The view out my window was cold—frosted over—and downright unfriendly, as the sun forgot to shine upon the Meeker Cowboys and the Denver Broncos.
Hopefully, the Bronco situation is just a glitch that hit the Denver team two of the last three weeks, while they were on a three-game road trip, falling to the Patriots and Rams. They play host to the Miami Dolphins this coming weekend, but they will be playing on home turf again.
Manning took the blame for the loss once again, as he did against the Patriots. I am not sure I can blame Manning for the loss to the Patriots as he passed for 400 yards against an amazing team. His offensive line didn’t play very well and the normally tough defensive line and defensive backfield played like they didn’t know football was a contact sport.
The Broncos started off horribly against the Raiders, but at least the team showed up in the second half to win that game.
On Sunday against the Rams, the Broncos, from Manning to the offensive line and throughout the defense, played like it was a season-beginning scrimmage that didn’t matter much. No one did well, and the Broncos lost.
Glitches happen. That is why there has only been one undefeated team in the NFL since the Dolphins in the 1960s. Anyone can have a bad day.
Let’s hope that’s all it is and that the Broncos regroup for this coming Sunday.
The sun also forgot to shine on the Meeker Cowboy football team, which had to go on the road to Buena Vista after winning two playoff games in Meeker.
A road game is tough. Playing in less than ideal, cold conditions is tough. And since I was in high school—many, many years ago—Buena Vista was always tough.
Had the Cowboys won on Saturday afternoon in Buena Vista, Meeker would have had to play on the road against No. 1 Paonia, the only team that had defeated the Cowboys during the regular season. So, regardless of what happens this weekend between Buena Vista and Paonia, the only two teams in the state that beat Meeker this season were the No. 1 and No. 2 teams.
And if you were look at a bracket, then it figures a couple of ways that Meeker finished at least tied for third in the state, which is a darned fine accomplishment.
Coach Shane Phelan and his crew ought to feel downright proud of the Cowboys. As I have said in the past, what his team did this year was a complete team effort, led by two athletes in particular that just don’t come around every year.
Quarterback Jake Phelan and running back T.J. Shelton led the Cowboys with incredible seasons. However, other backs, the receivers and offensive line had to gel pretty well together to have the lopsided scores Meeker turned in all season. It also takes a tough defense to keep the opponents out of the Meeker end zone.
It is truly enjoyable as a fan to watch a good team with a hot offense and stiff defense, and Meeker pretty well fits that description.
Thanks for a great season, Cowboys. We are all proud of you. And remember for a long time, being No. 3 in the entire state is a pretty impressive feat.
Well, it appears that the 2014 hunting season is over this year and a mixed bag it was for the hunters.
It seems that for those seeking elk this year, it was a hot/cold season. For the second straight year, the bulls stayed particularly high in the mountains for the most part, However, among those who did bag their elk, there were some very impressive trophies.
The weather stayed pretty fair up until the last season, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife Meeker area game manager Bill deVergie said the big boys stayed hidden in the thick trees up high because there was no reason for them to start downhill. There was still plenty of forage from the summer and the temperature remained high and the snow was light until the last two weeks, but even the short burst of cold didn’t much to move the elk.
The elk have prospered for two years now with lots of water and forage and relatively little snow up high, but if we have a cold, early winter next year that causes the elk to move sooner than has been the case, this whole quarter of the state could have an outstanding elk harvest.
But again, deVergie said, those hunters who did get their elk – and there were quite a few – got some beauties, and those beauties came from all parts of the region.
It is good to see that it was a good year for the deer and bear hunters.
This is one of the few regions in the state where deer aren’t in a desperate condition, and apparently, this was the best deer hunt in years with a number of very nice trophies.
It is also very good to hear that this year was highly productive for bear hunting.
The last two years when I have had to speak with the five area game managers in this entire quarter of the state, all have said it is important that the population of bears is reduced because there are just too many and they are becoming a factor near the cities and towns as well as livestock predation.
It is too early to determine if the numbers will be down next year, but it is a good bet that the population won’t be rising much as the bear harvest was reportedly very good in all of Northwest Colorado.
And another lucrative year it was for Meeker and Rangely as far as the motels and restaurants were concerned.
There were a lot of hunters this year and they spent a lot of money in Rio Blanco County motels, county restaurants and with county businesses and guide services.
It was also a relatively peaceful hunting season as far as Rio Blanco County is concerned, deVergie said. He pointed to two moose cows that were killed when the hunters thought they were honing in on two elk cows, he said, adding that while that is a tragedy and an expensive one for the hunters, two is a low number of misidentifications for the average year.
He said that even the number of hunters trespassing on private property was down significantly this past set of seasons.
And Rio Blanco was lucky in one other respect.
While the Denver media was announcing Monday morning that one hunter was asphyxiated by carbon monoxide in a tent and that two of his companions were hospitalized from the carbon monoxide—just north of Meeker—the reality was that the incident occurred over the county line in Moffat County.
Overall it was a good hunting season for everyone but the elk trophy hunters and some of them fared quite well regardless of the conditions.
Hopefully, the elk and deer (and humans) run into a mild winter and the numbers of those critters continue to rise.
