[BlackcatAlum]

Observations from an ugly night in Jackson...

1) Breathitt is for real. This was the Breathitt of old, a much better team than when they just relied on Fugate and Haddix. Backs ran hard, line controlled the line of scrimmage, and the QB is fantastic. Knew when to run, when to throw, and was hard to bring down.

2) Breathitt came out much more fired up and pumped for this game. Pburg was flat, flat, flat. As I mentioned in an earlier thread, this Blackcat team has a razor thin margin of error. They cannot afford to come out flat against anyone, especially a team the caliber of Breathitt County.

3) For whatever reason, Prestonsburg just cannot tackle Breathitt County ball carriers. The number of missed tackles against BC in the past few years is absolutely staggering. BC's backs run hard and fast, but Prestonsburg seems to struggle tackling them more so than any other team on the schedule.

4) BC's line was dominant. Big, strong, and fast. Played very well, opened holes, and overall very impressive.

5) As a result of the flat opening to the game, it was 20-0 before you could blink an eye. Prestonsburg mounted a comeback, and got to within a TD, but they could never stop BC from scoring to make the game really close. Even with Prestonsburg pulling to within 7, you never really felt they were in the game.

6) Very, very physical game, and lots of extra curricular roughness went on. Officiating was marginal, at best, and several calls were just horrendous. However, the officials seemed to suck both ways, so that was not a factor.

7) What does all this mean? Well, the Bobcats are very, very, very good. I don't see anyone in this region competing with them. I watched the Sheldon Clark-Breathitt film, and Breathitt improved 10 fold over last week's game. They are big, talented, physical, and have loads of skill players. Plus, Holcomb seemed to be back to his old excellent-coaching self tonight. I swore 2 years ago at Pburg that he had a stroke during the game. BC had that game won at Pburg if they just keep handing the ball off to Fugate, who had run for about a gazillion yards and hadn't been stopped all night, but Holcomb kept trying to throw screen passes out into the flats, which stopped the clock, and allowed Pburg to come back for the win. Same deal last year. BC should have beaten Pburg in last year's Honey Bowl, but Pburg came back late for the win. This year's BC team is much more complete, has many more weapons, and if Holcomb keeps coaching like he did tonight, will make it impossible for teams to key in on a single player.

What does this mean for Prestonsburg? Well, that remains to be seen. This was the first time Prestonsburg had gotten smacked in the mouth, and they didn't respond very well. Yes, our line is bigger, stronger, and faster than last year, but we are still very young at the skill positions, and tonight was the first glimpse of how those kids would respond in a tough game. Plus, BC was bigger, faster, and stronger than we were. Needless to say, Pburg needs to get better. The Belfry game may have inflated their egos a little, and Paintsville was what it was. If Prestonsburg's players can learn from this and get past the fact that they gave up 49 points, then this can be a productive thing. If they linger on this, it could become a tougher year than many hoped for. Our young kids will grow better, and if Prestonsburg learns nothing more than to never, ever, come out flat, then the loss is a good thing.

Good luck to Breathitt County the rest of the year. They are a fun team to watch, and I think they are in the hunt for the State Title this year...

Blackcats, use this loss and the sting of it to get better.

Excellent post!

I especially agree with what I have bolded. Some of these kids on the team think they're world beaters, hopefully this game brought them back down to the real world. I listened to as much of the game as I could stand, and it just sounded like Pburg was playing soft. I've been watching P'burg football for over 10 years now and I've never seen us have a soft team.

To be fair to the team though, we have a lot of first year starters on the roster. Only 5 seniors on the team, hopefully these boys learn from this game and take care of business because with the emergence of Middlesboro in the region, things aren't going to be easy early in the playoffs with Corbin or M'boro.