National Football League

A fast, faster, fastest weekend

Published Sep. 27, 2010 1:00 a.m. ET

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FRIDAY

Bombs away!

Of all the things fans could not possibly have imagined this year in Major League Baseball, the breakout power-season of Toronto’s Jose Bautista has to be near the top of the list.

His home run totals the past four years: 16, 15, 15, 13.

He entered Friday night with 50 (Fifty!).

His increase of 37 over last season’s total was one shy of Davey Johnson’s record for the largest one-year-to-the-next increase.

In the first inning, he tied the record. In the sixth, he broke it.

Jose Bautista. Fifty-two home runs. Thirty-nine more than last year.

Johnson set the record in 1973, hitting 43 homers after managing just five the previous year. Of note, and perhaps of some concern to Bautista, in 1974 Davey was back down to 15, and never hit more than eight in a season the rest of his career.

East feast

You know that NL East race everyone was anticipating coming down to the Braves-Phillies season-ending series next weekend? Forget about it.

The Phillies beat the Mets Friday night to improve to 19-3 in September.

That series might still be meaningful, but now, only for the Braves and their wild-card chances.

19-3? Gotta think the Phillies want to start the playoffs yesterday.

Friday night lights

TCU beat SMU 41-24. The fifth-ranked Horned Frogs not only have one of the best nicknames in the nation, they also have one the longest regular-season win-streaks in the nation with 18 straight victories.

Speaking of collegiate nicknames, my top five:

UC Irvine Anteaters

UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs

Arkansas Monticello Boll Weevils

Pittsburg State Gorillas

Whittier College Poets

Cuban missile

Reds lefty Aroldis Chapman came in to face San Diego’s Adrian Gonzalez. He struck him out on three straight pitches that, in order, were clocked at 101, 102 and 103 miles per hour. The next inning, Chapman hit 105.1 on the radar gun; the fastest ever recorded in major-league history. He makes Randy Johnson look like Jamie Moyer.

Saturday

The Tide turned

No. 1 Alabama came back from a 20-7 deficit at Arkansas to remain undefeated. Reigning Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram ran for 157 yards and scored with 3:18 to play to cap the rally in a 24-20 victory.

Lone wolf

How good is Michigan QB Denard Robinson?

He needed just two drives and one play of a third to rack up 189 yards in total offense before he left injured against Bowling Green. (Bowling Green; what kind of a name is that for a college? It sounds more like a leisure activity and a color.) Robinson ran for 129 yards and two touchdowns on five carries, and was 4 for 4 passing for 60 yards in the early stages of a 65-21 Michigan rout.

Robinson left with a twisted knee, but is expected to be fully recovered before next week’s game at Indiana.

Something Bruin

Hold off on that burial for UCLA football. A 35-0 home loss to Stanford two weeks ago seemed to signal another lost season in Westwood. Saturday the Bruins followed up last week’s win over 23rd-ranked Houston with a shocking 34-12 beatdown of heavily favored, seventh-ranked Texas. Two-hundred sixty of UCLA’s 287 total yards came on the ground in the road-upset in Austin.

Owen goin’ in twice

The single most amazing one-man weekend feat was accomplished in South Bend where Stanford fullback Owen Marecic ran for a touchdown to cap one drive, and then, playing linebacker, returned an interception 20 yards for a touchdown on the first play of the next drive.

One man, two plays, 13 seconds resulting in an offensive and defensive touchdown.

Stanford beat Notre Dame 37-14. The Irish and their fans, who are still under the delusion that their football program is among the nation’s elite, are now 1-3 this season, and 17-24 since the start of 2007.

Texas heat

The only current major-league franchise never to have won a playoff series is headed to… a playoff series.

Saturday’s 4-3 win over Oakland clinched the AL West for the Texas Rangers, who have played the last three weeks without injured MVP candidate Josh Hamilton. As good as the Rangers have been all season, if Hamilton is not healed by next Monday, the Rangers will likely still be the only current major-league franchise never to have won a playoff series.

Interesting note on the Rangers celebration of their title; Hamilton, a recovering alcoholic, avoided the champagne celebration in the locker room, spending time behind closed doors in the trainer’s room until the party was over.

Kyle style

Kyle Busch set a single-season record for wins in the Nationwide Series, taking his 11th checkered flag of 2010 with a victory at Dover International Speedway. More impressive, Busch’s 11 wins have come in just 23 starts.

SUNDAY

Ten million over par

So, how was your Sunday?

Couldn’t have been nearly as good as Jim Furyk’s.

Furyk hit a clutch Pam Anderson (soft, beautiful and perfectly curved) out of the bunker on the 18th hole, setting up a 2 1/2-foot par putt to win The Tour Championship.

With the victory in Atlanta, Furyk also clinched the FedEx Cup and its $10 million prize.

Tiger who?

In the win column

It took three games, but the Vikings and Cowboys each finally got their first win.

Adrian Peterson ran for 160 yards to lead Minnesota over Detroit 24-10, while Tony Romo threw for 284 yards and two touchdowns in a 27-13 Dallas victory at Houston.

Note to Jerry Jones: Feel free to stop flapping your lips about the Cowboys playing the Super Bowl in your home stadium. If it happens, it happens. If not and you spent all year talking about it, you look like a dope.

Wait a minute, reverse that

The 49ers were the sexy pick to win the NFC West and the Chiefs nearly unanimously predicted to finish last.

Kansas City’s 31-10 stomping of San Francisco moved the Chiefs to 3-0 and the Niners to 0-3. Oops.

Hartley? Hardly.

With the Super Bowl champion Saints on the verge of improving to 3-0, Garrett Hartley missed a 29-yard field-goal attempt in overtime. The Falcons took possession, marched downfield, and their kicker, Matt Bryant, hit from 46 yards, giving Atlanta a 27-24 win and first place in the NFC South.

The miss was not just unlikely, it was astounding.

Hartley came into the season having made 22 of his 24 career attempts.

Last year in the NFL, there were 300 field goals of between 25 and 35 yards attempted. Two-hundred seventy-nine were made, seven were blocked, and a mere 14, or less than 5 percent, were missed.

Which makes it even more absurd that…

Raider of the lost game

Oakland’s Sebastian Janikowski also missed a gimme with the game on the line against Arizona. Janikowski who missed three all of last season (in 29 tries), missed three Sunday, the last of which was a 32-yarder as time expired, allowing the Cardinals to escape with a 24-23 victory.

Do we pop the champagne, or not?

The Phillies lost to the Mets, but were assured of a playoff spot because of San Diego’s loss to Cincinnati. The Phils’ magic number to wrap up the division is 1, but with 93 wins, they are the first National League team to clinch a postseason spot.

Hang in there, folks, only five more days ’til the weekend.