A very busy weekend, at least when it came to me sitting on my ass in front of the TV.<\/p>\n
A week after being shut out by the best team in Indiana, Cathedral was barely better against one of the best teams from Ohio. The Irish managed just two field goals in a 24\u20136 loss to St. Xavier. Ohio rankings are weird; I\u2019ve seen St. X ranked anywhere from #2 to #7 in the largest class. Either way, they are very good. We went out to dinner so it was 17\u20130 when I was first able to listen. CHS ran the ball nicely, amassing over 200 collective yards on the ground, but once sacks were factored in, managed less than 20 yards passing. Just a killer.<\/p>\n
The schedule doesn\u2019t get much easier. This week is arch rival, 4A #1 Chatard, who has stomped a couple good teams. CHS usually has a clear talent advantage over their little brothers. Not sure that\u2019s the case this year. For the first time since I\u2019ve been following high school football closely, Chatard is ranked well ahead of CHS in the state-wide, all-class, computer rankings, #5 to #34. Lose that game and it\u2019s pretty easy to see a 2\u20137 regular season ahead of CHS. A long way from when they went 37\u20134 over three seasons just a couple years back.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve been to a high school game this year, you know there is a new emphasis on unsportsmanlike behavior. It seems like if there\u2019s any yapping at all, a flag gets thrown. In the three games I\u2019ve followed I\u2019ll give the refs credit: they\u2019ve generally been smart enough to throw flags on both teams so the penalties offset. But I\u2019m 100% sure that at some point this year a close game will be decided when someone pops off, the refs hear it, and his team in penalized 15 yards for it.<\/p>\n
Refs have enough to worry about, and get consistently wrong, in the high school game. Adding this point of attention was dumb.<\/p>\n
I did not have definitive expectations for the first Kansas-Missouri football game in 14 years. Based on the interim in which the schools did not play, my Jayhawks should get blown out in their first trip to Columbia in nearly 20 years. But KU is far better, in every sense, than they were during most of that stretch, and I had no idea how good this year\u2019s Mizzou team was. A line of MU minus a touchdown, give or take a half point, felt right. I think the last one I saw was \u20135.5, so I wasn\u2019t the only one unsure of how this would play out.<\/p>\n
It turned out to be kind of a fun game. The Tigers pounced early, which had me thinking worst case scenarios and how soon I would flip the TV to the US Open and confine the game to my laptop. Then KU scored 21 straight points to take an unlikely lead into the second quarter. A KU fumble, with a ridiculous uncalled penalty, turned into a safety and field goal for the Tigers and KU\u2019s momentum was gone. The game was tied by halftime and it felt like it was just a matter of time before the rout by the home team began.<\/p>\n
Only the second half was more settled, and back-and-forth. KU took the lead. Then MU reclaimed it. KU, magically, jumped ahead again midway through the fourth quarter. Could the defense get a stop and pull the upset?<\/p>\n
Nope. Mizzou scored four minutes later.<\/p>\n
Finally, the inevitable kick in the nads: Emmanuel Henderson Jr. dropping a perfectly thrown third-down pass that would have moved the chains. Crushing. KU still might have lost, but to have their final chance get snuffed out because their best receiver couldn\u2019t hang on to a ball that hit him in the hands was especially cruel. I would have gone for it – KU\u2019s defense was gassed by this point – but Lance Leipold punted. MU seemed most interested in just running out the clock. I would have been fine with a four-point loss. However, the KU defenders lost their mind on a simple running play and allowed a 65-yard touchdown, which made the final score look more comfortable than the first 58 minutes were for Tiger fans.<\/p>\n