The scary thing is that according to some the HHS offense went "vanilla" on the Colonels. Seems like they wanted to make a statement that they could score at will without aid of a complicated offense.

Well.....one thing for Highlands that I think has been a concern in the past is getting players 4 full quarters. Now I will say they do plenty of work to be in shape (I cannot believe anybody does any more than they do.......?) but when you are not playing 4 quarters every Friday I would think it would take its toll the first few times you do. This is tough because when you are in a position where you are blowing people out in all but the first game of the season (prior to this one) it becomes an issue. This game might do more for the Birds than you think. While many people on here talk about the confidence boost to CovCath and what this does for them.............I suspect this game will do plenty to help the Birds cause as the season progresses.

 

Yes, if CCH doesn't think that Highlands is fired up after this one, they're in for it next meeting. It will be an all out war.

The scary thing is that according to some the HHS offense went "vanilla" on the Colonels. Seems like they wanted to make a statement that they could score at will without aid of a complicated offense.

 

Do you think they really went "vanilla" or was it a matter of just taking what the defense was giving them?

I'm not so sure that it was a matter of not playing a full 4 quarters the last two games or more a matter of Cov. Cath. keeping the Highlands D on the field the entire game. Highlands O is quick strike. Then you get the Cov. Cath. O on the field and they get 3 or 4 yards per play and just march it down the field. The Highlands D was on the field 4 times longer than Cov. Cath.

Do you think they really went "vanilla" or was it a matter of just taking what the defense was giving them?

 

I thought the latter.

 

I'm told it was the former.

I'm not so sure that it was a matter of not playing a full 4 quarters the last two games or more a matter of Cov. Cath. keeping the Highlands D on the field the entire game. Highlands O is quick strike. Then you get the Cov. Cath. O on the field and they get 3 or 4 yards per play and just march it down the field. The Highlands D was on the field 4 times longer than Cov. Cath.

 

They were on much longer than the O without question.

 

I would be curious to hear the official time of possession numbers.

 

First TD took less than 2 minutes. 2nd took about 10 seconds.

Here we go again. Highlands gassed? At what point were they gassed? It had to be early because CCH moved the ball all day long. Was it early in the second half when CCH got their 3rd TD? CCH had 31 points on the board just after the start of the 4th quarter. So you are saying Highlands famed conditioning wasn't good enough for the Birds to handle 3 quarters of action?

 

If I were a CCH fan, I would be mad. Claiming your defense was gassed is a lack of respect. IMO you are saying my team is more talented than yours. That is what you are saying when you say your defense was gassed. You are saying that when both teams were fresh, my team was better than yours.

 

I had this debate after the Beechwood game when people tried to say BW was tired. No, give CCH credit. Their o-line is that good and Gabe Gray is that good. They can run the ball from the opening kickoff on and it doesn't matter if you are well rested and full of energy, they can still run it.

Here we go again. Highlands gassed? At what point were they gassed? It had to be early because CCH moved the ball all day long. Was it early in the second half when CCH got their 3rd TD? CCH had 31 points on the board just after the start of the 4th quarter. So you are saying Highlands famed conditioning wasn't good enough for the Birds to handle 3 quarters of action?

 

If I were a CCH fan, I would be mad. Claiming your defense was gassed is a lack of respect. IMO you are saying my team is more talented than yours. That is what you are saying when you say your defense was gassed. You are saying that when both teams were fresh, my team was better than yours.

 

I had this debate after the Beechwood game when people tried to say BW was tired. No, give CCH credit. Their o-line is that good and Gabe Gray is that good. They can run the ball from the opening kickoff on and it doesn't matter if you are well rested and full of energy, they can still run it.

 

Your right, CCH offense is very good. It was an offensive game , that is for sure.

Here we go again. Highlands gassed? At what point were they gassed? It had to be early because CCH moved the ball all day long. Was it early in the second half when CCH got their 3rd TD? CCH had 31 points on the board just after the start of the 4th quarter. So you are saying Highlands famed conditioning wasn't good enough for the Birds to handle 3 quarters of action?

 

If I were a CCH fan, I would be mad. Claiming your defense was gassed is a lack of respect. IMO you are saying my team is more talented than yours. That is what you are saying when you say your defense was gassed. You are saying that when both teams were fresh, my team was better than yours.

 

I had this debate after the Beechwood game when people tried to say BW was tired. No, give CCH credit. Their o-line is that good and Gabe Gray is that good. They can run the ball from the opening kickoff on and it doesn't matter if you are well rested and full of energy, they can still run it.

 

Covington Catholic embarrassed the Highlands D saturday. No question, they ran and passed at will.

Covington Catholic embarrassed the Highlands D saturday. No question' date=' they ran and passed at will.[/quote']

 

"At will" would not be accurate especially on the running game. Everything was hard-earned. If it had not been for Gabe Gray HHS' D would have fared much better. There were many(most) runs where they hit him and he still managed to gain 2 to 5 more yards. Kid ran hard.

The scary thing is that according to some the HHS offense went "vanilla" on the Colonels. Seems like they wanted to make a statement that they could score at will without aid of a complicated offense.

 

I would agree that Highlands was not complex on offense. I will disagree on the reason. First of all Highlands very seldom has a Complex offense. To the contrary they are very simple in scheme, however they execute like no other. They put the ball in their best athletes hands and let them be athletes. The second reason I believe it may not have been as complex as other games, is that with complicated plays come simple mistakes. Coach Mueller very early on knew this game was going to be a battle. With the confidence he has in his players, I believe he thought the best chance for Highlands to win, was to eliminate turnovers on offense.

 

A pretty solid game plan. Had he pulled the trick plays out of the playbook how much more could they have scored? I believe they only punted once or twice the entire game. However, try a more complex approach and have an extra TO, that could have cost Highlands the game.

Did anybody see the "fly over " of Canadian geese about 5 minutes before kickoff ? Perfect timing !!

 

All I can say about the HHS D is that there was too many yards gained after initial contact on CCH's RB's. Drake Bruns was making way too many tackles . If your safety is making lots of tackles , that's not a good sign. Nice to see Carter New got another pick , atta boy.

 

"At will" would not be accurate especially on the running game. Everything was hard-earned. If it had not been for Gabe Gray HHS' D would have fared much better. There were many(most) runs where they hit him and he still managed to gain 2 to 5 more yards. Kid ran hard.

 

Sounds familiar . HHS D needs to go to class on TACKLING 101 , the basics .

They were on much longer than the O without question.

 

I would be curious to hear the official time of possession numbers.

 

First TD took less than 2 minutes. 2nd took about 10 seconds.

 

A better statistic would be # of plays run by HHS O and CCH D. Time of possession is a good statistic, but can be subject to some variables (incomplete passes, runs out of bounds, etc.).

Is #3 for Highlands Bruns? Gray just plowed right through him on that one TD run.

 

Who is #26 for Highlands? Very impressive run for him at the end of one of those video clips. ^

 

I saw that clip and Drake was not prepared for that collision. If you watch Drake Bruns play football you know he will be the HAMMER 98% of the time, the kid loves to hit and throws his body into tackles. That time though he was certainly the nail. I was on the other endzone and all I saw was Gray plowing someone and i thought, Good Lord that kid just got Mack Trucked !!!

 

#26 is Ian McGurn and he has been a running back his entire career until this year where they have used him at TE. He is a very strong kid who has great instincts as you saw in that clip.

I'm not so sure that it was a matter of not playing a full 4 quarters the last two games or more a matter of Cov. Cath. keeping the Highlands D on the field the entire game. Highlands O is quick strike. Then you get the Cov. Cath. O on the field and they get 3 or 4 yards per play and just march it down the field. The Highlands D was on the field 4 times longer than Cov. Cath.

 

It was 5-7 per play on Saturday. They were chunking the Birds D good. One thing I have noticed is I havent seen Dave Meadows on Highlands sidelines this year. I know he has been their Defensive Backs coach the past several years and was a master motivator. That guy produced some big time hitters at DB like Abner, Seidl, Rosenhagen, etc. Am I missing something here?