Hacksaw’s Monday Bonus-Podcast
You Tube-Lee Hacksaw Hamilton
Look-Listen-Share-Subscribe
==========
“RAMS-ALL OR NOTHING”
===========
A strange saga unfolding around the LA Rams as they skid into the final week of the NFL season.
Another bad loss on the road to a substandard team.
A big blow to the Rams key matchup playoff hopes.
A Rams team that turned the ball over a ton in the rain in Carolina just a few weeks ago, self destructed again in Atlanta, buried under a landslide of turnovers.
Matthew Stafford, the superstar QB, had 2-picks and a fumble in Carolina. Monday night, he threw 3-interceptions early in the game.
When you looked up, it was (21-0) deficit and a long uphill run. The Rams nearly flipped it, fighting back for a 24-24-tie, till the Falcons’ Zane Gonzalez hit his 3rd field goal to clinch the win.
The Rams defense, a stalwart in the blazing start, looks tired.
The Rams offense is nicked up, an ailing WR-Davante Adams, the season long health issues to TE-Tyler Higbee, and leaks in the offensive line. Journeyman OT-DJ Humphries kept taking penalties, negating big play after big play.
A Rams team that was the number 1-seed in the NFC just 3-weeks ago, don’t look like they have recovered physically, nor emotionally, from the terrible loss in Seattle. A crushing loss, after seeing a large (30-14) lead evaporate.
And since that loss, they have really struggled.
As we reach the finish line next weekend, instead of hosting home games for possibly all NFC playoff games, the Rams now know they have to go on the road. And how hard will that be.
Big time bad weather venues, at Philadelphia, at Chicago, back to Seattle, or in San Francisco.
Sean McVay’s team at this hour does not resemble the Sean McVay team we saw at the midway point of the NFL season. Problems seem to be copping up in different areas each Sunday, this late in the season, the wrong time of the season.
This Rams team does not look like it could beat its own Rams team from early in the season. This Rams team looks like it would have problems against an Eagles pass rush, the Bears QB-Caleb Williams, Brock Purdy’s bold passing attack, and all things Seattle.
Everyone was ‘all in’ with the Rams till November. Now everyone is alarmed at what they see.
==========
Hacksaw’s Monday Bonus Podcast…1:30pm
You Tube-Lee Hacksaw Hamilton
Hot Topics on Table..Stay for Fans Forum
==========
“LOST WEEKEND OF FOOTBALL”
==========
It was a holiday of expectation, that wound up being a disappointment.
Christmas was great.
Saturday for the Chargers..Sunday for the Aztecs was not.
Despite what the coaches had to say, something akin to Moral Victories, the losses were bad for the Bolts and SDSU.
CHARGERS…Everyone around QB-Justin Herbert failed him, regardless of what the 4th quarter scoreboard finally read.
The Texans recorded 9-quarterback sacks, five that counted, and four that were voided by stupid Houston penalties. The same old problems existed. Faltering play by the offensive line from nearly start to finish. The protection never got better.
The stunning development was the inability of Keenan Allen and Ladd McConkey to get open. They each caught 1-pass as the Bolts tried to come from behind all afternoon long. This is the same group that in some games had a combined 15-catches.
The run game went MIA, after a strong finish to the season. Omarion Hampton, the power ball running back got nowhere. In fact the run game had 15-carries for all of 30-yards.
The defense failed early, allowing 75-and-43 TD passes.
The pass rush went AWOL too, no sacks of CJ Stroud, 1-QB hit. Yes there were two picks, one on an errant throw, the other on a deflection.
And Dicker-the-Kicker, star kicker Cam Dicker, did what he has never done, missed a 32-yard field goal and a point after attempt.
It was a huge setback, in that it ends the Chargers hopes of winning the AFC-West, and giving them home games in the playoffs. It also has the potential to drop them down in the wildcard race, depending what happens next weekend
And next weekend is in Denver, and the Broncos will be playing Bo Nix and the boys, because they are still in the chase for overall home field advantage for the AFC playoffs. And where would you rather play in January in the postseason, Buffalo, New England, or at home in Denver infront of those raging maniac Orange Crush fans?
For the Chargers, once the playoffs begin, some cold weather trips, or maybe games at Jacksonville-Houston-Pittsburgh, where they have not done very well.
AZTECS…A fun season burned to the ground in one half in the New Mexico Bowl, and that (49-47) North Texas win over SDSU was pretty misleading too. Three times, Sean Lewis’ team was down 15-in the game. Another time they trailed by 22-in the game.
His quarterback Bert Emanual had the electric 72Y-TD run and got hurt. He hardly ever threw the football. And State did not have two top receivers, a prerequisite if you are going to be in a shootout. Lifetime backup Kyle Crum did everything possible in his two plus quarters of play.
Add in the defensive mess, as the Big Green piled up (618Y) in offense, including (368Y) on the ground thanks to chunk play after chunk plays by Caleb Hawkins (198R) and Ashton Gray (152R). Mix in young QB Drew Mestmaker’s 250Y-3TD day, and it was a mess.
A thrilling comeback for sure, but too little, too late, and a big disappointment. The nationally ranked defense got torched. The loss of their coordinator and their edge rush coach hurt. So did a number of players who opted out. Maybe Sean Lewis has to mandate, ‘you get NIL money here-you play all the games here from opening day thru the bowl game’.
But for SDSU, losing back to back games to end the season really stings. And Lewis has no more games to plan for. Now he needs to try and hold his roster together, barricade the door so more don’t run to the transfer portal. And figure out what to do at QB, with big question marks surrounding Jayden Denegal, and the defection of last year’s top QB recruit. Owen Chambliss-star LB leaving…DE-Tre White next likely to the NFL
And remember, the progress made on the field in a (9-4) season cannot wash away the fact the town and the alumni still don’t seem to care, AKA, terrible home attendance of just over 17,000 per game-turnstile count.
So Harbaugh and Lewis need to stop heaping praise on ‘how my team competes’ or ‘next man up’, because the expectation going in was wiped out by the declaration ‘they played really poorly’.
Christmas was great. Football right after Christmas was not great. And it makes you ache.
Hacksaw’s Monday Podcast-1:30pm
You Tube-Lee Hacksaw Hamilton
Hot Topics on Table-Stay for Fans Forum
===========
“BOLTS-REAL DEAL”
============
Who among you would have thought this possible, anytime during this NFL season?
Who would have thought the Chargers would reel off wins at the end of the season with a badly banged up and sacked Justin Herbert?
Who could have imagined the leaky defense would seize the moment to beat up Jalen Hurts-Patrick Mahomes-Dak Prescott on back to back weeks at the end of the campaign.
And they have. And the Chargers are (11-4) on the season, and headed to the playoffs, likely as a widlcard team with at least one home game.
Herbert was Herbert at his NFL best in Dallas on Sunday. A 300-yard passing day, a wild 33Y-run out of a collapsing pocket that triggered a 2nd half TD drive that broke the Cowboys defense and its spirit.
This coming from a guy playing with a cast and a fractured bone in his left hand. This from a guy behind an offensive line that has given up 49-sacks and allowed him to take the most hits-most pressures of anybody in the NFL.
This is a QB playing behind castoff tackles Trevor Penning and Bobby Hart that other teams dumped out onto the street.
And on a Sunday-to-Sunday basis, someone steps up and makes plays to help that QB, the latest being Quentin Johnston, who had an amazing 1-handed touchdown catch, and then an impossible 50-yard streak down the sideline with a DB hanging on him. All part of his 4-catch-104 yard day.
The RB-duo Omani Hampton and Kimani Vidal continue to put up physical yards after contact.
The pass rush chased Dak Prescott around knocking him out of sync and actually taking the Cowboys out of the game in the second half, making Cee Dee Lamb and George Pickens disappear after a wild first half.
Nothing bogus about this winning streak, they are earning it, because this QB can do what most QBs cannot do.
Get it down the field thru coverage; break containment and run for chunk yards when there is nothing there. Survive lots of hits on a weekly basis.
And find the right guy to make the right play as witnessed by the 16-chunk plays (10Y or more) they made against Dallas. Yes the Cowboys are rated 30th in the NFL in virtually every category on defense, but their front was in Herbert’s face all day, and yet he stared them down and got the ball out of there.
Here comes Houston’s defense, then the season finale in Denver, which could be for first place in the AFC-West, where the Bolts are (5-0)
Who could have believed this year, beset by all these injuries, would turn out like this.
The Chiefs era is over. The Raiders are an NFL-family disgrace. Denver is doing it differently but Sean Payton has reinvented the Orange Crush and the Kid QB-Bo Nix.
But here on the West Coast-this is something to behold game-by-game.
Keep winning and you will see the Sign Post up ahead…”NFL Playoffs”.
Superman at QB-Justin Herbert believes….did, does, and will going forward
=========Hacksaw’s Thursday Pordast
You Tube-Lee Hacksaw Hamilton
Look-Listen-Share-Subscribe
“MICHIGAN..HAIL TO THE VICTORS..TO HELL TOO”
==========
The debris piles up all around Michigan’s football program.
Day-by-day, more and more troubling information surfaces about fired coach Sharrone Moore.
More and more-you have to look beyond that troubled coach to the guy who hired him-Jim Harbaugh
Add on the series of different NCAA issues, 5-in a 10-year span, to really talk about the culture, the values, the leadership and the meaning of all things football in the Big House.
A Washington, DC law firm is on campus and when they are done, they may take a blow torch to the entire Athletic Department, for what they did do, or did not do in the wake of 10-years of issues around the Maize & Blue.
A unique column summarizes it all from Yahoo sports-Mike Bianchi
================
ORLANDO, Fla. — Michigan’s interim coach Biff Poggi stood up at a bowl news conference in Orlando Monday and said his players feel “betrayed.”
He’s right. They should.
But let’s be clear about who betrayed them — because it wasn’t just disgraced former coach Sherrone Moore, and it sure as hell wasn’t just last week. The betrayal at Michigan has been institutional, systemic and years in the making. What those players are feeling now is simply the bill coming due for a university that decided winning mattered more than integrity, transparency or basic accountability.
Michigan didn’t just stumble into this mess.
Michigan engineered this mess.
“It has been a tumultuous time,” said Poggi, who is preparing his scandal-scarred team for a game against Texas in the upcoming Cheez-It Citrus Bowl. “A lot of … first disbelief, then anger, then really, what we’re in right now is the kids, quite frankly, feel very betrayed, and we’re trying to work through that.”
Poggi spoke Monday about listening, about empathy, about putting arms around shoulders after Moore was fired and arrested following allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a staff member that escalated into criminal charges. Poggi’s tone was humane and appropriate. He’s trying to clean up emotional wreckage he didn’t create.
But his most telling word was “betrayed.”
Because if you’re a Michigan player, you weren’t just betrayed by a head coach’s personal implosion. You were betrayed by a university that put that coach in charge in the first place — knowing exactly who he was and what he represented.
Why was Sherrone Moore even the head coach of Michigan football?
That question should be shouted from the roof of the Big House.
Moore wasn’t some unsuspecting outsider. He was a central figure in the Connor Stalions sign-stealing scandal that rocked college football and permanently stained Michigan’s so-called national championship two years ago. He was sanctioned. He was suspended. He literally tried to delete text messages tied to the cheating operation. And Michigan still elevated him to head coach.
Not despite the scandal — after it.
That decision alone tells you everything you need to know about Michigan’s priorities.
Let’s rewind.
Two years ago, Michigan was caught running a sophisticated, illegal sign-stealing operation that went far beyond “everyone does it.” This wasn’t a rogue intern with binoculars. This was an organized system involving travel, filming and data collection that violated NCAA rules and competitive ethics.
And what did Michigan do?
It circled the wagons.
President Santa Ono — now conveniently gone — stood shoulder to shoulder with former head coach Jim Harbaugh, calling him “a man of honor” while the evidence piled up. The administration threatened legal action against its own conference. The goal wasn’t truth. It wasn’t reform. It was survival. Keep the machine running. Get to the playoff. Win the title.
Mission accomplished.
Then Harbaugh bolted to the NFL, leaving Michigan holding the bag — and instead of hitting the reset button, the university doubled down. It promoted Moore, a sanctioned coach tied directly to the scandal, because continuity mattered more than credibility.
And now we’re supposed to act shocked that the same administration that minimized cheating allegations also waved off reports earlier this season of Moore’s alleged inappropriate relationship? Michigan claimed it couldn’t verify whether the affair was real.
Does anybody actually believe that?
Or was Michigan, once again, in the middle of a season and unwilling to look too closely at anything that might derail it?
Funny how clarity usually arrives after the last whistle.
Now Michigan has announced — with a straight face — that it’s launching an investigation into its athletic department. That’s not accountability. That’s damage control.
If the university truly wants answers, it shouldn’t investigate the athletic department. It should investigate itself. Its leadership. Its culture. Its repeated willingness to subordinate ethics to football success.
Because this isn’t just about Sherrone Moore.
This is about a program that racked up NCAA violations, suspensions, probation and fines north of $30 million.
This is about a university that responded to a blatant cheating scandal not with reform, but with rationalization.
Of course, Michigan fans don’t like hearing this. They’ll say everyone cheats. They’ll say it’s a witch hunt. They’ll say the banners still hang.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: no major program in college football has combined competitive success and moral failure quite like Michigan over the past few years.
Other schools get caught and clean house.
Michigan gets caught and closes ranks.
That’s why the national championship feels tainted. Not because Michigan didn’t have good players — it did. Not because Michigan didn’t win a bunch of games — it did that, too. But because the institution made a conscious decision that how it won didn’t matter.
That’s why Poggi says the players feel betrayed. Because they were told to trust the program. To believe in “The Michigan Way.” To represent something bigger than themselves.
And it turns out that something bigger than themselves was a lie.
They were sold stability and handed chaos. Sold integrity and handed hypocrisy.
Michigan’s reputation as one of the nation’s most respected academic institutions didn’t deserve this. Its players didn’t deserve this. And college football fans didn’t deserve yet another lesson in how power tries to protect itself.
The cause of Michigan’s problems isn’t complicated. It isn’t bad luck. It isn’t one rogue coach or one bad decision.
It’s a philosophy.
And, quite simply, that philosophy is: “Win at all costs.”
When that’s the standard, scandals aren’t surprises — they’re inevitabilities.