This game was full of big plays, standard for any game Westfield has played this year. WF opened the scoring on a 27 yard Gray run, but LB's Alexander took the kickoff back 95 yds and it was 7-7 less than 4 mins into the game. On WF's next drive they faked a punt on 4th and 2 from the WF 18 yard line and got the first down but the drive stalled. LB could do no better and WF ended up with the ball again at the LB 40. End of the 1st quarter. Faced with another 4th down (4th and 3 at the LB 15) Gray got 7 yards for the 1st down then Scoville scored a few plays later to put WF back up 14-7. LB then drove the ball to their own 30, where they faced a 4th and one. They tried a QB sneak, but when the QB was stopped and spun around he handed the ball off to Alexander and 70 yards later it was 14-14. On WF's next possession they stalled at their own 31 and the punt snap sailed over the punter's head and was downed at the WF 2 yard line. Adkins then scored on a 3 yard run and LB was on top, 21-14. Pearson then took the kickoff back 99 yards, but a bad snap (one of 4 special teams bad snaps-2 on XP and 2 on punts) caused the XP to be missed and LB led 21-20 with less than 5 mins to go in the half. On the next WF possession and with time running down, Bethea ripped off a 49 yard run to the LB 1 yard line but good LB defense and a WF penalty made WF settle for a 20 yard FG as time expired, 23-21 WF at the half. Of note, LB's Lee was injured on the tackle of Bethea and immediately removed from the field by cart to be checked out; hopefully he is OK.
Then a different game started in the second half. LB came out in a spread offense and WF had little in the way of an answer, plus the WF offense disappeared. The third quarter saw little productive play by either team overall, but LB reached the WF 30 before WF had an 84 yard INT for a TD called back for a roughing the passer penalty. LB could not push any deeper and tried a 30 yard FG that was blocked, still 23-21 WF. The third quarter ended and the 4th started with same back and forth, until LB threw a pick to WF's Clancy on the WF 13 that was returned to the WF 25. WF's Gray fumbled a few plays later and LB recovered on the WF 42. LB drove down and completed a 10 yard pass to Mansaray and LB was on top after a 2XP pass, 29-23 with 5:52 to go. WF again failed to move the ball well, but punted to pin LB deep in their own territory. After 2 unsuccessful plays, LB faced a 3rd and 10 and on the lateral run that got no yards, but WF was flagged for a facemask and LB still had the ball at the LB 30 with just about 2-1/2 minutes left. They managed to move the ball downfield a bit until Mansaray broke loose for a 51 yard run at the 1:28 mark and put the game out of reach, 36-23. WF tried to go with the deep ball but threw an INT to Scott and LB killed the clock.
Takeaways:
1. LB needs to run the spread. The offense they used in the first half was woeful, and if not for the 3 plays that they scored on (KOR, fluke handoff, and a bad WF punt snap) they would have been trailing by 3 or 4 TDs.
2. WF's defense is not where it needs to be. Period. The offense is quite good, but for some reason it just disappeared in the second half. Some of that is, no doubt, due to LB halftime adjustments, but the offense was just plain bad in the second half.
3. WF had far, far, far too many penalties. It is hard to win when you are consistently stalling your own drives or helping the opponent's with penalties. I would guess they had around 12-14 penalties for well over 100 yards. Maybe 150?
This post was edited on 9/19 11:18 PM by falcettik
Then a different game started in the second half. LB came out in a spread offense and WF had little in the way of an answer, plus the WF offense disappeared. The third quarter saw little productive play by either team overall, but LB reached the WF 30 before WF had an 84 yard INT for a TD called back for a roughing the passer penalty. LB could not push any deeper and tried a 30 yard FG that was blocked, still 23-21 WF. The third quarter ended and the 4th started with same back and forth, until LB threw a pick to WF's Clancy on the WF 13 that was returned to the WF 25. WF's Gray fumbled a few plays later and LB recovered on the WF 42. LB drove down and completed a 10 yard pass to Mansaray and LB was on top after a 2XP pass, 29-23 with 5:52 to go. WF again failed to move the ball well, but punted to pin LB deep in their own territory. After 2 unsuccessful plays, LB faced a 3rd and 10 and on the lateral run that got no yards, but WF was flagged for a facemask and LB still had the ball at the LB 30 with just about 2-1/2 minutes left. They managed to move the ball downfield a bit until Mansaray broke loose for a 51 yard run at the 1:28 mark and put the game out of reach, 36-23. WF tried to go with the deep ball but threw an INT to Scott and LB killed the clock.
Takeaways:
1. LB needs to run the spread. The offense they used in the first half was woeful, and if not for the 3 plays that they scored on (KOR, fluke handoff, and a bad WF punt snap) they would have been trailing by 3 or 4 TDs.
2. WF's defense is not where it needs to be. Period. The offense is quite good, but for some reason it just disappeared in the second half. Some of that is, no doubt, due to LB halftime adjustments, but the offense was just plain bad in the second half.
3. WF had far, far, far too many penalties. It is hard to win when you are consistently stalling your own drives or helping the opponent's with penalties. I would guess they had around 12-14 penalties for well over 100 yards. Maybe 150?
This post was edited on 9/19 11:18 PM by falcettik
