Breaking
True Market Story
Author

admin

Browsing
10 Mins Read

Why Amazon sellers and retailers are flocking to TikTok Shop despite looming U.S. ban

Sporting a sparkly dress and a Santa hat atop her distinctly pink hair, Sarah Potempa stood in front of her smartphone at her hair-care company’s warehouse in Waukegan, Illinois. It was time to go to work. 

Potempa is a celebrity hairstylist who goes live on TikTok multiple times a week. During “the packing show,” as she calls it, Potempa livestreams herself as she packs up orders of her viral Beachwaver curling iron for six to eight hours at a time. 

The stream on Nov. 20 had a party atmosphere, with Potempa taking breaks to dance to “In Da Club” by 50 Cent in between shipping out orders. To the more than 1,000 TikTok users who typically tune in for Potempa’s shows, this is entertainment and shopping all at once. 

Beachwaver is part of a growing influx of retailers that are flocking to TikTok Shop, the video app’s shopping service. TikTok Shop launched in September 2023 as a way for users to purchase products without leaving the app, and since then, the China-owned app has emerged as a viable alternative for retailers looking to diversify their e-commerce business from Amazon. 

Via a dedicated Shop tab, retailers big and small promote products of all kinds, ranging from eyeshadow palettes, phone chargers, detox teas, treadmills and more. On TikTok, retailers typically offer generous coupons and free delivery within a few days. Shoppable posts, which look like normal videos but are ads for products sold in TikTok Shop, frequently appear in TikTok’s main video feed, known as the “For You” page. Those posts allow users to purchase products without exiting their For You feed.

On Potempa’s show, shoppers race to place an order to get a 50% discount on Beachwaver products and free add-ons to their order like face washes or lipsticks, along with the chance to have their username read aloud by Potempa while she packs their order on screen.

“When TikTok Shop was new and people hadn’t used it yet, they would ask, ‘Is this on Amazon yet?’” Potempa said in an interview. “I would get those questions like, ‘Can I buy it somewhere else?’ Now that it’s been around for a year or so, we’ve done 1.2 million orders.”

ByteDance-owned TikTok has already cemented itself as an advertising powerhouse, and with TikTok Shop, the company has been trying to carve out another revenue stream through e-commerce. The company has attracted the likes of Nike, PacSun and Crocs, among others. Those retailers want to tap into the more than 170 million Americans on TikTok who shop on impulse as they scroll through videos. 

They aren’t the only ones. 

Amazon sellers are also being persuaded to try out the service with promises of low fees and steep discounts on products footed by TikTok. Besides sellers, the company has also hired talent away from Amazon, filling key roles for TikTok Shop in areas like marketing, creator relationships, brand safety, category managers and operations.

In the 15 months since its launch, TikTok Shop has emerged as a “massive e-commerce machine,” according to ecommerceDB, a market research firm. EcommerceDB predicts TikTok Shop will more than double its gross merchandise volume, or the dollar value of items sold on its marketplace, to $50 billion this year. That’s a fraction of Amazon’s 2024 expected GMV of $757 billion, but nonetheless, TikTok Shop is making strides.

“Every time you scroll, every other scroll is a Shop post, so they’re making a lot of investment to encourage that in-app conversion,” said Caila Schwartz, Salesforce’s director of consumer insights and strategy for retail and consumer goods.

Amazon spokesperson Mira Dix told CNBC in a statement that sellers are engaging with its store “more than ever before” and seeing greater success. Dix said the company’s services for sellers are optional, such as fulfillment, which costs “an average of 70% less” than comparable two-day shipping alternatives.

“Our selling partners are incredibly important to Amazon, and we work hard to innovate on their behalf and support the growth and success of these businesses across all of their sales channels,” Dix said.

Beachwaver CEO Sarah Potempa hosts livestreams on TikTok Shop multiple times a week.

TikTok’s e-commerce push comes at a precarious moment for the company. 

In April, President Joe Biden signed a law that requires ByteDance to sell TikTok by Jan. 19. If TikTok fails to cut ties with its parent company, app stores and internet hosting services would be prohibited from offering the app, amounting to a nationwide ban in the U.S. TikTok has sued to block the measure.

President-elect Donald Trump could rescue TikTok from a potential U.S. ban. After trying to implement a TikTok ban during his first administration, Trump reversed his stance, acknowledging in a March interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that “there’s a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad” with the app. Trump changed his position around the time that he met with billionaire Jeff Yass, who is a major investor in ByteDance.

As the January deadline grows nearer, TikTok has largely been operating its business as usual. 

Executives from TikTok Shop pitched its marketplace as a holiday shopping destination during an October event in Manhattan with business owners and social media influencers. Users have shopped hundreds of millions of units on its e-commerce platform since launching September 2023, said Nico Le Bourgeois, TikTok Shop’s head of U.S. operations. Le Bourgeois, who joined TikTok in August 2023, previously spent nearly nine years at Amazon in a variety of divisions including its third-party marketplace.

TikTok Shop isn’t trying to sell “everything to everybody,” Le Bourgeois told CNBC in October. TikTok Shop is a marketplace for product discovery that surfaces “new, cool, interesting” items from big and small brands, he added.

“You see it, you like it, you buy it. It’s not a search,” he said. “It’s a very different way of shopping.”

Le Bourgeois declined to comment on the looming TikTok ban, but a company spokesperson at the event said TikTok Shop isn’t slowing down.

“The sellers here, creators, they’re building their livelihoods on TikTok,” the spokesperson said. “We’re going to continue to show up for that. There’s a huge opportunity for us.”

More Americans are expected to turn to TikTok and other China-linked apps for gift buying this holiday shopping season. 

Roughly 63% of Western consumers plan to purchase from Chinese shopping apps during the season, according to Salesforce. That includes TikTok, Alibaba’s AliExpress, Shein, Temu and fast-fashion company Cider.

On Saturday, TikTok said its U.S. Black Friday sales topped more than $100 million, with home goods, fashion and beauty products among the most popular categories. Canvas Beauty, a top seller of hair-care and beauty products on TikTok Shop, hit $1 million in sales within two hours of going live on the app, the company said.

Retailers and sellers, some of which count TikTok for the lion’s share of their online sales, told CNBC that they’re sticking with the platform despite the possibility that it could disappear.

Although it’s impossible to ignore the conversation around a potential TikTok ban in the U.S. as a brand that heavily relies on the platform, Yay’s Snacks co-founder and COO Rachel Cheng said she’s not convinced that TikTok will go away under the Trump administration because it doesn’t seem to be the president-elect’s main focus.

Yay’s Snacks, which makes crispy Cambodian beef jerky, was one of the earliest companies to join TikTok Shop when it launched. Yay’s founder and CEO Marlin Chan, a former YouTuber, frequently posts humorous TikTok videos promoting his snacks, which are based on his grandmother’s original recipe. Among the videos is a series that parodies the show “Undercover Boss.” Those videos helped Yay’s amass tens of thousands of TikTok followers, who keep buying the jerky, Cheng said.

At one point, TikTok sales comprised nearly 90% of Yay’s total revenue, with monthly sales from the app peaking at $75,000 last November, Cheng said. Yay’s is prepared to divert to Amazon and its own website if TikTok is banned, but as long as TikTok is “still here, we’re going to do what we can to stay on top,” Cheng said.

“If we were sitting here worrying about what’s next, we would’ve never gotten on TikTok Shop,” Cheng said. “We’re enjoying it while it’s hot.”

Scrub Daddy, known for its smiley face-shaped sponges, went viral on TikTok during the Covid pandemic and counts more than 4 million followers. Its top video, a demonstration of its Damp Duster sponge, has 30 million views while its bestselling product on TikTok Shop has been purchased nearly 76,000 times, according to the app. That figure doesn’t account for items that have been returned after purchase.

After kicking off in 2012 with an appearance on “Shark Tank,” Scrub Daddy CEO Aaron Krause said he lost faith in traditional marketing efforts. 

“We did a TV ad, we did some outdoor ads on billboards, we did a little bit of radio,” Krause said. “All I found was that I was throwing money into the air.”

The company pivoted toward social media marketing, primarily on Instagram, which turned out to be a “pot of gold,” Krause said. Scrub Daddy set up an account on TikTok in 2020 and worked with influencers to promote its products, including Vanesa Amaro, a popular account for housecleaning content with more than 5.7 million followers. After Amaro recommended the sponges to her viewers, Scrub Daddy sold 30,000 units in one weekend, Krause said.

TikTok’s “algorithm just allows you to hit millions and millions of views with one hysterically crazy video,” he said.

In recent months, TikTok has encouraged retailers and sellers to host hourslong livestreams multiple times per week as a way to connect with shoppers. Many brands have invested in building out their own studios to record the shows or have hired talent to host them. 

Scrub Daddy snatched up longtime QVC host Dan Hughes after he was laid off from the home shopping company in 2023. Others, like Beachwaver, have turned their CEOs into on-screen talent.

TikTok Shop was a big topic of conversation at a conference for Amazon sellers in New York in October. A session on “how to scale your brand” with TikTok Shop drew a packed room of sellers who listened to e-commerce strategist Rafay MH talk up the potential for brands to haul in $8 million to $10 million in sales from TikTok in less than a year. 

“Amazon comes with a ton of competition,” MH said. “TikTok is the opportunity for free eyeballs and sales.” 

Many Amazon sellers have embraced TikTok after they were initially slow to join the platform, said Michelle Barnum Smith, who provides consulting services to online businesses.

“I was the bedraggled gold miner standing on the street corners of New York, saying ‘There’s gold in those hills,’ and people were like, ‘Yeah, sure,’” Barnum Smith said “But as soon as they started seeing their competition on there, or their buddy on there, they were like, ‘I’ve got to get on there.’”

There’s now “extreme FOMO,” or fear of missing out, among Amazon sellers to join TikTok even if it no longer exists in the U.S. next year, Barnum Smith said.  

“Whatever the future looks like for TikTok Shop, they’re happy to take that money now and get while the getting’s good,” Barnum Smith said.

Disclosure: CNBC owns the exclusive off-network cable rights to “Shark Tank.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

Keep Reading
By
1 Min Read

Can the S&P 500 Rally Without Tech?

In this video from StockCharts TV, Julius takes a deep dive into US sector rotation, breaking it down into offensive, defensive and cyclical sectors. He first looks at the relative rotations that are shaping up inside the group, assessing each sector’s price chart in combination with the rotation on the Relative Rotation Graph to get a complete picture. This all culminates with the chart of SPY, which is showing a lot of strength recently. Going forward, the crucial question will be whether SPY can rally further without the participation of technology, the most important sector in the universe.

This video was originally published on November 27, 2024. Click anywhere on the icon above to view on our dedicated page for Julius.

Past videos from Julius can be found here.

#StayAlert, -Julius

Keep Reading
By
6 Mins Read

Surging Super Bowl contender has new vibe after last year’s collapse

In 2022, they made the Super Bowl. Last season, their disastrous late-season collapse – six losses in six seven games, including a wild-card-round exit – negated what was a second consecutive 10-1 start. And here the Eagles are with another auspicious start, at 10-2 and first place in the NFC East after a 24-19 victory over the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday. 

How will it play out this time? 

“Last year is over. We don’t care about last year,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said. “We learned what we needed to learn from last year and what we needed to do off of that. This year, it’s a different group of guys. This is a different team that’s gelling and meshing on all cylinders right now.” 

Philadelphia overcame a 9-0 first-quarter deficit and four straight punts to open the contest; the Eagles gained 22 yards in the first quarter and Jalen Hurts started 1-for-5 for 5 yards. Meanwhile, Lamar Jackson and the Ravens racked up 133 yards and seven first downs. From there, the Eagles defense looked like the unit coordinator Vic Fangio has lined up during the team’s eight-game win streak, surrendering three points – kicker Justin Tucker’s dismal performance helped – until a garbage-time touchdown drive. 

All things Eagles: Latest Philadelphia Eagles news, schedule, roster, stats, injury updates and more.

“We just stick to the plan and let the game unfold because everybody knows the first five, six minutes of the game is hot on both sides,” safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson said. 

He added: “One touchdown’s not gonna win the game. That goes for our offense, too.” 

The Eagles sacked Jackson three times and contained running back Derrick Henry (19 carries, 82  yards), with rookie cornerback Cooper DeJean delivering a memorable tackle in the fourth quarter that was emblematic of who the more physical team was. Sirianni said the coaching staff showed cut-ups of the Eagles’ game against Henry and the Tennessee Titans in 2022 – when he had 11 carries for 30 yards – to help motivate the defense.

“Through the ups and the downs, we’re pretty stoic in that, like, we don’t get too high, we don’t get too low and we’re always trying to get better,” said linebacker Zack Baun, who is in his first season with the Eagles. “It’s a lot of young guys on this defense who have a lot of potential and we know they have that potential.” 

The goal, Gardner-Johnson said, isn’t to send a message to the rest of the league. Playing good ball every week is. The Eagles pride themselves on physicality and limiting points.

“That type of game, it’s a playoff game,” he said of facing the Ravens. “That’s a team you could probably see in the Super Bowl, so credit to our guys.” 

Running back Saquon Barkley (23 rushes, 107 yards) didn’t have quite the kind of MVP-level performance he has been authoring as of late, but his 25-yard touchdown scamper sealed the game. Hurts completed 11 of 19 passes for 118 yards, but Sirianni was quick to point out his quarterback rating (114.4 over the last eight games) during the Eagles’ winning streak. 

“I don’t believe in momentum. It’s really a facade,” Hurts said. “It can begin and end at any moment. You’ve just got to reassess everything for what it is and continue to strive to be the best team we can be. It’s not about trying to be better than another team or trying to up them in this area or whatever. It’s just about aggressively pursuing our best self as a team.” 

Even injured wideout DeVonta Smith has been helping in his own ways while not playing. Sirianni said Smith is usually the first person to tell him to leave the offense on the field in fourth-down situations.  

This was a decisive victory in all three phases for Philadelphia. Punter Braden Mann backed the Ravens up inside their own 5-yard line on three occasions and five of his six punts were downed within the 20-yard line. 

“Those are things that you get so excited about as a football coach, of how important that is in the field position battle,” Sirianni said. “That’s not going to get looked at a lot, but I am really excited, and we talked about that after the game.”

One major difference this time around is that instead of the San Francisco 49ers being the primary threat within the NFC, it’s the Detroit Lions. The other NFC North contenders, Minnesota and Green Bay, have also proven themselves through the season’s first three months – but Philadelphia and Detroit are in a class of their own in the NFC, with Buffalo and Kansas City occupying that air in the AFC.

“I think it shows capabilities, what we can do when we focus,” right tackle Lane Johnson said. “But people need to understand that stuff, certainly in this league, is not a given. Because look at last year. We’re in a very good position, then the last six or seven games, it turned into a nightmare. So, remember those times and learn from them.” 

Johnson acknowledged the locker room is not the exact same – no Jason Kelce or Fletcher Cox, who both retired, or Brandon Graham, who tore his triceps last week. The backslide shouldn’t happen if players maintain focus and “continue to want to get better,” Johnson said. “Do you want to lapse and think you have it made?” he asked rhetorically. 

The four three-and-outs by the offense are examples of imperfection, Johnson said. And he insisted harkening back to last year isn’t to put a scare into guys.

“It’s not to promote fear,” he said. “But it’s really like to (say), ‘Hey, a lot of these guys maybe weren’t on the team last year.’ So it’s to raise awareness that, you know, ‘Don’t fall in the trap of getting complacent.’ You can find out what the NFL is all about. We learned that last year. We knew coming in that today was going to be a tough job.” 

A key during the winning streak is the group’s ability to not only make the in-game adjustments, but learning how to do them, Johnson said. 

“You game plan for stuff all week and sometimes they may come out with something you’re not expecting, so you have to be able to make in-game adjustments,” Johnson said. “That’s what leads to success – the teams that make the fewest mistakes and learn from mistakes.” 

Sirianni deployed a classic climbing a mountain analogy to how he approaches the season. Look too far back or forward, the chances of slipping increase. He and the Eagles know what it’s like to be in freefall.

“That doesn’t make for good press. That doesn’t make for good stories,” he said. “We’re boring, but the monotony, boring, day-to-day grind is what gets results.” 

And with eight wins in a row, that’s hard to argue. 

This post appeared first on USA TODAY

Keep Reading
By
5 Mins Read

High-priced NFL QB’s meltdown sparks questions about team’s plan

ATLANTA – Kirk Cousins is still the starting quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons. 

Yet after Cousins had a funk of performance in a 17-13 setback against the Los Angeles Chargers – his career-high-tying four interceptions included a pick-six and a feeble lob to the end zone that erased a scoring threat – questions about his status are fair game. 

Especially now. The Falcons (6-6) have lost three consecutive games. The Cousins-led offense has produced one touchdown in two games. The once-commanding first-place lead in the NFC South has fizzled into what-ifs and tiebreaker scenarios. 

And hey, these are the Falcons. This promising tease stuff has happened before. 

So, is benching Cousins in the mix?  

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

Let Raheem Morris, the first-year Falcons coach, attempt to calm the waters. 

“There are no issues with that,” Morris said when asked during his postgame news conference if he would consider switching from Cousins to first-round rookie Michael Penix Jr. “That guy’s carried us to the point that we’re 6-6. First place in the division. We still have everything in front of us, despite what happened today. 

“It’s up to us to bounce back, to find a way to win football games. There’s no better man than (No.) 18 to do that for us.” 

So there. Cousins – lured to Atlanta in March on a four-year, $180 million free agent deal – will return to Minnesota for a matchup against his former team with his starting status intact. And good luck with that. The Vikings (10-2) are one of the hottest teams in the league, carrying a five-game winning streak, while the Falcons are headed in the opposite direction with the quarterback for whom they backed up the Brinks truck last spring with the intention of him leading them to the franchise’s first playoff berth since 2018. 

On Sunday, Cousins had his worst game yet for the Falcons. He completed 24 of 39 passes for 245 yards, with zero touchdowns and a 40.0 passer rating that was the fourth-worst of his 13-year career. 

The first pick came on the first play of the second quarter, when Cousins double-clutched before launching a throw down the left sideline for Drake London. Rookie Tarheeb Still stepped in front of the pass, and it turned out to be the “best” interception that Cousins threw. 

The pick-six came in the third quarter, on a fourth-and-5, when Cousins telegraphed and underthrew Darnell Mooney, who was running a quick out. It was Still again, who returned the interception 61 yards for the touchdown that, when combined with a 2-point conversion, put L.A. up, 17-10. The fifth-round pick from Maryland said he was tipped off by Cousins as he “read his eyes.” 

Then it was a desperate throw as Cousins scrambled on a third down from the Chargers’ 13-yard line and spotted London in the middle of the end zone. No quarterback in the NFL this season has thrown more interceptions this season while under pressure, and the unfortunate snapshot for the Falcons came early in the fourth quarter with Cousins’ third pick. It was probably Cousins’ softest throw of the game, which floated like a lob that Marcus Maye easily hauled in while London was hardly in position to make a play. 

The last pick was desperation, too. The Falcons had marched from their 6-yard line when they were left with a last-gasp shot on fourth-and-12 from the Chargers’ 35. But Cousins again didn’t come close to connecting with London over the middle as Derwin James stepped in front of the pass to seal the game. 

“We won’t make any excuses for this,” Morris said. “That guy’s carried us all season. He’s done such a marvelous job. It’s hard to throw that guy under the bus, what he’s done for us.” 

There’s something to be said for Morris sticking with his quarterback and refusing to panic amid what is clearly a crisis.  

Yet the pattern that flows with Cousins’ inconsistency can’t be ignored. It’s like this: Which Kirk is going to show up?

Good Kirk or Bad Kirk?

In the Falcons’ six victories, Cousins has a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 14-to-2, with a pass efficiency rating of 114.2. In the six losses, the ratio is 3-to-11, with the efficiency mark comparison dropping more than 50 points. 

The Falcons have demonstrated that they can’t win without an A-game from Cousins. Maybe that’s to be expected because he’s the quarterback. 

Then again, the Falcons’ much-maligned defense had arguably its best game of the season – it held the Chargers to 187 total yards and collected a season-high five sacks on Justin Herbert – and it still wasn’t enough to survive what still turned out to be a close call. 

If this pattern continues, the questions about yanking Cousins will get louder.  

Morris, undoubtedly, knows this comes with the territory. It’s fair to wonder if Penix can provide a spark, especially when considering the flashes from other rookie quaterbacks, including Jayden Daniels and Bo Nix. Morris squashed any hint of a quarterback controversy during the offseason as Cousins methodically worked his way back after rehabbing from a torn Achiles tendon. And he sounded just as adamant on Sunday. 

“Kirk was brought here to put us in a playoff position, to put us in a position to get a home playoff game, win the division in the (NFC) South,” Morris maintained. “Everything is still right in front of us. 

“We’re sticking with our plan.” 

Unless something changes in a hurry, that plan could ultimately spell doom for this Falcons season. 

This post appeared first on USA TODAY

Keep Reading
By
4 Mins Read

Winners and losers from SNF: Bills freeze 49ers in Buffalo

It was December football Sunday night in Buffalo.

Playing in below-freezing temperatures and in the snow, the Buffalo Bills (10-2) defeated the San Francisco 49ers (5-7), 35-10, at Highmark Stadium.

The 49ers took an early 3-0 lead in the first quarter, but Buffalo scored 21 unanswered points in the first half to break the game open. Josh Allen, James Cook and the Bills didn’t look back from there.

It was an uninspired performance from the banged-up 49ers, which will only bolster the narrative that west-coast teams don’t perform well in snowy conditions.

USA TODAY Sports breaks down the winners and losers from Sunday night’s 49ers vs. Bills game:

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

WINNERS

Buffalo Bills

The Bills clinched their fifth straight AFC East title as a result of Sunday night’s win. Buffalo got an early Christmas present on the first day of December.

Josh Allen

Allen, who is from Firebaugh, California, grew up a 49ers fan. He had fun in the snow versus his favorite childhood team.

Allen retrieved a lateral from wide receiver Amari Cooper and ran around the left side for a 7-yard touchdown. The play was quintessential backyard football in the snow. He was credited with a touchdown pass and catch.

Allen checked out of the game in the fourth quarter with the game already in hand.

The Bills’ star quarterback finished 13-of-17 passing for 148 yards and two touchdowns. He also had 18 rushing yards and a rushing score.

James Cook

Cook produced 100 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown on just nine carries in the first half.

His 65-yard touchdown run was a highlight of Buffalo’s first half. It’s the longest touchdown run by a Bills player since 2016.

The Bills’ starting running back produced 107 rushing yards one rushing touchdown and 13 receiving yards in the win.

Bills offense

The Bills offense has scored at least 30 points in six consecutive games. Even snow couldn’t slow the scoring down.

Bills fans

The Bills turned to their fanbase to help shovel snow at Highmark Stadium.

Hundreds of Bills fans showed up to Highmark Stadium to clear roughly two feet of snow.

The Bills offered fans who were 18 and over $20 an hour, food and hot beverages for shoveling snow inside the stadium.

LOSERS

49ers injuries

Injuries have hampered the 49ers all season. Running back Christian McCaffrey sustained a knee injury in the second quarter and was ruled out.

Offensive tackle Trent Williams, defensive end Nick Bosa and cornerback Deommodore Lenoir were all inactive due to injuries on Sunday.

The 49ers entered Week 13 with 10 players on injured reserve.

49ers losing streak

The 49ers have lost three-straight games and are currently in last place in the NFC West. A steep fall for a San Francisco team that’s played in three consecutive NFC title games.

The 49ers lost three games in a row last season, before winning seven of their last nine regular-season contests. That hot streak gave San Francisco momentum in the 2023 postseason.

They’ll need a strong surge again this year. The 49ers (5-7) are currently two games behind the NFC West-leading Seattle Seahawks (7-5).

49ers’ red zone offense

San Francisco had an inefficient night in the red zone. The team went 1-3 in the red area.

Fullback Kyle Juszczyk lost a fumble inside Buffalo’s 5-yard line when the 49ers were threatening to score.

In totality, it was a sloppy performance from the entire 49ers offense. The 49ers lost three fumbles and went 3-10 on third down.

Pass catchers

According to NFL Next Gen Stats, the first half of the game featured the slowest average max route speed (11.8 mph).

This post appeared first on USA TODAY

Keep Reading
By
3 Mins Read

Bengals see playoff hopes likely end at hands of AFC North rival

In front of their home fans at Paycor Stadium, the Cincinnati Bengals likely saw their playoff chances float away in the adjacent Ohio River.

The Bengals lost 44-38 to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday afternoon. It’s Cincinnati’s third consecutive loss and seventh defeat this season within one score.

‘We just haven’t executed the way we needed to,’ Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow said to reporters. ‘I think every game is its own challenge, and each week has been frustrating in some way.’

Burrow tallied 309 passing yards and three touchdowns. It was the third game in a row that Burrow passed for more than 300 yards in a losing effort. But he did toss an interception and lost two fumbles in the defeat.

The Bengals star quarterback entered Week 13 tied for the NFL lead in touchdown passes and top three in passing yards. While wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase is on pace to lead the NFL in receiving yards and touchdown catches.

All things Bengals: Latest Cincinnati Bengals news, schedule, roster, stats, injury updates and more.

However, Burrow and Chase’s stellar performances haven’t translated to many wins.

‘I have to play to the absolute peak of my ability every week for us to go and win,’ Burrow said. ‘Some games I’ve done that, some games I haven’t.’

Cincinnati only has a 4% chance to make the playoffs, per NFL Next Gen Stats playoff probability.

Burrow confidently proclaimed in January 2023 that the Bengals’ Super Bowl window is his whole career, but the team’s road to a championship this year appears to be closed, and it’s only going to get more difficult.

The Bengals dynamic trio of Burrow, Chase and Tee Higgins are presumably playing their final season together. Higgins is likely playing his last year in Cincinnati because the two sides have been unable to secure a long-term deal with the wideout. The Bengals have instead prioritized signing Chase to a lucrative extension, but they have yet to agree on a contract.

The positive news for the Bengals is, they still do have Burrow for the foreseeable future. However, they are going to have to retool around their franchise quarterback, particularly on the defensive side of the football. The Bengals have given up at least 34 points in six of their losses and came into Week 13 with the NFL’s 28th-ranked scoring defense.

‘Stick together (and) take accountability. We got good people in the locker room. It’s an emotional game, you know, especially in a divisional game like this, especially with where we’re at in the season,’ Bengals coach Zac Taylor told reporters postgame. ‘It’s normal for emotions to run high, but at the same time, just got to take accountability for anything we can and stick together and find a way to go find a win.

‘We just got to give ourselves some momentum. That’s three games in a row now that have all been one possession games. We haven’t done enough to earn the win. It’s as simple as that. It’s nobody else’s fault, but our own. We haven’t earned it.’

This post appeared first on USA TODAY

Keep Reading
By
2 Mins Read

Why some NFL fans couldn’t watch Buccaneers vs. Panthers OT ending

The final game of the NFL’s Sunday afternoon slate came down to the wire, as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers executed a late comeback to beat the Carolina Panthers in a tense, overtime thriller.

Unfortunately, not every NFL fan was able to watch the ending live. Why? Because Fox didn’t show the ending of the contest across the country.

The reason for this is simple. Fox and CBS are the two networks that own the rights to the NFL’s Sunday action, and the two networks typically alternate which one gets to broadcast games nationally in both the early- and late-afternoon windows.

In Week 13, CBS was designated to show two games in each regional market. Fox was limited to showing one contest regionally in either the early or late afternoon market.

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

As a result, Fox wrapped up its NFL coverage in each of its markets as the games it broadcast finished. By the time that the Panthers vs. Buccaneers game went into overtime, a majority of the network’s NFL coverage windows had closed, save for the Florida and Carolina-area markets that were scheduled to showcase the NFC South battle.

That led NFL fans hoping to tune into the Panthers vs. Buccaneers ending instead seeing a rerun of Fox’s animated comedy ‘Krapopolis.’

Naturally, this bothered and confused many NFL fans. It was especially true of those who had been watching all of the afternoon’s action on NFL RedZone, as host Scott Hanson told viewers they could catch the end of the contest ‘on their local Fox affiliates.’

That led numerous viewers to complain about the situation on social media.

While this wasn’t a ‘Heidi Game’-style error from Fox and the NFL, the league and its media partners may want to iron out its policies about when RedZone is able to continue showing stand-alone regional games.

Otherwise, the two parties will risk this situation unfolding on occasion, as it has over the last handful of NFL seasons.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY

Keep Reading
By
5 Mins Read

Strong Momentum Continuing at Flicka Lake Gold and Copper Project

Red Mountain Mining Limited (“RMX” or the “Company”) is pleased to advise that it is making highly encouraging progress via exploration programs at the Flicka Lake Gold and Copper Project, part of the four 100% owned Fry Lake sub-projects, located in Ontario, Canada.

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Since acquisition Red Mountain has rapidly advanced the Flicka Lake Project from study phase to delivering highly anomalous gold and copper assay results in a promising new area
  • At the Flicka Lake Gold zone, previous channel samples included 9.96 g/t Au and 12.96 g/t Au while grab samples included 17.88 g/t, 7.38 g/t and 20.07 g/t of Au
  • Due Diligence sampling at the Flicka Zone reported Vein #2 with values of 24.2 g/t Au and 19.4 g/t Au and Vein #3 returned a peak value of 9.35 g/t Au
  • Reconnaissance soil sampling reported exceptionally high gold from two areas:
    • 17.8 g/t Au, 6.32 g/t Au and 1.11 g/t Au returned for three soil samples from the north of the project area
    • 0.816 g/t Au returned for a single sample sample taken from northwest of existing claims
  • Results suggest potential for concealed high grade vein-hosted gold mineralisation similar to that seen at the Flicka Zone
  • Polymetallic copper-rich soil anomalies with values of up to 2,420ppm Cu indicate the potential of Flicka Lake for volcanic-hosted base metal sulphide mineralisation, particularly in the northern part of the tenement
  • RMX continues to investigate these anomalous gold and base metal results at Flicka Lake as well as investigating the mineralisation potential across the other three sub project areas that make up the Fry Lake Project
  • Portfolio has recently expanded in Tier-One Jurisdictions with complementary Gold (WA) and Antimony (NSW) assets secured in a low-cost approach

The Company is now conducting deeper investigations across all four projects into historical exploration, building databases, reinterpreting historical and new results, and designing further work programs to test the multiple, prospective contextualized targets.

The Company’s exploration efforts over the last five months have developed from basic target generation to revealing new areas of mineralization. This has also included efforts to unlock additional areas of mineralisation based on these new and historical results.

In recent months, the Company has achieved a considerable amount, including:

1) In early July RMX identified of key structural targets across the region of underdeveloped Meen- Dempster Greenstone Belt which lies adjacent to the more developed Pickle Lake Greenstone Belt, host to numerous gold deposits. It pegged four clusters of claims covering 37.9km2, namely the Flicka Lake, Relyea Porphyry, Fry Lake Stock and the Fry-McVean Shear. The four projects are based on structural targets, reported alteration, proximity to banded iron, reported gold occurrences and porphyry intrusions, all key elements. (Refer ASX announcement: 2 July 2024)

2) In mid-July, key targets within the Flicka Lake claims were discriminated and a sampling program designed around these key elements. The targeting focused on the mapped faults, shear zones, reported areas of basement alteration and extensions of know zones of interest Identified by past explorers. (Refer ASX announcement: 22 July 2024)

3) In Late July, RMX appointed local geological specialist contractors, Fladgate Exploration Consulting Corporation, to conduct the maiden sampling program which involve a series of 100m spaced traverses along the target areas collecting rock chip and soil samples at regular intervals, with bias to areas of alteration or visible mineralisation. Included in the program was due diligence sampling of the Flick Lake gold bearing quartz veins. (Refer ASX announcement: 31 July 2024)

4) Late August Red Mountain mobilised to site and collected 283 soil and 91 rock samples across the target areas including the due diligence sampling. The samples were analysed by AGAT laboratories in Thunder Bay by Fire assay for gold and Aqua Regia (soils) and four acid digest (rock) base metal suite. (Refer ASX announcement: 28 August 2024)

5) In early November initial results were announced from the 91-rock chip samples. The due diligence rock samples validated the Flicka Zone gold endowed vein system with Vein #2 returning 24.2g/t and 19.4g/t Au while Vein#3 returned a peak value of 9.35g/t Au. These results confirmed the high- grade nature of the gold mineralisation in the area. A rock sample of a pyrite vein 800m WSW of the Flicka Zone and along strike of the main ENE shear produced a 0.514g/t Au highlighted the potential for an extension of the mineralised system. (Refer ASX announcement: 6 November 2024)

6) In Mid-November the soil sample results highlighted two new areas of mineralisation. In the north of the project area three samples with 800m returned 17.8g/t, 6.32g/t and 1.11g/t Au, also locally within the area anomalous copper up to 2,420ppm was identified in the soils. In the northwest of the tenement a soil sample returned 0.816g/t Au, highlighted another area for gold mineralisation. (Refer ASX announcement: 19 November 2024)

Following the considerable success of exploration activities to date, the Company is in the process of designing a follow-up program to target these anomalous soil and rock areas with high density rock and soil samples of sufficient density to define potential drill targets.

Click here for the full ASX Release

This post appeared first on investingnews.com

Keep Reading
By