“Talking Football”

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CHARGERS….No doubt they have overcome alot of adversity, all these injuries thru the first half of the season.  This (10-6) record is impressive as is the continued leadership and glitzy stats QB-Justin Herbert puts up.  Austin Ekeler gets little recognition, but leads the team in rushing and with over 100-receptions.  The wide receiver group is hot.

But as the Bolts prepare to launch into the playoffs, a word of warning.  They have just 1-win against a team with a winning record, the dismantling of the Miami Dolphins.  The season has been marred too by the beatings they took at the hands of Jacksonville or any of the other five losses they have incurred.  They went (1-3) vs winning record teams.  The record against the losers on the schedule, (9-3).  There won’t be any bad clubs on the schedule after Sundays win in Denver.

Finishing with the 5th spot in the playoff rankings, means a likely home game against the Jaguars.  But they still have to go play a 2nd round game, against the Chiefs-Bills or Bengals  on the road.  Then we will find out how really talented the Chargers actually are.

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USC TROJANS….What an awful loss to Tulane, yes Tulane, which won a bowl game for the first time since 1940.  There is no doubt Caleb Williams is a  special quarterback.  No doubt Lincoln Riley is a bright light X-O guy as a play caller.  The pall of this Cotton Bowl loss, will hang over USC for a while.

But how about the poor defense virtually all year and how about giving up 2-TD drives in the final 3-minutes to the Green Wave?

And how about the football intelligence, or lack of football smarts, fielding a kickoff return at their own 1-yard line.  And then the near targeting penalty down on the goal line.

As good as USC has been, and all the players they got in the transfer portal, they were not a complete team and they lost  at the most important time of the year, never got to the Rose Bowl, and then lost to a Tulane team that was (2-12) a year ago.

Lincoln Riley is being paid (10M) a year as a brilliant offensive mind.  As a head coach, you coach the entire team, and that includes defense, something lacking terribly for a national power.  USC gave up (539Y) to Tulane’s wild bunch.  In that game, the guys wearing green gave up plays of 40-87-47-62 yards.

And that followed a season where they gave up 513-to UCLAand 539-yards to Utah among others.  And there on the sideline, their star QB-Caleb Williams, who threw for 468-yards and had to stand on the sidelines and be betrayed by his defense, his coaching staff too.

USC had such a good season on one side of the ball.

Good but not as good as the Trojans want you to believe.

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UCLA…That ended badly with their Sun Bowl loss to Pitt, and in the big picture of things, the Chip Kelly era has gone off the tracks.  Yes a good year with a long time quarterback, and running back from the Big 10, and a bunch of nice wins.

But you get pasted by USC, then let somebody called the ‘Green Wave’ do this to you on national TV, you still have problems.

But all the years at Westwood have been a disappointment, and the way Kelly acts has become a huge turnoff, to the alums and the media.  The inability to recruit high school players, the number of transfers out, the limitations of those transferring in, and the losses.  It just piles up.

Lack of defense, and until this year, a very spotty offense, means Kelly has grossly underachieved.  He is (27-29) at UCLA and now faces another rebuild year.  This is not like it was at Oregon.  That was years ago.

The history of UCLA gave us good guy coaches like Terry Donahue and Bob Toledo, their teams fun to watch, their interasctions with the media special.  Those guys were all the good things coaches had to offer, so unlike Chip Kelly and his dour personality and agendas.

Money troubled school, huge contract payoffs, and now going to the Big 10-where challenges await.

He might be the most unpopular coach in the Pac 12, maybe even on the UCLA campus.
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