Folks generally expect me to give an honest assessment, so here goes:
Offense
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Very pleased with what I saw offensively overall, but didn't quite understand the 3 Wildcat formation calls in the first half with the Tigers at about the Eagles 30yd line, which resulted in a fumble after a low snap from Center...Was really impressed with Deland Thomas, and see a big year ahead of him on the Gridiron....Of course, we know about his basketball skills on the court, but he is indeed a big weapon for the Tiger offense, and has great hands....Thought Luke stewart did a good job of running this offense for the first time in a "Live" game situation, and like the fact that this team didn't quit after going down by a couple scores in the 3rd quarter....Will agree with others that we've got to take better care of the ball, or it will not matter what offense we run because we will lose if we turn the ball over the way we did tonight....Hate to see a young man go down in any game but especially the opener because he had a lot of promise, and ran the ball hard last night including the big run that he ultimately got hurt on....Fortunately, he is only a junior, so he'll have another season ahead of him, but we will miss him this year....Hopes and wishes for a speedy recovery for the youngster....Also believe that our WRs need to be sharper with running their pass patterns, but that will come as the season progresses, I hope?
Defense
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I thought our Run defense was pretty good last night....We did give up a big play or two, but overall our Run Defense was pretty good overall....Think that we needed to get more pressure on the QB last night....He was very mobile, and East did roll him out of the pocket quite a bit which made containing him more difficult, but our DEs have got to do a better job of containing the QB in the pocket, moving forward....I expected the Eagles to throw the ball, but was surprised that they threw the ball as much as they did last night....Our Secondary needs a lot of work, and that goes without saying....Several times our DBs got turned around, and had NO chance of making a play on the ball....And the play before the Half?......Good lord, how do you let that happen?....We should of been in a Zone prevent coverage of some type with a guy deep to prevent that from happening....Hope that doesn't happen again, but that play was on the Coaches and not the players....No way that play should ever happen at the end of the half or at the end of a game....Period!....Thought that we tackled fairly well, and thought the young Freshman DL has a world of potential to be a real force in the middle, but again, we need to get more pressure on the QB in a passing offense which is what East Henderson is this year....
Special Teams
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Thought our kicker did a great job as did the holder in extra point trys as we didn't miss any all night long, and that is great....Thought our punting was good with the exception of the one where he missed most of the ball, and shanked it off an East player at the line of scrimmage....Overall though, he did a good job as did the snapper....Same can't be said for our kickoff coverage team which was terrible last night giving up way way too much yardage on kickoffs which led to great field position for the Eagles on just about every kickoff, and that's not on the kicker who has a great leg, and done a great job....We've just got to get off blocks, and get our rear ends down there, and coverge on the football which we didn't last night....Hopefully, this will be corrected because you just can't give your opponent that kind of field position all night long, and expect to win....It's that important.....
Game overall
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First and foremost, you've got to give East Henderson credit....They are not the same team as they were last year, and that's obvious, and the QB is a weapon....Anytime, you have a kid of that size(6'4 or 5) with a strong and acurate arm and the ability to scramble away from pressure: A defense is going to have trouble containing him, and that was the case last night....Kid is only a Junior, so expect better days ahead for the Eagles Football program.... I congratulate Coach Heatherly and his Eagles on the victory last night.....As for the Tigers, there;s also better days ahead for the Rosman Football program, and I think we got a glimpse of that last night....The offense is entertaining, but still needs a lot of fine tuning....The Defense still has a long way to go in terms of defending the pass, but I was encouraged with our Run defense last night....Rosman is a young team with only 4 Seniors, so I didn't expect a whole lot this year anyway, but like I said earlier in this thread: I just want to see improvement week to week, and I believe that we will see that moving forward.....My message to the team is stay the course, and concentrate on getting better each day at practice for the rest of the season, and the wins will follow....Hard work and dedication will always be rewarded in the end.....
Next up
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The Brevard Bluedevils next friday night in Brevard!
Roar Tigers Roar!