The Path to the Endzone

Embarassed

It was uglier then I thought. We reviewed the first half of the game at practice last night and I swear I just wanted to hang my head. I knew it was bad, but it was worse then I remembered. My pity party that first half virtually took me out of the game completely. There was actually one play where I virtually stood there and watched. It was almost too shameful to watch. Of course we didn’t see the second half, where I snapped out of it and got back into the action, and I don’t know if we ever will... but I need to steal that tape to get some of my vanity back!

On the tape review we pretty much skipped the whole offense, because once we were done, they told us they were basically changing the whole damn thing. Now I’ll admit nothing really ever worked right on the offense much and it probably needs changing, but I’m curious to see if we can really pick it all up in just 2 short weeks. Of course I’m also curious as to what this will mean to our old plays, specifically, my signature play. The other big change they are making is shaking up the O line. More specifically they are cross training a LOT of the Defensive line so they can start using them on the offensive line. I have bigger misgivings about this one. In the short term, it’ll probably make a huge difference. But in the long run, it’s brutal abuse these women are already dealing with and then when you multiply that by twice as much… well I just don’t want to see them dropping like flies.

But in the overall scheme of things, the new offense looks good. It’ll definitely give a little more oomph to the offense come next year. The two plays we added in looking fancy and in less then an hour we seemed to have gotten the timing down pretty good. Of course, this is without going against a defense and with the coaches standing right there guiding us through. We’ll have to see how it goes. As far as the next match up, my head still says it’s gonna be up to the defense to get on the ball early and shut it all down, then just pray our offense can get at least on score on the board.

The Game that Shouldn't Have Been

It wasn’t pretty. It should have turned out much different. While the excuses for the games outcome could be numerous, they mean nothing. Losing to Cincinnati was bad enough. Losing 21 to 6 was just awful.

The game started off with Cinncy receiving the kickoff. Our defense took the field with 3 of its starters sitting on the bench, me included. It was decided not to start me and I think the original game plan was to try save me for the worse case scenarios. Not knowing how long I would last or really just what I could do and with the defense already thin in the ranks, there was concern we might find ourselves in a big bind. Cinncy’s opening drive caught us off guard, with a tailback who really could dance across the field. They ended up scoring on that first opening drive. A bit ego deflator for us, as we had held Asheville so tightly for the whole first half of the game just the week before. Our offense managed to move the ball a bit better this game, but still not as well as they needed to. In about 7 downs, they were off the field again. Coach decided to send me in to try and get something going for the defense. This time we stepped it up a bit, and while we still struggled with stopping their tailback, we managed to shut down their passing play and ended their drive with an interception by our smallest defensive player. It was enough to elevate the whole team, and the offense finally fought the ball down and drove it into the end zone. Unfortunately Cinncy came back and answered that touchdown with one of their own. We slowed them down and made them work hard for it, but we just couldn’t stop them when we needed to. We left the field at half a bit deflated and depressed, not sure what we were doing wrong or even how to fix it.

I know for me personally, I spent too much time worrying about the ankle and whether or not I could make it do what I needed it to do. The result was that not only did I not make the ankle do what I need, but the head wasn’t doing much either. Not one solo tackle and only two assists were testament to how badly I was letting the ankle get in the way. I know I spent sometime mentally beating myself up of it, and trying to piss myself off, but something was to happen early in the third quarter that lit my fire for the rest of the game.

The second half is a bit more of a blur. Defense really stepped it up the whole second half. Somewhere in there Cinccy managed another touchdown, but it was a hard fought one. We managed two more interceptions and finally managed to shut down the tailback that had frustrated us the entire first half. I don’t remember if it was the first or the second offensive drive, but I remember the offensive coach looking at me and simply saying “well, what do you think”. My reply was why the hell not. So in I went at fullback. They never handed me the ball, but instead used me to shut down the rush to give the QB and the Tailback time to do their thing and it worked. We slowly trudged that ball down the field and with the aid of two big penalties, we found ourselves 3rd and two from the goal. I remember yelling to the sidelines to give me the ball and I’d score. I knew it was the play I was meant for. Instead we ran a lead that got us back to the line of scrimmage and a timeout was called. As we huddled on the sidelines, I remember looking at coach and tell him I’d get it in. I remember being so insistent with that fire in my eyes, that he knew I meant it. I saw him look at the head coach and he told him to send me. Everyone on the team thought they would do it, but then the head coach shook his head and said no. They’d be expecting it up the middle, so instead he sent in the sweep. It ran for a lost of 2 and the touchdown was lost. Now I have the utmost respect for the head coach and I know he is a good coach. I have no idea what was running through his head. Whether he thought giving me the ball up the middle would take me out for good or if he though I just didn’t have the strength to plow it through or maybe it had nothing to do with me at all. After the fact, I respect his decision whatever the outcome may have been, but at the time it did nothing but piss me off. I stayed on that field as the rest of the defense came on and I was hell bent. I forgot my ankle even hurt and I just lit up everything that came my way. At least 5 solo tackles and assisting on just about every other play, I was on a rampage. I spit fire on every girl I took down and let them know that it was all over. I sent two limping off the field and somewhere early in the forth quarter number 18 (The tailback that dominated the first half) had disappeared. Right about the same time, our defensive tackle with the broken foot, walked out on the field. That was all it took to give the defense that last boost to complete shut cinccy down. There the two of us were, gimp and gimp, lined up one behind the other. In the huddle, I told her not to worry about the chase, just tie two of them up and I’d take care of the rest for her. Tie them up she did and I was free to run the field at my hearts desire. They struggled to make the 4th down conversions, and were three times stopped in the red zone after that.

I ran fullback for one more offensive drive. The ball moved down the field one more time, but still I never was handed the ball. Part way through the drive, they sent in the power I. While it moved the ball some… it still didn’t manage to produce the outcome that it should have, but we did manage to push the ball down to the 8 yard line with a full 4 downs to hit the goal. Once again I made the plea to let me take it in, let me give it a go. I may not have had the strength to make it all the way in one play, but as pissed off as I was, I knew two would have gotten it across the line. But instead, we ran the lead, we ran the sweep, we ran the sneak and then the pass. In the end, we lost 4 yards and again missed the touchdown. What ever anger hadn’t surfaced from the first drive, came out in full force and cinncy’s fullback who then tried several attempts to run it up the middle became my outlet. She’d look up after the hand off to find me in her face and slamming her to the ground. Their drive was stopped just outside the twenty and our offense took over with less then a minute on the clock. It was then that my ankle finally screamed loud enough to cut through the anger that I knew I was through whether the game was over or not.

It hurt walking off the field after that final whistle ended the game. Knowing that we had let that game go ourselves was something I don’t deal with well. I was still pissed about those offensive drives; I was still fired up at myself for not kicking it in gear until the second half. As we broke from the after game speech, I walked up to the defensive coach and told him that if he wanted me fired up early, he needed to send me in on offense during the first drive. He just laughed and shook his head. We see Cinncy again in two weeks, this time on our own turf, this time with us knowing what they’ve got. I’ll make sure it turns out different.

Slow Motion

Practice last night was pretty low key. The defensive coach wasn’t there, so nobody was around to yell at us much. While the ankle is doing a lot better and I was willing to try a little slow paced stuff to see how it went, the head coach didn’t want to take any chances so he told me to do nothing more then the walk thrus. They spent the majority of practice on special teams and since I had been pulled off as primary on all of them, there wasn’t much for me to do anyway. So another practice spent standing around and watching. At least this time I didn’t feel like I was missing out on much.

The last part of practice was spent preparing the defense for the worse. On top of the issue with my ankle, our other linebacker has a pulled thigh muscle. While she’s still in the game for now, and I’ll probably be able to do something if needed, it’s beginning to look like there is a real possibility we could both be out at some point in the game. Meaning, someone else needs to be able to call the plays. On top of that issue, our starting defensive guard, our huge powerhouse, broke her foot at Tuesdays practice and is now officially out. There’s now no backup for the guards left either. So we spent the practice cross training everyone on positions so we won’t be caught with our pants down if someone else should go. Hopefully the best scenario will play out and the other line backer will be fine, I’ll be able to at least keep pace and no one else gets hurt. But at least we are prepared.

If you didn’t catch that, I have decided to dress for Saturday and let the coaches decide how much to use me and where. The ankle is better and I can run on it pretty well and with the brace on I can even make some cuts. The biggest worry will be big divots on the field that might roll the ankle a little too far. I don’t think I’ll make it any worse, but the pain will drop me to my knees without a hit. The biggest draw back is I’m slower coming out of the stance right now. The ankle pretty much doesn’t let the power from my right leg kick in till I’m almost halfway out of the stance, which only counts for a couple seconds, but timing is everything in both positions that I play. So we’ll see... I’ll let you know how it goes on Sunday.

The Competative Gene

It’s been a long time since I’ve really been in anything really competitive. I’ve forgotten how bullheaded I can be. Growing up with three older brothers who never treated you like a little sister, meant gaining sheer survival skills and constantly proving your worth. With time to mull over things with the foot propped up on ice, I spent some time trying to think of how many times I had let an injury actually keep me out of a game. I could only come up with one. My junior year in high school, during a soccer game, I had hyper extended my knee. The Doctors had all told me I was lucky it wasn’t worse; that I should have torn something and it was miraculous that I hadn’t. They told me I was out of the picture for at least four weeks. I started therapy and sat out the following game. I hated it. Sitting on the sidelines watching someone else do your job, and feeling like you let everyone down had me climbing the walls. That next week at therapy, the PT made the observation that I was recovering extremely well, and that I might be able to get back to playing a little sooner then they thought. I was back in that next game, and never looked back. So I then had to recall the times I had been hurt, but just kept going. That’s when I realized I didn’t get hurt that often. I would get bumps and bruises often, but you never count those. There was a handful of black eyes from my younger soccer days, when I played forward and had the kamikaze attitude of rushing the big fullbacks right as they were about to punt the ball down field. Several came with soccer ball imprints on my cheek. There were the painful blisters from diving. It was a right of passage in that sport that every time you would start learning a new dive; you would end up screwing it up and smacking all points of your body on the water’s surface. Often times the smack was hard enough to actually cause your body part to erupt into a mass of angry swollen welts that were pretty painful to the touch. There are the scars from the massive amount of skin loss when I cut a dive too close to the board and managed to scrape the back of my legs on the diving board and the scar from the twelve stitches in the back of my head from where I smacked it on the platform. There’s a handful of rolled ankles during basketball, soccer and flag football, that were never any worse then simply walking it off and getting back out on the field. But as best as I can remember, all the way thru college, I was never being taped, or given cortisone shots, or going to regular therapy for some serious injury that would plague me for life.

I’ve decided that this ankle is going to be the first. I don’t care that I’m older and no where near in as good as shape as I was back then… this ankle is going to be better in time for the game. I think Coach knew there was a button in there he needed to push to get me on the field this Saturday, and as much as I wanted to smack him upside the head while he was trying to needle me on Tuesday, I think he managed to push it just right. I spent two days contemplating it, and as the ankle healed more each day, it’s become easier to really consider it. Who knows how well I’ll play or even how much they’ll actually use me, but at least I can say I gave it my all. Damn that competitive gene!

Benched

Practice tonight sucked big time! Mainly because I was stuck on the sidelines the whole time. Being injured bites. I pulled up to practice to find out a bit of more bad news. The starting fullback has injured her MCL and is waiting for the MRI results to find out if it’s torn. That leaves one fullback who does a decent job but refuses to really learn the plays as she doesn’t really want the job and the other who acts like she’s afraid to get hit. Things are not looking to great for the offense right now. Defensively we have a few looking a bit slow on their feet, but I have no doubt they’ll perform quite well come game time this Saturday. The defensive coach was giving me a hard way to go at first, telling me it was all mental, and to be honest... it’s the first time I’ve wanted to beat him upside the head. Though later on he got pretty insistent that we try taping it up on Thursday to see what I could do. By the end of practice I was almost ready to take him up on the offer. If the ankle is moving better I might be tempted to do it, but I know reality is that I wouldn’t come close to decent performance on it yet. But we’ll see.

After warm ups they ran the specialty teams a bit, then we split into offense and defense again. We started off defense with a quick chat about the game, overall opinion of what we did right and wrong as a team, and then a quick run down of issues each player needs to work on. Consistency seems to be the telltale for most everyone. My issues were the slowing down once play started moving away, and then issues with getting the head switched fast enough when going from defense to offense and back. They then ran through some pursuit drills, and some tackle drills. Then came the fun part which I really hated to miss. They ran a two on two offense against defense drill, which was nothing more then to get us to start tackling the shit out of each other. We ran it for quite some time and by the end of the night, the hits were coming pretty hard. Of course once again, defense rocked the house! We broke it up again and defense ran a few more drills and then we called it a night. Just didn’t feel right walking off the field with nothing to change out of and no real good stories to tell. We’ll have to see what Thursday night brings for me.

The Big Game

The big day started off with my alarm clock going off at 5 am. It was then a race to pick up coach and another player and make it to the bus by 6:30 am. The early hour kept everyone pretty much calm and solemn, considering what we were about to do in 11 hours. The ride down was mostly uneventful, mostly sleeping, reading and a little card playing. There were a few antics with a shock pen and some banting going back and forth, but the horse play was kept to a bear minimum. We reached the hotel at about 1:30, checked in and then were off to grab food. We milled around reviewing playbooks and getting ready for the game until our team meeting at 4:45. I got a little bit of a surprise there as I discovered that I was no longer starting on any of the special teams, except for the punt return which is the defense team anyway. I wasn’t quite sure how to take that, knowing that it could mean they meant to keep me fresher to do more on offense, but I decided not to dwell on it and just take it as it came. A quick bus drive to the field and the time had come. I have to admit to being a little teary eyed standing out on that field for the first time, but once warm-ups started those sentimental emotions disappeared fast.

(Me walking the sidelines, #31)

Asheville won the toss, so the defense got set to start the game. A little shell shocked at first, they managed to move the ball a bit on us the first two downs, but we stepped it up fast and shut them down before they could make the first down. It felt awesome to shut it all down so fast. Unfortunately, the offense had about as much luck as theirs and the defense was quickly back out on the field. The entire first half progressed pretty much that way, a battle of the defense. We managed a few sacks and a slew of tackles behind the line and one good interception for a 20 yard return. With everything going on both on and off the field, keeping track of stats was a wishful dream. Several assists and a couple solo tackles are about the best I can remember for me. I ended up switching in to call the defensive plays sometime in the second quarter, but never stepped foot on the offensive side for the entire half. Of course we made plenty of mistakes, but somehow managed to recover from them all. I can remember twice getting faked out enough to actually chase a non-ball carrier almost to the sidelines before realizing what had happened. It wasn’t until late in the second quarter, when our mistakes finally took their toll. After a bad punt, Asheville started their offensive drive on the 30 yard line. While we continued to hold them well, we allowed just two pass plays through that turned out to be just enough to get them into the end zone for their first touchdown. The following offensive drive didn’t managed to do much, but did run the clock down enough to get to the half.

(setting the Defense, can you find me?)

The second half started off well for us. The kick off returned started the offense on our 40 yard line and in I went. We ran the Power I plays for a couple of runs and made some progress for the offense. We made our first, first down conversion, but sadly, no touch down yet. The defense came out a little sluggish, and Asheville managed to push the ball down the field for a score. We still made them work hard for that score; keeping most plays under 5 yards and making them use 3 or 4 downs to get the first down conversion. Our next attempt, I was running true ironman style and was back in. This time we ran my signature play, first to the right for an 8 yard gain and then to the left for a ten yard gain and another first down. I knew I broke tackles on both runs and was later told I actually dragged two girls for about 3 yards on one play.

(I the one behind the QB getting ready for the signature run)

We then ran a few leads which managed some gains and kept that ball moving forward. The in came the rest of the big meanies and the true Power I began the push to the end zone. The yardage stayed small, 3-5 yards, but it kept going forward. We then ran the fake, which gave me the ball running away from the Power lead. I remember getting hit at the line of scrimmage, but she couldn’t stop me. After I managed to push both of us forward a yard came the second hit, but I still wasn’t down. Then came the facemask grab. One of them grabbed my face mask and literally yanked my head backwards. Instinct told me to go down cause 1 more yard wasn’t worth a broken back. But the penalty flag was thrown and we were now inside the twenty. Unfortunately the cheat had left me pretty blurry eyed and slow on my feet. The next play, I was handed the ball again, the hole collapsed and I just couldn’t get the feet to work fast enough to get me to the outside and I was downed with barely a 1 yard gain. I knew it was time to come out, I needed that head cleared or I would do more harm then good. Unfortunately, it took two more plays before the coaches got the hint and finally got me out. Three plays later, the team hit the end zone for a touchdown. I managed to shake the head clear in time to hit the field with the defense and we were royally fired up. We came out strong, a quarterback sack, two line of scrimmage tackles, but then they got us on the run fake. The QB handed off the ball to the tail back and as we went after her, she lobbed a nice spiral down the field and connected. It seemed disaster was all set to follow. The next set, the other linebacker went down with muscle cramps and the play went through for good yardage. Then not two plays later, with under 6 minutes left, it was my turn. I went in on a rush and had the perfect bead on the QB. As I squared up for the hit, I got blindsided by the fullback and as I went down I heard a loud pop. My ankle had rolled on me and took the brunt of the fall and the game was over for me. The thing swelled up to about the size of a baseball as I hobbled off the field and I was crushed. I couldn’t see what was going on as I sat on the bench being doctored, but Asheville pushed it in for one more score. Our offense tried to respond but got slowed down and we watched time just run out. We had lost 19 – 6. It was more then we wanted to lose by, but was Asheville’s closest game of the season, so we took the consolation. After shaking hands, Asheville sat us down in the middle of the field to welcome us to the league. Their praise was overflowing and sounded pretty sincere. It was a good game, and a good start. Given time, I know we could kick their ass and to be honest, I think they knew it too.

After spending 3 hours in the ER, getting some of the strangest looks while sitting there in my football gear, I’m happy to report nothing is broken and the tendons seem to be intact. A very bad sprain, which will heal in time. Though I think I have to say, I’m out of commission for the cinncy game next weekend, which is really pissing me off. Though my stepson called while we were driving home and after hearing I had gotten hurt, he asked me if it was worth it. My Reply? "Every bit!"

Practice last night was only easy because I didn’t get any new bruises on the body. We still managed to run hard and worked pretty intensely trying to fine tune what we could. We started off running through the pre-game warm-ups and then broke it down for individual drills. On defense we mainly just hammered through all of our defensive plays one more time. First running through all our different sets, then all our different stunts, and then the whole combo bits. More questions asked, more rules laid out.

Then I was kicked off to go work with the running backs. We went through a series of drills to work on our handoffs and our cuts. We then set up the offensive line and began running through offensive plays. Still way to much confusion going on in there, but at least I’m feeling better about at least knowing what I’m suppose to do on most of the plays now. Eventually the defense set up a mock Asheville set and gave the plays a bit of pressure, though they only wrapped us up instead of tackling. We were having fun running play after play into the end zone, so at least we know it’s possible. The power I plays came out one more time and pretty much every one of them was gaining some big yardage. After seeing the Asheville defensive line roster, I’m thinking that power I may be the only thing going up the middle come Saturday.

Of course super sleuth me of course managed to figure out we have a game in cincy the following Saturday. For some reason our team hasn’t announced it, but the Cincinnati team is broadcasting it like crazy. Why they’re holding info back on us, I’m not real sure... but I hope it doesn’t bite them in the ass, when people can’t make last minute adjustments to free up their schedules. As for me… it’s ROAD TRIP time!!!

The Countdown has Begun

The game is now officially under a week away. The reality of that thought hit me like a ton of bricks as I headed to practice last night. Dreams of making big plays and actually winning this game have been running through my mind for awhile, but now with the actual event around the corner, nervousness is setting in big time. There’s still so much to learn and so much to fix, but there’s no time left to deal with it anymore. We know what we know, and we’ll have to make it work for Saturday.

The offense got together an hour early to spend some extra time going over the plays again. I was the only fullback that showed, so I spent a good hour running fakes and dives. Once the rest of the team showed, we started off practice putting together a more formal warm-up routine that we will use before the game. A little flash and show, to say that we mean business. You have to like the fact that the Head Coach has thought through this enough, to think of putting together something so simple, instead of letting us go down there a little more ragtag. Minor detail, but sets the tone for the whole night.

Afterwards we broke back down into offense and defense. A quick run through tackle drills again, where I managed to do a serious back compression on a hit against our big tackle. Can I have an OUCH! Then, coach pulled us two line backers off to the side to work on our read and reaction against the running play. We then spent about 20 mins going over the scouting report on Asheville. The news is pretty good for the defense, as their offensive line is a little on the small side. If and when we actually start using our stunts, they have a good chance of being very effective. The news is not quite so good for the Offense. It appears that Asheville has stacked their defensive line with some pretty big girls. The biggest being a tackle weighing in at 300lbs. Of course the question that remains to be seen is how fast she can come off the line, but getting through that first wave of defense is going to be a little rough going for us.

We ended the night with our last run of offense against defense. Defensively, we came out a bit slow at first and the offense made a few small gains on us, but once we got rocking, then it was all she wrote. A couple of good completed passes were about all that managed to make its way off of the line of scrimmage. Of course that was until they pulled out the Power I line up. Yes, that group of BIG, MEAN and UGLY gals, that worked on the power plays WAAAAY back in April. Those plays we hadn’t seen or heard about in almost two months, were back in action. It took a quick second to refresh our minds, but then we were set and ready to go. The quarterback sweep, only managed to gain modest yardage. The run through one of the outside holes was stopped short as a defensive in snuck in the back door and took out the tail back from behind. But the plow up the middle, where we just steam roll over the defense, turned a modest 25 yard gain. I swear I saw coach doing a happy dance after that one. We ended the night with a few 40 yard sprints, and were promised it would be the last before the game. Time to heal up a bit and get our legs back under us for the big day. It’ll be interesting to see how the game goes.

The team we are playing is a three year old team with a lot of experienced players on the roster. They carry a 5-2 record for the season, with their only two losses to the two powerhouses of the southern conference. This game is actually counting towards their regular season. A win for them would mean a wild card play off spot. A lose, and their history. BUT, they carry a roster of only 30, with many playing both sides of the ball. They have a relatively small offensive line, compared to our own and our defense manages to punch holes in it left and right. If played right, we can cause some serious damage to that offense. They rely heavily on just two players for gaining yards and scoring points. Shutting down two players, could shut down their whole game.

For us, this game is nothing more then about gaining respect in our division. While nothings been officially announced, chances are pretty high we will be in the same division as Asheville come next spring. New teams in the league are renowned for having horrible first seasons and it’s a tradition we intend to break. Walking away from this game with a win, or even a close lose would be our calling card to every team in the division that we’ve come to play and we mean business. The defense we have is pretty solid and extremely quick. Even with confusion on the stunts and reads, we do one thing very well and that’s getting to the ball where ever it may be hiding. As long as we keep that up, we have a very good chance of closing down their offensive drives. As for our offense, to give them credit, they have managed to move that ball against us, with us throwing everything we’ve got at them. If they can keep their wits about them, they have a pretty good chance of plugging down the field, even against such a big defense as Asheville’s. This could be a very FUN game this Saturday!

The Inevitable

It was bound to happen. The streak had to end. It had been going so well for so long, it was easy to think the inevitable may actually never happen.

NO... I didn’t get hurt. I’m talking about the kids. The bane of being a mother and a football player has required me to drag the tikes out to practice at least once a week for the past three months. Up until Thursday, they had been extremely good while there, considering they are only 4 and 5 years old. A few minor distractions, but worth it to get out of practice what I could. But Thursday night became another matter. When I picked them up, I could tell they were tired, which usually spells trouble, but decided to give it a go any way. For the first 45 mins, things were good and practice went well. It ran very much like Tuesday, after warm ups, the defense went off and ran tackle drills and then we spent some time going over adjustments and reads. With the offense tacking some extra time, coach decided to through in a few more stunts, so we practice those. Then I got pulled off to go run some plays with the offense. Shortly after getting over there, the fun began. The kids had started fighting over a toy, so I had to take a quick break to go settle the matter. Thinking tings were handled, I got back into play and then we started running offense against defense. Not ten minutes into it, did I hear my Son wailing. Apparently, they started fighting again and managed to splash bubbles into his eyes. It took sometime to get his eyes washed out and then get him calmed down. Cleaning them both up, getting rid of the bubbles and making them both sit down and take a break, I though I was in the clear. I jumped back into play for about another ten minutes when all of a sudden my daughter is now screaming from the sidelines. I knew it was over... they had hit their limit and it was time to go. The frustration over still needed to work on so much, but having to leave early, got the better of me and I stormed off the field, chucking my helmet as I went. Screaming at the kids to get in the car, we headed out of there without much of a word to anyone.

The Specialty of the Night

Practice last night was a little low key. Since it was an extra practice, we ended up with only about half the team there. We ended up spending the entire practice on special teams, which was sorely needed. Things are still not nearly as tight as they need to be, but at least there better. Hopefully the sheer determination to get the dang ball will help overcome what shortcomings we still have.

I did find the one play I’m actually not in, in any way shape or form. The extra point/ field goal team. I had to hold my breath through the first couple of run throughs as the two they were having kick, were not really kickers and will they had some awesome power behind their kicks, it just wasn’t getting the height needed to even get over our line. But thankfully, before I had to open my mouth, another came forward and actually managed a few kicks that would have come close to making it through the uprights. Maybe it’s silly, but I just didn’t want to have to get into having to kick the ball on top of everything else I have to figure out right now.

To say it was an easy practice might be a bit of an understatement. While I didn’t do any hitting, nor did I ever get hit, we were running our butts up and down the field a lot more. But my body is very grateful for the break from smacking heads as my head is still ringing from Tuesday night. I imagine tonight will be back to the usual run of things, but hopefully the head will have settled a bit more by then.