What can I say about tonight's game. Well, the score wasn't a good reflection of the game; let's start there. As usual, the Mustangs played down to their opponent. I can see both good and bad in doing this - mostly bad. But, as I'm a "glass half full", "always look at the bright side" kind of person (usually) I had to come up with one good thing. The only good thing I can think of is that this makes the Mustangs difficult to scout. To scouts, we always look unimpressive. Even to the fans, we always look unimpressive. I'm sure that to college scouts, we look unimpressive. The players and team rarely show what they can really do. Is this by design? Or just a bad habit the team has fallen into.
So, for tonight's game, we didn't look all that great, but we got the job done. To start the game, Friendswood won the toss and elected to receive. With the very first play, we learned that Wheatley doesn't kick well. They had to re-kick the kick off. A Wildcat touched the ball at the 43 yard line, so that is where we began. You would think, after all the hype, that we would march right down to the end zone. Wrong. We made three plays and punted. Our offensive line provided no protection to Maetzold. The line of scrimmage never moved. Just out of curiosity, I wonder if Hardy or Dement could have hit a field goal from the 43 yard line?
Wheatley didn't do any better on their first possession. They punted on their first possession. We blocked the punt, but it still rolled a good ways.
Again, Friendswood had a bad possession. Someone on the offensive line consistently missed his assignment (I honestly don't know if it was the same person every time). Maetzold was almost always under pressure and the receivers were well covered. This remained a problem for the Mustangs for the entire game. The difference on this possession is that we were able to get out of it with points on the board. With 7:35 left in the first quarter, the score was Houston Wheatley 0 - Friendswood 3.
After recovering a fumble and moving back down the field, Friendswood scored again, but the point after attempt missed. With three minutes forty seven seconds left in the first quarter, the score was Houston Wheatley 0 - Friendswood 9.
Wheatley received the kick off, but wasn't ale to do anything with it - the ball went back to Friendswood on downs. And what did Friendswood do? March right down to the end zone, that's what. Now there's 1:17 left in the first quarter and the score is Houston Wheatley 0 - Friendswood 16.
Once again, (and this happened more than once during the game) it was a good thing for Friendswood that the place kickers know how to tackle (though Hardy is a better tackler than Dement). I don't know what happened, but for the last few games our kick off coverage has been terrible. And there were a few other mistakes, like players standing around watching the quarterback being sacked.
I think you've read enough to know how the game went. By half time, the score was Houston Wheatley 0 - Friendswood 23. During the first half we learned that Kennemer needs new shoes (or something, he's been tripping over his own feet for a couple of weeks). We learned that Hardy can still tackle well. We learned that Dement can tackle, but not as effectively as Hardy. We learned that Wheatley has good pass coverage and that Wheatley can get through our offensive line.
But for as much as we learned, we were also left with questions - why is Wheatley getting through our offensive line so easily? Why were they able to do this and still cover our receivers? And why is the place kicker having to tackle the ball carrier?
After half time, it took our defense a few plays to wake up, but after that they played well (when they got to play). Our defense made several tackles resulting in negative yards.
In the third quarter, Wheatley got their only points of the game. They attempted a 2 point conversion, but were unsuccessful. I later learned these were the first points a HISD school has scored against a 24-4A team (not an honor the team was looking for).
The 4th quarter brought Friendswood's back up and a few JV players onto the field. We got to see Gardner's speed, but we never saw his arm. Our players performed well. I'm glad they got some playing time, and I hope they are able to get some more.
The final score at the end of the night was Houston Wheatley Wildcats 6 - Friendswood Mustangs 50.
This was probably one of the most fairly called games this season. There were only 2 calls that I disagreed with, both being whether or not Wheatley had earned a first down.
And somone should probably mention to our offense that when playing a school where basketball is more important than football, it's a bad idea to throw long passes into coverage. The basketball players will leap up and snag the pass out of the air.
There is definitely some work for our team to do this week. The problem with bad snaps (both to Maetzold and to Garner) must be fixed. This is a must. The kick off return protection also must be fixed. And if Kennemer needs new shoes, then lets get him some; or help him figure out why he's tripping over his own two feet. Let's get our offensive line protecting Maetzold better and get our receivers open. On the defense side, the tackling is looking better for the starters, but the backups and JV players need to work on their fundamentals and techniques.
Time to do some research on Humble. They are our next opponent. Saturday, November 27, 2010 at 2:00pm at Thorne Stadium.
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