Did The Gryphons Learn Something

It is not often that any team starts a season as the defending State Champions as the 2016 Rocky Mount Gryphon football team did.  Even if the entire team except for one player returns to a team that one player makes a completely new team.  There have been times this season that this team has looked like last years squad but for the most part there is nothing about this years team that matches up with last.

They started 5-1  and the one lost was a competitive game with Middle Creek who by the way is on the schedule again next year. No one in 4-A through the first 12 games this season has been as close as the Gryphons were to MC  25-37. The victory over Rose was impressive and total domination over Hoke County led up to a conference schedule.

We all found out that there is new life in Nash Central.  Turnovers we said made that game closer than it should be.  A hurricane put a stop to life for a week and Fike found the Gryphons very dominant.  A visit to Southern Nash and a top quality dog fight and the Gryphons go down after practically handing the Firebirds a touchdown after a defensive stop.

Turnovers plague  once again with Northern Nash and Hunt.  There was a point midway in the third quarter against Southern Lee that the season is over gift wrapped very nicely by four turnovers.  Then there was a transformation right in front of everyone's eyes.  The Gryphons woke up and started playing the way they had the first six games.  Anyone who attended the game could see the players that played the first 28 minutes were not the same players that finished the last 20 minutes.

This team has the ability to be just as dominant as last year running the ball.  They are not very good when they just go through the motions.  You could almost see a concentration focus in the last minutes that has been missing for over a month.  The only defensive fumble that the Gryphons had all night against Southern Lee was the Southern Lee defender took the ball away on the second half kickoff.  The other five times the ball was on the ground were mishandles in the backfield that the Cavaliers graciously pounced on.

The 2016 version of Rocky Mount Gryphon football team this season have convinced themselves that they are defending state champions and no one can stop them but are they ever so wrong.  There is a team out there that can stop them and they are the Rocky Mount Gryphons.  That Gryphon team shows up to games thinking the other team must be shaking in their cleats because we are on the field.  They rely on that team to fold up before the kickoff.

If this team has any intentions of playing beyond next Friday night they had better get off the bus with the concentration level like they had at Rose.  They went to Southern once and two unnecessary penalties gave new life to the Firebirds and the Birds are good enough to take any gift and cram it down your throat.

Ok Rocky Mount Gryphons, what team do you want to be?  Are you going to be the Gryphons that show up for 28 minutes and give the game away or the team that wants to crush you.  The only way to play A third round  game is to be the Gryphon team that when they get off the bus they are focused as one.  If they show up and  play the first 28 minutes the way they did last Friday it will not matter about the last 20 minutes the game will be lost.

What will it be?