Chicago Sports

Even the benefit of the doubt has its statute of limitations.

The Bulls’ front office is about to find out exactly when that runs out.

Hint: The honeymoon is just about over.

This will be the third season for executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley, and, on the surface, it should bring about even more excitement to an NBA scene that hasn’t been relevant since the former r?gime made the embarrassing mistake of thinking it was smarter than former coach Tom Thibodeau.

And by the time John Paxson and Gar Forman made the erroneous decision to trade Jimmy Butler, trusting in their ability to undertake a rebuild in 2017, their job graves already were dug.

RIP, Gar/Pax.

To Karnisovas’ credit, he inherited a mess but showed an ability for a quick cleanup. By the end of their first season, Karnisovas and Eversley had acquired a second All-Star in Nikola Vucevic, had a coach in Billy Donovan who was respected by the players and the league and had guard Zach LaVine playing like a top-25 player.

Then in Year 2, the DeMar DeRozan sign-and-trade was one of the best moves of the 2021 offseason, Ayo Dosunmu was a second-round steal and, more important, the Bulls were a playoff team for the first time since Butler was sent out.

In markets such as Denver, Cleveland or Detroit, that would be quite a story.

But this is Chicago. The Bulls are a global brand. A statue in the atrium of the United Center serves as a reminder.

Karnisovas and Eversley have done a solid job of flipping the house for a lot of happy customers, but a closer inspection shows some defects and shortcuts that could be exposed this season.

First and foremost is the decision to focus on “continuity.”

That was the buzzword the day after the Bucks sent the Bulls home in five games in the first round of the playoffs and remained the buzzword all offseason.

It was almost unavoidable as a result of all the injuries but also because the front office sort of painted itself into a roster corner by sending out key draft assets for Vucevic. Either way, there was no straying from that blueprint.

Andre Drummond and Goran Dragic were added for depth, but the big move was maxing LaVine for $215 million over the next five years. And the Bulls must hope the training room will be less crowded.

The problem with that plan is that there are 14 other teams in the Eastern Conference, and five of them already were better than the Bulls last season, and nothing has changed there.

The Heat, Bucks and Raptors stayed the course, the Celtics added Malcolm Brogdon and the 76ers picked up P.J. Tucker.

Then there are the teams that reside in the same area code as the Bulls.

The Nets are poised to jump to the top of the East by keeping Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons after a turbulent summer, the Hawks added All-Star Dejounte Murray and the Cavaliers acquired Donovan Mitchell to go along with an up-and-coming roster that has arrived.

There’s a good chance the Bulls could win close to 50 games and still be battling for a play-in spot.

The second concern is the idea that a suddenly healthy Lonzo Ball (knee) and Alex Caruso catapult the Bulls to contender status.

In five seasons, Ball has missed an average of 32 games per year. And while Caruso has been more available, his playing style is better suited for Sundays wearing a helmet and shoulder pads.

Finally, there are the two elephants in the room.

LaVine is being paid like a top-20 player, and that means he should play like a top-20 player at both ends. Patrick Williams was a No. 4 overall pick, and that means playing like a top pick. If either comes up short, the failure gets filed under big misses by this front office.

Karnisovas was hired to be an organizational-changer. He has done that so far.

But rebuilding back toward mediocrity never should’ve been the job description.

This season will tell a lot. Karnisovas & Co. are about to find out just how much.

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Hip movement, balance and flexibility are a few of the traits Gordon exhibits as a defensive back that can be traced to his background in competitive dance.Read More

Finishing last in the NHL in 2022-23 would guarantee the Blackhawks a top-three draft pick. Even if neither their 25.5% chance of winning the lottery for the first overall pick nor their 18.8% chance of gaining the second pick hit, they couldn’t fall further than third.

General manager Kyle Davidson likely won’t outright declare that his goal for the season, but the organization would be pleased if it happened. Regardless of one’s opinions about the ethics of tanking and whether the draft system encourages it, the Hawks clearly are committed to this route.

But how bad would the Hawks have to be to finish last? And how likely is it they can succeed in being that bad?

After all, the Hawks were rather dismal last season, too, yet still finished ahead of five other teams. Their 68 points exceeded that of the Devils (63), Flyers (61), Kraken (60), Coyotes (57) and Canadiens (55).

That 13-point margin between the Hawks and last-place Canadiens wasn’t much smaller than the 16-point gap between the Hawks and the Islanders, a projected playoff team entering last season that finished 20th overall. So for as bad as the Hawks were last season, they would need to be significantly worse this season.

The Hawks also aren’t the only team tanking. The Coyotes and Canadiens also would very much enjoy another top-three pick in 2023. Both of those teams — especially the Coyotes — might be actively built to lose just as much as the Hawks are, and they proved better than the Hawks at losing last season.

Davidson will count on the Hawks’ trade-deadline and offseason fire sale, which gutted the roster of most of its talent, making the difference. Evaluating players by point shares, an all-inclusive numerical evaluation of seasonlong impact created by Hockey Reference, the Hawks lost three of their top five and 10 of their top 17 contributors from last season.

All told, the Hawks’ returning players were cumulatively responsible for just 26.5 point shares last season, and the Hawks’ new additions were cumulatively responsible for 11.4 point shares on their former teams last season, adding up to a total of 37.9. The Coyotes return 42.4 point shares and added 6.7 for a total of 49.1. The Canadiens return 39.5 and added 12.0 for a total of 51.5.

That comparison is an inexact science because it doesn’t take into account how players’ abilities and roles change year-to-year. For instance, Taylor Raddysh, as a promising young forward primed for more playing time, likely will produce significantly more than the 1.7 point shares he produced last season. Canadiens star rookie Juraj Slafkovsky, for another example, isn’t even included in those calculations.

Nonetheless, the sizable difference in those numbers — with the Hawks landing more than 10 points below the other two teams — indicates Davidson’s aggressive trading might indeed be enough to put the Hawks over the top, so to speak.

Unlike the Hawks, the Coyotes and Canadiens certainly didn’t also jettison five of their seven highest-scoring forwards and both of their goaltenders.

New Canadiens GM Kent Hughes actually executed a bold offseason plan, bringing in Slafkovsky, Kirby Dach, Sean Monahan, Evgenii Dadonov and Mike Matheson. Carey Price’s continued absence and the Canadiens’ nonexistent defensive depth will hold them back, but they nonetheless look improved from last season.

The Coyotes laid low this summer yet retained their entire young core — if one can call it that — of Jakub Chychrun, Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz, Lawson Crouse and Barrett Hayton.

The Flyers and Sharks, meanwhile, could be wild cards in the race to the bottom.

The Flyers, while clearly more talented on paper, were one of the league’s most dysfunctional, inconsistent teams last year and doubled down on volatility by hiring John Tortorella as coach and trading for Tony DeAngelo. It wouldn’t be shocking if they blew up (in a bad way) this season.

The Sharks lost 33 of their final 45 games last season and bring back one of the NHL’s oldest rosters, headlined by 33-year-old Logan Couture, 32-year-old Erik Karlsson and 35-year-old Marc-Edouard Vlasic — any of which could hit an age wall at any time. But Couture, Tomas Hertl and Timo Meier still form a dangerous top line unmatched by any of these other bottom-feeders.

Gambling lines reflect that perceived hierarchy in the NHL’s basement entering the first week of training camps. The Hawks and Coyotes are tied for the lowest 2022-23 point total over-under line at 65.5 points, per Vegas Insider. The Canadiens are third-lowest at 71.5 points, followed by the Sharks at 74.5, Flyers at 76.5 and Sabres at 77.5.

It’s also worth pointing out that the NHL’s worst teams were worse than usual last season. In fact, the 2021-22 Coyotes (with 57 points) were the second-worst team in the salary-cap era (since 2005) to not finish in last place. The 2014-15 Coyotes coincidentally hold that distinction; they finished with 56 points while the Sabres finished with 54.

Throughout the cap era, the league’s second-to-last-place team has averaged 67 points and a minus-65 goal differential, and its last-place team has averaged 59 points with a minus-85 goal differential. Compared to those standards, even last season’s Hawks (68 points with a minus-72 goal differential) weren’t far off the necessary degree of awfulness.

Thus, a regression to the mean this season when it comes to leaguewide parity could help the Hawks’ last-place desires.

On the other hand, it’s feasible the Hawks themselves could be part of that upward regression.

Acclaimed new coach Luke Richardson could accelerate prospects’ development and light fires under the veterans. Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews could deliver vintage performances in their likely final seasons in Chicago. The Hawks could adopt a 2017-18 Golden Knights-type attitude and play every night with chips on their shoulders, driven to prove the doubters wrong.

All of that is unlikely but not impossible, and if it did happen, the Hawks could end up in the 20th-to-29th range of the league standings instead of 30th-to-32nd. That would be somewhat tragic from a long-term perspective, given that it would represent another year of misery and irrelevance not translating into a golden-ticket prospect, but Hawks players and coaches wouldn’t think of it that way. After all, they’re paid to try their best.

In this hypothetical scenario, it would be interesting to see what, if any, counter-moves Davidson would make. Would he try to trade Kane, Toews, Max Domi, Andreas Athanasiou and others sooner than planned — as in, a few months ahead of the trade deadline — to further handicap the roster? Or would he accept the team’s grittiness and resilience in overcoming their weaknesses as good signs for the future?

In any case, the Hawks’ 2022-23 season should provide an interesting — if outwardly bleak — case study of tanking and its behind-the-scenes dynamics.

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LAS VEGAS — Circa Sports oddsman Jeff Davis took a few days to cook his hockey books, sift through rosters, distill player ratings and schedules and sprinkle in some secret ingredients.

About six weeks ago, he produced NHL regular-season point totals, and divisional, conference and Stanley Cup odds.

For Blackhawks fans, the finished product had a certain stench.

“It’s a team that is looking to tank,” says Davis, 45. “Not the players, but upper management. And, frankly, they should.”

Because, he says, the NHL’s bottom-feeders — Arizona, Chicago, Montreal and San Jose — all covet 17-year-old Connor Bedard, a slick 5-9 center for the Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League.

The prize of the next NHL draft.

Adding 35-year-old Jack Johnson alerted Davis to the Hawks’ intentions.

“To me, the Jack Johnson signing looks like an elite tank signing,” says Davis. “It makes them look like they’re trying, by signing a veteran. But he’s arguably one of the worst defensemen in the league.

“I don’t see how they can be good. It looks like they’re actively trying to get Connor Bedard. Their floor is a lot lower than their ceiling is high.”

Davis devised an initial Blackhawks’ season-points total of 62.5, which has been bet up to 64. He found a 70.5 at another shop and made a healthy Under wager.

“I couldn’t believe somebody had [a 70], because when you have a team in their situation . . . I don’t see how this roster can make the playoffs, given the teams around them. They’ll just be trying out all these kids on the third and fourth lines.”

SPIRALING HAWKS

Chicago has missed the playoffs four of the last five seasons, and it might flirt with a second 50-point full season since 1995-96.

Is that the price of success, of seven triple-digit point seasons over a nine-campaign stretch, highlighted by Stanley Cups in 2010, 2013 and 2015?

“They win some Cups, sign these guys to big deals,” says Davis. “Eventually, you get into [salary-]cap hell. The contracts are great, until the last season or two, and that’s where they are now.”

It’s all kids, says Davis, or guys like 28-year-old left wing Jujhar Khaira, who has a negative plus-minus in six of seven NHL seasons in which he has logged more than 10 games.

To win Lord Stanley’s silverware this season, Chicago is an astronomical 1,000-to-1 shot, along with Arizona, at Circa Sports and DraftKings.

Some people wagered Over on Chicago early (pumping its points total) at Circa and Under elsewhere, hoping to “middle” between 63 and 70 points — a gap pro bettors consider substantial.

At the South Point, puck sage John the Barber favors Columbus. It has the Blue Jackets’ points at 82, 30-1 odds to win the Metropolitan Division, 40-1 to take the East and 75-1 to win it all. Chicago’s point total is 64.5 at the South Point.

(Odds and prices subject to change.)

To win the Hart Trophy, Patrick Kane is 100-1 at the Westgate SuperBook. New Czech goalie Petr Mrazek is 300-1 to win the Vezina at DraftKings.

“He’s been great in his career,” says Davis of Mrazek. “He’s also been horrendous.” Alex Stalock is the Blackhawks’ 35-year-old reserve keeper.

Colorado is the Stanley Cup choice at the South Point (+350), DraftKings (+380) and Circa (+480).

Davis taps the Avalanche to inspire Hawks fans, since Colorado ended 2016-17 with an NHL-low 48 points. Last season, it won its third Stanley Cup, its first since 2001.

The Avs, whose projected 112.5-point total is the largest at Circa, play host to Chicago on Oct. 12 in both teams’ season opener.

Davis also spotlights Colorado center Nathan MacKinnon, in the final season of a seven-year, $44.1 million contract.

“Look at MacKinnon, who’s on a ridiculously cheap contract. He didn’t want to play on a bad team. He wanted [Colorado to have] cap space, and they win a Cup. That’s what Chicago needs to happen.”

HOCKEY’S FUTURE?

A 24-hour window two summers ago displayed the difference between Chicago and Colorado.

On July 23, 2021, the Blackhawks inked Seth Jones, 27, to an eight-year deal worth $76 million. The next day, the Avs signed Cale Makar, 23, for six seasons at $54 million. Both are defensemen.

“It seemed like the teardown was going well, then the Blackhawks signed Jones to that ridiculous contract,” says Davis. “They’re already trying to dump him a year later. Who would take him?”

Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane are a combined $21 million cap hit. Davis expects at least one, maybe both, to be dealt by the March 21 deadline. Centers Andreas Athanasiou and Max Domi are both on single-season $3 million deals.

That’s $27 million of salary room next summer, even with the Jones anchor.

“Right now, they only have money allocated for three players for 2024-25,” says Davis. “It’s a few years before this team will be relevant. To expect this team will be in the playoffs in two years, that’s just too far-fetched.

“And it will be hard for them to sign big-name free agents, knowing it’s a few years away.”

Davis isn’t completely sullen about the Blackhawks’ future. He does like defenseman Jake McCabe and 20-year-old German left wing Lukas Reichel.

And if Chicago were to draft Bedard, whom The Hockey News four years ago called the future of the game?

“The generational No. 1 pick,” says Davis. “By all accounts, this kid is the next real deal.”

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Key matchup

A seasonlong quest to establish a running game to facilitate the development of Justin Fields continues against a Packers defense that might be better than the 49ers’ defense the Bears struggled against last week.

Running backs David Montgomery (17 carries, 26 yards, 1.5 average) and Khalil Herbert (9-45, 5.0, one touchdown) combined for 26 carries for 71 yards (2.7 average) against the 49ers. They’ll likely have to be more productive against the Packers to pull off another upset.

The onus is on the Bears’ interior line of center Sam Mustipher and guards Cody Whitehair and Teven Jenkins/Lucas Patrick to be better in Week 2. The Packers counter with run-stopping nose tackle Kenny Clark and linebacker De’Vondre Campbell, who had 146 tackles last year and 11 last week against the Vikings.

The Bears didn’t give up on the run and still ended up with 99 rushing yards against the 49ers. The perseverance was as encouraging to players as much as anything. Now they have to take a step forward against another quality defense.

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The Packers, who lost their opener 23-7 to the Vikings on the road, have never lost consecutive regular-season games in three seasons under Matt LaFleur. They’re 9-0 in games after a loss, averaging 31.9 points and winning by an average of two touchdowns.

Player to watch

Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is 23-4 with a 109.2 passer rating (61 touchdown passes, 12 interceptions) in the 27 games he has started and finished against the Bears. He’s 10-1 against the Bears since 2016.

But Rodgers has been even better recently, going 4-0 with a 141.5 rating (14 touchdown passes, no interceptions) the last two seasons. The last Bear to intercept Rodgers was safety Eddie Jackson in a 24-17 Bears victory in 2018.

“You’re facing one of the best in history,” Bears defensive coordinator Alan Williams said. “That’s a guy that has a ton of experience. You’re not going to trick him. You’re not going to fool him. He’s super-accurate. Can throw from different angles. One of the best ‘B’-gap escape guys in football. You have to play a complete football game”

X-factor

Can Matt Eberflus give the Bears a game-day coaching advantage? The win over the 49ers was marked by second-half adjustments — they outscored the Niners 19-3 in the second half.

Maybe that was just a one-off, but this game will be a good test of that. The Bears have been consistently outfoxed by the Packers in the Rodgers era on both sides of the ball. The Packers outscored them 121-54 in the second half in eight games under Matt Nagy — and 25 of the Bears’ points came after they fell behind 41-10 in 2020 and 21-3 in the fourth quarter in 2019.

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The Bears aren’t fooling anyone by insisting they’re unconcerned with the Packers.

The closest they’ve come to admitting otherwise was when general manager Ryan Poles said, “The most important piece is we’re going to take the North and never give it back,” at his introductory news conference. He didn’t mention the Packers by name, of course, but everyone knew from whom he intended to wrest the division and to whom he would not be returning it.

But while coach Matt Eberflus endlessly repeats that the Bears’ focus is solely on themselves and various other clich?s to that effect, the truth is that they’re trying to steal from the team that has dominated them for three decades.

Each of the last three Bears coaches has failed miserably against the Packers, which factored significantly into their firings. Eberflus will take his first swing Sunday night at Lambeau Field, and he’ll do so with some personnel he poached from the archrival.

Eberflus’ biggest move was luring quarterbacks coach Luke Getsy from the Packers to be the Bears’ offensive coordinator, and Getsy has made it his mission to teach Justin Fields everything that Aaron Rodgers knows. The Bears now use essentially the same offensive system, and no one runs it more prolifically than Rodgers.

The Bears want Fields to take as much of that as possible. They want him to play the percentages and make a habit of taking the easy passes. They want him to use his mobility, but not make it the foundation of his game. They want him to know opposing defenses better than the defenders themselves do. And he spent much of his offseason studying Rodgers’ film to glean what he could from the future Hall of Famer.

“I like how he plays quarterback — that’s just me being real,” Fields told the Sun-Times. “I know we have a big rivalry and of course I want to beat him, but that’s just what it is.

“I want to beat the Packers this year. But [people] want me to dislike him? For what? There’s no reason for me. He’s a great quarterback. He plays the game very efficiently, for sure.”

He appreciates him on a more personal level, too, after Rodgers pulled him aside following the Packers’ 45-30 win at Lambeau Field last December.

“This offseason, just focus on a few things to get better at and just keep stacking on it,” Fields quoted Rodgers telling him.

To Fields’ point, why wouldn’t he try to emulate Rodgers? His consistency and efficiency put him in a class by himself, and that style of play ages fantastically.

Over the last four seasons, as Rodgers strode into his late 30s, he completed 65.8% of his passes and was intercepted on just 0.7% of them. There have been eight quarterbacking seasons in NFL history with 400-plus passes and less than 1% getting picked, and Rodgers delivered three of them (2018, 2019 and 2021).

The only players to throw more touchdown passes than Rodgers’ 136 from 2018 to 2021 were Tom Brady (137) and Patrick Mahomes (156), but they each had more than double his 16 interceptions.

Last season with Getsy, Rodgers led the NFL with a 111.9 passer rating, was third in completion percentage at 68.9 and was fourth with 37 touchdown passes to win his fourth MVP. He did that while averaging just 7.6 air yards per throw. Again, it’s all about efficiency and prudence.

Fields is well aware.

“I have that mindset of just keeping the ball safe and giving ourselves a chance, holding on to the ball and just getting little gains: boom, completion, boom, completion — moving on,” he said, contrasting it to being overly aggressive last season. “I watched a bunch of Green Bay film this offseason, and that’s all A-Rod does: boom, dump it off to the back in the flat, boom, they break tackles, boom, get 10 yards off of a two-yard throw. That helps you out.”

A lot went wrong for Fields last season, and much of it was related to the dysfunction around him. But he contributed plenty to a rookie line with a completion percentage of 58.9, seven touchdown passes, 10 interceptions and a 73.2 passer rating. That was the lowest rating by a Bears quarterback who threw at least 200 passes since Matt Barkley’s 68.3 in 2016.

In his two games against the Packers, Fields completed 56.7% of his passes with three touchdowns, three interceptions and a lost fumble. Rodgers, meanwhile, was nearly perfect with six touchdown passes, a touchdown run and a 136.5 passer rating while sweeping the Bears by a total of 25 points.

Fields likes to say that he’s not competing head-to-head with Rodgers because they’re not on the field at the same time, but he is in the sense that he’s trying to keep up with him. And there’s quite a gap to overcome.

Getsy has some of the clues for how to do it, but don’t get this twisted: He didn’t make Rodgers. If anything, the assumption could be that getting the chance to work alongside Rodgers catapulted his career.

“Think of how much they both learned from each other,” said Chargers Pro Bowl center Corey Linsley, who was with Getsy in Green Bay for six seasons. “I couldn’t think of a better guy to help a young quarterback grow.

“He has a great grasp on every facet of the game. Being in meetings with guys, you can tell who’s full of [nonsense] and who’s not. And he’s absolutely not.”

Getsy was a 26-year-old graduate assistant at Pitt when Rodgers won a Super Bowl and was coaching in the FCS when Rodgers captured his first MVP. That’s not to discredit him from making any contribution to Rodgers’ career once he became his position coach in 2019, but it’s very likely Getsy learned more from his player than the other way around.

And that’s actually fine as far as the Bears are concerned, as long as Getsy can relay it all to Fields.

One of the main points he has tried to transfer is the way Rodgers uses his mobility. While he doesn’t have anything close to Fields’ speed, he always has been opportunistic as a runner and moved well behind the line of scrimmage to buy time and surprise a defense by rolling out. Again, he and Fields don’t have identical repertoires, but Fields can extract something from that film.

“Just looking at things he does well, like get the ball out fast,” Fields said. “Just his footwork. He’s great at that. He’s a Hall of Fame quarterback, so there are a lot of things I can take from his game and try to incorporate into mine, for sure.

Fields might not have much time left to land punches against Rodgers in the rivalry, though. Rodgers is under contract through 2026, but he’ll turn 39 by the end of the season and already has talked openly about post-football life. There’s more pride for Fields in taking him down rather than merely waiting him out, but he’ll have to make up a lot of ground very quickly to do that.

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1. Mount Carmel (4-0)

Won 42-7 vs. No. 9 Marist

2. Loyola (3-0)

Saturday vs. Brother Rice

3. Lincoln-Way East (4-0)

Won 42-0 vs. Andrew

4. Warren (4-0)

Won 35-16 at Stevenson

5. Glenbard West (4-0)

Won 51-12 at Proviso West

6. Naperville North (3-1)

Lost 29-16 at Neuqua Valley

7. Simeon (4-0)

Won 42-0 at Brooks

8. Maine South (2-2)

Lost 42-41 vs. No. 12 Prospect

9. Marist (2-2)

Lost 42-7 at No. 1 Mount Carmel

10. Prairie Ridge (3-1)

Lost 42-35 at No. 17 Jacobs

11. Wheaton North (3-1)

Lost 22-21 at St. Charles North

12. Prospect (4-0)

Won 42-41 at No. 8 Maine South

13. Lockport (3-1)

Lost 35-20 vs. Homewood-Flossmoor

14. Lemont (4-0)

Won 48-19 at Bremen

15. Joliet Catholic (4-0)

Won 49-14 at Providence

16. Bolingbrook (3-1)

Won 41-14 vs. Sandburg

17. Jacobs (4-0)

Won 42-35 vs. No. 10 Prairie Ridge

18. Palatine (3-1)

Lost 43-42 vs. Glenbrook South

19. Lyons (4-0)

Won 38-13 at Oak Park

20. St. Rita (2-2)

Won 41-12 at Benet

21. Batavia (2-2)

Won 42-0 vs. Lake Park

22. Kankakee (3-1)

Won 49-0 vs. Manual

23. Hersey (4-0)

Won 56-17 at Highland Park

24. York (4-0)

Won 24-17 (OT) vs. Downers Grove North

25. Notre Dame (3-1)

Won 22-17 at Nazareth

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Marist has never beaten Mount Carmel. The South Side Catholic schools only became conference rivals recently, so there haven’t been a ton of matchups between the schools.

But the institutions compete for students and a rivalry is starting to blossom. The Caravan players are well aware of the record, which is now 11-0 after a dominating 42-7 win on Friday.

“Everyone on the team knows Marist has never beaten us and it is important to keep that going,” Mount Carmel senior Damarion Arrington said.

Arrington is an outside linebacker and the captain of the Caravan’s ferocious defense. He was on the field when Marist scored a touchdown early in the fourth quarter. It’s the only touchdown Mount Carmel has allowed all season.

“It came after my pick which was a horrible read on my part,” Caravan quarterback Blainey Dowling said. “So that’s really on the offense. I wouldn’t even put it on the defense.”

Dowling has emerged as a serious Player of the Year candidate. The senior was 17-for-22 passing for 273 yards with four touchdowns and one interception.

“He’s a very accurate thrower so far this year,” Marist coach Ron Dawczak said. “He’s getting the ball to his playmakers in space and letting them run. He really has taken a step forward this year.”

It’s the second year starting for Dowling, which is huge. According to Dowling the Mount Carmel defense isn’t just dominating opponents. It’s making Dowling and the offense better.

“They are mean, they are a mean group,” Dowling said. “It’s scary to see them. We go against them every day and that’s why I feel like our offense is so explosive. They make us 20 times better.”

Senior Denny Furlong caught five passes for 149 yards and three touchdowns and Darrion Dupree had seven receptions for 77 yards and two touchdowns.

Dupree had nine carries for 134 yards, including a spectacular 55-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.

Mount Carmel (4-0, 1-0 CCL/ESCC Blue) debuted a new replay system on the video board at the stadium. It provided nearly instant highlights. Dupree’s run was so fast that it was hard to properly appreciate live. The replay highlighted every cut and broken tackle.

“We need to keep playing hard and practicing hard every day,” Dupree said. “None of these highlights are important if we don’t make it to state.”

Marist’s touchdown came on a 15-yard pass from senior Dermot Smyth to Nolan Baudo. Smyth was 10-for-20 passing for 94 yards with one interception.

Marist (2-2, 0-1) lost a tight game to highly-regarded Glenbard West in Week 1 and dominated Richards and Nazareth, two strong programs, the past two weeks.

But after the first quarter, the RedHawks seemed outmanned against the Caravan.

“[Mount Carmel] looked like a well-oiled machine,” Dawczak said. “They have a lot of weapons. IT looked like they were bringing in three or four subs at a time and bring in playmakers. That second wave on defense and offense has athletes.”

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Miguel Cairo has enough on his plate. He’ll leave the scoreboard watching to others, because he’s got enough on his plate managing a team for the first time. And in a pennant chase, no less.

“No. I’ve got to concentrate on this one,” Cairo said when asked if he’d sneak a peek at the Guardians-Twins scores this weekend. “This game, every game is important. Every game you’ve got to go about your business. Whatever happens, happens. We’ve got to take care of [Tigers right-hander Mattt] Manning today and go from there.”

Cairo was right. The Sox needed to take care of Manning but got shut out for seven innings by the 25-year-old right-hander in a stinging 3-2 loss in 10 innings to the Tigers (55-89), one of baseball’s worst teams. Scoreboard watchers saw the American League Central leading Guardians erasing a 3-0 deficit for a riveting 4-3 win.

At Comerica Park, the last-place Tigers won when free runner Ryan Kreidler scored from third on Victor Reyes’ sacrifice fly against closer Liam Hendriks. Kreidler got to third on a sacrifice bunt by Willi Castro, who was safe at first on Hendriks’ throw in the dirt.

The Tigers led 2-0 on Jonathan Schoop’s homer against reliever Jimmy Lambert with two outs in the sixth, and the Sox tied it in the eighth on Jose Abreu’s two-run double down the third base line against reliever Joe Jimenez, scoring Josh Harrison and Elvis Andrus.

The score remained tied in the bottom of the inning when Sox reliever Joe Kelly struck out Spencer Torkelson on a breaking pitch that bounced off catcher Yasmain Grandal’s shin guard toward the front of the mound, giving an aggressive Javy Baez a chance to score from third. But Kelly scooped the ball and flipped it with his glove to Grandal, who tagged out Baez for the third out.

The Sox were 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position, the most painful one seeing pinch runner Luis Robert not moving from second in the 10th as Alex Lange struck out Harrison, Andrus and Yoan Moncada in order.

The Tigers were trying drop the Sox four games behind the Guardians and five down in the loss column with 17 to play.

The Sox, who beat the Guardians in a one-game stop at Cleveland Thursday to get within three games, had won six of eight games and 11 of 15 in a desperate push to save a disappointing season. They have three games left against the Guardians, Tuesday through Thursday at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Needing at least two wins and flirting with thoughts of a three-game sweep against a 54-89 team they had beaten five times in a row at Comerica Park, the Sox had one of their worst offensive nights of the month.

Cairo pulled Giolito after Baez tripled to the right-center field wall with two outs in the fifth and Jimmy Lambert proved him right by striking out Tigers cleanup man Eric Haase. Baez scored the Tigers’ run against Giolito in the first when he singled with two outs, moved up on a walk to Haase and scored on Spencer Torkelson’s single.

Giolito, the Opening Day starter who has regressed to No. 5 starter status, needed 96 pitches to navigate 4 2/3 innings, walking three and allowing four hits.

The young Guardians (77-66), beating the Twins in the first of a five-game series in Cleveland, got back on the winning track after seeing their six-game losing streak halted by the Sox Thursday.

“They’re a very athletic club they’re really good defensively, they play smart and have a really good bullpen,” Sox coach Jerry Narron said. “They don’t hit the ball out of the park but they generate runs going first to third, scoring from first on a double because they’re so athletic. We were talking about the Guardians lineup and they run out the same lineup every day.”

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DETROIT — Tim Anderson is taking ground balls, and he took batting practice with the White Sox Friday, hitting two balls over the wall at Comerica Park.

That seemed to be a good sign his strength will be there when he returns from hand surgery, but he was somewhat measured about sharing a target day he might have in mind for rejoining the team.

“I want to make sure I’m 100 percent when I do come back,” Anderson said Friday, talking with media for the first time since he tore the sagittal band on the middle finger of his left hand checking his swing on Aug. 7 in Texas. “Make sure I have all my strength, for sure.”

General manager Rick Hahn said Tuesday that Anderson could return next week. Elvis Andrus’ steady defense, veteran presence and .308/.351/.539 hitting line with six homers in 25 games in his absence has more than softened the blow of losing an All-Star and batting champ, and the biggest question seems to be how will Andrus adjust to second base if he’s moved to a position he hasn’t played during his career.

“He’s been playing pretty well,” Anderson said. “It ‘s been fun to watch. He just brings something different to the game, and he’s been competing.”

There’s no question, though, that Anderson, batting .301/.339/.395 with six homers in 79 games, will return at shortstop.

“Heck yes,” acting manager Miguel Cairo said. “I don’t think there’s any problem with that. He’s definitely our shortstop.”

As for whether Anderson would lead off — Andrus is excelling in that spot, too — Cairo said, “Right now, just one day at a time. Right now it’s Elvis. When he comes back, we’ll see what we can do.”

“Believe me, we need that bat and he comes back and he’s got that bat that we need, it’s big,” Cairo said.

Anderson will need a short rehab stint and with the regular season ending Oct. 5, might me back in time for 10 games or so.

“For the most part it’s just about how I feel really, that’s where we’re at,” he said. “The more I feel comfortable, the better chance for me to get back in there.”

Robert misses second straight start

Center fielder Luis Robert (sore left wrist) was held out of the lineup for a second straight game.

“He’s doing good,” Cairo said. “We just want to give him another day. Day-to-day. Just got to wait to see how he feels.”

Tony-no

As expected, manager Tony La Russa isn’t with the team in Detroit as he awaits medical clearance to return.

Cairo said he doesn’t need definitive word from the front office that he’s going to finish the season as manager or if La Russa will return.

“No. I’m just doing my job,” he said. “I’m the bench coach, because of medical reasons right now I’m the manager, interim manager. I just go day to day. We prepare. When he comes back, he’s going to be the manager and I’m going to do my duties. It doesn’t change anything.”

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