Wednesday, November 19, 2008

J.F.Webb vs. Rocky Mount

We have come to the point in the season when there are no more patsies left.

There are some good teams and great teams yet to play another day. Who are the great and good are yet to be determined.

The New England Patriots last year won the first 18 games of their season - something no one else has ever done. But when there was one more, they failed to deliver.

This year's Gryphons came into the season with most of last year's 14-1 team back to play again.

They played two 4-A schools winning by a combined score of 79-14.

The Gryphons have played three 3-AA schools and won all three by a combined 122-23.

That leaves five conference games, Hertford County and a playoff game and the combined scores were 251- 42.

What does all this mean for this year's team?

Absolutely nothing come Friday night.

We will face a team that their offense is much like that of Western Alamance. I doubt that the quality of the whole body of this year's Webb team doesn't meet the quality of the three Warrior teams from Western Alamance that have taken us out of the playoffs the last three years.

We may actually give up more points this week than at any other time this year. Maybe.

We have seen this year the best way to slow down the Gryphons is to keep it away from them.
SouthWest Edgecombe did a good job of that, but you also have to score when you hold on to it.

I don't think Webb has an answer for our offense and our defense will bend but give up little as the game progresses.

When you get to this point in the season a fumble at the wrong time and there goes a chance to score. Just remember, the three straight turnovers we had against Rose in 2004 in the third quarter and lost 15-13 in the third round.

Despite how gaudy our record looks, we still have to perform at peak efficiency or we might be done sooner than we think.

2 comments:

gryphon86 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
gryphon86 said...

Well said. Key will be as to how focused RM plays offense and defense on that first drive to set the tone. RM can't always count on a 98 yard kick-off return so the offense and defense need to be psyched from the get go. Not sure what was going on with the RM defense in the first half against Jacksonville. The defensive line looked like a "Chinese fire drill" jumping around on the line while the Cardinal QB was "quick counting". That led to RM being soft up the middle and the long TD run. Against Jacksoville's anemic offense all they had to do was play their base defense and they would have been fine. Sometimes you can try to be too cute and end up hurting yourself. What I understand about Webb is the QB is the key. Focus on him and you stop 95% of their offense. The second (and third round potential opponents) this year sure looks much stronger than what RM had to face last year. With the experience and seniors, this is the year if RM is going to win a state championship in football. Anything less will be a dissappointment based on their dominating performance thus far. Go Gryphs!