Okay, here are some random thoughts...

* Davidson's offensive scheme is boring as hell but uber effective. You can't argue the results. They keep the ball away from their opponent, they move the sticks, and they put pressure on the opposing team's offense to score because they know they are going to have limited possessions. Being an former wide receiver with a son who is a wide receiver, I'd never want Central to implement that scheme, but it works for Davidson. In the end it's all about the Ws and they get 'em.

* Love Davidson's o-line. They had some size but they weren't crazy big (like Pick North). They just fire off and move people. Not to take away from the hard runners that Davidson has, but I think the 40 yr old and overweight Walt could run for yards behind those guys.

* As mentioned before this was a young Tigers team. In fact I mentioned on the other Huddle that the roles were reversed from last year. I remember playing Davidson last year and seeing all those underclassmen on the field thinking, "Wow...they're going to be good next year." Same goes for the Tigers this year. We love the seniors and we're going to miss them, but we can put 11 players on the field next year on offense who all have starting experience and/or a lot of game experience (not mop up time). Both QBs return. Six out of the seven linemen we rotate come back. Two of our top three RBs are back. And four of our six receivers are back. Defensively, we lose more but with all the injuries we had this year a lot of kids got experience. I fully expect us to be playing in week 13 or deeper next year.

* As Coke mentioned Davidson's kicker is great. One could argue he was MVP last night. Where is he going? I felt like we had a chance to hurt Davidson with our return game but never got that chance.

* Okay.... not to cry about officials and not that it made a difference in the outcome of the game, but how the heck was the face mask on Speedy Hammond (#20) in the 4th quarter not a 15 yarder???? The dude about ripped his head off. He literally picked his entire body off the ground by his face mask and it was ONLY WORTH FIVE YARDS?

* One last thought. Not sour grapes but why didn't Davidson just take a knee at the end? Once they stopped Central with approximately 2:00 with a 10 point lead.... was it necessary and/or smart to continue running? The Central kids were defeated and just going through the motions at that point. As a Davidson fan I would have freaked out if Delande or one of the other RBs got hurt in that situation. You're playing next week... be smart coach. Take a knee and move on. Don't get a kid hurt.

Walt wrote: Okay, here are some random thoughts...

* Davidson's offensive scheme is boring as hell but uber effective. You can't argue the results. They keep the ball away from their opponent, they move the sticks, and they put pressure on the opposing team's offense to score because they know they are going to have limited possessions. Being an former wide receiver with a son who is a wide receiver, I'd never want Central to implement that scheme, but it works for Davidson. In the end it's all about the Ws and they get 'em.

* Love Davidson's o-line. They had some size but they weren't crazy big (like Pick North). They just fire off and move people. Not to take away from the hard runners that Davidson has, but I think the 40 yr old and overweight Walt could run for yards behind those guys.

* As mentioned before this was a young Tigers team. In fact I mentioned on the other Huddle that the roles were reversed from last year. I remember playing Davidson last year and seeing all those underclassmen on the field thinking, "Wow...they're going to be good next year." Same goes for the Tigers this year. We love the seniors and we're going to miss them, but we can put 11 players on the field next year on offense who all have starting experience and/or a lot of game experience (not mop up time). Both QBs return. Six out of the seven linemen we rotate come back. Two of our top three RBs are back. And four of our six receivers are back. Defensively, we lose more but with all the injuries we had this year a lot of kids got experience. I fully expect us to be playing in week 13 or deeper next year.

* As Coke mentioned Davidson's kicker is great. One could argue he was MVP last night. Where is he going? I felt like we had a chance to hurt Davidson with our return game but never got that chance.

* Okay.... not to cry about officials and not that it made a difference in the outcome of the game, but how the heck was the face mask on Speedy Hammond (#20) in the 4th quarter not a 15 yarder???? The dude about ripped his head off. He literally picked his entire body off the ground by his face mask and it was ONLY WORTH FIVE YARDS?

* One last thought. Not sour grapes but why didn't Davidson just take a knee at the end? Once they stopped Central with approximately 2:00 with a 10 point lead.... was it necessary and/or smart to continue running? The Central kids were defeated and just going through the motions at that point. As a Davidson fan I would have freaked out if Delande or one of the other RBs got hurt in that situation. You're playing next week... be smart coach. Take a knee and move on. Don't get a kid hurt.

Why do I smell a response to this entailling something along the lines of us faking a punt on Darby up 40-0?? That face mask call WAS ridiculous. But HD controlled both lines of scrimmage and deserved to win and their kicking game was way better than ours.

Walt wrote:
* Okay.... not to cry about officials and not that it made a difference in the outcome of the game, but how the heck was the face mask on Speedy Hammond (#20) in the 4th quarter not a 15 yarder???? The dude about ripped his head off. He literally picked his entire body off the ground by his face mask and it was ONLY WORTH FIVE YARDS?

* One last thought. Not sour grapes but why didn't Davidson just take a knee at the end? Once they stopped Central with approximately 2:00 with a 10 point lead.... was it necessary and/or smart to continue running? The Central kids were defeated and just going through the motions at that point. As a Davidson fan I would have freaked out if Delande or one of the other RBs got hurt in that situation. You're playing next week... be smart coach. Take a knee and move on. Don't get a kid hurt.

Has Pickerington ever lost a game without you making some kind of comment about the offiicals? "Not to cry..." and "Not sour grapes..." sounds it.

Here is the game highlights and pics.....

http://www.capcitypreps.com/sports/football/2009/news/playoffs/week2/davidsonvspickcent.html

Jamesdster wrote:
Why do I smell a response to this entailling something along the lines of us faking a punt on Darby up 40-0?? That face mask call WAS ridiculous. But HD controlled both lines of scrimmage and deserved to win and their kicking game was way better than ours.

No...I'm not overly concerned about them trying to score, but Delande and their other top RB missed several recent games with injuries. Why expose them to unnecessary hits? Like I said, if one of them were to have aggravated their injuries the Davidson faithful would have/should have been irrate. They need everyone to beat Coffman ( by the way...I'll be pulling for the Cats next week.)

Shankapotamus wrote:

Walt wrote:
* Okay.... not to cry about officials and not that it made a difference in the outcome of the game, but how the heck was the face mask on Speedy Hammond (#20) in the 4th quarter not a 15 yarder???? The dude about ripped his head off. He literally picked his entire body off the ground by his face mask and it was ONLY WORTH FIVE YARDS?

Has Pickerington ever lost a game without you making some kind of comment about the offiicals? "Not to cry..." and "Not sour grapes..." sounds it.

Okay...first off I didn't say the refs cost us the game and I didn't say the officiating was bad. I was pointing to one specific play. Were you there, did you see it? Or are you just one of the Pickerington haters making wise cracks from the peanut gallery?

The play in question was quite possible one of the worst face mask tackles I e ever seen at any level. Hammond had the corner and was moving full speed in one direction, when his face mask was grabbed his feet came off the ground and he fell in the opposite direction. If the ref missed the grabbing of the facemask and thought he was pulled down by his jersey I would have had an easier time accepting it. Instead the ref acknowledged the grab by calling the penalty, but somehow determined that it was a 5 yd incidental. I was just questioning how that could have been incidental.

Maybe he was the same ref who missed Rico getting hit way out of bounds.Or David getting hit after signaling for a fair catch.Or ......

soccer_dad wrote: Maybe he was the same ref who missed Rico getting hit way out of bounds.Or David getting hit after signaling for a fair catch.Or ......

Lets not make things up now--a couple thousand people saw the Central entourage who escorted Rico out of bounds do nothing wrong----the momentum took everyone to the ground---and nobody got hit after a fair catch ---I saw the whole game-----------enjoy this week ----Coffman is way too much for you--------------

I also "saw the whole game" and I wouldnt have been surprised if they called the 15 yard penalty on the face mask.I am just saying there were other calss that also clould have been made that were not.Granted the hit was more of a bump, but what about giving him room to make the catch. Way too much, I doubt it.the first game was 10-7 without Trubiano, Spencer Delande,and Butler.

I think Davidson can pull it off. It's going to take a game like last night...great defense and special teams, along with ball control offense.

Good luck Wildcats!

One Tiger - "Coffman is way too much for you" Really, is this the best you could come up with? When you take a dig, you're usually far more clever. As mentioned, the 10-7 score of the previous meeting with 75% of Davidson's offensive backfield out suggests otherwise. I am sure neither team is in awe of the other, nor should they be.

The calls - The facemask clearly should have been 15 yards, no question. However, I'm not sure the difference between first and 7 on your 17 as it was marked and first and 10 on your 27 likely had much impact on the outcome of the game. Looking at the replay, I don't see how you can say he "had the corner" - could have tackled him for the same loss without the penalty.
The bump after the fair catch - not close to a penalty.
Late hit out of bounds - #29 was not part of the scrum that was on its way out of bounds. He leapt as the ballcarrier was stepping out of bounds, and landed on him well out of bounds. Could have gone either way - he left his feet as the ballcarrier was going out of bounds, so how can he stop himself, but he did land on him well out of bounds. This is not my recollection of the live play, it's after seeing it on tape with a slo-mo replay. Either way, didn't matter as Davidson scored a TD on the drive anyway.
Pass interference noncall on Central at end of first half - may have cost Davidson 4 points. I imagine it's possible it didn't look like intereference from the PC side of the field, but when you see the replay from the camera on the home side, there is no doubt. As the announcers said, the official must have had a reason for not calling intereference, you just can't imagine what that reason was.

DSA wrote: The calls - The facemask clearly should have been 15 yards, no question. However, I'm not sure the difference between first and 7 on your 17 as it was marked and first and 10 on your 27 likely had much impact on the outcome of the game.

I agree 100%. I stated that earlier... it didn't change the outcome of the game I was just baffled how a ref could have seen the grab and thought that was worthy of just 5 yards.

Shankapotamus wrote:

Walt wrote:
* Okay.... not to cry about officials and not that it made a difference in the outcome of the game, but how the heck was the face mask on Speedy Hammond (#20) in the 4th quarter not a 15 yarder???? The dude about ripped his head off. He literally picked his entire body off the ground by his face mask and it was ONLY WORTH FIVE YARDS?

* One last thought. Not sour grapes but why didn't Davidson just take a knee at the end? Once they stopped Central with approximately 2:00 with a 10 point lead.... was it necessary and/or smart to continue running? The Central kids were defeated and just going through the motions at that point. As a Davidson fan I would have freaked out if Delande or one of the other RBs got hurt in that situation. You're playing next week... be smart coach. Take a knee and move on. Don't get a kid hurt.

Has Pickerington ever lost a game without you making some kind of comment about the offiicals? "Not to cry..." and "Not sour grapes..." sounds it.

Nice recap of thoughts that I expected from Walt. I guess Tiger fans can't post their thoughts without getting some comments back on them. Honestly, the comments to which you refer sound very similar to discussions we have all likely had about any number of games. Whether in the stands, in the car, at the bar or at work, so why not on the message boards. Do you not like them Sam I am? Do you not like random thoughts on a forum, is it poor decorum?

Anywho, I think the Cats can secure victory next week if they execute like they did Sat night. Coffman will have a thing or two to say about it. Should be a great game. Gotta give some props to Coffman as they wished our Tigers well when they came off the field at The Shoe after they beat Olentangy Liberty.

77Legend wrote: Here is the game highlights and pics.....

http://www.capcitypreps.com/sports/football/2009/news/playoffs/week2/davidsonvspickcent.html

Pics are there but the video would not load.

^^^What Internet Browser are you using?

It worked for me, I use Fire Fox and Opera.

Try the direct link, hope that works for you.

http://www.blip.tv/file/2851257

Walt wrote: * One last thought. Not sour grapes but why didn't Davidson just take a knee at the end? Once they stopped Central with approximately 2:00 with a 10 point lead.... was it necessary and/or smart to continue running? The Central kids were defeated and just going through the motions at that point. As a Davidson fan I would have freaked out if Delande or one of the other RBs got hurt in that situation. You're playing next week... be smart coach. Take a knee and move on. Don't get a kid hurt.

I didn't see the game so I don't know how many times they ran in the last 2 minutes but, correct me if I'm wrong, I believe there is a 25 second play clock in HS? If so, you can't take a knee 4 times with 2 minutes left to run out the clock could you? Wouldn't you have to get one first down?

Like I said, I wasn't there and I don't know exactly what happened. I just wanted to put it out there.

ss7, my take on it was it wasn't anything bad. Davidson was just running the ball up the middle for 2 minutes and it was still effective. No showing off, just wasting time.

Walt wrote:


* As Coke mentioned Davidson's kicker is great. One could argue he was MVP last night. Where is he going? I felt like we had a chance to hurt Davidson with our return game but never got that chance.

Davidsons kicker is JD Detmer and is only a Junior. He is also a standout soccer player.

And btw, CapCityPreps, loved the video. Any chance you could put a clip online of the hit by Pat Dougherty (#46) near the end of the game? One of the best hits I've ever seen.

The ref was in the way a bit but you can hear ths hit and see the receiver get knocked back.
Will post the play asap.

Thank you very much sir. Keep up the good work!

HDvHS FAN wrote: ss7, my take on it was it wasn't anything bad. Davidson was just running the ball up the middle for 2 minutes and it was still effective. No showing off, just wasting time.

I agree...not showing off or even running up the score. I was just surprised to see Delande and the other RB carrying the ball in that situation given their recent health issues. I would have hated to see one of them re-aggravate an injury in mop up time.

77Legend wrote: It worked for me, I use Fire Fox and Opera.

Internet Explorer. I have viewed video on the site before. Will check again later tonight. thanks for the direct link also. Will try that if it doesn't come up.

That's true Walt. I will say though, I was impressed with how good they looked after all that time off. There were a few offensive miscues but overall they looked to be 100%. That's a great sign.