Page 4 January 11, 2018
Rams Fold Under Playoff Pressure
By Adam Serrao
Coming into last Saturday night’S Wild Card
NFL playoff game against the Atlanta Falcons
at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the
Los Angeles Rams had everything going in
their favor. Thirty-one-year-old rookie head
coach Sean McVay was on the sidelines,
second-year quarterback Jared Goff was
under center and running back Todd Gurley
had just completed an MVP-like season.
What the Rams didn’t have, though, was
experience. A 26-13 loss to last year’s Super
Bowl runner-ups proved to be too much for a
young Los Angeles team to handle. In what
was perhaps the worst first-round matchup
that the team could have possibly been faced
with, the Rams wound up tumbling out of
the playoffs almost before they had a chance
to even begin at all.
Fans showed up in droves last Saturday
night to pack the Coliseum for what was
the first Rams playoff game at that location
in 39 years. Dallas wound up blowing out
the Rams 28-0 in that game. Although last
week’s matchup wasn’t quite as lopsided, fans
were forced to commute home with the same
distinct feeling of loss that they felt almost
four decades ago.
A crowd full of 74,300 people in the heart
of Los Angeles – the biggest crowd all season
long – was rendered silent throughout the first
quarter of play as Gurley, Goff and the rest
of the Rams continuously came up short on
drives and eventually fell behind by a score
of 13-0 in the second quarter. “They made
one more play than we did,” Rams defensive
tackle Aaron Donald said after the game.
“We were trying to dig out of a hole, but
we kept fighting. We just kept fighting. But
we fell short.”
One of the main reasons that the Rams
were forced to attempt to dig out of a hole
all game long was because of the play of Pro
Bowl special teams player Pharoh Cooper.
Cooper muffed a punt, bobbled a kickoff
and insisted on attempting to return the ball
every time he touched it. It seemed as if
the Pro Bowler-to-be was drastically close
to coughing up the ball every single time
that he touched it. “I’m sure he’d like to
have a couple of those plays back.” McVay
explained. “Any time you lose the turnover
battle, you’re going to make it very hard
on yourself,”
The Rams’ only touchdown of the game
came in the second quarter of play when
Goff hit rookie wide receiver Cooper Kupp
in the back of the end zone. Los Angeles
went into halftime down by a score of 13-
10, which was the closest the Rams would
get all night. One of the main reasons that
the highest-scoring offense in the league this
season was unable to get off of the ground
was because of Atlanta’s amped-up defense.
That same defense sacked Goff twice in his
team’s first two possessions to set the tone.
They were also all over the wide receivers
in the secondary and found it rather easy to
bottle up Gurley, at least early on in the game.
Los Angeles was able to gain just 44 yards
in the first 24 minutes of play. They were
held to their first scoreless first quarter in
13 weeks of play. The Rams were also shut
out in the third quarter and only managed
one field goal in the fourth. “We wanted to
come out here and we didn’t want this to end
at all,” Goff solemnly explained postgame.
“We’ve got such a special group of dudes
in there, and coaches and everybody. It’s
such a special group, and you don’t want
it to end this early by any means. So it’s
tough right now.”
After an incredible resurgent year that
proved all who said he would be a rookie
bust wrong, Goff finished his first playoff
game ever by completing 24 of 45 passes
for 259 yards and one touchdown. Gurley,
on the other hand, may have seemed like he
was bottled up all night, but still managed
to finish the game with over 100 yards
rushing on just 14 carries. Though Robert
Woods enjoyed an incredible game, going
for 142 yards on nine catches, the normally
spectacular Rams offense was clearly not
itself due to the incredible defensive effort
brought to the table by the Falcons.
Despite this year’s early postseason exit,
any Rams fan would be lying if they told
you that they expected to be in playoff
position following the team’s 4-12 record of
one season ago. An explosive offense and an
elite defense turned those expectations around
for the Rams and their fans this year. Los
Angeles has now become a team that has
improved mightily and progressed drastically,
all within a one-year period. Not only did
this year’s Rams return to the postseason
for the first time since 2004, but they were
also good enough to host a playoff game in
Southern California for the first time since
Jan. 4, 1986. Fans can now expect all of
that improvement and progression built this
season to keep moving in the right direction
for years to come. • – Aserrao6@yahoo.com
Politically Speaking
One Man’s Opinion Another Man’s Opinion
Wolff No Stranger
to Controversy
By Cristian Vasquez
Thanks the never-ending news cycle we’ve
become accustomed to as media consumers,
there is always a new controversy to talk about
-- and this week it’s Michael Wolff’s “Fire
and Fury.” To the staunch Trump supporters,
Wolff’s book is no more than a libeling piece
against the president to sell books. For people
looking for the president’s impeachment,
Wolff’s book serves as an insider testimony to
accomplish said goal. Regardless of the man
in office, these types of allegations against
a sitting president, much like their actions,
should always be examined. Yet Wolff is
no stranger to controversy and has been in
this position before. However, one person’s
reaction to the book gives reason to believe
its content: Steve Bannon.
Let’s begin with Wolff, a New Jersey native,
who has written seven books and has
worked as a columnist for The Hollywood
Reporter, USA Today, New York Magazine
and Vanity Fair. His writing style has been
described as one that gives his audience
a behind-the-scenes look at the beat he’s
covering. Naturally, he has garnered critics
and admirers along the way. In some
instances the critics have been the very
people he is covering, much like with
President Trump today. However questionable
Wolff’s reputation is, Bannon’s reaction to
the book leads me to believe that the author
is not lying.
It’s no secret that Bannon and President
Trump had some sort of falling out. Yet
let’s not forget that despite his exit from
the White House, Bannon declared that he
would go after any GOP member who
wouldn’t condemn attacks on President
Trump. In short, the former editor confirmed
his continued support of the president. That
explains why Bannon would come out and
take back the comments made about Donald
Trump, Jr. Bannon is trying to save face and
claim that he made the comments about Paul
Manafort. Bannon isn’t the poster child for
truth and accuracy and his statement is no
more than an attempt to keep the Trump
movement alive.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t really matter how
true, how embellished or if these stories are
flat-out false. Wolff already won. Tell-all
books are meant as sensationalized pieces of
writing meant to pique the interest of friend
and foe alike. Ironically, a possible piece of
“fake news” will likely make significant sales
now that the president’s propaganda specialist
Stephen Miller is on his PR tour dismissing
the book as a hit job. To President Trump’s
credit, there is no easy way of dealing with
this situation and he definitely has every
reason and right to defend himself against
the publication. However, any reaction to
the book puts the title and author back in
the spotlight, which increases the likelihood
that sales will increase.
Regardless of the outcome, Wolff will have
accomplished his goal: notoriety. Whether the
cease and desist order holds up or not, the
author will make the rounds and talk about
the book until the next controversy steals
the spotlight. •
Forget About Homeless Vets—Let’s
Spend Our Time and $ on Illegals
By Duane Plank
Riddle me this: Day after day the liberals
inundate us with rants about protecting the
rights of, and shelling out our Benjamins to,
those who snuck into America illegally--while
they pay scant attention to American war heroes
who are down on their luck, and who, from
most reports, have been given the shaft back
home when returning from their tour of duty.
DACA this, DACA that, scream the resistors
and their media mouthpieces. Maybe I
missed something, but when did the scales
of justice tip so far to the left that the illegals
have more rights than our veterans who have
protected our butts from threats like the ISIS
dirt bags, or the bellicose, corpulent midget
in NoKo who continues to threaten stateside
nuclear carnage, matching bitter volleys with
President Trump about the respective sizes of
their “buttons?”
California has proudly become a sanctuary
state, with the lock-step pols and courts bending
over…backwards…to allow illegals and their
chain-migration loser brethren to overrun our
state, and paying little heed to American veterans
who risked life and limb to protect us from evil.
Trump, consistently under fire from the
resistors, has grandiose plans to overhaul the
bureaucratic mess that the Veteran’s Administration
has devolved into, by canning corrupt
and incompetent VA higher-ups who continue
to award themselves obscene bonuses while
backlogging veteran care. He has vowed to
cut red tape and the excessive wait times that
consistently plague our veteran heroes.
As part of his “drain the swamp mantra”
mantra, Trump has vowed to use the bully pulpit
to place those needs of those who bravely served
our country ahead of the need and the greed of
the Beltway-type entrenched bureaucrats who
have risen to power by gaming the system to
their benefit, at the expense of dispensing caring
treatment to those veterans who return to
America with physical and emotional ailments
as they try to assimilate back into America.
Meanwhile, the drumbeat continues on the
left that we must allow the Dreamers to stay
in America, as if somehow illegals have the
right to populate our enclaves and freeload our
greenbacks and social services. And that, with
chain migration, their relatives currently residing
outside the friendly confines of America should
also be allowed to move to the front of the
line and cross our sacrosanct borders illegally.
LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, who is pondering
a longshot campaign to nab the Democratic
presidential nomination in 2020, has kowtowed
to the Dreamers, saying that the 800,000 or so
who came to this country illegally should be
allowed to stay because sending them packing
would be “cruel,” and that giving the illegals the
boot, quoting from the standard Liberal playbook
when it comes to immigration, “threatens to
tear families apart,”--a familiar whine that has
no basis in fact. Thundered Garcetti: “They
belong here…and we will fight for them to stay.”
Here is a novel thought: How about we fight
a little harder for the care and solicitude of the
men and women who risked their lives for the
freedoms we take so much for granted, and
resist a little less the championing of lawbreakers
here illegally? •