The Sunday edition of NYT Connections Sports Edition arrives with puzzle #713, serving up a grid that spans protective play, shared surnames, one football roster, and a sharp bit of name manipulation.
What Makes Connections Sports Edition Tick
For newcomers, NYT Connections Sports Edition presents 16 sports-themed words that must be sorted into four thematic groups of four. The twist? You're limited to four mistakes, and the color-coded difficulty system (yellow being easiest, purple being trickiest) means surface-level connections often mislead.
Connections Sports Edition brings the same addictive puzzle format to the world of athletics, featuring athletes, teams, sports terminology, and legendary moments. The game's genius lies in its red herrings, words that could fit multiple sports categories but belong in only one.
Today's Grid at a Glance
Here are the 16 words staring back at you in puzzle #713:
COVE | COVER | MARKS | SHIELD
DEACON | DODGERS | DELL | MAC
STROUD | GUARD | THOUGH | CART
DANIEL | BLANKET | STINGLEY | JONQUEL
A seemingly random collection that somehow connects into four perfect categories.
Strategic Hints (No Spoilers Yet)
Yellow Category Nudge: Think about the language of denying space, access, or an opponent's advance.
Green Category Clue: Shift your attention from teams to people, then test whether several entries can precede the same family name.
Blue Category Hint: Focus on a single professional football roster, looking across more than one position.
Purple Category Teaser: Treat the strangest leftovers as altered names, with a small change at the front doing all the work.
The Full Solutions
Last chance to solve independently: answers below
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Yellow (Defend): BLANKET, COVER, GUARD, SHIELD
COVER, BLANKET, SHIELD, and GUARD can all mean DEFEND or protect. COVER creates a deliberate visual distraction beside COVE, but the final letter sends the two entries into different groups.
Green (Joneses): DANIEL, DEACON, JONQUEL, MAC
MAC, JONQUEL, DEACON, and DANIEL become recognizable sports names when followed by JONES. The mix of football and basketball keeps the shared surname from announcing itself immediately.
Blue (Houston Texans): DELL, MARKS, STINGLEY, STROUD
MARKS, DELL, STROUD, and STINGLEY are linked as HOUSTON TEXANS. STROUD is the easiest roster anchor, while the surname pattern in the green group can tempt an early search for another shared name.
Purple (Nfl Qbs, With The First Letter Changed): CART, COVE, DODGERS, THOUGH
Each purple entry becomes an NFL quarterback's surname when its first letter changes: DODGERS becomes RODGERS, COVE becomes LOVE, THOUGH becomes SHOUGH, and CART becomes DART.
The Verdict
The protective verbs offer the cleanest opening group, although the one-letter gap between COVER and COVE is an effective early trap.
The real pressure sits between the surname set and the Texans roster, since both ask you to recognize athletes rather than ordinary word meanings. The altered-quarterback group is the streak-decider because SHOUGH and DART are less immediate transformations than RODGERS and LOVE.
Reset and Repeat
Tomorrow brings a fresh grid and another chance to reset. Today's standout move was the quarterback trick, especially the neat turns from THOUGH to SHOUGH and CART to DART.
For now, puzzle #713 is solved. See you at midnight for the next round.
