[Orange Blaze]

The key to containing Baker is getting him on first and second contact And create a wall from sideline to sideline. If the kid gets any day light, just admire the back of his jersey bc he is gone. He suprised me on how much stronger he is this year and how much lower his center of gravity seems to be. He is a much better back than he was last year. BUT, if you can contain him, you can beat Ashland. Look at the Raceland stats, Ashland had 357 yds rushing and 0 passing and scored 41 points. Baker had 250 of those yards and 24 of those points. But slowing him down is much easier said than done. If their passing game gets going and they get Brown more involved, they will be hard to beat period.

As a football fan I typically cheer for Ashland 9 weeks out of the season with the obvious exception of their game with Raceland. After watching them play the Rams I was very disappointed to see how little they use their talent outside of Baker.

With the speed that is on that team it is crazy that they don't spread it out more because this team could be very explosive and exciting to watch. With their current stable of athletes the Tomcats would thrive in an Oregon style no huddle offense where they could use the speed of Baker and Brown downfield to cause most defenses fits. Add their running game into that and you have an offense that is very hard to stop. There really is no excuse for them not to have developed a quarterback with Baker over the years to add more dimensions to their offense.

Ashland will run into a strong team down the road as has been the case on recent years that will shut down their running game at the line and they will be in trouble because they failed to develop a complete offense which is a shame because they are talented enough to make deep playoff runs.