Weekend Notes

There was a theme for my football weekend: special teams.

High School Football

What a game Friday night, in the big Indy Northside Catholic matchup!

Class 4A #1 Chatard jumped out to a 13–0 lead early in the second quarter. The 5A #4 Cathedral defense had actually stopped them on both drives, only to be called for penalties that kept the Trojans alive. The Irish seemed to score their first TD since their opening drive of the season only to have it called back for a penalty. They settled for a field goal, making it a 17-point swing based on CHS being dumb.

It was 13–6 at halftime, then CHS scored consecutive touchdowns in the second half to take the lead and were driving again before a fumble set up a tying score for Chatard midway through the fourth quarter.

The last 90 seconds were nutty. CHS forced a BCHS punt, which they blocked. Kind of. The poor punter muffed the snap and basically kicked the ball after it had bounced off the ground, directly into the face mask of a rushing CHS player.

CHS ran the ball and the clock then brought out their all-state kicker to boot a 45 yard field goal with 12 seconds left to take the lead. Chatard got the ball to midfield but then their QB was sandwiched on the final play of the game. 23–20 final.

Nice win for Cathedral. Baring a huge upset down the road, probably their only chance to salvage anything from this season, given the remaining schedule and the best 5A team in the state being in their sectional. A brutal loss for Chatard, but one that really should not distract in any way their drive for a 4A state title.

L and her friends who came back to our house after the game were enthused by the result.

College Football

I barely watched the early games Saturday but was glued to Georgia-Tennessee and Texas A&M-Notre Dame from 3:30 until about 11:30. Both were fantastic games. Props to the Football Gods for having the first game go to overtime so it ended just as the marquee evening game was kicking off.

At some point S asked me what special teams were. I like that she’s not afraid to ask these things. I explained.

Naturally the UGa-Tenn game came down to special teams, with the Vols missing a field goal that would have won the game in regulation before losing in overtime.

As did the Notre Dame game, with the Irish flubbing the hold on the PAT that would have put them up seven with just over a minute left. A&M scored, made their kick, and won by one.

And the only early game I watched was the closing seconds of Georgia Tech’s win over Clemson…which came down to a field goal as time expired.

Oh, and I had a buddy at the Baylor game who said he spent the first half trying to figure out who the folks he was sitting by were related to on the team. Eventually he realized it was the BU long snapper. That kid got flagged for blasting someone at some point.

Special teams, friends.

Colts/NFL

But wait, there was more. The Colts went to 2–0 thanks to a massive special teams play. Saturday when breaking down special teams I told S that you can’t hit the center on snaps on kicks. Well, that how the Colts beat Denver. They missed a 60-yard attempt as time ran out. But the Broncos were flagged for hitting the Colts center. The ball was moved up 15 yards and Spencer Shrader nailed his second chance to win the game.

S missed the play but was excited when I told her how special teams played a huge role.

It was, frankly, a lucky win for the Colts. Not just because of how the game ended. Their offense was really good outside the red zone, but bogged down too often once the ball got inside the 20. Shane Steichen needs to call better plays. Like too many teams, the Colts get boring and predictable when the yards to go get fewer.

But the defense? Stinky. Yeah, they were missing a couple starters again. According to the Sunday night stats, though, they didn’t officially hit Bo Nix once in the pocket. You can’t win in the NFL without consistently pressuring the quarterback. And the Denver wide receivers were torching the Colts DBs all day long. Two of Denver’s scores came when there was terrible communication between the Colts LBs and DBs, leaving receivers wide open. The Colts were fortunate they were in position to win the game in the first place. The flag on Denver was just the cherry on top.

We didn’t get the Giants-Cowboys game in Indy – we had Bears-Lions which was fun to watch, too – so I missed the special teams impact on that one.

I’ll wrap this up by giving full props to the NFL for adjusting the kickoff rules. Last year’s changes sucked the life out of the kickoff, giving teams zero incentive not to just blast the ball out of the end zone for a touchback.

But the new rule, which brings touchbacks out another five yards – and is now 15 yards further than the classic touchback rules – does the exact opposite, forcing teams to keep the kick in play. Nicely done!

Now fix the onside kick situation so there is a reasonable chance of success.

Fever

The Fever opened their series against Atlanta Sunday in the midst of football action. Last year I switched back-and-forth all day when they began their playoff series. This year? I checked once. I immediately saw a horrific foul call that the Fever had to waste a challenge/time out to correctly have overturned. Then I heard this was the second time they had to do that. And it wasn’t even halftime yet. In the 5–6 weeks it’s been since I last watched a game I blocked out how terrible WNBA referees are. I was reminded, switched away, and never checked in again.

Also, would you believe this, another Fever player was hurt and unavailable. This time it was just a concussion for Damiris Dantas, but still.

Like the last two months have gone, the Fever had an early lead Sunday then faded. This season will be, mercifully, over soon.

Family Bummer

We got bad news last week. M’s semester abroad program advisor sent her a message saying “Oh, by the way, Portugal has changed their entry visa process and now you have to go to Washington, D.C. to apply in person.” The advisor said you had to book an appointment at an office in D.C. and that it would be a good idea to hurry, as M needed to submit her visa to the program in about six weeks. M went on the website to schedule…and there were no appointments available. Like not even a couple months out. It just said to check back later. This was concerning.

Tuition is due this week, which was the biggest issue. There was no way we were going to pay that bill when we weren’t sure she could get a visa.

I did some digging and found that there are special hours when students can just walk in without an appointment. These hours are 8:30–10:30 each Monday morning. Terrific. I had her follow up to make sure that was accurate. It took a couple calls – the email listed bounced messages back and the phone number on the website rang without being picked up – but eventually she confirmed. We both spent the afternoon researching with plans to reconnect in the evening when S was home.

I started checking flights from both Cincinnati and Indy to DC. To make this work we really would have to be in D.C. yesterday so she could be in line this morning. As you might guess, it would not be a cheap flight. And I wanted to go with her to make sure she wasn’t hassled getting into a hotel, had some moral support, etc. So we were looking at a $2000-ish trip to stand in line for two hours and hopefully submit an application.

Then as I reviewed the documentation she would have to attach to her application, I saw we would have to have proof of air travel and her travel insurance paid for. This was turning into an extremely expensive week.

When S got home gave her the details and we agreed there were too many steps that needed to be taken in too short of a time frame, with no guarantees of success. Fortunately by the time M called, she had figured that out on her own. She took the disappointment pretty well and quickly pivoted to aiming for a summer program.

That also wipes out our spring break plans, as we were going to take her sisters with us to visit in March. I had been looking forward to this trip for six months already.

My biggest annoyance with all this is Portugal’s process changed on August 15. Meaning, had her advisor, you know, advised her, M either could have gotten an application submitted on line before the change, or we could have at least had more time to get a D.C. visit scheduled.

This might all be for the best. M’s one friend who was supposed to go with her was having serious second thoughts even before she found out about the visa changes. And M was realizing five months overseas was a long time. Doing 3–8 weeks in the summer seems much more manageable.

Apparently Portugal is changing their rules because it has traditionally been one of the easiest countries in Europe to get into. Something like 15% of Portugal’s population are foreign nationals and they’ve decided that is too much. Even if a lot of those people are working professionals who are paying taxes and contributing to society. But who am I to tell another country how to run their affairs? Mine can’t do anything sensible. You would think, though, that students would somehow be exempt from these stricter rules.

Oh well. Now we’re trying to figure out what to do for spring break with just L and plan on doing a family trip to wherever M picks to spend part of her summer.