Caldwell was better than I thought they would be after losing Cain from last year. They had speed and they made some plays. Still the second half went the way I thought the whole game would. Their QB was good. That ball came out quick, and had some zip on it.

 

Enough about them, congrats to our kids finishing up an undefeated regular season. They have been a fine team, with solid kids behaving well and playing with enthusiasm, talent, pride, honor and everything else you could ask for.

 

GO BIG RED!

Good game, I hope both do great things going forward

2 catches for 140 yards...wow, that efficient.

Officiating really hurt Caldwell, several strange calls

Officiating really hurt Caldwell, several strange calls

 

Never saw that but I did see Mayfield get their first TD called back and a horse collar tackle on the 5 yd line by Caldwell that caused a fumble but no call.... yeah really strange.

Officiating really hurt Caldwell, several strange calls

 

Come on man.

Impressive win capping an impressive regular season for the Cardinals. The machine rolls on.

 

On the defense giving up more points than Cardinals fans expect, is it because the offense is so good? When you score a lot and score fast, that creates more offensive possessions. Give really good teams more offensive possessions in a game and they will usually find a way to score. Could that be part of it?

Impressive win capping an impressive regular season for the Cardinals. The machine rolls on.

 

On the defense giving up more points than Cardinals fans expect, is it because the offense is so good? When you score a lot and score fast, that creates more offensive possessions. Give really good teams more offensive possessions in a game and they will usually find a way to score. Could that be part of it?

 

I guess there are several ways to look at it. Our defense at times can be on the field a lot. Now, part of that is we have a pretty darn good offense, that is very balanced, any 5 or 6 guys that can take it to the house or at least break long gains every time they touch the ball. You could look at the other side of the coin and say well then why is the defense on the field so long if they are stopping the opponents? Fair question. I think generally we are a bend but not break D. We can be scored on, not easily, but it can be done. Caldwell Co has an explosive offense, but we held them to 6 in the second half, not shabby. Not sure that answers your question, but in the end, I'd say our D is good but not great. We could very well face a team in the playoffs with a better defense than any team we have played all year, but as of right now, your going to have to put alot of points on the board to beat mayfield.

For those looking for an Achilles Heel of this team (or for that matter more appropriately looking for a "silver Lining")

 

The only thing I would point out to give someone a sense of hope is the fact Mayfield has not played anyone with a high level Defense thusfar outside of maybe Corbin. Corbin's D is not to the level of a CAL or DeSales... but Mayfield also still put up 35 on them!

 

So will playing an elite Defense slow them down? Maybe, maybe not... personally I don't see a Class 2A team who can shut down this Cardinal Offense. Those guys are just good and they are so balanced.

Mayfield's D is solid, a little on the smallish size, but, quick, fundamentally sound and very physical. They've had better defensive linemen in the past, but, the LBs, as a group, are about as good as they've ever had and their secondary has great speed and cover skills, but, are a little on the short side and sometimes they can be out jumped for balls even when the coverage is good. The teams that have had some success against them typically have a very good QB like Cash Jones at McCracken, Dalton Sizemore at Corbin and Shane Burns at Caldwell and good enough OLs to keep the pressure off them and when guys like that have time to throw it, they're going to find some success. Even as good as some of those teams offenses may be, no one has yet had enough offense to keep pace with the Cardinals offense. And, yes, scoring as quickly as they do, does give teams more offensive possessions and good teams will find some success when they get those opportunities. But, to answer your question VOR, the defense, for the most part, is still very solid.

Very poor officiated game

Officiating really hurt Caldwell, several strange calls

 

Are you being sarcastic with this? There were some bad calls and a terrible no call (horse collar) but they all went against MF. Only way officiating 'hurt' CC was if they had aspirations of getting running clocked. Call those obvious pass interferences and take away the fictitious holden calls and clocked may very well have been the outcome of this one.