THURSDAY NIGHT SPOTLIGHT

MUIR (1-5, 1-2) vs. CRESCENTA VALLEY (4-2, 2-1) at Glendale High, 7 p.m.

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No matter how you look at it, this is a must-win game for Muir if it wants to keep its playoff hopes alive. What team shows up today is beyond me. It could be the offense, it could be the defense, who knows. If the Mustangs get a win tonight it’s seemingly downhill from here, schedule-wise at least. Muir would only have Hoover, Glendale and Pasadena while Crescenta Valley still has Burroughs on its schedule. And some of you I think are right — the final playoff spot may come down to the end result of the Turkey Tussle. Put in a call to Muir coach Ken Howard and he agreed tonight’s game is a must-win.

“It’s a must-win,” he said. “If we don’t win we’re going to need a lot of help, but I don’t believe anybody else is going to help me.”

Muir has been sort of an enigma. So how does Howard get his team to play consistent?

“Right now we’ve coached them up as much as we can coach them up,” he said. “One week it’s the offense believing and trusting themselves or vice versa. They have to understand both sides have to have a perfect game in order to win the game.”

But it’ll get easier, no? I man, c’mon. It’s Hoover (yawn), Glendale (hmmm?) and Pasadena still left on the schedule. It’s an easy road to the playoffs if Muir can just buckle down and get it done.

“You know what,” Howard said, “anybody can say easy but they’re not in my shoes. I’ve only won one football game. It might look easy on paper but they still put on their pants the same way we put our pants on. I don’t think about it as easy. Either we win tonight or we need a lot of help. There’s a couples teams ahead of us that still have to see Burroughs and Burbank. We just have to bring a little heart to the table and see if we can dance with these guys.”