Football is back

The calendar says September and it's football season. Benster and I were flipping back and forth between a number of games yesterday. Some early thoughts:

• You can't tell much about any NFL team on what happens in the final preseason game. Many of the people on the field yesterday will be unemployed by the end of the day today. Still, you can draw some early conclusions based on the earlier games. The Vikings look to be offensively challenged again and the offensive line is going to be a big problem. I was originally thinking the Vikings were going to have a winning record this year, but I now think something like 7-9 or even 6-10 is more likely. 
• The Packers haven't shown much yet, but their defense looks to have improved a bit from last year. That's damning with faint praise. We don't have a sense of their running game, either. Aaron Rodgers can carry this team to 10-6 all by himself; if they want to be better than that, they'll need some players to step up. Ty Montgomery may be the key to the season.
• The Bears are a work in progress, but I expect improvement. I thought they were a cinch for the NFC North basement, but now I'm not so sure. My guess is teams will want to play them earlier in the season rather than later. 
• The Lions are apparently still in the division.
• We watched a good chunk of the Gophers and the elite debut of new coach P.J. "Row the Boat" Fleck. A 17-7 win over Buffalo, a bottom-tier MAC school, is not a particularly encouraging debut. It appears Fleck has no confidence with either of his quarterbacks, because it seemed like the Gophers spent the whole night running dive plays. His teams at Western Michigan were explosive on offense, so this debut was puzzling to say the least. Ski-U-Meh.
• The most pleasant surprise of the evening was the play of Irondale High School. The alma mater of Benster and Fearless Maria is known for its excellence in music and robotics, but football has been mediocre at best over the years, and quite often worse. The Knights opened the season against Spring Lake Park, the state runnerup in 5A last season and a traditional local rival that has largely laid waste to the mighty Knights. We flipped on the ol' cable access channel at halftime of the Gophers game and saw that Irondale was up 28-0. The Knights added another touchdown and beat SLP 35-0, flashing a ferocious defense that completely stymied the SLP attack. Meanwhile, a junior running back named Parker Freiberg ran for 156 yards on only 16 carries and scored four touchdowns. Had the Knights not played their second string most of the second half, it could have been worse. Perhaps things are changing on the north end of town.

Benster and D will return next week for another season. I sense the HYYYYYPPPPE building.