GAME DAY: PN-G Indians vs Nederland Bulldogs, 101st Meeting

[bandkid]

Made it to the game last night. Ran late, because I left Austin later than I’d hoped. (Politics happened.) Got there about halfway through the second quarter.

I’m most frustrated by the penalties. Yes, it’s a big rivalry game. But we’re also eight games into the season at this point and faced serious adversity from Huntsville, MLC, and La Porte earlier in the season. Not to mention that we have two state championship appearances and plenty of tough playoff wins to our credit over the last two seasons. The boys know how to handle pressure better than that. This is the area in most critical need of improvement.

The defense got burned a lot, but I can’t really hang this game on the defense. Your defense is inevitably going to start underperforming when it’s spending too much time on the field.

Two missed field goals, an interception, and way too many short drives by the offense. Those are the difference-makers in this game, in my opinion.

To Nederland’s credit, it was apparent Scott Rich spent years working for Gary Joseph last night. It seemed like he knew exactly how to adjust the Nederland D for every look the Indian O gave him. I suppose you could say he has an intuitive understanding of the Joseph play-calling philosophy, certainly better than any other HC I’ve watched Jeff Joseph square off against to date. Once again, Nederland made an outstanding hire in picking Rich.

Here’s the good news. I saw Jackson Christian at the Whataburger on Twin City last night. He was upbeat, classy as ever, and reassuring the other PN-G students in the restaurant that the Indians will be okay. All the rumors are true—the kid’s got the best attitude you could ask for from a high school football player. If the rest of the team takes that attitude, uses this as a learning opportunity and a motivator, we’ll be alright the rest of the season.

PS: Y’all know what I say about history repeating itself. The only time in school history the Indians have made it to a third consecutive state title game was the 1955 season. We won state that season. PN-G went 11-2 that year, both losses occurring in the regular season. Y’all know who those losses were to?

Our rivals: Nederland and TJ.

Always be faithful, folks.

 

[tony79]

Special teams Kick-Off and punt coverage much better.

 

[kingcrablegs]

Made it to the game last night. Ran late, because I left Austin later than I’d hoped. (Politics happened.) Got there about halfway through the second quarter.

I’m most frustrated by the penalties. Yes, it’s a big rivalry game. But we’re also eight games into the season at this point and faced serious adversity from Huntsville, MLC, and La Porte earlier in the season. Not to mention that we have two state championship appearances and plenty of tough playoff wins to our credit over the last two seasons. The boys know how to handle pressure better than that. This is the area in most critical need of improvement.

The defense got burned a lot, but I can’t really hang this game on the defense. Your defense is inevitably going to start underperforming when it’s spending too much time on the field.

Two missed field goals, an interception, and way too many short drives by the offense. Those are the difference-makers in this game, in my opinion.

To Nederland’s credit, it was apparent Scott Rich spent years working for Gary Joseph last night. It seemed like he knew exactly how to adjust the Nederland D for every look the Indian O gave him. I suppose you could say he has an intuitive understanding of the Joseph play-calling philosophy, certainly better than any other HC I’ve watched Jeff Joseph square off against to date. Once again, Nederland made an outstanding hire in picking Rich.

Here’s the good news. I saw Jackson Christian at the Whataburger on Twin City last night. He was upbeat, classy as ever, and reassuring the other PN-G students in the restaurant that the Indians will be okay. All the rumors are true—the kid’s got the best attitude you could ask for from a high school football player. If the rest of the team takes that attitude, uses this as a learning opportunity and a motivator, we’ll be alright the rest of the season.

PS: Y’all know what I say about history repeating itself. The only time in school history the Indians have made it to a third consecutive state title game was the 1955 season. We won state that season. PN-G went 11-2 that year, both losses occurring in the regular season. Y’all know who those losses were to?

Our rivals: Nederland and TJ.

Always be faithful, folks.

They got to throw some trick plays every now and then.

 

[PurpleReign]

Made it to the game last night. Ran late, because I left Austin later than I’d hoped. (Politics happened.) Got there about halfway through the second quarter.

I’m most frustrated by the penalties. Yes, it’s a big rivalry game. But we’re also eight games into the season at this point and faced serious adversity from Huntsville, MLC, and La Porte earlier in the season. Not to mention that we have two state championship appearances and plenty of tough playoff wins to our credit over the last two seasons. The boys know how to handle pressure better than that. This is the area in most critical need of improvement.

The defense got burned a lot, but I can’t really hang this game on the defense. Your defense is inevitably going to start underperforming when it’s spending too much time on the field.

Two missed field goals, an interception, and way too many short drives by the offense. Those are the difference-makers in this game, in my opinion.

To Nederland’s credit, it was apparent Scott Rich spent years working for Gary Joseph last night. It seemed like he knew exactly how to adjust the Nederland D for every look the Indian O gave him. I suppose you could say he has an intuitive understanding of the Joseph play-calling philosophy, certainly better than any other HC I’ve watched Jeff Joseph square off against to date. Once again, Nederland made an outstanding hire in picking Rich.

Here’s the good news. I saw Jackson Christian at the Whataburger on Twin City last night. He was upbeat, classy as ever, and reassuring the other PN-G students in the restaurant that the Indians will be okay. All the rumors are true—the kid’s got the best attitude you could ask for from a high school football player. If the rest of the team takes that attitude, uses this as a learning opportunity and a motivator, we’ll be alright the rest of the season.

PS: Y’all know what I say about history repeating itself. The only time in school history the Indians have made it to a third consecutive state title game was the 1955 season. We won state that season. PN-G went 11-2 that year, both losses occurring in the regular season. Y’all know who those losses were to?

Our rivals: Nederland and TJ.

Always be faithful, folks.

I always appreciate the thoughtful, reflective and insightful words that both you and Indian Fan bring to this forum…so, thank you!

i agree with everything said in this post. To Jackson Christian, thank you for your continued unwavering effort, enthusiasm, optimism and dedication you bring to this team. Continue to inspire and encourage those around you and we will all see the results. Blessings to you!

Without sounding like I’m jumping on a bandwagon or looking to make an excuse, I am very concerned about the play calling. We’ve won a couple of very tough games that could have gone either way and we’ve won others that were not as challenging. The play calling has remained consistent. Last night we hit a brick wall, and the play calling was predictable, uncreative, and apparently incapable of adjusting. Going forward, there will be more brick walls as playing tough teams will be the norm. I truly believe that this excellent team of coaches can see that and will do what it takes to move us forward and capitalize on the strengths of this team.

I look forward to history repeating itself per the 1955 team! Let’s go NDNs, and definitely… ALWAYS BE FAITHFUL!!

 

[Xcrystalbeachbum]

"Last night we hit a brick wall, and the play calling was predictable, uncreative, and apparently incapable of adjusting."

Nederland played single coverage and the rest of team was packed in the box (within 7 yards of the line of scrimmage) running downhill. 7 to 9 players against our OL. No way we are winning that. The few times we ran outside we made some plays. Pretty basic strategy forcing us to beat them in the air.

 

[kingcrablegs]

"Last night we hit a brick wall, and the play calling was predictable, uncreative, and apparently incapable of adjusting."

Nederland played single coverage and the rest of team was packed in the box (within 7 yards of the line of scrimmage) running downhill. 7 to 9 players against our OL. No way we are winning that. The few times we ran outside we made some plays. Pretty basic strategy forcing us to beat them in the air.

Port Neches should have ran some trick plays in that game like when you have the wild cat formation with Blair why did they not run a trick play in that scenario.

 

[NDNmom91]

Well, I felt VERY uneasy about this game…always do, but it was different this time because the team has just looked really flat all season so I had a feeling Nederland might be HUNGRIER to knock us OFF the top spot than we were to STAY THERE…I sure was hoping they’d prove me wrong, ugh! However, most of the team has only known the “thrill of VICTORY” and it’s easy to get comfortable so hopefully experiencing the “agony of DEFEAT” will be the SPARK they needed! The play calling has been questionable all season and didn’t notice any changes, adjustments, or improvement last night so that’s concerning!

 

[kingcrablegs]

Well, I felt VERY uneasy about this game…always do, but it was different this time because the team has just looked really flat all season so I had a feeling Nederland might be HUNGRIER to knock us OFF the top spot than we were to STAY THERE…I sure was hoping they’d prove me wrong, ugh! However, most of the team has only known the “thrill of VICTORY” and it’s easy to get comfortable so hopefully experiencing the “agony of DEFEAT” will be the SPARK they needed! The play calling has been questionable all season and didn’t notice any changes, adjustments, or improvement last night so that’s concerning!

I think they thought they were going to win and did not have to prepare that much for it and that reminded me of a couple of weeks ago when Bama played Vandy they came very flat in that game and ended up losing to them same thing happened to PNG last night.