September 13, 2021
It’s only one game, but that’s exactly how I expected the Rams to look in their season opener against the Bears. It turns out Matthew Stafford might actually be a lot better at this football thing than you thought he was, now that he has receivers, a good defense, and an elite coach I’m a little unconvinced of the effectiveness of their run game long-term, but they’ve got time to figure that out. That NBC Broadcast got a little awkward when Al Michaels incorrectly identified a woman as “Matt Stafford’s wife”. Meanwhile, I’m not so sure how badly the Bears offense needs to look for them to start Justin Fields. He’s clearly the QB with the higher ceiling, who gives them a better chance to win now.
Meanwhile, the Chargers did not look like the Chargers yesterday, and that was a good thing. That was a game that the Bolts would almost always lose in previous seasons, but Justin Herbert stepped up. So did Austin Ekeler, and I love the fact he has a complete love affair with his fantasy football owners. It’s such a strong affair, it’s awkwardly better than many people’s marriages. The Bolts have lost so many of these close games in seasons past, it feels like they have to have some positive regression to the mean. Yesterday was a good start, and Brandon Staley may be the guy to finally turn that around.
Elsewhere around the NFL, Dak Prescott was great, but Tom Brady, Gronk, and Antonio Brown played like it was 2012 in the Bucs win over the Cowboys. Bills Mafia is probably going to be jumping off bridges instead of on tables after their loss to the Steelers. The Browns turned back into the Browns late in the game in their loss to Kansas City. Aaron Rodgers and the Packers looked like clowns against the Saints, after a whole off-season of noise. The Texans don’t even know how to tank after beating up on the Jags.
To the college ranks where all you people calling for the firing of Clay Helton after USC lost to Stanford are hilarious. It’s like you have been asleep at the wheel for the last 6 years, pretending like Pete Carol still coaches this team. Saturday’s result was no surprise for those of us that have been paying attention. The USC administration isn’t prioritizing football like you think they should be. They just wanted a coach like Helton who can be under their thumb. If you are delusional like Bill Plaschke of the LA Times, you think SC is going to fire Helton before the season ends. Think again. He’s not getting fired until the school gets serious about winning again. Until then, expect more losses to Chardonnay drinking nerds like Stanford.
Elsewhere around College Football, Notre Dame barely survived against Toledo. Even Touchdown Jesus was covering his eyes for the majority of that sloppy game. The Irish victory against FSU a week earlier sounded impressive until the Seminoles lost to Jacksonville State on a last minute miracle. Oregon shocked Ohio State, and I’m pretty sure the Buckeyes were going to lose when this happened.
To baseball where the Dodgers swept away the Padres over the weekend, but it looks like they have no chance to catch the Giants with 18 games left in the regular season. On one hand, I respect the idea of the Dodgers keeping dudes like Will Smith and Corey Seager fresh for the playoffs and not burning them out in September. On the other hand, we need to see a lot less of Cody Bellinger before this dudes confidence is shattered like a beer mug at fraternity happy hour. At this point, even if the Dodgers brought up a minor leaguer hitting .220, he would be more productive offensively than Bellinger. If the last week has shown anything, it’s that this team is capable of exploding offensively at any time, or forgetting how to hit entirely with their swing for the fences approach. That’s a scary thought with a one game wild card on the horizon. Max Scherzer is somehow even better than Trevor Bauer though, and may just be all the magic the Dodgers need in October.
The Lakers traded Marc Gasol last week, which was really a bummer. I liked Gasol because he could stretch the floor, unlike DeAndre Jordan and Dwight Howard. However, the real issue with trading him is that the team doesn’t really have much salary to move in future trades, and even fewer draft picks I trust Rob Pelinka and all, but hopefully the Lakers don’t need any tweaks during the season, because their tool box is pretty limited.
Finally, the Walking Dead went down last night on AMC in another episode that really “caught fire” by the end of it. I think most of us were rather pleased that the dog survived so we didn’t have to show up at the AMC studios with pitch forks and tiki torches in protest. Why is it always Daryl who ends up getting taken prisoner? The better question is who will end up with final custody of that dog? It should be Daryl when its over. Every time a missing character returns, you can always count on them being a part of the villain group. Carol would probably have shown Leah the flowers at this point. Pope is one scary villain. He’s not Negan with Lucille or Alpha, but if you are BBQ’ing dudes in a fire, you’re pretty scary.
