District 6-5A: Week One

[bhs06]

The first week of the district 6-5A schedule is unique, since none of the preseason projected top 4 teams play eachother. And all 4 of the top 4 projected teams are on the road. It's top half vs. bottom half, in the bottom half's stadium, therefore making it possible for the lower half teams to make statements early.

Schedule(using preseason rankings)

#1 Trinity @ #5 Coppell(Last season: 42-17 Trinity)

-The Trojans are facing the best back they have faced all season. Can they stop him? Will their offensive explosion continue? Will Trinity underestimate their opponent and make costly mistakes to keep Coppell in the game?

#2 MacArthur @ #7 Bell(Last season: 47-7 MacArthur)

-It's home coming week for the Blue Raiders. The question on everyone's mind: What can the Blue Raiders do if they don't turn the ball over in their own red zone 3 times per game? Bell's defense has been great, but can they contain the extremely quick Cardinals? MacArthur's regular season win streak on the line.

#3 Irving @ #8 Grand Prairie(Last season: 28-14 Irving)

Grand Prairie played their best district game of the season last year against the Tigers. Down 21-0 early, the Gophers fought back due to Irving's mistakes to make it a close game, but Jamaal Evans bailed Irving out of it. How many yards will Jamaal Evans run for this game? Will this be just another loss in the Gopher's projected 0-10 season?

#4 SGP @ #6 Nimitz(Last season: 24-14 SGP)

Nimitz is being taken more seriously than ever after beating Lamar. David Watkins is a forced to be reckoned with this season. But he is up against arguably the best defense in 6-5A. Will SGP stop him in his tracks or will Watkins tear them up like they did to Lamar? Will SGP's offense continue to grind out yards and do just enough to win?

Picks:

Trinity 45, Coppell 26
Irving 60, Grand Prairie 6
SGP 23, Irving Nimitz 14

[ktchamp97]

Awesome post! Solid analysis & picks (You forgot to give us a prediction on Mac vs. Bell). The beginning of district play is always interesting and exciting.

[Trinityplayer]

I liked the preview. It was very objective and covered all the bases.

[bhs06]

Awesome post! Solid analysis & picks (You forgot to give us a prediction on Mac vs. Bell). The beginning of district play is always interesting and exciting.

Hey thanks, I'll make my prediction after I see how we practice this week and watch some MacArthur game film to see how we match up with them. Of all the teams in our district, they are the team I seem to know the least about.

[Raiderfan06]

Ill give an early prediction: I think Mac is just too good for the Raiders this year, plus Bell's student section is extreme crap this year so dont count on the fan support. I might change this sometime during the week but for now it stands: Mac 37 Bell 7

[TrueBlue]

Mac's offense is pretty shaky -- I look for another good outing by Bell's defense to keep Mac under 21 points -- and I look for a bounce back game for Bell's offense which looked awesome in the Bowie win and has had two lackluster weeks since -- give me Bell in an upset 24-21 --

[bhs06]

Ill give an early prediction: I think Mac is just too good for the Raiders this year, plus Bell's student section is extreme crap this year so dont count on the fan support. I might change this sometime during the week but for now it stands: Mac 37 Bell 7

Don't even get me started. After we returned that INT 98 yards for the touchdown Friday, the 20 or so students who actually made the trip started chanting "LUCKY, LUCKY". Then once Joe threw an interception, we started hearing "OVER RATED". Once we fell behind we started hearing "DODSON DODSON". They were all gone by the 3rd quarter.

Against North Mesquite, it was the same. A bunch of students showed up but never got into the game, as most people show up for the sole purpose of finding out where they are getting ready to go get trashed for the night. We fell behind early and of course started hearing the "DODSON" chants from the stands. When we headed into the locker room at halftime, we could hear from someone "Hey baseball season is just 5 months away if you ever want to see a win in your lifetime again!" and we just ignored it. It's this kind of stuff that happens that makes me hate losing and only fuels motivation.

Personally I just think its jealously because they couldn't handle it and stick with football, and play their sport/whatever it is that doesn't get near the attention that we do.

[CoppellCowboy57]

Picks:

Trinity 45, Coppell 26
Irving 60, Grand Prairie 6
SGP 23, Irving Nimitz 14

#1 BHS06, great post

here are my picks

Trinity 42, Coppell 27 (i like your score so i changed it a little)
Irving 55, Grand Prairie 12
Irving Nimitz 24, SGP 21 - My Pick for 6-5A GAME OF THE WEEK!
Irving Mac 35, LD Bell 21

[bell grad dad]

I'm sure that many are going to think I need to change my "name", but I pick Macarthur over Bell ..........55-20.
Bell will be tough to win again until week 10.(Grand Prarie)

Maybe the students saw the option being run in the fourth quarter while only down by 10 and thought Dodson had returned to call plays. I am still bothered by the appearance of the caoches mailing it in when you guys still had a chance in that game.......................

[bhs06]

After two days of practice, after seeing MacArthur on film, its my judgement to say that the game is winnable, for us. MacArthur is not perfect, they have so many weaknesses its a wonder how they are 13-1 in their past 14 and hopefully we can execute to exploit them. Our defense is doing good, but our offense has to step it up. The coaches really believe we can win this game, they are extremely confident, and it has our team believing as well. The game can go two ways:

1.) Continue to not execute on offense, continue to turn the ball over deep in the opponent's territory, continue to have 4 drops and 13 busted routes like against Flower Mound or 6 drops and 11 busted routes like against North Mesquite, and never establish control on the game. Joe didn't have a bad game, our recievers did because he had 17 and 20 incompletions the past two games and look at those numbers our recievers had to see why.

2.) Execute our gameplan against MacArthur efficiently and it works, leading to us establishing control of the game and our defense continues to play well. Since MacArthur has many players that start both ways on the ball, tire them out by staying on the field with long drives and defensive stands. CATCH THE BALL and DO NOT TURN THE BALL OVER. If we can move the ball like we did against Bowie, since I believe in my opinion Bowie had more athletic players than MacArthur did(except at Linebacker), than we will be in good shape.

Now I remember last year, MacArthur's backup QB looked like he was going to take a knee but instead faked it and ran 70 yards for the touchdown. They ran up the score last year and we want to pay them back. It's our homecoming too and we haven't lost a homecoming in years.

For my prediction, its my team and of course I am not going to pick against my own team. Gotta have faith. If the game goes how Option 1 goes, we will lose. But if we can do option 2 instead, we will win.

Bell 45, MacArthur 38

[AllenEagle06]

Macarthur has one of the strongest defenses I've seen but their offense could use some work. They fumbled the ball twice in a row in their own territory with about 2 minutes left in the fourth quarter and we were only down by 5.

Allen actually had 2 td's to win but both were called back for penalties.

My advice would be to watch out for #32 (LB Justin Gent) and whatever you do don't fumble the snap on the third play of the game deep in your own territory. *cough cough Nathan Dick*

[abcd]

i think MAC is going to step their game up this week and show everyone in their distric who they are and let them know they are still goin to be a hard team but mac will win friday against bell

[TrueBlue]

In it's first 3 games Mac has shown itself to be an offense that relies on the pass, averaging 174 yards per game in the air and only 114 on the ground -- this plays into Bell's defensive strength -- which is against the pass.

On the other hand, Mac is allowing an average of 254 yards a game in the air and 90 on the ground -- which plays into Bell's offensive strength --

If Bell's offense can get back on track -- and Bell can get the turnovers under control (6 of the 7 tds that were scored against Bell in the FM and NM games were a direct result of turnovers,, most of those in the red zone) -- this is a realistically winnable game for Bell --