WAKE UP! ON ETBLITZ | Surratt among those leading the charge for district champ home field in 4A; Cowboys get a scare; Rangers finally drop one
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The Man has spoken, and wants first-round home field in 4A
The University Interscholastic League did something kind of radical recently, and allowed district champions in football last year in the 5A and 6A classifications to have home field in the first round of the playoffs.
And Carthage head coach and athletic director Scott Surratt wants the UIL to do the same in 4A.
Surratt told Dave Campbell’s Texas Football writer Carter Yates that, well, fair is fair. And finding neutral sites for playoff games is, well, hard.
“I’m not saying this arrogantly,” Surratt said, “but when you play as many (playoff games) as us, and I’m the AD that has to get the fields, that’s what I hate the most. So if I didn’t have to get week one, that would be awesome.”
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Cowboys get a scare
With only 53 men on each NFL roster, and each of their positions well-analyzed by general managers, coaches and sometimes even owners, there is no one that a team can really afford to lose.
And there are about six people that, when they go down with an injury, it REALLY hurts: 1) Your quarterback. 2) Your left tackle (or right tackle, if your quarterback is left-handed; whichever is protecting your quarterback’s blind side) 3) Your best pass-rusher. 4) Your top receiver. 5) Your kicker. 6) Your deep-snapper.
I said ‘NFL,’ but all of those could really pertain to ANY football team: the quarterback, for obvious reasons: he’s the leader of your offense and almost always the leader of the team, on the field. The tackle protecting his blind side is important in order to keep the quarterback healthy and standing upright. Your best pass-rusher allows you to keep pressure on the opposing quarterback and if they’re not in there, then the other team’s quarterback can get comfortable. If your best receiver is out of the game, it forces the quarterback to get out of his comfort zone. Few teams have back-up kickers, and the punter, who often has experience as a kicker, would prefer to not do it, and is likely not very comfortable doing so. And your deep-snapper… have you ever seen a game where the deep-snapper was injured and someone had to replace him? It is brutal.
So on Monday at the Dallas Cowboys’ training camp in Oxnard, California, left tackle Tyler Guyton went down.
He got up and was able to walk off on his own power, but a quick exam led Cowboys trainers to think Guyton might have suffered the dreaded torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his right knee, an injury that normally requires surgery and would almost certainly have been season-ending, with the season beginning Sept. 4, and likely a couple of months of rehab time.
But the Cowboys, and Guyton, caught a break: literally.
As odd as it is to actually ROOT for a broken leg, that’s exactly what happened. Guyton, after further examination including an MRI, has a broken right leg. And the early diagnosis is four to six weeks out, but no surgery and not season-ending.
And Cowboys ownership, coaches, the roster and all fans just breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Rangers Report
Well, the streak is over.
Texas had won six straight games, the longest current winning streak in Major League Baseball, and had gotten within four games of the Houston Astros in the American League West Division. But the Rangers began a road trip Monday night, at Los Angeles against the Angels, and couldn’t get out. They dropped the first game of a three-game series, 6-4.
Texas is still 56-51, and has a 9-3 record in the last 12 games. They’ll play in L.A. again tonight, another 8:30 p.m. start, and the same time on Wednesday night, as well, before heading to Seattle for a series on Thursday. The Rangers are still four games back from Houston in the West; Houston has lost five straight. Houston sits at 60-47, Seattle at 57-50, and then Texas. So winning these road games is a big deal for the Rangers.