Dallas, Dealt With: Vikings Bounce Back at SMU
Cleveland State28
SMU22
- Game
- 2024 Week 6
- Date
- 2024-10-19
- Site
- Away
- Result
- Win
- Record
- 4-2
THAT’S A VIKING, FOLKS.
Big day for the family. My Lakers won their first game of the fall that morning, a sloppy, glorious youth-league win in which nobody knew where the ball was for most of the second half, including the referee. Then, hours later, our guys went down to Dallas, walked into SMU’s house and came out with a 28-22 win.
Two wins, two teams, one heart, two very tired knees.
We’re 4-2. Last week Kenny was ready to sell the furniture. This week the Vikings went on the road against a good team and won a six-point game. That’s character with a little margin for error.
My little linebacker Danny, the one who taught me to keep showing up, asked me after practice if the Vikings were “as good as us.” I told him nobody is as good as the Lakers, but the Vikings are getting there.
Four pierogi, and I’m framing the box score next to my 1990 diploma.
Fine. Good. Wow.
That’s the column. Marlene says I need two hundred words, so I’ll elaborate on “wow.”
At lunch, Big Stan slid an extra pickle onto my plate “for the doubter,” which I believe is a deli threat. Mickey told the whole counter council about his Lakers before he mentioned SMU. Priorities.
A road win at SMU after a road loss in Lubbock is genuinely encouraging, and I hate typing “genuinely encouraging” because it feels like signing something. The defense held a decent team to twenty-two, the second straight week under twenty-five. That’s a trend, and I don’t like trends I can’t argue with.
My concern, because I always have one: Colorado is next, on the road again, at altitude. Thin air, thick crowds.
The Doom Model has quietly lowered its loss projection for the season. I didn’t approve that. It made the change on its own, like a teenager.
Back and forth
Four and two. Say something nice.
The defense is becoming a real thing. Don’t quote me.
I’m quoting you on a sweatshirt.
Then I’ll say it was a typo. In a church bulletin. Again.
Two wins in one day for Coach Mickey, a deli pickle as a warning shot, and one nice sentence from Ken that he’ll deny under oath.
Split Decision is fiction. Mickey Bridges, Ken Hogmanes and The Lakefront Ledger are invented; the games and scores are not.