TERRY COLUMN: Don't look now, you could lose

Some games are easy to overlook in a long football season.

With one week to play in the Class AA regular season and the playoffs kicking off in the lower divisions, it’s easy to look ahead at potential matchups.

Some teams can rightly do so. Polson and the three other Class A conference champions have a first round bye and can look forward to next week’s games and the strategy that evolves with each outcome this weekend. Billings Senior has an off week scheduled in lieu of a game against forfeited Missoula Hellgate, and the top-ranked Broncs will get to watch as four teams could fall to the eighth seed for a trip to the Magic City.

Other teams are locked into obvious slugfests, like Bigfork, which completed a near-perfect 7-1 season only to draw undefeated Fairfield, the defending Class B state champion, in the first round of the playoffs.

Despite the cliché, however, not every game is the same. Sometimes, when a team walks in as a clear favorite, it’s because the sheer talent difference on both sides of the ball is enough for even a bad performance to result in a win. It happens numerous times a year and sometimes for years on end, which can leave impressionable teenagers a little less than impressed with even the toughest of opponents.

It’s not always easy to get excited for every game.

It’s how Glacier nearly lost a homecoming game against Great Falls High at Legends Stadium earlier this year. The Bison were mediocre for a decade, the only decade many of the players knew, which led a well-coached Great Falls team to a fourth-quarter lead against one of the most accomplished teams of the last five years. Glacier came out flat then eventually corrected the score with a few big plays using its superior talent.

That’s just one example. There have been dozens of games played in the state this year where one team assumed a win before it played and got caught believing the hype.

While the excitement of the playoffs is likely to wipe away any lingering complacency, it sometimes can be hard to not look ahead to what’s possible in the future.

In Class A, three of the four matchups in the first round have been played earlier this season. Two of those games were played in the last two weeks and all three were lopsided. It could be easy for the winning sides to assume another victory, especially considering they’ve already been on the right end of the box score once this year.

Columbia Falls destroyed Corvallis earlier this year, a game it led 41-6 at halftime, and is staring down a cross-state trip to Sidney with a win. Likewise, Billings Central trounced Miles City and Hamilton dumped Butte Central. Each would be understood if it considered another big win an inevitability.

I’ve been there.

In 2002, Westland John Glenn had beaten Canton in every meeting dating back to 1990 and all but one meeting in the history of the schools. The Rockets, as our school was called, had even beaten Canton 46-21 in the second week of the 2002 season before drawing the Chiefs in a home game for the first round of the Michigan high school playoffs. A matchup was waiting with defending state champion Detroit Catholic Central on the other side, the same team that had ended our season the previous two years. For a team where first round playoff wins become the norm over a decade of strong teams, the allure of the future certainly was a distraction in a 49-27 reversal of fortunes.

While a few playoff matchups could seem secure, there’s still plenty on the line this weekend.

Even with a relatively low-ranked Malta team strolling into Eureka, and a home game against Huntley Project or a rematch against Shelby possible, the Lions need to make sure to finish off the Mustangs to secure a spot in that game and their first playoff win since 2008. While Columbia Falls may want it’s crack at the state’s best defense in Sidney, the Wildcats have to make sure to finish off Corvallis first.

Glacier can’t afford a loss to Missoula Big Sky, with a potential of falling to the third seed in Class AA and having to potentially make two trips to Billings should it continue to win in the playoffs. Even Missoula Sentinel, which already holds a playoff spot entering its final game against Flathead, needs a win to stay out of what could end up as an eighth seed and a matchup against a rested Senior squad that has obliterated every team its played this season.

Clichés often exist for a reason. When it comes to the playoffs, it’s best to treat every game like it’s your last. Because even when it may not seem like it on paper, if you don’t come to play, it is.