Monthly Archives: November 2021

Monday Morning Coffee


November 29, 2021

I don’t know how USC pulled it off. Their coaching search looked like it was sinking faster than the Titanic, yet they managed to lure Lincoln Riley from Oklahoma. Riley is easily a top 5 coach in College Football, and has already been high-jacking five star recruits for USC before I finished writing this paragraph. I asked myself immediately why he would leave Oklahoma, but then it made sense. He can make way more money in LA, and he won’t have to deal with a more difficult conference Oklahoma will be moving to in the SEC. Riley’s first two season at Oklahoma resulted in two CFP appearances and two Heisman Trophy Winners. In other words, I don’t think the turnaround at USC is going to take that long. More importantly though, whether you love USC or hate them, the Pac-12 needs USC to be elite again, because without them the conference is completely worthless, and seen and somewhat of a joke. In a matter of hours, all that has changed and USC might actually be back in no time.

To the NFL, where the Rams are suddenly a disaster. It’s officially time to panic. This team is top heavy, and it’s finally catching up with them. The defense has regressed, we were told the offense had to be fixed, but Matthew Stafford doesn’t seem to be the answer. Whether that’s because he’s hurt or because he’s really a Detroit Lion is hard to know, but it’s a problem. The Rams need Stafford to be the elite QB they thought he was going to be. Stafford might even be making the defense worse because he can’t possess the ball. Every TD is off a big play. They also don’t have as good of a running game as they used to with Cam Akers sidelines because of injury. The Packers played like an elite team yesterday, and the Rams looked totally lost. You can have all the stars you want but 3/4ths of the game is played by role players. Right now, it looks like many of those role players for the Rams just aren’t very good. That means the stars better be about 10x better than they have been if the Rams have any hope of turning things around.

Are the Chargers good? Because every time I watch them they aren’t good, yet everyone has been trying to tell me they are really good. I believe “most talented roster in the NFL” was how many of you described it. The most talented team in the NFL shouldn’t be losing to the Broncos. The entire team is Justin Herbert at this point. If he’s lights out they can hang with anybody. If he’s not, they just aren’t very good. That doesn’t sound like the best roster in the NFL. It’s not going to get any easier next Sunday when the Bolts visit the red hot Cincinnati Bengals. It already feels like the Chiefs have wrestled the division away from everybody else anyway.

The Lakers are playing like a team that is trying to get their coach fired. They may have beaten Detroit yesterday, but they still look terrible. This is not Frank Vogel’s fault at all, but when you lose to teams like Sacramento and Oklahoma City and blow massive leads, the head coach is sure to take the blame. I was told that Russell Westbrook was here to carry the Lakers when Lebron was out. Lebron was out, and Russ probably couldn’t carry a bag of groceries right now, let alone the Lakers. Since that is the case, I’m not sure what he’s doing here. This is poor roster construction on Rob Pelinka. The team is old, not very durable, poor defensively and has almost immovable parts. To make matters worse, the schedule is only going to get tougher. I don’t see how this team is going to improve at all, and the burden is only going to increase on Lebron and AD, which will make them even more susceptible to injury. We saw that last night where Lebron seemed to re-aggravate his abdominal injury, even though he claims he’s good. Can’t say I’m very optimistic about this team at the moment.

I don’t know how the Clippers could possibly be unhappy with their start to the season, even after losing to the Warriors. They were 4th in the West heading into Sunday, and over .500 on the season. They are clearly taking advantage of the fact that teams like the Lakers, Blazers, Nuggets, and Mavericks can’t seem to get out of their own way. I have my doubts that Kawhi will play this season, but you’ve gotta hand it to Paul George, who is putting up MVP numbers. He isn’t Steph Curry or Kevin Durant, but he would certainly get some MVP votes if the season ended today.

To baseball, where we are just a couple of days away from an MLB lockout. However, the Dodgers are vying for the services of Max Scherzer and Corey Seager before then. The noise surrounding Scherzer is that he might actually be going to the Mets, which would be a shocker. It’s hard to say what Seager will do, but considering that Scott Boras is the agent for both we know how this will go. Boras is such a tough negotiator, he probably wouldn’t even give his own mother a discount if he were selling her toilet paper. I’m all for bringing these two back, and I love the fact it sounds like Andrew Friedman is being aggressive. However, I’d hate to see a 3-year or 4-year deal for a 37-year old pitcher, or a 10 year deal for a dude like Seager. As great as these guys are, they won’t be durable for that long. What’s wrong with me? 5 years later it’s like I’ve become Andrew Friedman and Andrew Friedman has become me. Plus, a lockout and a shortened season might not be the worst thing in the world for the Dodgers, who benefit pretty well from it the last time we had a short season.

As for the Angels, they are also in on Scherzer, but I’m thinking Marcus Stroman seems like a good fit for them. Arte Moreno is the kind of guy who would try to stick it to Billy Eppler, and he knows he needs pitching, so I could see him telling Perry Minasian to overpay, just to stick it to Eppler. I’m sure the Angels are doing everything they can to make a splash, and they probably will. The real question is if that splash will lead to any real substance on the field. That remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, UCLA Football took down Cal over the weekend to finish 8-4. That’s it folks 8-4. Say what you will about it not being a bad season, but I’m not paying Chip Kelly $5 million a year to go 8-4 and make it to the Alamo Bowl once every 4 years. That is mediocrity at it’s best, and not what UCLA signed up for when they brought in Kelly. Even when Kelly was asked if he wanted a contract extension by Ben Bolch, he really sounded like he could care less if he got one or not. I’ve never really felt like his heart was in it from day one. Plus you can be sure that next year will be a rebuilding year for Chip Kelly, after he loses a bunch of seniors and starters. Sadly, Kelly will probably stay another year as a lame duck coach because starting your coaching search in January is like showing up to a New Years party after midnight.

That wasn’t the most ideal week for UCLA Basketball, after losing to Gonzaga in embarrassing fashion. However, things weren’t as bad as they seemed. If you take out the first 10 minutes of the game, the Bruins played the Bulldogs pretty evenly. That’s not bad considering the offense was totally out of rhythm, and the defense was never sharp. Mick Cronin nearly predicted this would happen though, after watching his team put together some sloppy victories in the days before the matchup with Gonzaga. I think come March the Bruins could fare much better, but they will definitely need to get Cody Riley back healthy again. There was a major size advantage that Gonzaga had, which will need to be neutralized. UCLA rebounded nicely on Saturday with a blowout win vs UNLV, so things aren’t as bad as they might have seemed.

Finally, The Bachelorette is down to four contestants after last week. We’re down to Nayte, Rodney, Brendan, and Joe. I thought Michelle should have kept Clayton, but he’ll probably end up as the next Bachelor. Is Michelle from Minnesota? I had no idea…..I mean the producers only mention this every two minutes on the show. I have to be honest, this season just doesn’t have enough drama to be interesting. Michelle is a nice, no-nonsense woman, who really hasn’t done much wrong. At this point we usually hate the bachelorette and all the contestants, say we’ll never watch again, and then come back the following season. This time it’s different. There’s just not enough drama, but also not enough drama to keep it interesting. Funny how that works doesn’t it?

Monday Morning Coffee


November 22, 2021

There is much to discuss in this edition of MMC. Starting off with the Staples Center name change to Crypto.com arena.  Of course there is tons of sentimentality to the name “Staples Center”, which I’m sure we will continue to call the arena.  Nobody calls the Coliseum “United Airlines Field”, or called The Forum “The Great Western Forum”.  The real suckers are these companies, that are dishing out hundreds of million of dollars for brand awareness that is failing.  How many people actually identify the Staples Center with the actual retail store Staples? AEG are the real winners here for getting $700 mill for an arena that is 20 years old.  As long as this name doesn’t morph into “Krypto-nite”  and force the Lakers, Clippers, and Kings to wear neon green while serving everyone lime Gatorade, I’m good with the name change.

As for the Lakers, despite yesterday’s win against Detroit, this team is a mess, and is simply not a championship team.  I’ve never seen a team that consistently performs so poorly in the 3rd quarter.  Are they serving a team dinner at halftime in the locker room? That’s my only explanation. I can’t believe Lebron got ejected yesterday. I have to say that when DeAndre Jordan prevented Isaiah Stewart from going after Lebron, that was the best defense he played in years. This obsession with smaller lineups has exposed them on the defensive glass, and their perimeter defense has been suffering as well.  THT is developing nicely, but the fact he is being groomed as a shutdown defender for this team speaks to their lack of options.  I’m most fearful for Frank Vogel and his job, and if I were him, I’d have my LinkedIn profile updated immediately knowing the Buss family.  They have completely untradeable pieces, so their only hope is to get healthier, and somehow get better chemistry.  However, I’ve seen better chemistry between oil and water than what this team has shown me so far.

The Clippers on the other hand, can’t be too upset with how the season is going so far.  They are hovering around .500 and hanging in the playoff mix in the Western Conference.  For a team that is missing two of its best players, and had a handful of others in and out of the lineup, they can’t complain.  They better put some kind of restrictions on Paul George though with the holidays coming up.  PG said he “enjoyed himself too much” the previous holidays, resulting in some abysmal performances.  Somebody tell this dude he needs to ease back on the mashed potatoes, and stay in his shoes when Santa drops off his gifts.

To College Football, where UCLA smoked USC on Saturday afternoon at the Coliseum.  See what I did there? I still called it “The Coliseum” instead of “United Airlines Field”!  Anyway, this game was so out of hand, Dorian Thompson-Robinson was out here signing autographs after throwing TD passes for the Bruins.  The Trojan alums haven’t been this embarrassed since last week.  Actually, the real story behind this game is that it’s a cautionary sign for the Bruin football program.  If they don’t get themselves a different head coach, they will look exactly like USC did a year from now.  I almost never agree with Bill Plaschke of the LA Times, but this time he’s right: Chip Kelly should not be retained.  If they do keep him, they would just be kicking the can down the road, and the program would sink into irrelevancy for at least a year.  Keep in mind that Jim Mora Jr was fired with a much better record than Kelly has, and when he was bowl eligible. That should put everything into perspective for Martin Jarmond to make this decision.

To baseball, where the Angels made a splashy move by signing Noah Syndergaard to a one-year deal last week.  I know it’s easy to tee up all kinds of jokes about the Angels signing pitchers with injuries, but Syndergaard should be healthy now, and when he’s been healthy, he’s been an ace.  This team still needs one or two more arms though, perhaps the likes of Marcus Stroman and Kevin Gausman.  What would have been really nice is if they had signed Justin Verlander, which would have hurt the Astros.  Halo fans would have had the benefit of seeing Kate Upton in the stand an 81 times next season, but that just wasn’t in the cards.  Still, a good start to the winter for the Angels.

In the NFL, the Rams were on a much needed bye week.  However, there is much to be concerned about.  They got obliterated by the 49ers, which always seems to happen, and now people are questioning their legitimacy.  Sean McVay said the last couple of games he refuses to believe that is really who they are.  I usually try to tell myself that when someone tells me I will never date Jennifer Aniston, yet we still haven’t dated.  The truth is probably somewhere in between.  The Rams are a lot better than they showed against the 49ers and the Titans.  However, they have at times been pushed around at the line of scrimmage, the defense has not forced turnovers, and Matthew Stafford has played more like Matthew McConaughey of late.  The bye can help Stafford get healthy and McVay make some adjustments, but as of now, you can’t feel as good about the Rams running through the NFC gauntlet and making it to the Super Bowl. 

That was one wild Sunday Night Football game last night at SOFI. It would have been very “Charger Like” had they lost that game after taking a 27-10 lead into the 4th quarter. Of course to nobody’s surprise, the stadium was dominated by Steelers fans and their terrible towels. That even left Chargers Coach Brandon Staley with little to say other than that the environment “was challenging”. What he really meant to say is “how can this franchise be so embarrassing and not have any of its own fans show up for a Sunday Night home game?” It certainly helped that Justin Herbert passed for over 380 yards and ran for over 90 yards, which nobody in the history football has done. Austin Ekeler killed it too, but it feels like the season is starting to slowly slip away given that the Chiefs have their mojo back, leaving the Bolts to fight it out for a wild card.

Finally, The Bachelorette continues on ABC, as Michelle continues to be courted.  Nice to see the producers actually get these guys to travel, except they had to take these dudes to Minnesota at the start of winter didn’t they? At least Joe was a geographically appropriate date for Michelle, since he’s from there as well.  Joe seems like he has more secrets than Area 51, and Michelle does seem a little naive to them.  However, it’s starting to feel like this is going to end with Michelle and Nayte or Joe.  To Michelle’s credit, she has been surprisingly good  at sending people packing when they don’t need to be there.  I don’t recall this happening anytime in recent Bachelor or Bachelorette history.  That had also made this season much more enjoyable to watch.   I’m ready for some more intense episodes to finish it off, so looking forward to what’s next.

Monday Morning Coffee

November 15, 2021

Let’s start with the team that is playing the best basketball in Los Angeles: The UCLA Bruins. UCLA took down Villanova in overtime at home on Friday, in a game that had March Madness Final Four intensity. I don’t want to hear from you casual fans that you don’t care about college ball until March Madness. Tell that to all the students, fans, and celebrities that packed Pauley Pavilion on Friday night. This UCLA deep is deep, talented, confident, and very well coached. This looks like a continuation of the level they were playing at last spring, and what’s not to love about that? The fans are also getting a little uh…..extra excited…….

On the other hand, the team that isn’t playing great basketball is the Lakers. They may have found the win column yesterday against the Spurs, but it feels like everyone is ready to trade Russell Westbrook to Mars for a can of Coke. I respect how hard the man plays, but we can now finally see why his triple doubles are negated by other aspects of his game. He’s an inefficient shooter, he’s a walking turnover, and a reckless defender. Lebron can’t get back soon enough. Then again, I’m not sure who is going to tell Lebron that it’s Austin Reaves team now. That kid has been a really nice find. So has Carmelo Anthony, who has finally become “Olympic Melo”. Right now this team isn’t close to championship level basketball, and even after seeing THT in the lineup, I’m not that optimistic they are going to get there this year.

Meanwhile, the Clippers are quietly 8-5, handling business against crummy teams. Despite yesterday’s loss to the Bulls, the Clips had won 7 straight before that, and Paul George was telling all the haters to shut up with his play. Considering that Marcus Morris and Serge Ibaka can’t even get healthy, this is another pretty impressive coaching job by Ty Lue. In fact, I don’t hear anybody making fun of Lue anymore, and saying he does nothing but draw clown faces on clipboards during timeouts. The man clearly knows what he’s doing, and it’s showing up in the results. At some point though, the Clippers need to get their stars back and productive if they want to go anywhere this season.

To the NFL, where the Chargers are continuing to find ways to lose their grip on the division. The Bolts lost to the Minnesota Vikings yesterday in typical disappointing fashion for them. This team has a top 3 QB in the league, and they dropped 7 passes. 2 of them would have been for touchdowns. Might as well put these receivers in Times Square for New Years since they are ball dropping experts. As if that’s not bad enough, they’ve got 8 guys that couldn’t even tackle and stop the run. These guys tackle like high schoolers. All of sudden, here come the Chiefs, and they look ready to rip the division away from the Chargers.

Then there’s the Rams, who have a big showdown with the 49ers tonight on Monday Night Football. The real story though is Odell Beckham Jr., who signed with the Rams last week. I feel like OBJ really just signed in LA to hang out with Lebron and drink wine. However, in terms of fit, initially it was really not necessary before Robert Woods tore his ACL. Now that that happened though, OBJ is probably much more of a need. The real question is if the guy can stay healthy though. For all the noise and the antics he’s made over the last few years, he also hasn’t been very healthy during that stretch.

In College Football, Baylor upset #8 Oklahoma, and now suddenly people are talking about Dave Aranda as the next USC Football Coach. Aranda came to Baylor and turned the program around after their rape cover up scandal, which is clearly why everyone is talking about him. If the idea is to just bring in a bunch of people who can clear the air after some scandals than Aranda is your guy. But isn’t that why USC hired Clay Helton? Just to calm things down and get out of the spotlight? Aranda is accomplished, but if the Trojans came away with him as their new head coach, I think most alums would end up burning their season tickets.

I guess we can’t forget about UCLA Football. Does anybody know if Johnny Juzang can play quarterback? Just asking for a friend. The Bruins struggled early but took down Colorado on Saturday. They are now bowl eligible, and everybody is suddenly supposed to be really excited. Chip Kelly is making boat loads of money, and after four years he finally got this program to a bowl game. It’s probably going to be the Jimmy Kimmel Bowl, or some other meaningless consolation game. It’s time……we’ve seen enough. This is as good as it gets with Kelly and UCLA, and its very mediocre. Let’s move on Martin Jarmond.

To baseball, where the off-season rumors are heating up around the Dodgers. They already started things off by signing Andrew Heaney to a one-year deal. I have no idea why, as Heaney was awful for the Angels, and basically has one good year of major league pitching. That’s it. As for Corey Seager, I still have a hard time seeing him coming back, and especially not at a price tag of $300 million. He’s saying all the right things and not ruling it out, but since his agent is Scott Boras, you can bet he won’t leave a single dollar on the table. I still like the chances of the Dodgers retaining both Max Scherzer and Clayton Kershaw though. With Scherzer, I just don’t want to see them give him a 3 year deal. That’s risky for a 37-year-old pitcher. For Kershaw though, I think he’s too great of a competitor to say he wants to go pitch for the Texas Rangers and sit home every October. I say he either pitches for the Dodgers next year or he retires.

The Angels are making noise too. I keep hearing them talk a big game about wanting to add starting pitching, and durable pitching at that. That sounds nice and all, but the real question is if they can outspend all the other teams with free agent money to burn. You also have to wonder how much the reputation of the organization has taken a hit with the lack spending on player development, and the conditions of their minor leaguers. They’ve certainly had some turnover in the scouting and strength and conditioning departments, but you can’t necessarily turn around that perception in a couple of months.

Meanwhile, The Bachelorette is back on ABC tomorrow night with episode 5. Chris S looks like the work-obsessed fiancé that gets dumped for the small town lumberjack in a Hallmark movie. Michelle must be the first bachelorette to realize that men wrestling doesn’t help her find a husband. Props to the producers for actually giving us a musician that we actually know this time. Martin looks like he could be one of Joe Exotics husbands. Best line of the season was from Romeo: “Chris S is a snake, that’s what the S stands for”. Nayte, Brandon, and Joe have to be considered favorites to make it to the Fantasy Suites. I’m not surprised that Will ended up going home after all. If we’ve learned anything about the producers, it’s that just because you survive some drama with one contestant, that doesn’t mean you’re going to stick around yourself. Looking forward to seeing who gets sent packing next!

Monday Morning Coffee

November 8, 2021

The Lakers got dismantled over the weekend by the Portland Trail Blazers, and dropped to an ugly 5-5. The biggest concern for them right now is the amount of injuries they are dealing with. Lebron is out for a week, they are still missing THT and Kendrick Nunn, and Anthony Davis left Saturday night’s game with a stomach illness. That makes perfect sense though. He probably got sick after seeing Russell Westbrook go 1-13 from the field. Russ is struggling big time to fit in. Even more painful is the fact the Lakers gave away two games to the Oklahoma City Thunder, like they were some 501C3 Charity. This could be a bumpy ride for a while before this team gets healthy, stays healthy, and gets their act together on the court.

Meanwhile, Paul George is keeping the Clippers afloat for the time being They’ve taken advantage of the the Thunder and the T-Wolves of late. However, teams have been taking advantage of Eric Bledsoe when he’s on the floor. Heading into Sunday, the Clippers had been outscored by 21 points per 100 possessions when Bledsoe plays. They would be better off if somehow he missed the team bus every game. If that continues to happen, the Clips better hope that Serge Ibaka coming back will help, and that Ivica Zubac keeps balling like he did against the T-Wolves.

What the hell happened to the Rams last night? They haven’t played anybody in a month. They get a wounded animal in the Titans at home, and then they get eaten alive. Their offense disappeared like American Airlines flights, and they got completely manhandled at the line of scrimmage. Yes I realize the Rams were without their left tackle, but you’ve gotta be alarmed that they got destroyed by both the Cardinals and the Titans at home. Their is still stiff competition as well from the Bucs, Packers, and Cowboys in the NFC as well. I wish I could chalk this up to just a tough Sunday night, but there is larger concern against the elites.

Meanwhile, Justin Herbert returned to being Superman for the Chargers, as they got by the Eagles 27-24 on the road. This dude really completed 32 of 36 passes, and carved up the Eagles defense for 356 yards. Good thing Dustin Hopkins made that field goal at the end. I’m sure everyone had their doubts when he missed that extra point earlier. You would think the Chargers might be able to find one guy who could reliable kick a football through the uprights? Apparently that’s not the case. Don’t count out the Chiefs yet in the AFC West either. They are only a half game behind the Bolts in the division, and the Raiders are now tripping over themselves too.

Elsewhere around week 9 of the NFL, Washington should just change their name to “The Washington Bad At Football Team”.   The Browns moved on from Odell Beckham after using him like a coat rack.  I didn’t realize that the Packers really had Kyrie Irving playing QB for them all this time.  It sure feels like that after we found out Aaron Rodgers isn’t vaccinated.  The Bengals lost to the Browns, and Joe Burrow nearly lost his ankles as well.

https://twitter.com/Browns/status/1457411612588101634

In College Football, USC got trounced at home by Arizona State.  There’s not much news on the coaching front, however, the game was a little alarming watching both of the Trojan QB’s.  Neither one looked all that great, and it makes you wonder if even coaching can fix either Kedon Slovis or Jaxson Dart.  Both of them played like they were hungover after a night on fraternity row.   I think if anything, there should be a big overhaul in this Trojan coaching staff, no matter who the next coach is.

Finally, The Bachelorette is back underway, and we’re three episodes into Michelle’s season.  Hopefully this one goes better than the last one, because Katie and Blake broke up about five minutes after the last season ended.  I’m sure the producers were pissed off when Will was the bigger man and decided not to fight.  Jamie definitely gives off the creepy Uncle vibes.  I’ve decided the producers always make it a point to include somebody with amazing and hilarious facial expressions.  There must be a separate audition for it, because Nayte is the guy this season.  Nice move  Will…. he didn’t bring up Peter throwing his jacket in the pool to Michelle so he didn’t ruin her night, and Peter got sent home.  If only every contestant could learn that!  Also gotta love Michelle for calling out Jamie when the rest of the guys played dumb.  Three weeks in and we’re down to Joe, Rick, LeRoy, Nayte, Casey, Chris G, Chris S, Clayton, Olu, and Romeo.   All the guys who were just jerks are gone, and for now, we still like Michelle.

Monday Morning Coffee

November 1, 2021

Things might actually be looking up for the Lakers.  It’s sort of like when you feel bad about yourself, but then there’s always that friend you can talk to that’s living a miserable life and complaining all the time so you feel way better about yourself.  That’s how it feels with the Lakers right now.  After last night’s win over Houston, they’ve won 4 of their past 5 games.  They may be against crummy teams, but that’s ok because they need to bank wins right now while they iron out their chemistry.  The same can’t be said for teams like the Nets and Bucks, who are supposed to be title contenders, but they are struggling to start the season as well.  Kevin Durant is throwing the ball into the stands in frustration, while Kyrie Irving acts like he’s solving some type of world peace by not getting vaccinated.  It’s that type of circus that actually makes the Lakers look semi-normal.  Russell Westbrook is slowly getting more comfortable, but more than anything, the Lakers just need to get healthy and stay healthy.  That will make us feel much better about things. 

Meanwhile, the Clippers are just 1-4 and they are looking for offense the way Kawhi Leonard looks for chicken wings everyday. There’s nobody on the team that is proving reliable offensively other than Paul George. They’ve been held to under 100 points in consecutive games for the first time in 41 games. At this point without Kawhi, I don’t know what is considered success for this team. Is it just staying within striking distance of a playoff spot? Or is it actually being in a playoff spot? Whichever one it is, they need to start getting some wins or else Kawhi might as well take the rest of the season off.

To the NFL, where the Rams destroyed the Texans yesterday, and moved into a 1st place tie with the Arizona Cardinals. It turns out that Sean McVay doesn’t actually hate Robert Woods after all, and is suddenly finding creative ways to use him in the offense again. The Rams must have been drinking in that fourth quarter though, because they gave up 22 unanswered points to the Texans, which was largely because of sloppy special teams play. I’m sure there were gamblers screaming at the top of their lungs when their parlays were wrecked because the Texans scored some garbage points. That’s the life of a gambler. The Rams are no doubt in the mix as one of the best in the NFC, but they’ve got stiff competition from the Bucs, Packers, and Cardinals right now. They’ll also get some stiff competition from the Titans next Sunday night at SOFI, who are a monster to deal with as well. However, reinforcements are on the way, with the Rams trading for Von Miller this morning. Von Miller, Aaron Donald, and Jalen Ramsey on the same defense? Yes please! I have no idea how the Rams still have any picks left to deal, but Les Snead is finding a way. The honeymoon part of the schedule is over, but the Rams should be up for the challenge.

As for the Chargers, they have turned back into the pumpkin we know them as. They lost at home to a very average Patriots team that simply outsmarted them. Now it suddenly feels like teams are starting to figure out Justin Herbert, and it’s costing the Bolts on third downs. Herbert and the coaching staff will need to figure out how to adjust to defenses moving forward, especially as they take away the deep threat, and are content to just give up yards on the ground. This wasn’t some late game choke job like we’ve been seeing over the years, but with the Chiefs struggles right now, the Bolts are blowing a huge opportunity to seize control of the AFC West.

Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert looks to pass in the fourth quarter of a 27-24 loss to the New England Patriots.

Elsewhere around the NFL in week 8, only Kirk Cousins could lose a game to Cooper Rush, as the Cowboys got by the Vikings on SNF. RIP to my fantasy team and yours if you have Derrick Henry, as well as the Titans season. AJ Green decided to retire on the last play of the game vs the Packers in the Cardinals loss on TNF. The Bengals should be demoted to the CFL after losing to the Jets. Baker Mayfield and the Browns broke Odell Beckham Jr. No wonder the Bears are losing, Justin Fields is out here wearing thong under wear.

https://twitter.com/TotalProSports/status/1439679224831483905?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1439679224831483905%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublish.twitter.com%2F%3Fquery%3Dhttps3A2F2Ftwitter.com2FTotalProSports2Fstatus2F1439679224831483905widget%3DTweet

USC took down Arizona on Saturday afternoon in a meaningless homecoming game that I’m not sure anybody actually watched. However, the story of the week is the fact Mike Tomlin’s name came up regarding the Trojan head coaching vacancy. Tomlin then scolded reporters like they were 5 years old when he got asked about it. I’m kind of hoping that LSU or USC step up and double his current salary so he has to go back to his wife and explain why he is turning down a college job, especially since he claimed “there is no blank check big enough” to get him to leave the Steelers. I don’t see Mike Tomlin leaving, but the story is pretty hilarious, and so was his reaction. I still think when it’s all said and done, USC is going to be James Franklin’s job, or Luke Fickell’s.

Finally, they still let Chip Kelly coach football? Haven’t we seen enough of this madness already? This is the best product we’ve seen from Chip Kelly at UCLA, and it’s still terrible. In a year where he has plenty of experienced players that he recruited, and where USC is down, they can’t even seize control of the Pac-12 South. They give you moments of optimism, followed by moments where they just look completely unprepared. That’s exactly how it looked over the weekend against Utah. That’s a team they should have handled, and instead they got run over by Utah’s running game. This program might as well be burning money with what they are paying Chip Kelly to lose football games for them. At this point, it looks like the best you’re going to get out of Chip Kelly is an appearance in The Jimmy Kimmel Bowl.