October 21, 2019
This just in. Nike will be releasing a new Lebron sneaker that is perfect for him to insert his foot into his mouth. At this point, all anybody wants is to see basketball and not hear about bs US or international politics when they watch the NBA. If I wanted to listen to a bunch of people who have no idea what they are talking about I’d just tune into CNN or Fox News. Nevertheless, on the court the Lakers appear to have the best duo in the NBA. Their biggest concern is health, but they have great rebounding and size in the paint, much improved shooting, all which complement two elite superstars. Lebron is going to be playing pissed off all year as well. They might pace themselves during the season, but this team is poised to contend for a title.
Meanwhile, everybody wants to jump on the Clipper hype train. By everyone, I mean every analyst and NBA fan that really just hates the Lakers. I’m not saying the Clippers aren’t going to be good. However, they have no lead facilitator and they have a small front court. They overloaded on wing guys because NBA Twitter believes a bunch of wing guys that play defense and score is all you need in basketball. No need for rebounding or rim protection apparently. We’ve also never seen Paul George, who is coming off double shoulder surgery, play with Kawhi Leonard. Sounds like a lot of skill duplication, yet everyone wants to annoint Kawhi and PG the best duo in the NBA. Considering PG is out for Tuesday, it’s gonna be a while before we find out just what this team is.
Did the Dodgers win the World Series while we weren’t paying attention? You sure would think so listening to Andrew Friedman talk about his team after they were upset in the first round. Apparently, the only problem is Rick Honeycutt, according to Freidman. So we’re going to do this again next year with more or less the same crew so we can pull our hair out again. This is madness! For those of you trying to convince yourself the Dodgers will go sign Anthony Rendon, Gerrit Cole, or even an elite bullpen arm, think again. Andrew Friedman has everybody in the organization drinking his Kool-Aid, thinking that one of these years they might luck into a World Series title with his cheap skate approach to every off-season. Not only can this geek not build a reliable bullpen to save his life, but his “all or nothing” analytical approach at the plate, has resulted in a team that has no idea how to manufacture runs in the most critical moments of the postseason. This is the worst good team to be a fan of.
Meanwhile, the Angels were fortunate enough to land Joe Maddon as their new Manager. I say fortunate because the Tyler Skaggs tragedy might actually force the Halos to fire people, or even cut ties with certain players. Maddon could have easily found the job less appealing with those circumstances. Nevertheless, the Angels have real holes to fill before next season starts. More importantly, can Maddon pitch?
To the NFL where the Rams got back in the win column with a victory on the road against the Falcons yesterday. It’s weird how Jalen Ramsey was acquired, and suddenly his back is 100%. It’s like Oral Roberts is employed by the Rams on their medical staff. You’ve gotta love the Rams for going for it and feeling like their window to win is now. At this rate though, they might not have a first round pick until the year 2041. Devonta Freeman picked the wrong dude to mess with in Aaron Donald. Todd Gurley and Jared Goff made big plays, but it’s going to be a lot easier for this team to win games when they don’t allow any sacks or turn the ball over. That’s easy against Atlanta and should be next week against the Bengals. Remains to be seen if they can do it beyond that.
The Chargers really “Charger-ed” that game yesterday. Watching the 4th quarter was like watching two teams and every single referee play that game while drunk. Of course it was the Bolts who missed out on every opportunity to get that much needed win. Now their season is pretty much toast. Melvin Gordon not only fumbled away the winning touchdown, but he hasn’t rushed for more than 42 yards since November 25th of last year. This dude is losing money faster than Lehman Brothers. If the Bolts are going to just play down to inferior competition and get their secondary destroyed every week, Philip Rivers might as well ask for a trade. Can’t wait to find out how the Chargers find a way to throw away next week’s game against the Bears.
Elsewhere around Week 7, Aaron Jones, Chase Edmonds, Marvin Jones, and Jacoby Brissett each had more touchdowns than the entire Redskins team this week. After the Patrick Mahomes injury, the Patriots, 49ers, and the Madden Curse are still undefeated. Derek Carr said he was more worried about a safe landing than keeping the ball in the Raiders loss to the Packers. He is softer than Charmin toilet paper. Andy Dalton had 3 turnovers in 5 minutes. Not even Betty Crocker is that talented. Mitch Trubisky is giving Bears fans more heartburn than deep dish pizza and Polish sausage. Only the Dolphins would give up a touchdown on an onside kick.
To the college ranks where the Trojans picked up a win against Arizona on Saturday night. It’s not clear just how far into their running back depth chart USC is, but the next man up is an RC car with a football strapped to it. The Pac-12 is still awful at football, and the fact that USC can still win their division in their diminished state says everything about that. Even more wild is the fact that USC suffered 6 major injuries, yet the backups look even better than the starters. That makes you think Helton definitely has no idea what he’s doing. If the Trojans win-out or even make the Rose Bowl in this dumpster fire of a conference, it will be interesting to see if Helton does actually have a chance to save his job. A true nightmare for Trojan fans.
Meanwhile, UCLA probably wishes they could play Stanford every week. The Bruins won for the first time against the trees in over a decade. That’s right folks. The last time UCLA beat Stanford, people we’re buying houses like groceries, and the financial crisis had not even occurred. That’s very likely to be the last win the Bruins will get this season after looking at their schedule the rest of the way. 63 players have left the UCLA program since Kelly took over. Two years ago, Jim Mora Jr. and Chip Kelly essentially traded jobs. Since then, both UCLA and ESPN2’s late night show have suffered immensely.
Finally, another solid 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 that is the case. Carol is dangling upside down and killing walkers. I’m pretty sure Alpha has no idea what bad ass Carol is capable of. Interesting that Carol’s dream about her family life includes Daryl, but after 10 seasons of this show they just can seem to get together. Negan is back so I guess I should go get my shitting pants on for the rest of the season. Eugene is getting friend zoned so hard by Rosita. I have no idea why Daryl said his dad wasn’t a truck drive after telling Carol a story about his dad being a truck driver. The fact that I’m thoroughly confused about this makes me happy that the writers are creating something interesting here. This whole Aaron & Negan dynamic is as close to them trying to re-create Negan and Rick in the comics. Afterall, Aaron also has one hand like Rick does in the comics. Although at the moment, peanut butter and jelly don’t really like each other. Good episode, looking forward to seeing this conflict with The Whisperers escalate.
