Ouch. That hurt.

I was soooo looking forward to the Spring-Klein game. On Thursday, it crossed my mind that the game was only a few days away. On Friday, I thought, “The game’s tomorrow!” On Saturday, I was extolling Kenric McNeal’s and Charles Solomon’s virtues to my brother over cheese fries at Saltgrass.

You can’t ever accuse me of not getting into my assignments.

Here’s the thing: I was sick as a dog on Saturday and still looked forward to going. I just knew that my Lions were going to best the Bearkats. I don’t even want to go into it, but somehow I ended up in Jersey Village because I couldn’t get off the Sam Houston Tollway, my constant foe, and turn around. It was hellish quite an ordeal for me to even get there, but I settled in and waited for the game.

I wish that I would have called out sick and begged off the assignment. Or even just found something to do in Jersey Village. Anything would have been preferable to watching that massacre. Especially after the Longhorns lost and Colt McCoy looked like a shell of his former self–his “former self” already substantially weaker this season. I was already in a terrible mood.

By the end of the night, I was referring to it as The Day Football Died.

Nothing went right. Nothing. Multiple interceptions? Break-away Bearkat touchdowns? The defense giving up 48 points? I don’t get it. I really, really don’t. None of those components add up to Lion football. I mean, before the Klein game, Spring had only given up 62 points the whole season.

A lot of people will point to this and say that the Lions failed to deliver when they were tested with their first all-around-tough team, which means they won’t fare well in district play because their district is (seriously) one of the toughest in the state. That’s not necessarily true. It’s one game. One. Let’s not get carried away. I mean, their mascot excepted (It had a bow tied around its ear! A bow!), Klein was tough. They were good. What puzzles me is that, had the Lions been playing their normal game, I don’t think Klein is better than them. I seriously don’t know what happened.

All season long, I’ve been talking about Spring’s focus and their mental game. I think that overcoming that loss to Klein will be the Lions toughest test so far. Hopefully, the Lions can regain their focus and strength. It’s not gone; we saw it during the entire third quarter, when the Lion offense controlled the ball and determinedly broke the Bearkats down. They’ll need all of that and more going into the Klein Oak game. Because, wow, Klein Oak is good.

As you may or may not remember from my season preview, Coach Karas said that he felt the entire season would be determined by the first two district games. I’m not sure if I agree with that, but he has a point, and it’s a good one. Hopefully, the Lions will regroup, shake this loss off, and return to their game. When they play it, there aren’t many out there that can beat it.