Even a quarterback the likes of Ozark’s Peyton Russell can fall into the trap of placing too much blame on the quarterback after a loss.
Of course, the first part of that adage is the quarterback gets too much credit after a win.
With Russell completing 17-of-26 passes for 216 yards Friday, he deserved far more credit for Ozark building a 14-point lead than absorbing blame for the Tigers squandering every bit of their two-touchdown advantage and losing 22-21 to Glendale.
Russell couldn’t help but think of numerous occasions in which Ozark (3-4) was perilously close to putting the Falcons (2-5) away.
With 10:27 remaining, Ozark was up 21-7 and in possession of the ball while facing a 1st-and-10 scenario at the Glendale 25-yard line. Surely, the Tigers' win percentage at that juncture was nine out of 10, at least.
That drive stalled at the Falcons’ 21 with 8:43 remaining. The Tigers bypassed the chance to have Sam Clark attempt a 38-yard field goal to try to make it a three-possession game. Instead, they threw an incomplete pass on 4th-and-6.
Weighing heavily on Russell’s mind was an incompletion on 4th-and-10 at the Glendale 31 with 3:30 to play and Ozark up 21-14. Russell’s pass to wideout Jett Easley in the end zone was knocked away by a Falcons defender.
“I could have put the game away multiple times,” Russell said. “The one to Jett, I really felt like if we got that one, it's over. It was designed to go to him. I kind of lost him with people jumping up. I rolled out and saw him get a crease. But I put a little too much air under (the pass).”
Russell lamented the Tigers’ inability over the first three quarters to distance themselves from Glendale. Ozark went up 7-0 early in the second quarter, but throughout most of the night had promising drives wilt.
“Offensively, we were a few plays away from scoring, honestly, on almost every drive, I felt like,” Russell said. “We were getting down the field with the running backs getting five yards a carry and our receivers were getting open. But we had missed opportunities and didn't finish drives.”
Ozark broke a 7-all tie and went up 21-7 over a span of :30 in the third quarter.
Russell and Clark hooked up on a 49-yard touchdown pass with 4:25 left in the quarter.
Tigers linebacker Sam Savich proceeded to force a Glendale fumble and pounce on the pigskin himself at midfield.
The Falcons turnover set up a 47-yard touchdown pass from Russell to Easley at the 3:55 mark of the third quarter.
Russell was 11-of-14 passing for 164 yards in the second half, yet lost.
Glendale quarterback Cash Newberry was money down the stretch. Newberry was 9-of-13 passing for 216 yards in the second half alone on his way to a final stats line that included 16-of-25 passing for 312 yards and two touchdowns.
Newberry had completions of 48, 72 and 42 yards in the second half.
With 1:15 to play, Newberry hit running back Jaylin Lockett for a 42-yard pass to the Ozark five-yard line. That set up a four-yard touchdown run by Lockett with :17 left.
Rather than go for a 21-all tie, Glendale went for two points and the win. Newberry rolled to his right and fired a winning two-point conversion pass in traffic to wideout Trevor Heman in the end zone.
“They got the momentum going and people's heads started dropping,” Ozark nose guard Ruben Arvizu said of the dramatic turnaround.
On Glendale’s three long pass plays in the second half, Newberry hit a receiver on the run in the middle of Ozark’s defense. The Tigers’ defensive backs didn’t take advantage of favorable angles as the Falcons’ receivers ran through them and by them.
“We had little slip-ups and they capitalized,” Arvizu said. “We had miscommunication and they had the right plays at the right time. One little gap and they would hit that for a touchdown.”
Clark finished with five catches for 91 yards. But his only catch in the fourth quarter resulted in no gain.
Come crunch time, Russell repeatedly would look toward Clark, only to see him blanketed by Glendale defenders and/or held up at the line of scrimmage before he could begin his pass route.
“When you have a playmaker like Sam, you want to get him involved,” Russell said. “But when they're triple-teaming him, it's kind of hard for him to do his job. Sam is going to get double- and triple-teamed by every team we play because he is such a threat.”
Ozark made a concentrated effort to go to its running game. Keller Schafer had 53 yards rushing on 10 carries and Rory Banks had 49 yards on 16 carries.
Glendale’s offense was able to complete its comeback, despite the Falcons’ defense being flagged for five encroachment penalties.
Ozark lost on ‘Senior Night’ for the third straight season. The Tigers are 1-3 at home this season and have dropped 12 of their last 13 home games dating back to 2022.
“I don't have a specific explanation, but I think it's about our mentality,” Ozark center Collin Cook said of the home woes. “We go to somebody else's house and coach is always telling us, 'It's the best feeling to go to somebody's house and kick their butts on their own field.' At home, we've got all our fans. But we slow down some at the end of games.”
Looking ahead, Ozark probably put itself in position points-wise in which the Tigers will need to beat Kickapoo (2-5) in Week Nine to secure the No. 3 seed and a first-round bye for Class 6 District 5.
The Chiefs meet winless Waynesville (0-6) next week, before hosting Ozark in the final week of the regular season.
"It all comes down to the Kickapoo game,” Russell said.
