JimThorpe

The real deal isn't he? He'd have done the same thing to us but Silsbee had a bit more pursuit than PG.

The Tigers are hungry. They haven't been fed for a week. They start getting a little cranky when it's been that long. They're pacing back and forth with that look. You can almost pet them when they've just eaten and they're still full, almost. But now? No, I wouldn't, don't get too close.

"hate" is a little strong isn't it? How about "resent". I did read the article. If it's accurate then we do have a troubling situation. It seems worthy of discussion anyway.

Me too. Except for Iowa Park. Turns out Silsbee isn't really the cinderella in 4A Div II. It's got to be Iowa Park. Coming out of the regular season at 4 - 6 they've got to be wondering themselves how they got this far. You gotta like these guys. So if it's Cuero and Iowa Park then I'm an instant Hawks fan. It would have to be one of the most unlikely championships ever.

I think it was a fair assessment from 10,000 feet. Really that's how it shapes up. Cuero is the favorite but not prohibitive. A few breaks and Silsbee advances.

Last night Lightfoot was driving a pickup on 105 and left the roadway and struck and killed a man on a bicycle. The investigation is ongoing. It's in all the papers online. His status for the game is obviously way way down the list of concerns right now. It's a shattering experience for all involved no matter what the circumstances.

Yes, Silsbee is a cinderella team. 6 - 4 coming out of district. Unranked and unheralded. Obviously they are overachievers. But I remember another group of overachievers. French High in 84, my alma mater. Unranked, unheralded, unknown really. A group of overachievers 6 - 4 coming out of district as runner ups. But they just kept finding a way. And you'd be dead wrong to if you thought that it was all about talent and ability. Happenstance played a HUGE role. I remember one game in the Dome. 4th and goal on the 8 yard line. French QB throws a perfect fade to the corner of the end zone. WOW! Crowd goes nuts. But wait. Holding. So now it's 4th and goal on the 18. What to do? I know, we'll run the same play from 10 yards further out! Won't the defense be looking for it? So they run the same play. And get the same result, no holding this time and it's a Buffalo's TD. The same exact play, one of the trickiest plays high school kids can attempt, run twice, back to back, flawlessly, against quality opposition. Have you ever seen something like that? I know I hadn't. And I've never seen it again. Not ever, not at any level. If you try to tell me there wasn't something else at work there I'm just going to laugh. Or how about the 15 yard laser strike down the middle to a crossing receiver. Oops, to hot, he tipped it up. Gonna be intercepted. No the defender tipped it too....... right into the hands of a different receiver who was just hanging out in the area. He catches it and runs for a touchdown. Something else was at work. And in the semifinal game a front blows through and Kyle Field is a wind tunnel. This is back in the day when both ends were open. They have to take the flags down before the wind tears them up. The goal posts are swaying back and forth by several feet. Both teams are thrown completely out of their comfort zones. Punts are netting 10 yards. Happenstance? The Buffalos didn't have enough of whatever it was to win an outright title but they did have enough to manage a tie with the nationally ranked Permian Panthers. And I'll tell you exactly what it was. It was a team that was just good enough and just fast enough to get themselves in a position were fate could lend a hand. Normally physical ability, talent, hard work, experience, inspiration and excellent coaching are all important. But from time to time, here and there, destiny rears it's disturbing head. And when it does those former things, usually the determining factors, simple don't matter. So, are the Tigers a team of destiny? I really don't know. You tell me. They are pretty good. They've got speed and they are well coached. And then a rain storm shows up on just the right day. It was clear and mild the day before and mild the day after. But today it's a driving rain with gusty winds, conditions I've never seen a game played in. But the Tigers seem to be completely comfortable with it. It's raining? Okay, fine, better even, let's see how it goes. The Mustangs? Normally dashing steads ready to prove all naysayers wrong. A determined talented team that just the last week sent the No.1 ranked team home and it was no fluke. And today? Today they are wet horses; unhappy, uncomfortable and confused. Happenstance? Can the Tigers win this game? Of course they can. First of all, they may be better than we think. They may be wildly underrated and truly a match for any team in the state. But even if they are outmanned by Cuero they can still win. I know that because I've seen it before.

So now there's a dilemma. We were planning to stay with family in Katy and go to the Westbrook game. But I've been looking forward to this game. Hmm.

And Cuero and Region 4 sure do know about brick walls. You know what the Gobblers are thinking. It's totally impossible for them not to be thinking it. WOS IS OUT OF THE WAY!!!! Never mind how it happened. Never mind that they are facing the team that sent WOS home. THE ROAD TO JERRY WORLD IS FINALLY OPEN! They are kids, how could they not be thinking it? They will try to put it out of their minds but it won't work. They've never heard of Silsbee and they are looking ahead to Pleasant Grove. Of course Silsbee knows about brick walls too. Two of Carthage's 40 straight wins came at the expense of the Tigers. But then realignment may have removed Silsbee's brick wall, at least for a couple of years. I luv you Lumberton! You are my favorite! Let's go steady. No, skip that, let's just go ahead and meet early to pick out curtains.

Good weather? Heck no! I want blizzards and floods and earthquakes and volcanoes and forest fires and tsunamis! We'll still be there in whatever personal protective gear is required, rain gear, bunker gear, full hazmat suits, scuba equipment, whatever. But right now it's showing partly cloudy, about 50 at game time and 10% chance of rain.

Or was he just improvising when he did that little throw at the end? "Yikes! I've lost too much ground and I'm not going to be able to make the turn. I'd better do something." I would have improvised a play. Send everybody out to converge in the middle out past the first down marker, maybe 15 yards. Which is about as far as the ball could go in that wind. Then hurl in their direction. Just a playground thing, a short Hail Mary if you will. If somebody catches it good. If not, good. And maybe a defender would be foolish enough to intercept it. You'd have a bunch of guys to immediately bring him down. An interception with no runback is just as good as a punt in those conditions. And if the QB is sacked? Well, that wouldn't have been any worse than what we got. Anyway, I think the coach's general decision not to punt was correct. Handling the deep snap would have been problematic. What if the ball sailed on the punter? What if he miss handled the punt? What if it was blocked? You're looking at the Mustangs with the ball on your 15, if you're lucky. And if the punt is successful what do you get against that wind? Net 12 yards maybe?

The Tigers are a big play team. It's been that way all year long. A successful sustained drive is 4 plays, one first down, capped by a 40 yard dash for the end zone. I exaggerate only a little. The thing is, they can even do it against good defenses and in difficult conditions (obviously). They sneak up in the underbrush and then they pounce. It's what tigers do.

Yesterday, Dec. 7th 2018 - a date which will live in infamy. In Orange anyway. Tell you one thing, I was impressed with the Mustangs after the game. When the teams lined up to shake hands they were downright warm about it! It was more than just a perfunctory get-this-over-with thing. And after a tough loss in very difficult circumstances. Talk about sportsmanship. Now, what do we do about Cuero or Navarro? Given the Tigers proclivity for foul weather I wonder if we can arrange a blizzard or something? Or maybe not, we're Tigers, not snow leopards.

Yes, I'm a self professed kool aid drinker. I entertained the notion that Silsbee had a good chance against Carthage last year. The 64 points Carthage scored in the first half convinced me that I had been a trifle over optimistic. You've got to figure this is different. Silsbee does have a shot based on past performance.

Right no more about the weather. My question is will the rain favor WOS or Silsbee? The Weather Channel has heavy rain at game time lasting till halftime. The Mustangs have scored 21 consecutively the last 2 weeks against defenses that are probably about as good as Silsbee's. Silsbee has been scoring more than that but against lesser defenses. Heavy rain will just about cancel the possibility of downfield passing. Can Silsbee score more than 21 in these conditions against this defense? I hope so but objectively I'd have to say it's unlikely. 21 - 21 at the end of regulation? Course it's just speculation. Or, what if Silsbee ties it at 20 -20 at the end of regulation. WOS having missed an extra point in the first half. The kick is up and it's GOOD! Final Silsbee 21 - WOS 20. Now wouldn't that be something! Lightning striking twice.

I suppose there are games all over the state tomorrow and many of them will be wet.

Friday night in the rain. Just like 20 years ago, kind of. Deja vu all over again.

Will it come down to which team performs better when they are wet and generally miserable? The only thing missing is mud. Nothing like clumps of wet muddy grass in your face mask for building character.

Saturday is bad for me. Let's play tomorrow. These teams know each other. Who needs an extra day. Let's rock!

The senior players on the WOS football team have no memory of not making it to the championship game. How can you beat that? It's impossible for any other players in the state of Texas to have played more postseason games than a four year varsity player at WOS. It's likely this streak will come to an end in 2018. I hope it comes to an end Friday. But it is still quite something if you ask me.

In the final THSCA coaches poll was pretty accurate predictor of post season success. Region I has No. 1 Glen Rose vs. No. 7 Iowa Park Region II has No. 1 Pleasant Grove vs. No. 3 Pittsburg Region III has No. 3 WOS vs. No. 6 Silsbee Region iV has No.1 Cuero vs. No. 3 Navarro 3 of the 4 no. 1's are still with us. You could hardly call the win by No. 3 WOS over No. 1 Jasper an upset. This No. 3 is the most experienced playoff team in the state at any level.

Clearly this would be a huge win for Silsbee, arguably the biggest ever. But what about WOS? Obviously it couldn't be the biggest, not for a 4 time State Championship School. But how big is it? To me the 86 and 87 wins were the biggest because they came against the very best in Div 4A. 2015 and 2016 were huge of course, especially when combined with the 4 straight appearances. But WOS didn't beat the BEST 4A teams on the way to the championships. I think both Carthage and La Vega would beaten the Mustangs in those years. And probably Argyle in 2015. From what I've seen so far this year in watching Silsbee's run, Div II isn't quite as tough as Div I, which stands to reason. But that's neither here nor there. The bottom line is that the WOS program is arguably the strongest in the state for the last 40 years all things considered. And where does that put us? Well, the WOS faithful can (and do) say, "We beat you guys practically every time we meet in the regular season and preseason." But Tiger folks can rebut, "So what? We get beat regularly by a certain 3A team (that shall remain nameless). Big deal, none of that ever keeps us from making the playoffs. And you guys have never sent us home in the post season. We, on the other hand, HAVE sent you home. And that more than trumps all those less important games." So, can a win on Friday be just another Forest Gump type moment for the Mustangs? "So we went to the playoffs... again. And we won our quarterfinal game.... again." I wonder.

Looking past the quarterfinal game, which team do you think the Tigers match up better against, Cuero or Navarro? The conventional wisdom would be Navarro by all means.

The obvious follow up question is, if the coaching staffs were swapped then Silsbee wins?

Nice balance. Any one of the big 3 can carry the load in any given day. And Tyler makes it 4 who seriously contribute.