These are the kind of stakes which I have no control over, yet care so deeply about. I’m taking about what’s at stake for the University of Washington Huskies, Seattle Mariners, Seahawks and Sounders this weekend.

Let’s start in chronological order. Chris Petersen and his Dawgs endured a tough trip to the desert last weekend. Arizona’s back-up QB, Brandon Dawkins, was able to run over the Dawgs stingy D. I specifically remember Vita Vea latching onto Dawkins, attempted to strip the ball from him which lead to the QB (somehow) wriggling free and finding an open receiver downfield for a monster gain. Simply put, they couldn’t enact a plan to stop him from scrambling for huge chunks of yards. I dunno if Pete Kwiatkowski didn’t prepare his guys for such an athletic QB or if the players were thinking ahead to their Friday night, nationally-televised battle with the Stanford Cardinals, but something seemed off. Jake Browning put up decent number, although he looked too amped up at times. His passes weren’t hitting receivers on the numbers; they were being thrown too high or too low. Also, his deep passes were going to a spot, not to where the receiver could make a play. Lavon Coleman really bailed them out with his 181 rushing yards and 1 TD. What worries me is Myles Gaskin. He hasn’t gone over 100-yards rushing and has played against some poor run defense. He looked tentative against the Wildcats. If the Huskies are to reach their full potential this season they need him to revert back to the player he was in 2015, hitting the hole hard and making guys miss.

I know virtually nothing about Stanford and their players, but I do know they 100% revolver their offense around Heisman-candidate Christian McCaffrey. If you have never seen him play you are in for a treat (think Reggie Bush at USC). While it’s true Bush was in a different bracket athletically, they both do a little bit of everything for their respective teams. The aspect I simultaneously feared and respected about Reggie Bush was his TD-scoring ability. He could take a simple hand-off, make 6 dudes miss, turn on the jets and take it 75-yards for a TD. I feel the same exact way about Christian McCaffrey.

The Seattle Mariners haven’t made the playoffs since the magical 116 win season back at the turn of the century (2001) and it fucking kills me. There is unquestionably nothing more I want in my life than a baseball team who can win important games in October. It drives me absolutely bananas this organization can’t seem to figure out a recipe for success. I would love to write about the M’s more often, but I know I would be far too negative in my thinking. Robinson Cano, Nelson Cruz, Felix Hernandez, Kyle Seager, Hisashi Iwakuma, Taijuan Walker, Mike Zunino and the rest of the boys HAVE to step their games up & ball out this weekend and sweep the Oakland Athletics if they want even the slightest shot at making the tiebreaker game. They also need a fair amount of help from Boston, New York & Atlanta (I feel sick just thinking about having to root for these narcissistic franchises). Quick aside, why in the world would Major League Baseball schedule an Detroit-Atlanta series this late in the season?? At-least make it an AL vs AL series, not some inter-league BS. (See, I’m already pissed off. I can’t talk about baseball/the Mariners without letting emotion get the best of me).

I’m sure you have seen it a million times, but damn, that injury to Russell Wilson looked nasty. I legitimately thought he had a broken ankle or torn ACL or MCL. It’s shocking he only missed 1 play and then tried to persuade the trainer & Pete Carroll he was fine to play. The most shocking part of this equation is Pete Carroll saying he would be “surprised” if Wilson didn’t suit up this weekend in New York. You serious, Pete? You would risk your $20-million-dollar-a-year franchise QB when he is banged up and playing against, arguably, the most talented D-Line in football? That’s crazy talk! For the record, I’m 100% against Wilson playing against the Jets. Their D-Line boast some of the best individual talent in all of football (Muhammad Wilkerson, Sheldon Richardson & Leonard Williams). I see it as an unnecessary risk, especially, with Seattle’s porous O-Line play. I know Russell Wilson is a competitive dude who would willingly play through most injuries, but it’s too early in the season to risk him. This is only Week 4, there are 12 games left in the season. I’m not saying the Jets are the kind of team who would specifically target a hurt player, but it has been documented to happen in the NFL.

If it were up to me I would develop a “safe” game-plan around a healthy dose of Christine Michael mixed with a little C.J. Spiller, Alex Collins and C.J. Prosise. Trevone Boykin balled during his Junior and Senior seasons at Texas Christian University and I have faith he can get the job done in a pinch. I would want Darrell Bevell to keep his deep passes to a minimum and, instead, rely on Doug Baldwin, Jermaine Kearse and Tyler Lockett’s ability to run short routes to perfection and gain as many YAC (yards after catch) as they can. If Russell Wilson is unable to go, then the defense will need to be the ones to step their game up. Although, with the way they have played through 3 weeks I dunno how much better they can play. I guess they could force more turnovers, which shouldn’t be too big of a problem because Ryan Fitzpatrick threw 6 interceptions last week in Kansas City.

Lastly, we come to the Seattle Sounders. Sigi Schmid, the only coach in Sounders history, resigned on July 24th after a poor start to the 2016 campaign. In the 10 games since he resigned, the club has gone 6-3-1 racking up 21 out of 30 points and now sit in the 6th, and final, playoff position in the Western Conference. They are level on points (41) with the Portland Timbers, but are ahead of them due to goal difference, plus Portland has played 1 more game than Seattle. Intern coach Brian Schmeltzer has a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to upcoming opponents. On Sunday, they travel to Vancouver to play their Cascadia Cup rivals in a derby match, next they come home to face the lowly Houston Dynamo (10/12), then head back on the road to league leading Dallas (10/16) and finish the season at home against playoff-bound Real Salt Lake (10/23). To complicate matters further, Clint Dempsey (2nd leading scorer on the team) will miss the rest of the season due to an irregular heartbeat. That means the bulk of the goal-scoring onus will fall on young Jordan Morris, who has had an outstanding maiden campaign in the MLS, scoring an impressive 12 goals this season.

Thankfully, most of these sporting events fall on different days/times and don’t overlap too much. Friday gives us UW-Stanford at 6 PM and Mariners-Athletics at 7 PM, Saturday will be my homework (ugh, biology) day because the Mariners play at 6 PM, finally, Sunday will be the marathon; Arsenal-Burnley at 8:30 AM, Seahawks-Jets 10 AM, Mariners-Athletics 1 PM and Sounders-Whitecaps 5 PM. Last weekend, all of these teams won and I was over the moon, now the pressure is ratcheted up and the stakes are much higher. Time to see who rises to the occasion and who curdles like milk. All the while I’ll be jacked up on Mountain Dew.