Saw Rod put the stop sign up again. I think he's just sick of us in general so here's what I see.
Four excellent teams that have all earned their way with hard fought victories. Once again proving the cream does rise to the top in the end, despite all the complaints about the VHSL and the bemoaning of Regional decisions. And I am sick to death of hearing about cement bleachers, porta-potties or what time the games will be played. Can we please be done with the trivial persuits?
In the West, we have two outstanding but very different squads. JF seems virtually unstoppable on offense. I've seen two games against quality opponents now and it's like watching Penn and Teller. A virtual magic show of misdirection and speed. I have extolled how the defense will eventually betray them and Woodgrove scored more than enough to win Friday's game but JF came away with the victory anyway. What continues to get me here is something I have never seen before. On every JF TD, the man went untouched to the end zone. Amazing.
Then you have Salem. Solid as a rock in every way. Offense, defense, Special teams. Very few mistakes. What I see most in them is a simple but incredibly balanced offense. They are very dissimilar to almost all 4A teams as an offense in that they run a 60's and 70's NFL playbook. They would like to run the ball but short passing plays, play action and screen passes are something they run all the time. Simple, effective, well executed, little danger of error. Extreme balance. Extremely effective. Very difficult to defend for teams not used to this kind of diversity.
So who wins? Salem won't stop JF. No one can. Yes folks, IMO, not even LT. But JF can't stop Salem either. Somewhere along the line, one of these two will make a mistake. Defense, offense or special teams. That will be the difference. I thought Woodgrove was good enough to find SOME way to stop JF enough to win. They were really good but were grasping at air all game. Perhaps Salem can get some bounces their way and pull this out. They are definitely good enough but I have it:
JF 49 - Salem 42
More to come but Pop's needs dinner and a Depends change. Give me a couple of hours. In the meantime, please behave and I promise to wash my hands before the next revision of this post.
Hands washed. Dinner done. Pop's is comfy. Hope he sleeps tonight......for a change.
Now we have Lake Taylor and Courtland. Again, very different teams. LT runs the Veer but definitely passes as well. With those WR's and QB, I would too. Their defense reminds me of the Bears 46 defense. They're coming on every play with as much pressure as they can apply. With the DB's they have, a few pressure ducks are all they need to create points. IMO, this is their strength. They gave up only 92 points during the regular season and more than half of those came in two games. Not that their offense is anything to be sneezed at. The offensive line is excellent. The RB is outstanding. The QB is young and going on College level already. Almost impossible to stop on both sides of the ball. They have proven a tendency to put in a less than stellar effort at times but have also showed the "turbo" button is available when needed. If they come in with both barrels, it's hard to see them losing this game.
Courtland is very different. They want to run you into the ground and impose their will. With the RB's and the OLine they have, the Cougars have done that most of the year. Since the debacle at KG, they have yielded 12 points in 4 games. No one has scored so many against the undefeated Lafayette squad, nor has anyone held the Rams to so few. As some of the Ram's fans said, "we have not played anyone close to Courtland all year". That may be true in the BRD but this isn't LT either. The Cougars will want to run the ball and will continue to try all night. They have some outstanding RBs and a very good OLine. The Defense is also quite good against the run and they do have the personnel to stay with the Titan WR's. Cover two zone can be very disconcerting to QB's used to man to man coverage. The Cougars will fight and are playin their best Football of the year. They are as good as anyone in 4A but I see this pretty close for awhile with LT running away when they force the Cougars into passing situations. Forcing Courtland to pass is candy to a baby for Lake Taylor. The talent there is just too much.
LT 35 - CT 21
Please remember. All these teams earned their way. They're all very, very good. Every one of them has a good chance at the State Championship. GL to them all and outstanding seasons each.
One more thing. I'm old and this is the way it worked when I was younger. If you talked trash, you got punched in the mouth. That was the street. In a game, the ref would remind you to keep your mouth shut and "play on". Even in College, I had a kid that would continually try to harass me by jumping up, waving his arms and talking crap when I tried to put the ball down field as a goalie. I got sick of it eventually and put my hardest throw right in his nose from about 8 feet. Broke his snoze and out of the game (for him). Play on. No one harassed the goalie after. Ah, the good old days.
Four excellent teams that have all earned their way with hard fought victories. Once again proving the cream does rise to the top in the end, despite all the complaints about the VHSL and the bemoaning of Regional decisions. And I am sick to death of hearing about cement bleachers, porta-potties or what time the games will be played. Can we please be done with the trivial persuits?
In the West, we have two outstanding but very different squads. JF seems virtually unstoppable on offense. I've seen two games against quality opponents now and it's like watching Penn and Teller. A virtual magic show of misdirection and speed. I have extolled how the defense will eventually betray them and Woodgrove scored more than enough to win Friday's game but JF came away with the victory anyway. What continues to get me here is something I have never seen before. On every JF TD, the man went untouched to the end zone. Amazing.
Then you have Salem. Solid as a rock in every way. Offense, defense, Special teams. Very few mistakes. What I see most in them is a simple but incredibly balanced offense. They are very dissimilar to almost all 4A teams as an offense in that they run a 60's and 70's NFL playbook. They would like to run the ball but short passing plays, play action and screen passes are something they run all the time. Simple, effective, well executed, little danger of error. Extreme balance. Extremely effective. Very difficult to defend for teams not used to this kind of diversity.
So who wins? Salem won't stop JF. No one can. Yes folks, IMO, not even LT. But JF can't stop Salem either. Somewhere along the line, one of these two will make a mistake. Defense, offense or special teams. That will be the difference. I thought Woodgrove was good enough to find SOME way to stop JF enough to win. They were really good but were grasping at air all game. Perhaps Salem can get some bounces their way and pull this out. They are definitely good enough but I have it:
JF 49 - Salem 42
More to come but Pop's needs dinner and a Depends change. Give me a couple of hours. In the meantime, please behave and I promise to wash my hands before the next revision of this post.
Hands washed. Dinner done. Pop's is comfy. Hope he sleeps tonight......for a change.
Now we have Lake Taylor and Courtland. Again, very different teams. LT runs the Veer but definitely passes as well. With those WR's and QB, I would too. Their defense reminds me of the Bears 46 defense. They're coming on every play with as much pressure as they can apply. With the DB's they have, a few pressure ducks are all they need to create points. IMO, this is their strength. They gave up only 92 points during the regular season and more than half of those came in two games. Not that their offense is anything to be sneezed at. The offensive line is excellent. The RB is outstanding. The QB is young and going on College level already. Almost impossible to stop on both sides of the ball. They have proven a tendency to put in a less than stellar effort at times but have also showed the "turbo" button is available when needed. If they come in with both barrels, it's hard to see them losing this game.
Courtland is very different. They want to run you into the ground and impose their will. With the RB's and the OLine they have, the Cougars have done that most of the year. Since the debacle at KG, they have yielded 12 points in 4 games. No one has scored so many against the undefeated Lafayette squad, nor has anyone held the Rams to so few. As some of the Ram's fans said, "we have not played anyone close to Courtland all year". That may be true in the BRD but this isn't LT either. The Cougars will want to run the ball and will continue to try all night. They have some outstanding RBs and a very good OLine. The Defense is also quite good against the run and they do have the personnel to stay with the Titan WR's. Cover two zone can be very disconcerting to QB's used to man to man coverage. The Cougars will fight and are playin their best Football of the year. They are as good as anyone in 4A but I see this pretty close for awhile with LT running away when they force the Cougars into passing situations. Forcing Courtland to pass is candy to a baby for Lake Taylor. The talent there is just too much.
LT 35 - CT 21
Please remember. All these teams earned their way. They're all very, very good. Every one of them has a good chance at the State Championship. GL to them all and outstanding seasons each.
One more thing. I'm old and this is the way it worked when I was younger. If you talked trash, you got punched in the mouth. That was the street. In a game, the ref would remind you to keep your mouth shut and "play on". Even in College, I had a kid that would continually try to harass me by jumping up, waving his arms and talking crap when I tried to put the ball down field as a goalie. I got sick of it eventually and put my hardest throw right in his nose from about 8 feet. Broke his snoze and out of the game (for him). Play on. No one harassed the goalie after. Ah, the good old days.
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