Taking foot off gas is natural when you’re winning by four TDs

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/07/2019 (2247 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

You might think that no one could have a problem with the 4-0, and only undefeated team in the CFL, Winnipeg Football club, right now. Especially coming off a home game where the margin of victory was 27 points. You would be wrong.

While it’s true the Argonauts did win the second half of the game, 15-11, and had more total yards and more passing yards on the night, they were soundly beaten on Friday. Actually, that’s not entirely true. They were annihilated, outclassed and embarrassed on the football field. And this game was over before the first quarter was complete.

So why did we field a number of calls on the post game show, lamenting the second-half performance of the team, when they went into the half up 37 to 6? Why were people openly wondering why the team took their collective foot off the pedal, and were somewhat flat in the second half?

It may be that the general populace doesn’t realize how hard it is to play in a game when you are winning by more than four touchdowns, and there is still thirty minutes of football remaining. It’s like going to work the day after you win the Lotto Max. It might be understandable if you don’t get whatever reports you must prepare in on time. In fact, I would dare suggest, that if the team that is down by 31 doesn’t outscore their opponent in the remaining stanza, they should have their franchise revoked, and their corpse toe-tagged. Because there are no signs of life. But until the Grey Cup drought is taken care of, there will always be a problem perceived by a percentage of the observers, even when none really exists.

The players know they are professionals, they know they are paid to play and execute, whether they are up by 50, or down by 50, but one of the hardest things to do in football is manufacture intensity, and to pretend that there is a sense of urgency, when everything in your environment is telling you the exact opposite.

When you go into the locker room, at half time, up by 31 points, it’s all you can do to not crack open a cold one and revel in your excellence. Usually, the position groups get together, you go over what is working, what isn’t, what you’re going to do in the second half, and then your co-ordinator takes charge from there. The anger element, an essential part of every football game, is practically non-existent. When you’ve played two quarters, and everything that could go right, has gone better than right, there is not much to say. This thing is a wrap, it’s done, it’s over. The coaches are smiling, your teammates are giggling, it’s happy town on laughing gas.

Conversely, in the other locker room in the stadium, where 30 minutes of your best efforts have produced six points, and surrendered 37, every curse word known to man is being uttered. Your manhood is being challenged, your employment is being threatened, tables are being flipped over, gatorade is being spilled, and paint is peeling off the walls. Your pride and professionalism as an athlete is being called into question, and you approach the second half angry at the world, and with a dire sense of urgency.

So after these two experiences, at opposite ends of the rainbow to rage spectrum, is anybody still surprised that the team that laid the boots in the first half isn’t necessarily able to do it again in the second? You can tell yourself whatever you want, pretend that things are different, but as long as that scoreboard is broadcasting a beat down, it affects your mental state.

You still play hard, you still try and execute, but you don’t play on the same edge of the unknown and uncertainty that gave you jitters before the game started.

When you’re ahead by a country mile, you might try a new pass rush move, you might chase a few stats, you might back-door a play that you probably shouldn’t, and you might let out a few bad habits. But show me the player and the team, that isn’t affected by the score and situation, and the butt-kicking that happened in the first half, and I’ll show you a group that is very new to the pro-football experience.