By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

Yes, it happened. What you saw wasn’t a dream, wasn’t a fake manipulated Tik Tok video.

It’s annoying hyperbole 98.2 percent of the time when somebody says “I’ve never seen anything like that” as well as “the worst/best ____ I’ve ever seen” when, with the latter, it’s happened within the last two or three years.

But on Friday night in Leesburg, we pretty much got that 1.8 percent of “I’ve never seen anything like that.” It does happen every so often.

In a billboard-sized version of snagging defeat from the jaws of victory, we have Lee County on fourth and 10 at Northside’s 45 with seven seconds left and a 20-17 lead.

Ballgame. Except Lee County’s offense set up like it was going to run a play, mangled things, fumbled, and Northside recovered and scored for a historic – in that we’ll never forget it – mind-blowing win.

As the law requires in all such cases, head coach Dean Fabrizio fell on his sword. In this case, it was really his sword.

"As the head coach, I made some bad calls late in the game,” he told the Albany Herald. “This loss is on me. Our players played hard and deserved to win. This loss is on the head coach and the bad decisions late in the game."

Perhaps. Sort of. Maybe not. Apparently.

There are a few other coaches one could see in the middle of this, and Fabrizio isn’t one of them.

I get tired of the clichés and forced views in sports, and one is that the coach takes the blame for absolutely everything.

Last week’s coverage

* Roundup: Roundup: Night of a lifetime for Northside, forgettable one for Northeast & Dooly County, upset for Dodge County, scoreapalooza by Hawkinsville, John Milledge rolls
* Scouting Reports: all GHSA and GIAA games
* Maxwell Ratings picks, Central Georgia state rankings
* Who’s going to win this week’s Central Georgia high school football games
* Monday Morning Quarterback: Surprises, upsets, Loughdmouthings (Bama-Tennessee, Fromm, area 1,000-yard rushers, passers, more), Central Georgia polls
* Macon Touchdown Club players of the week: Jones County, Northeast

Buuuuuullyouknowwhat. A bunch of crap that outsiders buy despite its lack of reality and logic.

A player isn’t coached to jump offsides. To false start. To hold. To clip. To fumble. To swing at an opponent. To miss tackles and blocks. To catch punts on the 3. To throw it to a defensive back’s chest.

Coaches don’t coach stupid.

And there were those not making plays as a team scored 17 points in three minutes.

So, as is my stated position for decades, I’ll defend coaches 95-97 percent of the time – they don’t have plays in the playbook calling for 8-yard losses or turnovers or penalties on a big play, they really and truly don’t – and refs 99 percent of the time (a rate that’s dropping in the NFL with tickling-the-QB calls).

But, good God awmighty, I can’t find it in this call. I understand the intent, fine. But to go about it that way?

"There were seven seconds left. We should have punted but I thought the punter might drop the ball or something so I told the quarterback to throw it into the end zone. I figured it would kill most if not all of the time.”

That’s way, way, way, way too much examination.

First, the ball was on the Northside 45. Put the quarterback under center, and tell him to take the snap, turn and run and take five steps and a knee.

Sorry for the logical civilian take.

Nevertheless, a funky strategic call in the hands of a sophomore quarterback - put a senior whatever back there is another logical civilian thought, and tell him to do the same - is a head-scratcher. Just the phrase “sophomore quarterback” makes a coach shake just a little.

Note that there was a QB-C exchange problem minutes earlier that led to Northside’s first touchdown. An alert.

And it showed, with a sophomore quarterback that danced – and held the ball way, way too loose, an issue with 35-year-olds – like he wanted to convert fourth-and-10.

But before that, perhaps inexplicably, the running back was lined up behind the quarterback, rather than next to him, which you’d expect, for added protection.

And the quarterback took the snap and – a stunning revelation upon further review - faked a handoff to the running back, who badly chipped on a block and turned to catch the ball.

They were running a play? They thought they needed a first down? Sure didn’t look like a “just throw it as far as you can” play.

The sophomore QB was unprepared for his blockers – lineman and skill – to whiff like they did, although they may not have thought the backs were trying to run a play and expected the ball to be thrown immediately.

The Quarterback was 15 yards behind the line of scrimmage and had Eagles Daylen Kendrick and Mikell Roberts all over him and tried to throw.

Ballgame.

Northside’s Derrick Hardy crossed the goalline about five seconds after the clock ran out. And the state of Georgia’s jaw dropped.

Go ahead and punt. A snap is a gamble, but so is a shotgun snap. Northside hasn’t returned a punt for six all year, and if the No. 2 team in the state at home on the final play can’t prevent that, then it deserves to lose.

Bad snap? So what. Grab the punter beforehand by the facemask and repeat: Bad snap, fall on it or kick it out of bounds. Over and over.

One could tell the punter to catch the ball, with a 10-yard or so head start, and run around, run to the end zone, run the wrong way and fall down.

None of this really is the normally unfair second-guessing and hindsight. And it’s not to pile on. It is, though, a lesson for coaches to stop overcomplicating the game that they say in another breath is so simple.

Sometimes, it’s so simple, it becomes apparently complicated.

All this said, all the grief the coaches and players will get, all the late hits and phone calls and texts they’ll get and message-board mauling, Lee County is still an upper-level contender to win a state championship.

Funny thing. What happened Friday night may be the reason the Trojans win one.

Last week’s upsets

There were a few.

First and foremost is Spencer’s stunner over Northeast, a ranked 34-point favorite. Spencer is respectable, and was going to give Norhteast some trouble, but there weren’t any quality wins, or even notable margins, to indicate the Greenwave Owls could bow up like that, and hold on.

And the chances that Northeast – players, not coaches – might take somebody decent lightly were there, too. Still …

Dodge County was a 29-point underdog to AA No. 2. Cook and apparently didn’t know it, winning by 10. The Indians are one of those teams with a record that can lead to better teams having bite marks on the derriere.

Dooly County knows how Macon County feels. The Bobcats reached the top 10 based on hammering the then No. 3 Bulldogs by 32, and then Wilcox County grabbed said hammer and took it to 8-point favorite Dooly County by 32.

Northside was a 21-point underdog at Lee County, and that was on target. For 42 minutes. Game’s 48.

Last week’s surprises

OK, John Milledge, I give, I give. Almost.

Sure didn’t foresee the Trojans treating FPD like Creekside Christian or Frederica, and didn’t foresee the Vikings being capable of that kind of loss.

That 35-point computer margin that was a surprise Friday afternoon was a little bit short Friday night.

Peach County may be clarifying things some, a 21-point favorite stuff a resurgent Upson-Lee group by 54-0.

Hawkinsville was a clear favorite over winless Treutlen, but 77 points is 77 points. Westfield was a small underdog, but Brookstone got strong in the second half.

Griffin manhandling Howard into the second half wasn’t quite expected. Nor was Central setting a program record for points, even against Jordan, which has probably seen a lot of that the past few years.

Loughdmouthings

Will the same people who excused Tampa Bay and San Fran, et al for injuries admit the same for Atlanta? You lose defensive players before playing the NFL runner-up that has a chunk of weapons, it’ll show.

It showed.

What also showed is, again, as it has every week, that Atlanta has to be taken seriously, and is a playoff-caliber team.

And dearest coaches, Atlanta also shows that one needn’t abandoned the run when trailing by double figures. Confidence in your team can pay dividends.

As for the quarterback, yeah, he had a horrible day covering receivers and giving up 7 of 11 on third downs and an 81 percent completion rate.

No, 8 of 13 passing isn’t dazzling, but a defense, even undermanned, didn’t have a fundamentally good day against, remember, a team that reached the Super Bowl last year.

Should every 3-4 team mail it in? No. And to say the Falcons should is fairly idiotic and knee-jerky.

Dearest Einsteins: They’re tied for first in, yes, a weak division. So what? First is first. To bail when you can win a division is absurd. …

It would be a glorious thing to see Bo Nix among those invited to New York for the Heisman Trophy presentation. Not going to happen, but it would be glorious. Making the top 10 would be pretty good, too. …

Northside head coach Chad Alligood didn’t have any lottery numbers to offer when asked, considering the trip to Leesburg.

So here is a list to play: 7 – 7 seconds left; 23 – Northside’s points total; 31 – the combined numbers of Daylen Kendrick and Mikell Roberts15 and 16, who mauled Lee County QB Weston Bryan and caused the fumble; 36 – the yards Derrick Hardy covered in the fumble recovery; 49 – the rounded-up number that’s half of Hardy’s No. 97. And your lucky number. …

Dear Class A programs/fans throughout the state: Since apparently there either dead cell batteries or dead cell zone at stadiums, please report an official score upon reaching a live zone or getting a battery charge to MaxPreps or Twitter.

It’s absurd. “We don’t get no coverage” from those who don’t report scores or put any information on MaxPreps or reply.. Attention is a two-way street, whether by telecopier or cell phone. …

Dear Falcons fans/“fans”, media/ “media”, etc.: There are 16 teams at 3-4 or worse. Atlanta is -8 in scoring difference, which ranks sixth. The 3-3 LA Rams are -22. The 4-3 Seattle Seahawks are -3.

Beat Carolina and y’all say, “so what, Carolina’s not very good.”

Lose, and y’all say, “See, we suck, this is bad, what crap.”

The same people who absurdly kept saying – petty people love piling on – that Atlanta wouldn’t win but three or four games are now whining that the Falcons should be winning these games and they suck because they’re not, even though Atlanta is better than those people said two months ago they’d be.

What a collection of folks. Medication is a thought.

Polls

Division 1 (6A-5A-4A-3A, 13 teams)

1. Perry

You kind of get the impression the Panthers hate having a week off. Imagine a hungry puppy dog that wants to go outside for a walk and a treat, no matter the weather.

2. Northside

Breaks, defense, a quarterback change and a blunder across the field make for a mighty memorable game. Can the Eagles sustain momentum, and get better against Veterans?

3. Warner Robins

In the Year of Football in 2022, the Demons can could – if Ola does to Dutchtown what it did to Jones County, which then did that to Dutchtown, which got Warner Robins by seven – be the top seed. Or fourth.

4. Houston County

The Bears can work on some defense this week, notable since they’ve given up 50 and 42 in two of the last three games, albeit to good teams. Good teams await in the playoffs, for which the Bears are somewhat well-prepared.

5. Peach County

The Trojans were very Trojan-like in dumping Upson-Lee, smacking down upset hopes very quickly, and hard.

Division II (AA-A-GISA, 34 teams)

1. John Milledge

It’s time to put them at No. 1.

2. Dublin

The Irish are playing Irish football, and now on a consistent basis. But they’re going to need some air travel down the road.

3. Bleckley County

It’s like mid-September again for the Royals, who have solidly taken care of business after the Dublin loss. And Swainsboro is next.

4. Lamar County

Two games are in the way of Lamar County’s first region title since 2013, which would cap the Trojans making the playoffs for the first time since 2016.

5. Northeast

It’s been noted here that kicking would be an issue. Northeast missed the PAT after its first touchdown. The surprise is that the Raiders could only score in one quarter against a team not used to such big games.

6. Dodge County

Last week: “The Indians are a 5-3 team in a 3-5 record. When they come up with those one or two plays …” They knocked off No. 2 Cook, so they came up with one or two plays. Dodge County is in a sporty region, too.

7. Putnam County

Getting into the driver’s seat for a home playoff game is on the line this week with the visit from Laney, also trying for the same thing.

8. ACE

Getting such a battle from Rutland wasn’t all that shocking, but once again, the Gryphons finished well.

10. Tattnall

The strength of schedule will pay off, and we’ll get an idea how much in a week when John Milledge comes to town with a record winning streak on the line.