A glorified bye week is always nice to have after a tough loss, and MacArthur has the luxury of such a contest one more time this season.
The Highlanders take on Southeast at 7 p.m. Thursday at Speegle Stadium in Oklahoma City. It is Mac's final warmup before the meat of the schedule kicks in with major playoff implications on the line.
Although the Spartans enter the contest with the same overall record as the Highlanders -- 3-3 -- District 5A-1 has not been kind to the Oklahoma City school.
After winning its opening three games against sub-par competition, Southeast has been shellacked to combined tune of 137-33 against Duncan, Ardmore and El Reno. In fact, the Spartans haven't won a district contest since 2013, and that came against a lowly Capitol Hill squad.
"It's always good to have a little break sprinkled in there, and I kind of wish we had one later on in the season, too," Mac coach Brett Manning said. "It's good to have a week like this to recover from a tough loss and be able to fix some stuff and work on it."
Manning said the Spartans have some talent, but he doesn't anticipate having any problems in what would be the Highlanders' third district win of the season.
"They've got some speed, and they've got some guys on their receiving core and defensive backfield who I'd like to have," Manning said. "I think we're going to be OK. I'm not saying they're up there with the top of our district, but they have improved, and as long as we go and play our game, we'll be fine."
Looking ahead
With a big game coming against Duncan next week, Mac could've easily looked past its struggling foe in preparation for the Demons, but that is not the case.
The coaching staff has had a chance to take a sneak peek of Duncan when watching its game with Southeast, but a game plan for the highly-anticipated battle hasn't been explored.
"We haven't practiced or game planned for Duncan, but we have the video of them and Southeast, and when watching Southeast, you're watching Duncan," Manning said. "We've been able to look at them, but we haven't focused on them yet."
Plummeting Highlanders
As expected, MacArthur's loss to Del City proved to be detrimental in the state rankings and district standings.
The Highlanders (3-3, 2-1 5A-1) dropped out of the Oklahoma Associated Press Top 10 poll after a 44-31 loss to the Eagles on Thursday night at Cameron Stadium. Mac did receive votes, though, making the official fall a plummet of six spots to No. 12.
Del City's win grabbed the attention of the state, for it jumped to No. 8 in the rankings. The Eagles were unranked for two weeks prior to the contest.
The Highlanders also dropped three spots in the 5A-1 standings to fourth behind No. 2 Ardmore, No. 4 Altus and Del City.
If the standings experience no changes for the remainder of the season, Mac will finish fourth for the first time since 2000.
Manning said the rankings will take care of themselves -- he cares only about the standings.
"I don't care at all about the rankings -- it's the first I've heard of them," Manning said. "As far as district goes, we have one loss like everyone else, with the exception of Ardmore. We're not out of anything, and we need to figure some stuff out -- there's no doubt -- and play better.
"If we do our job, we can tie for the lead, so we're just trying to get better and focusing on the next week."
Unlucky No. 3
Not only did the Highlanders fall three spots in the unforgiving district standings, Thursday's loss was Mac's first district defeat in nearly three years.
Mac now sports three regular-season losses for the first time since 2009 -- Manning's first year at the helm.
The Highlanders entered the playoffs as the No. 3 seed out of 5A-1 with a 7-3 record that year, pitting them against eventual state champion Carl Albert in the first round.
To put that in perspective, Mac has a record of 29-1 the past three years through regular-season play -- 36-3 counting the playoffs.
Manning said he can see similarities between the 2009 and the 2017 teams.
"We did replace a lot of people that year, just like we did this year," Manning said. "We had a tough time getting over the hump, and we had a lot of good teams in our district, like we always do.
"Some years are enjoyable as a coach, and others are not so much. This is an enjoyable group. They've hung together, they're working hard and remaining positive -- much like that 2009 group was."
The Highlanders will be favored against Southeast and Duncan in the coming weeks, but they'll undoubtedly be considered underdogs in the final two games of the season -- at Altus and at home against Ardmore.
"Southeast and Duncan are similar offensively -- they do a lot of stuff that we do," Manning said. "For Altus and Ardmore, everything is out the window defensively. We're going to have a game plan that's specific for those flexbone teams."