5 THINGS TO KNOW

1. Maybe baseball needs a clock

Don’t be surprised if you doze off during one of these World Series games, wake up and discover they’re not even at the seventh-inning stretch. With managers and pitching coaches walking to the mound earlier and more often in another postseason of record game times, the average time of a nine-inning game during the playoffs stretched to a sometimes thrilling but often annoying 3 hours, 32 minutes, up seven minutes from last year and 18 from 2015. More baseball, C6

2. Big rematch or big yawn?

Maybe local fans feared a Sunday Night Football flop by the Falcons in their celebrated Super Bowl rematch with the Patriots (it was). Maybe New Orleans fans hoped to see their division rivals embarrassed (they were). But for some reason, the game drew a higher TV rating in New Orleans than in Atlanta. According to Nielsen figures, the markets with the four highest ratings for the game were: Boston (38.2), Providence, R.I. (31.2), New Orleans (20.8) and Atlanta (20.6). Nationally, the Patriots’ 23-7 win over the Falcons registered a 12.6 rating, the highest of any NFL prime-time game since this season’s opening week.

3. Falcons find slippery slope

The Falcons, who were rated as high as No. 2 in some NFL power rankings in September, have fallen to No. 12 on ESPN and as low as 19th on NFL.com.

4. ‘Spoon’ back at linebacker

The Falcons have signed linebacker Sean Weatherspoon for his third stint with the team, adding depth to the position that lost rookie Duke Riley to a knee injury. C2

5. For Kuchar, a jet setback

Georgia Tech alum Matt Kuchar’s planned golfing tour of Japan, Turkey and China found some hazards: a typhoon and strained international relations. C8