Our [other] Warriors Problem
It’s been a
rough week for the website, so all my apologies. Had some technical
difficulties, was out of town a few days, had a closing on a refi, all kinds of excuses. But, I’m still here
kicking for week 4. Note that I got quite a bit of video from the Oxford game,
but haven’t had a chance to do anything with it yet. Probably in a few
days (who knows, maybe even tonight) you can go back
to the Oxford recap and I should have some links in there for the video. I did
get Fletcher’s TD and the Sackett 2 point catch
that won the game….
I’ve been
dreading this week more and more as the season has progressed, as Sidney seems
to have gotten steadily better. It’s also just tough from a matchup point
of view – Oxford certainly took advantage of some soft pass defense, and
I’m guessing that Sidney will be a couple times better at it than Oxford.
We had some struggles tackling against Harpursville, and Sidney QB Dylan Umbra
is as good as they come. We’ll have our hands more than full no doubt.
The good news is
that DK is certainly an expert at knowing how to prepare. Bad news is that we
just have not played well against Sidney at all in recent years, for whatever
reason. Granted, much of the time it has to do with the skill they bring to the
table, but I also think that if you look at the big picture of how we did
during a season vs. how we did against Sidney, we seem to fall on our faces a
bit against the Warriors.
We also have a
habit of letting things get out of hand quickly….most every game since ’03
Sidney has just bolted out of the gates against us. On a few occasions we’ve
been able to work our way back into the game, but the early deficits were
always too big to get over (unless you count ’06 when we actually had the
lead very late in the game, before a would-be interception or incompletion on 4th
down bounced off our defender’s shoulder pads and into the Sidney player’s
arms, extending a drive that ended in a decisive field goal).
We’ve been
reasonably quick starters so far this season, with the exception of our
offensive performance against Oxford, where we really struggled early to get
first downs. I’d love to see us reverse our fortunes against Sidney by
maybe shocking them a bit with some first downs and an early score or 2 on our
part, and some 3 and outs when they have the ball. Would be a nice change from
what we’ve seen lately. That said, they
certainly showed against Walton that they can overcome a sizeable deficit, even
late in the game.
As much as I want
to win this, I am a bit fearful of what a big emotional win would do for us
going into the 2nd half of the season, with some VERY tough
divisional opponents on the schedule. I’d really hate to have a
letdown/crash following all that emotion. Heck, I worry the other way too….a
big loss, and our confidence may be out the window. Seems like a lose-lose, but I think our focus just needs to be on how
we play. Do things well. Play as cleanly as possible on both sides of the ball.
Look sharp. Get better at the things we need to get better at. Let the score
take care of itself. We have not beaten Sidney since our state championship
season (’01), so it would be nice to get over the hump….but, again,
getting better is what is of utmost importance to me.
My picks are
climbing back into respectability, with a pretty good 19-3 (0.864) showing last
week, for a running total of 49-18 (0.731). My week 4 winners are…Corning
over Binghamton, END over Odessa-Montour, Trumansburg over SVE, Ithaca over UE
(is this the year Ithaca gets over the hump?), Owego over Windsor, Johnson City
over Waverly, Norwich over Sus Valley, Greene over
UVE, Tioga over Candor (big DVIII pecking order game), Oxford over
Deposit/Hancock, Forks over Unatego, EFA over Dryden,
Walton over H-ville (BG struggled a bit with H-ville, will be curious to see how Walton does), Vestal over
Maine-Endwell, Southside over Horseheads, Moravia over Newfield, Chenango Valley
over Oneonta, BG over Seton (another very curious game), Lansing over Newark
Valley, Whitney Point over Watkins Glen, and Groton over Edison…