Come-back kids upset the #1 seed...

Due to the request of my father-in-law I must break down last night's epic flag football battle. And since we received so many comments on the last flag football post I thought we should probably do another.

As I mentioned in the previous post, last night we play #1 Team Kinetico II. We played them our last regular season game and lost by a touchdown. They are a team with swagger, they run great routes from the line, the have speed at WR, and there QB is very effective with his arm and legs. We on the other hand were the #4 seed.

We won the coin toss to start the game, deferred the ball to the second half and we were underway.

The opening drive was impressive for Team Kinetico, I think it took them maybe 4-5 plays to drive down and take a 7-0 lead. Immediately I saw fear settle into the eyes of some of our players. I tried to keep their spirits high, I knew it was going to be an offensive battle (a true Big 12 game). Even though we typically play more of a west coast offense, where we try to slowly work our way up the field.

After a couple of short screen passes and a QB scramble, I rolled right and saw Ryan C. running a post pattern on the opposite side of the field, and BAM just like that 7-7. So at this point maybe 5 minutes of the running clock have ticked off.

Then again we both scored, now its 14-14. With only a few minutes left they found the endzone. By the time we got the ball we couldn't do anything with it. So we went into halftime down 14-20.

We got the ball to start the half, but the other team put our offense driving into the wind, which is pretty big factor here in the 'Burg. After the first play of the second half I took a razor sharp, Shawn Bradley like elbow to the nose, immediately causing my nose to bleed. I asked the male ref if he had a tampon I could use to shove up by nose, but he was fresh out. It bled for basically the entire second half.

Our first drive in the second half was classic "Ryan's Boys" football. We marched up the field, frustrating the tar out of Team Kinetico. We scored on a short dumb to Josh. Unfortunately we missed our extra point (which we rarely do) so the scored was tied at 20-20.

They came right back shattering all the momentum we had taking the lead 27-20. We had trouble playing D on these guys. They did a great job of mixing it up, streaking line man, running effective outs to the center, and the QB ran for a number of their yards.

But again, we managed to score keeping our hope afloat. We ran our special play which we have been getting away from more, now that teams are picking up on it. The play is called Harlene. Many of your will remember when John Beck found J. Harlene in the endzone on his knees on the opposite side of the field to beat Utah in 2007 on the very last play of the game. Well the is precisely what we do, we pull everyone right, and we had R Nye float left. He was wide open, as I was running away from him on the other side of the field getting pressure I threw off my back foot. It hit him in the finger tips just outside of his reach. This was huge because now we are down 26-27 and there is only 2:14 left in the game.

Again I could see the despair and fear settle into the eyes of some of our teammates. I constantly tried to keep the fire burning and the motivation on the line, because lets be frank there was a lot on the line. The previous two years my team has lost in the semi-finals. I was not about to end my flag football, historic career in the semi's for a third straight year.

So, with 2:24 left they ran a decent yardage out to a WR and got a quick first down. Then the QB rushed and Ryan C pulled his flags right near the 1st down line, the ref made a horrible spot and gave them the first down, which actually turned out in our favor. The next three plays were incompletion's. I thought they had horrible clock management at this point, stopping the clock for us. Then it was fourth down with 1 minute left. We made the stop.

So, its our ball 50 seconds left. We huddle up, I tell the receivers to streak so I can run for a good chunk of yardage, a first down and get out of bounds. We still have one time out, FYI. So on our next play I was looking to hit a receiver on a post since the defense was forcing us inside. I rolled left, bought a good amount of time, then I saw Ryan had a half step on his man, straight in front of me. By this time we were about on the 50 yard line. I said what the heck, I threw a, not a dart, but some decent velocity to him just a finger above the DB and BAM TOUCHDOWN! Again I over threw Ryan on the extra point so now we were up 32 - 27 with 14 seconds left.

On defense we went to prevent I played a deep safety and came up with the interception. The game was over, the run to the finals continues, tonight. Stay tuned.

Then for the first time in the game we managed to get a turnover on downs.