I usually don’t like to label a loss as a moral victory but in the case of the Popes’ 39-21 loss to Catholic Memorial, it accurately describes the overall improvement of the team’s performance. Both the defense and offense played more fundamentally sound then they had all season. In fact, it was only a few key plays that made the difference in the game. Did the Popes make mistakes? Sure but they did a lot of little things right that they had not been doing all year. In the 3rd quarter, Catholic Memorial only led by 3 points. When the game was over, Catholic Memorial only had 3 more yards of total of offense and 2 more first-downs than the Popes. So why did the Popes lose by 18 points?
It was a few plays at critical moments in the game that made the difference on the outcome of the game. The Popes took the opening drive down to red zone but turned the ball over on downs because of a bad decision by the QB on 3rd down and a good defensive stop on 4th down. Later in the game Catholic Memorial converted a fumble and an interception into touchdowns.
Special Teams also had a major impact on the game’s outcome. Catholic Memorial forced the Popes to start their drives at the 20 with kickoffs that resulted in touchbacks. In contrast, Catholic Memorial started their drives in much better field position because they were able to return the Popes’ kickoffs back to the 35 to 40 yard line. But the biggest play in the game was when the Popes’ punter accidentally stepped on the back of the end zone for a safety. Not only did the safety give Catholic Memorial 2 points, but on the ensuing kickoff they had a short field to work with for another score.
The Popes had a moral victory but it will take more than a moral victory to make the playoffs. With injuries suffered by the Popes’ QB, RB, and WR in this game, they will need to make as much progress this week as they did last week if they have any dreams of making the playoffs.
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