Griffons remain a mystery after two weeks of season

By Thomas Huitt-Johnson

The first game — ouch — but it became better.

Missouri Western football heard all week from the media and the people around them that they looked awful. It was a disaster, a performance that people couldn’t believe was the same team that made the playoffs a year ago. But it was. It was a game that could let a coach know where he stands and how he is perceived by the “true” fans, as well as his first-time quarterback. Until they played again.

Western did what they needed to do to keep the fans from not selling out on them so early in the season. The Griffons defeated a better team, according to AFCA’s rankings, this past Saturday. Rankings can easily be misleading, especially in the pre-season. How else can Pittsburg State, unranked, defeat the Griffons; yet Central Missouri lose?

Coach Jerry Partridge said after his team’s win over Central Missouri that his team just plays football, that Western doesn’t look at wins and losses to determine how they play, nor do they look at how good other teams are that they play. This was determined to be true as his team dominated both sides of the field against the Mules, the same way Pittsburg defeated them on opening weekend.

For people to bash both of the Partridges over one game was senseless. That game looked bad from every angle, but that didn’t mean the whole season would turn out that way. In one game, Western’s season was supposed to be determined as well as the play of a sophomore quarterback who was making his first start, which happened to be an MIAA opponent?

Now, for people to think because they beat the No. 12 team in the country, and Partridge shredded the defense with rigid force as he implemented total excitement in a crowd that hadn’t sounded as loud in two seasons with one 68-yard-touchdown, that this team is far better than week one might not stand true either.

It was two teams with two different game plans, and a team that wasn’t nearly as prepared week one, or motivated, as they were in week two. Now, as the season continues, Western must play as they did against Central, behind pre-season All-American defensive end David Bass and the defensive line, who lived up to the hype finally. If they do that, the football season won’t be as bad as it appeared to be heading after week one.