Johnson Central played great everywhere but the red zone.

 

The Eagles made several big plays. Neither team had much success sustaining drives on the ground the way they prefer.

 

Johnson Central had a fumble in the redzone on a hustle Belfry strip, an ill advised INT in the back of the end zone, and a botched trip that they turned it over on downs when Matney assumed a failed 4th Down that was bailed out my an incidental facemask had resulted in an automatic 1st and Goal.

 

The Eagles doubled Belfry up in total yardage but the majority of their production seemingly came on about 5 big plays (80 yard TD run to open game, long TD pass to Blanton, another long pass to Blanton tackled inside the 10, long pass to Frisby when primary was covered.

 

I don't think it is fair to say Belfry played bad either. Johnson Central's defense played great is the better description. They completely shut down the option and Corbett as a running threat and rendered Andrew Fletcher to basically 2 yards per carry.

 

If you want to put a positive spin on the Belfry effort and make an excuse I would not go with "played bad" but rather "played conservatively". Haywood's already small playbook was condensed to maybe 5 total plays and he didn't ask his HB's to do very much. Despite JC owning Belfry's option on 3rd and Medium, Haywood only attempted one pass all night as well. When i think of Belfry "playing bad" I think of fumbles and penalties. Neither of those really killed Belfry, the wounds that they suffered were sustained by JC making plays on D.

 

JC, OTOH, seemed the polar opposite. Where Haywood erred on being overly conservative JC may have went a bit too open in their Offensive playbook. Matney dialed up 20 passes with his Freshman QB, five or six variations of trick plays, and routinely erred on the side of outside runs or passes in the redzone which I felt ultimately hindered their success.

 

Where Haywood seemingly didn't want people to see his whole arsenal on Offense (two or three staple plays to the Belfry Offense I don't even think he ever used a single time), I got the sense Matney was dying for potential opponents to see his (extra prep time, soften the box).

 

Thanks for the info, I was just going by what I had heard. I with everyone in saying that, I don't see many teams that could beat Belfry. They are solid at all positions and will coached. This is one of the best team in the state by far.

I don't think either team played poorly, it was a heavyweight fight and both teams took away some things the other one likes to do. It was a defensive game that was GREATLY affected by big plays, both offensive and defensive, for both teams. Belfry came out on top in this one but in a 10 game series, I think it would be fairly even or JC would have a slight edge. In my opinion only, I feel like Johnson Central was probably the better overall team, by a small margin and Belfry caught the breaks they needed to edge them out. Of course, that is what good teams do.

 

 

@gchs_uk9 what would you say about the above?

I don't think either team played poorly, it was a heavyweight fight and both teams took away some things the other one likes to do. It was a defensive game that was GREATLY affected by big plays, both offensive and defensive, for both teams. Belfry came out on top in this one but in a 10 game series, I think it would be fairly even or JC would have a slight edge. In my opinion only, I feel like Johnson Central was probably the better overall team, by a small margin and Belfry caught the breaks they needed to edge them out. Of course, that is what good teams do.

 

 

@gchs_uk9 what would you say about the above?

 

I think they are almost dead even. If pressed, I'd say Belfry has the edge because of questionable quarterback play by Johnson Central. However, to be fair I only saw them play once and that was a tough defense he was competing against.