Covington Catholic 50 Mason County 14

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

The Colonels improve to 9-0 and complete a sweep of 4A District 5 with running clock wins over all four teams.

Bad, bad, baddddd officiating tonight in Maysville. Like...really bad.

 

 

[colonel-fan]

22 minutes ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

Bad, bad, baddddd officiating tonight in Maysville. Like...really bad.

Fans in NKY need to understand how good we have it. 

[The Oracle]

31 minutes ago, colonel-fan said:

Fans in NKY need to understand how good we have it. 

You're right about that. There were a lot of tickey tackey calls on CCH tonight but the no calls were the worst aspect of the officiating.

Number 23 for Mason was shoving receivers and throwing them down by jerseys after the whistle on the opposite end of the field the whole 2d half. They ran into our kicker and knocked him to the ground a full second after the whistle on a PAT and no penalty. A Mason defender drove Rodriguez 3 yards out of bounds while another defender hit him out of bounds right in front of me, and CCH was assessed with unsportsmanlike on the play but no flag on Mason Co. CCH was given a sideline warning for EE standing out at the field numbers yelling, but then when Mason's Coach Wynn was all the way out at the hashes screaming at the refs loud enough that we heard what he was saying in the visiting stands, no sideline warning against Mason Co.

Those officials were shamefully bad. Officiating like that gets kids hurt.

[theguru]

[colonel-fan]

10 minutes ago, The Oracle said:

You're right about that. There were a lot of tickey tackey calls on CCH tonight but the no calls were the worst aspect of the officiating.

Number 23 for Mason was shoving receivers and throwing them down by jerseys after the whistle on the opposite end of the field the whole 2d half. They ran into our kicker and knocked him to the ground a full second after the whistle on a PAT and no penalty. A Mason defender drove Rodriguez 3 yards out of bounds while another defender hit him out of bounds right in front of me, and CCH was assessed with unsportsmanlike on the play but no flag on Mason Co. CCH was given a sideline warning for EE standing out at the field numbers yelling, but then when Mason's Coach Wynn was all the way out at the hashes screaming at the refs loud enough that we heard what he was saying in the visiting stands, no sideline warning against Mason Co.

Those officials were shamefully bad. Officiating like that gets kids hurt.

In the first half, the clock did not stop on first downs, probably costing 2 minutes of game time. I know the clock crew is provided by Mason County, but shouldn’t the refs be looking at the clock to make sure it is stopped or running?

[colonel-fan]

Anyway, Mason didn’t roll over and played well in the first half. The pick 6 was a momentum changer.

[CCHFC]

- Outside of the first 15 minutes or so of the Beechwood game, Pitzer is playing at such a high level at QB for us this year. He had some real nice tight window throws and made a bunch of plays with his feet. 

- Tough to complain too much about the offense when you score 6 TDs in 7 drives, but would love to see Gaiser get more touches. You saw his athleticism in the open field on the pick 6 that really flipped the game. 

- I really liked us getting chippy after the ridiculous no call on Rodriguez getting hit out of bounds. The way Willie finishes blocks, he’s always going to be a good target for a late hit or two from the defense. After that I loved seeing Pitzer and Leen running over defenders and letting them know about it after. 

[CCHFC]

I really liked some of the stuff Coach EE and our DC (still Terry Brown I believe) did. 

We’re starting to run a little more counter in the run game on offense and EE will dial up 2-3 really awesome designs a game, even if they don’t hit. His dropback passing game is very good for the HS level. 

I wish we’d mix up our coverages more on defense, but we did some good things in the 1st half vs the Mason zone read that ended up with Kruer getting TFLs unblocked vs the QB. 

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

5 hours ago, colonel-fan said:

In the first half, the clock did not stop on first downs, probably costing 2 minutes of game time. I know the clock crew is provided by Mason County, but shouldn’t the refs be looking at the clock to make sure it is stopped or running?

You're correct about the fact that the clock was not stopped last night after first downs in the first two quarters of the game. The clock for the game is intended to be kept both by the scoreboard's game clock operator and the official in charge of game timer on the field, as evidenced by the fact that the NFHS rules call for them to meet prior to the game and synchronize their clocks to one another. 

The NFL and NCAA have changed rules to keep the clock running after a first downs, but unless I'm mistaken, the NFHS rules do stop the game clock at the end of a play which has stopped inbounds beyond the line to gain (resulting in a first down) until the white cap signals to restart the game clock.

After Mason County's 32 yard first down pass on the first play from scrimmage in the 1Q, the game clock was not stopped. The white cap was making his way down the field and started winding his arm to re-start the game clock when he was at about the 38 yard line. The ball had been re-set at the new line of scrimmage, but the chain gang on the sideline was nowhere near set yet. Then two plays later when Mason County got another first down, setting up first and goal on the 7 yard line, the clock once again did not stop, despite the white cap waving his hands to stop the clock at the end of the play.

The following possession for Mason County, the game clock was once again not stopped on their first down, despite the officials waving their hands to stop the clock from running after the play was called dead. There were multiple more instances of the clock not stopping on first downs, but those are the first couple of specific instances I saw as I re-watched the film.

There were also several times during the game where the clock was stopped with an incomplete pass, and then it was only restarted several seconds after the ball was snapped on the subsequent play.

The fact that those errors on the scoreboard clock were neither detected, nor corrected by the game officials was clearly and officiating error.

Here are the NFHS football timekeeping rules for 2023.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

6 hours ago, The Oracle said:

CCH was given a sideline warning for EE standing out at the field numbers yelling, but then when Mason's Coach Wynn was all the way out at the hashes screaming at the refs loud enough that we heard what he was saying in the visiting stands, no sideline warning against Mason Co.

I'm not sure if it was Coach Wynn or not from Mason County, but after the Royals fumbled on a kickoff return, one of the Mason County coaches was definitely out well past the numbers yelling loudly and pointing at the officials about how the runner was pushed out of bounds prior to the fumble. That turned out to be the official ruling on the play and Mason County maintained possession. It was intriguing that Mason County's coaching staff had such a "good perspective" on what happened on the opposite side of the field immediately in front of the Cov Cath sideline. And it was definitely curious that Mason County was not given a sideline warning the way Cov Cath had been given one in the first half.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

4 hours ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

I'm not sure if it was Coach Wynn or not from Mason County, but after the Royals fumbled on a kickoff return, one of the Mason County coaches was definitely out well past the numbers yelling loudly and pointing at the officials about how the runner was pushed out of bounds prior to the fumble. That turned out to be the official ruling on the play and Mason County maintained possession. It was intriguing that Mason County's coaching staff had such a "good perspective" on what happened on the opposite side of the field immediately in front of the Cov Cath sideline.

Here's a link to a slow-motion video of the fumble. The runner was clearly not out of bounds prior to fumbling, nor was the ball out of bounds when it was recovered by Cov Cath. The recovery was made by the Cov Cath player who dove backwards from the 22 yard line and ended up on top of the ball at the 24 yard line. Not sure why anyone was ruled out of bounds on the play.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

7 hours ago, The Oracle said:

A Mason defender drove Rodriguez 3 yards out of bounds while another defender hit him out of bounds right in front of me, and CCH was assessed with unsportsmanlike on the play but no flag on Mason Co.

Here's a link to video of the play where Willie Rodriguez was driven out of bounds into the Cov Cath sideline by a Mason County defender. The play resulted in an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty called on Cov Cath, without any penalty called on Mason County for unnecessary roughness or a late hit out of bounds. I wasn't anywhere near enough to hear what was said by whom or see if any shoving was done by any Cov Cath players after the play, but at the very least there should have been offsetting personal fouls on the play.

Mason County's announcers for the game also expressed a good deal of surprise that the Royals weren't flagged for unsportsmanlike on the play, and said they thought there should have been offsetting penalties called.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

I also noticed on several occasions where the officials immediately blew the play dead when Mason County's ball carrier was first hit (once when Cov Cath was in the middle of stripping the ball loose on the third play of Mason County's 2nd offensive drive), but then they seldom stopped the plays after the ball carrier was initially wrapped up. Case in point, Cov Cath's third offensive drive: Pitzer was sacked on a 2nd down play where he was wrapped up, then lifted off the ground and thrown to the ground by a Mason County tackler (the Royals' play-by-play caller even said, "MeCaiyon Jackson and Osgood try to slam him to the ground...and they do. A sack at the 41 yard line."). Then two plays later on 4th and 9, Pitzer passed to Oliver Link who was hit at the 20 yard line, and was driven backwards 7 yards before being slammed down by two Mason County tacklers.

Man oh man, that was bad officiating last night.

Taking some deep breaths here. Woosah. Woosah.

Moving on...

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

I went back and watched the PrepSpin broadcast from the game. Not a bad broadcast for a robotic camera, although there was an awful lot of unnecessary zooming in and out that made for a little vertigo here and there to go along with the game, lol.

CJ Arthur is a VERY good kick returner for the Royals. It wasn't surprising at all when I saw that he has two kickoffs returned for touchdowns this season. Mason County's first two kickoff returns, both by Arthur, started off their drives on the MC 47 yard line and the MC 41 yard line.

Mason County's flea flicker pass on the first play from scrimmage was well done and immediately put Cov Cath on their heels, advancing the ball from the Royals' 47 yard line to the Cov Cath 21 yard line. That play to open up the game was very reminiscent of many many Dale Mueller-coached Highlands teams. One thing I noticed several times throughout the game was that Mason County's offense looked pretty disorganized and borderline confused immediately after having big plays, as was evidenced by their having to burn a timeout after their second offensive play of the game.

Keshaun Thomas is a solid quarterback. He's elusive (Cov Cath was in the backfield in his face quite a few times last night), he runs hard and had a way to make yardage happen out of virtually nothing several times. He also has really solid vision of the field, as was evidenced by his ability to locate outlet passes under pressure multiple times over. Nice strong arm too.

Owen Leen runs so hard. I would guess it's been fewer than three times this season that Owen has been knocked backwards after being hit by a tackler. He's an absolute joy to watch run the ball. I know it's his senior year, and I hated seeing him sit for two games, but I'm really glad they made him take the time to rest his ankle completely...he hasn't lost a bit of his drive when he's got the ball in his hands.

Evan Pitzer is looking damn good, and like @CCHFC mentioned, it was great seeing Leen and Pitzer play with so much fire in the second half tonight after being fired up by the first quarter results and other goings on in the game. Pitzer's 1Q interception was unfortunate...his ball was thrown a little too high and a little harder than needed, and ended up in a tipped ball dropping into a Mason County defensive back's bread basket. Still, I'm not about to complain about 4 interceptions on the season for his 110 completed passes. According to the NFL passer rating calculations, Pitzer is currently at a 141.26 passer rating (158.3 is a perfect rating). Tough to be unhappy when he's passing at that level and was only just surpassed tonight as the team's leading rusher for the season.

Braylon Miller and Oliver Link are both absolutely clutch as receivers. They're #1 and #2 in receiving, respectively, and their 5 and 3 touchdowns just don't do it justice how much their ability to get open across the middle and downfield to give Pitzer the ability to get the offense moving the ball.

Cov Cath's defensive line has really picked up their play in the last two weeks. Mason County ran a lot of misdirection in their offensive backfield last night, and Harrison County brought a ton of crazy offensive looks last week, and the Colonels' defensive front came out in both games and did what they were coached to do.

Cov Cath's offense did really well working with wetter-than-expected conditions. It was drizzling for most of the game last night, and the rain was coming down pretty steadily for much of the second half. They did a great job maintaining control of the ball, with the exception of Pitzer's first pass of the game.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]