Tight matchup proves too heavy
I had the chance to watch the game back this morning following the Tigers’ 42-34 defeat in Humble. Going in, my feeling was that this type of athletic match-up probably comes a bit too soon for Katy due to where I see the team development wise. When you are conceding the kind of skill talent advantage Katy does against these higher caliber athletic opponents, the margin for error (already small) is basically zero. As a result, Atascocita outlasts Katy for their first series win.
My initial read on Katy following Clear Springs was that this group would need the entire regular season to find the right combinations personnel wise and progress tactically/experience wise through game reps. This is an older school Katy season where the team will need to progress in phases and try to arrive as its best version in the playoffs.
Katy started the game against the Eagles well defensively and did what it had to do to keep the score down through the first quarter. Both offenses struggled for rhythm early. Katy made a nice breakthrough to open the score by finding Ginn behind the Eagle defense.
Atascocita eventually found its footing on offense in the second quarter and started exploiting the perimeter match-ups, initially through Jelani Watkins #2 WR. Watkins is the LSU commit. I think he scored twice, and Brown missed him open a couple more times at least. Katy was a bit fortunate there. I thought the Tigers got away with the pass interference against him that forced an Eagle punt instead of a first down. The officials picked that flag up. Watkins was getting behind Katy with relative ease. Brown’s lack of downfield accuracy helped the Tigers a few times.
The main thing I noticed about Katy early, and for much of the game, was a lack of consistency in the ground game. Nelson and the passing game were able to perform pretty well, but the Tigers found it tough sledding to move well on the ground. Again, this makes the challenge even more difficult against a team as talented as Atascocita because you expect they will make big plays eventually. The best defense is sustaining drives when you have the ball, and Katy wasn’t able to do as well as needed in that area.
A key juncture towards the end of the second quarter, if I remember correctly, is when Katy forced a fumble from Blaylock around midfield. The Tigers had a chance to fall on the football, but instead tried to pick it up. This enabled the Eagles to recover possession, and they eventually scored the touchdown to go up 21-14 at half.
Coming out of the locker room, Katy was unable to generate points on its opening drive. Atascocita drove down and Blaylock fumbled as he was about to score. Katy recovered, but this is when the Tiger receiver was stripped after catching the ball. Atascocita stretched the lead to 27-14. This was the huge danger moment for Katy. It felt like the flood gates would open in this moment.
However, Katy responded with its best moment of the game in my opinion with the touchdown drive to make it 27-21. The Tigers showed real character on that drive and no panic. I was proud watching that effort. Katy actually had the ball with a chance to take the lead after stopping the Eagles, but I believe the pick 6 happened here to restore the 13 point advantage for the Eagles at 34-21. The sophomore running back Hill made an incredible touchdown run for Katy after Jordan exited the game. Hill, on his first carry of the night, gave me Aundre Dean flashbacks on that incredible effort to find the endzone. He seems to have a graceful longer stride like Dean.
Unfortunately for Katy, Atascocita was the team with Cardae Mack (#14) and he restored the Eagles’ advantage on his third touchdown of the evening to push it out to 42-27. Katy refused to lay down, and completed a nifty double pass to help set up the Tigers’ final touchdown of the evening and nail down the final of 42-34.
Katy’s going to have to work really hard throughout the rest of the regular season to find the right combination of players to give this team the best chance in the tougher match-ups. Also, I think a big part of the solution is very simple in principle but can be difficult in practice. Eliminate big mistakes like turnovers. They change games, and when you commit them against the really talented teams, it makes a tough challenge near impossible.
I love the fight and seemingly no panic attitude of this group, but they’ll need to work very hard to squeeze every ounce of the potential for this season. If you’ve spent more than five minutes with Coach Joseph, you know he is not a man for moral victories and will not take much solace in “battling hard.” He expects his teams to fight as a minimum requirement for wearing the Katy red and white. Talent wise, this looked a lot like a 90s type of Katy game where the Tigers don’t appear to belong on the same field with the opponent but compete our tails off.
Katy has a huge opening district game to go get ready for now, so the group will need to try and learn the early lessons as quickly as it can. The match-up comes sooner than the Tigers would probably like ideally given where this team is at development wise, but that’s not going to help them on the field next week. They have to find a way to apply the lessons learned so far and put the best foot forward in a game that could determine a district championship.
