EAGLES' ADJUSTMENTS WERE THE DIFFERENCE

By mark rogers
September 13, 2009

The Abilene High/Cooper game was once again a memorable and entertaining game.

A 21-21 tie at the half, Cooper had run 47 plays. Abilene High? Just 17.

Cooper had the ball 18 minutes. Abilene High had it six. Six minutes, and they scored 21 points.

Normally when an offense scores that quickly, the defense is sucking wind and doesn't play very well. Any drive over nine plays begins to take a toll on the defenders. Cooper had three drives more than 13 plays on Friday. It was a great first half.

And I don't know the specific adjustments that were made (perhaps I could determine that if I could watch the game film again), but Abilene High stopped the Cougars on the first drive in the third quarter...held them to a FG...and that was the difference.

The momentum began to swing in the Eagles favor, and Cooper was never able to tilt it back their way.

Controlling the clock like that only works if you can stop the other team from scoring.

If that happens, the team that only scores quick will eventually run out of time.

It happened to the 2002 Abilene High Eagles. That was the year Marcus Johnson (QB) and Jerale Badon (WR) were seniors.

They had an unbelievable season and many thought they had a chance to play for the state title.

They lost in the first round to Lub. Monterey (a team they whipped early in the year) because Monterey kept the ball for so long. The Eagles simply didn't have enough time to score. It was an upset for the ages.

It looked like Cooper was on its way to that kind of win on Friday, they just couldn't come up with that big stop they needed.

Got to hand it to the Cooper offense for doing their part in keeping the ball out of the Sims boys' hands.

But you have to give more credit to the Sims boys. They were simply unstoppable.

Guess that week off didn't effect them all that much.

I wish that one had playoff implications instead of not having one ounce of importance in the standings...oh well.

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