Newton Not The Panthers Answer

I don't know whether you had the same experience from Hurricane Irene as me. I did not hear one clap of thunder or bolt of lightening.  I don't ever recall that before in a Hurricane. I think schools will be lucky if they are all with power by Wednesday which will mess with a lot of tennis,soccer, cross country and volley ball  schedules.


Let's get back to sports:

All of the experts are saying Cam Newton made a big step backwards in the Panthers lost to the lowly Cincinnati Bengals.  Quite frankly I have not seen  Newton take a step forward in any game so far so if you haven't gone forward then you must be going backwards.

Most mobile quarterbacks that love to run are not very accurate in the pocket because they are nervous and don't stay in the pocket long enough for receivers to get that step needed to get open.  I think this in one of the things that drove Tom O'Brien nuts with Russell Wilson.  Another second in the pocket he had all kinds of receivers open .  He had every body talking about that 15 yard run he made but  O'Brien saw on the tape the 50 yard touchdown pass that was never made.

Newton has not shown that he can pin point the ball to a receiver with a defender hanging on.  The good ones in the NFL can. Brady, P Manning, Philip Rivers, Rogers.  What do those four do that others don't they stay in the pocket and wait.  It takes nerves of steel to do it and an accurate arm which they all have.  Newton does not.

Who can tell anything from three exhibition games.  New England's good,  Indy without Manning  will not make the playoffs and even if he plays rather early he has not practiced and there is no way he can be sharp. I pick Houston to win that division last year and I am coming back to them again.  Panthers have a chance to win five games regardless of who their quarterback is.  They have taken a quarterback two years in  a row.  Next year will probably be three in a row.  The best quarterback of all time for the Panthers is Jake Delhomme who they traded for.  The Panthers should have gone with a defensive player in first round and traded for Carson Palmer?


Sunday ended the regular season for the Futures Tour.  Cousin Lauren Doughtie finished 29th in the final standings which qualifies her for the Tour Championship in two week.  Last year she finished 95th so her last two months she has had a really good finish to the season.  There is no way it could  happen but the Top Ten players on the Futures Tour automatically qualify for the LPGA Tour next season.  My personal goal for Lauren is she makes top ten after next season.

Clean Up Time

Every Hurricane has it's own idea about what it is suppose to do.  Irene came in as  normal Hurricane does and for those of us inland near Rocky Mount I think 62 miles per hour was about the max winds, not much of a Hurricane at all.The one thing this Hurricane had was staying power.  We got hit from about 10pm Friday until about 8pm Saturday with a constant rain and solid 40 to 50 mile per hour winds.  Boxing terms this Hurricane jabbed us to death it never really threw a hay maker just would never stop jabbing. The eye of the storm stayed in the Pamlico Sound and never did really hit land until it exited out the Albemarle Sound near Duck.

We were without power in my neck of the woods twice.  11.30am Saturday until 2.30pm and then lost them for the night about 4.30pm. We got them back on this morning around nine.I had to get out about 6.00pm Saturday to go see if I had a place to go work Monday. I hope all those fools riding around had to be like me and to be doing what I was doing and not sight seeing.  Conditions were not good then and all the debris in the road after dark was trouble for any body on the road.

Thankfully we lost only a couple of big branches on our trees and of course plenty to pick up.Looks like there will be a job to go to on Monday morning and in our household we have so much to be thankful for.  I hope your power is back on so you can go watch all those New Yorkers stand on the board walks as the over wash takes them away.  They have no idea  what they are in for today.

  The good news for them is Irene is picking up speed and is beginning to lose power which  will make it past through their area faster than what we had to endure.  I just have an idea New York City is in for what we had with Floyd and lots of flooding.

I pray  for everyone that there is no lost of life in your family.  The lost of power or a down tree is not much to worry about.  A tree on top of your house can be fixed.  Your life can't.  If you are bored and need something to do come on over and help clean up.

Stay safe during the cleanup.

After Two Games Trends

We did make mention one day this week that as the season unfolds we will be able to tell whether Northern Nash's loss to Beddingfield or Nash Central's win or Tarboro were upsets or not.  Now that all four Nash County schools have two games under their belts trends are developing.

Southern Nash has scored 99 points in two games.  It seems as they will be able to move the ball at will.  I would however like to point out that they gave up 28 to Beddingfield Thursday night after Beddingfield was only able to scrounge up 13 against a Northern Nash team that couldn't move the ball a lick against Beddingfield.  Despite all the disadvantages the Knight's offense put the their defense in  they only gave up 13 points for the game while Beddingfield had 20 on Southern at the half.  Southern had better spend some time on defense in practice.

Tarboro put a hurting on Washington Thursday which after two games would be the game that Nash Central can say look at what we have done.  The Bulldogs put 58 on Smithfield Selma Thursday but take a look at this.  Green Hope the team that beat Smithfield Selma  last week to stop their 38 game losing streak last week They  started another losing streak Friday night losing 40-6. Putting 58 on SSS may not be such a great thing.  They still can hang their hat on the Tarboro win however.

Rocky Mount has been able to put points on the board so far and have shown that they have a decent running game.  Bertie however looked unstoppable  against the Gryphon defense passing the ball  after last week the Gryphons threw a shutout and had two interceptions.

There is good news for Northern Nash after doing nothing on offense of Monday they had a fourth quarter drive at Southern Wayne which was their second score of the game.  Now for the bad news.  Their defense has given up only 30 points in two games and yet they are 0-2. The Knights did play much better Thursday.

If there can be one thing said for the Vikings of Tarboro hanging fifty points on Washington.  They didn't have a Nash Central hangover.  I think is pretty easy to see that the Vikes will be a contender for their conference crown again.

Looking at the sports writers for the Telegram they all picked North Edgecombe to beat SouthWest Edgecombe.  I know that Southern Nash made the Cougars look bad last week but I don't think the Warriors can beat the Cougars.  I don't think the Cougars have fallen of the map that badly yet.  They play Monday.

Try to stay dry and safe and hunker down for the storm.

Kiss Yor Sister

There is probably nothing in the world worse than a tie, well maybe having to kiss your sister.  Tonight Rocky Mount heads to Bertie with all anticipation of racking up their second victory of the season but hold the phone. The Gryphons can't stop the Falcon passing game and Bertie can't stop the Gryphon running game.You combine those two things and a thunderstorm which produced more rain than what Hurricane Irene will this weekend and the Gryphons are coming home in a 22-22 tie and that is the final. The game was stopped for lightening but a flooded field will have to drain off.   They will not load up the bus next week and go back to Windsor and play the fourth quarter for a non conference game.

If there was a chance that the Bulldogs of Nash Central just might have a big head after knocking Tarboro Monday night their good news was they get another home game against Smithfield Selma, the team that lost to Green Hope the team that snapped their three year plus  losing streak last week,  Nash Central 58 SSS 7,

There is hope for Northern Nash fans.  Even in defeat Monday night to Beddingfield they only gave up 13 points.  Beddingfield puts up 28 on the Firebirds of Southern  Nash.  The Bruins only problem the Firebirds scored twice that.  Southern Nash 56- Beddingfield 28

If there was any question about whether the Vikings of Tarboro would lose at Washington tonight  they let everybody know there is nothing wrong with them.  Tarboro takes down 3-A Washington  at the river City 53-14.  There are times when a lost brings you  back to reality. I think Jeff Craddock has the attention of the Vikings now.

Northern Nash played better on offense than Monday night but still the offense but the defense into situations where points came up on the score board.   Southern Wayne 17-Northern Nash 14

Rocky Mount Volleyball even their record beating SWE 3-1  Broughton shut out RM Soccer 4-0.

Most games Moving To Thursday

Hurricane Irene is expected to pay the North Carolina Coast a visit by mid day Saturday and many high schools in the area are moving their games to Thursday in order to make sure everyone has an opportunity to hunker down and be ready for what ever may come our way.

Rocky Mount travels to Bertie for a 7.30 kickoff.  The game can be heard on 99.3. as Paul Andre the 99.3 Play by play man for the game of the week is heading to his old stomping grounds to call the action.  Those folks back at Bertie remember him on the field for the Falcons in the mid 80's and everyone knew him as Paul Cherry.

Beddingfield fresh off their Monday night win over Northern Nash comes back over to Nash County to take on Southern Nash game time is 7pm.  The Firebirds were not very polite to SouthWest Edgecombe last Friday and they have every intention to being rude to the Bruins.  Here is an early chance to compare both Southern and Northern as each will have played Beddingfield within 72 hours of each other.

Northern Nash had their feelings hurt Monday night and not a lot of time to figure out what to do different. They travel to Southern Wayne in Dudley for a 7pm kickoff.  Any team who lost on Monday and is turning around and playing on Thursday has not had much time to recover physically or emotionally.

You know there are times when teams have long winning streaks  and when they finally lose a game they lose two.  Tarboro had several players who played both sides of the ball Monday night against Nash Central and the Bulldogs had beaten the Vikings down by the end.  I doubt Washington can make it two in a row for Tarboro as the Vikes travel there tonight for a 7pm boot.  This is all I have heard about at this point.

Rocky Mount JV's shut out the Falcons last night 26-0.  RM soccer shut out Conley 2-zip.  Volleyball is on the road Thursday afternoon  at SWE.  Broughton tangles with RM soccer today.  Soccer was schedule to play in the Brittany Soccer tournament in Wilson  Saturday but that has been cancelled by Irene.

Sad news to talk about as Tennessee Women's basketball coach Pat Summitt has been diagnosed with early stages of Dementia.  She plans on continuing to coach.  Having had a family member live out her last couple of years in our home with Dementia what will Tennessee do when while flying to say Florida for a basketball game Summitt when having a spell decides she is going to walk home because she thinks her house is just around the corner.  We in our family found out you don't win arguments with someone that is having a Dementia spell.  It will be hard at 35 thousand feet to convince her she can't just walk out the plane and walk home.