What would you expect me to say? I was at the game, and spent the past week hearing about the lock down defense of CC and how they would smother the Cards running game. We put up 170 yards on the ground in the first half. Would you call that a shutdown of our running game? Sorry, I expected more. Also heard how CC would run the ball down our throats and eat up the clock. Instead, CC had nothing on offense but the pass. JHS ate up the clock.
CC coach did a great job adjusting in the second half and the Cards became too predictable. The three penalties in the second half were all on third down plays, and all three would have been first downs. Instead, we went to third and long which is not the strength of JHS, since we aren't a passing team. Hard to pick up yards under those circumstances. CC had one penalty for an illegal shift the whole game for five yards. Give me a break.
Face it, the Cards punched the CC defense in the mouth in the first half and were running all over them. Second half drives were killed by a really bad throw for an interception and three drive killing penalties. You can thank the refs for those. I thought CC had a two really good defensive stands in the second half. I also watched the last drive by JHS, and our QB made really bad decisions. He could have passed in the flats twice to wide open RB's, and he chose to run it himself.
Bottom line, JHS played better than most here predicted and CC wasn't as dominant as most here said they would be. That combination is why we had such a close game.
