[charlie22]

Great summary. The soft corner play and lack of a pass rush in the first game was driving me insane. It had to be part of the master plan. It worked. But wasn't it as obvious to the Covcath coaches as it was to the knowledgeable football fan? Could the Covcath coaches conceivably thought that Highlands would play defense in the same way? I was quietly confident that this game would be a blowout. I really believe if Sheehan isn't hurt, the long passes are there in abundance too. I thought Highlands had a legimate chance to score 70 in the rematch.

I think it had to be as obvious to the CovCath coaches. But while they had to anticipate certain changes, they couldn't have been sure exactly how we'd run the changes. Plus, while the CovCath coaches and through them the CovCath players knew Highlands would do things differently, seeing what is anticipated in practice against a scout team is totally different than having to face the opponent's starters in the real game. There is simply no way CovCath's scout team can simulate the speed of Highlands starting D.

Once again Highlands speed based defense overwhelmed CovCath's big but considerably slower O line.

As for the shots being fired at the Highlands fans for being cocky; arrogant; a holes; whatever, I ask people to understand that last week the Highlands fans "endured" a lot of stuff from the CovCath fans on this site and others. CovCath was back they were told and CovCath was going to knock the mighty Birds off their high and might perch. That didn't happen; it didn't come close to happening. So the Bird fans are rather full of themselves this week and understandably so. When your biggest rival tells you all week that they are going to beat you, and you kick the stuffings out of them, you are pretty cocky for awhile. Then you add to that the fact that LexCath struggled in both games to beat Boyle; a team that Highlands beat by a decent margin and should, if you look at that game the way Highlands fans do, have beat by a much bigger margin. Thus, the confidence that Highlands will beat LexCath by a lot. Will they? We'll find out in a few days. But I can certainly understand why the Highlands fans are pretty confident of a big win.

And I have to admit, after seeing how Highlands disposed of CovCath, I'm pretty confident myself. That was a pretty darn good CovCath team folks. They pretty easily handled an Ashland team that many posters on here thought was the best Ashland team since 91. CovCath had a very nice QB, a stud RB, nice recievers and a decent O line. Yet Highlands held them to 14 and shut down their stud RB. But-for some un-Highlands like penalties, CovCath would have only scored 10. Now we face LexCath: another very good QB with good receivers. Running game supposedly not as good as CovCath's. Which should make it easier to defend the LexCath passing game. LexCath's D obviously stepped up big time against Boyle's O which should be encouraging to the LexCath fans. But it's a night and day difference between Highlands' O and Boyle's O. Highlands' O spreads the defenses all over the field: deep and wide with its passing game. Highlands O line is better (actually much better) than Boyle's. I like Boyle's RBs (Cox and Hester) but Highlands RBs are very talented also. Then you add to that, Towles and the Highlands receivers, and you start to feel that what LexCath's D did to Boyle they won't be able to do to Highlands. Thus, unless Highlands O has a lot of turnovers, I can understand why the Highlands fans think that Highlands should score a lot of points.

So while I'm not into making predictions on message boards, I can understand where the optimism is coming from with the Highlands fans. Having said that, I know Coach Letton pretty well. He's a very good defensive minded coach. I'm sure he'll come up with the best game plan possible to slow down the Highlands O. I'm just not real confident that it will be effective. I am very confident however that the LexCath players will play their hearts out. Birds better be ready for a very hard fought and hard hitting football game. I think they will.