We're in the midst of the high school football playoffs, and this is a time when people stack up cliches like slices of turkey on a Thanksgiving dinner plate.

The one we hear most often this time of year is, “They're a well-coached team.”

Generally, that's the first thing coaches say when they're unfamiliar with the strengths and weaknesses of their playoff opponents from other areas of the state: “We're going to have to check them out on film, but we're going to have to limit our mistakes, because they're a well-coached team.”

Like all cliches, it means nothing — until you see what a well-coached team looks like.

Frederick Douglass High School's head coach, J.C. Pinkney, and his staff give meaning to that meaningless phrase. Even if you didn't know that Pinkney has guided the Eagles to playoff berths in nine consecutive seasons, all you had to do was observe them in action Friday night during their 2A South Region championship game at Glenelg High to learn what a “well-coached team” really looks like.

There are more than a few teams whose sidelines are chaotic, made so by screaming, swearing coaches who seem to find something wrong with every play.

There is no chaos on the Douglass sideline. There is order. There is a coaching staff in control, even when things go wrong.

Late in the first quarter on a frigid night in western Howard County, Glenelg took a 14-6 lead when linebacker J.T. Komsa ripped the ball away from Douglass running back Emmanuel Smith and raced 65 yards the other way for a touchdown. Magnified by the intensity of a playoff atmosphere, it was the kind of play that could have altered the course of the game. A couple of Douglass players complained that Smith's forward progress had been stopped and the referees should have blown the play dead prior to the turnover.

But there was no screaming. No helmets thrown to the ground in anger. No finger-pointing. No blaming the referees.

There was a well-coached team that went back to work.

By halftime, Douglass led 20-14.

The Eagles owned the second half en route to a 40-20 victory, but in the midst of the blowout came another test of character.

With about two minutes to play, one of Douglass' unquestioned leaders, senior quarterback/defensive back Taitor Reynolds, was hit with a penalty for taunting Glenelg after he intercepted a pass on the Gladiators' last possession. It was a brief gesture — striking a strongman pose — born out of unbridled enthusiasm after making a play that pinned an exclamation mark on the end of an emphatic victory. But it was a penalty nonetheless.

The referees mistakenly assessed the taunting penalty as a personal foul, which it wasn't. Personal fouls are called only when the infraction involves making contact with an opposing player. Reynolds hadn't done that after the interception, but he did have a legitimate personal foul earlier in the game, when he chest-bumped a Glenelg player at the end of a play.

When the taunting penalty was initially ruled a personal foul, it meant bad news for Douglass. A player who commits two personal fouls in a game is ejected, and under state rules an ejection also carries an automatic one-game suspension.

As Reynolds was informed of the ruling, he turned away from the field, eyes closed, clearly distraught. All of a sudden, there was a pall cast over a convincing 20-point playoff victory. For about the next 20 minutes, the Eagles tried to wrap their heads around the idea of moving on to the state semifinals without their leader.

When Pinkney first addressed his players at the end of the game, he explained that Reynolds would have to sit for the state semifinal, and then sternly, yet calmly, told them what he expected of them: “We're not gonna complain,” he said. “We're gonna go on and do what we gotta do.”

Standing in a semicircle was a team full of attentive players, clearly hanging on their coach's every word.

There was no screaming. No helmets thrown to the ground in anger. No finger-pointing. No blaming the referees.

There was a well-coached team ready to go back to work.

After a few agonizing minutes, the referees pulled Pinkney aside and admitted their mistake: Reynolds only committed one personal foul, shouldn't have been ejected and won't be suspended. Pinkney pulled his players together again to tell them the good news — but also to emphasize that their conduct has consequences.

In postgame interviews, Pinkney and Reynolds both talked about the lesson learned — Reynolds shivering in the cold and a bit shaken by the experience but finally offering a wide smile when reminded that he'd just tossed three touchdown passes to Paul Harris in spite of the Eagles' well-known reputation as a run-first offense.

Friday night, Douglass will traverse the Bay Bridge and visit the Kent Island Buccaneers in a 2A state semifinal game. Reynolds will be under center for the Eagles.

We don't know much about Kent Island. We haven't had a chance to see them on film. But the Buccaneers certainly will need to limit their mistakes. These guys from Douglass are pretty well-coached.

Seth Elkin (selkin@gazette.net) is the Prince George's County sports editor of The Gazette.