[charlie22]

I went into this game thinking the game would be decided by what coaches made the best adjustments from the regular season game. That was a no brainer.

Since then I've been wondering if Highlands DC didn't set CovCath up in the first game. In that first game, Highlands corners played off a lot; Highlands played a 3-4-4, and rarely attempted to put pressure on CovCath's QB. Playoff game: the corners played close, we cheated one of the safeties so close that it resembled our old 3-5-3, and we put a lot more pressure on the QB.

Result: CovCath couldn't double the nose and he just ate up CovCath's center; we had the extra linebacker that enabled us to once again shoot gaps and totally shut down Gray and CovCath's run game; the short passing game was nullified; and when CovCath attempted to go deep their QB was getting hit regularly and often.

I really wonder of Weinrich wasn't baiting CovCath in the first game, expecting the re-match.

On O, once Mueller saw that CovCath was committed (actually over-committed) to stopping the deep pass, he went to the run game. Highlands O line dominated CovCath's front 7. And I mean dominated. The RBs, given good running lanes, performed fantastically. True, Seidl and Harris all had great games. I've felt all year long that Highlands had an outstanding line and RBs, they just were never given the opportunity because of Highlands passing game. Once called upon, they performed extremely well.

I read a lot about CovCath's O line after the first game and I'll admit it's better this year than it has been in a while (but is still too slow against a D line Highlands). This game showed which team had the better O line. Highlands by a country mile. Opened big holes and for most of the game gave Towles all kinds of time to pass. The few times CovCath put pressure (by bringing the outside LBers) on Towles, he either evaded them or threw them off rather easily.

Great game plans coaches and great execution players. Well done.