jake94

All great points, baddog. Thanks for adding them. If a positive can be taken from not making the playoffs, I think it is this... We will be more hungry next season to prove that '07 was the EXCEPTION not the RULE. It will also make our kids realize that the playoffs are a PRIVILEGE that must be EARNED and not a foregone conclusion because of what we have done in the past. I think we were a little too complacent this season and it bit us in the butt. I am looking forward to the next several years. This will be a wakeup call for the program in my opinion.

My take: 1. This team lacked intensity all season long. I saw other teams bouncing around all season, high fiving and what not, but not us. 2. We completely abandoned the running game the last two weeks. Even if your running game is not good, you still cannot pass every down. And, if you are going to run the ball, then hand it to your backs. We would do WR reverses and QB sneaks for our run plays. Not good. 3. We really only had 2 quality wins that were as good or better teams than us. Those being Brenham and Waller. 4. We lacked senior leadership. The team's players that tried to lead the team were all underclassmen in my opinion. 5. Defensively we missed way too many tackles and I still think DJ and Wareall should have been at LB especially against running teams. 6. We played in a good and balanced district. The three best teams made the playoffs. 7. We finished 7-3 and after week 1 and Sampere's injury, I think most thought it would be much worse than that. 8. I thought for the first season, the spread looked good. Even though it fizzled a bit at the end. 9. Running game should be better next season with Roy and Salenga and a more experienced O-Line. 10. I am really looking forward to next season. All great things eventually come to an end. It is time to start a new streak and Nederland football looks well stocked for at least the next 5 years in my opinon. Good luck to all of this years playoff participants. You earned it!

Good post RaiderPride. It was a clean and hard fought game. The better team won. Good luck to you guys in the playoffs.

Lumberton by 20

22-4A will sweep!

I thought their announcer was great as well! Maybe we can all chip in and hire him!

Y'all deserved the win and won the game fair and square. Great atmosphere at that game tonight. The skydivers were very cool. I think your announcer is great for the game. Y'all had awesome fan support. And, oh by the way, your football team is tough as nails. Good luck to you guys in the playoffs. It is a great accomplishment to finally make the playoffs. I just wish it was at someone else's expense. We will be back though, we are a very, very young team. Good luck the rest of the way!

DJ is a very good defensive player and the only player in a long time for the Dogs that has warranted attention from major D1 schools. With that being said, we have had a lot of players in the past with more impact on the defensive side that never got a collegiate chance. Michael Boyd, Ryan Cobb, Ryan Piletere, etc just to name a few. The recruiters see something in DJ that makes them want him. He does have a ton of potential, but I would also like to see him DOMINATE a game. Maybe tonight I will get my wish!

It was no fluke last week. Dayton dominated from start to finish. No excuses at all. I do think Ned will find success throwing the ball against Lumberton. But, I also feel like Lumberton will move the ball too. First team to 30 wins the game!

Green, Black, and White.. The Nederland Bullfrogs!!!

This is by no means a prediction because I am not sure what to expect this Friday, but I sure would like to read this on Saturday morning... "Dogs Slam the Book of Lumberton Playoff Fable"

I agree that we have a very good WR core. But, I think a few people hyped them up way too much last week and look what happened. I can't wait until Friday night. I still have a terrible taste in my mouth from last Friday night and I know that this week can't be as bad! :-\

Raider88, I am a realistic Nederland fan. Trust me on this, our WR's CAN be covered man to man. Just look at last week's video. I will say that although Dayton is an excellent ballclub, that did not look like the team I have been watching all season last week. The game was not even as close as the score! I did not think prior to last week that a team could completely shut our offense down. But, I was wrong. We do have some good WR's, but they are not uncoverable by any means. I do think the Lumberton DB's and safeties will have their hands full all night, but I also believe the Nederland defense has an even bigger chore of stopping a good Lumberton offense. I think it will take AT LEAST 30 points for US to win this game. Not sure how many points it would take for Lumberton to win, that just depends on how well they defend the pass in my opinion.

Pretty good analysis pngfan1. I also feel like Lumberton resembles PN-G quite a bit. Nederland is a finesse team this year and hopefully we can finally do a little hitting and wrapping up on defense for once this season! We had trouble with PN-G's physicality and had trouble with Dayton's speed and toughness. I hope the Dogs bring it this week because I know the Raiders can taste it!

So did Nederland... and our defense is nowhere near Daytons! ;D

I'm going with Dayton in this one too. I think they will mix the run and the pass well and I was extremely impressed with all of their offensive and defensive weapons last week. PN-G is a solid smashmouth team, but has not seen a defense as good as Dayton's except maybe LaMarque in week 0. Hemmings and Wright's yards will be hard earned in this one and I just don't think the PN-G offense will be able to keep up with the Dayton offense. I have been wrong MANY times before though. ;D

What LB did we lose other than Gutierrez?

I didn't vote, but I will comment. If Nederland plays like they did last week, Lumberton will smoke us. If Nederland plays like the team that was 7-1 going into that game, then they can win this game. It is all going to be about which Ned team shows up. The team that won 7 of their first 8 or the team that got absolutely throttled by an excellent Dayton team. No prediction here, just a Dog fan hoping for the best this week.

I think this was a very smart choice for PN-G. If they won the toss they got a home game... If they lost the toss they got to play at one of the premiere Texas HS stadiums and would still have more fans than Galena Park at the game. It was a no lose situation, similar to what the game vs. Galena Park will be.

Verde was and still is a very good athlete. He is a very good friend of mine and a really good guy. I was simply stating that if he was barreling toward a linebacker these days, then he would be tough to tackle! Raider88 did well at the flag game a few weeks back. If you all play again, let me know because I wanna play again too. It was lots of fun.

Verde would be tough to tackle these days! ;D

Can't say that I disagree with any of that, Mike. I have often said that we need a P.A. buy with more energy. And, it would not hurt to have one with at least a little football knowledge. I remember last year when announcing scores, many times he would announce the team with LESS points first. I don't know why that bothered me so bad. I like the PA announcers that really get into the game such as yourself, LC-M guy, Lumberton guy, and WO-S guy just to name a few. It is and should be a home field advantage in my opinion.

nissanindian pretty much summed it up from an unbiased point of view. I hate to say it, but the game was not as close as the score. It was total domination by the Broncos. Fortunately for us, it still only counts as one "L" in the loss column. No style points or style deductions in football! Thank goodness!

I will be there to support the Dogs this weekend at Lumberton. I am concerned with our lack of physical play though. We are a one-dimensional passing team and have been all season long. We do not have much of a running game to speak of. When you play against a good defense and are extremely one-dimensional, you are going to have a lot of 3 and outs. That is exactly what happened last night. Add to that the fact that Dayton was doing whatever they wanted and we made very few tackles on first contact and you have the massacre that happened last night. Here is my take. Nederland will have to score in the 30's to beat Lumberton. Lumberton is a physical team and probably most closely resembles PN-G than any other team in the district. Our glimmer of hope here though may be Lumberton's pass defense which a few of their fans have questions about. That is the one thing that Nederland usually does well is pass the football. Our defense will have to have one of their best games of the season and hopefully want to put some hits on the Raider ballcarriers this week. Lord knows we did not hit ANYBODY last night. This game is really interesting in my opinion. I am not sure which team has more pressure on them. Is it the Dogs who have an 11-year playoff streak on the line and coming off a 63-point shutout loss? Or, is it the Raiders who are asking 16,17,and 18 year old kids to erase 40 years of futility and finally crack into the playoffs? There will be a lot of pressure on both sides. Lumberton will have great fan support and the homefield advantage. Our fans really need to kick it up a notch. I hope Neumann has some tricks up his sleeve this week and has this team ready. They sure weren't ready last night. With that said, I will be there to watch the Dogs and hopefully get to see them a few more times this season if all goes well in Lumberton.

Hats off to the Broncos. They smoked us in every aspect of the game last night. This game reminded me a whole lot of the butt-kicking that we got at the hands of Central last season at home. I think it was 63-21 or something like that. What did the Dogs do after that? They got focused and won 3 straight. The Broncos were flying all over the place and had the athletes in the 2ndary to man up at the line of scrimmage and disrupt our routes all night. It was not the typical 5-7 yard cushion that we have seen from all the other teams. Just an old-fashioned butt kicking. It does go down in the books as only one loss though and the Dogs are still in position to make the playoffs with a win next week. The help that we need from Dayton will be the probable outcome of their game vs. PN-G in Dayton. If the Broncos play like they did last night, they should win that game. By the way, the quick #4 that one of the Dayton fans commented on is a freshman.