I had a feeling that, if I didn’t get out to that East Bay-Plant City game last week, I’d have missed out on something good. You can’t tell yourself, “I told you so,” but I left 1 Raider Place that night knowing I made the right call.
That was one heck of a football game and, luckily for all you Raider fans out there, the home team survived. There’s nothing like a quality trap game to wake people up, whether it’s fans, players, coaches or even sportswriters. Plant City made some gutsy calls in the end, and the defense stepped up when it absolutely had to, and everyone who attended to game got to see a district classic.
First, I have to talk about Calvin Richardson hurdling a kid on a kick return. It happened right in front of me, and I would have had an awesome photo if I were able to switch camera lenses in three seconds or less (and, also, if I could see the future). Unfortunately for me, Richardson jumped way too high for my long lens, and I can’t run a shot of just someone’s feet and shins in the paper. I wished he were a little less athletic but, since that’s just me being selfish for photography reasons, I understand if you readers disagree with me.
Now, I’m not kidding when I say this was a trap game. Thanks to advances in modern football, it’s my belief that the triple option really shouldn’t beat anybody anymore. But, sometimes, it still does. If you’re sleeping on it, especially early in a game, you can find yourself in a hole quickly.
I think that might be what happened here. I’m sure the Raiders were well aware that Durant had a pretty easy time putting up points in its 38-3 win over the Indians. I’m sure they were confident that the Plant City offense could do the same, and that the defense was solid enough to contain such a gimmicky offense in the same way.
Sometimes, that triple option will sneak up on you.
It was pretty easy to tell that the Raiders were getting frustrated, probably at some combination of both the Indians and themselves. The team took a few more unsportsmanlike conduct penalties than it probably was prepared to deal with, but not quite enough to kill its chances in the game. These penalties plagued East Bay, too, but it’s tough to argue that the Indians didn’t benefit more from calls against Plant City than vice versa.
I have to give credit to head coach Robert Paxia and the Raiders for going for it on fourth-quarter fourth down situations, even with just a 50% success rate. Guts can win games and, even when they don’t, it’s better to say you tried to go for the win than to play it ultra-conservative and, maybe, take a loss. Punting on the first fourth-down scenario might have given East Bay the ball with too much time to kill. I’m not sure I would have called an option on the second scenario, but I also can’t say the Raiders don’t have the kind of playmakers to pull that off.
A win is a win, even when it’s too close for comfort, and I’m 99% sure the Raiders are using this game as a wake-up call. Really, though, they have to: Tampa Bay Tech is up next, and the Titans have been hotter than a two-dollar pistol lately.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.