It was another heart wrenching loss for our Cougars this Thursday night. This one hurt because the boys were so great in the first quarter, Mijo was finally back in the lineup, the line looked a little tougher, but we should have known trouble was lurking, even while looking at them warm up. With Wife not going to work the whole week, she is now mostly recovered from Covid, we were able to head to the game early, for once. I enjoyed myself walking around, setting up my flags here and there, to add some color and spirit to our side of the bleachers. While they were warming up, one of our linemen got injured to the point he was carried away in the golfcart stretcher. It might end up just being cramps, but even then, Mijo took a month to get over the one he got at the UT camp.
Anyways, the game started out as good as any game has. Our first play was a bomb, about 40-yard pass, then before we could stop clapping for that one, the QB took off on a run, and got into the endzone. We got off to a 7-0 start. The other team took about ten minutes, but eventually got in the endzone too. We got the ball back and again, in the first play, our QB took off for another 70-yard run and scored again. When the other team got the ball, we intercepted and yet again, the ball was returned all the way for a third score. By the end of the 1st quarter, we were up 28-7. That sounds like the stuff of champions, I thought having Mijo in the lineup is making a difference, he has opened up some running lanes for our star to capitalize on.
Not so fast, the magic wore off, and they did not score any more the rest of the game. Slowly, the other team got back in it, they scored a TD in the second quarter, it took them another 8 minutes or so. Then they did an offsides kick and totally surprised our guys, who did not even attempt to field the ball. The recovered it and scored again before the half. They then got the ball back at the start of the second half with a score of 20-28, they scored again and even made a 2-point conversion to tie the game. They then kept scoring and we kept making mistakes. There were too many penalties to even think about winning, not blaming the refs, but it is hard to sustain drives when every series is stopped, and the refs are moving the ball back and forth.
These boys have to start believing they can win, there are too many self-doubters and when one thing doesn't go their way, the whole thing just crumbles. They need to learn that the game is a bunch of ups and downs, they will lead, and they will fall behind, it is part of the game. They should have won this one, they weren't defeated by their opponent, they defeated themselves.
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