Hawks in the NFL - Week 5

I’ll be honest - last week was Great American Beer Festival in Denver. The event runs 4 sessions over 3 days, Thursday night to Saturday night, plus bars/breweries participate in tap takeovers all over the city before, during, and after the actual festival. I had tickets to the Thursday night session, which was during the catastrophe that was Indianapolis Colts at Denver Broncos. Let’s just start there, because that set the stage for a truly remarkable weekend of crap football. Between that and Iowa, then some of the goings on with Iowa players on Sunday, it was a weekend to mostly forget. And with GABF, well, I’ve been a passenger all weekend. Cheers!

Josey Jewell

Lost in how bad the Colts-Broncos game was is the injury to Josey Jewell (he wasn’t the only Bronco injury; Denver is banged up right now). After missing the first two games of the season, Jewell had a nice return to action in Weeks 3 and 4. Thursday, he tailed 7 tackles, ¹⁄₂ a sack, and a forced fumble in the first half, before a knee injury knocked him out for the rest of the game. He’s described by local rube Nathaniel Hackett as week-to-week with a sprained knee. Better than, say, Ronald Darby or Garett Bolles, two additions to Denver’s growing IR list.

Broncos corner - as I left the Thursday session, someone asked if the Broncos won. Everyone in the area shouted “NO!” and started booing. So that’s how it’s going here. It’s a lost season and we’re only going into Week 6.

Potpourri

I missed a lot of Sunday, as I was at one of those said tap takeover events. I saw parts of what looked like a gnarly Dallas-Los Angeles Rams game. Otherwise, I missed quite a bit. A few players had ok games - Iowa’s Houston contingent of Desmond King and Christian Kirksey had decent games in a surprising 13-6 win over Jacksonville (the emergence of Jacksonville was greatly exaggerated). King had 6 tackles and 3 passes defended, while Kirksey was at 7 tackles and 1 pass defended.

Noah Fant had 3 catches for 49 yards as Seattle got dump trucked by Taysom Freaking Hill. George Kittle had 5 catches for 47 yards in a 37-15 romp over Carolina that got Wisconsin head coaching candidate Matt Ruhle fired. T.J. Hockensen failed to achieve liftoff after last week’s game against Seattle, finishing with 1 catch for 6 yards in a 29-0 shutout at the hands of New England.

Ihrim Smith-Marsette

This one I didn’t miss. ISM’s had an interesting year. His roster spot with Minnesota seemed safe until it wasn’t, as he was a late cut on August 31. Then this came out:

Ok then. I need to say that to more people I don’t like. Anyway, ISM - he figured to land somewhere quickly and he did, finding a spot with the offensively-challenged Chicago Bears. He had a slow start to the season, entering the week with zero catches. He finished Sunday with 1 reception for 15 yards. But in an effort to make his former employer pay for his sudden release, uh...

Well damn. Let’s just call this good. I’m especially bummed about Jewell. He’s had a tough year, losing most of last year to a pectoral injury, then he’s going to miss more time this year with the knee injury. Football Gods - respectfully, piss off.