It's becoming increasingly clear that the best, and perhaps only chance for anyone to put a dent in the Dunbar football machinery will be their game Oct. 18 at Poly.

Even so, the Engineers, who like the Poets are unbeaten, may not have enough firepower and speed, especially on their turf, to stay with No. 4 Dunbar, which has scored 105 points in its last two games against City and Edmondson, two teams that began the year in The Sun's Top 10 poll.

And, parenthetically, I don't have a vote on The Sun's All-Metro and Player of the Year awards, and rightfully so. I don't see enough of any one sport to make a call on who the best players are in those sports, and frankly, my colleagues who do are among the most knowledgeable anywhere.

All that said, and with all due respect to anyone else in the field, it's hard to draw up a scenario by which anyone other than Dunbar junior Tavon Austin wins Offensive Player of the Year honors. In the last two weeks alone, Austin, who won the honors last season, has put up video-game numbers, running for 446 yards on 33 carries (13.6 yards per carry) and scoring seven touchdowns against two pretty good teams.

The season, to be sure, isn't even half over, and there's a lot more football to be played, but Austin looks like the runaway leader heading toward the turn for home.