Go Friday Night

San Angelo Central Summary

By Andrew Silva
September 23, 2006

A wise man once said, “we back those Cooper boys, they go to Cooper high, they’ll never let us down, we’ll fight with might, the red and blue tonight…” Have sweeter words ever been sung? Yes but that is beside the point. I have already stated how proud I am of the Coogs but as well as the Cougars played Thursday night, it is a dangerous thing to be satisfied with where they are at and not continue working toward their ultimate goals.
With that being said, here are some areas of improvement that the Cougars still struggled in against the Bobcats.
First, the Cougars still had too many unnecessary penalties. Are there any necessary penalties? Well that is like asking if anyone gets tracted, and the man who asked that was far too wise. The point is the Cougars need to eliminate foolish false starts (not paying attention) and especially eliminate the personal fouls. 15 yards isn’t worth it to get in that extra push after the whistle and besides, the Cougars will let their game speak for themselves. Second, we must be better tacklers! It is imperative that defenders wrap up and not allow extra yardage from broken arm tackles! The majority, if not all of Central’s big gains on offense came when their ball carrier was allowed the extra yards due to missed tackles. Thirdly, I still think the Cougars are taking too long to get their plays in on offense. I am not sure of all the intricacies of this new Spradlin offense, but I do know that the whole advantage of running a “no-huddle” is to keep the defense on it’s heels and keep the ball moving at an accelerated pace. Several times the Coogs snapped the ball with only 5-7 seconds left on the play clock. Which brings me to clock management. Again I was frustrated somewhat with the way the Coogs managed the clock at the end of the first half.
Another area to improve is turnovers, I know there was at least one fumble by a back and then the turnover on a punt where the ball hit a Cooper player and was recovered by Central. It may be only 2 turnovers, but that is 2 too many in my opinion. Also the Cooper offensive line needs to do a better job of getting push off the ball especially in short yardage. One example is the Coogs had a first and goal and ran two unsuccessful plays from inside the five yd line in their goal line package. On third down the Coogs were forced to go 4 wide. 4 wide on the goal line!! Finally, one of the biggest weaknesses of the Cooper game has to be special teams. I was proud of the Cougars for making their FG’s when they had to, but they also missed two extra points! Also the kick-off coverage seems susceptible to me, the guys need to do a better job of staying in their lane, flying down the field, and making the sure tackle. As for the return game, well so far it is non-existent. I don’t recall the Cougars getting any kind of punt return all evening. Many times the ball is not fielded when I think it could be and when it is we need to get some positive yards. As for kick-off, I know we broke a long one later in the game, but I think that was poor tackling on Central’s part. I credit the return man’s effort, but I believe the Cougars front group needs to do a much better job of getting hat on somebody and then sticking with that man. Special teams are a very important part of football and have decided many a football game over the years. If the Cougars want to play championship ball, then they will need to execute like champions in their special teams play. The good thing is all these areas can easily be improved with hard work and determination. As the coach of the Brisco Hawks says, “You know what you’re capable of, I just haven’t seen it yet.” Another wise man once said, "Good, better, best - never let it rest - until your good is better and your better is best!"
Now onto the positives. First of all, I can’t say enough how much improved the Coogs intensity was from the Temple game. Especially coming out from halftime, the Cooper players had their fires lit and were pumped up ready to take it to those Bobcats. Second, defense did an excellent job on maintaining gap responsibilities and plugging up the running lanes. Excellent job by the defensive line by re-establishing the line of scrimmage in the Bobcat backfield all night. Excellent job by the linebackers and DB’s of coming up in a hurry in run support. Receivers did a much, much better job of catching the ball this week as I only counted one dropped ball all evening. Not only that but the receivers are doing an excellent job of getting up the field after the catch and getting the tough yards. Speaking of getting the tough yards, the backs did an excellent job too of grinding out the tough yards and refusing to go down on the first hit. Back to the DB’s, their coverage was much improved and the guys did a good job of timing the pass so that they broke on it at just the right time to knock it away or to put the hit on the receiver so they couldn’t haul it in. I know I have already criticized the clock management of the coaches, but I do commend them for the way they managed the clock at the end of the game. Their play calling was excellent and it allowed the Cougars to eat up yards and clock so that the Bobcats were helpless to do anything.
To wrap up, I have purposely left off specific names of Coogs who did an excellent job because the Cougars are a team. They lose together and win together and we all know that it is a team effort. I only look for the Cougars to improve as the season goes on. I have had many people compliment me who are not even Cooper fans that this years team looks like it has what it takes to get the job done. I couldn’t agree more, if the Cougars play to the best of their ability. Then and only then can the Cougars win their next few games and go into district with the momentum to bring home the bell and make it back to the play-offs! Go Cougars!

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