Monday Morning Coffee

APphoto_UCLA Nebraska Football

September 16th, 2013

There is much to discuss in this edition of Monday Morning Coffee, starting with the Bruins big win over Nebraska.  The Bruins are 2-0, and Saturday’s win was quite a statement for the program and head coach Jim Mora.  Mora spent the entire week consoling the Pasquale family, after the 20 year old sophomore was killed last weekend after he was hit by a car.  Simultaneously, Mora put together a brilliant game plan against the Cornhuskers, in which he continued to run the ball until the Bruins broke through.  The Cornhuskers were out for revenge from last year’s loss to UCLA, but the Bruins exploded in the 2nd half.  The Bruins are now 13th in the AP Poll, but how the hell are they ranked behind South Carolina?  Typical college football nonsense.

As for the Trojans, their blowout win over Boston College seems to have temporarily quieted down Lane Kiffin’s critics, who were about ready to burn his house down.  Kiffin finally selected Cody Kessler as his starting quarterback, and decided to take the reigns off Kessler instantly.  The results were astoundingly different, as he threw for 237 yards and 2 touchdown passes.  The real question though: Why does Lane Kiffin create more drama than a teenage girl on her prom night?  He refused to tell the media who his starting quarterback was, even though he already knew it was Kessler.  Then the players organized a players only meeting last week, which he denied ever happened, despite several players insisting that it did happen.  When you deliver wins, you can live with some occasional drama.  However, when you underachieve, it isn’t tolerated for long, and I’m sure Pat Haden is well aware of this.

I was very disappointed watching the Alabama vs Texas A&M game.  I was really hoping Johnny Manziel would take much more physical punishment, and frankly, he deserved it for simply behaving like an idiot the last couple of months.  Still, I gotta admit the kid can play.  Speaking of disappointing, Notre Dame was horrendous against Purdue, and the weekend was almost a complete disaster for them with Michigan nearly losing to Akron.  The Irish averted disaster this weekend, but even Touchdown Jesus can’t seem to make Tommy Rees a good quarterback.

On to baseball, where the Dodgers appear to be mailing it in.  The Boys in Blue have a magic number of just 4 to clinch the NL West with 13 games to go, but they looked about as interested as you would be in sleeping with Rosie O’Donnell.  The Dodgers lost 3 of 4 to the Giants over the weekend, including a 19-3 beat down by San Francisco on Saturday.  I’m not sure why Don Mattingly has decided to turn many of these final games into spring training games, filled with a number of players who will likely not be in the playoff roster.  This is troubling since the Pirates and Cardinals have blown by the Dodgers in the race for home field advantage in the playoffs.  Get it together Donnie Baseball.  Your job may depend on it!

Meanwhile, the Angels, have quietly won 17 of their last 23 meaningless games.  Don’t be fooled kids.  We’ve seen this movie before, and when it ends, you always end up saying “If only we had a better start we would be in good shape.”  The reality of it is the pitching is still a pile of crap, and they’ll need a general manager who is going to overhaul the starters and the bullpen.  Oh, and they’ll probably need a new general manager too.

A few quick thoughts on Week 2 of the NFL.  Can anyone beat the Broncos?  They look like they are going to cruise through the AFC.  Impressive road win by the Chargers against the Eagles, especially after choking last week against Houston.   The Cowboys are still the Cowboys. They get a big win against the Giants, and follow it up with a pathetic loss to the Chiefs.  The NFC East looks weak.  The Seahawks are going to be tough to beat with home field advantage, and are the only team that has figured out the 49ers.

As rumored here on Jock Talk LA a few weeks ago, TJ Simers has officially left the LA Times.  Simers is controversial and has his critics, but one cannot deny that he is entertaining.  Simers will now write columns for the Orange County Register that will appear on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sunday’s.  He also took a shot at the Times on his way out the door, calling it “a dead newspaper”. TJ, if you think the LA Times is dead, you have no idea how crappy the OC Register is!

I feel sorry for anyone that actually paid $54 to watch Floyd Mayweather dominate Canelo Alvarez on Saturday night in Las Vegas.  “Mayperview” has become a joke, and so has boxing.  This sport is on life support, and they can’t even present people with the best possible product to keep the sport going.  We all know Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao makes the most sense, and is the only fight worth watching.  Make it happen, or boxing will be dead faster than the OC Register!

Miss America was crowned last night, and the winner was Nina Davaluri of New York, who is of Indian decent.  Before I get in my usual beauty pageant jokes here, I have to say that I’m shocked at the ignorant racist reaction on twitter, and other message boards that took place last night after the pageant.  Davaluri was born in the United States, and has lived here her whole life.  Memo to you morons dropping racial bombs:  This country was actually built by immigrants.  Half of your comments make reference to her being a Muslim, which isn’t even true.  It’s just unfortunate that most of the people making these comments are uncultured buffoons.  Still, with all that being said, I’m disappointed there were no idiotic statements in this pageant, as there was from Ms. Teen South Carolina a few years ago.

Nina

And finally, Breaking Bad had by far it’s most shocking episode last night.  Earlier this week, I heard the show described as “the last 15 minutes of sex, for a whole hour.”  I think that accurately describes the third to last episode of the series, called “Ozymandias”.  Spoiler alert for those of you who have it on DVR.  To summarize things, Hank and Gomez are killed in the aftermath of the shootout, Todd’s Uncle Jack takes most of Walt’s money, Walt Jr. knows the truth about his father, and Jesse is being held captive by the white power Nazi’s and forced to cook meth with Todd.  Also of significance, Skyler slashed Walt’s hand with a knife, and Junior calls the police on his dad.  Shortly after that, Walt runs away and takes Holly with him, only to leave her at a fire station later on with her address pinned to her baby clothes.  The episode ends with Walt getting in the vacuum cleaner man’s red van, presumably to start his new life.  However, based on some of the flash-fowards we’ve seen, we know this isn’t true.

For those of you wondering what the hell “Ozymandias” is, it’s a poem written by Percy Shelly about the downfall of a kings.  The meaning of the poem is that all people who are in power, will eventually lose their power.  That is exactly what we witnessed in this episode.  Walt had built a huge drug empire, with more money than he could ever spend in a lifetime.  And all in one episode, his brother-in-law dies, and the rest of his family has turned against him.  I found the most powerful scene in this episode to be when Walt was on the phone with Skyler, condemning her for telling Junior the truth.  Walt channeled his inner “Heisenberg” at this moment with his threatening tone, but he is really doing this to protect Skyler from the police, who are listening to this conversation.  Skyler eventually realizes this before she hangs up the phone.  We see Walt doing this with tears in his eyes, which is a moment in which he looks more like the cancer stricken Walter White, who was simply trying to provide for his family, rather than the mastermind criminal Heisenberg.  There’s just two more episodes left.  Will Walt kill Todd’s Uncle Jack?  Will he kill Jesse?  I’m not sure how they can top this episode, but it figures to be an amazing finish.

Skyler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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