What’s going on? There have been more surprises in this young NFL season than Custer found at Little Big Horn! A ton of the favorites have come crashing back to reality.
The New York Giants are 0-3. Even more surprising is the soundness of the thumpings they have taken, including last weekend’s 38-0 disaster to the Carolina Panthers.
Pittsburgh is 0-3, ditto for the Vikings and Redskins and even the mighty Packers are 1-2 after a late-game meltdown against the formerly Bungling Bengals! Meanwhile our Kansas City Chiefs are 3-0, along with the Miami Dolphins and “Da Bears” of Chicago. These are unchartered waters!
Can the undefeated Chiefs keep the winless Giants in the doldrums of football mediocrity this Sunday? A month ago we wouldn’t have wagered a nickel that it might come true, but now. all bets are off!
First-year coach Andy Reid has the Chiefs doing exactly what they have to do to win football games: winning the turnover battle! New quarterback Alex Smith, though not putting up huge numbers, is protecting the football. He doesn’t throw interceptions and he doesn’t panic and take chances. You don’t have to be a $million dollar coach to know that is closely associated with winning.
Don’t buy your Super Bowl tickets just yet but you can dust off those old Chiefs’ ball caps and sweatshirts. Something good is going on at Arrowhead as well as a few other surprising places.
Did the Panthers take a step back from the brink with their thrilling, gritty 28-25 victory over Garden City last Friday on the Buffs home turf? Can this “backs to the wall” rough tough win change a season? In a word, Yes!
Sometimes teams find themselves in unusual ways and this team might have discovered in that victory that yes, they can be a good football team.
By matching the Buffs potent offense with their own and by establishing a tough defensive mentality our Black Panthers showed that no, they are not quite ready to cede the top rungs of the WAC to other teams. With a road trip to Wichita North this team has a chance to enhance their resume and gain even more confidence. Hey, this is a lot more fun. ... Great Bend 30, Wichita North 20.

CHALK TALK: In a strange turn of events both K-State and Kansas have bye weeks this week. It will seem odd to not have one of them involved on radio or TV.
Rashad Johnson of the Arizona Cardinals lost the tip end of his middle finger in a 31-7 beatdown by the New Orleans Saints. Somehow he got stepped on and when he pulled his glove off a part of his middle finger stayed in the glove. EGADS!
That gives a whole new meaning to “giving someone the finger!”
Speaking of middle fingers a few of them, verbally speaking, were tossed around following Washington State’s 42-0 shutout of Idaho last Saturday. Idaho coach Paul Petrino took offense when Mike Leach put his first-team defense back on the field to keep Idaho from a late-game score. It turned a little ugly!

IN THE GOOD NEWS DEPARTMENT: Xavier University announced this week that they were signing to a scholarship, 12-year old Trey Couch. Couch suffers from an incurable Cerebellar Degeneration disease. 3 CHEERS to the Xavier basketball program! and finally, former NY Giants linebacker Carl Banks says, “The Giants players don’t like each other and that’s why they are losing.”  I’ve got news for you Carl. The Giants fans don’t like the players either!

Charles Tabler is a contributing writer from Larned.