This time of year puts me in the mood to write poetry. Everything is dying, the light dims earlier and mornings are often smudged by the rain and drizzle of pre dawn October. It is a favorite month of mine, it would be a damn shame if I didn’t post on this blog during this beautiful time of year. When the sports are so fresh, and the weather is so nice.
Broncos Post Mortem
Let the record show, I was out on the Broncos at the first half two minute warning of week 7 this year. Yes they won the game, yes they beat down a Saints team that quit, it doesn’t change the fact that they still don’t have a QB, at least yet.
Bo Nix could develop, he could take a step forward, but that’s not happening this year. Frankly it’s not happening until the NFL game slows down for him and he fixes his shakey mechanics and footwork. He’s an inaccurate passer with a penchant of calling his own number and in the process taking vicious hits. Making it through the season healthy would be a big step forward.
The Broncos also just don’t really have any talent offensively. Courtland Sutton pops up here and their but isn’t a game changing wide out at this point in his career. Marvin Mims NFL career is on life support as a special teamer. Josh Reynolds barely gives the offense three catches a week, and rookie Troy Franklin, while coming along just isn’t contributing yet.
At least the ground game took a step forward this week but again, against a Saints team that had clearly thrown in the towel. Just a tough look all around for New Orleans.
Once again, this team is bound for 8 wins. Good enough to remain in the playoff hunt but not bad enough to accumulate any real draft capital that could get them a game changing player. The worst place to be in the NFL, in the middle and asking yourself, do we actually have a QB? Right now the answer is a resounding no, but things can change.
Still, I’m out.
Other NFL Notes
- I firmly believe Lamar Jackson is QB1 right now. Throw the Mahomes nonsense to the side, Lamar is preforming at a level that just puts him at the top of the league, he’s accurate as a passer and deadly with his legs. This is the prime of his career, my belief is that the Ravens are the main challengers to the Chiefs in the AFC still.
- Jets make a move to late, Bills make a move right on time. Devante Adams is not changing anything in New York, the offensive line can’t protect, the defense is no longer a strength for the Jets and the locker room seems to be in chaos from week to week. The New York Jets simply do not have it. At this point the best they can hope for is to play spoiler unless results start piling up, they get a shot to show case on Sunday Night Football this week, will they show up? Likely not, this is the New York Jets we are talking about.
- It’s bad for Jerry right now. Jerry Jones got just about the worst birthday present imaginable, a nearly 50 point stomping from the Detroit lines at the building he built on his own birthday. The Cowboys have one star wide out that can’t get the ball, the highest paid QB in the league who struggled to read safety Brian Branch last week a decrepit Zeke Elliot leading the charge of a farse of a ground game and a defense that couldn’t stop a blind, obese, and sickly calf in cattle country. Yikes. Is this Cowboy’s rock bottom? I really don’t know, it seems like it always gets worse.
- Side note, I went to Jerry world. To say it was an experience is an understatement, Cowboys stadium is like nothing I have ever seen before. It is American excess with a capital E. A massive sports bar and half size Cowboys turf field and inside, a cathedral. That would be the wrong comparison though, you could probably fit two Notre Dames within the confines of the Cowboys complex. It is truly something special to see. To understand what America is any and all tourists to this country should attend a Cowboys game. They might be dead but I have come around on it, they truly are America’s team.
Avs Panic Level: The Sky Is Not Falling but Cracks are beginning to show
I never really thought within the Makar and Mackinnon era we would really ever get to this point. Hockey is a team sport though, and this team has decayed.
A symptom of winning in the league with the most parity in American sports is that it taxes your resources. The Avs are a team with three dazzling shining stars, but outside of those three, the pickings are slim. The bottom six forwards through four games for the Avs have scored 0 points, a truly astonishing feet, not even an assist to save them.
This take inspired me to write this blog so here it is:
Things have compounded on the Avalanche.
- The bottom six was thin to begin with, now Miles Wood is out with an injury.
- The top six was thin to begin with: Valeri Nichuskin is not back until November, Gabe Landeskog is never playing hockey again, and Jonathan Drouin is injured.
- The entirety of the Avs are injured. 6 Avalanche players are hurt and essentially with Drouin being evaluated in 1o days 4 of them are on IR. That’s just far to much attrition this early in the season.
- And finally, THEY DO NOT HAVE A GOALTENDER. Jared Bednar won a cup, he’s been an excellent head coach, but if he continues to ride with AG, a goalie whose stats are preposterously bad, he needs to come under scrutiny and maybe even lose his job. The front office has failed the most key spot on the roster outside of Center, there need to be consequences. The stats I am talking about: 6 goals against average, and a pathetic 76 save percentage. AHL goalies do better. Hell, ECHL goalies do better. It’s over move on. The longer this goes the more the playoffs fade, in this division, in this conference, you cannot start the season 2-8 and hope to make the playoffs.