Wichita St.'s 3-pointers Boot No. 1 Gonzaga 76-70

Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth all but exhorted John Harbaugh not to go for it on fourth-and-a-long-1 from his own 43. The Ravens were leading the Chiefs 36-35 and the Sunday Night Football crew figured it foolhardy to risk giving Patrick Mahomes the ball on the wrong side of the 50 and a minute to go. But this is 2021, when conventional football wisdom has given way to a healthy heaping of analytics flavored with a dollop of hunch. The revenge of the nerds, if you will. No longer are notoriously risk-averse coaches viewing the 4 on the sideline down marker as a green light to automatically send out the punting team. Just last week, NFL teams went for fourth-down conversions a whopping 52 times, the highest single-week total in league history.

Nuggets beat writer Mike Singer and columnist Mark Kiszla will be joined by Michael Malone and Tim Connelly for a live recording of the Nuggets Ink podcast Wednesday night in LoDo. The event, set for 6 p.m. at the Blake Street Tavern beer garden, 2301 Blake St., is free and open to the public.

PHILADELPHIA — Ben Simmons will not report to Philadelphia 76ers’ training camp next week and prefers to continue his NBA career with another team, a person with direct knowledge of the player’s plans told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because discussions of Simmons’ plans with the franchise have been private.

As speculation, rumors and chatter kick into gear about which former quarterback — John Elway or Peyton Manning — might be involved in a new Broncos’ ownership group, the current leadership is attempting to clear the decks should the team be put up for sale in 2022. In Denver’s Second District Court, a trial pitting PDB Sports, the partnership which owns the Broncos, and the Vancouver-based RORF Holdings begins Wednesday before Judge Shelly L.

Western Michigan football coach Tim Lester indicated he'd be away from the team until next week, but can still meet with the Broncos virtually.       

There isn’t a more glamorous position in sports than being QB1. Except when QB1 and his team are struggling. Colorado (1-2) has lost two in a row, including Saturday’s 30-0 defeat against Minnesota, and the offense hasn’t scored in seven quarters. While there are a number of issues within the offense, freshman quarterback Brendon Lewis is the one in the spotlight. A second-year freshman, Lewis has completed 55.4% of his passes (31-of-56) for 246 yards, one touchdown and one interception.