Sports: Lions Win! Tigers don’t.

From the Associated Press....

Matthew Stafford took advantage of one last chance Sunday and Matt Prater redeemed himself with a 43-yard field goal with 8 seconds to give the Detroit Lions a 39-35 victory at Indianapolis.  Prater missed an extra point wide right with 4:04 left in the season opener, a miscue that nearly cost the Lions.  Detroit won for only the second time in Indy, and it came just 37 seconds after it looked like Andrew Luck had rallied the Colts for an improbable last-minute victory.  After Prater's miss, Luck drove the Colts 75 yards and hooked up with Jack Doyle on a 6-yard TD pass with 37 seconds left. Adam Vinatieri's extra point gave the Colts a 35-34 lead.  This time, Stafford connected with receivers who took advantage of their speed against Indy's thin secondary. He quickly got the Lions into position for Prater to atone for the earlier miss.  Stafford was 31 of 39 for 340 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions.  Indy was called for a safety on the final play of the game, for throwing an illegal forward pass in its end zone.

Tigers

Chris Tillman pitched six impressive innings in his return from the disabled list, and Michael Bourn and Jonathan Schoop homered off Justin Verlander to lead the Baltimore Orioles to a 3-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers Sunday.  Tillman (16-5) allowed a run and four hits after being activated before the game. He hadn't pitched since August 20th because of right shoulder bursitis.  Verlander (14-8) lasted only five innings, ending his streak of 11 straight quality starts.  Baltimore moved two games ahead of Detroit and New York in the race for the final wild card spot in the American League.   The Tigers are now 7 games behind the Indians in the Central Division.  The Tigers send Daniel Norris to the mound tonight as they host the first of a four game series with the Twins.  Broadcast time is 6:45 on WBCK.

College Rankings

Oklahoma State dropped out of The Associated college football poll after a controversial loss, and Georgia and Clemson fell after close calls against lightly regarded opposition.  Alabama is still Number 1, receiving 56 out of 61 first-place votes Sunday. Number 2 Florida State, Number 3 Ohio State and Number 4 Michigan all moved up one spot. The Seminoles got four first-place votes and Michigan received one.   Clemson fell from second to fifth after a four-point win against Troy. Number 16 Georgia dropped seven spots after beating FCS Nicholls by two.  Oklahoma State was ranked 22nd when it lost 30-27 to Central Michigan on a final play touchdown Saturday. Officials admitted after the game they misinterpreted a rule, and the play should not have been granted. The Cowboys were three-touchdown favorites against Central Michigan.

Tennis

Third seed Stan Wawrinka wore down Novak Djokovic and knocked off the defending champion 6-7, 6-4, 7-5, 6-3. Wawrinka had dropped 19 of his previous 23 meetings with Djokovic before capturing his first U.S. Open crown and third Grand Slam title. The 31-year-old Wawrinka is the oldest U.S. Open men's champion since Ken Rosewall was 35 in 1970.   Having earned the # 1 ranking in women's tennis, Angelique Kerber backed up her new billing as the best player in the world with her second career grand slam title and her first US Open trophy on Saturday.

NASCAR

It was yet another Denny Hamlin runaway for Joe Gibbs Racing in what turned out to be an anticlimactic end to NASCAR's regular season.  The fireworks came off the track at Richmond International Raceway, where Ryan Newman angrily chided former boss Tony Stewart after an accident between the two officially ended Newman's chances to make the playoffs.  The verbal beat down from Newman came with 37 laps Saturday night, before Hamlin earned his third career Sprint Cup win at Richmond while giving JGR its third consecutive victory at the track.   Newman called Stewart "bipolar," said the retiring race car driver had anger issues, and all but outright referenced the 2014 incident in which Stewart fatally struck a sprint car driver.  Newman drove for Stewart for five years before he was released at the end of the 2013 season.

MSU Football

Michigan State plays at Notre Dame on Saturday.

Golf

Reigning U.S. champion Dustin Johnson won the BMW Championship at Crooked Stick to take over the lead in the FedEx Cup standings. Johnson closed with a 5-under 67 for a 23-under total in his third victory in his last eight tournaments. Paul Casey finished three shots back and three ahead of Roberto Castro.

CMU Football Game

The Mid-American Conference says the eight-man officiating crew that botched the end of the Central Michigan-Oklahoma State game has been suspended for two games.  And the Big 12 announced Sunday that the two-person video replay crew that worked the same game also has been suspended for two games.  Officials mistakenly gave Central Michigan an untimed final play from midfield after Oklahoma State was penalized for intentional grounding while trying to run off the last four seconds of the fourth quarter with a three-point lead. On that play, the Chippewas scored a touchdown on a long pass and lateral to win 30-27. The referee admitted afterward that an error was made by extending the game after a loss-of-down penalty.  Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder voiced his protest, but the result of the game was final.