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From Gary Klein: Jared Goff got his revenge.
And it ended the Rams’ season.
Jettisoned by the Rams three years ago in a trade for Matthew Stafford, Goff on Sunday night played turnover free and led the Lions to a historic 24-23 victory in an NFC wild-card game before 66,367 delirious fans at Ford Field.
Goff, the top pick by the Rams in the 2016 NFL draft, had said this week that he and Rams coach Sean McVay were “good,” despite McVay’s handling of the trade.
But Goff had to relish winning the Lions’ first home playoff game in 32 years with a victory over the team that cast him aside.
Goff completed 22 of 27 passes for 277 yards and a touchdown.
Stafford also played error free, completing 25 of 36 passes for 367 yards and two touchdowns, but it was not enough to capitalize on a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Rapper Eminem, a Detroit native, said last week that the Rams quarterback owed him a favor for performing in the Super Bowl LVI halftime show at SoFi Stadium, where Stafford starred in the Rams’ victory over the Cincinnati Bengals
“I rapped for you Stafford,” Eminen said in a video clip the NFL released on social media. “Bro, I rapped for you! Can you just let us have this one? Just this one?”
Rams’ 24-23 NFC wild-card playoff loss to the Detroit Lions by the numbers
Here’s all of our Rams playoff coverage
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NFL PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE
All times Pacific
Wild-card round
AFC
Saturday’s results
No. 4 Houston 45, No. 5 Cleveland 14
No. 3 Kansas City 26, No. 6 Miami 7
Today
No. 7 Pittsburgh at No. 2 Buffalo, 1:30 p.m., CBS
NFC
Sunday’s results
No. 7 Green Bay 48, No. 2 Dallas 32
No. 3 Detroit 24, No. 6 Rams 23
Today
No. 5 Philadelphia at No. 4 Tampa Bay, 5 p.m., ESPN/ABC/ESPN+
Divisional round
AFC
Saturday
No. 4 Houston at No. 1 Baltimore or No. 3 Kansas City, 1:30 p.m., ESPN, ABC, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes
Sunday
AFC: 6:30 p.m. No. 3 Kansas City at No. 2 Buffalo or No. 7 Pittsburgh at No. 1 Baltimore, 3:30 p.m., CBS, Paramount+
NFC
Saturday
No. 7 Green Bay at No. 1 San Francisco, 5 p.m., Fox, Fox Deportes
Sunday
No. 5 Philadelphia or No. 4 Tampa Bay at No. 2 Detroit, noon, NBC, Peacock, Universo
Conference championship
Sunday, Jan. 28
AFC, noon, CBS, Paramount+
NFC, 3:30 p.m., Fox, Fox Deportes)
Note: Super Bowl is Feb. 11 at 3:30 p.m. on CBS and Paramount+
CHARGERS
From Jeff Miller: The Chargers continued their search for a head coach Sunday by interviewing Leslie Frazier.
With 17 years of NFL experience, Frazier was head coach for Minnesota for three-plus seasons beginning in 2010, compiling a record of 21-32-1.
He was out of the league this year after spending six seasons with Buffalo as defensive coordinator.
CLIPPERS
Anthony Edwards scored 20 of his 33 points in the third quarter and Rudy Gobert had 15 points and 18 rebounds to help the Minnesota Timberwolves cool off and beat the Clippers 109-105 on Sunday.
Norman Powell‘s corner three-pointer — his sixth of the game — capped a 20-6 surge by the Clippers over a four-plus-minute stretch that sliced their deficit to 103-100. Gobert, who missed seven free throws including earlier back-to-back airballs, made four foul shots in the final minute to nudge the Timberwolves to the finish line on a night when they had 19 turnovers and gave up 37 points in the fourth quarter.
Karl-Anthony Towns scored 17 points for the West-leading Timberwolves (28-11), who held Clippers stars Paul George (16 points) and James Harden (14 points) to a combined nine-for-33 shooting from the field. The Timberwolves, who lead the NBA in scoring defense, are 16-2 at home and 20-6 against conference opponents.
UCLA vs. USC BASKETBALL
From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: Finally, JuJu Watkins could exhale.
When Kayla Padilla drew a foul with 14.3 seconds left with USC up by six, Watkins, the Trojans’ star freshman, raised her arms toward the crowd and flashed an exhausted, relieved smile. The sold-out crowd responded to its newest hometown hero by rising to its feet.
Watkins led the Trojans to a 73-65 victory that avenged their only loss of the season and handed their crosstown rivals their first defeat. The star guard’s 32 points helped the No. 9 Trojans (13-1, 3-1 Pac-12) end a nine-game losing streak to the Bruins (14-1, 3-1 Pac-12).
USC was without starting All-Pac-12 forward Rayah Marshall, who missed the game because of illness. Even without the 6-foot-4 junior, the Trojans only lost the rebounding battle 34-33 after the key stat decided the season’s first rivalry matchup.
Watkins had a team-high 10 rebounds with three assists. The freshman from Watts, carrying the weight of her city, was a pest on defense with three steals and three blocks. She hustled to save balls out of bounds, throwing them behind her head to get USC extra possessions, and she was often the first to dive after loose balls. Teammates swarmed her at the horn, but she ended up flat on her back during the dogpile suffering from cramps.
————
From Ben Bolch: From the day he started at UCLA, Mick Cronin said he spelled fun W-I-N.
Over the last two months, as one loss followed another, his team encountered M-I-S-E-R-Y, leaving a segment of the fan base feeling H-O-P-E-L-E-S-S.
So it was invigorating Sunday afternoon for the Bruins to see what transpired inside Pauley Pavilion. Players on the bench roared as Kenneth Nwuba took a charge. Lazar Stefanovic earned an embrace from Brandon Williams after racing to block a fast-break layup from behind. Berke Buyuktuncel clapped his hands over his head while running into the tunnel toward the locker room after the game ended.
For a few hours, basketball was enjoyable again for the team that had traded in the nation’s longest home winning streak for four consecutive losses inside its venerable arena while also losing eight of nine games overall.
Playing with energy, freedom and confidence, UCLA stomped Washington in a 73-61 victory that bore no resemblance to the Bruins’ 46-point loss to Utah three days earlier.
“Tonight, we played a lot smarter and we’ve just got to stay together and continue to get through it the best we can,” Cronin said, “and it’s my job to help them.”
DODGERS
From Mike DiGiovanna: Alex Wood was preparing for his first full season with the Dodgers in 2016 when then-general manager Andrew Friedman approached him in the team’s spring-training clubhouse and handed him a three-page analysis of his pitching patterns.
“The gist of it was that I was one of the best in baseball at getting to two strikes — I was elite, like in the 99th percentile, of getting to 0-and-2 and 1-2 counts,” said Wood. “But I was at the bottom third of putting guys away.”
“Andrew was like, ‘You have two really good secondary pitches, when you get to two strikes, all I want you to think about is using your offspeed as much as possible to punch guys out,’ ” said Wood, who mixes an 83-mph curve and 85-mph changeup with his 91-mph sinker. “That kind of shifted how I was attacking guys throughout the at-bat.”
“Andrew kind of changed the way I pitched,” said Wood, who played two more seasons (2018 and 2020) for the Dodgers before spending 2021-2023 with the San Francisco Giants. “Instead of wasting a pitch with an 0-2 count, I started attacking guys more. It helped me a ton.”
More often than not, the Dodgers have revitalized the careers of middling pitchers and optimized the production of pitchers they have, their ability to identify and acquire those with untapped potential and implement plans to maximize performance helping to fuel their run of five 100-win seasons in the last seven years.
NHL
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1965 — In one of the most notable trades in NBA history, the San Francisco Warriors deal Wilt Chamberlain to the Philadelphia 76ers for Connie Dierking, Lee Shaffer, Paul Neumann and cash.
1967 — The NFL’s Green Bay Packers open the Super Bowl series by defeating the Kansas City Chiefs of the AFL, 35-10.
1978 — The Dallas Cowboys take advantage of eight Denver turnovers en route to a 27-10 victory over the Broncos in the Super Bowl.
1994 — Lawrence Taylor announces his retirement from the NFL.
1995 — San Diego linebacker Dennis Gibson twice knocks down passes in the end zone — the last one on fourth down — to preserve the Chargers’ biggest NFL victory, a 17-13 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC championship.
1997 — Patrick Lalime becomes the first goalie since NHL expansion in 1967 to open his career with a 15-game unbeaten streak as Pittsburgh beats Hartford 3-0.
2001 — Peace College beats Bennett College 98-3 in women’s college basketball as Bennett sets an NCAA Division III women’s record for fewest points scored.
2004 — Michelle Wie shoots a respectable round of 2-over 72, leaving her nine strokes behind the leader after one round at the PGA Sony Open in Honolulu. Wie, 14, is believed to be the youngest player ever on the PGA Tour.
2005 — Michelle Kwan wins her ninth title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, tying Maribel Vinson for the all-time record.
2012 — New York’s Eli Manning throws three touchdown passes and the Giants shock the Green Bay Packers 37-20 in an NFC divisional playoff game. The Packers, 15-1 in the regular season, become the seventh consecutive Super Bowl champ not to advance to the Super Bowl the next year.
2017 — Aaron Rodgers throws a 36-yard pass to a toe-dragging Jared Cook on the sideline, and Mason Crosby kicks a 51-yard field goal on the next play as time expires, sending Green Bay to the NFC championship game with its eighth straight win while thwarting a Dallas rally in a 34-31 victory in the divisional round of the playoffs.
2023 — LeBron James surpasses 38,000 NBA career points, joining only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, in 113-112 loss to Philadelphia 76ers at Crypto.com Arena.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
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