Debates can be compared to football games. Everyone has something that they do to help their team win. They wear their lucky socks, ban a certain family member from the room, or just pray. Then the screaming and yelling at the television commences, and everyone else hides under the bed and waits until it’s all over. Such is the nature of presidential debates.

It’s been a tough couple of weeks for Trump, as new audio was released from the “locker room” of him saying some very offensive things, causing him to lose the support of many Republicans. Trump fans hope that it will be just a minor bump in the road, since Trump has been known for his less than polite comments, but this audio could still hurt his numbers in the finals. There’s also tension within Team Trump concerning their best defender, Mike Pence, who upstaged egotistical Donald in his last appearance.

One thing’s for sure, Trump definitely came more prepared for this debate, proving that he did learn something from last month’s beat-down. We weren’t expecting anything new from Team Clinton, but Trump threw in a wild card when he brought in Bill Clinton’s victims to sit in the front row. Her teammates on the bench looked visibly shaken, but quarterback Hillary Clinton kept her cool entering this much anticipated rematch.

The game had a rocky start for Trump, who began by targeting Hillary’s husband Bill, the former quarterback for Team Clinton, rather than the current quarterback. This created an opening for Hillary to score some touchdowns in the first quarter. Team Trump stated that it was prepared to deal some serious blows to Clinton, but they didn’t seem to land as expected. The game was played by Town Hall rules, so the crowd took every opportunity to question Trump’s foul language and sore loser attitude. The referees cut off each down at two minutes, at least when they remembered to. Even they couldn’t completely withhold their emotions, and there was occasional laughing heard from the referees’ table.

Although Team Clinton had a strong offensive strategy throughout the game, Team Trump was still able to hold their own. The crowd of “undecided” fans took some time off from questioning Team Trump’s fitness to be president to ask some questions concerning national issues, which the well-practiced Team Clinton handled with ease. Unfortunately, this debate was still like all the others, with little to no substantial discussion about real issues, but the fans have grown to accept that empty, meaningless words are the preferred protective equipment of most teams, including Clinton’s.

Then came the real showstopper of the night: an audience member asked if each candidate would say something nice about each other. The crowd went wild. Everyone was at the edge of their seats as their candidate went in for the final, and perhaps most difficult, stretch. As the two quarterbacks prepared to shake hands and call it a night, Clinton complemented Trump on his children, and Trump commended Clinton for her persistence. The controversy surrounding both quarterbacks has made this season a painful one for even the most diehard fans. As Mr. Wright, the AP Government teacher said, “In the words of Ben Shapiro, ‘We have a country of 320 million people, and these are the two from which we’re supposed to choose?'”

Both candidates fought hard, but beyond this petty rivalry, they are still on the same team: America, and it seems like that team’s losing streak is only getting worse.