Over Labor Day weekend, I was visiting friends up in Decorah, seeing the scores come in on my iPhone. The Iowa Hawkeyes, in their home opener, were losing to Division-II UNI. Though they would come back to win, my thinking went like this:
- the Hawkeyes, having lost starting tailback Jewel Hampton, are going to have a rough year;
- the Broncos, with a new QB, a new coach, and a suspended star receiver, are going to have a rougher year;
- at least I still have the Phillies.
Fast forward a month. The Hawkeyes are a top-dozen team, the Broncos are 3-0 (though they’re down 10-7 to Dallas as I write this), and the Phillies have limped into the playoffs.
The Hawkeyes are for real, even though they didn’t put a hapless Arkansas State team away until the very end of the game. I don’t often think Pat Harty is worth reading (and can’t they find a better photo of the guy?), but he is right that people shouldn’t panic about that performance this weekend. It’s hard to win games against lesser opponents when you just had a huge game, and are about to have another huge game. That’s why they call it a trap.
The Broncos? I can’t tell yet if they’re for real. They seem to have a genuinely good defense. Their offense is questionable. But one thing I’ve appreciated about them, that’s come through in the press, is that McDaniels is preaching not only being smart and disciplined, but “humble.” That’s been a tough task in recent years, with the pouty Cutler and insolent Marshall demanding respect, money, and/or trades. But the team is, by all appearances, buying in, and even Marshall is now suddenly soft-spoken.
The Phillies? I don’t know what’s going on with them, because they’re not on TV around here. They’re having trouble with their pitching, starting with their closer, but apparently including their starters as well. Anything can happen in the playoffs, and they do have home-field advantage in the first round, but against a hot Rockies team I wouldn’t be shocked by a quick exit.
Oh well. At least I still have the Hawkeyes and Broncos.
It’s that time again. It’s not too much of a stretch to say that this draft will have a big part in determining whether Josh McDaniels gets replaced after three years, or if he sticks. Once they trade TE Tony Scheffler (which should be any day now), Shanahan’s guys will be gone and the team will have McD’s fingerprints all over it. There’s still some time to go before the 2009 draft can be judged fairly, but the top trio of Knowshon Moreno, Robert Ayers, and Alphonso Smith produced a resounding “meh” in their rookie season. So if McD blows this draft… not good. Here’s what I’m hoping the Broncos do in the first three rounds this weekend:
