The Football Rant

OK, in light of three games this weekend, the football rant is required.

First Game - University of Northern Iowa vs. Richmond. NCAA Division I semi-finals. UNI is ahead late in the 4th quarter (make that about 1:30 left in the game. Richmond completes a pass. The receiver jumps up and heads back to the huddle. Suddenly, and rather speciously after the receiver hears something from the sidelines, he falls down. The refs declare an injury time out - nothing charged against Richmond, though the coach and the quarterback are doing some serious talking while the "injured" player is being tended to. Injury time out over, three "hurry up" lineup plays, and Richmond scores the winning touchdown. UNI got a raw deal.

Game 2: San Diego and Kansas City. KC has a 21-3 lead going into the fourth quarter. This is a good thing for us fans of the Orange and Blue. If San Diego is defeated the Broncos clinch the AFC West division. And if the Broncos lose their game, they still win the division but don't have home field advantage for the first round of the playoffs. Well wouldn't you know it? KC snatches defeat from the jaws of victory, losing 22-21 in the final seconds. And we know KC doesn't particularly like Denver, but it being the holiday season and all one would think they'd be a bit more charitable. Oh well, there's still...

Game 3. Broncos vs. Carolina Panthers. In which the Broncos didn't show up with any kind of running game, and Carolina absolutely shredded our zone pass defense. I have to give credit to Carolina's Steve Smith - he was able to find every hole in our secondary. And happily so, since none of our defensive coordinators thought to maybe try a man to man defense. So we lost.

And this brings great drama to the AFC West. Not for the Raiders - they've been a lost cause since week 3. If both San Diego and Denver win next week, then the final game of regular season play will determine which team goes to the playoffs. Why? Because the final game of the regular season for these two teams is against each other. Yep - Broncos vs. Chargers in two weeks.

Oh what we'd give for an injury-proof 230 lb. concrete block of a running back that averages about 150 yards rushing per game right now!

Go Broncos!