Rematch

September 14, 2006

Well, I picked wrong last week. I had Norwich by 2 TD’s. Turns out I was 3 TD’s off, as Sidney took them by a TD. It’s very hard to tell where Sidney is in my opinion. The week 1 stats against Oneonta looked pretty pathetic, though it sounds like the Star’s stats weren’t quite right, so I can blame false information. So week 1 perhaps took their stock down a bit. Week 2 brought it back up a bit, probably about to where it was to begin with. The stats definitely looked better, though they still didn’t appear to be all about their bread and butter (running with the WB’s). I guess this week we’ll find out where they really are.

It’s hard to see how good Sidney is from the first 2 weeks, because there wasn’t really any outside playing. Norwich had beaten Johnson City by a few TD’s, and Oneonta beat JC by a point. So Sidney, Norwich, Oneonta, and JC have only played each other. Norwich is usually decent, though they have been terrible a couple times. Oneonta has been anywhere from terrible to awesome, and the fact that it is a brand new head coach makes them even more impossible to put a value on. JC has been anywhere from decent to terrible, and they have a new head coach as well. And I haven’t seen a single one of them. So, go figure.

I think Delhi on offense will be the real story on Saturday. That’s when we’ll see who wins this game. I think the other side of the ball is predictable. Sidney will move the ball some. They’ll get like 10 first downs, and put a couple scores in. Delhi will slow them fairly well and make them punt a few times, but they won’t be able to shut them down. We couldn’t do it in years before they started blocking better, so I don’t expect to shut them down now. But I don’t expect a big outburst either.

But Delhi on offense is much harder to predict. How well can we move the ball? Last year we did terrible. Hood and Nate Rockefeller combined for only about 200 yards in the 2 games, and much of that came on 1 Hood run. We couldn’t consistently get first downs to save our life. Interestingly, I thought we moved it better the 2 years previous. In ’04 we got shut out, but we drove down inside the 15 a couple times, and in the ’03 IVSEMIFINAL Matt Oliver ripped them, and we had a good chance to come back from a 4 TD deficit, but fell short. Sidney (on defense) overachieved big time against us last year. The good news is that many of those kids are gone. Tuttle gave us trouble. Alex McLean was a pain. Simonds gave us difficulty, even though there isn’t a good word to rhyme with Simonds. Those boys are gone. The bad news is that Mike Burpoe is still perched right in the center of the field.

What a matchup that makes. We’re so strong in the center with our huge line. But that’s where they are the strongest (well, at least at middle LB). I guess the cowpie will hit the fan, eh? I certainly do hope we block him. I hope whichever lineman has that task will take such pride in it and see it as such an opportunity. I also think we should spend some time going elsewhere. Let’s not just go after them with power. I think we need to do some counter things and outside things where hopefully Burpoe’s key will take him out of the play. I say we spread them out Saturday. Try to get some one on one matchups (as long as one of the ones isn’t Burpoe). I also say it’s about time for one of Hood’s 60 yarders that he had so many of last year. I thought it was interesting that we hardly ran outside last week. Was it because we thought we couldn’t with the defense they were running, or was it because we didn’t want to be on scout tape? I don’t know.

All I know is that I want to win and win big, because Sportsboy is driving me crazy on the Syracuse forum, acting like Sidney is the greatest thing since home enema kits.

For picks, it was a wonderful week. I went a 21-4 (0.840), missing Fowler over Ithaca, UE over Henninger, Oneonta over JC, and of course Sidney over the Tornado. For the season I’m 36-17 (0.679). I’ll shoot for 0.800 again by the end of the season. This week I’m going with New Hartford, Union Endicott, Unatego, Norwich, Bainbridge Guilford (they will look impressive starting 3-0, but reality is coming soon), END, Greene, Newfield, Lansing, Trumansburg, Candor (good game I think), Odessa, Johnson City, Corning West, Corning East, Chenango Valley, Windsor, Forks, Watkins Glen, Walton (wish I could watch this one), Deposit, Moravia, and Horseheads.