[Panther1]

I am saying a 6 is better than a 4! I would make Pikeville beat me in the air!

I was at the first Hazard/Pikeville game and this is what I remember...

They DID play a 6-2 the first time. Pikeville still rushed for nearly 400 yards. (Pikeville's offense has seen 8-9 in the box in EVERY game other than Belfry all year, has a VERY predictable offense, and still has over 2500 rushing yards).

Hazard used four down-linemen with the "OLB's" walked up to the line of scrimmage. Their Inside LB's were within 3 yards from the LOS every play and seemed to be blitzing a gap on many of those plays -- apparently to stop the Panthers from running inside.

So Pikeville went outside and had a lot of success early.

To stop this, I noticed Hazard start bringing a CORNER BLITZ from the wide side of the field.

Pikeville then had Harmon throw a halfback pass/quick screen to the Split End putting the corner out of position to make the play and leaving it to the Safety to come over from the middle of the field.

So essentially, they had EIGHT in the box every play, and occassionally brought the corner to give them NINE in the box. Pikeville still rushed for almost 400 yards.

From high in the stands, I could tell that Jenkins also ran a 6-2. It's hard to tell from up there, but I think they were choosing to put their DL in gaps, and brought their safety up to within 7 yards of the LOS and came hard after the snap. Pikeville ran for 177 yards on 21 running plays through the 3rd quarter -- when the JV went in. They rushed for almost 8 yards per run-play against virtually 9 in the box.

Given that, plus the fact that Tim Honaker seems to be getting better at the passing game, plus the fact that Harmon can even be a threat to throw if Hazard "sells out," plus the fact that Paintsville had pretty good success running against them at their place, I wonder what Hazard will do defensively this time?