Thursday Night Football pumps out another thriller as Cincinnati wins the Unc Bowl

Remember when fans used to complain about the lack of quality football on Thursday nights? Thursday Night Football used to be considered one of the worst games of the week where the most interesting story line was how bright the Color Rush uniforms were. In 2025, fans are singing a different tune, and you can bet that Roger Goodell and Jeff Bezos are smiling and laughing about it. They deserve to smile and laugh, because for three weeks in a row, Amazon Prime has been the home of shocking upsets and great performances from star players.

Two weeks ago, Mac Jones and Matthew Stafford dueled into overtime where San Francisco pulled off a 26-23 win. Last week, Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo stole the spotlight from the Super Bowl champion Eagles, and this week it was all about Ja’Marr Chase and the Unc Bowl. Not only did the league’s best wide receiver go off 16 catches on an insane 23 targets for 161 yards and a score during Cincinnati’s last-second 33-31 win over the rival Steelers, but Joe Flacco had a throwback performance of his own. The 40-year-old veteran threw for 342 yards and three touchdowns in just his second game with Cincinnati after being traded from Cleveland. It turns out that Mike Tomlin was right about the Browns making another short-sighted move.

Pittsburgh overcame a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter and took the lead with two minutes and 20 seconds remaining thanks to its own old man quarterback. Aaron Rodgers took advantage of a busted coverage on 2nd and 20 and found Pat Freiermuth for a 68-yard touchdown strike that gave the tight end over 100 receiving yards for the game. It also gave the Steelers a one-point lead, but it was one that the team’s shaky defense could not hold.

Joe Flacco needed just four plays to drive from the Cincinnati 30-yard line to Pittsburgh’s seven thanks to Chase being always open. He caught consecutive passes for 33 yards total, and after a running play Flacco found Tee Higgins down the sideline for a potential touchdown. Higgins instead decided to slide down so that the Bengals could run the clock down to 11 seconds and kick a game-winning field goal.

Amazingly, Cincinnati’s smart clock management did not stop Rodgers from getting a shot at the end zone. He uncorked a Hail Mary from just outside Pittsburgh’s own 30-yard-line that reached the end zone, but the prayer was swatted down by Cincinnati’s DJ Ivey.

The theme of old guys proving that they still had it ended up transcending the sports landscape on Thursday. Max Scherzer was coming off of a horrendous September, but he gave Toronto just what it needed in his first October start of the season. Mad Max allowed just two runs in five and two thirds innings while the Blue Jays rallied for three runs in the third and two more in the fourth. For the second game in a row, Seattle took an early lead with a chance to take a commanding lead in the ALCS, but once again the Mariners were blown out by their Canadian opponent, this time by the score of 8-2.

Former Mets shortstop Andres Gimenez has become an unlikely hero for Toronto. In both Game 3 and Game 4, he hit a two-run blast that erased his team’s early deficit and ignited a rally that Seattle couldn’t recover from. The Mariners appeared to have a tight grip on this series, but now there is a possibility that they could blow their best chance since 2001 to capture the first pennant in franchise history. Game 5 is tonight and there will be a lot of nervous fans at T-Mobile Park with Bryce Miller getting the start for the home team and Kevin Gausman on the bump for Toronto.

Just like Seattle, the Dodgers won their first two Championship Series games on the road, but they found a way to win Game 3 at home as well. Tyler Glasnow was not very impressive compared to what Los Angeles got from Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the first two games against Milwaukee, but he still pitched five and two thirds innings with just one run allowed. The Brewers were expected to use Jose Quintana in this game, but instead they stuck with Jacob Misiorowski for five innings after Aaron Ashby opened the game and immediately surrendered a run on a triple by Shohei Ohtani and a double from Mookie Betts.

The Miz was pretty awesome, but there was no room for error with how Glasnow and the Dodgers bullpen were dealing. Tommy Edman’s RBI single in the sixth inning off of Misiorowski turned out to be the game-winner. The Brewers will try to stay alive in Game 4 tonight with Ohtani pitching for the Dodgers. Milwaukee hasn’t announced a starter yet, so it might finally be Quintana’s time to shine.

There is also a surprisingly solid college football slate tonight with Louisville visiting Miami and Bill Belichick’s North Carolina tire fire headed west to take on Cal. We also get to see Nebraska put its top-25 ranking to the test at Minnesota and the nation’s receiving yards leader Danny Scudero put his skills on display for San Jose State against Utah State.

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