A very cold morning and a 9 am kickoff against East Lansing….
Seems like the EL football admins need to rethink things….they look to have had 27-28 kids try out and made the questionable decision to make two teams. Today is the downside….they barely had 11 players to start the game and had one or two more trickle in after kickoff. So, we knew right away that we were going to roll all over them. And we did, the third mercy rule game out of four, a 28-0 shelllacking.
Not many highlights here…..and what highlights that I did keep are only of Matthew……Christopher had a good game, but, just didn’t have any one single play that I could point at as a highlight. EL had one unique feature, a 192-lb monster-of-a-girl(!) playing on the line…..she was big, but not fast, and played very similar to Cpher (engage the other player, but, not necessarily stay engaged with that player to the end of the play). She could push our smaller kids around but had trouble with Cpher and the other two big kids on the team.
I told Matthew, you do what they ask you to do, you show what you can do, and you’ll get your shot….He’s lined up here in the backfield, first play of the game, and he takes the ball for a 4 yard gain.
Matthew’s second decent chance at a run (he had one other chance, but he tripped over the QB’s feet and went down. This play is the big learning experience from the game, he heads outside like all of the other running backs do, but, he’s not as fast as the other two speedsters and the defense catches him for a loss.
Matthew and I have talked extensively about this play (it’s been nice, he’s started the conversation a few different times after our original talk). In flag football, he was the fastest, and he could get outside and nail this play. Here, he’s not (he’s slowed down compared to others, and, he’s playing against older kids). The move here, and you can see it where I stopped the play above, is to cut in and head upfield and gain yardage, not head outside and lose yardage. While he’s not as fast as he once was, he is bigger and stronger, and unlike those speedsters, can break a tackle or two….
It’s been a fun week talking about this with Matthew; like the first quarter of linebacker play where he laid back and wasn’t aggressive while he soaked in the game, I’m betting his runs this weekend will look a little different than his three attempts this game.
Matthew’s second fumble recovery of the year. This time though, it’s not ruled a fumble and EL keeps the ball. Earlier in the game, the referees blew a very obvious fumble that EL recovered and gave us the ball back…..and the EL coach went nuts, called timeouts to delay the end of the half to continue to rant at the referees and make a point. This play, in the third quarter, was the make-up call. Matthew as a little confused why we didn’t get the ball….
Matthew loved EL; “Dad, their guards never blocked anyone!”. This play he blows through the line and makes the tackle….
