Final

Not a bad test for the young Raiders. With a few more games experience they won't make those two or three mistakes.

The Birds defense was very solid tonight. Even on the Ryle TD play the DB had very good coverage. The receiver made a great catch and run.

 

I hope Dale was keeping his offensive cards close to the vest tonight in preparation for Colerain next week. They will need to mix it up a lot more to do anything against the Cardinals D.

Heck of a good game by both defenses. Ryle's offense was completely shut down by the Birds for most of the game. Their one score came on a long bomb.

 

I'll let some of our expert witnesses go into the Highlands offensive situation. But there appear to be some kinks to work out there.

 

I don't know his name, but #75 for Highlands boomed a kick-off all the way through the end zone. It was impressive! :thumb:

 

Just a quick side note: A big "thank you" to the HHS principal (Mr. Brian Robinson) for the fantastic tour he gave our reunion group before the game. He's a classy guy, a passionate spokesman for the school, and an ardent "cheerleader" for our Birds!

Highlands has some work to do... it's never good when a screen pass is your best play on O. Highlands D looked pretty good, fast as usual. Ryle with a sophomore QB and a Jr/Freshman running back struggled the first half. Crawford played well but he's no Conner.

Crawford played well but he's no Conner.

Yeah, Crawford looked good out there tonight! :thumb:

Heck of a good game by both defenses. Ryle's offense was completely shut down by the Birds for most of the game. Their one score came on a long bomb.

 

I'll let some of our expert witnesses go into the Highlands offensive situation. But there appear to be some kinks to work out there.

 

I don't know his name, but #75 for Highlands boomed a kick-off all the way through the end zone. It was impressive! :thumb:

 

Just a quick side note: A big "thank you" to the HHS principal (Mr. Brian Robinson) for the fantastic tour he gave our reunion group before the game. He's a classy guy, a passionate spokesman for the school, and an ardent "cheerleader" for our Birds!

 

75 is Cody Rosenhagen. Two in/thru the endzone and 1 at the line. Not bad. Ryle's defense stymied the Birds but luckily the Birds D totally dominated Ryles offense. My guess is until 4 minutes or so were left they had negative yardage. Ryle's QB is a slippery guy and made some nice moves to get out of trouble.

 

Lots of work to do for HHS.

If you like offensive execution tonight was not for you. The defensive front 7 or 8 dominated on both sides. I predicted a 25 pt win for HHS but I must admit that I underestimated the tenacity of the Ryle D and overestimated where HHS offense would be. Lots of work to do offensively for both teams.

I thought the Birds Defense looked stifling. The only score for Ryle came on an exceptional throw and catch. Hempel the soph QB for Ryle took a shot and most of the night played like a veteran. He is going to be a good one by end of the season and have a great high school career.

 

Onto the Birds offense and their 1st drive of the game which I thought was superb. Crawford picked up 40+ yards and they looked very strong. AFter that they struggled somewhat and didnt seem to have the sync they needed. Guidugli did get oustanding protection throwing a superb ball to Nick Buten in stride. Ryle defender ran him down but not after picking up 64 sweet yards. That was a nice ball thrown as he just layed it in there with nice touch. We also got to see Guidgugli scramble and stiff arm a defender on his way to his first Touchdown run of the season. He seems like a big strong kid and I think there were a few times where he could have run when he didnt. That was where you missed Clay Cecil as he was a threat to run first and the Defense knows Guidugli is going to drop and throw most of the time.

 

Kicking game was excellent. Hogue had some booming punts, especially the one I saw where the kid just misjudged it and they recovered the fumble. Adam Weinel did an outstanding job kicking the field goal and extra points. I was a little surprised to see Highlands playing their kicker on Kickoff coverage. I am guessing they have a solid backup cuz they are chancing an injury there.

 

Oliver Head had some very nice tackles, he may be the best tackler I have seen in a long time. Beck/Rosenhagen seemed to also be in on a lot of tackles.

 

I think everyone I stood or sat around got a little spoiled by last year's superb talent and depth. This season the Birds are going to have to work out some kinks and earn their victories. My friend and I looked at each other in the 3rd qtr and said, isnt this when we normally start packing up but it was only a 2 touchdown game at that point.

 

Go Birds, good luck next week vs. the CArdinals. Good luck also to Ryle as they played a heckuva game defensively and never gave up. They had their highlights and I am sure they will build on this.

While Ryle's offense was simply awful much of the game I think I saw some glimpses in the 2nd half. As I've stated previously, Conner Hempel is going to be a player for the next 3 years. I'm not sure why it took 2+ qtrs for him to throw a pass more than 5 yards but even though the first one was an incompletion you could see the effortless throwing motion.

 

IMO Ryle's coaches played this like a scrimmage in the 2nd half. I think they were just trying to find something to work well. When you're down 20 with 7 or 8 minutes left in the game and you get the ball with 80 yards to go and run 5 dive plays in a row with two lineman as fullbacks in front of the tailback, you're not trying to come back. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. It did result in the chains moving but it took a lot of time off of the clock.

 

The spread might work against teams with average speed. We'll see.

 

Secondly its always fun to see the young talent that you don't know about. Ryle seems to have a lot of it. I was impressed with the play of #10 Carney. Nice speed. Tough little kid.

 

This just in, Collinsworth has nice feet.

This could be the worst offensive line HHS has had in 10yrs...The o-line needs to do alot of work before next week or the Birds could have negative yardage against Colerain..I hope Dale can pull a rabbit out of his hat..I just don't see it though...:eek::eek::eek:

I agree that Ryle's qb is going to be a good one. Wouldn't want to face him at the end of the season.

This could be the worst offensive line HHS has had in 10yrs...The o-line needs to do alot of work before next week or the Birds could have negative yardage against Colerain..I hope Dale can pull a rabbit out of his hat..I just don't see it though...:eek::eek::eek:

 

There's no doubt they struggled against a very small d-line tonight. However, if I understand correctly they've got a lot of new guys. I think it might be less an issue of talent and more an issue of cohesiveness. That could take some time.

While Ryle's offense was simply awful much of the game I think I saw some glimpses in the 2nd half. As I've stated previously, Conner Hempel is going to be a player for the next 3 years. I'm not sure why it took 2+ qtrs for him to throw a pass more than 5 yards but even though the first one was an incompletion you could see the effortless throwing motion.

IMO Ryle's coaches played this like a scrimmage in the 2nd half. I think they were just trying to find something to work well. When you're down 20 with 7 or 8 minutes left in the game and you get the ball with 80 yards to go and run 5 dive plays in a row with two lineman as fullbacks in front of the tailback, you're not trying to come back. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. It did result in the chains moving but it took a lot of time off of the clock.

 

The spread might work against teams with average speed. We'll see.

 

Secondly its always fun to see the young talent that you don't know about. Ryle seems to have a lot of it. I was impressed with the play of #10 Carney. Nice speed. Tough little kid.

 

This just in, Collinsworth has nice feet.

 

In the first half, he was running for his life on most of the pass plays.

Oh and yes, I cant believe I did all that typing and didnt mention Collinsworth. He just blew down the sideline on that punt return. When he wants to get somewhere he is going to get there. He is such a nice talent to have on the field especially on defense as he will hit you also. I thought they could have gotten the ball into his hands offensively a little more with some end arounds or reverses.

 

The line does need to gel and they basically were just beaten off the ball many times. Birds have some beef up there but not very quick on the first step. It will come due in time and Im sure Dempsey will model exceptional leadership to the new guys. 1st game remember boys and girls.

 

Next week will definitely be a monumental task.