How much would you have laughed at me in early August if I had told you that as I sit on a plane on Monday morning, October 5th, the only shining light in my otherwise dim football universe would be the Broncos?
Yes, the team that led me to begin work on a (never-completed) post in the offseason comparing them to the Denver-based soap opera Dynasty (with a nifty compare/contrast to the Cowboys/Dallas) is the only team for which I cheer that has given me anything to cheer this season. Who knew?
Well, actually if you ask certain members of the Denver media they will say they did – after apparently suffering amnesia as they now can’t say enough great about Coach McDaniels after spending 4 months savaging him.
(Note: No word yet from Rick Reilly about whether he is willing to concede that his incompetent, pathetic shots at McDaniels all summer have now been rendered moot, with the Broncos winning as many games in 4 weeks as he projected for them all season. Of course, I guess the real question is whether anyone cares what a guy who hasn’t been relevant since John Elway retired and is now just a sad knock-off of Bill Simmons says. The only smart thing he has done is ignore me when I sent him a note requesting a bet on the over/under for Bronco wins this season.)
Anyway, enough gloating. With the Broncos 4-0, the Rockies prepping for the playoffs, the Nuggets coming off a Western Conference Finals appearance and the Avs starting the season 2-0, the Mile High city is going to start sounding like Boston fans soon.
On to my notes and observations from the weekend of football. Let’s start with the boys on Saturday.
In case, you didn’t notice, College GameDay was at Boston College, to raise awareness of the cancer battle by highlighting Mark Herzlich’s (apparently successful) cancer fight. A worthy fight if there ever was one. But I know I am not the only FSU fan that knew this was an omen that there was zero chance FSU would go in and win. What kind of God would let BC lose on that day?
Speaking of GameDay, there was a sign in the crowd: “Ponder This Bobby: Retirement”. You know the Noles are facing hard times when I didn’t know whether this was from a BC or FSU fan.
And news today is that the sign could have been held by FSU Trustee Jim Smith. While I may not think much of the Noles this year (see below) I am not sure if I can blame the uninspired, sloppy play on confusion on the parts of the players as to where to align their allegiances. The power-sharing of Bobby and Jimbo may not be ideal, but I can’t say that the Noles deciding to play hard once every couple of weeks is a result.
There isn’t much more to say about the Noles. They play sloppy and don’t seem to have much heart in them. Sure, they are young but that is just a convenient excuse for bad errors and putting together 15 minutes of good football during a 60 minutes game in which you are essentially playing for your season. Remember Miami has a young team too.
You know what is even more depressing than your team looking overwhelmed and incredibly ordinary in losing to a (at best) below average team? It is Matt Millen announcing and disparaging them. The worst NFL executive in history pointing out the flaws in your team is a new low that I may not be able to recover from. Of course, if there is anyone that is an expert on a bad football team, it is Millen.
The contrast between the Noles and the Canes was obvious, shocking and also depressing. After several down years, the Miami coaches have finally found a way to harness the incredible athletes they keep recruiting.
That’s not to say that Miami’s win on Saturday night wasn’t helped out quite a bit by the Sooners. I still disagree with the meaningless field goal with 4 minutes to play (Turner, Peffer and I debated strenuously in real time). Sure, it was a long 4th down, but I hadn’t seen anything that told me the Sooners could immediately stop the Canes and get the ball back with time enough to march down and score again. Which of course, they didn’t. Add that to a draw earlier on a 3rd and 6, and the Sooner coaches appeared to be play-calling slightly more conservative than Rush Limbaugh.
On the bright side, at least the Sooners don’t appear to be on their way to another embarrassing BCS Bowl game loss. Sorry Turner.
The other big games of the day were entertaining but will only be remembered because the team expected to win was able to.
LSU still isn’t overly impressive but they have seem to have the Goldilocks principle down to a science (just enough offense, just enough defense). Will it be enough to knock off the Gators if Timmy is back to his normal self (well, as normal as the Son of God ever is)?
Notre Dame has been penciled into a BCS bowl since before the season thanks to their easy schedule. Can we still say that? Yes, the Huskies are greatly improved (right, USC?) but if Notre Dame was anywhere near as good as their press would indicate, would that game have gone to overtime? No chance. Notre Dame’s offense may be pretty good, but you have to wonder about their defense. I guess USC will give us a clue in a couple weeks.
Speaking of USC, ho-hum. They got their embarrassing, inexplicable road-conference loss out of the way early this season and returned to their Pac-10 dominating ways. The only difference being that the Pac-10 is improved enough this year that dominating the conference can’t be laughed at by all the 1-tooth, jean-short wearing yokel SEC fans down south.
One last comment. While I don’t really care about Michigan and their come-back ultimately fell short in overtime, big kudos to Tate Forcier and Wolverines. Forcier’s gutsy, exhausting performance leading the Wolverines to the tying score as time expired at MSU on Saturday demonstrated everything that the young guns in Tallahassee lack: heart, willingness to sacrifice and a knack for making a play when it is needed.
Notes from Sunday:
Can I start anywhere else but with the Broncos? OK, who am I kidding, I am going to start, continue and finish with the Broncos.
Yes, I recognize the Broncos offense isn’t the exciting but that is fine with me. Locals may still complain that Orton is not Cutler but you know what? It works for me. Sure, Jay may throw nice long passes but the problem is that he also throws nice long passes to the other team.
The biggest thing that hurt the Broncos was penalties yesterday but the difference in their winning was turnovers. The Cowboys committed them, the Broncos didn’t. You have an opportunity to overcome a false start. You don’t have an opportunity to overcome an interception. More on the quarterbacks later this week.
Joe Buck and Troy Aikman spent a lot of time trying to compare this Bronco defense to last year’s sieve-like unit but I am not sure why. The only thing this unit has in common with last year’s team is laundry. New schemes (4-3 to 3-4), new coaches (Slovik to Nolan), new players (Dawkins, Andre Goodman), this is a new defense in every sense of the word. Even the players held over from last year are playing new positions (and flourishing: 8 sacks in four game for an ‘undersized’ Elvis Dumervil). The comparisons to last year need to stop.
The biggest thing I noticed in this game was the coaching. You may remember that the Cowboys did all of their damage early, which given that they are (possibly) more talented but (definitely) more over-paid you would expect. But the game changed because the Bronco coaches were able to react and adjust while the Cowboys coaches could do little more than hope the same old plays would start working again.
I have to assume that after Wade Phillips is fired and replaced by Mike Shanahan for the second time, that it will be a first in the NFL right? That is quite a feat and something Wade can be proud of. Of course, if Wade didn’t look like an old man wandering a park looking for his lost puppy throughout an entire game maybe he wouldn’t be on the verge of that illustrious distinction.
All of this lauding of the Broncos doesn’t mean I am slotting them into the playoffs, let alone the Super Bowl just yet. They still have a brutal schedule ahead of them. Sooner or later, they are going to need Orton to complete a few of those passes down the field.
However, after watching the Chargers on Sunday night, I am feeling a little better. The two lynchpins of all of the Chargers mediocre success in recent years were a strong running game and strong defense. As Rashard Mendenhall and Big Ben walked through the defense like they were wearing Lions helmets, one of those pillars started to crumble. As LT stumbled his way to 15 yards total rushing the other pillar started to look like it may be about done too (along with my fantasy teams hopes).
Has the window closed on the Chargers chances or is this just their typical early season Norv-ian rust? Will they resurrect themselves and eek out another late season division title over the Broncos or are they to be relegated to history’s dustbin of talented teams to never make a Super Bowl?
It is too early to tell right now, but I know one thing. I feel better with McDaniels under the headset than I would with Norv Turner.
