Shooting from the hip with linkage while waiting for the government to reopen:
Four weeks into the season, Don Banks at SI.com’s MMQB has the Seahawks and Broncos in the Super Bowl with Seattle winning 33-30.
My weekly Thursday column for The Sun was about the Mariners’ managerial search. I like Joe Maddon, so why not give his bench coach, Dave Martinez, a long look. He might be the answer.
Was going to head across the water to see Robert Earl Keen play some music, but never made it Wednesday night. Keen, a clever singer/songwriter from Texas, once competed in the rodeo as a bull rider. He’s what he had to say about riding a bull: “It’s like being in a can going 70 mph down the freeway and chucking the steering wheel out the window.”
I know it’s way too early to start thinking about it, but how cool would it be if the Saints and Seahawks are both 11-0 when New Orleans rolls into town Dec. 2 for a Monday night game at the Clink? Russell Wilson vs. Drew Brees, two quarterbacks who were supposed to be too short to play in the NFL. There are no gimmes on the schedule, but Seattle’s toughest tests should be at Indianapolis this week and at Atlanta on Nov. 10. The Saints’ schedule is tougher, starting with road games at Chicago and New England the next two weeks and another one at Atlanta. New Orleans also has to play San Francisco.
How will No. 15 Washington match up physically against No. 5 Stanford Saturday night (7:30 p.m., ESPN)? That seems to be the storyline going into the game. Can the Huskies, allowing just 3.80 yards per play, slow down the Bruisers from Palo Alto? It’s an intriguing matchup: Washington’s outstanding team quickness and up-tempo offense, similar to what Oregon’s used to become one of college’s elite teams, against a Cardinal team that would look a lot like Alabama if you put them in some Crimson Tide uniforms. Steve Rudman of Sportspressnw.com poses the question: Can Washington can with an elite team on the road?
I have to admit that Washington is better than I thought they’d be. Bishop Sankey’s the real deal at running back. The nation’s leading rusher is so good in open space, but he’s better in the trenches than I thought he was. And after carrying the rock 40 times against Arizona, you know he’s durable. And don’t sleep on UW defensive lineman Danny Shelton. Only a sophomore, he’s Washington’s version of J.J. Watt, the Texans’ one-man wrecking crew. Shelton’s the guy doing all of the dirty work in the middle of the line, absorbing double-teams to free up teammates for tackles.He anchors a Husky defensive line known as the “Flintstones.” Read about it here.
I still can’t get that Golden Tate punt return out of my mind. It’s overtime and he fields the ball at the goal-line, maybe a yard deep, and gets it out to the 31. It set up the Seahawks’ game-winning field goal against Houston. I wonder what special teams coach Brian Schneider was thinking when he saw Tate take off.
Los Angeles Times writer Chris Defresne believes USC’s coaching search should send with Steve Sarkisian, providing the coach is willing to leave Washington. For Sarkisian, he seems to be managing the distraction well. At least better than Rick Neuheisel did during his days at Washington, writes Art Thiel of sportspressnw.com
Stewart Mandell of SI.com writes that the Washington Huskies are on the verge of becoming relevant after being down for so many years.
Talked to bobsledder Bree Schaaf today. U.S. Bobsled Trials are next week in Lake Placid, N.Y., and the Olympian from Bremerton is ready to go after a year’s worth of intense training. Look for the story next week.
PGA Tour golfer Troy Kelly, a Central Kitsap grad, has moved back to the Northwest. He’s living in the Lakewood/Steilacoom area after calling La Quinta, Calif., home the past few years.
