MikeEast

What the Central-Nederland game did was verify what westend1 stated in another thread, that Nederland is one of several mediocre teams in 20-4A that had yet to run into any competition. Central is very mediocre too. They are soft to the run defensively (Sounds weird after a win and a decent game, but Nederland could and probably should have run on them all night, Central could not stop Grogan) and totally and completely 1 dimensional on offense... Pure sandlot football. What it also confirms is that PNG is downright weak, especially after their loss to Vidor. I hope Lumberton and Livingston are better than I think they are because they are the only hopes I see at this point of 20-4A being represented beyond the 1st round of the playoffs. No disrespect to Central but what I saw was a VERY basic 1 dimensional offense. Line up in the wishbone and run right at you. Nederland essentially had 11 men in the box all night. They actually did an ok job of containing the run until Central would lob a grenade downfield and get a cheap 35 yard completion or have blown coverage and give the QB a 25 yard gain from 3rd and 100. Actually Nederlands run defense was not too too bad except on 3rd and long, but the secondary needs some serious coaching help. On the very few pass completions that Central got, all the defender needed to do was look up and swat. Chronic problem continues for Nederlands secondary. mediocre, mediocre, mediocre. Top 4 Lumberton Livingston Central Vidor/Nederland in that order.

Vidor 28 PN-G 24 Nederland ? Central ? Lumberton 35 Ozen 14 Livingston 100,000,000,000,000,000 LC-M 0

Actually, I have seen them play twice. Unimpressive against Ozen, but better against PNG. Still, isn't PNG pretty bad? Ned got whipped in all aspects by 3A Orange and Jasper. They are not very physical which you will find out about two games deep into the playoffs. Hope they prove me wrong. Even if they win out, I really dont think you will know for sure how good this Ned team is or is not until a couple of rounds into the playoffs. I dont think there is another real contender in their district schedule so if we lose to any of them I think the question will be answered right quick, mediocre. That is, mediocre in the overall state wide 4A picture. I dont think that anyone can definitively say that Nederland is , strong, weak or mediocre at this point. There is really nothing to assess power or the lack thereof just yet. They have yet to meet any significant resistance, someone that forces them to really work for a win.. That could mean they are super great( I doubt) or that their competition was really weak (I bet). Here is why I dont know what to think just yet. 1. The Nederland team that played WOS and Jasper is not the same level of team that is playing right now so I honestly would not use that as a gauge, they are a whole different team since coach Neumann supposedly had a "come to Jesus meeting" with them a few weeks ago. 2. The fact that they scored 40+ points against what looks to truly be a mediocre PNG team and could have scored 100 against LCM is not a good measuring stick.. Yeah, you have to be a pretty darn good team to score 90 points in two weeks (especially when it easily could have been 140) regardless of the talent, but it did look a little "too" easy against LCM so I would not get all worked up over it. If IF IF they come out and decisively beat Central like they did PNG, Ozen and LCM then I personally will feel a little bit cockier. If I were wearing a Bulldog uniform I would feel cautiously optimistic, and just keep kicking *ss until somone proves that they can stop me.

To be fair, you are right.. I am baseing my opinion on the fact that Lumberton lost to Vidor, who although plays with tremendous pride and heart, has never really been able to get it together. Also with that being said, my Bulldogs have fallen to Vidor in some of their best playoff years so I probably should not base Lumbertons mettle on losing to Vidor. They have upset some pretty good teams over the years. I like these kinds of conversations simply for the sake of discussion, but the guys that really know me will tell you that I really think that anything can happen in high school football and in a district like ours it will probably come down to the last week of the season,,,,, again. 8)

Im not so sure about that. I have not seen Lumberton play so you may be right about them, but I have seen the Dogs play and this years team has started to exhibit some of the characteristics of playoff caliber teams. They look to have the potential to go several rounds deep at minimum. But there are a lot of IF's. If they stay healthy, If they stay humble and focused and not get overconfident, If they play with maximum intensity and don't let up, If they dont just have a bad night and lose confidence in themselves,,, then they honestly have the athletes on this team to win out in district play make a pretty decent run. If they get cocky and lose focus whatsoever,,,, they might not even get out of district play which is true for any team. All that being said, I have to consider that they have not really played a single team that has really impressed me yet, and the fact that the teams that are left for them in district play have all lost games to one another says they wont meet another serious contender if/until they reach the playoffs to prove there mettle against. Even WOS did not look all that impressive to me despite the fact that we lost to them. I think of all the teams left, Livingston may be the only team that offers the closest thing to a real test. Sounds like they are playing some pretty good football.

The Nederland Central game has become like a rivalry game. Central always gives Nederland fits and when Central wins they win HUGE, when Nederland wins you hold your breath till the last tick of the clock. Central has certain perennial attributes that always have given the Nederland coaching staff problems. First is an extremely agressive defense that just throws caution to the wind, they bring everyone but the DBs almost every play.. We have struggled to handle it well and if Grogan and Bellows and Co cannot make them pay for it the wheels can come off in a hurry. Offensively Central usually plays sandlot football and basically snaps to the QB and lets him just take off running which Nederland has historically been absolutely HORRIBLE at handling. If Central gives the ball to a really fast guy and let him go nuts it could be a long night, if they try to play a finesse game I think the Dogs have the advantage.

I remember watching many PNG fans flip last year. They were ready to have an inquisition to run Burnett out on a rail early on, and then crowned him king after they went back to the run and started to win again. Now its back to wanting him gone for some, not all. I think he typically does all that he possibly can with the talent that he is dealt.

LCM 3 and out.... Nederland gets the ball and scores again immediately on a short field TD pass.

65 Yd td run by Grogan right off the bat.

They are no where near as strong looking as they were when we played them last year imo. I think last Saturday was more of PNG struggling than Nederland was that good. Obviously PNG lacks the bigtime the 1-2 running threat that they had last year. Without a big bruising back that can take yards by sheer force they will have a tough time of it against quality defenses judging by the fact that Nederlands D gave them such a fit I know that a real swarming defense like Dayton and WOS usually have will totally shut them down. On defense they have a decent secondary and played ok , they just had too many receivers to try to cover and deal with Grogan last week. You can see some potential in PNG, but I really dont think they will contend in post season play unless they get a lot better on both sides of the ball, which as we all know happens all the time in high school football. Two things that will be interesting to see play out. 1. Will PNG get it together? 2. Was the Ned-PNG game a fluke for Nederland?

Well I think that we have something to be excited about in Nederland again because the team looks to have reignited for the first time in a couple of years. That in itself is really encouraging for me because they had looked like they were tired of playing football since the middle of last season. Im not saying that they will even make the playoffs at all, I just think they look alive again and that is really exciting. As far as what else needs to happen to get over the hump, I think that one of the major keys is Cardenas and his secondary consistantly getting it done on DEFENSE regardless of whether he and his fellow reciever/db's get the ball on offense. They are such good athletes and have so much potential, Brady really showed how he can hit last Saturday night and put a couple of licks that reminded me of Peltiere and Boyd. But I really dont think its those particular players, I think that the coaches have to figure how to make it happen because the secondary has struggled for a few years with just knocking down a pass. If they can figure out a way to consistantly get them into position and prove that they can simply knock down passes, not intercept, not strip, just defend, then its going to be ON for the Dogs. That and everyone needs to just keep up the focus and intensity. Only time will tell how far they will go... They have the talent, but its up to them.

This is a fan of a team who's RB runs 4.5's and 4.4's. Everybody is slow to him. ;D ;D It really does not matter what your 40 speed is when it takes 4-5 defensive players to bring you down 95% of the time... Sometimes speed is not the most important thing. When you tie in what looks to finally be a legitamately solid high school level offensive line that spells L-O-T-S O-F R-U-S-H-I-N-G Y-A-R-D-S.

He was cramping up. I saw the trainers stretching out his legs several times in the fourth quarter. Yeah I saw cramps too.. He never did look to recover from the first time he went down with cramps. I am sure he really wanted to play really bad but I thought they would have taken hm out to prevent injury when we were up by 3 TD's late in the game. Lovelady was doing a good job. He is a load himself. They have several really good backs this year.

Michael, I'm not sure what you are talking when you say "SEVERAL YEARS"??? Last year we had problems at RB. But the THREE years before that we had Mosley running the ball and we ALL know what he did!!! You are correct, I for some reason thought right past Micah. duh, didn't think is more like it. However, I had particular names in mind of which i will not mention but I think excluding Micah you probably know what I am talking about. Small backs that go down way too easy has been the standard excluding the obvious.

Im holding my breath on the Dogs. They seem to be waking up from an extended vacation and have played real well the last couple of weeks but I am not convinced yet. It will probably take to the last week of district play to decide who gets in again.

Gotta remember, you are looking at an unexperienced running back at the varsity level. His skill is raw and he is pure brute force with pretty good speed mixed in. Right now he is a very good blocking back with above average size and speed. He is hitting the holes pretty hard and making much better decisions than he did a few weeks ago. As he gains experience he is just going to get better and better. It so good to see the Nederland staff finally pick the right running back. We have been floundering in what I thought were crummy running back selections for several years, ending up with your best backs playing defense. Granted it looks like we have a pretty good line to block for Grogan, but this guy can bring the groceries.

Well from what I saw last night Coach Neumann followed through on his promise to get his team fired up again. He talked about it in an article that came out in the papers while we were all evacuated. He acknowledged that what we fans had been saying since mid last season was true, that the intensity was gone and that the players needed a serious fire lit under their butts and he was going to personally see to it that it happened. I was a little skeptical that he could teach a running back how to attack the hole AND compel a collectively unispired defense to swarm and attack all in a week but man he sure did it, somehow they turned it around in just a few days. I heard it on the radio for the Ozen game and saw a totally different group of kids on both sides of the football for myself last night. All I can say is it finally feels good to be a Bulldog again. Even if they lose, its awesome to see 110% intensity from every player on the field. There is still one aspect of the game that needs some serious help though, gotta teach those DB's to knock down a ball for pete's sake. For me there were a TON of awesome things that a bunch of the kids did last night, but special props to Jude Vidrine who just E-X-P-L-O-D-E-D last night. He was a man possesed!

Man its about time. 8) This team has not played inspired football since last September. I am glad that Coach Neumann was able to follow through on his plan to lite a fire under the kids. Hope he can keep em playing Bulldog footbal for about another 2.5 months.

PNG , Lumberton and Central all should get in. I would think Central and PNG should be fighting for the top spot. Ozen, Livingston one or the other might squeeze in. Nederland, LCM, Vidor more than likely won't get in. To me WOS was just ok, they were very beatable Nederland just played like hammered crap. Totally unimpressive on both sides of the ball. They have a couple of good players but they cant stop the run and they don't look like they know how to play call and what they call is not working at all other than an occasional break. BTW I am a Bulldog fan but I know what i see so far. Please please prove me wrong.

We will see, I have to admit that I am a little concerned,,, but not without hope. So far they look about the same as they usually look in preseason. However, the thing that concerns me is that it does not "appear" that the defensive mentality has changed. Last year they played too much sit back and wait and it cost them week after week. If they do it again, we are going to have to score 40ppg to win games.

You're trying to tell us(well those with a football IQ) Ned was the best tackling team when 1)they gave up 200+ yards rushing per game, and 2) got blasted 63-0 plus giving up 63 points the previous year--with an All American on your defense? Man please...... I notice that you didn't offer up any team for having the best defense. Maybe because both of your teams stunk it up last year too. But hey, if you can get your cheap little shot at a MC team, then do it, huh? Wow, what a man.....and your IQ is???? I think Nederland's defense will be much improved. The Dayton game was just one of those games where they did everything right. We handed it to them several years ago in the playoffs with Hood not even playing the second half. But of course, you wouldn't want to bring that up, now would you? Nobody cares what happend years ago as you put it. This is a 'what have you done for me lately' situation and all Ned has done is finished mid-way to near the bottom in total defense. To answer your question, Central and Ozen not necessarily in that order..... I agree, last years Neds defense was not good and that is really a gross understatement. They played well reasonably well very early and steadily got worse as the season went on. The PNG game was ok for Nederlands defense, which may be what prompted the positive comment from a PNG fan. I got beat up all last season by my fellow fans for telling the truth but it was what it was. As far as this season, I have no idea. I would expect Central, Ozen and Lumberton to be pretty good. Ned and PNG could go anywhere from lower middle of the pack to the top. At this point my guess would be that they should make up the top 5 defenses in no particular order.

[quote name="bullets13" post="315844" timestamp="1200392214"] [quote author=KFDM COOP link=topic=31807.msg315786#msg315786 date=1200383818] Yes 2 4th place 5A Teams made it to the State Championship. [/quote] i have 3 comments about this... 1) this was a fluke 2) how many 4th place teams lost by 50 in the first round? 3) why is a team that couldn't even finish in the top 3 in their own district even allowed a chance to play in the playoffs.  if you can't be competitive in your district, you haven't earned a chance to play in the playoffs, even if you get lucky and peak at the right time and win a few games once you get there.  [/quote] Fluke, maybe but so what? Its not the 50 that matter, its the 2 that got into the championship that count. Unless you are new to this you cannot really think that ANY team getting to the State Championship in Texas 5A is a fluke? Although I would have voted against the addition of the 4th team, the fact that 2 of 4 teams that made it to the Finals in 5A were the 4th place teams in their district totally and completely validates adding the 4th team. It just goes to show you that there are districts out there that have a LOT of quality football going on and teams are getting left out that totally deserve to be in the playoffs. Granted in most cases you are adding a team that blows but there is no way to ignore the outcome. Yeah sure, in the first 2 weeks all the bottom dwellers will be weeded out. So what? It extends the season by a week in division 1 and it gives those 2 teams that DESERVED a playoff spot a shot to go all the way. I guess time will tell if it was more than a 1 year fluke, but if you consistantly have 4th place teams going 3-4 games deep then it was a good decision as far as I am concerened because they are having to beat GOOD teams to get that far.

Well it waters down the playoff system and can give teams that have losing records a spot in the playoffs, but on the positive it good gives teams like Lumberton that are consistantly a 4th place team (except for this past year or course) a chance to get into the playoffs. I would not say that its a bad thing though, it extends the season by 1 week in division 1........ AND as they say, the cream always rises to the top so the best teams will still end up going the distance. If that number 4 team ends up going deep in the playoffs,,, they definitely deserve it. As we saw this year from Dayton even really great teams can meet their Goliath in Texas. If you are not a legit contender, you will be gone before you ever get started.

I am pretty sure that they can . My understanding is he will start the spring semester at UT. My daughter is a senior and is friends with DJ. He is not the only one that I know of from this year at NHS that has done the same. I know there are a couple of their other classmates that have already attained enough credits to leave high school and have gone on to college.

I have been watching DJ play for years and I know that he did not show anywhere near the intensity or have anywhere near the impact that he had in years past. Based on that, I guess since he is not a high school student anymore I can say that I did not think that his performance on the field rated All District much less All State honors. However, this kid is one heck of an athlete and is big, stong, and fast. He looks and moves like a D1 player when he wants to. Now, I am strictly making an assumption here but I have wondered several times this past year if perhaps since he already knew that he was going to UT as long as he stayed healthy. I wondered if he might have been holding back just to make sure that he got there healthy and secured his future with UT. He had a partially separated shoulder late in the season that most people did not know about. Something else, we are not talking about a good athlete with decent grades. We are talking about an exceptional student athlete with the entire package. Attitude, athletic ability and exceptional grades. As has already been noted, he is no longer even a high school student. He only stayed long enough to finish the season and then he took his credits and went on to get started with his college education at UT.