KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Ned Yost did something that few thought possible when he took over the Kansas City Royals in 2010: He not only built the organization into a winner but delivered the long-suffering organization its first World Series title in three decades.

Now, he's leaving the next rebuilding job to someone else.

Yost announced Monday that he will be retiring at the end of the season, ending a nine-year tenure that included two American League pennants and that dramatic 2015 championship.

The announcement came on an off-day for the Royals, who lost 12-8 on Sunday to the AL Central-leading Twins to fall to 57-100 -- their second consecutive season with at least 100 losses.

The Royals wrap up their season -- and their skipper's big league managerial career -- with two games against the Braves beginning Tuesday night, then a weekend series at home against Minnesota.

Yost, 65, who has been on a year-to-year contract, will retire as the club's career wins leader with 744 to date. He is the only manager to lead the Royals to back-to-back World Series, losing to the Giants in seven games in 2014 and beating the Mets in five the following year.

"I've thoroughly enjoyed my time here as your manager and will never forget the good and the hard times we had together as an organization and a fan base," Yost said. "I will never forget the fact that you fans supported us through it all. Kansas City will always have a special place in my heart, and I look forward to rooting the Royals on to their next world championship very soon."

Yost and general manager Dayton Moore are expected to address reporters Tuesday.

Like many small-market clubs, the Royals were forced to gut their roster after their stunning run of success once their foundational stars became too expensive to keep. That began a massive rebuilding effort last year that has continued into this season.

Yet unlike last season, the Royals showed signs of hope this summer. Building blocks such as shortstop Adalberto Mondesi, third baseman Hunter Dozier and outfielder Jorge Soler -- who broke the franchise record for homers in a season -- gave Royals fans a reason to return to the ballpark, while a bevy of talented pitchers in the minor leagues offers more hope for the future.

"With the development of our young players and our returning veterans, I feel and hope the worst is behind us in this rebuilding phase of our organization," Yost said. "My plan all along was to get us through the rough times then turn it over to a new manager to bring us the rest of the way.''

The Royals are not expected to move quickly in hiring Yost's replacement, though bench coach Dale Sveum and special adviser Mike Matheny would provide their young core with a seamless transition.

Both of them have managerial experience, with Sveum replacing Yost after he was fired in Milwaukee and Matheny with the cross-state rival St. Louis Cardinals. And should Matheny get the nod, it would be remarkably similar to the circumstances in which Yost got the Kansas City job: He moved from an advisory role within the rebuilding Royals in 2010 to replace the fired Trey Hillman.

Yost began his career in baseball as a catcher when he was drafted out of Chabot College in 1974. He made his big league debut six years later for Milwaukee and went on to play parts of six seasons with the Brewers, Rangers and Expos before moving into coaching.

That's where he ultimately made a name for himself.

After a long tenure on Bobby Cox's staff in Atlanta, he was hired by the Brewers in 2003 and immediately set about rebuilding that franchise. He had them within sight of the postseason in 2008 when he was fired with just 12 games remaining in the regular season.

Sveum guided them into the playoffs, where they lost to Philadelphia in the divisional round.

Yost got a second chance to rebuild a franchise when he took over for Hillman in Kansas City. The once-proud organization had just one winning season since 1993, and had not reached the playoffs since beating the Cardinals to win the Royals' then-only World Series title in 1985.

The Royals lost at least 90 games in each of Yost's first two seasons, but with young stars such as Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas arriving, they had finally become competitive. They won 86 games the following year and finally broke through in 2014, advancing all the way to the World Series.

Their championship season in 2015 was celebrated by an estimated 800,000 people who turned out in downtown Kansas City for a parade, a surreal sight for those who had followed the Royals for years.

The final week! A good time for 10 questions ...

What's left to play for?

The Cardinals' four-game sweep of the Cubs at Wrigley -- just the second time in MLB history that a team lost a four-game series at home with all four losses by one run -- did a lot to clarify what had been a crowded National League playoff race. Here's where we stand:

• The Cardinals are three games up on the Brewers, who swept the Pirates and are 10-2 since Christian Yelich went down for the season (11-2 if you include the game Yelich was injured).

• The Brewers and Nationals are now effectively tied for the two wild cards, although the Nationals have played two fewer games (they have a five-game series at home against the Phillies, including a doubleheader on Tuesday, while the Brewers have a day off Monday). Both teams are a comfortable four games up on the Cubs and 4 1/2 up on the Mets. The Brewers won the season series against the Nationals, so if the clubs end up with the same record the wild-card game will be played in Milwaukee on Tuesday, Oct. 1.

• If the Brewers manage to catch the Cardinals in the NL Central race and they end up tied, the tie-breaker game would be Monday, Sept. 30, at St. Louis (the Cardinals won the season series 10-9).

• The Astros and Yankees are both at 102 wins as they battle for best overall record and home-field advantage, although the Yankees have to finish with the better record since the Astros own the tiebreaker. The Astros finish with two at Seattle and four at Anaheim while the Yankees have two at Tampa Bay and three at Texas.

What about the American League's wild cards?

The Athletics have opened up a two-game lead on the Rays and Indians as they've gone 15-5 in September. They finish with two in Anaheim and four in Seattle. The Rays host the Red Sox on Monday, play the Yankees for two games and finish with three games at Toronto. Cleveland has a six-game road trip against the White Sox and Nationals.

The most likely tiebreaker scenario at this point is the Rays and Indians tying for the second wild card. That tiebreaker game would be in St. Petersburg, since the Rays crushed the Indians in the season series 6-1, outscoring them 41-18.

What's interesting right now is how the two teams' rotations line up, especially now that the Rays have Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow back (although neither has gone more than three innings yet). Scheduled starts right now for the week are as follows:

Tampa Bay: Snell (Monday), Brendan McKay (Tuesday), Charlie Morton (Wednesday), Glasnow (Friday), Ryan Yarbrough (Saturday), Snell (Sunday).

Cleveland: Aaron Civale (Tuesday), Mike Clevinger (Wednesday), Shane Bieber (Thursday), Zach Plesac (Friday), Adam Plutko (Saturday), Civale (Sunday)

Assuming those rotations stick, that would set up Morton going for the Rays in either Monday's tiebreaker game or Wednesday's wild-card game, while the Indians would have Clevinger in a tiebreaker game and either Clevinger or Bieber in the wild-card game.

Just for giggles, what happens if the Cubs suddenly get hot and force a tie?

The Cubs finish with three at Pittsburgh against the reeling Pirates and three at St. Louis. The Brewers are on the road against the Reds and Rockies, and the Nationals have those five at home against the Phillies and then three against Cleveland. We could get a three-way tie for two wild cards at 88-74 if this happens:

Cubs: 6-0
Brewers: 2-4
Nationals: 3-5

Possible, although unlikely. The Cubs' playoffs odds are down to 2.4 percent, according to FanGraphs. If we do somehow end up in a three-way tie, we go to the three-teams-for-two-spots tiebreaker, which involves designating teams A, B and C. The Brewers have first choice because they won both season series. The Nationals pick second. Club A hosts Club B. The winner is one wild card. Club C would then host the loser of the first game for the second wild card.

What's going on with the Yankees?

It's a never-ending story for the Yankees, and now Domingo German is out for the postseason because of a domestic violence investigation. Giancarlo Stanton returned to the lineup last week for his first action since June and played four games, homering on Saturday and going 4-for-10 overall. But the biggest news is that Luis Severino returned and looked very sharp in two outings. He threw four scoreless innings against the Angels and followed that up with five scoreless innings against the Blue Jays on Sunday, striking out nine with zero walks and throwing 80 pitches.

He looks ready to go in the playoff rotation along with James Paxton and Masahiro Tanaka, so only the fourth spot remains a question mark. A possible tandem outing with German is no longer in the works. J.A. Happ struggled in August, but he has the hot hand in September, with four runs in 23 1/3 innings this month. With Paxton in top form (he's allowed one earned run in September), Severino healthy and Happ looking better, the Yankees may actually be entering October in the best spot they've been at all season. Gleyber Torres did miss a couple games after tweaking his knee Friday night and Edwin Encarnacion has been out since Sept.12, but both are expected back this week. Catcher Gary Sanchez (groin) has been taking indoor batting practice, and the Yankees hope he'll be ready for the ALDS.

Any other injuries to watch?

Freddie Freeman is going to remain in Atlanta to get treatment for a bone spur in his right elbow as the Royals travel to Kansas City for a two-game series. Freeman has played through the issue for a few weeks and has hit .288 in September, although with just two home runs.

• Twins outfielder Max Kepler hasn't started since Sept. 14 because of a strain in his left shoulder.

• Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong missed the final three games of the Cubs series with a Grade 2 hamstring strain.

• Justin Turner finally returned to the Dodgers' lineup on Saturday after missing 13 days with a nagging ankle injury. Teammate Max Muncy sat out Saturday and Sunday with a sore thigh, but manager Dave Roberts said he would have played if it were a postseason game.

• Nationals catcher Kurt Suzuki hasn't been able to catch since Sept. 7 due to elbow inflammation.

• Rays rookie All-Star second baseman Brandon Lowe returned Sunday, playing in his first game since July 2.

• Jose Ramirez could be back in the Cleveland lineup Tuesday.

• A's reliever Blake Treinen is out for the rest of the regular season with a stress reaction in his back. Fellow reliever Lou Trivino hasn't pitched since Sept. 14 due to an oblique strain.

Who is Houston's No. 4 starter?

Wade Miley was having an excellent season heading into September, ranking in the top 10 in the AL in ERA, but he's allowed 23 hits and 18 runs over 7 1/3 innings in his past four starts -- including three outings in which he lasted no outs, one out and three outs. Can A.J. Hinch have any confidence giving him the ball in the postseason? He'll have one more start this week to turn things around.

The Astros don't really have a fifth starter at the moment, so it's Miley or some sort of bullpen game. The Astros could elect to go with a three-man rotation in the division series, which would entail the Game 1 starter pitching Game 4 on three days' rest. No doubt Justin Verlander will get the ball in the playoff opener, but asking him to go on short rest is asking him to do something he hasn't done since pitching 2 2/3 innings in relief in Game 4 of the 2017 ALDS. The only postseason game he started on short rest in his career was in the 2011 ALDS, but that was after pitching one inning in a rainout.

What's going on with the MVP races?

We're kind of where we were last week. Alex Bregman hit three home runs and drove in four runs as he continues to put some doubt in what looked like a Mike Trout lock before Trout went down for the season. Bregman is at .293/.419/.585 with 39 home runs, 117 runs, 108 RBIs, 112 walks and good defense.

Over in the NL, Anthony Rendon did not have a good week, hitting .167 with one home run and two RBIs as the Nationals went 3-3. They haven't had a three-game winning streak since Sept. 1. Cody Bellinger hit two homers and knocked in six runs. It still feels like Bellinger has the slight edge (and it's worth noting that Yelich does have a small lead in FanGraphs WAR).

How about the Cy Young races?

The battle between Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole will go down to the wire. Verlander won his 20th game on Sunday, improving to 20-6 with a 2.53 ERA and 288 strikeouts in 217 innings. Cole is 18-5 with a 2.61 ERA and 302 strikeouts in 200 1/3 innings. He's riding a string of seven consecutive double-digit strikeout games. Cole is scheduled to pitch on Tuesday and then in a final tuneup start on the final day of the season, while Verlander has just one start remaining. Verlander, however, has already made two more starts and has those 17 additional innings. Edge: Verlander.

I don't know if Jacob deGrom has completely separated himself from the pack, but don't blame him when the Mets fall short of the postseason. He has the most well-rounded season of dominance among NL starters, with a 10-8 record, 2.51 ERA and 248 strikeouts in 197 innings. He's second in the NL in ERA (Hyun-Jin Ryu is at 2.41, but has pitched 21 fewer innings), first in strikeouts, third in innings, first in lowest OPS allowed, and he has finished strong (he owns a 1.55 ERA in the second half).

Any other milestones/races to watch?

Yes! Pete Alonso has 50 home runs and is two away from tying Aaron Judge's rookie record. He also has a two-homer lead over Eugenio Suarez for the major league lead. Three Mets have led the NL in home runs -- Howard Johnson, Darryl Strawberry and Dave Kingman -- but no Mets player has led the majors.

• Tim Anderson of the White Sox leads DJ LeMahieu in the AL batting race, .334 to .329. If Anderson wins, his .258 career average entering 2019 would be the lowest ever for a batting champ at the start of the season. LeMahieu is trying to win the title in both leagues after leading the NL with a .348 average with the Rockies in 2016.

• Jorge Soler is tied with Trout for the AL lead with 45 home runs. Trout is out and Soler has a five-homer lead over Nelson Cruz. He's trying to become the first Royals player to lead the AL in home runs.

• The NL batting race is interesting because the co-leaders are Yelich and Ketel Marte of the Diamondbacks at .329, but both are out the rest of the season with injuries. Yelich has the edge in going to a fourth decimal point: .3292 to .3286. Rendon is third in the race at .325.

• Ronald Acuna Jr., of course, is still in pursuit of that 40-40 season. He's at 41 home runs and 37 stolen bases.

• Then there's my favorite stats chase of the season: Nicholas Castellanos of the Cubs has 58 doubles as he tries to become the first player since 1936 to reach 60 doubles.

Any final goodbyes?

CC Sabathia said goodbye to Yankees fans with a ceremony on Sunday, wiping away tears more than once. Sabathia is expected to make the Yankees' postseason roster, although he may be limited to a relief and/or mop-up role.

Felix Hernandez's contract is up in Seattle, and he'll make one final start at home on Thursday. He will finish his 15 seasons in Seattle without a playoff appearance, and while he hasn't announced his retirement, this will be his final game in a Mariners uniform. If he pitches in 2020, it will be somewhere else. With a 6.51 ERA, the phone won't be ringing off the hook.

The Red Sox finish at home against the Orioles. Could these be Mookie Betts' final games with Boston? He has one year remaining until free agency, but the trade rumors around him are already heating up as the Red Sox may look to deal him in the offseason.

The last game of the season in San Francisco against the Dodgers promises to be an emotional affair. It will be Bruce Bochy's final game as manager, after 13 seasons and three World Series titles. Next stop: Cooperstown. The scheduled starter that day: Madison Bumgarner, a free agent. Next stop: Who knows?

Athlete Dr Jessica Piasecki from Nottingham Trent University highlights how new studies are shedding more light on importance of keeping active into older age

Recently some important findings linked with ageing research have been highlighted and these almost always include some aspect of research involving masters athletes.

Most notably, it has been shown that years of training may not only benefit muscle in older age, but also the nerves that control our muscles. Also, despite their years of training, master athletes still have room to improve when it comes to balance and that people taking up endurance running at a later stage in life (after the age of 50 years old) can still improve their body composition, muscle power and strength. Put simply, it is never too late to start taking up exercise.

Last month, researchers from Nottingham Trent University and University of Nottingham attended the BMAF Championships at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham to carry out some more detailed measurements on muscles and nerves. They hope to answer further questions about how exercising into older age may improve not only the strength of muscles, but also the control of our muscles.

Also, it is the hope of the researchers that athletes across all of the ages can be studied.

Dr Jessica Piasecki from Nottingham Trent University explained: “Previous ageing studies have tended to make comparisons between the very young and the very old age groups and have completely ignored the middle age categories. In fact, between the ages of 40-55 years old, a number of physiological systems begin to decline, and filling in these gaps could provide us with vital information.”

Over the course of the weekend the group tested 36 athletes across a range of ages and disciplines, with equal numbers of men and women. Testing involved a number of measures including balance, motor control, strength and giving a blood sample.

Mathew Piasecki, assistant professor from the University of Nottingham, said the response from volunteers was more than they could have hoped for.

“We always have a lot of interest in this kind of work from the masters athlete community, they tend to always be willing to give up their time, in fact we even had people queuing a few times over the weekend! Fortunately, some of our tests can be quite competitive which always helps attract athletes,” he said.

The researchers say these studies utilise master athletes as a model ageing population; people who have aged but have also continued to be highly active.

If you would like to find out more about the ongoing research, please get in touch with Jessica Piasecki at [email protected]

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — International Hot Rod Ass’n member track Beaver Springs Dragway has been named the IHRA Division 3 (North Stars) Track of the Year.

The facility, which features a quarter-mile drag strip, opened in 1971 and is nestled among the rolling hills in the heart of Central Pennsylvania. They use the motto, “Nobody Does It Better!”

That was certainly the case in 2019, a challenging year with one of the wettest spring and summer on record. The weather issues caused other problems, but the staff led by track owner Mike McCracken and the group of racers at Beaver Springs persevered to finish the season on a high note.

“After a season full of weather, scheduling turmoil and equipment breakage, Mike McCracken and the team at Beaver Springs can look back with pride and a never-say-die attitude,” IHRA Division Director Jon O’Neal said. “The Beaver Springs team finished out the season with the same excitement that they started with. That’s a big testament to the Beaver Springs ownership and management.”

The track boasts a strong IHRA Summit SuperSeries program. Justin Badman (Top), Bob Klock (Mod) and Aidan Mackert (Junior) earned track bids to the IHRA Summit SuperSeries World Finals in 2019.

Timing is everything, or so they say.

Get your timing right and you can accomplish just about anything. In MLS, that mostly means "winning a championship" since that's the whole point. History is replete with clubs who got their timing right and rode a wave of good form all the way to the confetti party at the end of the season.

- ESPN MLS fantasy: Sign up here!

Unless your timing is bad. And then it can ruin a season with massive potential. Our advice to MLS teams currently in or around the playoff places: Avoid having bad timing. It's wisdom like that that makes the Power Rankings a paragon of excellence.

Viva las ranks!

Previous rankings: Week 28 | Week 27 | Week 26 | Week 25 | Week 24 | Week 23 | Week 22 | Week 21 | Week 20 | Week 19 | Week 18 | Week 17 | Week 16 | Week 15 | Week 14 | Week 13 | Week 12 | Week 11 | Week 10 | Week 9 | Week 8 | Week 7 | Week 6 | Week 5 | Week 4 | Week 3 | Week 2 | Week 1

1. New York City FC (16 wins, 10 draws, 5 losses)

Previous ranking: 2

Next MLS match: Sept. 25 vs. Atlanta (7 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+)

We have a new No. 1! Dome Torrent's club hit the road to Frisco, Tex. and picked up a point towards finishing in first place in the Eastern Conference, extending its unbeaten run to nine games. Sure, they dropped two points from a winning position with the late FC Dallas goal but NYCFC is still the hottest team in MLS.

2. LAFC (19-8-4)

Previous ranking: 2

Next MLS match: Sept. 25 vs. Houston (10:30 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+)

Here's the thing: LAFC is going to win the Supporters Shield and LAFC is going to enter the playoffs as the favorite to win MLS Cup. But right now, LAFC has slowed down and that means LAFC can't be the top team in the Power Rankings. There are rules.

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3. Philadelphia Union (15-7-9)

Previous ranking: 3

Next MLS match: Sept. 25 at San Jose (11 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+)

Philly's run against playoff caliber teams ended in Harrison with a defeat to the Red Bulls, prompting a very fair question about whether the Union have the fortitude to get it done on the road in the postseason. A hectic week ahead looms, with trips to San Jose on Wednesday and Columbus on Sunday.

4. Atlanta United (17-3-11)

Previous ranking: 7

Next MLS match: Sept. 25 at NYCFC (7 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+)

Josef Martinez is hurt and the prognosis looks bleak. There hasn't been this much panic in Atlanta since the walkers showed up and forced Rick Grimes and his friends to fight for survival. At least it's not as bad as that, Five Stripes faithful.

5. Toronto FC (12-10-10)

Previous ranking: 6

Next MLS match: Sept. 29 at Chicago (5 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+)

A potentially momentous win on the road in L.A. was undone by VAR-aided penalty call, but the Reds have a lot to be happy about after the draw against the league's top team. No one will want to face a red-hot Toronto FC when the playoffs start.

6. D.C. United (13-9-10)

Previous ranking: 9

Next MLS match: Sept. 29 at New York Red Bulls (5 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+)

Back into the top four for the Black & Red, who took advantage of the less-than-full-strength Seattle Sounders in a Sunday night win at Audi Field. The vibe at Audi Field would be a significant help to keeping Wayne Rooney around for a while before he bounces back across the Atlantic.

7. LA Galaxy (15-3-13)

Previous ranking: 8

Next MLS match: Sept. 25 at Real Salt Lake (9:30 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+)

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has scored a lot of jaw-dropping goals in his career, maybe more than any man alive. His tally on Saturday to help the Galaxy to a 2-1 win over Montreal was not one of those. Sometimes it just pays to be standing in the right spot.

8. Minnesota United (14-7-10)

Previous ranking: 4

Next MLS match: Sept. 25 vs. Sporting Kansas City (8 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+)

The Loons are migrating towards the playoffs after a good away point in Portland. The draw sets up some simple math: Win on Wednesday at home to a Sporting KC side with nothing to play for, or clinch on Sunday at home to LAFC (a bit of a tougher ask) and they're in.

9. Seattle Sounders (14-8-9)

Previous ranking: 5

Next MLS match: Sept. 29 at San Jose (7:30 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+)

The Sounders' hold on second place in the West is tenuous after a loss in D.C. but Brian Schmetzer's team still holds its destiny in its hands with three games to go. The problem is that Seattle could be as low as fourth when the dust settles following Wednesday's matches.

10. New York Red Bulls (13-5-13)

Previous ranking: 20

Next MLS match: Sept. 29 vs. DC United (5 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+)

The red alert in Harrison has been downgraded following a bicoastal two-game week that saw Chris Armas's club grab six important points. The winds of fortune have changed direction, which is good because of that whole landfill smell problem in New Jersey.

11. New England Revolution (10-11-10)

Previous ranking: 12

Next MLS match: Sept. 25 at Portland (10:30 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+)

New England's trying to land the playoff plane but the Revs are stuck in a holding pattern. A disappointing home result against a rotated Real Salt Lake team makes it four games without a win, three of them draws and with a cross-country jaunt to Portland in midweek, nothing gets easier.

12. Real Salt Lake (14-5-12)

Previous ranking: 13

Next MLS match: Sept. 25 vs. LA Galaxy (9:30 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+)

Freddy Juarez and his crew might have been happy to get away from Utah for a bit (ahem) and try their luck in New England. Holding on for a point in Foxboro is good enough with a massive Western Conference showdown with the Galaxy coming on Wednesday.

13. Portland Timbers (13-5-13)

Previous ranking: 10

Next MLS match: Sept. 25 vs. New England (10:30 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+)

One point from two home games for the Timbers this week. At least there was a point against Minnesota, but the problem of goals -- meaning there aren't any -- is bordering on disastrous. Getting to the playoffs hardly matters if you can't put the ball in the net when you get there.

14. FC Dallas (12-9-11)

Previous ranking: 15

Next MLS match: Sept. 29 at Colorado (7:30 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+)

The week saw Luchi's young bucks claim two points from two difficult matches, just good enough to keep FC Dallas in a playoff spot in the extremely competitive West. There's no telling if they'll make the postseason in the end, but Gonzalez's team hasn't rolled over.

15. Colorado Rapids (11-6-15)

Previous ranking: 18

Next MLS match: Sept. 29 vs. FC Dallas (7:30 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+)

Stop what you're doing and go watch Kei Kamara's goal in Colorado's win over Sporting. .

16. San Jose Earthquakes (13-5-13)

Previous ranking: 11

Next MLS match: Sept. 25 vs. Philadelphia (11 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+)

There's a fine line between fiery passion that brings a team together and makes them more than the sum of their parts and being a loudmouth jerk that undermines a club's efforts. Right now, Matias Almeyda is squarely on the wrong side of that line.

17. Chicago Fire (9-11-12)

Previous ranking: 16

Next MLS match: Sept. 29 vs. Toronto FC (5 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+)

Missing the spark in front of goal against FCC won't help the Fire in the playoff chase. Maybe Joe Mansueto will take the result to heart and contemplate spending some money on scoring help for 2020 as he takes over as the club's new owner.

18. Columbus Crew (9-8-15)

Previous ranking: 17

Next MLS match: Sept. 29 vs. Philadelphia (5 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+)

"If we could see out a game this year we'd be in the playoffs," Caleb Porter said after his team conceded with seconds to go in Vancouver. And if dogs had wings they'd be... more awesome? Someone make that happen.

19. Vancouver Whitecaps (7-10-15)

Previous ranking: 21

Next MLS match: Sept. 29 at LA Galaxy (7:30 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+)

Those feisty 'Caps fought to the death and earned a draw against Columbus on Saturday. It wasn't a win, but it was better than a loss and that makes it a somewhat nice thing in an otherwise not nice season for Vancouver.

20. Houston Dynamo (11-4-16)

Previous ranking: 23

Next MLS match: Sept. 25 at LAFC (10:30 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+)

ZOMBIE HOUSTON IS BACK. The Dynamo found their way back with two goals in the final 21 minutes to beat Orlando City on Saturday. Can Zombie Houston eat the brains of LAFC on Wednesday nigh-- you know what, this has gone too far.

21. Orlando City (9-9-14)

Previous ranking: 14

Next MLS match: Sept. 29 at FC Cincinnati (5 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+)

The Lions had a chance to resuscitate their playoff chances up a goal with 20 minutes to go in Houston. Cut to: Flatline.

22. Sporting Kansas City (10-7-14)

Previous ranking: 19

Next MLS match: Sept. 25 at Minnesota (8 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+)

Anything we could say he would just be pouring salt in a wound -- oh hey, that wasn't even supposed to be a joke about their issues with health this year, but look how it worked out.

23. FC Cincinnati (6-4-22)

Previous ranking: 22

Next MLS match: Sept. 29 vs. Orlando City (5 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+)

FC Cincinnati played a game of soccer on Saturday and did not lose, something that has happened only 10 times in the year 2019 in MLS play.

24. Montreal Impact (11-4-17)

Previous ranking: 24

Next MLS match: Sept. 29 vs. Atlanta (5 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+)

The Impact's season is not yet actually over and the club set a record for the fewest fouls committed (1) in an MLS game. Huzzah!

Grab your best breakaway tailgate tables, Buffalo. Your Bills are 3-0, and the undefeated Patriots are coming to town next week. If you've been under the radar so far, that's all about to end.

You never know where the big games are going to pop up on the NFL schedule, but my goodness, there's a battle for first place in the AFC East in Week 4 in upstate New York. The Patriots walloped the Jets in Foxborough on Sunday afternoon, while Buffalo held off Cincinnati. What better way to lead off an overreaction column than with a wild Week 3 assertion about the Bills?

The Buffalo Bills will make the playoffs

Buffalo has started the season 3-0 for the first time since 2011 and only the third time in the past 26 years. The Bills are allowing only about 15.6 points per game. Josh Allen is getting it done, somehow. The Bills had a strategic and quietly extensive offseason of improving their receiver corps and offensive line around Allen, and so far it appears to be paying off.

The verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION. Since 1990, 73.8% of teams that started the season 3-0 reached the playoffs. So, start right there. They have a much better chance of making the postseason at this point than missing it. And you don't have to believe they'll beat the Patriots next week in order to believe they can claim a wild-card spot in the AFC.

Look at the schedule. The Bills play Washington, Denver and the Jets at home. They have a road trip to Tennessee. They still get to play the Dolphins twice. We just got them to nine wins right there. Beat the Pats next week at home, and you have to fire up the playoff ticket printer in Buffalo for the second time in three years.

The Giants got it right with the Daniel Jones pick

Whoo boy, did the No. 6 pick in this year's draft have a debut Sunday: 23-for-36, 336 yards, two touchdown passes, two more rushing touchdowns, and he did something the Giants had done only eight times in their previous 35 games: He won.

The news of the early part of last week was the Giants' decision to bench franchise icon Eli Manning and start the rookie in his place, and Jones delivered on the coaching staff's decision. He led the Giants back from an 18-point deficit to their first victory of the season, and he did it in thrilling, fearless fashion.

The verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION. Seriously, Giants fans. Soak. This. Up. Your team hasn't given you much of anything to feel excited about over the past seven years. Spend the week with your chests puffed out in the belief that Manning's successor is real and he's spectacular. Don't let the Saquon Barkley injury or the fact that your tissue-paper defense almost gave away the game spoil your mood. Those problems will be there when you come down off your high.

But enjoy the high. Jones spent a glorious Sunday afternoon showing you what the team saw in him on draft night. His mobility and deep-ball throwing ability offer Pat Shurmur the ability to run a lot more of his offense than he has since he became the coach in 2018. Jones is a rookie, and they all have ups and downs, and of course there will be weeks where it isn't this good. But if this kind of performance is inside of this kid, you're in good hands.

There's no way to know exactly what path he takes from here, but Giants fans need to revel in what they saw Sunday. If you can't enjoy moments like this, what's being a sports fan all about?

The Philadelphia Eagles' injuries will keep them out of the playoffs

You knew when they switched from practice to a walk-through in the middle of the week because of injuries that things were serious on that front in Philly. Wideouts DeSean Jackson and Alshon Jeffery missed Sunday's game and are in doubt for their next one, which not-so-conveniently comes Thursday against the 3-0 Packers. Quarterback Carson Wentz made it through the loss to the Lions without any new physical ailment, but that only extends that streak to one game. The Eagles are 1-2 and looking up at the 3-0 Cowboys in their division.

The verdict: OVERREACTION. There is too much recent history here of a team that overcomes its issues. Too much good coaching. Too much roster depth. The Eagles are taking their injury lumps right now, but they can't be ruled out. And even if they can't get it together in time for Thursday and they fall to 1-3, they'd still have three quarters of a season left to fix it all. They're not a team to bet against.

The New York Jets are worse than the Miami Dolphins

Adam Gase's squad went into Foxborough, Massachusetts, on Sunday with its third starting quarterback in as many weeks and, wouldn't you know it, wasn't competitive. The Jets fell behind 30-0 before cutting the deficit to something more respectable with a special-teams touchdown and an interception-return touchdown once the game was out of hand. They are 0-3, have been outscored 70-33 and might be the first team in league history to be thrilled about a Week 4 bye.

The verdict: OVERREACTION. Yeah, the Jets have been outscored 70-33. The Dolphins? They've been outscored 133-16! This isn't the same ballpark of stink. Sam Darnold will come back from his bout with mono. C.J. Mosley should come back soon from his groin injury.

I get that it's depressing if you're a Jets fan to watch this product, and that it feels like a lot of same-old, same-old. But if you had hopes in August that this season would offer hope for the future, it's OK to harbor those same hopes for the final three-fourths of the season. It has to get better. Right?

The Detroit Lions will make the playoffs

Detroit blew a big lead Week 1 in Arizona, ended up with a tie, and things looked bleak. The next five games on its schedule at that point were against the Chargers, at the Eagles, against the Chiefs, at the Packers and against the Vikings. It was pretty easy to imagine the Lions being 0-5-1 through six games. Now, though, they've won the first two games in that gauntlet and are one of the NFL's remaining undefeated teams.

The verdict: OVERREACTION. Get back to me if they beat the Chiefs next week. Seriously, nothing against the Lions. I believed, wrote and said on television more than once that I thought they had a chance to be a decent team.

But I also believed, and still do, that they play in the toughest division in the league. Green Bay is 3-0. Minnesota is 2-1 and has looked great in two games (and lousy in the one in Green Bay). The Bears still have a stifling defense, and you figure they'll get the offense together eventually.

It's cool to be excited about what the Lions are doing, and sure, if things go wrong for those other teams along the way, they could absolutely sneak into a playoff spot. It's just too early, given the challenges that still await, to be throwing any parades.

Antonio Brown will never play in the NFL again

Released by the Patriots on Friday, the erstwhile No. 1 receiver in the game has been let go by three teams in the past seven months. Unlike last time, there was no new contract with a contender waiting for him minutes after his release. Right now, Brown is under NFL investigation due to serious allegations of sexual assault and other misconduct by two women. That investigation could lead to Brown being suspended by the NFL, and teams understandably want to wait to see whether than happens before deciding whether to sign him.

The verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION. You can't rule anything out, and especially if Brown is exonerated -- he denies the accusations -- his talent is enough that teams will come calling. But given the explosive manner in which he got himself traded by the Steelers, released by the Raiders and rendered too much for the Patriots to handle, there's an overflowing 747 cargo hold full of baggage that will accompany Brown to wherever his next stop might be.

And that assumes he's exonerated, which he very well may not be. More could come out, and Brown continues to hurt his own case by doing things like sending intimidating texts to his accusers and tearing apart league owners and players in Twitter rants. He could play again, but it's far from an overreaction to say that he's done.

Last week, I evaluated the NFL's 0-2 teams and tried to figure out which of them had the best shot of making it to the postseason. Let's change gears and look at the most successful teams in football.

The league has seven 3-0 teams after the Rams won on Sunday night, and they should all feel good about their playoff chances. Since 2002, just under 70% of the teams that started 3-0 were able to parlay their early-season success into postseason football.

Instead of trying to identify the teams that are most likely to miss out on playoff football, though, I want to go in a different direction. Even though we've only had three weeks of action, I've seen enough in some cases to challenge -- or flat-out reject -- the notions I held heading into the season. Players and teams who I thought might start slowly or struggle have impressed. In other cases, I feel more confident about the ideas I held heading into the campaign.

So, for each of the seven 3-0 teams, I've gone through and identified something that has surprised me and another thing that hasn't really been shocking through three games. (There's one exception below.) I've sorted through these teams from the most surprising 3-0 start to the league's least surprising, which means this list begins and ends in the same division:

Jump to a team:
BUF | DAL | GB
KC | LAR | NE | SF

7. Buffalo Bills

Not surprising: This is the best defense in football.

Most people should realize by now that the Bills have a good defense, but that has undersold the story for a while. In 2017, Sean McDermott took over what had been the league's 27th-ranked defense by DVOA under Rex Ryan and immediately pushed it to 15th. While the Bills failed to return to the playoffs and took a step backward in 2018, the defense wasn't the problem. Leslie Frazier's defense allowed 47 points to the Ravens in last year's season opener and then 31 points to the Chargers in a game most famous for Vontae Davis retiring at halftime, but the Bills have been a dominant defense ever since.

Consider that even with those two dismal games to start the season, the Bills finished second in DVOA last season, ahead of well-regarded powerhouses like the Ravens and Vikings and only behind the Bears, who were a takeaway factory in 2018. Over their last 17 games -- from Week 3 of 2018 on -- here's where the Bills rank in a few key defensive rate statistics:

No unit has things harder than the Bills' defense, which faces a ton of drives and inherits terrible starting field position from an offense that turns over the ball too frequently. The Bills have gone up against 29 drives beginning on their own side of the field, almost always after an offensive takeaway. To contrast, the Patriots -- who rank just ahead of the Bills in points allowed per drive -- have faced 14 such drives over that time frame. The Chiefs have faced just five.

To be right up there with the likes of the Bears and Patriots is downright magical. We saw another example of Buffalo's efforts on Sunday, when it held the Bengals to six punts and three turnovers on their first nine drives. If we define short fields as drives beginning with 65 yards or less to go for a touchdown, the Bills faced four short possessions Sunday. They allowed a total of seven points on those four drives, with those coming after a Josh Allen interception gave the Bengals the ball on Buffalo's 22-yard line. (One of those possessions, to be fair, came with two seconds left at the end of the first half.)

The Bills sealed the victory with Tre'Davious White's second interception of the day, which matched his total from 2018. While the best cornerback in football discussion often includes some combination of Jalen Ramsey and former Bills star Stephon Gilmore, White absolutely belongs there. His second interception involved catching a deflection, but both picks required incredible hands.

White's takeaway numbers aren't staggering because opposing offenses know he's a star and stay away. He has been targeted just 14.1% of the time since the start of 2018, per the NFL's Next Gen Stats; only Richard Sherman, Casey Hayward, and William Jackson have been targeted less frequently by opposing quarterbacks. McDermott has also been able to use White as a press corner on nearly 47% of his targets, which is remarkable for a corner who is listed at 5-foot-11 and 176 pounds. Only seven other corners in the league were in press coverage more frequently on their targets.

It's a testament to the coaching in Buffalo to see just how many players have come to town and improved on their established level of play. Castoffs like Jordan Phillips and Kevin Johnson have vital roles in this defense. Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer were both converted cornerbacks with short track records as starters when the Bills signed them to take over as their starting safeties in the spring of 2017. Now, they're one of the best safety duos in football, both for their ability as ballhawks and their ability to eliminate big plays. The Bills have allowed just nine pass plays of 30 yards or more since the start of 2018, four fewer than any other team in football.

They are stout at all levels of defense. They don't make stupid mistakes, and they take advantage when offenses make mistakes. It would be easy to play into the small-market story about how the Bills have a no-name defense and like it that way, but put that aside. This is a unit every bit as good as the teams we laud for great defense, and while they haven't played an incredibly difficult slate of opposing offenses this season, no defense in the league has had to shoulder a larger portion of its team's workload over the past year than the Bills.

Surprising: Josh Allen's lack of deep passes

The book on Josh Allen coming out of Wyoming was pretty simple. Quarterbacks need strong arms to succeed, and he had one of the strongest arms coming out of college since Matthew Stafford nearly a decade earlier. The Bills obviously loved Allen's intangibles and clearly valued his running ability, which kept him afloat at times during an uneven rookie season, but even the most sympathetic Allen backer would admit that accuracy was his biggest problem.

During that rookie season, he completed just 52.8% of his passes. That number would have been fine in the 1970s, but after you adjust for era and look at passers with 300 attempts or more, it was the 11th-worst completion percentage since the 1970 merger. He didn't have great receivers, but his pass map was also something out of the '70s. An even 20% of his passes traveled 20 yards or more downfield. To put that in context, no other starting quarterback topped 15% last season, and the only other quarterback over the past decade to top 20% in a season was Tim Tebow. (Tyrod Taylor, Allen's predecessor in Buffalo, was previously the one behind Tebow at 18.4%.)

The Bills came out of training camp preaching accuracy as the most important trait for him to master in 2019. His completion percentage is up to 64.1% through three games, and while he has shown more consistent mechanics and been more aggressive with looking upfield while scrambling as opposed to putting his head down to run into space, the Bills have also made Allen's life easier. Through three weeks, just 14.6% of his passes have traveled 20 yards or more in the air. That ranks 13th in the NFL.

The NFL's Next Gen Stats do the best job of putting this in context. In 2018, a typical quarterback given Allen's range of throws and receivers would have completed 60.5% of his passes, which ranked 28th out of 30 quarterbacks. Allen then completed 52.8% of his throws, with the resulting difference of 7.7 percentage points ranking as the worst in the league. Allen was given a tough slate of passes and didn't do a good job with them.

Through three weeks, though, Allen's expected completion percentage is 63.1%, suggesting he's been given a much easier range of throws. His actual percentage is 64.1%, which is slightly above that expectation. The second-year passer has still turned the ball over too frequently and hasn't yet fully gotten past his habit of making breathtakingly bad decisions when throwing on the run, but he has grown as a passer. He has also been given easier throws to make.

6. San Francisco 49ers

Not surprising: The running game is going even without big-name backs.

The Mike Shanahan offense has been turning mid-round picks and little-known backs into stars for more than two decades now. You know the names. Terrell Davis. Mike Anderson. Alfred Morris. Arian Foster. Even in Atlanta, Devonta Freeman was far more productive under Kyle Shanahan than he was before or after the offensive coordinator left for San Francisco.

All of this made it more surprising that the 49ers seemed to focus on acquiring running backs lately. During John Lynch's first draft as general manager, Kyle Shanahan reportedly beat the table for the Niners to move up and grab Joe Williams, who was cut without ever playing for the team. (The Colts, who traded down with the 49ers as part of that deal, took Marlon Mack with the selection they got from the 49ers.)

Over the past two offseasons, Shanahan has dived into free agency. He gave Jerick McKinnon a four-year, $30 million deal before the 2018 season, only for McKinnon to tear his ACL in camp and aggravate the injury this summer. The Niners will likely pay McKinnon $16 million without him ever taking a regular-season snap for the team. They also added Tevin Coleman on a one-year, $5 million deal this spring, but Coleman suffered a high ankle sprain in the opener and is likely to miss about a month of action.

The 49ers, you might have noticed, have not missed a beat. After running the ball 40 times for 168 yards and two scores against the Steelers on Sunday, San Francisco's backs have carried the ball 114 times for 525 yards. The Niners are fourth in rushing yards and 12th in rushing average, and 43% of their runs have improved their offense's chances of scoring on the drive in question, which ranks 14th in the league. It's not exactly Davis or Foster, but this is a comfortable improvement for a team that ranked last in rushing DVOA in 2018.

Shanahan has built a useful running back rotation out of his third, fourth and fifth options. Matt Breida averaged a gaudy 5.3 yards per carry last season, but he ranked 30th out of 47 backs in Football Outsiders' Success Rate statistic, which measures how reliably a back keeps his offense on schedule. Breida was at 46% last season; through three weeks this season, he has been successful on nearly 59% of his carries.

Raheem Mostert, a fellow undrafted free agent who was signed to a small extension and expected to contribute on special teams in 2019, has turned his 34 carries into 202 yards. Most teams don't have a goal-line specialist back these days, but the 49ers signed back Jeff Wilson onto the roster from their practice squad and have turned their goal-line carries over to him. Wilson -- a third undrafted free agent -- has four touchdowns on eight attempts inside the 10-yard line.

It was promising to see the 49ers run the ball effectively against a Steelers front that looks good on paper and was 10th in rushing DVOA heading into the game. The Niners were able to get by in the running game without star left tackle Joe Staley, who will miss six to eight weeks with a fractured fibula. After their bye, Shanahan & Co. will get a matchup with the scuffling Browns before a Week 6 game with the Rams. The winner will likely be in first place in the NFC West afterward.

Surprising: The 49ers are second in the league in interceptions.

When I suggested that the 49ers were likely to improve in 2019, I pointed out one factor that was extremely unlikely to reoccur. The 49ers racked up just two interceptions in 2019. All season. Two. Unsurprisingly, no team in NFL history had ever failed to intercept at least three passes over a full campaign before the 2018 49ers.

Now, I write a lot about teams regressing to the mean. Sixteen games just isn't a big sample, and so when a team does something at an egregiously high or low rate relative to the rest of the league, it's usually a product of that compressed season. History told us that the 49ers weren't likely to intercept one out of every 271 passes again this season. The average team intercepted just over 13 passes last season, and that would have been the simplest projection for the 49ers in 2019.

The 49ers weren't "due" to intercept some crazy number of passes just because they barely intercepted any last season. That's what's known as the "gambler's fallacy." And yet, through three games, the 49ers are like that roulette player who bet all of his money on black because the last five numbers were all red, and he hit anyway. They have five interceptions in their three victories, which is second in the league behind the Patriots. The Niners took two of those interceptions -- both picks of Jameis Winston -- to the house for scores.

Is there some brilliant strategy they have suddenly employed to create interceptions? No. The defense is creating more pressure after adding Dee Ford and Nick Bosa this offseason, and pressure helped create this terrible throw from Mason Rudolph, but the 49ers have only jumped from 20th a year ago to 13th in pressure rate.

Instead, they've caught the sort of breaks they didn't catch a year ago. In the Bucs game, O.J. Howard had a pass bounce off of his hands for one interception. A miscommunication on a Peyton Barber hot route led to a Sherman pick-six, and a terrible decision to force a screen pass from Winston led to another 49ers touchdown. Last year, those plays might have resulted in incompletions or dropped picks. That's just bad luck. The only interception that's materially different is Kwon Alexander's interception of Andy Dalton; while Dalton was pressured, Alexander showed uncommon range to track Tyler Eifert all the way to the sideline for a pick. (Alexander also dropped a would-be pick earlier on the drive.)

This season, the 49ers have picked off one out of every 21 passes they've seen as a defense. I would not count on that continuing, either. Robert Saleh's defense looks much improved after the offseason additions and a return to health for several key contributors, but the team wasn't due for a run on interceptions to start the year. The best projection for interceptions over the rest of their season would be to, well, regress toward the mean.

5. Green Bay Packers

Not surprising: The new coaching staff hasn't turned Aaron Jones into a bell cow back.

One of the many reasons Packers fans grew frustrated with Mike McCarthy before the longtime coach was fired last season was his usage of Jones. After years of cycling through disappointing running backs, the Packers finally seemed to stumble on something exciting with their 2017 fifth-round pick out of UTEP.

Jones averaged 5.5 yards per carry as a rookie and ran for 346 yards over a four-game stretch early in the season, but after a 131-yard performance against the Saints in Week 7, he carried the ball just 19 times over the remainder of the season amid injuries and pass-protection problems. He was expected to be the guy after returning from a two-game suspension last season, but he averaged just 13.3 touches per game for an offense that sorely needed someone to take some of the load off Aaron Rodgers.

New staff. New scheme. This is Aaron Jones' year. Right? He cut his body fat in half during the offseason to stay in better shape. In Week 2, he runs the ball a career-high 23 times and racks up 150 yards from scrimmage in a 21-16 win over the division rival Vikings. Afterward, new coach Matt LaFleur responds to the big performance by saying he wants to even up the touches between Jones and Jamaal Williams? And then he gives Williams more carries (12) and snaps (32) than Jones (10 and 20, respectively) in Sunday's win over the Broncos?

I'm not surprised, though I don't think it's optimal. For one, while LaFleur isn't the same as McCarthy, he inherited a situation in which the organization thought of Jones as a part-time back. There are times when a new coach comes in and frees a back who had been stifled by putting him in a much larger role, but more often than not, new coaches come in and use those backs in the same way. Think about guys like Kenyan Drake, Duke Johnson and even David Johnson's role as a receiving back with the Cardinals in 2018. New coaches and coordinators often come in and use the backs they inherited the same way the old coaches did.

Coaches also generally establish their preferred back usage in one job and then continue on with that pattern in their next stop. LaFleur was the offensive coordinator in Tennessee last season with a classic thunder-and-lightning combination of Derrick Henry and Dion Lewis. After a pair of early middling games, the Titans began to squeeze Henry's carries. Over a nine-game stretch from Week 4 through Week 13, Henry averaged just nine carries per game. Finally, with Lewis predictably scuffling outside of New England, LaFleur turned the offense over to Henry and saw the former Alabama star rack up 585 yards on 87 carries over the final month.

Maybe LaFleur was just playing the hot hand. Williams was more effective than Jones on Sunday, though Jones did score two touchdowns. I'm not sure playing the hot hand off a handful of carries is a great idea, though, and Jones sure seemed to have the hot hand a week ago. If the Packers are trying to keep him healthy for a late-season push, maybe this will work out great. Given that Rodgers has been off to an inconsistent start while getting used to the new LaFleur scheme, a heavier dose of Jones would probably be best.

Surprising: This is the best defense in football.

I know what I said earlier about the Bills. They're great. But have you seen the Packers through three weeks? Mitchell Trubisky, Kirk Cousins and Joe Flacco aren't exactly Patrick Mahomes, but the Packers have faced 38 drives through three games, which is tied for the second most in football. They're allowing less than one point per possession, which is good for the second-best mark in football.

With the offense struggling for consistent production, though, the defense has to make leads hold up for long stretches. They've also created opportunities for the offense with takeaways. The Packers have turned opponents over on a league-leading 21.1% of possessions, and the same Mike Pettine defense that forced 15 takeaways in 16 games a year ago now has eight after just three contests.

While Pettine is around again as defensive coordinator, it's fair to note that many of the faces are new imports after a busy offseason from general manager Brian Gutekunst. And while I took issue with several of the contracts Gutekunst handed out -- deals that rise dramatically starting next season -- I can't argue with the results so far. The Packers refreshed their pass rush overnight by signing Preston Smith and Za'Darius Smith, and they made Joe Flacco & Co. miserable on Sunday. The Smiths racked up five sacks and six knockdowns, bringing their combined totals through three games to 7.5 sacks and 14 knockdowns. Clay Matthews and Nick Perry combined for five sacks and 15 knockdowns over the entire 2018 season. First-round pick Rashan Gary also picked up his first career sack against the overmatched Broncos line.

Safety, long a Packers problem, has become a strength. Adrian Amos has quickly settled in as a leader and made the key interception of Trubisky in the Week 1 win over the Bears. His partner, Darnell Savage, is a Defensive Rookie of the Year candidate through three weeks. The first-rounder made a spectacular play to pick off an errant Flacco pass on Sunday.

Cornerback has been a revolving door, too, but the Packers appear to have a full-fledged superstar on their hands in Jaire Alexander. I was impressed with Alexander as a rookie last season, although he didn't have much help in a secondary that was riddled both by injuries and players stuck out of position. With more support, Alexander looks like he might be one of the best cornerbacks in the NFC. He was spotted ripping the ball out of Noah Fant's hands Sunday. Kevin King has also played better in a small sample this season, pushing 2018 second-rounder Josh Jackson into what has primarily been a special-teams role.

Through three weeks, the Packers have scored seven touchdowns. Two have come on the opening drives of games, when they were likely running plays they had scripted before the game began. Of the other five scores, three came off takeaways. For years, the Packers would go as far as Rodgers could carry them. Now the defense is carrying Green Bay.

4. Los Angeles Rams

Not surprising: Wade Phillips has managed to get the most out of his defenders.

Most coaches who make it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame do so on the back of a great head-coaching career. It's probably about time to start thinking about great coordinators and positional coaches as potential Hall candidates, too. Dante Scarnecchia is an obvious choice after spending most of the past two decades molding a dominant offensive line in front of Tom Brady in New England. If I had to pick a coordinator, Phillips is the first guy on the list. Even though he won only one playoff game across 8½ seasons as a head coach, he remains one of the league's finest defensive minds at age 72.

If the Rams' offense had held up its end of the bargain last February, we would be lauding Phillips for holding the Patriots to 13 points. Through three weeks, while the Rams have given up 49 points, 14 of those points came off of short fields against the Panthers in Week 1. On Sunday night, the Browns started drives from their own 38-, 43- and 49-yard lines, as well as a brief drive before the end of the first half from the Los Angeles 18. Those drives produced a total of three points.

Phillips got so far into Freddie Kitchens' head that he somehow convinced the struggling Browns coach to call for a draw on fourth-and-9, something I don't believe an NFL team has done on purpose since the Dolphins attempted a fourth-and-10 draw with Bernie Parmalee in 1997. Phillips saw Mayfield struggling to deal with pressure and repeatedly reacting to even the threat of pressure by rolling away from the pocket to his right to try to make a desperate play. By the end of the game, Phillips was lining up his front four in wide splits to try to isolate Cleveland's tackles and then twisting his linemen to both create quick interior pressure while having someone waiting when Mayfield panicked and ran outside. While Mayfield stuck in the pocket and made a pair of great throws on the final drive, the game-sealing interception is a clear example of what Mayfield was doing wrong.

While the Rams have a competitive advantage with Aaron Donald collapsing pockets, this isn't a one-man show. Phillips' defense has improved on 2018 despite losing big names such as Ndamukong Suh and Lamarcus Joyner. Eric Weddle has stepped in at safety for Joyner, but another big name has made his presence felt. Remember when I mentioned Clay Matthews as a disappointment in the Packers section? Rushing the passer on more than 86% of passing plays, Matthews has four sacks in his first three games with the Rams, including two on Sunday night. The second of those sacks would qualify as a coverage sack, but he did a great job of shedding what appeared to be a stable block to take Mayfield down and prevent him from scrambling.

Phillips also has a habit of developing little-known inside linebackers into stars, and Cory Littleton continues to improve as one of Phillips' star pupils. I mentioned this last week, but how many inside linebackers could hold their own while covering Michael Thomas on a drag route? Littleton had a monster game against the Panthers in Week 1 and would be a Pro Bowler if we were casting ballots after three weeks.

Should anyone be surprised here? The most important thing the Rams have done over the past decade is hire Sean McVay. The second-most important thing they've done, realistically, is convince Phillips to work alongside him.

Surprising: Jared Goff is struggling.

In general, Goff is doing great. He just pocketed a $25 million signing bonus. He has about as much job security as any young quarterback in football. He's 24 and living in Los Angeles and has a brilliant coach who helps him unlock defenses at the line of scrimmage.

Over the first three weeks of this season, though, Goff hasn't played well. Opposing defenses have emulated the Patriots' game plan from the Super Bowl and played what amount to six-man fronts to try to force the Rams away from their outside zone game. Todd Gurley hasn't been healthy enough to play his usual workload. The Rams are rebuilding the interior of their offensive line. This was supposed to be the point in which Goff could shoulder a larger portion of the workload, but that hasn't happened.

Earlier in his career, the Rams spent money on pieces around Goff to surround their cheap young quarterback with talent. Now he is the expensive one. His cap hit doesn't rise from $10.6 million to $36 million until next season, but the Rams have to expect him to play like a franchise quarterback now that he's beginning a franchise quarterback caliber deal. He just hasn't been that guy.

Remember the expected completion percentage stat I mentioned about Allen? A quarterback making Goff's throws would be expected to complete 67.7% of his passes, the eighth-friendliest rate in the league in 2019. Goff is completing only 62.9%, and the only passers with a larger gap are either injured (Cam Newton, Ben Roethlisberger), chum (Josh Rosen) or subject to major criticism (Mitchell Trubisky, Andy Dalton). Goff is not supposed to be in a group with Dalton and Trubisky.

Plenty of quarterbacks get off to slow starts and recover just fine, and I'm not particularly concerned about his completion percentage being five points below expectation after three weeks. What does strike me as something to look out for, though, is how the Rams seem to be struggling with play-action. From 2017 to '18, Goff averaged more than 10.1 yards per play-action pass, posted a passer rating of 112.3, and threw 21 touchdowns against three picks on 335 attempts. Through 40 play-action throws this season, he is averaging 7.9 yards per play-fake with a passer rating of 53.5. He has thrown three interceptions on play-action in three weeks, including both of his picks on Sunday.

The interceptions were throws Goff would like to take back. On the first pass, Brandin Cooks has a step on reserve cornerback T.J. Carrie, but the throw is late and in a place where Carrie can make a play. It required an impressive diving pick, but you'll notice in this animation from NFL Next Gen Stats that Robert Woods (17) might also have been open across the middle of the field:

I can't fault Goff for not squeezing that pass into Woods, in part because his second interception was a similar decision. Again, Woods has a step on his defender, but this pass is thrown in the wrong spot and gives Joe Schobert a chance to tip it up in the air. Goff needed to put more loft on it and fit it in the triangle between Jermaine Whitehead (35), Eric Murray (22), and Juston Burris (41), with the latter player eventually bringing in the tipped pick.

It wasn't just the interceptions. McVay was visibly frustrated with Goff for what he seemed to consider a subpar decision on third-and-1 during the second half. He missed a wide-open out route to Cooks in the first half on a pass that Next Gen Stats estimated to have a 72.6 percent chance of completion.

Goff's numbers on Sunday look fine apart from the interceptions -- 24-of-38 for 269 yards with two touchdown passes to Cooper Kupp -- but he was facing a Browns secondary missing all four of its starters and its best linebacker, Christian Kirksey. The five starting defensive backs played every snap; they included a pair of backups (Carrie and Terrance Mitchell), a special-teamer (Murray), a defensive back they claimed off waivers from the Raiders earlier this month (Burris), and another who was claimed off the Packers waiver wire last November (Whitehead). Isn't this the sort of spot Goff is supposed to smash?

One more thing to worry about and then I'll move on: Goff has traditionally been best in the warmest month of the NFL season under McVay. From 2017 to '18, he posted a passer rating of 123.8 and averaged more than 10.3 yards per attempt in September. Over the ensuing three months of those seasons, Goff posted a passer rating of 94.6 while averaging 7.6 yards per pass. I don't expect that sort of drop-off to occur again in 2019, but with Goff currently sporting a passer rating of 84.5 while averaging 7.0 yards per attempt and posting a Total QBR in between that of Josh Rosen and Eli Manning, I do know that we're going to need to see a better Goff for the Rams to continue on their undefeated run.

3. Kansas City Chiefs

Not surprising: There's still life in LeSean McCoy's legs.

We often underestimate just how much context matters in evaluating skill position players. When the Bills cut Shady McCoy this summer, I joked on Twitter that McCoy would lead the Chiefs in rushing. The responses, as you might suspect, are from Chiefs fans laughing at the idea that their team would even sign McCoy, let alone see the former Eagles standout play ahead of Damien Williams or Darwin Thompson.

I was surprised hours later when the Chiefs won a bidding war with the Chargers and gave McCoy a one-year deal worth $3 million with another million in incentives. Signing McCoy made sense, but the price tag was far more than I would have expected for a back who averaged just 3.2 yards per carry with more than 2,400 career carries on his odometer.

Freed to play in his old coach's offense, though, McCoy has looked impressive. Williams was awful to start the season, carrying the ball 22 times for just 34 yards before going down with a knee injury. McCoy, dealing with an ankle knock, has rushed 29 times for 158 yards and been a dangerous threat as a receiver. He scored twice in Sunday's win over the Ravens, contributing 80 yards and five first downs or touchdowns on 11 touches.

It's reminiscent of Williams himself, who looked to be an anonymous, replacement-level back in Miami before starring over the last month of the season in Kareem Hunt's absence in 2018. What looks like a washed-up back somewhere else looks like a star in Kansas City.

Surprising: The Chiefs still can't stop the run.

The Chiefs couldn't stop opposing teams from running the football last season. In Bob Sutton's final year as defensive coordinator, the Chiefs finished 32nd in rush defense DVOA and allowed 5.0 yards per carry, and 51.5% of opposing carries increased their expected chances of scoring, the highest rate for any team in the NFL.

Over the offseason, the Chiefs underwent a defensive overhaul. Out went Sutton, Justin Houston, Dee Ford and oft-injured star safety Eric Berry. They brought in new coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, signed Alex Okafor and Tyrann Mathieu, and traded a first-round pick for Frank Clark, who is a better run-defender than Ford. Former starters like Reggie Ragland and Daniel Sorensen have been kicked out of the lineup for Cowboys import Damien Wilson and rookie safety Juan Thornhill. A lot has changed.

And yet, nothing has changed. The Chiefs are allowing opposing offenses to average an eye-watering 6.2 yards per carry this season. No other team even hits a rushing average of 5.5 yards per carry. The Chiefs are also last in average yards after first contact at 2.5 yards per attempt, and their 34.3% first-down rate is 31st in the NFL. I didn't think they were going to turn into the '85 Bears overnight, but run defenses this bad usually improve just by sheer chance the following season, let alone after making significant changes.

Of course, Kansas City is also 3-0, so you can make the case that its run defense might not matter. On Sunday, though, it might have ended up extending what should have been a comfortable win over the Ravens. Even given an early lead, it allowed a couple of prayers from Lamar Jackson to become completions and let the Ravens run for 203 yards and four touchdowns on 32 attempts. The Chiefs were able to stop the Ravens on all three of their two-point tries, including a pair of rush attempts, but the game shouldn't have been that close.

2. Dallas Cowboys

Not surprising: The Cowboys are 3-0.

Yes, I did predict that the Cowboys would decline in 2019, and I stand by my prediction. I've been impressed with how the offense has looked for stretches this season, especially in the second half of games, but there are still 13 games to go. No one is right or wrong about anything after three weeks.

Given Dallas' schedule to start the year, though, I don't see how anybody could have expected much less than a 3-0 start. It has faced what very well might be three of the five worst teams in football with the Eli Manning version of the Giants, Washington and the Dolphins. Two of those three games were at home. The Cowboys won all three games handily, which is good for a team that rode its luck in close victories last season, but 3-0 was the most plausible outcome for the Cowboys heading into the year.

Week 4 looked like it would begin the tougher part of their slate, but even after the Saints impressed in Seattle on Sunday, the Cowboys have to feel better about facing Teddy Bridgewater in New Orleans than Drew Brees. There's a chance they may also get another backup quarterback two weeks later if Sam Darnold isn't ready by Week 6. We'll get a better idea of where this team stands once its schedule gets tougher.

Surprising: The Cowboys haven't paid Dak Prescott.

Is Jerry Jones waiting to sell some of the stadium art before paying his star quarterback? The price is only going to get more expensive, and if the Cowboys can't sign Prescott before Patrick Mahomes signs his mega-extension next offseason, it might make the prices we're seeing mooted for a possible Prescott deal seem like a bargain.

Is it foolish to put Prescott and the reigning MVP in the same sentence? Before this season, maybe. Through three weeks, though, Prescott has been every bit as good as Mahomes. To go back to that expected completion percentage stat from NFL Next Gen Stats, Prescott's options would have typically generated a 64.6% completion rate. Even after an uneven game against the lowly Dolphins, he has hit on a whopping 74.5% of his attempts. The resulting difference of 9.9 percentage points is the most in football, ahead of Russell Wilson (8.7 percentage points) and Mahomes (5.7 points). And if you think that is related to Prescott throwing shorter passes, the Cowboys signal-caller's average attempt has traveled 9.7 yards in the air, further than that of Mahomes, at 9.2 yards per throw. Prescott's percentage of receivers who are open and/or wide open are both below league average. He's playing like a legitimate superstar.

Prescott will be tested in the weeks to come. Over the next two weeks, the Cowboys face the Saints and the Packers, who are each tied for the league lead in pressure rate at 36.9%. If he keeps these numbers up and leads the Cowboys to 5-0, Jones might have to sell the scoreboard to finance Dak's new deal.

1. New England Patriots

Surprising: Sony Michel has been one of the league's least productive backs.

I'm going to cheat and sneak two surprises in here, because the Patriots going 3-0 and looking like the best team in football isn't anything new. The negative surprise is about Michel, who I thought might have a viable shot at leading the league in rushing and/or rushing touchdowns as the primary back on a top-three offense. The Patriots have been down as many as three of their five starting offensive linemen for parts of this season and will be without center David Andrews for the year and left tackle Isaiah Wynn until midseason, but Michel has been a mess.

After carrying the ball nine times for 11 yards in Sunday's win over the Jets, Michel now has 45 carries for 108 yards, an average of merely 2.4 yards per carry. The 2018 first-round pick has two rushing touchdowns, but those scores have required eight carries and a lone target inside the 10-yard line. I was expecting more big plays from Michel given his explosiveness at Georgia, but he has shown virtually no burst or any propensity to get more than what's blocked during the first three weeks of the season.

What makes Michel so interesting, in part, is how he goes against many of the habits Bill Belichick typically seems to deploy at the running back position. Belichick traditionally prefers to fill his backfield on the cheap with mid-round picks or players signed off of the waiver wire. Michel was a first-round pick. Belichick loves backs who are versatile and don't reveal whether you intend to run or pass before the snap, although he's also found a role for LeGarrette Blount and Benjarvus Green-Ellis in recent years. Since the start of 2018, the Pats have run the ball 75% of the time when Michel is on the field and just 32% of the time when he's on the sideline.

Belichick seemed to grow frustrated with Michel on Sunday. With James White out and Michel struggling, both Rex Burkhead (53 snaps) and Brandon Bolden (21 snaps) saw the field more frequently than Michel, who played only 17 snaps. It's way too early to give up on the Georgia product, and I suspect he'll play a big role for the Pats at some point during the season. That time just might not be this Sunday in Buffalo.

Also surprising: This is the best defense in football.

It has to be the Patriots, right? As good as the Bills are under difficult conditions, and as dominant as the Packers have looked taking away the football this season, the Patriots have yet to allow an offensive touchdown all season. The 14 points the Jets scored Sunday came on a muffed punt and a pick-six from backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham. The Steelers kicked a field goal in the opener. The Dolphins didn't advance past midfield until the fourth quarter in Week 2.

Through three weeks, the Patriots are allowing 0.27 points per possession. That is no typo. Factoring in the Super Bowl win over the Rams, the Pats' defense has now gone four games without allowing a passing or rushing touchdown by the opposing offense.

That has happened just eight times since the AFL-NFL merger, and in these score-happy times, we haven't seen a team piece together a four-game scoreless streak since the Steelers pulled it off over a five-game run during the 2000 campaign. Those Steelers are the only team to even make it to four in a row since 1991. With Kordell Stewart and Kent Graham failing to combine for a completion percentage of even 50%, that Steelers team went 9-7 and missed the playoffs. The Patriots should be just fine on the completion percentage front with Tom Brady.

I wrote about the Patriots at length last week, but even given the Super Bowl performance and a relatively meek start to the season, it's difficult to fathom that they would have been this good on defense. They're mostly returning the core of a defense that finished 16th in DVOA in 2018 and 31st the previous season, having swapped out Trey Flowers for Michael Bennett while adding Jamie Collins. For all of Belichick's well-earned reputation as a defensive genius, the Pats haven't ranked in the top 10 in DVOA since 2006. I'm never shocked when a Belichick defense plays well, but to put together the best four-game stretch in nearly two decades?

My logic in talking about a 16-0 Pats season had more to do with a 2007-esque receiving corps than that dominant defense. Of course, a week later, the receiving corps is no more. At times on Sunday, not one of them was on the field; Antonio Brown was cut, Julian Edelman injured his rib, and Josh Gordon came off the field with hip and finger injuries. It wasn't going to matter against the Jets.

Look at the DVOA stat I just mentioned, though. Since Brady leveled up and turned into the greatest quarterback of all time in 2007, the Patriots haven't produced a single top-10 defense to play opposite their star quarterback. They've ranked in the top 10 in scoring defense many times, but that's a product of great field position and having to face a low number of drives against teams that were desperate to throw and catch up. Since 2007, the average Pats defensive drive has come with 73.9 yards to go for a touchdown, which is a little over a yard more per drive than any other defense in football.

Brady and the receiving corps of doom lasted one week. Brady and the best defense he has had in 15 years against the league's easiest schedule? I wouldn't quite rule out the 16-0 dream just yet.

Pole vaulter Anna Gordon encourages others to ‘be part of the change’

“I’m not going to tell you about sexual abuse. I think, these days especially, with the #MeToo campaign and everything, there’s already an awareness surrounding that.

“And it’s good, but it just seems so strange to me because people are being encouraged to speak out and they are being met with love and understanding and that just wasn’t my experience at all.”

Anna Gordon is back competing and taking part in the sport she loves but has had to come through some dark times and harrowing experiences to get there.

The pole vaulter hopes others never have to go through what she did and has produced a video entitled ‘Be Part of The Change’, in which she shares her story and outlines how she was able to make a comeback.

If you feel you need to raise concerns of abuse, how can you seek help?

Scottish Athletics and British Athletics have provided some advice.

“We’re aware of the case and Anna’s video and have been involved – both historically and more recently – in providing support to Anna,” said Mark Munro, chief executive of Scottish Athletics.

“It’s absolutely vital that the message to everyone in the sport is very clear: Athletics is a fantastic sport, abuse will not be tolerated and we will seek to support anyone who raises an issue or makes a disclosure of abuse.

“There are over 150 clubs affiliated to scottishathletics, all of whom have in place policies and procedures for dealing with referrals. The club Welfare Officer should be the first person to speak to, but we recognise that in some cases you may want to speak to someone outside the club and a referral can be made directly to scottishathletics, or to the police who will take the appropriate action.

“We offer ongoing support and guidance to our clubs and that happens on a weekly basis via a very proactive approach by our Welfare Team. However, we are not complacent and will continue to look at ways to strengthen what we do in conjunction with our clubs and partners.”

How to seek help

What courses of action are there for athletes, coaches or parents to be able to take if they believe someone has fallen victim?

David Brown, welfare and lead safeguarding officer at UK Athletics, says they should start with their club welfare officer, whose contact details should be published in the clubhouse for everyone to see. Look out for posters like those found here.

“The welfare office can then refer the matter to my colleague Jane Fylan or myself,” adds Brown. “The safeguarding policy will tell them the route they need to take in relation to an allegation – whether they need to refer it to the police or the children’s services or whether the club can deal with it themselves. But that initial point of contact should be the club welfare officer.”

What would then happen?

“It really would depend on the severity of what the allegation is,” Brown says. “We always advocate that if a criminal offence has been committed against somebody then they should go to the police as their first port of call.

“We, the welfare, are always available to anybody within the sport and there is a variety of methods of contact. We will support them and we have in the past made introductions to police forces for people to go in by appointment to make allegations that can be dealt with.

“Individual athletes, or anybody that has been abused in any shape or form, can contact us in a variety of ways. My email – [email protected] is open. We have a whistleblowing email and we have a secure whistleblowing phone line that people can contact us on:

[email protected]
0121 713 8440
Click here to download the whistleblowing policy

“We offer any support because it’s a difficult situation people find themselves in and there’s a variety of reasons why people report things later,” he says.

“Some people are reporting things that happened four or five years ago – or even longer. Maybe something has happened recently which triggers them to make that report and they just need to be able to speak to somebody fairly quickly. Just contact us. We can always then discuss with them what is the most appropriate way of dealing with this and who are the best people for them to speak to, to get the support for the matter to be resolved properly.”

Gordon adds: “The updated procedures are a huge improvement for those who are brave enough to come forward. What we need now is for governing bodies to understand the barriers to reporting abuse which still exist and address them.”

British number one Kyle Edmund is looking for another coach after parting company with Mark Hilton.

Edmund lost to Chilean Cristian Garin in the Chengdu Open first round on Monday, his fourth straight defeat.

However, Hilton was not in China for the match as the partnership came to an end last week.

Edmund is ranked 32 in the world but, hindered by knee problems, has only managed to win 12 matches on the ATP Tour this year.

Until February, Hilton had been working in conjunction with Swedish coach Freddie Rosengren. The highlight of their time together came in Melbourne in January 2018, when Edmund reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open.

Edmund will be assisted in the short term by Colin Beecher, who also coached him when he was in his late teens.

Beecher is based in west London, but had already agreed to travel to China with British number two Dan Evans, who is also without a permanent coach.

Edmund will remain in China to play in Beijing and Shanghai, before returning to Europe to compete in Vienna, Austria, and Paris, France, as well as the Davis Cup finals in the Spanish capital Madrid.