Okay, I'm going to try very, very hard to show a light at the end of this tunnel, but I'm afraid that light may be the headlight of an oncoming train. Okay, the stats first.
1st quarter only LaMarque 21 - Friendswood 7
2nd quarter only LaMarque 28 - Friendswood 0
3rd quarter only LaMarque 14 - Friendswood 7
4th quarter only LaMarque 0 - Friendswood 7
FINAL SCORE LaMarque 63 - Friendswood 21
And yes, I believe the school record for most points given up during a game has been broken for the second time this season. Please guys, lets not go for three.
This week's sick, lame and lazy club (my husbands phrase, not mine) included Hoke, Dement, Gardner, Camarillo, Taube and Nunez. There may have been others, but I beleive that's all of them. Two names of note that are not on that list are Battle and Scott. I had been told that both of them were out for the season. I learned this morning that Scott was listed as probable for tonight's game. He played the whole game. Battle came in during the second half and played the rest of the game.
Now, what did I actually see tonight? At first, I saw the Mustang defense effectively stop the Cougar offense. The Cougars weren't able to do anything on their first possession and had to punt the ball away. But before that, Sam Longbotham intercepted the Cougars first pass, but as he was tackled from behind the ball was stripped and recovered by the Cougars. Our offense looked good during our first possession, but we weren't able to get into the end zone. The field goal was blocked and the Cougars picked up the ball and ran all the way to the end zone. And that's pretty much sums up the first quarter. All 3 of the Cougar touch downs in the 1st quarter were lucky strikes. The second quarter was another story.
Something happened after LaMarque scored that first touchdown, not sure what exactly, but the Mustangs began a down hill slide that didn't slow down until the last few minutes of the first half.
Sam Longbotham is continuing to make a name for himself. I never saw him play offense tonight (doesn't mean he didn't, I just never saw it). His name was definitely mentioned more than any other defensive player. He was everywhere. I am really looking forward to watching this freshman play the rest of this season and the next 3 seasons.
After halftime, the Mustangs were able to sustain the momentum they had going at the end of the first half. It took 2 minutes and 25 seconds of play time for Wood to find the end zone. Unfortunately, LaMarque answered about 2 minutes later. The rest of the game was much better than the first half. Whatever adjustments the Mustangs made were not obvious, but effective. During the last quarter, both LaMarque and Friendswood brought in their back up quarterbacks and back up running backs (Morris and Rosales for Friendswood). LaMarque used the running game much more than their passing game (surprise, surprise) but when they did pass, we defended better than we did against Dawson. That being said, Tim Wright is fast and can run hard. Taube and Camarillo both being on the sidelines hurt our defense. Hopefully they are back next week. I'd love to see what our defense can do with Taube, Camarillo and Longbotham all on the field.
Two interesting things that happened that should be mentioned before I get into my "analysis". The Cougars faked a handoff that even fooled the refs during the first half. The line of scrimmage was in the red zone. The refs blew the whistles ending the play, not realizing that the ball was not in the dog pile. The ball runner ran right into the end zone a couple of seconds after the whistles. They talked for quite a while about how to handle this situation and the LaMarque coach is lucky he wasn't thrown out of the game for the way he handled the refs decision. The refs came to the conclusion that by blowing the whistles, they told the Mustang defense that the play was over, causing the Mustangs to slack off and head back to the backfield to plan their next move. It wasn't fair to allow the touch down after the whistle, even though the whistles should never have been blown in the first. They decided to give the Cougars a "do-over". Under the circumstances, I think that was the best option. The LaMarque coach and fans were not happy about the refs decision. And I can understand why they would feel that way. But the Mustangs should not be punished (points on the board against them) for the refs mistake. It turns out that it didn't make much of a difference. Two plays later, the Cougars were back in the end zone. But I feel that the LaMarque fans were very disrespectful to the refs in this situation. Speaking of the refs, one of the them was in the way of the ball/players more than once. And I really wish we had instant replay on some of those plays. I'm not sure the refs were entirely accurate. Don't think it would have changed the score too much, but still. Another comment - I wish I knew which player it was, but I want to give props to the Mustang who backed away with his hands up from a Cougar who tried to start a fight. Several other players, from both teams, saw the almost fight and ran over to stop it. That was also good to see. Again, I didn't catch the players number, but since no one was thrown out of the game, I assume it was a different Cougar who got in a late hit a few plays later and landed LaMarque with their second personal foul.
Now, what did I really see? I saw the Jordan and JJ show on offense, and the Sam Longbotham show on defense. All three are outstanding players, but they can't carry the team all by themselves. It was great to see Scott back on the field. He played very well and I'm sure he will improve as the season continues. And seeing Battle back on the field was also great. He wasn't as big of a presence as he was before his injury, but hopefully that will change. Holle played well, but continues to be inconsistent. I don't have any stats in front of me, but it seems that he misses the ball (in and out of his hands, dropped pass, passes he should have caught, etc) as often as he makes the catch. When he makes the catch, it's on great plays. But even when he's wide open, you never know if he's going to catch the ball or not, no matter how well Wood throws the ball. I wish I could offer some advice to help him be more consistent, but all I can say is practice, practice, practice. And maybe come up with some drill where he never knows where the ball is coming from, but has to catch it. I would like to see him improve, and I think he could be an outstanding receiver.
JJ, as always looked great. But I will never understand why he is constantly asked to run up the middle when he rarely goes anywhere that way. He's getting much better about not running parallel to the yard lines. He likes to run on the outside and is getting better at making forward progress while he's getting outside. Another why - why do the coaches work him like a mule? He has some great back ups. Both Rosales and Longbotham have proved that they are capable of taking the hand off and gaining yards. Why not let JJ catch his breath from time to time?
Wood is also continuing to improve. His throws are getting better and better. Both in length, power and accuracy. It helps that the offensive line is getting better at protecting him and giving him time to make a decision and opening holes for him to run through. He's not a Karam or a Maetzold, yet. But he could be. All the tools are there. He still needs to practice making decisions faster and taking in the whole field, but he has the potential. If what I heard is correct, our quarterback is ranked in rushing yards. I think that's a new one for Friendswood. Another new one is to not have our quarterback ranked in the traditional quarterback stats. Who cares if he rushes as often as he throws, as long as the chains move and the points go up on our side of the score board. He also played well on defense tonight. I saw him make a couple of great tackles. One of them being one of the plays I would like to see on instant replay.
Scott looked good, especially seeing as how it was his first game back. He did make a catch out of bounds that probably would have been in bounds if he hadn't been out with an injury. But he didn't miss many, if any, passes & he did a great job of getting open.
Now a question for the coaches. Why, oh why, do you continue to demonstrate the definition of insanity? How many times will you watch a play fail before you stop calling it. How many times does an opponent have to demonstrate that they studied film on a specific player before you change things up and move that player to a different position, or take him out for a while. Even if you only take him out for a few plays. It would be enough to mess with your opponents heads. If they obviously studied film on one player. they probably didn't spend much time worrying about his back up(s). Especially since every coach in the district knows that you will call the same plays with the same players all night long, whether they work or not. They also know that Friendswood will run trick plays more often than any other team. But I'm sure the scouts get very bored watching our games. I'm not sure I would want to scout us. If I was able to stay objective & uninvolved in the game, I'd have a hard time not falling asleep. Or is that the plan? Are you trying to bore the scouts into not paying attention?
Everyone knows that Friendswood is suffering from having a large number of starters watching from the sidelines in their jerseys and shorts. And everyone is taking advantage of it. But we can't let that be our excuse for not winning. It just means that the team will have to continue to work harder than any other team in our district and get creative during practice to find solutions to the obvious problems. Sometimes obvious problems don't have obvious solutions.
The Mustangs' next game will be on Thursday, October 13, 2011 at Alvin Memorial Stadium Kick off is at 7pm and the game is scheduled to be televised. This game has been described as the third in a trifecta of tough opponents for the Mustangs. Let's go boys. Don't give up, don't get discouraged and keep working hard. We're behind you, all the way.
No comments:
Post a Comment