[#55PirateFan]

I'll give my thoughts on the Pirates win last night.

First off, to the kids from Southwestern, keep your heads up! You guys have some very good athletes and the future is bright for you young men. It's also just the first game of the season and the season is far from over. Get healthy and keep working, you'll get there.

For my Pirates:

Offensively, man do we have some skill players in the backfield! Dixon, Bentley, and Hensley has to be one of the best trios in the state. Israel Canterbury played great at QB. He played a mistake free game in an offense that's he's still learning. Belfry's offense is not easy to run but this kid was almost perfect in doing so last night filling in for Brett Coleman. As for the offensive line, we have some work to do. But it was expected. They are young and very inexperienced with only one returning starter from last years team. But considering that, I thought they played a pretty good football game last night as a group. But like I said, they've got some work to do. We have the size on the O-Line without a doubt, just got to get some experience. It's not easy playing O-Line at Belfry. Alot of pressure and expectations. But they'll get there in a couple of games. And when they do and we get Coleman back at QB, this offense will be absolutely scary!

Defensively, WOW! This side of the ball was like Baker Mayfield yesterday morning, they ALL woke up feeling dangerous! From the first snap they were hitting everything! Flying to the ball, team tackling, making good reads, staying on their assignments, hard hitting, and getting in the backfield. I've been tough on our defense for a while now and with reason. Just seemed like they were not playing with an identity. And at times I've even questioned their heart and toughness. Man, if they didn't shut me up last night! Absolutely one of the best defensive games I've seen Belfry play in a long time. And one of the most physical games. If our defense plays like that the rest of the year and our offense keeps doing what they do, we will be very, very hard to beat by anybody on our schedule and in the 3A playoffs. Our D-Line was awesome. Want to single out big #23 Jake Baisden. Big Jake looked like Raquan Horton out there last night. He seemed to live in the backfield. Not always getting the tackle but he kept disrupting the offense. Our DE's and LB's played just as good. Grayson Cook had a good game, he always does when hes out there. Nice to see Seth Mounts back on the field. And he to played a good game. Seth is one of our players that could be All State, no doubt, but he has been hammered with injuries since he's been in high school. When he's on the field, he makes a difference. He's got to stay healthy. Jonathan Stepp was a monster last night. This guy was everywhere, running around making plays like a mad man! Freshman Rudy Blackwell is going to be a star at Belfry. Kid made some big plays last night. Our secondary looked fast and ready for everything. Defense was OUTSTANDING!

Overall, Belfry really surprised me last night. I really thought we were going to start the season 0-1. When I watched them practice and watched the scrimmage games, they just looked out of sync. The Pirates just didn't look right. I told a couple of my buddies that we're just not ready for the season to start. Boy was I wrong! The entire defense was the MVP in my book. Everyone played great. If we play like we did last night there's not a doubt in my mind that we will be at Kroger field holding up trophy #7. With that said, we played really good but we wasn't perfect. Still some work to do. But there's always room for improvements. My main concern with this team is the offensive line maturing and our health. The line will get there. Just going to take a couple games to get that experience of playing on a big high school stage. Health concerns me the most. If we dont stay healthy, we can't win. We don't have the depth in years past. We have a few players, key players, that have missed a few games the past two years because of injuries. They have to find a way to play every game. If they do, this could be a special season.