Not what's supposed to happen

Going into this best-sports time of year, I was counting on a few things.

1. The Seahawks would continue to slightly disappoint me, based on how the season started


2. The Blazers would be disappointing most of the time

and


3. The Oregon football team would be my one relief.

The last week has flipped that upside down.

1. The Seahawks came out of a frightening stretch of season with several gutsy wins. Did they look good? Not really. But they won. And now, after being without Alexander, Hasselbeck, Engram, Tobeck, Locklear, and Hutchinson on offense, we'll be getting all of them back soon. Except for Hutch of course, but he hasn't been as much of an addition for Minnesota yet as he has been a loss for Seattle. It is huge to be at 6-3 right now, 3-0 in division, and looking at the team starting to gel as we head toward the postseason. My Seahawks have given me anything but disappointment in these last few weeks.


2. The Blazers are also doing everything but disappointing. Sure, they lost four of the five games on this long road-swing. But they won the last one, and it was against New Jersey. This story from the Oregonian says a lot of what you need to know about the team this year. I'll give you the opening, but the whole thing is worth the read.
   

   Like his teammates, who had just absorbed a 28-point beating from Boston, Jack was distraught over the state of the Blazers and his own play. The team had lost four in a row, and Jack was coming off a game in which he had five turnovers.
   
   "I was going crazy," Jack said.
   
   So, when the team arrived at their Short Hills hotel around 1 a.m., Jack called McMillan's room. No answer.
   
   He dialed the coach's cell phone, and McMillan -- who already was dissecting video of the Blazers' loss -- picked up.
   
   "Me and him had the same thing on our minds," Jack said. "So he was like, 'Come up to my room.' "
   
   The point guard and the coach sat next to each other and watched the first three quarters of the Boston game until after 3 a.m.
   
   "It actually seemed longer than that because we rewinded dang near every play," Jack said. "I didn't know I was going to be there that long, but the tape session really helped. I think I really understand the game plan now; I really understand his system."
   
   That was evident Saturday, when Jack played his best game of the season, scoring 12 points on 4 of 5 shooting and handing out eight assists without a turnover. Jack kept the Blazers' offense flowing and disciplined throughout the game.

   That's just great stuff. LaMarcus had a great line, Jack was amazing, Randolph did what he's been doing, even while getting fewer touches than he has been. (Which made him a little testy, so hopefully he realizes that it will help the team win when the ball gets moved around better, or at least he realizes that he'll have more chances if opponents know they can't just put everyone on him.) Most importantly, we basically shut down Kidd and Carter, which is amazing, especially since Portland is certainly not known for its defense at this point. We didn't even have R-O-Y, who had already established himself as our best front-court defender.
   
   Also this week were some flashes of brilliance from Sergio Rodriguez, whom I've been excited about since the draft. He needs to start hitting his shot, because it only took NBA players two games to figure out how to frustrate him, but his passes are so good.


3. The Ducks are doing the best job of disappointing me out of any of my teams playing right now. The loss at USC hurt, but losing at home to Arizona was brutal. I don't even know what to say. The defense is porous, and the "best" offense in the Pac-10 can't move the ball. Dixon, for as much as I like him and prefer him to Leaf, is playing terribly. The only good thing yesterday was the sophomore running back tandem of Stewart and Johnson. So that means if one of them doesn't transfer this offseason, then we'll be losing them to the NFL soon enough.