December 5th, 2016
Let’s start with the comedy show that is the Rams. After getting blown out in New England yesterday, the Rams are an ugly 4-8, and dealing with some obnoxious off the field issues at the same time. Jared Goff and Todd Gurley were pretty pathetic, as was the entire defense as the Pats dismantled LA. This outcome was fairly predictable though, as Jeff Fisher was probably watching game tape on Drew Bledsoe in preparation for this matchup. Fisher couldn’t even identify who the Patriots running backs were heading into the game, so how could he stand any chance against Bill Belichick and Tom Brady? If that’s not bad enough, we found out yesterday that Jeff Fisher and General Manager, Les Snead, were given contract extensions. That’s like rewarding your child with a new car for getting C’s in school. Fisher also got caught lying to the media earlier this week during the Eric Dickerson drama as well, in which he claimed he was welcome around the team, while he really told the Rams legendary running back he didn’t really want him around the team. The Rams have no idea what being in the LA market means both on and off the field, and they are learning about it the hard way. Looks like we’re going to see some mediocre NFL football in LA for a while. Jeff Fisher can’t even find his challenge flag……
Elsewhere around the NFL, the Chargers lost another close game after leading in the 4th, and their fans are probably numb to it by now. Pretty soon LA is going to have two mediocre football teams. The Seahawks had a good laugh on Sunday Night Football against the Panthers, until Earl Thomas broke his leg and is now considering retirement. Eric Berry looked like Deion Sanders, and the Chiefs got by the Falcons. The Lions beat the Saints, then trolled all the ESPN analysts on Twitter for picking against them. Blake Bortles isn’t very good at football, and the Jaguars got handled by the Broncos. The Packers aren’t dead just yet after beating the Texans. The Eagles are getting Philly fans ready for a long 76ers season by losing their third straight to the Bengals. Those are the Miami Dolphins I know! They got pounded by the Ravens. Is Chip Kelly ready to go back to college football yet? His 49ers got blasted by the Bears. The Raiders came back from the dead and beat the Bills. The Steelers remembered how to play football again and beat the Giants. The Redskins played more like the foreskins, as they got beat by the Cardinals. The Cowboys beat the Vikings on Thursday Night Football, and the Chargers will move to LA by the time the Vikings offense ever scores another touchdown.
On to the college ranks, where after all the drama, the Trojans are going to the Rose Bowl. In just a matter of two months, USC went from having a dumpster fire of a football program that wanted its coach ejected from the universe, to having one of the elite programs in the country. The Trojans are playing as well as almost any of the playoff teams, and you could still make a case for them to be in the playoff with 3 losses. However, It’s almost better that USC is going to the Rose Bowl instead of the playoff, so they don’t get their brains beat in by Alabama, as Washington will on New Years eve. With huge victories against Washington, Colorado, as well as against rivals UCLA and Notre Dame, USC should feel like they have rightfully earned their place in the Rose Bowl. They’ve also brought the program back to where USC football probably should be.
As for the rest of the college football playoff, Alabama clinched a spot in the playoff after beating Florida 54-16, and Nick Saban probably chewed out his kids for giving up 16 points. They might as as well request a promotion to the NFC South so they can actually have a challenge in the playoffs. Ohio State and Clemson deserve to be in there, but I was hoping to see some new teams. Washington is sure to get embarrassed by Alabama, which is basically a punishment for winning the Pac 12. I think it’s safe to say that Penn State just got “Sanduskied” by the playoff committee. Urban Meyer once said if you win your conference you shouldn’t play for a National Championship. I’m still not sure how Ohio State is in under that logic, and why Michigan even got consideration.
Let’s talk college hoops, where UCLA basketball is back! The Bruins just had their biggest road win in about a decade, as they upset #1 Kentucky on Saturday. John Calipari is outraged because he isn’t paying his kids millions of dollars to lose games like this in December. As punishment, he’s going to take away all of the cell phones and cars he gifted his players. In all seriousness though, Lonzo Ball and TJ Leaf are playing so well, their talent has actually allowed many other Bruins to settle into more effective roles on the team. Bryce Alford and Isaac Hamilton are perfect examples of this. More than anything though, the Bruin defense is beyond impressive. Never did I think a Steve Alford coached team could challenge so many shots at that end of the floor. There’s still a long way to go, and Pac 12 play won’t be easy, but UCLA has a shot to be the #1 seed out West, and has the talent win a National Championship.
To the NBA, where the Laker injuries are starting to catch up with them. The Lake Show got crushed in Toronto, and lost a very disappointing game to Memphis on Saturday. This is an absolutely brutal stretch, where its starting to feel like that playoff seeding is starting to slip away. There’s not too many teams that can win when losing their starting backcourt, and the Lakers have done pretty well just to get this far. It doesn’t help though that LA is letting guys like Troy Daniels (yea I’ve never heard of him either) drop 31 points on him. We’re starting to see more instances of lackluster defense, more isolation basketball, and silly turnovers, which is very characteristic of a young team. Hopefully the Lakers can correct that to stay in the race.
As for the Clippers, I’m still not buying what they are selling. Yes, they went on the road and beat up Cleveland. However, Lebron looked about as relaxed as he does when he goes Banana boating with Chris Paul in the summer, and the Cavs didn’t seem to care. The Clipps have lost four of their last six games including last night’s loss to Indiana, and they still look a lot more like the team we’ve seen the last 5 years. They’ve also slipped to third in the West, and here come the mighty Warriors to Staples Center on Wednesday. This is one showdown I can’t wait to see, but fully expect Golden State to handle business.
I completely forgot about Tiger Woods, and he’s back. Although he finished 15th out of 17 at the Hero World Challenge. As sad as it is to say, that’s a major accomplishment for him these days. I’m not sure how that gets him to move up 248 spots in the world rankings, but apparently it’s likely to happen. We are far from the days of Tiger’s dominance, however, hopefully he can win a major this year and has a tournament or two win in him. That would definitely bring some excitement back to the PGA, because the current names just don’t bring it.
Finally, a creepy episode of The Walking Dead went down last night on AMC. Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it, so read no further if you plan on watching it later. This episode was 90 minutes of Negan toying with Carl. If Carl was supposedly on this suicide mission to kill Negan, then why didn’t he just pull the trigger and shoot him and everybody else when he had the chance? He has a lot of guts, but also has a lot of stupidity. So does Michonne, who suddenly thinks she can take out Negan by herself. Who does she think Negan is, the Governor? He makes the Governor look like Mr Rogers. I think Negan spent more quality time with Judith in that episode than Rick has over the course of the entire series. I love that slap Olivia gave Negan, but there’s gotta be a small part of her that would think about sleeping with him like he offered. I mean, she probably doesn’t get laid much in the real world, let alone with the apocalyptic world. Negan is clearly Hugh Heffner in the apocalyptic world. This was definitely not the episode to be ironing your laundry while watching. If Negan was really intent on punishing Carl, he would have given him a haircut. This was definitely an “eye-opening” episode. I can’t believe we’re already at the mid-season finale next week! For once, I don’t think we’re going to get an all out war between Rick’s group and the opposition during the mid-season finale. When did Gabriel become so damn likable on this show? That war feels like several episodes away. If there’s one character that I would bet wouldn’t make it to through the next episode, it’s Spencer. Looking forward to seeing how it all goes down next week!
