Pulled out the defibrillator; will make one more attempt to keep this blog moving forward. Will try to play catch up (again) and try and mix in some new stuff for the next few weeks.
Let’s start with finishing up Cpher’s football season. Last time…oh my god, I only talked about one of the nine games. Well, I guess there is a lot to post here then!
Game 2: Ann Arbor Skyline. Won 32-12.
My recollections of how the season went aren’t quite as fresh as they were back in September, heck, this game was in August. But I think Cpher’s season is easily divided into three sections (wins, and then losses, and then wins) and this game certainly was in the first part of that. He played a lot on both sides of the well and did more than fine. Figured I’d go back and see what texts I sent Suzanne during the game (I think she was late and then she sits in the stands while I tape in the press box).
“A (pretty obvious) holding penalty on Cpher”
“Played every snap until they took him out for two plays (at the end of the half). Get that kid whatever he wants (for dinner) after this game…..”
“I think Cpher got absolutely mugged trying to get to that guy. Will want to see the tape” Suzanne – “Matthew thought he was held”
Game 3: Everett. Lost 32-10. We made so many mistakes; I really don’t think we should have lost this game!
“(They scored on the first) Kickoff Return. Shitty tackling.”
“The tackling by our skill players is so shitty today’
“Ugh. Cpher back to hitting and disengaging too….”
“But our play calling is horrid. And tackling is worse.”
“26-0. QB gifts them an INT TD. 32-8. Can’t tackle…another broken tackle TD”
“32-10. Safety. Cpher on kick return?? (typically, Cpher is not seen on kickoffs but we ended up with so many kids out as this game went on that he had to go out and do it”
Cpher getting absolutely crushed by these two guys almost after the play. He was focused on the ball carrier; they were focused on getting him. Probably could have been a penalty.
Game 4: Grand Ledge. They are one of the best youth football programs in the area. They had 60+ kids on the freshman team. We have 22. It was the ugliest game of the year. Lost 43-14.
“Ugh”. Suzanne – “Yeah, not fun”
“I hope Cpher wasn’t supposed to block him”
“Sigh”
“Glad the trainer was around. So stupid” (Cpher had a scrape on his arm that had the scab bust open during the game and he had to come out. He was out for a while because the trainer was gone with all of the wraps.)
“We are winning the second half 6-2!” “TD + 2 points. 14-2!”
“14-10”. We were doing well enough in the 2nd half that GL, who were winning 35-0 at the half and put in an entire second team(!) in the second half, decided to throw the starters in for 2 series. They stopped us on offense and scored very quickly and the 2nd team came back out.
Cpher again, and for the last time for a while, played almost all of the game on offense and defense. GL had enough big lineman that they didn’t have anyone play both offense or defense; that’s a big disadvantage for Cpher and the rest of the boys.
This, and the next photos, are the best photos that I have of Cpher making a tackle this year.
Game 5: Haslett. Lost 26-14. This is where things started to go downhill.
“Cpher not starting on D(efense)”
“Never went in. Sean had more snaps than Cpher. Wonder what happened?”
“Can’t wait to hear why he isn’t on D anymore”
“(The team) Still can’t tackle. M missed a tackle that led to first TD; C missed QB for big gain on this drive. Sigh”
Suzanne – “Cpher said coaches thought this would be an easy win” Me – “They are idiots. We have never beaten Haslett in youth football (with this group” Suzanne – “Said they were in a lower division”. Me – “They are idiots. We should be competitive though”
“He is not blocking well. Not happy.”
“Did a nice job against that double team there.”
“And there”
“Have a hard time seeing this (game…and benching) convincing Cpher to play next year.” Suzanne – “Yep”
“Cpher got beat badly there. Oy.”
“Every time they run that off tackle run on Cpher’s side: an easy 4+ yards”
No pictures from this game. So, about the benching. The defensive coach has been getting on Cpher for being “too high” or maybe better said “not staying low”. When you are his size this is more difficult than for others and more obvious when you aren’t. My main disagreement was the benching….they didn’t do that for anyone else this year (except for disciplinary reasons). And the kids they put out there weren’t any better AND DIDN’T STAY LOW EITHER.
Sigh.
Game 6: Jackson. Lost 36-8
“Jackson 14-0. 4 minutes to go in the first quarter”
“22-0. Cpher doing a crappy job of staying low on D”
“30-0. 11:52 to go in second quarter”. Suzanne – “Ugh…not good for our defense”. Me – “No. Lots of missed tackles. Again.”
Suzanne - “Can’t believe Cpher not getting low after all the talk about it.” Me – “It has been better in the last five minutes. I may have been hasty in that….”
“(Starting Defensive Line) all on bench on D”. Suzanne – “Do they really have better players to put out there?” Me – “No. I think we are playing scrubs now.”
Game 7: Holt. After losing three straight I’m thinking we are going to have a tough time against another community that is traditionally good at football. I am completely wrong. We kill them, 44-14. Sadly, the punishment continues for Cpher for the first half on defense…he plays, but it is very limited.
Suzanne – “How’s it going? Been working the entire time.” Me – “We are winning 24-0. Not a typo”. Suzanne – “Wow. Good for them!” Me – “9 to go in 2nd quarter. Also not a typo!”
“36-0. Half”
“End of 3. 36-8. I will not tell you about Cpher…..” Cpher has complained that I tell Suzanne about how he is doing when he wants to do it after. I don’t remember what he did here in the third quarter that made me say this. I will rewatch the highlights.
Ok. That’s right. He had a big sack that was almost a safety…they were on the 10 and Cpher just blew by his guy and hit the qb at the 1….and the qb’s knee went down on the half-yard line.
Game 8: Eastern. We win 32-18.
“Cpher needs to stay low”
“But he is KILLING it on offense. They should run every play behind him….it is 4 yards minimum”
Suzanne – “Nice drive!”
Again, no pictures.
Game 9: East Lansing. Win this game and finish over .500. The big rivalry game.
And we win 44-12. Turns out this crew is the only team, either at the HS or in youth football, to finish above .500 this year.
There are no texts here to talk about. Probably Cpher’s best game of the year; there were some huge TD runs on that off-tackle play that he had been dominating at all year. He made some big stops on defense too. This is the first game that the guy lined up against him decided to be pissy and do a lot of extracurricular stuff….Cpher just kept blowing him 5 yards off of the line of scrimmage all during it.
