High School

Sometimes a game will go as planned, and sometimes the underdogs get their glory. This past weekend was the State Semi-final’s game and the underdogs came out on top.

Southlake faced off against Duncanville, who lost in the championship game last year. This game was a revenge tour for both teams, but for different reasons. Duncanville was hoping to make it back to the title game to play North Shore again with a different outcome. On the other hand, Southlake was hoping to give Duncanville their 2^nd loss of the season after they knocked them out of the playoffs in round 4 last year. Southlake had an impressive defensive 2^nd half, that led them to a 34-27 victory over the Panthers, and a ticket to the state title game. All of this was done without the help of their head coach, Riley Dodge, as he tested positive for COVID-19.

Did anyone catch that ‘underdogs’ was used the plural form in that opening sentence? Well, it wasn’t a typo. Westlake won 24-21 with a strong first half, and some great defense. They actually led North Shore 10-0 at the end of the 1^st quarter. North Shore didn’t take the lead until 4 minutes remained in the 4^th quarter, and Westlake quickly moved the ball down the field for the final touchdown of the game. According to the ‘Texas6a Rating System’, Westlake had a 38% chance of making it to state, compared to North Shore’s 43% chance.

While the title game should always be a good game, there’s an interesting factor between this matchup. Let’s just say the two teams are related. (huh?) Coach Riley Dodge and Coach Todd Dodge will see each other on opposite sides of the football field this Saturday, rather than just at the dinner table. The father son duo will get the opportunity to show off their skills as the head coaches face off. Southlake will come in as the underdog to this game, but I could see the win going either way.

College

The Heisman winner, DeVonta Smith, proved to doubters (myself included) that the award did in fact belong to a receiver this year. The 52-24 victory over Ohio State was impressive enough, but Smith’s performance on the night will go down in history as record breaking.

Smith caught 12 passes for 215 yards and 3 touchdowns, no not the entire night only the first half. Not only did his stats show he performed, but his catches were beautiful. He put on a show every time that let viewers know he’s ‘that guy’.

He even got recognition from other big names in sports like LeBron James and Patrick Mahomes.

Unfortunately, the stud would miss the second half due to a finger injury. This is definitely an unfortunate way to end a college career but I would assume he’ll be perfectly fine before the draft.

NFL

What’s worse than smack talking and then having to eat your words? Well prior to this year I’d say nothing, but now I think Tik Tok dancing and then getting demolished is much more embarrassing. The Steelers might write the checks to Chase Claypool and JuJu Smith-Schuster, but their real talent is Tik Tok dances, or at least that’s what it seems like after a 48-37 loss to the Cleveland Browns.

Not only did they have to swallow their pride following dancing, Smith-Schuster specifically made some egotistical comments earlier in the week. He said-

“I think they’re the same Browns that I’ve played every year. I think they’re nameless gray face. They have a couple of good players on their team. But at the end of the day, the Browns is the Browns. It’s AFC North Football. They’re a good team, I’m just happy we’re playing them again”.

While my high school English teachers have taught me better than to quote an entire speech, I couldn’t decide which was the best part. Sure, Cleveland might not be the best team in the playoffs, but I think JuJu is due some self-reflection because we know how reverse motivation works.

While Claypool didn’t get on Tik Tok to dance after the game, he would go live to break down the film and the Steelers loss. It was here that he ended up giving the Browns more motivation with a sore-loser comment.

I’m really not sure what’s going on within the Steelers organization, but I would recommend the team to tell these players to chill until they can perform.