GREAT SPORTS WEEKEND…NOT REALLY’

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My ‘Great Sports Weekend’ turned into a ‘Lost Sports Weekend’.

Shocking football to say the least in most of the games we pay attention to.

CHARGERS-CHIEFS…Kansas City’s offense won the first half…and the Chiefs defense won the 2nd half in the Sunday lopsided (31-17) KC win at Arrowhead Stadium….It was like going to a restaurant and looking at a good menu with lots of good things on it.  That’s what the opening half was.  Big passing plays and big turnovers too.

There were 5-TDs in a 7-minute span in the second quarter.  Then in the second half, 1-TD late that cemented the game as it became a battle of field position.

But in the end it was the Chiefs defense that changed the chemistry of the game keeping the Chargers out of the end zone 6-straight times and picking off two passes as KC won its 6th game in a row, and the Bolts plunged deeper into the playoff abyss.

Same old-same old for Brandon Staley.  His defense gave up tons of chunk plays again.  Mahomes was (20-of-23)  for (321Y-3TD) in the first half.  Travis Kelce had (9R-143) before halftime.

Justin Herbert tried to match KC bullet for bullet then misfired the entire 2nd half, gettng shutout over the final 6-possesions  Herbert threw two picks, was sacked 5-times as the game got away from his team, whose playoff hopes are eroding away.

Josh Palmer had a breakout game (5R-133Y), but Keenan Allen had a lid put on him.  Punter JK Scott pinned KC back to the 3-4 and 7-yard lines with booming punts.

But then again this is Mahomes, the Chiefs, and all that firepower, that went 96-yards for a tD drive.  KC also had a critcal 50-yard punt return setting up the insurance TD in the win.

For Staley, just another Sunday of disastrous play in the Bolts secondary, the one that gave up 16-more plays of plus 10-yards including big chunk plays of 47-48 and 54-yards plus the 50-yard kick return.

A recurring nightmare of breakdowns from your best players, and not much of a pss rush either.  This sure looks hopeless and you wonder how much longer the Chargers front office can maintain confidence in this head coach.

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RAMS-STEELERS…The Steelers upset the Rams in LA.  Think about this, with one of the most anemic offenses in the NFL, Pittsburgh is in first place in the AFC-orth, with a (4-2) record.

The Rams defense wilted as the Steelers mounted 3-scoring drives in the second half and Pittsburgh scored 3TDs on the ground in that second half.

Matthews Stafford and Puka Nacua were dazzling but there was not much else for the Rams to hang their hat on. So the Rams got beat again and those playoff hopes are starting to look shaky  also.

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USC-UTAH…So much for Lincoln Riley’s status as an offensive guru.  So much for NIL-king Caleb Williams, on my TV everytime I look up doing commercials.  Goodbye playoff hopes.  Goodbye Heisman Trophy votes.

The shine is surely off Riley’s status, knocked off, punched off, sand-blasted off by Utah Utes coach Kyle Whittingham, who does more with less, while Riley has more than anyone and done less the last two seasons.

Can’t imagine the big money Trojan Club wants to hear about Riley’s theories any longer.  What they want to know is why his star studded quarterback is chased out of the pocket into the parking lot each Saturday because of horrific pass protection.  The big studs upfront have become the big stiffs, getting their Heisman Trophy QB killed.

Riley’s best friend, defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, saw the Trojans defense buried by a 3rd string quarterback, a Utes team winning with a backup running back and without its top wide receiver.

Quite a Saturday night, as Whittingham’s X-and-Os and the Utes muscle mauled USC, a week after Notre Dame nailed them in South Bend.  And by the way, the Trojans still have to play Oregon-Washington-UCLA before we get to December.

Overhyped?  Maybe.  Undercoached? Definitely.

UCLA-STANFORD…Chip Kelly has never met a lie he wouldn’t tell.  Quarterback change, sitting the overwhelmed freshman Dante Moore and going to lifetime backup Chase Garbers, who led the Bruins to a win against Stanford.  Of course Kelly wouldn’t talk about his quarterbacks all week.

Guess it’s his right to hide the facts.  We’re all used to that, and you can ask the Holiday Bowl backers about Kelly’s honesty-dishonesty dating back to the cancelled bowl game just hours before it was to be played and the catastrophic financial damages it caused here in San Diego

The Bruins got a win, the defense played well.  Moore will be back as the starter soon, and just has to work thru the growing pains of 6-turnovers and 3-pick sixes in the last three starts he made.  Don’t know if Kelly will ever regain his credibility.

AZTECS-NEVADA…There have been some galling SDSU losses over the last couple of coaching staffs.  Ted Tollner, trying to win a conference title, lost to an (0-10) UNLV team that began a spiral down that ended his career at SDSU.

There was horrific low point loss to TCU in the Chuck Long era of errors in his 15-minutes stay at SDSU.  That 76-3 loss says it all about that hire.

This Saturday night showing infront of a ton of empty seats, the (6-0) loss to winless Nevada ranks right up there with other disgraceful setbacks.  Yes they lost to the Wolfpack, who had an (0-6) record this year, with a 119th ranked defense, and a team that walked into the stadium with a 16-game losing streak.

SDSU shutout by those guys.  They had 74-yards at halftime.  They turned the ball over on another Jaylen Maden fumble, trying to drive for the game winning TD.  They were (0-10) on third downs and finished with all of (204Y) in offense.  They were booed by the fans and the empty seats.

All this at midseason with Ryan Lindley’s new system obviously regressing.  I don’t think Hoke’s job is in jeopardy, but his credibility as the Aztecs head coach has to be questioned.

I see similar comparisons to his final days at Michigan, when the Michigan man got fired.  He lost quarterbacks in Ann Arbor, and then fired his offensive coordinator Al Borges.  Carbon copy of what has happened on Montezuma Mesa.

5-past quarterbacks gone, and so was his offensive coordinator mid season last year.  This is pretty messy.  This is the best he has to offer and it’s (3-5).

USD-DRAKE…Pick and choose what is disturbing about what’s going on at Alcala Park.  A (1-6) season with a new coach.  The dismissal of pretty successful old school head coach Dale Lindsey at the end of last season.

The ugliness of the hazing scandal in the football program.  The administration’s lack of transparency with the media about the probe and suspensions and reinstatements.  Do you know they have not made the coach available to the media since mid summer and it is almost November?  No player interviews either.

Athletic Director Bill McGillis refuses to talk to the media.  This is on his watch.  The season, the coaching change, the scandale probe.  The lack of accountability and honesty.

Really unfair to a bunch of good kids at a Catholic school.  They are almost treating the program like it is now ‘club status’.  Next they will be playing flag football after this sorry season up on the hill.

Great Sports Weekend?  No.  Lost Sports Weekend.

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