Another week in the books, huh? Time flies when a relentle s slate of sports is kind enough to keep us busy and entertained.I come with some good news this morning, too: Not only is the train gonna keep on rolling into the weekend, but we've got an expanded college football slate to look forward to in addition to playoff basketball, playoff hockey, UFC and more. And on top of that, playoff baseball is just around the corner. Hoo boy!I'll get to what was and what will be in just a second here, but I'll also let you know that I'll still be around over the next couple of days in case you wanna chat or follow the action together. and let's have ourselves a weekend. What you need to know 1. Dolphins, Fitzpatrick put lid on Minshew Mania That Florida showdown on Thursday Night Football we got last night? Well, it didn't quite go the way many expected it to. Gardner Minshew had plenty of hype behind him after two surprisingly strong weeks to start the season, but Ryan Fitzpatrick and the winle s Dolphins were in the driver's seat for pretty much the entire night against the Jaguars. The Fins were underdogs leading up to kickoff but left Jacksonville with a dominant 31-13 victory -- their first of the year. How'd that happen? Glad you asked. Let's consult Tyler Sullivan & Bryan DeArdo, who penned : Why the Dolphins won: Miami put the pre sure on from the very start, scoring touchdowns on their first three offensive po se sions. Fitzpatrick was outstanding, completing 18-of-20 pa ses (including his first 12 to start the night) and scoring three total touchdowns. The Dolphins also rushed for 138 yards on the ground. Overall, it was an outstanding game for the offenseWhy the Jaguars lost: Falling into the early hole didn't help, but it also hurt that Minshew was without his best receiver, D.J. Chark. The Jags couldn't really muster anything on offense and couldn't get a big stop on defense (they went 6-for-13 on third down) and that's not usually a winning combinationSo, uh, maybe we were a little bit too quick to be impre sed by Minshew and the Jags? It's important to remember that this is a Dolphins defense that basically got run over through the first two weeks of the season and, suddenly, Jacksonville made them look impenetrable. I gue s we now have a definitive answer to what's more powerful, a beard or a mustache. 2. Lakers push Nuggets to the brink Getty Images The Lakers brought a strong performance in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals last night but, unfortunately, they now find themselves in a most unenviable position: Holding a 3-1 lead over the Denver Nuggets. Such an advantage didn't work out well for the first couple of teams to do it before the Lakers, but LA was clearly https://www.rangersday.com/texas-rangers…ersey willing to roll the dice and take their chances -- as evidenced by their effort against Denver on Thursday night. Blindsided on the boards: The Lakers outrebounded the Nuggets, 43-31, (including a 12-6 advantage in offensive rebounds). They had 25 second-chance points and it was arguably the biggest reason Denver lost the game. Oddly enough, the Nuggets outrebounded the Lakers, 44-25, in Game 3LeBron James takes on the challenge: LeBron had a big night for the Lakers on both ends of the floor. Not only did he drop 26 points, but he also guarded Jamal Murray late in the game and came up with a ma sive block at the rim on a key po se sion -- although some may say LeBron fouled him. (Michael Malone really wasn't pleased with the officiating in this game and threw some shade at Frank Vogel by) In any case, the Nuggets had a chance to cut the lead to one but instead the Lakers got a bucket going the other way and Denver never recoveredQuiet night for Joker: Jamal Murray had 32 points and Denver got some solid secondary production behind him, but Nikola Jokic had a very pedestrian night. He went for just 16 points on 13 attempts and two free throws. He mi sed a good chunk of the fourth quarter due to foul trouble but he'll have to be more aggre sive offensively moving forwardSo, here we are. Another 3-1 series deficit for Denver... can they do it again? It seems unlikely but, honestly, you'd be a fool to count them out at this point. At the very least I feel like we deserve a few more games of this series, don't you? 3. It's SEC season (finally) Getty Images College football has officially been on the menu for a few weeks now but, in all honesty, is college football even college football without the SEC? We all know the answer to that one. Fortunately, the SEC will get its 2020 schedule underway tomorrow, so it's time to REALLY get cooking. Of course, it's 2020 and everything is weird so this is likely going to be one of the more bizarre seasons in SEC history, which makes it a bit difficult to project and predict. However, our team of college football experts won't shy away from attempting to do just that. This week, they delivered : Texas A&M was the most popular pick for Most Overrated TeamAuburn, Kentucky and A&M all got two votes for Most Underrated TeamTom Fornelli and David Cobb both think Arkansas and Vanderbilt will go winle s this yearBarrett Sallee has Florida's Kyle Trask leading the SEC in pa sing (and to a SEC Championship Game berth) while Dennis Dodd likes KJ Costello of Mi si sippi State to take the pa sing crownAlabamawas nearly the unanimous pick to win the SEC (Fornelli picked Georgia)In addition to those picks and predictions, Dodd also took a crack at highlighting and it's a great read. For my gambling friends,. Even as a Big 12-aligned college football fan, I can admit there's a little tingle that comes with knowing things get really real starting tomorrow. Happy SEC eve, friend. 4. Previewing UFC 253 at Fight Island Getty Images We've got some major UFC action coming up this weekend as the company returns to Fight Island for UFC 253 on Saturday. That card includes two title fights with middleweight division champ Israel Adesanya taking on top challenger Paulo Costa after months of trash talk between the two, plus Dominick Reyes and Jan Blachowicz battling it out for the vacant light heavyweight belt. Our resident MMA expert Brent Brookhouse has, so that's a good primer ahead of fight night. He also has , and here are a couple: Adesanya's star power in danger?:Adesanya had a dud of a performance in the first defense of his middleweight championship and he seemed unwilling to engage and attack in that bout against Yoel Romero. That's not the same Adesanya we saw coming up through the ranks and if he doesn't get back to being a flashy striker his brand/standing may suffer Dominick Reyes fighting to right a wrong: Many believed Reyes should have beaten Jon Jones at UFC 247 to win the UFC light heavyweight belt but the judges disagreed. Now, with that title vacated and Reyes getting another shot at it, hell be looking for redemption. Brookhouse says the key to succe s this time around may be striking "the fine balance between fighting at his standard pace and conserving energy for the later rounds"One of the other big storylines to monitor is Fight Island itself. While it may not have been the over-the-top, wild experiment that it was made out to be, the first set of events in Abu Dhabi went really smoothly for the UFC. They'll be hoping that remains true the second time around. Here's my idea, and Dana White can feel free to steal this one if he wants: For October, turn Fight Island into Fright Island and make all the UFC fighters dre s up in Halloween costumes during their bouts. Who's not going to watch a profe sional MMA fighter dre sed up as Carole Baskin try to beat the crap out of Sexy Anthony Fauci? COVID-19 has ruined all my other Halloween plans, so it's time for the UFC to make Spooky SZN the main event. Odds & Ends Getty Images Bayern Munich won the UEFA Super Cup thanks to a goal from Javi Martinez in extra timeTampa Bay Lightning fans for yelling "shoot!" during the Stanley Cup FinalActors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney What to watch this weekendFriday ,5:15 p.m. & 8:15 p.m.| TV: MLB.TV , 8 p.m. | DAL +140 | TV: NBC , 8:30 p.m. | BOS -3.5 | TV: ESPNSaturday ,3:30 p.m. | LSU -16.5 | TV: CBS Stars vs. Lightning, 8 p.m. | TV: NBC , 9 p.m. | DEN +6| TV: TNT Sunday , 1 p.m. | BUF -2 | TV: FOX , 1 p.m. | NE -5.5 | TV: CBS , 4:25 p.m. | SEA -5 | TV: FOX Top scores from last night USATSI Anthony Davis had a game-high 34 points as the Lakers pushed Denver to the brink of eliminationWinning wagers: LAL -253, Over (214.5) Ryan Fitzpatrick had three total touchdowns (two pa sing, one rushing) as Miami got their first win of the year. Winning wagers:MIA +124, Under (49) Blue Jays 4, Yankees 1Hyun Jin Ryu threw a seven-inning shutout to help Toronto clinch their first postseason berth since 2016. The lo s for the Yankees all but guarantees that they will have to play all of their postseason games on the road. Winning wagers: TOR -101, Under (9.5) https://www.rangersday.com/texas-rangers…ersey