don't know what he was thinking," Peterson said of Manning.

But this play was indicative, once more, of Peterson's burst. For the day, Peterson averaged a career-best 11.2 yards per carry, a career best.

"If everyone's in their gap, then there's no place to run," Urlacher said. "The problem is he runs through arm tackles. If you pop your head out of the gap for half a second, he's gone. You can't peek and see where he's going. If you do, he's running through the gap. It's his ability to set guys up good, too. He'll set you up and the cutback makes you peek, and once you peek he's gone."

The kick return: 53 yards

Minnesota blew a two-touchdown lead in the final four minutes and, with 1 minute, 38 seconds remaining, Chicago opted to kick to the rookie.

Why?

"Because our kickoff coverage was good," Urlacher said. "Until it happens, you never expect [opponents] to break one on you. We thought we could pin him and didn't. It's not like Devin Hester back there, plus he's still a rookie. We didn't know what we didn't know because he was still a rookie."

Mistake.

Peterson, catching the ball at the 9-yard line, returned it 53 yards to set up the game-winning field goal. It was his fourth return of the day; the first three totaled 75 yards. Hester, a first-team All-Pro return man and receiver gained 272 all-purpose yards that day; he was upstaged.

"We had practiced [Peterson] at kick return, but he wasn't going to return kicks in that game," Childress said. "Right at the end of the game, he had a tremendous game and he says, 'Coach, let me take the kickoff return.' It was good blocking, but sheer force of will."

This was the sort of game Peterson knew he could have; it was the kind of game that Minnesota dreamed of after the draft.

"I had a lot of confidence in what I could do," Peterson said. "I remember doing an interview before the draft, not cocky, but with confidence that it would be an easy transition for me. I remember seeing the faces of some of the people I was talking to like, 'He's in for a rude awakening.' But they were in for a rude awakening, you know?"

Minnesota knew. That's why the Vikings engaged in subterfuge before the draft. They sweated out Arizona at No. 5, knowing the Redskins -- who picked sixth -- already had their back in Clinton Portis.

"We were so happy Arizona took [lineman] Levi Brown," Childress said. "We were like, 'Yeah!' We were putting disinformation out on [Peterson] that the collarbone was broken and wasn't going to heal and was chronic. He only knew one speed, even in walk-through on Saturday morning we had to grab him by the back of his pants to slow down so he wouldn't run into the offensive linemen. When I watch him with the Redskins, it's full blast."

After the Chicago game, teammates chanted Peterson's nickname -- "All Day! All Day!" -- in the locker room after the game. Peterson, too, knew what this game meant.

"You had some good guys on the other side of the ball," Peterson said. "You had Urlacher; [linebacker Lance] Briggs, Tillman. That Chicago defense was good and me coming in as a rookie and really trying to prove myself. That was the first time we played a defense that solidified 'we're serious as an offense and I'm serious as a ball carrier.'"

WASHINGTON -- Philadelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto is out of Monday night's lineup against Washington with right knee soreness after leaving Sunday's loss in Cleveland in the eighth inning.

Realmuto, who is hitting .275 with 25 homers and 83 RBIs, has started 130 of Philadelphia's first 154 games at catcher. He made his second All-Star Game appearance this year.

"J.T. was prepared today," manager Gabe Kapler said. "He was open about being willing to play today. It was a decision I made on his behalf to protect him and look out for his best interests."

Realmuto said he suffered the injury while running out a double-play grounder in the fifth inning. He said he didn't feel anything while running but experienced discomfort while catching.

Realmuto said he would undergo an MRI as a precautionary measure.

"I don't want to take any chances," Realmuto said. "I don't see it being anything too serious. I should feel better tomorrow."

TAMPA -- Gary Sanchez is hopeful that he'll be able to return to the New York Yankees' lineup sooner than later, but the All-Star catcher is being cautious as the regular season winds down.

Sánchez has been sidelined since September 12, when he suffered a left groin strain in the second game of a doubleheader against the Detroit Tigers as he was thrown out in an attempt to steal his first base of the season.

"Right now with everything I've done, I feel better," Sanchez said after a full workout day at the Yankees' minor league complex in Tampa on Monday. "Hopefully in the next few days, with all I have to do, and after working with the trainers, I can feel the way I feel now."

Sanchez, who missed 16 games earlier this season also due to a strained left groin, worked out under the supervision of hitting coach Marcus Thames and head athletic trainer Steve Donohue. The Yankees traveled Sunday night to Tampa ahead of a two-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays, which starts on Tuesday.

"I ran the bases a bit; played some defense too. I took regular batting practice in the cage and I took BP outside. I feel good," Sanchez added. "Everything I have done has gone well. There have been no problems at all. We have to wait to see how things go in the next couple of days."

For the Yankees -- who established a new major league record by sending 31 players to the injured list this season -- not having Sanchez has been a blow down the stretch after having lost outfielders Mike Tauchman and Aaron Hicks for the year.

Even though the Yankees already locked up home-field advantage for the American League Division Series, they are still battling the Houston Astros for the best record in the majors.

Nonetheless, Sanchez told ESPN he doesn't feel any pressure to return this week and his focus is solely on being healthy for the postseason. When healthy, Sanchez has enjoyed an extremely productive season, slashing .233/.318/.531 with 34 home runs through 104 games.

"I was always hopeful, from day one, that I would be back," Sanchez told ESPN. "I knew that because our trainers do tremendous work and I knew they were going to be able to put me in the position of how I feel right now. I feel very good, and all I need is to be ready for the playoffs."

Designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion, who is rehabbing a left internal oblique strain he also suffered during the Detroit series, was also at the team's minor league complex on Monday. Encarnacion, who ran, played catch, and took batting practice, told ESPN that he was feeling good and expected to play in the second game of the Tampa series.

During their last home stand, manager Aaron Boone said that Encarnacion should be able to return to the lineup during their end-of-the-season road trip, which includes the two games in Tampa and three against the Rangers in Arlington.

"I feel pretty good that it will certainly be the games in Arlington, it could even be Tampa," Boone said. "We'll see how these next few days go. [Encarnacion] is doing pretty well, so we'll see whether it's midweek or the weekend; feel like he's on track for that."

When it came to Sanchez, the Yankees' manager refused to set a timeline for a possible return.

"I don't think he's on as fast a track as Edwin," Boone said, "but I'm feeling more confident certainly by the playoffs and hopefully at some point maybe in that final series he could get in."