[Western fan 83]

I think it’s somewhat silly that some don’t give Russellville the proper credit they deserve. Yes, they are noted and congratulated on the game, but then it’s pikeville armed tackled and made uncharacteristic mistakes. That may be the case but there is also the possibility the Russellville forced them to make these mistakes. There was an obvious speed difference between both teams. The majority of folks on these threads took this game as a joke and truly believed this would be a running clock by the end of the 1st. Now it’s seniors! Maybe some aren’t happy with just a 3 point win over a team you were favored more than 20 over? I would give credit where credit is due. Russellville absolutely shut pikeville down the second half. Which is super impressive to me because I know how good pikeville is. Congrats on the ship, I am happy to see it wasn’t a cakewalk as so many people predicted.

I’m not a Pikeville fan, but if you watched Pikeville play more than just yesterdays game, you would know that the arm tackling was indeed very uncharacteristic. There’s nothing that an opponent can do to make you want to start arm tackling lol. Yes, Rville had a speed advantage. Yes, Rville shut Pikeville down in the second half. I think most of us have already given them credit for that.

I respectively disagree. Your “arm tackling” happened on sweeps to the outside. Russellville forced the issue and gave pikeville a look at speed that they were not accustomed to. Outside of LCA, my opinion is nobody came close to the overall team speed they saw yesterday. Arm tackles happen when you start guessing. From a size standpoint, I can guarantee you that no player from pikeville made a “business decision”. They were much bigger and stronger than Russellville as a whole. To say that pikeville chose to arm tackle is crazy. It was forced due to speed and athleticism they are not used to seeing. JMO