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Litaker's Fan Blog: Week 12 1/2 - Can the Hurricanes play the role of Spoilers?

by Steve Litaker

Some of you may be asking how did I come up with “Week 12 and a half?”  This weekend is really Week 12, but the Turfcats don’t play this weekend.  Week 12 was supposed to be a BYE week for Austin and they actually do have the Holiday weekend off and resume play on Tuesday.

Since there’s only 13 weeks in the season and the T-Cats have to make up a postponed game, there isn’t much time to get it in. Austin will be traveling to College Station this Tuesday 7/7 to play the Texas Hurricanes in a makeup game from earlier in the season, and then again on Saturday 7/11 for their final regular game of the season.

This has to be difficult on the players and staff, especially after coming off of a Monday night game last week.  These guys are playing for the love of the game and have real lives and jobs outside of football.  I can only imagine some of the conversations they’ve had with their real employers about needing time off two weeks in a row to work at their part-time job.

Then comes the part of playing two road games in 5 days. There’s a reason football is only played once a week, it’s a brutal and physical sport. You can control your mind and attitude to suck it up and do what you’ve got to do, but the body isn’t so easily fooled. The aches and pains are real, the minor injuries can be pushed too far and become major or long-term. But you know the old saying - when things look bad, just open your eyes to the larger picture and someone else always has it worse than you do.

Example, the Texas Hurricanes. They have two games to make up and only one is on the schedule at the moment, and  they’ll be playing 3 games in 7 days with the Crunch game still in limbo. Luckily, all of them are at home. They play the Mudbugs on Sunday, Austin on Tuesday and then again Saturday. Yikes, two games in three days! And this doesn’t even take into account the postponed game originally scheduled against the Florida Kings.

Let’s speculate - if the Hurricanes lose all 3 of these games and Houma loses all of their remaining games, Houma will still have a one game lead in the standings. Even if you award Texas a win against the Crunch, they’ll have the same record as Houma but lose in the tie breakers. If Houma wins one more game, it might not matter anyways.  You say, what if the Hurricanes win all 3 of their games? HUH, let’s not put the cart before the horse. 

Let’s look at Houma’s remaining games. They play the Swashbucklers and the Mudbugs. Most bookies will tell you Houma loses both. But remember, both of their opponents have already secured their seeds in the post season and could possibly rest some players or take the game lightly and Houma is just as desperate for a win as the Hurricanes are.

Now back to the title – SPOILERS. The Hurricanes can’t affect the Turfcats seeding for the playoffs, but can try to take away some of our momentum heading into the postseason. Texas is fighting for the final playoff spot with Houma. Austin can use the next couple of games to rest some dinged up players, but the Hurricanes can’t. They would love to hand us and the Mudbugs a loss while spoiling Houma’s run for the postseason. IF Austin rests players in their two games against Texas, it does increase their odds of winning. IF the Turfcats walk onto the field overconfident or lacksidazical because the #2 seed is secured, that also increases the odds for a Texas upset. Austin needs to focus as if they were playing the best team. The Hurricanes are desperate for a win and that makes them dangerous. I expect a good game, the last one in Austin went down to the end. The Hurricanes will also be protecting their home turf and Michael Bishop has had some time to gel with his receiving corps.

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