Then I Saw Her Face

[capnbillhitters]

Well my earliest prediction about MS/GW was something like 49-45 GW. My explanation in that comment was that GW lost a ton of defensive nastiness to graduation. While it's great to have athletes, you need nastiness if you are going to compete with a MS with the Greek Freek in the back field.

I think we all know what we watched at Duchon. The Freek is firmly entrenched in the discussion for POY and GW lacks the nastiness of years past, so far.

MS owned the edge on both sides of the ball. Owning the edge is not about athletes as much as it is strength of will. MS has the will and the athletes to win 8A. GW does not, yet. GW will benefit from a week off against PE next week to allow coaches to deeply evaluate every position. My bet is they look much better in Week 10 then they looked yesterday.

MS meanwhile is the team to beat in IL.

 

[MWittman]

capn:

I am watching the replay now and will withhold an overall judgement, but from what I saw in the first half alone it appears as if GW's fatal error was just poor tackling.

Naturally, it is a requirement to clarify so my words are not misinterpreted: Maine South appears to be a solid team and very clearly played its opening game against GW in mid-season form. As you pointed out, GW has a great advantage in its next several games. Over the next four weeks, GW plays PE, AT, York, and DGN. All forgiving games, they will grant GW with time to make any adjustment in personnel and planning.

Although I am fairly confident the second half of the season will present GW with hardened opponents, I doubt GW will be sitting home when the post-season arrives.

 

[capnbillhitters]

capn:

I am watching the replay now and will withhold an overall judgement, but from what I saw in the first half alone it appears as if GW's fatal error was just poor tackling.

Naturally, it is a requirement to clarify so my words are not misinterpreted: Maine South appears to be a solid team and very clearly played its opening game against GW in mid-season form. As you pointed out, GW has a great advantage in its next several games. Over the next four weeks, GW plays PE, AT, York, and DGN. All forgiving games, they will grant GW with time to make any adjustment in personnel and planning.

Although I am fairly confident the second half of the season will present GW with hardened opponents, I doubt GW will be sitting home when the post-season arrives.

You're spot on. I haven't seen the math but my estimate is that seniors on last year's GW defense made 90%+ of the tackles. Each year, we have seen Hetlet reload his defense with tackling maniacs that collectively play beyond their individual skills.

My impression is that the Hitters lack that nasty defensive leader that lifts the unit to that lofty place achieved in years past. Seeing RB Diver logging significant time on the defensive side showed the level of desperation on the coaching staff. In '15 we heard Brodner would see time at LB but they never needed to pull that trigger. Having pulled said trigger in Week 1 first half speaks volumes.

The key game for the Hitters now comes much earlier than expected. At AT in Week 3 now looms as an unexpected gut check. AT has an animal RB in Diambrose (sp?) and GW will have to find a way to improve their tackling if they plan to keep him in check. In 2011, GW went into that AT game sporting a gaudy ranking but found a dog fight of a game entering half at 7-0 and winning only 14-0.

One point of reference about that '11 team is that they gave up 67 points in 11 games. Saturday, MS nearly matched that total by half time.

We can do a spot check after the AT game before making any statements about LT, OPRF or HC.