Bluegrassrivals

who wins this game. I say Caldwell County by 10

Caldwell County by 12

Caldwell 35
LaRue 14

Larue Co. had a little trouble with Union Co. Caldwell did not. So even tho Larue is 11-1, Caldwell by 21 points.

Caldwell County 41
Larue County 28

:popcorn:

Tica Wrote:Larue Co. had a little trouble with Union Co. Caldwell did not. So even tho Larue is 11-1, Caldwell by 21 points.

LaRue had about 375 yards of offense vs Union; 280+ of that coming on the ground.

They held Union to 110 total yards, and their dang good RB who had rushed for 396 the week before against Murray to 61 yards on 19 carries. Union probably had 2/3 of their total yards on the first drive of the game. After that it was LaRue’s D that played absolutely lights out.

LaRue had two fumbles in the first half (their first fumbles since week 3 mind you; yes...week 3). Their first fumble came on their first drive deep in Union territory, and the 2nd on the last play of the first half inside the Union 1 yard line going into score.

They took a knee to end the game on the Union 10.

Caldwell might beat LaRue by 21, but LaRue didn’t have any trouble with Union.

Terrible field conditions; two “old school” styles of attack. LaRue dominated; the score just wasn’t indicative of that.

Family affair game- LaRue County HFC Josh Jaggers and Caldwell County QB Joby Jaggers are cousins.

Caldwell is definitely the favorite. LaRue is playing with house money, and with their style of offense and a defense that is pretty solid they might have a shot? Long road trip, hostile environment, two programs that are on polar opposite ends of the spectrum....one a region final and/or state final member the last several years and another in LaRue who just won only their 3rd playoff game in the last 11 years.

I know LaRue absolutely dominated the time of possession against E-town; especially in the 1st half. E-town was only up 14-7 at the half and one of those was a kickoff return for six. If LaRue can put together a similar game plan against Caldwell (controlling the clock and play some solid D; they made some stops vs E-town believe it or not) then this could get interesting?

Larue and Coach Jaggers with the win

Union's RB did have 16 carries for 104 yds against Caldwell. I guess that bodes well for Larue since they shut him down.

You know what, I'm going with the upset in this one.

Hawks by 8, in a low scoring, defensive battle that isn't decided until a late LaRue stop, and they just bleed the clock.

Hawks, 28-20.

Something to consider. Teams that Larue has beaten combine for 37 wins (2 of their victims are still playing, Campbellsville and Bethlehem). Teams that Caldwell have beaten combine for 45 wins (4 of their victims are still playing, Hoptown, Crittenden, Henderson, and Paducah Tilghman).

Sounds like larue is pretty tough. The 10 I predicted Caldwell would win by might be a stretch. Sounds like a 50/50 game. This is the type of playoff game I like to see, so I'll watch it online. A lot of good games this week, I'm glad to see that after having last weeks blowouts.

Did larue lose the battle in the red zone to etown? Looks like larue only turned the ball over once to etown, but lost by over 20 in a game they outgained etown in.

It appears Larue had some injuries against Etown and had to come out in the second half trying to throw the ball. They are a decent running team. Not so much in the air. Close at the half. Etown is explosive and pulled away in second half. Etown can basically score on any play from anywhere.

That being said, Caldwell had problems stopping Tilghman's ground game. But the Caldwell folks said that was due to injuries rather than an intrinsic weakness, so who knows. If everyone is healthy, I still think Caldwell pulls away with their passing attack.

killbilly usmc Wrote:Did larue lose the battle in the red zone to etown? Looks like larue only turned the ball over once to etown, but lost by over 20 in a game they outgained etown in.

A few key plays.

1) E-town returned the kickoff after LaRue's first score & it wasn't Becherer. E-town is dangerous everywhere, but especially on special teams. Becherer is their DUDE, but they have a few other guys back there that would be THE DUDE for a lot of people. So you either risk trying to kick it to one of them, and hope you cover OR kick it short and then IF you stop E-town, they now PIN you deep with their very good punter to go along with trying to score from 80+ out against a very, very stout D (their D is the most underrated part of their team- E-town that is & LaRue for that matter).

2) LaRue's final drive of the first half was cut short inside the E-town redzone; yes. It was another drive that consumed 15-16 plays and LaRue just ran out of time outs. Their first scoring drive was 19 plays and I know they burned a time out or two on that drive alone; then I think another one on the last drive of the half.

3) After the 1st half down 14-7; LaRue forces E-town to go 3 and out. On 3rd down for LaRue, their QB Dane Milby throws his ONLY INT of the game on about their own 30 and E-town runs it back inside the 10-15 yard line.

On that same play a little bit of a scrum breaks out; one where both a LaRue and E-town player were ejected. The player ejected for LaRue was one of their starting OL. ALSO on that same play (not in the scrum, but just a freak thing) LaRue also loses ANOTHER starting linemen with a broken wrist.

4) E-town scores on 4th and goal from the 2 to make it 21-7.

5) On the next drive; LaRue's QB Milby goes out on first down. Insert back up & Jaggers decided to go for it on 4th and 1 from their own 25 or so. Personally, I think he probably thought here they were down 21-7; if they punt E-town is going to get it with great field position, so why not go for it...eat the clock some more and try to put together another drive.

6) LaRue doesn't get that 4th down conversion and E-town scores a few plays later to make it 28-7.

7) LaRue now in the spread with their starting QB back, and they score either at the end of the 3rd or beginning of the 4th from 50+ yard run out to make it 28-13.

8) The rest of the 4th quarter was both teams stopping each other until E-town tacks one on late from the LaRue 10 after LaRue went for it on 4th and 6-8 with about 2:00 left the game.


E-town is the best team in the region; I don't think there is any doubt about that. However; if you're going to beat them I think anybody that was at that game (and, there were a lot....it was Region Final/Semi-Final type atmosphere) they will tell you that LaRue had the recipe for beating them. You better be able to move the ball, control the clock and play some D (ultimately score).

If you lose the turnover battle (which LaRue did with the games ONLY turnover and at a very very bad spot) and the special teams battle (which LaRue also lost with a kick return) then you can forget it with the Panthers.

Tica Wrote:It appears Larue had some injuries against Etown and had to come out in the second half trying to throw the ball. They are a decent running team. Not so much in the air. Close at the half. Etown is explosive and pulled away in second half. Etown can basically score on any play from anywhere.

That being said, Caldwell had problems stopping Tilghman's ground game. But the Caldwell folks said that was due to injuries rather than an intrinsic weakness, so who knows. If everyone is healthy, I still think Caldwell pulls away with their passing attack.

You said it all; especially about E-town. They are so unbelievably explosive on offense and special teams (when getting the ball and when they are giving it to you. Their kicker knocks them out of the back of the endzone; making everybody they play go 80 on them if they can and their punter will flip the field).

LaRue can throw it; that's just not how they roll & it's proved to be the best recipe...or at least one hard to argue to this point. I think with what they had returning from 2016's 5-6 team; most expected them to be better....but, I don't think anybody could say they reasonably expected a team was going to win 10 games after not winning that many the previous 4 years combined (this senior group had ONLY won 9 their previous 3 years under two different coaches, all be it one of them the same- Jaggers had this group in 14 when 7-9 of them were starting as Freshmen and they went 2-9).

Their QB has a 60%+ completion percentage with 13 TD's and only 1 INT on the year. He threw for over 1K both his sophomore and junior seasons, but also threw for almost as many INT's as he did TD's; dang near 20/20 in both. This offense has proved to be a lot more beneficial for him IMO. He isn't the tallest and is a runner first, but throws a great ball...especially deep ball which is where LaRue will hit you. They'll suck you in, suck you in, suck you in...then bomb it.

Milby; their QB is 1,000+ yard all purpose through the air and rushing.

They are "balanced"; just in a different form of balance than we are all used to seeing in this day in age.

Their leading rusher; Cobb has gone for 1200+ on the ground, their FB Young and other HB Adkins (both Juniors) have gone for over 1,000K on the ground combined. QB Milby is 1,000+ all purpose & two leading WR w 200+ on the year (one of those; Harris is out for the year though if not mistaken. Big loss. He went out against Edmonson and was one of only a couple two way starters for the Hawks at TE/WR and FS).