BRING ON FOOTBALL!!!

Since moving to Mesa in May of this year I’ve spent most of my time adapting to the new lifestyle, making friends with my neighbors, driving Whinnie and enjoying the greater Phoenix metro area. My focus has not been as dialed in on College and the NFL Football as in years past because of the protest nonsense last season. Hopefully the NFL gets a handle on it this year. Given that, I'm excited about the upcoming season, if they get it cleaned up. 

I'm also pumped up for the NFL Fantasy Football season. I’m into the 16 consecutive year of the league I host on Yahoo. I haven't won the darn thing since 2009, maybe this is my year.

The Denver Broncos and the Wyoming Cowboys is and will always be my 2 favorite football teams but this season I’ll be keeping my eyes on the Arizona Cardinals and especially the Buffalo Bills and the development of Josh Allen.

Allen was sacked 5 times in the Bengals preseason game.

Allen was sacked 5 times in the Bills 3^rd preseason game against the Bengals. I watched the highlights and it was clear that Allen was not getting rid of the ball fast enough and the speed of game and the Bengals D was overwhelming him. The Bills OL wasn’t doing a great job either. I worry that like many Rookie QB’s Allen will get put through the meatgrinder early, get hurt and lose his confidence. Like no other Wyoming Cowboys Alumni ever, Allen has the potential to be a superstar if he’s brought along slowly. Once he develops the game between his ears he’ll be unstoppable with his physical skill set. If… he can survive the beatings he’s likely to face early in his career.

It was disappointing to see the Wyoming Cowboys D just totally collapsed in the 2^nd half of their home opener against Washington State last Saturday. The Corners and Safeties for the Cowboys have been the worst part of their team for years. They can’t cover and are very poor tacklers. There was plenty of blame to go around for the loss but until the Cowboys can play D for 4 quarters they could be in for long year in Laramie.

Red-shirt freshman QB Tyler Vander Waal couldn’t elevate his game either. He had less than 100 yards passing. Again, the Cowboys O in the second half was a total train wreck but I hope he picks up his game soon. He’s a tall kid at 6-4 and a light 210 pounds but he's no Carson Wentz or Josh Allen just yet, that’s clear.

 

Cardinals uni I bought David for Xmas in 1980.

As for the Cardinals, which has been my favorite NFC since their days in St. Louis in the early 70’s, I hope their team makes advances too. My kid Brother David, also a Cardinals fan, called me the day the NFL schedule was released in April and told me he wanted to come to Phoenix to watch the Broncos/Cardinals game on Oct. 18^th. So, I look forward to seeing that game with him, but I’ll have to root for my Broncos even though I’m an official Arizonian now.

Since I’m only a 6 ½ hours from Albuquerque my other football adventure this season will be to travel to watch the Cowboys/Lobos game on Nov. 24^th.

So… bring on football and end the protests! GO BRONCOS! GO WYOMING COWBOYS! GO CARDINALS!