Go beyond the scoreboard
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From J. Brady McCollough: Fittingly, the last football game in the history of the Pac-12 Conference was played in the unmistakable style of the brawny Big Ten.
Pretty does not often win in America’s oldest power conference. Gritty often does. For the 15th time this season, the Michigan Wolverines led their opponent into a war waged on their terms Monday night, and the pristine passing attack of the Washington Huskies had no answers for the nation’s best defense.
After Blake Corum’s second fourth-quarter touchdown put Michigan’s 34-13 victory on ice, chants of “It’s great to be a Michigan Wolverine” echoed throughout Houston’s NRG Stadium, where coach Jim Harbaugh’s family motto became realized as an undeniable fact across the land: Who has it better than Michigan?
Nobody, thanks to the toughness and togetherness of the Wolverines’ 144th team, which put to rest narratives that have been hovering over the program since the days of Bo Schembechler.
Michigan can win the big game. And, for the Big Ten to produce greatness on the national stage, it doesn’t have to be Ohio State.
The Wolverines, 15-0, won the program’s 12th national championship, the second since their postwar triumph in 1948. As sweet as Michigan’s 1997 AP poll national title was, it won’t have to share this one with anybody.
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RAMS
From Gary Klein: The Rams are in the playoffs for the fifth time in seven seasons under coach Sean McVay, who has led them to two Super Bowl appearances and one Super Bowl title.
But the Rams have never played their first playoff game on the road before a hostile, borderline maniacal crowd.
That will change Sunday night when the sixth-seeded Rams play the third-seeded Detroit Lions at Ford Field.
Lions fans have been waiting 30 years for an opportunity to cheer their team and to unnerve a playoff opponent on the Lions’ home turf.
“We know this is going to be especially special for that city,” McVay said Monday during a video conference with reporters.
Hernández: Rams-Lions playoff matchup puts Sean McVay-Jared Goff drama back in limelight
CHARGERS
From Jeff Miller: Almost certainly facing retirement, Chargers center Corey Linsley explained Monday that he’s more grateful than discouraged.
The veteran said he’s “probably 99% sure” that he has played his final football game because of a heart issue that forced him to miss the last 15 weeks of the 2023 season.
“Year 10, I don’t know how many years I have left anyway,” Linsley said. “It sucks, obviously, not how I would want this to end. But can’t complain, can’t be sad about 10 years in, you know.”
Linsley, 32, spoke publicly for the first time since his diagnosis as the Chargers wrapped up their 5-12 season with exit physicals and a brief team meeting at their Costa Mesa training facility.
Elliott: Chargers’ lament failed brotherhood of talent has led to a broken family
NFL PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE
All times Pacific
AFC
Saturday
No. 5 Cleveland at No. 4 Houston, 1:30 p.m., NBC, Peacock, Telemundo
No. 6 Miami at No. 3 Kansas City, 5 p.m., Peacock
Sunday
No. 7 Pittsburgh at No. 2 Buffalo, 10 a.m., CBS, Paramount+
NFC
Sunday
No. 7 Green Bay at No. 2 Dallas, 1:30 p.m., FOX, FOX Deportes
No. 6 Rams at No. 3 Detroit, 5 p.m., NBC, Peacock, Universo
Monday
No. 5 Philadelphia at No. 4 Tampa Bay, 5 p.m., ESPN/ABC/ESPN+
Note: Super Bowl is Feb. 11 at 3:30 p.m.
CLIPPERS
From Andrew Greif: Seated late at his locker Sunday night, Clippers center Ivica Zubac pondered his team’s streak-breaking loss to the Lakers. The best thing about losing in the NBA, he said, was how quickly the next opportunity to play again, and set things right, comes.
Just one night later, the Clippers returned to Crypto.com Arena and looked like a different team in a 138-111 rout of Phoenix, improving to 23-13.
His team leading by 25 with 4 minutes 38 seconds left in the fourth quarter, coach Tyronn Lue removed his last starter, James Harden, to allow reserves from both teams to finish the blowout.
Clippers center Ivica Zubac dunks in front of Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkic during the first half Monday. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Even with all three of Phoenix’s superstars playing, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal were not enough to offset all five Clippers starters scoring in double figures, led by Paul George’s 25 points and seven rebounds.
Last season, the Clippers did not record their 23rd win until 45 games into the season; this season, it has come 10 games sooner.
Where the Lakers’ length forced turnovers and missed shots, en route to the Clippers’ worst shooting performance of the season, the Suns watched the Clippers shoot 62% from the field, including 51% on three-pointers, making 15 of their 29 shots.
LAKERS
From Bill Plaschke: The players don’t seem to believe in him. The fans are growing tired of him. There are factions throughout the organization that no longer endorse him.
These days it seems as if all of Laker Nation has coalesced against Darvin Ham, a coach whose job is suddenly in jeopardy just eight months after he led the Lakers to the Western Conference finals.
This is dumb. This is so dumb. This is dumber than the phony tournament banner the Lakers just raised at Crypto.com Arena. This is dumber than the way D’Angelo Russell shoots and Austin Reaves defends.
Just when the Lakers organization seemed to wise up and settle down and eschew short-term wins for big-picture gains, here it goes panicking and plotting and going all Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels again.
Firing Ham would be dumb and dumber, and don’t do it, Lakers. Don’t even think about it.
Lakers’ Anthony Davis steps up on defense vs. Clippers. ‘I’m very comfortable in guarding anybody’
LAKERS POLL
Should the Lakers fire Darvin Ham? Vote here in our informal survey and let us know.
DUCKS
The Ducks traded defenseman Jamie Drysdale and a second-round pick in 2025 to the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday for high-scoring college left wing Cutter Gauthier.
The 21-year-old Drysdale was the sixth overall pick in the 2020 draft by Anaheim, and he has grown into a puck-moving defenseman who has played a major role this season for the Ducks after missing nearly all of last season because of injury. Drysdale has one goal and four assists in 10 games for Anaheim after getting 32 points during his first full NHL season in 2021-22.
The Ducks have a glut of talented young defensemen in their system, and general manager Pat Verbeek used one of his best talents to acquire Gauthier, the fifth overall pick in the 2022 draft.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1942 — Joe Louis knocks out Buddy Baer with four seconds left in the first round at Madison Square Garden in New York to retain the world heavyweight title.
1977 — Oakland wins their first NFL title and the Minnesota Vikings drop their fourth Super Bowl as the Raiders post a 32-14 triumph.
1988 — Anthony Carter catches 10 passes for an NFL postseason-record 227 yards to lead the Minnesota Vikings to a 36-24 victory over the San Francisco 49ers and advance to the NFC title game.
1996 — The Toronto Raptors set an NBA record by not making a free throw in a 92-91 loss to the Charlotte Hornets. The expansion Raptors shoots 0-for-3 from the foul line.
2004 — Brian Boucher of Phoenix posts his fifth consecutive shutout in a 2-0 win over Minnesota. He stops 21 shots and passes Bill Durnan’s NHL mark of 309:21, early in the third period.
2006 — Kobe Bryant of the Lakers scores 45 points against Indiana, making him the first player since Wilt Chamberlain — in November of 1964 — to score at least that many in four straight games.
2007 — Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
2010 — Peyton Manning becomes the first player to win The Associated Press NFL Most Valuable Player honors four times.
2012 — Jeremy Shelley kicks five field goals and Trent Richardson breaks a 34-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter as No. 2 Alabama beats No. 1 LSU 21-0 — the first shutout in BCS title game history.
2016 — Quarterback Carson Wentz, out since mid-October with a broken wrist, returns to lead North Dakota State to an unprecedented fifth straight FCS championship with a 37-10 victory over top seed Jacksonville State.
2017 — College Football National Championship, Raymond James Stadium, Tampa: #2 Clemson beats #1 Alabama, 35-31.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latimeshouston. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.