Tonight’s episode was a great example of how the series can take off-the-field issues and have them play out dramatically in a game. It was obvious that the Laribee coach was troubled throughout the week, and he didn’t earn himself any good karma points by sniping at Eric every chance he got. I enjoyed the chess match at the end of the game, but I was a little confused about who was outsmarting whom. It sure seemed like Eric wasn’t going to fall for the other coach’s trap, but after he called for a Saracen rollout, the other coach was telling his players that that was the play that Dillon was going to run (after saying he was baiting him on the seam pass). So I guess the other coach’s frustration boiled over when he saw Riggins chugging down the field for the go-ahead score despite the fact that he called the right defense.

Anyway, I suspect that the coach tackling Riggins was the “oh, shit!” moment that Will Harris was talking about last week.

I wasn’t real pleased with Julie’s decision to keep the truth from her dad at the expense of Riggins’ reputation, but I was proud of her (yes, proud) that she fessed up at the end. Eric’s apology to Tim was heartfelt; though the timing was a little odd considering Riggins had just stolen $3K from a drug dealer. Hmm, I wonder if that’s going to come back to bite him in the ass.

Speaking of Riggins, he had the line of the week when he told his ex-girlfriend, “If you want to finish the Riggins trifecta, my dad lives in Corpus. I could probably give you his number.” Classic.

I found the whole Shelly storyline a little tedious, and I wasn’t too surprised that she overreacted to Eric’s comments and decided to leave Dillon for Dallas. Just because the Taylors didn’t want her living in their house doesn’t mean she has to move to another city. The whole thing seemed like inorganic drama. (Though it was funny that she taped “The Office” over his game film.)

Lastly, Smash got his wish and verbally committed to TMU. Even though he was going against Eric’s advice by immediately committing, it seemed at the end like we were supposed to feel good about his decision. I guess since that it was always his “dream to play at TMU,” then that was the proper end to that storyline. Also, there’s the potential for Smash’s story to continue if the series gets picked up for another season.