Rez Ipsa

2 minutes ago, myrecordwashorrible said:

Sat on Huntsville's side last night. Never, yes never do I recall noticing a fan base other than the numbers. Seeing from the opposite side was interesting. That was a sight to behold and very impressive.  Not sure how to describe it other than to say again, impressive. 

I’ve always wanted to do that, to see PNG from the other side. 

1 hour ago, PN-G bamatex said:

I want to share a story from last year.

After the game, my folks and I went to the Whiskey Cake in Katy for a very late dinner. I had driven in from Leander that afternoon and they had left PN-G late due to work. Nobody’d had the time to eat beforehand.

There was a family in the restaurant from Liberty Hill sitting a few tables down from us. They had a little girl with them, maybe seven or eight years old, and an older boy who appeared to be late middle school or early high school age. I figured he was a player on the freshman team.

That little girl realized we were from PN-G and gave us the evil eye for the entire dinner. I’m talking a full hour of this girl glaring at us from across the dining area, non-stop. You could feel the heat coming off this girl’s gaze. I had to fight not to crack up all night because every time I’d look over to my left, I had the possessed girl’s hellish stare from the exorcism movie looking straight back at me. You could tell the PN-G crowd, the War Chant and Cherokee had driven this poor girl insane that night.

Her parents picked up on what was going on and came over to talk to us after they finished their meal. Couldn’t have been nicer folks. Wished us luck in the championship, complimented the fan base - just nice, small town people. I told them I lived just down the road in Leander and drove in for the game. Even for a fan base like Liberty Hill’s that generally travels well, you could tell they were shocked that out-of-town alumni would make a drive like that to see the Indians play.

This is the game where our fan base earned the “rabid” label online last year. Every time I think about that, I think about that ferocious glare from that little girl. I have a feeling I’m gonna feel it coming across the field at me again this year. Scalp ‘em!

Liberty Hill should put her on a shirt 

6 hours ago, NHSBulldogFan said:

Liberty Hill is actually smaller than they were last year I have the feeling it's going to be a long night for them against the PN-G offense

Their defensive line is shockingly small. I’m having trouble imagining a scenario where they stop our run game. 

Liberty Hill has probably had a rematch with PNG circled all season. Let’s get it going. 

Great season, Jasper! We were pulling for you. 

1 minute ago, Eazy said:

Well it was a good game.  Huntsville needed to have the 1st half look like the 2nd half.   PNG getting that lead was big.  Good season Huntsville.  

They played us really tough. 

1 hour ago, PhatMack19 said:

Fake FG.  Receiver comes from out of bounds to get the 1st by 3 inches.  
 

Huntsville ball on PNG 29

Refs helped so much on that drive 

11 minutes ago, Mr. Buddy Garrity said:

Westfield would beat Duncanville if they had a great QB IMO. Was still tempted to pick em.......

 

DeSoto and CH is a totally different animal, that's a true rivalry. Only thing that would surprise me in that one is if no one got ejected. 

 

 

Sorry for the hijack folks, just responding to a post. 

Specific to this game, you’re right that it’s not really accurate to call a Huntsville win an upset. They’re where they are for a reason, ranking and records don’t matter. Huntsville doesn’t have to be the best 6 weeks ago to beat us. They have to be the best this week. 

43 minutes ago, Mr. Buddy Garrity said:

There's no upsets at this point of the playoffs. 

Good point. 

I’ve been watching some Huntsville film. I’m predicting a grinding, slobberknocker game similar to the one PNG had against West Orange. Huntsville is big on the defensive line, and they don’t give up big plays. They’re also fast on the D line, with quick hands. Number 55 has multiple long runs after fumbles or interceptions. And they’re capable of closing off the run game similarly to Lake Creek. In the playoffs, their defense is a mirror to PNG’s (though we played the best offense in the region in Lake Creek). Looking only at their playoff performance, they’ve given up an average of 16 points a game, identical to PNG over the same period. That being said, PNG’s offense has been better than Huntsville’s, and I think that will make the difference. 
 

I see two likely scenarios:

One, PNG plays stiff defense and is able to move the ball relatively consistently, slowly inching up the score board for a final score around 21/28 to 7/14.

Two, Huntsville keeps it to a close, one-score game and whoever wins does it by the skin of their teeth. Huntsville wants a low-scoring game, of course.

I think we have the advantage in a shootout. The later the game goes with a 14-7 or 7-0 score, the more I start to see a Huntsville upset. Richmond and Texas City showed that if you let Huntsville hang around they can take advantage of it. We just have to come out clean, get up by a couple scores, and hang on. As improved as Huntsville’s defense has been, they haven’t shown the same leap on offense. If they have to play catchup, we control the game. 

18 hours ago, Mr. Buddy Garrity said:

 

@BMTSoulja1 remember this?😁

 

I miss those royal purple helmets. 

24 minutes ago, navydawg31 said:

Faircloth first year at PNG… that play was to win the district championship and they went undefeated that year, I wanna say they lost in round 2 to Brehnam… 

Correct. Lost in round 2 to Brenham. 

1 hour ago, Eazy said:

Former Huntsville D-Lineman T’Vondre Sweat is the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year.  PNG folks might remember him when the Hornets came to town in 2018.  He was quite the force.  

He was unstoppable 

1 hour ago, jayhawk said:

I don't know  its hard to adjust to SOC giant WR'S running over PNG small secondary last year, hopefully PNG has beefed up in the secondary. PNG  great team with a great coach! 

We didn’t necessarily need to adjust on defense. We needed to keep drives going so that SOC would run out of time for a comeback. When they moved a guy over on the d line, they largely took away the run and we started having quick three and outs. They basically said, “We’ll stack up on the line and force PNG to win through the air against our D1 secondary.” PNG couldn’t throw a fast enough ball on a good day against that secondary, our receivers weren’t quick enough to get open, and the qb was under pressure, so we weren’t going to keep drives open by throwing out of the pocket OR by running in the second half. The only thing I think might have worked would have been to take a Crippen out and put Shae in at QB - Shae could roll out, show pass, and run for a quick four out five yards. And, he might have been able to get a few passes completed as the secondary bit on the qb run. We could have chewed up a couple more yards a run and extended more drives, and just slowed them down a lot. We basically did that offense after crippen got hurt anyway, and Shae got some good runs at the end (and completed a few passes to set up a score) - I think if we had implemented that earlier, they would have had to adjust to the outside, possibly giving us back the inside run lanes. In other words, we could have adjusted to their adjustment and kept them guessing more. 

3 hours ago, NHSBulldogFan said:

No HE did not win 8 playoff games in less than two years PN-G has won 8 playoff games in less two years...watch the 2nd half of last week's game and tell me if you think the offense worked...all I'm saying is mix it up a bit PN-G would be hard to beat if they did

I share the concern. Not that we’re not hard to beat - PNg’s been pretty dang hard to beat. But, I share the concern that we’ll come up against a team we can’t move the ball running against, and won’t make adjustments. Which is exactly what happened against SOC last season. SOC adjusted in the second half. PNG didn’t .  

Am I correct that Connor Bailey hasn’t thrown any interceptions this season? He’s had a heck of a start to his high school career. Hard to believe he’s only a sophomore. 

27 minutes ago, NHSBulldogFan said:

If Coach McCrary was smart he would pull up the tape when they played Liberty Hill and implement it... the constant running plays in between the tackles didn't work vs Lake Creek and won't work vs. Huntsville...you have big tall receivers use them

Not only that - If we make it to state, it’s not going to work against Soc or Lovejoy. 

Does anyone know if Huntsville fans have an online space similar to this one ? I’d love to see what they’re saying about this game. They certainly don’t talk here. 

1 hour ago, FrodoNDN said:

Been watching some videos. The D line looks pretty big. Running back looks quick. Thoughts?

What sticks out to me is the defense is very well conditioned and tenacious. They don’t strike me as particularly big, but they’re tough. They won’t be intimidated.  

1 hour ago, TrojanWarrior08 said:

They had a good turn out in the last 2 playoff games so they should come out for this one.

I’d expect them to bring at least as many as Montgomery Lake Creek, but I’m predicting more. 

6 minutes ago, Mr. Buddy Garrity said:

Great schedule! 💪🏾

 

now look at SOC schedule. 

Two losses are to the favorites to win 6ad1 and 6aD2. Still counts for good experience - they’ve played both teams that are at least in the top three in the state (counting north shore, assuming qb is healthy). No other 5ad2 team has that experience, even if it’s in losses. And, they’ve beaten Midlothian Heritage, Lancaster (still in 5ad1 playoffs), and Melissa. Not bad at all. 

11 minutes ago, bullets13 said:

If Lovejoy doesn't pull it off, I don't know that anyone does.  Lovejoy is good, good.  Beat Melissa 28-7, who SOC beat by a touchdown last week.  They played a tough schedule as well, which will have them prepared.  The Lovejoy/SOC game this week is the one I'm most interested in in the state not involving an SETX team.  

Lovejoy’s schedule is crazy legit - One loss , to an undefeated 6A team playing in the quarterfinals this weekend. They beat College Station, Melissa, Texas High, Argyle. If anyone can beat SoC, it’s Lovejoy. 

NDN Press is reporting game time and place is official - 7pm Friday at NRG. Ticket info pending. 

I could see Lovejoy beating SOC - Their receivers are elite. Probably the most stacked offensive team in 5aD2. But, the qb is going to have to have time to throw, and SOC showed against Melissa that they can take that time away. Whichever we face , if we make it that far, is going to be a tall order. And this is assuming, I think correctly, that neither Frisco Emerson nor Colleyville Heritage will be waiting for us in Arlington. 

47 minutes ago, Eazy said:

I’m sure Pieper will be favored.  Liberty Hill has been to the Region Final all 4 years they have been in 5A.  I don’t think their first matchup has much importance.  Liberty Hill had five 2nd half turnovers in that game and lost by 10.  LH likes to ground and pound with the slot-T and Pieper looks like they like to sling it.  This looks like another of these Reg 4 Finals where the punters can stay home.  I see a shootout.  Flip a coin for the winner.

You’re right that most of what went wrong for LH in the last game isn’t replicable (fumbles, interceptions, etc). Pieper should still win, but I’m anticipating a closer game.