The last week in sports has been action-packed in every sense of the phrase, so let’s take a look back.

LOCAL SPORTS:

The Las Vegas Golden Knights only took one win last week, with one of the losses being a brutal 6-0 finish against the Utah Hockey Club. The Knights won against the  Winnipeg Jets 4-3, but also lost 1-2 against the Colorado Avalanche.

The Las Vegas Raiders took the closest loss they have in a while, losing 17-19 against the Kansas City Chiefs in their first Friday Night Football game since August. While Vegas won the coin toss, they elected to let the Chiefs start the game with the ball, leading to them scoring a field goal in the 10th minute. Chiefs WR Justin Watson was the first to score a touchdown in the game during the second quarter after a very clean pass by Patrick Mahomes. Vegas didn’t take a touchdown until the third quarter as Brock Bowers caught a 30-yard pass from QB Aidan O’Connell. The Raiders came close to a game-winning touchdown at the end of the fourth quarter, but the Chief’s star-studded defense was unfortunately able to hold them off, leading to yet another loss.

NFL:

As the annual John Madden Thanksgiving games kicked off many were left wondering, would the Detroit Lions finally be defeated after their 9-game win streak, how would a game with backup quarterbacks of the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants look, and would the Miami Dolphins be able to perform in freezing weather conditions?

Starting with the morning game of the Chicago Bears vs the Detroit Lions, the Lions dominated the first half with running back Jahmyr Gibbs doing the heavy lifting. However in the second half rookie quarterback, 1st pick of the NFL draft Caleb Williams took charge bringing the game to 20-23, but in a sudden turn of events with no timeouts remaining the Bears struggled to lineup and wasted over 20 seconds to attempt a shot down field instead of kicking a field goal to tie the game to go into overtime. As a result, the Lions won the game and continued their win streak.

Next, the long-awaited annual Cowboys vs Giants resulted in a game of defense with the long-awaited strong Cowboys defense finally showing, getting a forced fumble, 5 sacks, and even a pick-six. Though the defense of both teams showed, the offensive side of the ball was a disappointment to many. Both backup quarterbacks struggled to score or drive down the field.

Finally, the sub-30-degree game in Green Bay ended the night as many people expected due to the Dolphin’s poor performance every time they play in cold weather. Though quarterback Tua Tagovailoa did have an exceptional game, the struggles in the first half were too much to come back from with 24-3 by the end of the 2nd quarter. The loss adds to Tagovailoa’s 0-7 record in games below 45 degrees. The game was disappointing for the dolphins as they try to recover from their rocky start to the year while they still searching for a wild card seat.

MOTORSPORTS:

The Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix was won by Max Verstappen took his first win in dry conditions since June. Verstappen previously took the championship early in Las Vegas after finishing 5th ahead of Lando Norris. Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri rounded off the podium in Qatar. Lando Norris held second place in the race until Alex Albon’s right mirror flew off his car on the main straight. The stewards threw a yellow-red flag out to signal debris but chose not to bring out the Safety Car or a caution. This saw Verstappen slow down for it, but not Norris which led to a 10-second stop/go penalty. The mirror was eventually ran over by Valtteri Bottas which sent pieces of glass all over the track, puncturing Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz’ tires.

After the race, it was announced that Esteban Ocon–who crashed on Lap 1– would not be racing in the next Grand Prix and would be replaced by rookie Jack Doohan. Doohan was already set to replace Ocon in 2025 while Ocon went to Haas, but now Ocon has been released from his contract early to take part in the post-season test with Haas.

THIS WEEK:

The Raiders play against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this Sunday at 10 AM. This game is not at home, after the Raiders were officially eliminated from playoffs contention.

Formula 1 concludes its season this weekend at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Max Verstappen has already rounded off the battle for the Drivers’ Championship, winning early in Vegas. Still, the fight for the World Constructor’s Championship is far from over with Ferrari and McLaren only eight points away from each other in 2nd and 1st.