A very disappointing loss...
For the first time all year, it seemed to me that there may have been a lack of effort on defense - at least late in the game. Obviously you can't blame a loss on the defense when the offense doesn't score, and some players surely played hard, but watching the game online, it looked as though defensive players tended to slow down after the first defender engaged the guy carrying the ball. That allowed SFU to fight for extra yards, and when the first tackle was broken, big gains followed.
I watched a high school playoff game in person Friday night, and it was really striking to see how much more the two-time defending state champion high school team seemed to fly to the ball and gang-tackle versus our less-intense effort.
We also seemed to do a poor job setting the edge, allowing running backs to bounce it outside for big gains.
Getting in position to prevent that is something that can easily be improved upon in the next game; we just need to be sure that an all-out effort follows as well. I'm confident that the team will close with a better effort next week - Let's make it a "W"!
For the first time all year, it seemed to me that there may have been a lack of effort on defense - at least late in the game. Obviously you can't blame a loss on the defense when the offense doesn't score, and some players surely played hard, but watching the game online, it looked as though defensive players tended to slow down after the first defender engaged the guy carrying the ball. That allowed SFU to fight for extra yards, and when the first tackle was broken, big gains followed.
I watched a high school playoff game in person Friday night, and it was really striking to see how much more the two-time defending state champion high school team seemed to fly to the ball and gang-tackle versus our less-intense effort.
We also seemed to do a poor job setting the edge, allowing running backs to bounce it outside for big gains.
Getting in position to prevent that is something that can easily be improved upon in the next game; we just need to be sure that an all-out effort follows as well. I'm confident that the team will close with a better effort next week - Let's make it a "W"!
