Today at the Galena Park ISD Stadium, the Friendswood Mustangs took on the Pearland Dawson Eagles in the state Quarter Finals. It promised to be a good game. The last time Pearland Dawson lost a game, it was against Friendswood in the regular season (10/16/09). The last time Friendswood lost was the week before (in a nail biter against Santa Fe). Pearland Dawson came out looking for revenge against Friendswood. Friendswood was hoping for revenge next week against Austin Lake Travis. Unfortunately, Friendswood will have to wait another year for that revenge.
In my humble opinion, the Friendswood Mustang offense may have peaked last week during the first half of the game against Beaumont Central. During that half, our offense was unstoppable. They could do no wrong. This week, however . . . .
Even during the second half of last week's game, while our starters were still playing, we didn't look as good. I wondered at the time if the coaches had told the players to ease up and save it for next week. After all, the score at halftime last week was 30-10 Friendswood. The final score last week was 44-22. We scored 30 points in the first half and only 14 in the second. Our backups didn't start playing until the 4th quarter of that game.
Now, I think I was right last week. Our offense was just not "on" today. Quarterback Pete Maetzold usually had plenty of time to throw the ball, but few options on who to throw it to. Pearland's defense covered our receivers well. Even when they didn't intercept the ball, they did a good job of preventing us from catching. And then, even when the ball was thrown right into the hands of the receiver, they dropped it too many times. Sometimes, it was good that Maetzold's aim was off today, him under or over throwing his receivers prevented more interceptions.
Our defense did a GREAT job today and played most of the game. Those poor guys barely had enough time to catch their breath before they were back on the field again, sometimes they were only off the field for one play. Yes, they made a few mistakes, but who wouldn't if they had to play full out that long. One great bragging right, every interception Pearland Dawson's quarterback, Darian Lazard, has thrown this year, has been caught by a Friendswood Mustang. Pearland was able to move down the field very slowly (when the officials weren't giving the yards to them), and had very few break aways. The defense can lose a game, and they can win a game, but they can't win a game if they are on the field almost the whole time, and the offense doesn't score when it is on the field.
The real difference in this game was the officials. I have never seen that many blown calls (and that says something, since I've been following high school football since I was three years old.). I'm sure that even the Dawson fans would agree with me that the officials made several mistakes. I'm sure that affected the mental aspect of the game. When officials are moving the ball/line of scrimmage, in favor of the other team, refusing to call penalties against one team, and making up penalties against the other team, it has to effect the players. Usually, that kind of thing makes our players play harder -makes them want to win in spite of the officials, but today, when it was so blatant, obvious and wrong . . . .
For example, did anyone else notice that the play clock would only start after Dawson's offense was on the line of scrimmage and set. Only twice did I see it move before hand, and one of those times, Dawson called a timeout when it appeared that the play clock was at zero. This was not true for Friendswood. The play clock was always ticking when we were on offense. Here's another one. The last time I checked, the horse collar was around the neck, not the waist. So why did we get a horse collar penalty when we tackled the player around the waist. OR when our player was tackled after he caught the ball, but it was ruled an incomplete pass. And what's even worse for that call, the receiver was facing our stands when he caught it. Oh, and did I mention the fact that they ignored Dawson's players grabbing the hands of our receiver? Isn't that pass interference?
My husband wondered aloud if Dawson was the refs' ride home after the game. It appeared to be that way. During the second half, the officials kept the yellow flags in their pockets more, but then they just weren't really calling anything. Pearland was able to get away with everything. Of course, we got away with a few things, too.
It reminds me alot of a game we played early in the season (I'll have to look it up to see exactly which game it was). The refs threw yellow flags all over the field in the first half of that game, always against us. But let almost anything go in the second half. I wonder if it was the same refs. If I remember correctly, that was a pre-season game against a 5A team, but don't hold me to that. Is there a set of refs that doesn't like Friendswood for some reason.
All that being said, Pearland Dawson really did play better this afternoon than they did in October. I'm looking forward to reading the write up in The Galveston County Daily News (www.galvnews.com) to see all stats for the game and the season.
I would like to see UIL do a better job of holding officials accountable. This game MIGHT have had a different outcome if the officials had been FAIR. I really don't think it's too much to ask for to have fair officials. Do you?
No comments:
Post a Comment