We got together and practiced that Tuesday after the game. We had some things I wanted to work on, and luckily, the other guys had some things they thought we should work on as well.
What I wanted to work on was the out route. It is a staple of our offense. It is the bread and butter play. If it's guarded with a cushion, it is automatic. If they bite on it, it's 6 points. But, what I was seeing was undisciplined route running and the ball coming out too late. So, we worked. And worked. And worked. The guys really responded. I have to admit that they did something that I probably wouldn't have done, and Ethan especially impressed me with this....they took criticism from me. And it wasn't just a comment here and there, it was on every route and every pass. I stayed on Ethan especially hard on his footwork, timing, and throwing motion. That must be hard to do coming from a 5'2'', overweight, balding, know-it-all. But, to my defense, I had a lot...and I mean a lot...of training at QB on my footwork, timing, and throwing motion. It's something that I do know about, even if I can't do it anymore. But, Ethan took it in stride, even if it WAS for some intramural flag football. I don't know if I would have. But he did.
One of the things the team pointed out was that most of our success wasn't long drives, but throwing vertically. Ethan has a great arm and we have great receivers. So, we made a point in this weeks game to stretch the field.
We played a team that was 2-0 and had beaten one good team and one not so good team, but both by large margins. Any time you can score 50 points, you are doing something. I have played with most of these guys on the other team in softball this year and they do have some talent. You might could even say that they have some match up problems for us.
They won the toss and deferred. We went on defense. I had moved Andre to defense because I felt like he would solve a match up problem for us against their best athlete. Josh P and I are good corners, but we don't have this guys speed. Andre does.
The move paid off immediately as Andre picked off the first play from scrimmage.
While we had discussed in practice stretching the field, I wanted to score this first TD for sure without any real risk. We ran the option 1st and 2nd with success, but they did a real good job shutting it down. So, we changed back to what we had decided to do, and that was to go up top. Henry, our TE/weak side WR is a tall athlete with good hands and we hadn't really utilized him. So, we decided to right that wrong. So, I got in the huddle to change it up.
Looked like the game was going to easily go our way...until their first offensive snap of the next possession. A short pass to a fast guy and we couldn't pull his flag. Don't know why. But he zigged and zagged all the way to the endzone. I was the last man to get a shot, I grabbeda handfull of jersey...but didn't come back with a flag.
But, on their next series, they took advantage of a defensive backfield error and scored on a long ball. It was going to be a barn burner, it looked like! I couldn't believe it!
I gathered the D and we had a little talk.
This is when things started getting good. You may recall that we have enough people that we play 7 guys on offense and offense only, and the same on defense. They started getting tired, mostly because we had fresh pass rushers in their face constantly. The QB started making errant throws and we started picking them off. At half time it was 24-12, but we were honestly disappointed, because 2 plays aside, we were dominating.
At halftime, we decided to put the foot on the gas. Long ball after long ball. After one long play, fresh receivers would come in. And it worked. Their corners got tired and within the first 10 minutes of the second half, we had easily put up 2 TDs and forced 1 INTs on their part. The harder we ground them, the more mistakes they made.
Their receivers abandoned the long game and started running short routes. The QB was running from the pressure.
I kept shadowing them and jumping them when the ball came out, which led to 2 INTs for me, giving me 3 on the season. Nick had a breakout game too. I can'tremember if he caught a TD, but I know he had a pick 6 that broke the game wide open! We ended up with 4 INTs on the day. When we weren't getting picks, we were getting sacks.
By the time we looked up, it was 36-12 or so. WE decided to have some fun, so the offense played defense and the defense played offense. We ran out the clock, but not before Justin, our backup QB ran for a TD and threw for another.
While the offense scored a ton of points, defense was the star of the show with 4 INTs including a pick-6 by Nick.
Let's go D!
We ended up winning 42-12 and improved to 2-1 in the league. Our offense is currently ranked 2nd in the league, averaging 26 points. Defense isn't so great. We are 6th in the league, allowing 15 a game. But, collectively, we are +7 in T/O margain.
No comments:
Post a Comment