Hlas column: Great weekend for (former) Hawkeyes

IOWA CITY - There is a 9-1 record in football, and then there's a 9-1.

There's losing a game earlier in the season before opening up the engines, letting them roar, and tearing up the highway like a big old dinosaur.

Then there's winning, winning, winning, but abruptly hitting a patch of ice on a warm November Saturday in Iowa, and skidding from 9-0 to 9-1 with a quarterback suddenly needing an ankle surgery and a trip to Ohio State next up.

It was another beautiful day in Iowa Sunday, the day after Iowa's 17-10 defeat to Northwestern. At least weather-wise.

I was out driving that day, and came upon a house in Cedar Rapids with a flagpole in the front yard. It had a Hawkeyes flag flapping in the breeze.

At half-staff.

Tuesday, I ventured to the weekly Hawkeye football press gathering on yet another nearly ideal November afternoon to join the other media lemmings. The sunshine only beamed down on the Iowa complex, not from it.

No one was blowing any overly optimistic smoke, to no surprise. It's not the Ferentz/Iowa football way.

So I made an editorial decision. After having written nothing but Hawkeyes or Hawkeyes-related columns since the leaves were as green as freshman quarterback James Vandenberg, let's note other people in other places.

Some ex-Hawkeyes have done some rather eye-opening things in the NFL lately.

Dallas Clark has become the best tight end in the sport. He had 14 catches for the Indianapolis Colts Sunday, one shy of the NFL record at his position. He caught 11 Peyton Manning throws in the first half alone.

At the halfway point of the season, Clark has 60 receptions for 703 yards. He's on pace to break the league's records for catches (102) and yardage (1,290) in a season for tight ends. He blocks, too.

Not bad for a walk-on from tiny-town Iowa.

Other former Hawkeyes who have been terrific in the NFL lately include linebacker Chad Greenway of the Minnesota Vikings. He led the Vikings with 11 tackles in their Nov. 1 win at Green Bay, and was the NFC's Defensive Player of the Week for his efforts on Sept. 20 at Detroit when he intercepted two passes and recovered a fumble.

Defensive tackle Jonathan Babineaux was listed as questionable for the Atlanta Falcons'

game against Washington on Sunday with an ouchy ankle. It wasn't Ricky Stanzi-ouchy, apparently. Former Hawkeye Babineaux played. And destroyed the Redskins' offensive line.

He had 10 tackles and 2.5 quarterback sacks.

Meanwhile, a fairly famous footballer from Northern Iowa threw five touchdown passes for the Arizona Cardinals at Chicago Sunday.

A testament to what Kurt Warner has done in the NFL is this: A Cedar Rapids native threw for five TDs in an NFL game, but it wasn't blown up around here as one of the more extraordinary sports achievements by someone who grew up here.

Five touchdown passes in one game from Warner is regarded as the always-possible, not the unthinkable.