9/21 Lincoln 30 - Green Bay East 40

A three sack game, wasted.

Yikes.  The offense should have scored 20 more.  The defense should have given up 20 less points.  After giving up 4 quick, easy touchdowns in the first half, and the offense responding with 4 scoring drives, I think everyone in the building thought the team had righted the ship when they into halftime down just 26-24.  But the defense gave up two more scores after halftime and the offense could only muster one more TD.  You have to hand it to East, they were prepared and ready to play.  We were outplayed and outcoached.  But it has to sting to lose to a team that hasn't beaten you in 16 years.  Luckily, the problems the team had during the game can be fixed.  But it'll take some very dedicated players and coaches to make sure everyone's on board, and that everyone is paying attention, because this team is on the verge of doing the unthinkable: missing the playoffs.

There were, of course, some highlights: we almost ran a kick back for a TD, The Rock had 3 sacks, Hollywood threw a few nice deep balls, and J-Life continued his excellent kicking streak.  And, really, IT'S HOMECOMING WEEK!  BEST WEEK OF THE YEAR!  Only if you win, though...

I like the enthusiasm, Professor.  But he doesn't have the ball.

The senior's first sack of his career.  Congrats!

Sometimes things were going so bad, we were blocking our teammates.

Other times, the players just crushed it...

... only to run into unblocked defenders.  How does that happen?

When we put bodies on defenders, East had no answer to our sweep.

The second Ships' TD of the game was scored on a 1-yard QB sneak.  Even though East was expecting it, they couldn't stop it.  I support sneaks anytime we're on the goal line.  

This requires some explanation.  Here, you see an unblocked "spur" on his way into the backfield, unblocked.  Muscles could have Just hammered the running back here...

... Instead, he ran at the QB, who was barely even playing out a fake.  The result was a 90 yard TD run.  Schematically, the defense was perfect - this should have been a 4 yard loss and (perhaps) a forced fumble.  Now, I'm pretty familiar with the position coach of the spurs, and he feels terrible about this, because he clearly didn't do his job.  Yes, kids make mistakes.  But it is the coaches job to make sure they know their reads.  The read of the spur is simple - if the back runs at you, kill him, whether he has the ball or not.  If he runs away, check the QB and pursue from the backside. Well, it's clear that Muscles was checking the QB here.  He shouldn't have, and if his coach would have drilled him better in practice, East has 7 less points.  Can you tell I'm upset with myself the spurs coach here?

Despite the lapse on D, Muscles continued to run hard all night.  He also caught 2 TDs.

Big Al made an impact in his return to the Ships, leading the team in tackles (despite playing little more than half the game) and forcing a fumble here.  It should be noted that East scored just 2 TDs after he entered the game.

Young Fisch caught 2 big passes for over 70 yards on the night.

I did not photoshop a bow tie on that ref.

Play my jam!

J-Life is still 100% on kicks. 

The students did their best to support the team, this time dressing up as dead presidents perfecting the whiteout.  

Yes, yes, Mace.  I know.  Another game where you were getting held or illegally blocked all game long and nary a flag.  Well, at least they were better than these guys.

Perhaps the biggest mistake the Ships made was attempting a fake punt after East specifically called a timeout to warn their players that we were likely going to fake it.  Hollywood dropped the snap, so we'll never know if it would have worked, but the film indicates Hollywood would have had to pull an amazing run out of his ass to get the 1st.  It really stings, too, because the defense surrendered a TD following a converted 4th and 9 by East on the subsequent drive that, had we simply punted here, they never would have attempted to convert (based on field position).  Gah!

I hope to see a lot more of this the rest of the year.  

It's pretty impressive that Muscles still falls forward, even when he's been tackled at his knees and he's fighting 3 defenders up top.  Wow.

Let's own Homecoming, gentlemen.