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Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady completes a pass against the Bears on Sunday. | Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

Brady scored so fast — and the Bears were so inept offensively — that the Buccaneers had eight first-half possessions. They ended with five touchdowns, one missed field goal and two punts.

TAMPA, Fla. — The only mistake the Buccaneers made in the first half Sunday came when Tom Brady threw a 9-yard touchdown to Mike Evans with 6 seconds left in the first quarter — and the receiver flipped the ball to a fan in the front row.

Brady, the most accomplished quarterback in the sport’s history, had just thrown his 600th career touchdown. The ball was worth something — to Brady, but also on the open market.

Evans apologized to Brady on the sideline. The quarterback figured the Bucs would get it back. They did, after a team official swapped a ball and the promise of a few autographs — “A helmet or a couple jerseys or some other stuff,” Brady said — for No. 600.

“I don’t actually keep too many things,” Brady said. “In that circumstance, I thought that might be a good one to keep.”

Brady nodded toward the corner of the room after the Bucs’ 38-3 dismantling of the Bears. The ball was inside an expensive travel bag, behind Brady’s 8-year-old daughter. The player who once had his Super Bowl jersey swiped from the locker room wasn’t going to take any chances.

Beside, Brady had put the ball exactly where he wanted it all game. No reason to stop now.

“That’s solely us — no one man or anything like that,” Bears inside linebacker Roquan Smith said. “No one man or anything like that. It’s based on us. It’s our job to do our job, so that’s what we’ve gotta do. And just continue to look ourselves in the mirror and just continue to grow from it and get better.”

If the Bears looked themselves in the mirror following Sunday’s game, they’d see an offense that turned the ball over five times — it was lucky it wasn’t more — and a depleted defense forced to take its medicine. The Bucs took possession inside the Bears’ 40-yard line five times, and came away with 24 points.

“When you give Tom Brady and that offense, when they start inside the 40 — whatever it was, four or five or six times — that’s a lot,” coach Matt Nagy said. “It’s advantage them. And they’re going to make you pay for it.”

Brady completed 20-of-36 passes for 211 yards, four touchdowns and a 109.8 passer rating. The yardage was his lowest mark of the season — but the Buccaneers simply didn’t have to go far to score.

It took them two plays to score their first touchdown, six to score their second and five to score their third. They started their first possession at the Bears’ 32 after a 43-yard Jaelon Darden punt return. They began their second scoring drive at the Bears’ 40 following a Justin Fields interception and the next one at the Bears’ 35 because of a Fields fumble.

“I think [defensive coordinator] Todd [Bowles] loves seeing rookie quarterbacks,” coach Bruce Arians said.

Evans caught three touchdown passes, giving Brady an NFL-record 602. Former Saints quarterback Drew Brees ranks second with 571.

Brady went to the locker room up 35-3 after one of the most thorough shellackings in modern league history. Only 14 times since 2010 has any team trailed by more points at halftime than the Bears did Sunday.

Brady scored so fast — and the Bears were so inept offensively — that the Buccaneers had eight first-half possessions. They ended with five touchdowns, one missed field goal and two punts.

In an academic second half, the Bucs got inside the Bears’ 5 twice — and came away with only a field goal.

“Offensively, we left about 20 points out there … ” Bucs coach Bruce Arians said. “We scored 38 points — and really did not play very well offensively,”

That’s a horrifying thought. A Bears defense that allowed Aaron Rodgers to convert only two third downs last week let Brady throw three touchdowns on third down alone. A unit that held the league lead in sacks entering Sunday’s game — and averaged four per game over the previous five — managed just one quarterback pressure all night.

Khalil Mack, whose hip toss of Bucs tackle Tristan Wirfs went viral in last year’s Bears win, had a mere tackle.

“Hopefully the GIFs can stop now,” Wirfs said afterward.

The Bears defense played Sunday without star defensive tackle Akiem Hicks [groin], strong safety Tashaun Gipson [hip] and a resurgent Robert Quinn, who was put on the reserve/COVID-19 list Tuesday. Defensive lineman Bilal Nichols was tossed from the game for throwing a punch in the third quarter.

The Buccaneers, though, dressed without stars Richard Sherman, Lavonte David, Antonio Brown and Rob Gronkowski. Asked how they did it, Arians said simply that the Bucs have a “heckuva roster.”

The Bears don’t — especially when Brady is on the other side of the ball.

“Oh yeah, it’s definitely embarrassing,” Smith said. “You never want to go out and play like that, because that’s not our standard. But it is what it is and we’ve just gotta grow and get better from it, because that’s all we can do. And [we] just can’t let this game beat us twice.”

As it was, Sunday’s game felt like two losses. Or maybe three.

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Bears rookie quarterback Justin Fields was sacked four times, fumbled three times — losing two — and threw three interceptions in a 38-3 loss to the Buccaneers on Sunday at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. | Don Montague/AP Photos

The Bears’ rookie QB struggled from the start, with four sacks, three fumbles and three interceptions — including one on the same “free play” mistake that cost him last week against the Packers.

TAMPA, Fla. — Facing the defending Super Bowl champion Buccaneers and their top-10 defense was supposed to be a chance for Justin Fields to show that he’s learning from his mistakes. Instead he provided one glaring example that he is not.

A week after the Bears’ rookie quarterback threw an interception against the Packers when he thought he had a free play but did not, he did it again.

On a third-and-five play from the Bears’ 40-yard line in the third quarter at Raymond James Stadium, Fields scrambled to make a big play because he thought he had a free one.

His rolled to his right under pressure and awkwardly threw downfield for wide receiver Allen Robinson. But the ball was off target, Robinson slipping didn’t help, and the ball was intercepted by Buccaneers backup cornerback Dee Delaney. Six plays later, Tom Brady threw a four-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Chris Godwin to give the Bucs a 14-0 lead en route to a 38-3 blowout.

As Fields said, stuff happens.

“In the headset they were telling me [the Buccaneers] had 12 men on the field, so I was trying to snap the ball quick,” Fields said. “And then me snapping the ball quick, I think it caught our receivers off guard, because we were trying to get a flag.

“So me thinking [they] had 12 men on the field, that’s a free play. So I’m thinking, ‘All right, scramble around and stuff like that. And then,I see A-Rob downfield and I think he slips and of course, the pick. I mean, that’s just trying to get [the penalty for] 12 people on the field. And then it just went bad from there.”

It was that kind of day for Fields, who again was unable to rise above the muck of a struggling offense that missed back-up right tackle Elijah Wilkinson much more than any NFL team should. Field was sacked four times, hit six times and fumbled three times, losing two.

There wan’t even any fool’s gold rally after the outcome was decided. Fields completed 22-of-32 passes for 184 yards, no touchdowns and three interceptions for a 44.3 passer rating — dangerously close to the 41.2 rating in the debacle against the Browns in his first start.

What happened? “It’s not just one thing. It’s a bunch of things — I’m just going to leave it at that,” Fields said. “We’ve got to continue to work.

“Times like this, when you get blown out, you’ve got two choices: You can either say, ‘F’ it, I’m gonna stop working. I’m going to stop playing.’ Or you can go the other route and say, ‘I’m gonna keep working.’ And I know me — no matter how many picks I throw; no matter how many Ls we take, I’m gonna keep working. That’s just the fact. That’s just who I am. Never gonna stop. I’m always gonna keep going.”

Fields’ fortitude is admirable, but a blowout like this one only adds to the impatience and skepticism about his development and — even more critically — Nagy’s role in it.

Fields hasn’t shown obvious signs of improvement. But this offense doesn’t appear to be giving him that much of a chance to develop, either. That the Buccaneers made both look ill-prepared was disconcerting, but Fields said that wasn’t the case.

“Not really,” Fields said. “They weren’t throwing different stuff. We watched film on it and I think the blitzes, the blitz packages, we were having trouble at the beginning picking the tup, but I think as time went on we did a little better with protection. That’s just football for you.”

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Justin Fields fumbled three times and threw three interceptions against the Buccaneers. | Jason Behnken/AP

Fields fumbled three times Sunday, pushing his season total to six.

TAMPA, Fla. — The Bears’ 38-3 loss to the Buccaneers on Sunday was hard to watch, so it would’ve been easy to miss some of the details. Here’s a look at three of them:

Fields’ fumbles

When rookie quarterback Justin Fields fumbled in his preseason debut against the Dolphins, he brushed it off because it didn’t result in a turnover. But now he has fumbled six times during the season and lost two of his three fumbles Sunday. “I’m not concerned with his [ball] security,” coach Matt Nagy said.

Simmons sits

With Germain Ifedi injured and Elijah Wilkinson on the reserve/COVID-19 list, the Bears promoted Lachavious Simmons from their practice squad to start at right tackle. He didn’t last long. After Jason Pierre-Paul beat him for a strip-sack early in the second quarter, the Bears switched to Alex Bars for the rest of the game.

Brutal start

The Bears were the first team to give up 21 points in the first quarter in more than two years, and the game was virtually over at that point. On their first eight possessions, they committed three turnovers, punted three times, got a 28-yard field goal from Cairo Santos and turned it over on downs near midfield.

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Bears defensive lineman Bilal Nichols was ejected Sunday. | Kamil Krzaczynski/AP

Bears coach Matt Nagy said his staff warned Bears players about Bucs instigators.

TAMPA, Fla. — With the Bears down 35-3 Sunday, the Buccaneers looked poised to score again late in the third quarter. After Bucs running back Ronald Jones ran four yards to the Bears’ 3, defensive lineman Bilal Nichols punched center Ryan Jensen in the facemask. Nichols was ejected.

The Bears had two players ejected last year — receivers Anthony Miller and Javon Wims, both for fighting the same player, Saints cornerback C.J. Gardner-Johnson, in separate games. Bears coach Matt Nagy said his staff warned Bears players about Bucs instigators.

“We’ve discussed a similar situation like last year with a player that [the Saints] had with a player who was out there today — you know, it was loud and clear …” he said. “But our guys understand, they know that every action has a reaction. What we need to do is continue to keep emphasizing it like we are, and guys gotta follow up by not falling into that trap.”

The punch was “definitely out of character,” inside linebacker Roquan Smith said.

“I’m sure if he could go back, he would definitely wish he could get that back,” he said. “It’s just about growing from that. He just can’t let that define him, and I know he won’t let that define him.”

Herbert shines

Facing the league’s top-ranked rushing defense, rookie running back Khalil Herbert ran for a career-high 100 yards on 18 carries. He added another 33 yards on five catches.

“Just the O-line, doing their thing,” he said. “They do a great job up front making it easy for me. Just those guys going out there and pounding.”

Running back David Montgomery is eligible to return to practice off injured reserve this week, though it’s unclear if his sprained knee is ready to go. Even if it is, the Bears figure to keep Herbert involved in some capacity.

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Quarterback Justin Fields slides with the ball in the second quarter of the Bears’ 38-3 loss to Tampa Bay. | Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

Putting in Andy Dalton against the Buccaneers would have been the right move.

It’s not a lot of fun when you know how the movie is going to end before it even starts. And how the middle part will go. Also the beginning.

What was on display Sunday was a Halloween horror flick in which the bloodshed was predictable and the blood-spatter pattern bore an eerie resemblance to Justin Fields’ stunned face. Whatever redeeming value there was to any of this must have ended up on the cutting-room floor. The Bears went to Tampa Bay hoping for an upset against the defending Super Bowl champions and left with an embarrassing 38-3 loss.

If you want to call for the heads of coach Matt Nagy, general manager Ryan Pace and chairman George McCaskey, feel free. Just know that your outrage was predetermined, too, built into the day’s itinerary as much as your halftime meal was. The Buccaneers are too good, and the Bears aren’t.

Monday will dawn, and all the guilty parties will still be employed. Trust me on this. If that sounds defeatist, sounds like a dirge, then you must be a Bears fan with a working set of ears and a familiarity with the McCaskey family.

The tone of the game was set on the first pass play of the game, with Tampa Bay’s Antoine Winfield almost separating Fields’ head from his body on a blitz. Fields would go on to throw an interception and lose a fumble in two of the next three possessions, leading to two Bucs touchdowns and a 21-0 deficit. The score was 35-3 at halftime. Fields had more fumbles in the first half (three) than friends in the world (zero, judging by the look on his face).

He would finish with three interceptions and a 44.3 passer rating.

Rather than show up for the game, the safer bet for him and the Bears would have been to pick up a hitchhiker who was carrying a chainsaw and had a hook for a hand, then drive home.

Fields wasn’t going to learn anything in this kind of game, unless it was how to lose brain cells in bulk or how to make one’s knee touch the back of one’s head. The smart move would have been to bench him in the second half with his limbs intact. Throw Andy Dalton to the wolves, something they should have been doing all along. If not him, then Nick Foles. The best place for Fields this season was the sideline.

But, no. The Bears were going to stick to the plan Sunday.

“It didn’t even cross my mind to go the other way,” Nagy said.

If they care at all about Fields’ health and well-being, they should have him hand off to a running back on every play. Let me make this easy for Nagy and offensive coordinator Bill Lazor. Your offense is not good when it tries to pass. That observation is based almost entirely on an offensive line that doesn’t have the foggiest idea how to pass block. Even before injuries and COVID-19 issues hit the O-line, it was so.

Pace should never be in charge of drafting an offensive lineman again. Let somebody else do it. Anybody. A guy feeding the parking meter. A woman picking up after her dog. This is predicated, again, on the very dark suspicion that the McCaskeys, deathly afraid of change, will retain Pace’s services after the season.

With the Bears missing defensive linemen Akiem Hicks (groin injury) and Robert Quinn (COVID-19), it was all but given that Bucs quarterback Tom Brady was going to pick them apart. He did, throwing four touchdown passes.

In the first quarter, Brady threw his 600th career touchdown pass. He’s the only NFL quarterback in history to do that. Have the Bears had 600 quarterbacks in their history? Probably.

I tap my foot impatiently when the TV announcers, having met with the coaches and players during the week, go through their talking points early in a game. It’s free PR for the teams. On Sunday, we heard all about how Fields had made progress the previous few weeks, how good Roquan Smith is and blah followed by blah followed by blah. Then reality set in. The afternoon was a disaster.

Afterward, Nagy stressed how close his players have gotten to each other. This is his go-to approach whenever there’s the possibility of finger-pointing after a tough loss. Finger-pointing is a first cousin of mutiny, the sworn enemy of a coach on the hot seat. I won’t bore you with the quotes. You’ve heard them before.

The Bears and Fields are going to need a toilet with the power of a jetliner toilet to flush the memory of this game.

“Having that mindset that nothing can break us,” Fields said.

Sure looked as if the Buccaneers did.

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Nagy is 31-24 as Bears coach, including 19-20 over the last three seasons. | AP Photos

The Bears were out of it by the end of the first quarter and delivered one of the NFL’s worst performances of the season.

TAMPA, Fla. — As the mountain of embarrassment somehow keeps growing, it’s becoming increasingly uncomfortable watching coach Matt Nagy flail for an explanation of the debacle he and general manager Ryan Pace created.

If he’s still looking for “the whys,” as he always is, he should start with Pace for designing a dysfunctional roster and himself for driving the offense off a cliff as he wastes the precious prime of his defensive stars.

At every disastrous downturn over the last three seasons, it has seemed like it couldn’t possibly get worse. But the Bears keep freefalling through apparent rock bottoms to new depths. There’s always a new wrinkle to the humiliation.

This one was absolutely shameful. At no point in their 38-3 loss to the defending champion Buccaneers did the Bears look like they belonged in the same league as them. It had the feel of Western Carolina venturing out timidly to face Alabama, and that’s inexcusable. It was one of the NFL’s worst performances of the season.

The Bears became the first team this season to give up 35 points in the first half and suffered the largest defeat of Nagy’s tenure. And they’re fortunate it didn’t get worse thanks to a missed field goal and the Bucs pulling Tom Brady early in the fourth quarter.

That the Bears continue to let Pace and Nagy call the shots is indefensible and calls into question whether the organization has any standards. By keeping those two after back-to-back seasons of 8-8 and appalling offense, chairman George McCaskey signaled they aren’t very high.

By letting them continue to preside over the rest of this season in the wild hope of sneaking into a playoff spot at 9-8 as they risk wrecking rookie quarterback Justin Fields, it’s clear he hasn’t hit his limit yet.

But everyone else has.

Fields, by the way, added plenty to the mess. While it’s important to be patient and remember that this was only his fifth start, as well as to point out that Nagy hasn’t helped him as much as he should’ve, he has reached a point where it’s fair to hold him accountable for carelessness and repeat errors.

Regardless of how dilapidated the Bears’ already-shaky offensive line was as they opened with practice-squad right tackle Lachavious Simmons, Fields can’t fumble three times — losing two — and throw three interceptions. At some point, he has to realize what he’s working with blocking-wise and adapt.

But he bears the least blame for where the Bears sit. He just got here, and he’s their best shot at fixing this.

It won’t matter how quickly he develops, though, if he’s going to continue under the mismanagement of Pace and Nagy. He can’t spend his entire career dodging an endless parade of pass rushers, getting no help from tight ends and playing in an offensive system that isn’t maximizing his talents.

Neither he nor the Bears is going to get where they want to be if this continues.

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Khalil Herbert celebrates his first career touchdown Sunday against the Packers. | Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

If Herbert plays Sunday the way he did the previous two weeks — with a physical style that belies his 5-9, 212-pound frame and a patience beyond his 23 years — the Bears will be forced to find some role for him.

For the first time in a long time, Khalil Herbert isn’t playing fantasy football this year.

“I’ve got a lot going on,” he said with a smile.

His friends, though, still play. They picked up the Bears’ rookie running back off the waiver wire last week and started him against the Packers. And they were pleased with the results — 19 carries for 97 yards and Herbert’s first career touchdown. They texted him afterward about their teams.

“They’ve been sending me screenshots,” he said.

They’ll keep Herbert on their fantasy rosters again Sunday, even though he’s facing the NFL’s best rushing defense.

After the Buccaneers game, Herbert’s role is anybody’s guess. Running back Damien Williams figures will regain his complementary role after he returned from the reserve/COVID-19 list Saturday following a 10-day absence, the minimum allowed an unvaccinated player who tests positive. And top running back David Montgomery is eligible to return off injured reserve next week after recovering from a sprained knee.

If Herbert plays Sunday the way he did the previous two weeks — with a physical style that belies his 5-9, 212-pound frame and a patience beyond his 23 years — the Bears will be forced to find some role for him. But they aren’t yet ready to entertain how much he will play — if at all — once Montgomery comes back. This week, running backs coach Michael Pitre would only say the Bears will figure it out “when those guys are back and we’re presented with having some really good players” on the roster.

“You’ve seen [Herbert] grow throughout camp — you’ve seen him grow throughout the first few weeks of the season, too,” guard Cody Whitehair said. “He’s really seeing the field well. He’s seeing the running lanes really well. So we’re really excited about him.”

It all still feels a bit surreal to the sixth-round pick. Two years ago, Herbert decided to stop playing at Kansas four games into his senior season, just in time to be eligible for a redshirt. He eventually left the school altogether, calling it a “business decision” after coming to believe he “wasn’t used properly.” He landed at Virginia Tech as a graduate transfer and became the centerpiece of the Hokies’ offense. His 1,182 rushing yards were fifth-most in the country, and his 7.7 yards per carry were fourth-most.

His transfer was controversial among Kansas fans. But it wound up being the best thing he’s ever done. He has thought about it the last few weeks while looking at Snapchat, which shows him photos of what he was doing at this time last year.

“I play that what-if game a lot, too: What if I stayed? What if I didn’t?” he said. “[Virginia Tech] really put me in a position to be where I am right now and helped me out a lot. It’s the biggest blessing, I feel like — going there and doing what I did.”

The Bears drafted Herbert to return kicks. But they were impressed by his running style in camp, marked by a willingness to plow forward but also cut the run back when he sees a hole.

“He’s a really quick decision-maker,” coach Matt Nagy said. “So when he makes decisions and sticks a foot in the ground and hits it with that low-contact balance, he’s hard to bring down.”

The Buccaneers bring rushers down better than any other team in the league. Herbert leans on the mantra used in the Bears’ running back room: “Famine, famine, feast.” Little runs beget longer ones.

“His confidence is going to grow every day, every snap he gets,” Nagy said. “And I just love his demeanor. He’s a team player. Not really vocal or loud or anything like that. But he’s just a really good running back.”

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Coach Niele Ivey would like nothing better than to put the Fighting Irish back into the NCAA Tournament. | Matt Kelley/AP

After back-to-back disappointing seasons, the Fighting Irish have been picked to finish sixth in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The competitiveness inside Notre Dame women’s basketball coach Niele Ivey was put there by the woman she succeeded, Hall of Famer Muffet McGraw.

Ivey would like nothing better than to put the Fighting Irish back into the NCAA Tournament, which was pretty much an annual rite of March under McGraw. During her 32 years in South Bend, Notre Dame qualified for 26 NCAA tournaments, including 24 in a row, and McGraw’s teams captured two championship rings in 2001 and 2018.

Now after back-to-back disappointing seasons — 13-18 in McGraw’s final season and 10-10 last season in Ivey’s first after a season as an assistant coach with the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies — Notre Dame is in unfamiliar territory. They are barely receiving votes in the preseason Associated Press Top 25, and they have been picked to finish sixth in the Atlantic Coast Conference race.

In short, they’ve gone from being a top dog to being an underdog. That’s just fine with Ivey and her team.

“I love the energy — it’s electric,” Ivey said of her team. “Everyone is committed and has worked so hard to come back. They are playing with a sense of urgency and a hunger. That’s from having a bad taste in their mouths and not being able to make the tournament. It will be our motivation.”

Ivey was an All-America point guard on the 2001 championship team and later an assistant to McGraw. She mentored the guards, including Arike Ogunbowale, who hit buzzer-beater shots at the Final Four against Connecticut and Mississippi State to win the program’s last NCAA title.

“This year we’re flying under the radar,” said 6-foot-3 sophomore forward Maddy Westbeld, the ACC Rookie of the Year last year who averaged 15.2 points and 7.9 rebounds. “But people are going to know who we are.”

Senior guard Abby Prohaska, one of three players (juniors Anaya Peoples and Sam Brunelle are the others) who have played for both McGraw and Ivey.

“They are pretty much on the same wavelength,” she said. “It’s exciting to have someone who has played under coach McGraw, coached under coach McGraw and now stepped into her role as a head coach.”

Following the 82-81 loss to Baylor in the 2019 NCAA championship game, McGraw saw Ogunbowale and four other starters taken among the first 18 picks in the WNBA draft and lost two others to transfers. She retired after the following season.

Four players transferred after Ivey’s first season, but Ivey likes what she has returning.

In addition to Westbeld, Prohaska (4.2 ppg), Peoples (9.1 ppg) and Brunelle (8.7 ppg, 3.8 rpg), there’s senior point guard Dara Mabrey (11.3 ppg, 3.1 assists per game) along with 5-10 freshman guard Olivia Miles (9.3 ppg in six games) and 5-10 senior guard Katlyn Gilbert, who averaged just 3.8 points in nine games during an injury-plagued season.

Miles, who left Blair Academy early to play in the second semester last season, heads the newcomers who include 6-foot-3 grad-transfer Maya Dodson, who opted out of her senior season at Stanford, last year’s NCAA champion, but has rebounding and shot-blocking abilities; 6-5 sophomore forward Nat Marshall who sat out last season rehabbing a torn ACL; and 6-1 guard Sonia Citron, who averaged 13.3 points per game for the World Cup gold medal-winning U.S. under-19 team.

“We’re hoping to get a good mix of youth and experience,” Ivey said. “For us, it’s about chemistry and we developed a lot of that this summer by being together. I’m hoping that shows and transfers to the court.”

It’s also a benefit that McGraw, an ACC Network studio analyst, lives nearby and has watched practices and shared advice ahead of the season opener Nov. 9 at home against Ohio.

“I wanted her to watch practice and give me feedback,” Ivey said. “I honestly try to pick her brain as much as I can … and I got a lot of feedback.”

Did McGraw like what she saw? “She did,” Ivey said with a smile.

The underdogs soon may be barking again.

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James Michael Tyler appears as his “Friends” character, Gunther, in 2004. | Warner Bros.

The actor revealed in June he was undergoing chemotherapy treatment

James Michael Tyler, the actor famous for playing Central Perk manger Gunther on “Friends,” has died of prostate cancer. He was 59.

Tyler died “peacefully in his home” on Sunday, according to a statement from Tyler’s manager Toni Benson.

“The world knew him as Gunther the seventh ‘Friend,’ but Michael’s loved ones knew him as an actor, musician, cancer-awareness advocate, and loving husband,” the statement said. In June, Tyler revealed he was undergoing chemotherapy treatment after being diagnosed with Stage 4 prostate cancer.

“I’m sorry to say that I’m not appearing today with you to announce that there’s a ‘Friends’ movie,” Tyler told the “Today” show. “Actually, I’m here to let you know that in September of 2018, I was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer.”

For all of the sitcom’s 10-season run, Tyler played the bleach-blond coffeeshop worker who served the six principal characters and pined for Rachel (Jennifer Aniston). Though Tyler had hoped to attend May’s HBO Max’s “Friends” reunion in-person, he explained he was only able to appear virtually due to his health.

“I wanted to be a part of that, and initially I was going to be on the stage, at least, with them, and be able to take part in all the festivities,” Tyler explained. “It was my decision not to be a part of that physically and make an appearance on Zoom, basically, because I didn’t wanna bring a downer on it, you know? I didn’t want to be like, ‘Oh, and by the way, Gunther has cancer.’ “

Read more at usatoday.com

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Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford (14) reaches for an incomplete pass from tight end Tyler Warren (44) in the third overtime of Saturday’s loss to Illinois. | Barry Reeger/AP

Georgia remains No. 1 and Alabama moves up to No. 3.

Alabama inched up to No. 3 in The Associated Press college football Sunday behind top-ranked Georgia and No. 2 Cincinnati.

The Bulldogs (63 first-place votes) are a unanimous No. 1 for the third straight week in the latest AP Top 25 presented by Regions Bank, and the Bearcats remain second.

The Crimson Tide jumped up a spot past Oklahoma after blowing out Tennessee. The now fourth-ranked Sooners were shut out in the first half against Kansas before scoring 35 in the second half and pulling away late.

No. 5 Ohio State and No. 6 Michigan both held their spots.

Oregon moved up three spots to No. 7. No. 8 Michigan State, No. 9 Iowa and No. 10 Mississippi round out the top 10.

In a week with no games matching ranked teams, five ranked teams lost, including two in the top 10. Penn State dropped 13 spots to No. 20 after losing in a record nine overtime periods to Illinois. Oklahoma State fell from No. 8 to 15th after losing at Iowa State.

POLL POINTS

Alabama dropped from No. 1 to No. 5 two weeks ago after losing at Texas A&M, putting its record streak of top-five appearances in danger.

But since then, the Tide won two games and A&M has built on that upset with two easy victories. The Aggies, unranked when they beat Alabama, are up to No. 14.

The combination of the two has allowed the Tide to run its top-five streak to 69. The second best top-five streak in poll history came to an end early this season when Clemson’s was snapped at 57.

The second-best active top-five streak is Georgia at eight weeks.

— No. 10 Ole Miss has its best ranking since finishing the 2015 season at No. 10.

— No. 17 Pitt cracked the top 20 for the first time since starting the 2010 season at No. 15. The last time the Panthers were ranked this highly this deep into a season was when they reached No. 8 and finished No. 15 in 2009.

IN

A couple of teams that spent time in the AP Top 25 earlier this season are back in this week.

— No. 22 Iowa State returned after dropping out in mid-September. The Cyclones started the season No. 7 and lost two of their first four games.

— No. 25 BYU broke a two-game losing streak by beating Washington State. The Cougars are 4-0 against Pac-12 teams.

OUT

— Purdue is out after one week in the rankings. The Boilermakers (4-3) lost at home to Wisconsin. Purdue hasn’t been ranked for more than one week in any season since 2005.

— North Carolina State slipped out of the rankings after a close loss to Miami.

CONFERENCE CALL

SEC — 6 (Nos. 1, 3, 10, 12, 14, 18).

Big Ten — 5 (Nos. 5, 6, 8, 9, 20).

Big 12 — 4 (Nos. 4, 15, 16, 22).

ACC — 2 (Nos. 13, 17).

American — 2 (Nos. 2, 19).

Pac-12 — 1 (No. 7).

Conference USA — 1 (No. 23).

Mountain West — 1 (No. 21).

Sun Belt — 1 (No. 24).

Independents — 2 (Nos. 11, 25).

RANKED vs. RANKED

No. 20 Penn State at No. 5 Ohio State. This will be the sixth straight meeting with both teams ranked, but the Nittany Lions are trending in the wrong direction.

No. 6 Michigan at No. 8 Michigan State. The first top-10 meeting between the rivals since 1964.

No. 10 Mississippi at No. 18 Auburn. Two teams still very much in the SEC West race.

THE TOP 25

1. Georgia 7-0

2. Cincinnati 7-0

3. Alabama 7-1

4. Oklahoma 8-0

5. Ohio St. 6-1

6. Michigan 7-0

7. Oregon 6-1

8. Michigan St. 7-0

9. Iowa 6-1

10. Mississippi 6-1

11. Notre Dame 6-1

12. Kentucky 6-1

13. Wake Forest 7-0

14. Texas A&M 6-2

15. Oklahoma St. 6-1

16. Baylor 6-1

17. Pittsburgh 6-1

18. Auburn 5-2

19. SMU 7-0

20. Penn St. 5-2

21. San Diego St. 7-0

22. Iowa St. 5-2

23. UTSA 8-0

24. Coastal Carolina 6-1

25. BYU 6-2

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