You are correct. I messed up on that one. I did mean 1 point loss, not sure who I was thinking about.
Mitchell @ East Wilkes
- Thread starter EWCards
- Start date
You are correct. I messed up on that one. I did mean 1 point loss, not sure who I was thinking about.
Those are good points about being strong and quick. Once they got into the feel on the game against Swain they settled in nicely. IMO Swain was the best line we have seen this year. Sounds like Mitchell is larger in size. How strong are they? East has had some size in the past but not much this year. I like these medium size guys who have worked on strength during the off season to match their quickness.
Mitchell's line is very big but mostly pudgy and slow. Shouldn't be of any concern. Backs are even slower.
Yeah right. Are you trying to bait us Cards fans into believing that the qb is throwing for all those yards while being protected by big slow pudgy lineman and slow backs? Lol ok yeah right. And that Mitchell is 12-1 with big slow linemen and slower backs? Ok...
I would say they are generally very strong, there has been a lot of focus on the weight room with these coaches. Yall may have the recipe though for matching up with them with the medium sized guys that are quick, for as you would expect they are not the fleetest of foot being as big as they are. The only loss this year was to Mountain Heritage who we were considerably bigger than on the line, but they were very quick and physical on the line and was able to shut our run game down early on and then we fell behind so quickly that we had to pretty much abandon the run. That would really be the only game I would say that our line didn't take over a game, but they did a good job of pass protection after we abandoned the run, but Heritage is a very good team hence the reason they are still alive in the 3rd round of the 2a playoffs after beating Thomasville last week. I think sometimes a smaller quicker line is better for run blocking because they can move up to the second level to catch the next block quicker before the running back passes them up, but this line has done a pretty good job as I think we have averaged close to 8 yards a carry for the season, they have been even better though in pass protection which is more about their strength. I think East Wilkes will pose some problems for them though with quickness and especially if they can be physical. I think this will be a very close game and probably come down to who makes the least mistakes, penalties have been a problem for us at times this year and was last week so we definitely can't have that because you don't want to be getting in no 3rd and long situations because that is usually when big mistakes happen.
Wilkes Journal Patriot has done a great job keeping track of stats for the county teams. Here are a couple of links from regular season for the stats guru:
Team Stats
Individual
Team Stats
Individual
This game should be another good one. I can see the second half testing the conditioning of those big boys. Especially if EW can keep the ball a good bit in the first half.
Thanks for the link, that was a good write up. 382 yards a game is a whole lot of offense for a team that I've seen called a ball control offense, Mitchell don't average much more than that at 435 yards a game, but even more impressive is how few yards a game they have allowed, your doing something right when your outgaining the other team by an average of over 200 yards a game. But maybe the scariest part is how few penalties they receive, it's hard to beat a team that won't beat themselves, it always helps you get a stop when the other team gets a presnap penalty and is automatically starting in a hole. The only punting like 16 times the whole season reminds me a lot of Mitchell this year, not sure how many times we ended up punting (I would venture to guess maybe 10 to 15), but I know we didn't punt until the 6th game of the season, and unfortunately our punting can be an adventure at times. Seems like both teams are very efficient offensively.
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Here is two more links following last Friday nights game.
http://www.journalpatriot.com/sport...cle_7d2642c4-9209-11e5-af47-5f7511a4d092.html
http://www.journalpatriot.com/sport...cle_ff570936-9204-11e5-a921-f7c51d3aed96.html
http://www.journalpatriot.com/sport...cle_7d2642c4-9209-11e5-af47-5f7511a4d092.html
http://www.journalpatriot.com/sport...cle_ff570936-9204-11e5-a921-f7c51d3aed96.html
What sort of O's do you guys run in WHC, Heritage has allowed 252 points as a conference low. Just looking at the overall conference it looks like some high scoring affairs.
Those yards come from being worn down and the running lanes get wider as the games progress. That's the nature of this ball control option look. Sort of what The Citadel did to USC.
Mitchell will run many different offenses during a game. Heritage does have a good defense as they shut us down in the first quarter. The score was 33-0 before we woke up and made it respectable with a 41-27 final.
Not an easy task to shutdown a team that's averaging 46 pts per game. I just saw in the conference standings that it looked like everyone was scoring a lot. Didn't think anyone had a bad D just thought WHC had some passing attacks. Hendo came to mind didn't know if that was the norm. Nothing but respect for Mountie posters here, some of those over on CP are rather bold (notice is not Mounties) Just couldn't get any to take the bait to switch. Happy Thanksgiving and safe travels down the mountain.
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I like this site much better myself but I stay on the other site usually because our team posters and our conference posters stay over there. This site is way better though. I am not very bold except in size.lol
The whole line goes both ways with a couple of subs. Linebackers are pretty much all running backs except one full time linebacker, but we use 5 different running backs so none of them are overly exerted on offense. The secondary has one full time safety and another running back at corner, the other players are the receivers. The qb only plays offense. I've seen where most of your guys only play one side of the ball, that could become a factor for us in the second half, but it hasn't seemed to hurt our guys in most games this year as the line especially seems to get stronger as the game goes along, but we've also not run into many teams that didn't play both ways like us.
Hendersonville and Avery were pass heavy teams, Mitchell was balanced, and I would say Mountain Heritage, Polk, Owen, and Madison were run heavy. There was some high scoring affairs this year though, not sure if it was good offense or bad defense. We held everybody to under 30 points this year except for two weeks in a row of giving up 40 to Hendersonville and Heritage. Hendersonville will pretty much score on anybody, but just didn't have any defense, we were actually up on them 44 to 19 going into the 4th before they rattled off a bunch of points at the end, they spread you out 5 wide and have a qb that has threw for over 3000 yards 2 years in a row. We were able to shut the passing game down pretty much holding him to his lowest passing total of the year, but in doing so we gave up a lot of rushing yards in the second half. The Heritage game was just a disaster from the get go with them taking the opening drive for a score then us going 3 and out, a blown coverage for another td, then a fumbled kickoff and so on and so forth until we found ourselves down 33 to 0 halfway through the 2nd qt. We then put together a big comeback going into the half down 33 to 14, then scoring on the opening drive and forcing a 3 and out, we then drove inside the red zone with a chance to cut it to 5 but turned it over and had just spent to much energy digging out of the hole to finish the comeback. Heritage is a very run heavy team, but caught us off guard by coming out passing over half the time early on.
Not seen anybody mention that we had a common opponent in West Wilkes this year, but not much that could be gathered from it anyway as both took care of business against the Blackhawks as they should have. It was the first game of the year for us and I remember we were sloppy early and I don't think we even scored in the first quarter after fumbling inside the 10 early on, and we had another fumble going in at the 1 yard line. The defense played well though as I remember it being 40 to 0 as I was walking out and West Wilkes scored on our backups with less than a a minute left. East Wilkes beat them 29 to 0 if I'm not mistaken so I would assume that they also were able to dominate the game with West Wilkes. It's hard to judge who's competition has been harder without a lot of head to head matchups, I think the only other conference matchup was between Avery and North Wilkes, a game between a couple of bottom of the conference teams in which Avery took their only win of the season I think 28 to 14. We both play in split 1a 2a conferences, the WHC has 2 1a teams in Avery and Mitchell and 5 2a teams, if I'm not mistaken the mountain valley is evenly split. The WHC has 2 teams still alive in the 3rd round with Heritage in 2a and Mitchell, Hendersonville went out in the 2nd round and Polk went out in the 1st, our other teams did not qualify. The MVC has East Wilkes in the 3rd round, Wilkes Central bowed out in the 2nd, and Ashe, Allegheny, Starmount, and West Wilkes went out in the 1st, I think the other 2 didn't qualify.
Comparing our only head to head doesn't fully work since they were at such different times in the season, but based on the newspaper offensive stats:
Mitchell - 432 yards
West - 192 yards
East - <300 yards (did not see exact number other than it being the only game of season East was held under 300)
West - 131 yards (40 yrds rushing; 78 came from last possession of game)
Mitchell - 432 yards
West - 192 yards
East - <300 yards (did not see exact number other than it being the only game of season East was held under 300)
West - 131 yards (40 yrds rushing; 78 came from last possession of game)
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Head to head opponents don't matter imo. Especially when the team was someone's first game and last game. West was terrible at the first of the year. Anyone around the foothills will tell you that. They improved a lot and were alot better team at seasons end. Their running back was rushing for over 200 yards on most opponents the last few weeks until they played East Wilkes.
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I totally agree, was just throwing it out there because there ain't much of anything else to go on until they actually get on the field.
I totally agree, was just throwing it out there because there ain't much of anything else to go on until they actually get on the field.
That's the best part of this season. Never know what you are getting until Friday gets here.
Beautiful Friday here in Wilkes. Great weather and day for some football!! Good luck and Safe Travels to Mitchell this evening! Go Cardinals!
I don't have a dog in the fight but plan on attending this game..sounds like a good one...usually go to the 2a playoff games but believe that they won't be as good as this one so save a seat for this Newton Conover Red Devil....
Proud of the Cards, what a great year.
Good year Cards! I hate it for our seniors, but what a foundation has been laid for up and comers. Congrats to Mitchell, well played game.
Great game Cards...Heck of a classy hardworking group...Thanks coaches for your work ethic and the workmanship that kids possessed. Great game Mitchell...class act...hard nosed...didnt give up...both deserved to win...but Mitchell persevered. Good luck to you guys along with Walkertown next week. Lets go Westerners...bring it back home in 1AA.
Great season cardinals. It hurts now because it truly has been a once in a lifetime experience. Few know what it is like to have the year you have had. You will be holding your heads high soon enough.
Congratulations to Mitchell. Y'all were as advertised. Good luck against walkertown.
Congratulations to Mitchell. Y'all were as advertised. Good luck against walkertown.
Congratulations to the Cards on a great season. Last night was a great game between two really good ball teams. Great atmosphere, I thought Mitchell was in trouble after falling behind by 14.
Credit to your defense they were as good as advertised. Don't think EW got the credit or respect they deserved before the game. The two turnovers really hurt your chances. Impressed with how hard your kids played all night. congratulations to your Seniors for their dedication to your program.
Good adjustments from the Mitchell staff and kids. Really played well on defense the second half holding EW to around 15-20 yards before the last drive and 70 for the half.
Loudest I have heard the Mitchell crowd all year. Regardless of weather I hope the community comes out and supports these kids Friday night.
Credit to your defense they were as good as advertised. Don't think EW got the credit or respect they deserved before the game. The two turnovers really hurt your chances. Impressed with how hard your kids played all night. congratulations to your Seniors for their dedication to your program.
Good adjustments from the Mitchell staff and kids. Really played well on defense the second half holding EW to around 15-20 yards before the last drive and 70 for the half.
Loudest I have heard the Mitchell crowd all year. Regardless of weather I hope the community comes out and supports these kids Friday night.
Thanks for posting....great season for your team and school, hopefully you guys can regroup and build on it for next year.