A Good Ole-Fashioned Football Game

November 1, 2006

 

Does the pressure get any higher? A sectional final game against your rival and nemesis. Win, or the seniors have played their last game. Win, or suffer the thought of our continued inability to get by the orangies.

I don’t have any recipe for success, other than to just do everything right. I don’t think there is some secret gap in Walton’s defense. I don’t think there is some play we can run that will put us over the top. It is simple. It is much like I said last year at this same time. On offense, we block hard every play, we hit the holes, we run with authority, and we turn on the jets when we get in the open. On defense, we read our keys every play, we react with lightning quickness, we fill the holes hard, we hit the backs hard, we wrap on our tackles, and we assist the tacklers whenever possible to do so.

I did think we outplayed Walton to some extent in round 1. We had a measurable advantage in total yards and first downs. We just shot ourselves in the foot at the most inopportune times. We throw a pick in the flat that costs us 6 points. We get a 15 yard facemask penalty when we likely would have gotten the ball back, and very shortly later Walton causes our pass coverage to break down and scores. We get a chop block penalty that takes the ball from Waltons 3 to the 18 and basically kills the ending drive.

It’s tempting to look at this and say that we’ll win this time as long as we are somewhat mistake free. That is far from a given though, I think. Walton is riding a wave of momentum that is exactly what a team wants at this time of year, and exactly what an opponent does not like to see. They are doing everything right at this point. We could very well play mistake-free, play a pretty good game, and still lose. They have really ramped up steadily as the season has gone on. They will be ready. They will play HARD. They know how hard they need to work to win this one.

We are good enough to win this one. The trouble is, so is Walton. It’s down to good old fashioned football then. Who will do the best job blocking, running, and tackling? What players will step up and put their team over the top? Whose gut is stronger when it comes down to that 4^th quarter? Like I said, does the pressure get any higher?

I know I said I had no recipe for success, but I do wish to add 2 quick points. First, I think we need to pass about as much as last game. It would be nice to think we didn’t have to, but Walton is always weak enough in that area that we must take advantage. I see a similar output to last game, where we went 5 for 8. Secondly, I’ve said this before, and I’m baffled why I’ve never seen it happen. If Hood’s ankle is ok, he should be returning kicks. He doesn’t play defense, so there is no need to spell him. He has shown such an ability to do things when he has some room to work with. How much more room to work can you get outside of a kickoff? If we can get a cheap one, NOW IS THE TIME! That cheap one could mean the difference of extending the season or heading to hoops and wrestling.

I just hope I can get through the rest of this week without throwing up! The butterflies are terrible.

Do I even want to mention picks? In the crossovers I went a lowly 7-6 (0.538). I end the “regular” season at 153-51 (0.750). Last year I closed at 0.761. For the playoffs, I went a pretty good 7-2 (0.778), missing Horseheads and Lansing. Incidently, take a look back in DogBlog back in September when I made my sectional champ picks. For finalists, I picked AA, A, and B exactly right. In C I didn’t get either (I said Unatego and Greene, so I don’t think I was too far off). In D, I didn’t pick individual teams, but I did say it would be all east. So at least there I did pretty well. I also looked back at my picks for starters, picks that I made back in June. I think I did pretty well…..I was wrong on what positions some kids would play, but I got 10 of 11 offensive starters right and 9 of 11 defensive starters. I guess I do better when I pick stuff months before. For IVFINALSPICKS, I’m going with UE, Corning East, Forks, and Sidney.

See you Saturday…..