[paulcssi]

The -only- thing missing from this Cardinal team is the "big play" ability. Without it, they'll continue to be susceptible to losing games like this. Dominating TOP is fine, but it isn't everything.

One of SC's scoring drives was a 20 play drive !! Putting together that kind of a scoring drive is THE highlight of the game. IMO, it's the single most difficult thing an offense can accomplish (that many plays consecutively without a killing penalty, big negative yardage play, or TO).

Kudos to JC's defense in making Sheldon Clark earn every single point. Central OTOH, couldn't drive but had just enough big plays.

Had to be a GREAT game !!

I agree to some extent..but those 20 play drives are by design, always have been under Hager. When Hager feels SC is at an obvious disadvantage in terms of talent he falls back on this gameplan year after year. He has used it when his team was outmanned against Belfry, he used it early last season vs. Breathitt, he used it last year vs. JC, he used it 2 years ago vs. Mason County, and he will continue to go to it in the future.

The recipe is tried and true. He basically condenses his offensive playbook to a very limited number for the week leading up and just focuses on running them to perfection. They then spend the remaining time on defense and focusing on blocking techniques. The goal is to get a 2 yard surge by the line, the RB lays on the linemen's backs, and upon getting tackled he attempts to fall forward and the linemen attempt to help. This typically results in 3-4 yards per play and a running clock the entire time, which SC then drains to the very last second before snapping. If they are left with a 4th and Short they then choose to go for it as long as the ball is in the middle of the field. On top of this they will throw in the occasional hard count to try and get some free yards and keep defenses from jumping the snap.

The ultimate goal is to limit the number of posessions, take away any speed/athletic disadvantage, and for the lack of a better word "frustrate" a team into making mistakes and beating themselves. It is boring, it is annoying, but it is also very effective. The drawback is SC basically pulls their punches and eliminates any chance of a big play unless the defense has a catastrophc failure.

This is Hager's bread and butter and he has his team buy into it. They know going into it what a turnover, penalty, or errant handoff can do. The playcalls that he calls are basically foolproof, little misdirection or ball handling involved, just line up with tight splits, fire off, hand off, cover the ball with both hands and get in the linemen's backsides and grind forward as ar as you can go.

I would think, bottom line, JC did what they had to do. They stopped the SC ground game when they had to. SC had a fumble on the 2 yard line, and on another drive later on they gave it up on downs; they were very deep in JC territory, I think closer than the 10, but I do not remember for sure.

So did Hager's strategy work? NO! They knew exactly where SC was coming from, up the middle or off tackle. One must have some diversification in the plays they run, if they are going to win the close ones.