The champs are down, so let’s write-off the Blackfoot Broncos.
After losing to the Idaho Falls Tigers 40-35, the Broncos have rammed straight into a season where they won’t just reload. We’re one game into 2013, so it’s time to expound that it’s a rebuilding year for the two-time champions, right?
Idaho Falls shredded Blackfoot with precise routes, dead-on passing and when receivers didn’t find open space for quarterback AJ Martin, the 6-foot senior effortlessly scrambled away for first downs.
The Tigers have installed the Pistol offense and they play fast. Anybody working the chains during an Idaho Falls game better show up ready to sprint.
Martin did his best impersonation of Eastern Washington’s Vernon Adams, a dual-threat signal caller who can sling a rocket to a streaking receiver or scamper away from pressure to extend a drive.
But, still, it doesn’t matter if I tell you Martin, his receivers or the new Tigers’ offense is good. Idaho Falls, with back-to-back 2-7 seasons, is Idaho Falls.
The storylines going into week zero of the high school football season surrounded the idea that Blackfoot is good and Idaho Falls is a program in the dumps. There’s no excuse for the Broncos to let the Tigers rack up 34 first-half points. It’s proof positive they aren’t winning a third-straight championship — forget about even reaching the 4A state playoffs.
Trae Pilster, Alonzo Ramos and Colby Pearson aren’t walking through the locker-room doors this Friday to save the day, either.
Of course, we could step back for a moment, survey the situation and study Blackfoot’s first game. If we do, we can recognize the Broncos stuffed Idaho Falls in the game’s final 12 minutes.
Blackfoot raged back and scored touchdowns with under nine, five and two minutes left in the game to nearly complete an improbable comeback. It wasn’t until Clayton Powell nabbed a night-ending interception with seconds left that the Tigers’ upset was secure.
The Broncos performed like a young and inexperienced squad for 36 minutes — which they largely are — but in that final quarter they played like a prototypical Blackfoot championship team.
Want to write off Stan Buck and the champs? Do so at your own peril.
Now it’s not that Blackfoot and its reputation are going to walk into the 4A state playoffs.
People think the NFC West is going to be tough this year, but the Seahawks, 49ers, Rams and Cardinals should thank the pigskin gods they don’t have to tangle with the Indians, Diamondbacks, Broncos, Bees and Trojans.
Bonneville hung 53 points on the road at Ravsten Stadium against Skyline.
Pocatello whipped Spring Valley (Nev.), a school with an enrollment more than twice the size of the Indians, 42-7 in the Rumble.
Rigby knocked off Hillcrest 19-14.
Century hasn’t played a game yet, but it’s the best Diamondbacks squad in years.
Those four are fighting Blackfoot for the 5-6 District’s two playoff spots. (No disrespect to Preston, but the Indians are not a threat.)
It’s going to be a knock-down, drag-out, teeth-bashing type of a battle, especially for that No. 2 spot.
How valuable is that second playoff slot? Whoever it is will get to play District 4’s top team. We’re talking about Burley, Twin Falls, Canyon Ridge, Jerome, Minico or Wood River.
That’s practically a straight walk into the semifinals. Then someone is one step away from a state championship berth.
Just don’t count out the team in Blackfoot — not yet. They’re pretty familiar with that time of the season.
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