“It’s going to hurt me more than it hurts you.” We’ve all heard this before when we’re about to get our butts whipped as kids, or maybe we’ve told ourselves this when about to do the butt-whipping. It’s also what you could say to YOURSELF before swallowing your pride. “You can’t see the forest for the trees.” When you combine these two universal sayings that pretty much sums up the feelings from last night’s 5A Region 2 Final in which Pasco registered as comprehensive a victory against a quality opponent as you can find. The Pirates did it on both sides of the ball and did it well. Can’t deny there’s a big piece of humble pie sitting next to my Starbucks this morning. Thought I’d save it for lunch, but the dog had other plans and forced me to eat it before she decided to help herself. Ordinarily I wouldn’t care, but this is about acceptance and I can’t let her bear my guilt. So is last night. There are things both teams must accept. Here are my reasons why.
Let’s start with the team on the short side of the scoreboard. The way Jesuit’s 1st series on defense went I felt this was going to be exactly what I though it would be. The Tigers clearly had Janorian Grant on the brain. They also clearly had David Emmanuel on the brain. What many of us could not accept (okay what I couldn’t accept) was that simply stopping 2 of the 4 guys was not going to work and it didn’t take that long to figure out. The Tigers were flying around and were clearly ready to go when it came to stopping the run, but the Jesuit Pass Defense (and Offense for that matter) never gave the impression that it was going to be a night full of confidence if you were a Tigers Fan.
Credit to QB Jacob Guy for making plays with his feet a la Tommy Eveld in previous games this season when things collapsed, but the Tigers have to accept a few things of their own. I counted 2 drives continued by personal foul calls (on 3rd Down) and numerous other breakdowns in coverage. Not even arguing the validity of the penalties either. I knew this game would get chippy and overall I thought the refs were non-existent. Which is a good thing. There were the mistakes that Tommy Eveld made in the form of 4 INT’s. The first one to Dudley-Giles looked like a combination of jumping the route and the QB staring down the WR. The Tigers also looked like they were committed to the run in order to set up the pass. Problem is, the runs were not bringing the success they were used to. The Pasco DL was literally in the backfield on multiple occasions before Eveld had time to set his feet.
Kevin Newman looks like he’s going to be a beast at the RB position. He was getting some very tough yards, but like I mentioned, it’s next to impossible to be functional on offense when one team’s speed in the front four or even seven is clearly outperforming the OL. Such as the case for Jesuit, although I will say this very definitively. Had Jesuit accepted that only 12-14 pass attempts at most from Tommy were all they could really ask for and stuck to running STRAIGHT at that speed, things could have stayed a little more interesting. There were several plays Pasco forced Jesuit east-west instead of north-south and that played right into their hands. The 2 biggest plays on offense came back-to-back plays. They looked like they were starting things well until the 1st play of the 2nd Half.
It wasn’t going to get any easier once Bryce Walker went down. Both him and Travis Johnson were quiet in large part to the series of coverage sacks set up by the pressure of the front four. It was an absolute shame to see the young man leave the field that way. My own stomach was turning when I saw him go down and then not get up holding his arm the whole time. I’ve been the broken arm route. 4 times. It’s part of the game, as he would accept, but God’s speed and prayers of a healthy recovery and rehab to Bryce.
The largest pill of acceptance to swallow for Jesuit is? That it’s simply not their year. As the very nice gentleman (who I can only assume is a Jesuit Parent bearing a striking resemblance to #15) said, “They got to the 2nd Rd. last year, 3rd Rd this year and they’ve got a ton of horses in the stable coming back.” Indeed. They have something as well in the young Mr. Newman that could bear fruit of the Anthony Allen variety. Meaning they could go to ground and pound all they want for the foreseeable future and win games differently in addition to an always stout defense. Acceptance that the future is bright after a night like that is probably a lot easier than a 2-3pt loss. It’s never easy to accept losing and you don’t have to. Accepting how it is you got beat however is slightly different.
On to the victors. Pasco belongs. This should be accepted. Their OL looks smaller than Admiral Farragut’s and their DL by itself could limit teams in the Big East to less than 15 points a game. The Pirates are playing at an unbelievably high level right now, but a cautionary word if I may. You’re now officially beyond the manufactured hype of having to prove you are somebody because “we” say you’ve been playing “nobody.” You’ve beaten North Marion at their place and manhandled Jesuit. You’re offense really could score on many college teams (including D-1), your QB is one of the most impressive players in all of the 6 counties in and around the Tampa Bay Area. The point I’m trying to make? Accept that you need a different chip on your shoulder when you leave for the sinkholes south of Tallahassee next Friday Morning. I truly want to see you guys in Orlando in two weeks. You made a believer out of me. I’d like to call it acceptance.