Congrats to the Men of X!

You guys in Louisville are going to LOVE watching this game tonight on WBKI-32 at 8:00.

 

It looks like a pretty convincing win for X, but this game had Male in control the first half. For almost all of the 3rd Quarter it didn't seem like anything was changing and you just kept waiting on Male to bust out a long play leading to a TD, then BAM...St. X just woke up on Defense. Something just...clicked and they played like the St. X defense of old.

 

Then, the St. X offense found a rhythm by switching up what seemed like the original gameplan oh so slightly. Male doesn't have many weaknesses on D, but with this small change X found a small crack in the veneer and then exploited it. When that happened, it opened up the ORIGINAL gameplan more.

 

Really a tale of two halves.

 

 

Great game by two good teams.

Oh...and there's a play at the end of the 1st half that's Sportscenter Top 10 worthy. Without that play, I think Male would've won by 10 to 14 points.

Reading the post game articles the score doesn't quite indicate what really happened, but a win is win! Good job X defense in the second half and the Hail Mary at the end of the first half is probably the key play that turned this game around.

 

Ridder is definitely the kry to X's success. Can he make enough plays to keep the offense going will be the focal point as the Tigers head into the playoffs with home field advantage! Good W, and hope this is the boost the Tigers need to spring board into the playoffs!

Great job Tigers you made this old man proud and happy!

Was this win considered an upset? How big of upset in terms of expectations for Male?

After the Trinity/Male game I made the comment that better conditioning played a factor in the game and was taken to task a bit.

 

I didn't see this game BUT could the turnaround in the second hale be attributed to conditioning?

You guys in Louisville are going to LOVE watching this game tonight on WBKI-32 at 8:00.

 

It looks like a pretty convincing win for X, but this game had Male in control the first half. For almost all of the 3rd Quarter it didn't seem like anything was changing and you just kept waiting on Male to bust out a long play leading to a TD, then BAM...St. X just woke up on Defense. Something just...clicked and they played like the St. X defense of old.

 

Then, the St. X offense found a rhythm by switching up what seemed like the original gameplan oh so slightly. Male doesn't have many weaknesses on D, but with this small change X found a small crack in the veneer and then exploited it. When that happened, it opened up the ORIGINAL gameplan more.

 

Really a tale of two halves.

 

 

Great game by two good teams.

Oh...and there's a play at the end of the 1st half that's Sportscenter Top 10 worthy. Without that play, I think Male would've won by 10 to 14 points.

 

Nice analysis & insight.

Good for the Tigers !

The turn around in this game(not excluding the big play before half) is that X got the run game going using the speed option with Ridder and Taylor. X became a much more physical team in the second half on both sides of the ball. Male has had difficulty stopping a good ground attack this year. Ballard was the first to expose this early in the season. Trinity was to much for Male with it's ground game and Wolfe made adjustments after that game. Male is just not as big on the DL as the last few years but they are good.

The turn around in this game(not excluding the big play before half) is that X got the run game going using the speed option with Ridder and Taylor. X became a much more physical team in the second half on both sides of the ball. Male has had difficulty stopping a good ground attack this year. Ballard was the first to expose this early in the season. Trinity was to much for Male with it's ground game and Wolfe made adjustments after that game. Male is just not as big on the DL as the last few years but they are good.

 

Got to disagree somewhat...

 

You are SPOT ON with X gaining the momentum by having Speed Option be their initial option (as opposed to how I felt they were using it as a "counter-punch" for the first half and most of the 3rd quarter). I think Male is (now) VERY good between the tackles (as you alluded to, especially since Wolfe moved certain kids to defense-mainly from offense-mainly), but if they have a weakness it's just off the edge and that's exactly what Speed Option exploits. So great job by X being willing to change tactics, even if subtly, to make the DL "stretch" horizontally using Speed Op, which then opened slightly larger gaps for Nelson on the more vertical run game they tried to start the game establishing.

 

If you go back and watch the Ballard game, however, you'll see that Ballard did NOT expose a run-defense weakness -- they only had 40 yards rushing on 24 carries. They made the game a game by throwing to the flat and taking advantage of one receiver (Jordan Gunter) having a physical mismatch on one of their corners playing fairly loose coverage...allowed several balls to be caught in front of him for good gains and then there was a missed tackle on a flat route that turned into a long TD run after the catch.

 

But you are 100% right that it was the personnel switches that made them better -- it's just that it was the TRINITY game that caused that switch.

Coach you are correct about the flat routes. I was miss remembering what happened in that game thinking it was the outside run that was effective for Ballard in the second half. As for Trinity and the run game, they are going to make a lot of teams look poor at stopping the run, inside or outside. X, Male round two should be a dandy but I wouldn't sleep on PRP. If they ever stop shooting themselves in the foot, could make a nice run.

Coach you are correct about the flat routes. I was miss remembering what happened in that game thinking it was the outside run that was effective for Ballard in the second half. As for Trinity and the run game, they are going to make a lot of teams look poor at stopping the run, inside or outside. X, Male round two should be a dandy but I wouldn't sleep on PRP. If they ever stop shooting themselves in the foot, could make a nice run.

 

I'd like to say the same about PRP--definitely have a lot of GOOD about them...just something missing (unforced errors in key times of the game I think) that keeps me from thinking they can get over the hump. Got the athletes and the coaching -- just to beat one of the 'mainstays' it's as much about not beating yourself as having the horses and the gameplan.

 

DEFINITELY have the athletes to compete if they can put together a clean game and they get some unforced errors from the opponent (and this year, I've seen all of the "big 3" make more of those than in my memory). When all is said and done then, I'd have to go with the one of those who is working closest toward not making as many unforced errors--that would be T.