Upon further review: Norman
Rotten timing for Norman to travel to Midwest City. The Tigers were feeling good, on a roll and confidence had reached a new high. Then they lose 63-7 to the Bombers.
Now, in reality, the loss doesn’t mean beans. Because if Norman beats Lawton Eisenhower this week in the regular-season finale, it will be headed to the playoffs for the first time since 2006. And before the game with Midwest City kicked off Friday, everyone already knew about the winner-take-all game for the last playoff spot in District 6A-2 between the Tigers and Eagles. An upset of Midwest City would have assured things for Norman, but very few people outside of the Norman locker room really expected that upset to occur.
Given that, Friday’s game was meaningless in terms of altering the stakes vs. Lawton Ike. And things would have been fine had Norman gone in and dropped a game by a reasonable score. But falling by 56 points and having 63-unasnwered points scored on you does tend to rattle confidence. That’s the last thing NHS needs right now. No, actually the last thing the Tigers need are injuries to key players — and that’s what they got in Midwest City as well.
Running back Donovan Roberts left the game and did not return, apparently with a hip injury. His status for the game against Ike will be crucial. Playing without Roberts, who essentially is the running game, would be brutal.
And linebacker Greg Offenburger, one of the Tigers’ best defenders, has missed two games with a knee injury. They need him back as well.
But, in the meantime, this is one of those burn-the-tape games. Don’t even review it. Move on. No need to re-live that when the players need to be thinking positive heading into the biggest game of their careers.
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