All Play No Work

Mustang makes good points. Sometimes the best pass is the one you don't throw and instead take the two yard loss and live to play the next down. That is really hard to do when a team is constantly playing from behind because kids and the coaching staff want to make plays. It doesn't just happen to inexperienced teams. Plenty of teams have this problem.

They would have to play mistake-free football on the turnover end while forcing a few to beat Beechwood. Moving the ball on Beechwood won't be easy and the Dayton punting game needs to be effective and maintain field position. Same thing for kickoff coverage. Defensively, Dayton would need to not give up any big plays. Make Beechwood earn their scores with sustained drives.

Panthers get the #4 seed handily as predicted.

They only gave up 41.

Well its not like Prestonburg isn't a good team. And add in injuries to the QB and RBs and OL to whatever extent they can't play. And being on the road. A Beechwood loss would not be that much of a stretch at all.

Dayton opened the scoring after what would be the first of a few INTs on the night. The 8-0 lead grew to 15-0 behind a nice balanced attack before Bellevue cut it to 15-8 after a nice drive on the ground. That would be as close as Bellevue would get as Dayton tacked on two more scores before halftime to take a 28-8 lead at the break. Both teams took turns turning it over in the second half. Dayton threw an INT at the Bellevue 1 and Bellevue threw one in the Dayton endzone. Eventually Dayton punched one in to make it 35-8. Both teams subbed out with 5 minutes left in the game. Dayton: Good mix of run and pass and kept turnovers to a couple. Solid enough on D mostly by getting turnovers. Bellevue: Way too many turnovers. Pass attack just not developed enough. Ran the ball very well at times, but offense cannot overcome any penalties. Pass defense gave up the big play.

But Beechwood's loss to Covcath (granted CovCath will only win 3 games but they are still a good team that is improving) at least shows that there is still no run-away team at this point in 1A. It will be interesting to see what Beechwood does with all their injuries against Prestonburg. Win handily and they make a strong statement. Lose and maybe the pack tightens even more.

If you go back and read the Lloyd coaching threads from March many on here thought this would either turn out really well or really not-so-well in the end. There wasn't much in-between. However, no one saw it coming to a close this quickly or that in essence the only game he would actually coach was the game against Beechwood. I wonder if that will be the final game or if another opportunity comes along at a better time for Coach Yeagle. I always thought he would make a very good assistant on a college staff.

I only saw the 4th quarter but what a wild game of Mo swings. NCC up 12-7 driving for the KO touchdown and they throw an INT 5 yards deep in the endzone that is returned for a TD but Newport was called for a hold at the 30 yard line. Then Newport goes nowhere and punts. NCC returns the punt to the Newport 22 yard line but wait there is a block in the back that takes it back past midfield. NCC drives again for the KO touchdown and is at the 20 but wait the QB can't complete the handoff. The ball lays on the turf and Newport scoops it up and returns it 80 yards for a TD untouched for a 13-12 lead. Then Newport kicks off and the ball sails over the NCC returners to about the 2 yard line. They return it to the 20. With time running out and faced with 4th downs twice they make them and the drive continues. A bunch of passes follow and it seems about half of them NCC receivers get their hands on but can't catch, and the other half Newport could have intercepted but couldn't hold on to them. Finally there are 4 incompletes and Newport held. Would be nice to see these two meet again for the third time.

What changes could be made? The 5A/6A teams number 10 so playing each other once takes up 9 games. Plus their playoffs. Can't see them wanting to change that to play 2A teams. The 1A schools (except Beechies) are playing Frosh/Soph games and can't see them changing that. At best maybe the 2A straight Frosh teams could play the 1A Frosh/Soph teams but that might not be that benefical for either. The 2A schools are stuck unless they can find some Ohio schools basically.

Unibased as I am if I had to rank the Dayton and Bellevue opponents thus far it would be the following: 1. Beechwood (Day) 1.tie NCC (Bell) (and both teams got drilled by these two early) 3. Lynn Camp (Day) Long trip up here and a hot night without a deep roster 4. Scott (Day) Not a good team but has been in every game other than CovCath 5. Holmes (Day) Up and down 6. Lloyd (Day) Played some good teams and beat Newport by 15 7. Ludlow (Both) With QB might be higher. 8. Paris (Bell) Not deep and the 20 scored at Bellevue was season-high 9. Bracken (Bell) I'm guessing they would edge Brossart 10. Brossart (Bell) First year team

Actually two thoughts: 1. NCC is boatloads ahead of where they were at this point last year, which is a good thing. Defense is ahead and offense is way ahead. 2. #2 in NKY or #8 there isn't much difference IMO. Scary part is with things so spread out Beechwood or NCC can't eliminate each other and might give by a night or two in the playoffs without their A game.

Ludlow handily.

In the "old" NKY class A , NCC, Beechwood, and Holy Cross did not but I think the others did. NCC generally has 50-55 (57 this year) Sophs, JR. SRs similar to Beechwood and Holy Cross maybe 40-45. I don't think Newport or Lloyd did and none of the "old" 3A or 4A (now 5A/6A)schools did.

Beechwood does not list Frosh on their roster and they do not dress for games. Possibly after the frosh season ends they would but that isn't until another 4 weeks.

Man, the talk is getting deep on this one and that's okay, despite that both have blowout losses. What matters is the Paddle, bragging rights for the next 5 weeks or 40 years depending on how the playoffs go, a record crowd (plenty of room on the grass hillsides, just bring cleates to dig in), home field advantage down the road, avoiding Beechwood in the first round, and whether the Band(s) play at the correct times!!!

Are you saying Bellevue's running game is better than Beechwood's (since Dayton has seen them)???

Not sure how they come up with all this but interesting I guess: Dayton 26 Bellevue 17 Highlands 55 Scott 3 NCC 42 Newport 0 Boone County 28 Simon Kenton 14 Ryle 46 Conner 13 Ludlow 48 Brossart 10 Holy Cross 22 Lloyd 21 Beechwood 28 Prestonburg 14

I don't know which HC team (the one that got drilled by Holmes and Ryle) shows up (the one that held NCC to 14, beat West High)? Then again Lloyd looked like they were ready to blow Dayton out leading 14-6 with the ball at midfield, a couple of minutes left until halftime, and getting the second half kickoff. Then all of the sudden they couldn't get a first down and couldn't stop Dayton. Maybe a tale of two halves? I think Holy Cross should win although who knows what effect Yeagle being back or not back has.

Boone County has to run the ball with success in this one to win. SK is tough on the run though. SK passing game might be the key. Boone is average against the pass and that might be the key match-up. Then again if they can't move it, turnovers might decide this one.

It was called in the Bellevue/Paris game this year. Paris runner was being stopped by a host of Bellevue players when a Paris O-lineman grabbed the RB's jersey and flung him forward about 3 yards by the jersey. He technically never touched the player just his jersey. Kind of looked like the hammer-throw in the Olympics.

Won 13-12 in 1998 and then 42-0 in 1999 which broke a long NCC streak.

Because they are giving up an average of 275 yards a game and that's to teams that don't have very good offenses. The only good offense they have faced was NCC and in that game the QB was pulled with 7:30 to go in the second quarter. Additionally, NCC didn't even get to go on offense very much because the Bellevue offense threw 2 INTs for TDs and allowed a fumble recovery for a TD.

ICN-6 is probably kicking themselves for putting this one on TV instead of just about any other game being played in NKY Friday, because it won't be a good one.

Boone Co came out and pounded the ball early but eventually settled for a Field Goal to lead 3-0. Would drive again early on but turned it over on downs. Owensboro made the defensive adjustments and contained the Rebel running game. Then as mentioned #25 Douglas ran well and hard and Owensboro got on the board on a nice run. Boone Co never made any adjustments and when they did try to pass the results weren't very good. Last gasp was an INT in the endzone with 2 minutes to go. Thoughts on Owensboro: They don't beat themselves and they have a good combo of speed, size, and discipline. They are the type of team that can stay in any game. Throw it well enough and run it well enough that you can't key on one or the other. Defense is good against the power run, I can't say how they would do against a true passing team but the secondary has some good athletes. Thoughts on Boone Co.: Offense is pretty predictable. Runs are up the gut and receivers are locked in on when passing. Not a good come from behind team. May need to expand the offense in order to beat good teams in the playoffs. Defense isn't bad, and was on the field awhile tonight.