Last night was a hard game, but nothing that wasn't expected. They beat us by a huge margin last year, so I fully expected about the same thing, and they delivered, beating us I think 51-13. Part of the problem is obviously the offensive line, missing 2 of its starters and a 3rd one playing in pain. I think a bigger problem is the lack of tackling skills on the defensive side of the ball. On a lot of dinky runs, the defender who first touches the runner with the ball just runs into them, there is no wrapping or intention of stopping the play.
My first reaction was "wow, none of these kids are really big nor do they look like specimens or playmakers. They were all just regular kids who play the game well and must be coached even better. They stick to their assignments and follow a play through. It was hard seeing our star QB not even having a second or two to think in the backfield, the offensive line was just porous and any and all defenders were getting through. That is not completely true, I did see an initial block of the front 3 guys being held, but I am guessing they were just blitzing and sending different guys in at will, which worked more times than not.
As Wife was saying and I agreed with her, they weren't as bad as the score shows, we were inside the 5-yard line at least two other times where we failed to score. The score could have easily been 35-51, which is still a loss, but not as bad. They are honestly missing the big guys up front with all their skill and experience.
I know Wife can't control her job, she has to work until 4:30pm and then the traffic is just shitty on the freeway, especially on a Friday afternoon when everyone is rushing home for the weekend. I just hate getting to the game after it has already started, and that seems to happen every time out on House Park, because it is further from the house, and we have to drive into downtown Austin. I guess we get to repeat the arrangement again next week, when we start district play at the same stadium.
The boys are still hopeful, I think, of making a playoff run, the district competition is nowhere near as good as some of these smaller schools that really gel together. I imagine that like my mom says, kids back home are playing with the same guys since they start playing in 1st grade, so they really know each other's abilities. We are working in a huge city where we just get an influx of change every year, it is very hard to build this way. I could also add that because of financial situations, many of what could be players simply choose to grow up and join the workforce instead of playing a game. I get it, money is more important at some point, but I wish these kids could just finish high school being kids and enjoying their youth.
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