[Mr.Kimball]

Not sure if anyone noticed but some underclassman certainly stepped up for the Birds on Defense. All year we have been saying how Roller has been the only solid player on defense. Last night 2 sophomores Devin Bruns and Josh Quillen certainly played well. Bruns layed the wood time after time on the X recievers and made one receiver late in the game grow alligator arms instead of stretch out for a pass. Quillen played great contain defense from the OLB position and is a smart player. Austin Abner (JR) played the game of his life also with a great pick off a tipped ball and some very nice tackles coming up from his DB position. Execution was key and gang tackling as well. Congrats to these young men and the rest of the Bird Defense.

Other keys to the game IMO were the special teams. Hogue had a couple booming punts that put X back deep in their own territory and Weinel converted a crucial chip shot field goal from the left hash where an X kicker missed earlier in the game. That put the pressure on X to score two TD's.

Kind a cool sitting 2 rows behind Cris Collinsworth, Merrilll Hoge and Phill Simms. At one point Simms was clapping and rooting for the Birds late in the 4th when the game started getting interesting and X was driving.

Hey, you were on national TV all night then. They kept showing shots of those guys the whole game..:Clap: