Last Week In Sports: October 4, 2022

Last week saw some of the top teams in baseball playing some meaningless games. Five of the six division titles were locked up at some point in the week, with neither of the three seeds within striking distance of one of the highly-coveted new Wild Card round byes. We’re still waiting on Aaron Judge’s 62nd home run, but the bulk of the action in the MLB was focused around that last division race (more on that below). On the NFL side, the Raiders managed to avoid the dreaded 0-4 hole, while the Eagles soared to 4-0 with a victory over the suddenly-scary Jaguars to remain the only undefeated team in the NFL. In spite of that, one team stood out above them as the EGP NFL Team of the Week.

MLB Team of the Week

The Atlanta Braves have been playing catch-up all season. Last week, they caught up and took the lead. Thanks to their 3-game sweep over the former NL East-leading New York Mets, last year’s World Series champs are our MLB Team of the Week. They took advantage of some very timely hitting from Dansby Swanson and Matt Olson, who became the second pair of Braves teammates to each hit a home run in every game of a 3+ game series, and some incredibly gutsy relief pitching, with the bullpen allowing just one earned run across the three biggest games of the team’s season. The Braves have nearly locked up the NL East, and need to just handle their business against the lowly Miami Marlins to earn a bye and a division title.

NFL Team of the Week

The San Francisco 49ers are the Elias Game Plan NFL Team of the Week thanks to a much-needed win over the division-rival Los Angeles Rams. After falling to 1-2 and being forced by injury to make a change at quarterback, the Niners were at risk of falling to 1-3 going into a game against the reigning Super Bowl champions (and the team that eliminated them from the playoffs last year). Thanks to some huge defensive plays and a textbook “OMG Deebo Samuel” moment, the 49ers lead the NFC West and have allowed the fewest points of any team in the league with just 46 through four weeks. San Francisco is certainly in the conversation for best defense in football, and if they can get Jimmy Garoppolo, George Kittle, Brandon Aiyuk, and Elijah Mitchell going, they can be Super Bowl contenders.

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Ben Remelius

Ben Remelius is a senior at the University of Missouri studying statistics. He is passionate about using data science to answer pressing and interesting sports questions. As a native St. Louisan, Ben cheers on the Cardinals, Blues, Tigers, and his adopted Chiefs and Pelicans. You can find him at twitter.com/benremelius.