Rez

Arm tackling ...

5:27 left in 3rd, pending kickoff to Nederland.

16-14 PNG on top.

Touchdown PNG.

PNG offense is waking up

Sorry to hear that

It looked like he took a bad tackle. But there’s been no word.

Win or lose tonight, PNG isn’t going to even make the playoffs tackling this poorly. I can’t understand it.

That’s a relief

Nederland players confused by not-soaking-wet field; ask coach to explain the mystery of the dry, not-brown surface.

That's a good quote. I think I've miscommunicated my point: I didn't say PNG got any moral victory out of its loss. My point is that when we try to evaluate the strength of a team, the WAY a team loses can be indicative of future wins. For example: Nederland has often started out the season 0-3, only to go on to go undefeated in district. Their losses were still losses, but they don't tell the whole story. Nederland was playing good competition and at a point in its timeline where the X's and O's weren't working right, but used that to put things together down the stretch. See also: Silsbee the last two years. So while football wins are determined based on inches, per Mr. Pacino, I'd argue that PREDICTING future wins is based on a whole lot more.

West Orange has to play Carthage eventually. THAT will be a game, one I’m sure people have wanted to see for years. But I don’t see West Orange’s [name redacted] Defense holding Carthage out of the end zone enough to win.

The weirdest part of 2020 is no one has been on to complain about purple chalk yet.

Any word as to what Texan live is doing to make sure the website can handle the increased traffic they are going to get this week? I bet they set a record this week. No one has ever tried to stream PNG v NED before. There could be a LOT. Or, is anyone aware of anyone else who will be streaming, say, on YouTube?

I think we agree, then. I’m not trying to insinuate that Nederland has AVOIDED having a tough preseason. I’m also not saying PNG is clearly better (I may be guilty of ragging the most on PNG’s defense, of all the PNG fans). My point is only that there is no evidence, based on the sample of games that both teams have played, to assume Nederland has the upper hand, or vice verse.

Do you argue that Nederland has been tested this season? By having exactly one game against a team that it turns out isn’t even that good? And one game against a team that barely qualifies as a team? Even if we assume Nederland is a good team, it’s hard to argue they’ve had to prove it yet.

PNG has been in every single game. The more I think about it, Nederland is the untested one -- the Bulldogs have played a struggling Lufkin team (Nederland is their sole win) and a horrible Jacksonville team. PNG is the one coming into this game having proved it can play in tough situations -- One fumble away from beating PAM, one pass break up away from beating Tomball. Beaumont United is also showing itself not be a scrub. If Nederland comes in cocky they are in for a wake up call, because PNG is battle tested, and Nederland is barely tested at all.

My attitude is that scheduling tough pre-district games helps a lot if your team is fundamentally strong. In such case, you get a taste of really good competition, you get sort of a playoff atmosphere, and the team gets a sense of what it takes to play against better teams, and you end up being more prepared for district. I don't think this strategy helps much if you're just not a good team. In other words, I don't think a tough preseason makes a bad team good, but it can make a good team better. So for BH, Crosby, and PNG (and Nederland to a lesser extent, since they were able to have only one really tough preseason opponent in Lufkin), the preseason seems to have been the right kind of preseason. 12-5a II is a true toss-up. For an example of using a preseason right, Silsbee has done a good job the last several seasons -- They schedule teams that are much better than them, and everyone writes them off when they start the season at 1-5, but then it turns out they picked up a lot of good experience and end up making a deep playoff run.

I don't expect BH to have any trouble with Kingwood Park.

I think the game MIGHT start out slow, but it's hard to see this game not getting above thirty for both teams.

It’s officially game week!

PNG gives up 20 points to Bye in the 1st Quarter.

I'd only mention that Jacksonville made it really, really easy. Vidor might have a better throwing QB than Jacksonville, and that's saying something given how little gametime practice throwing he gets. But this thread isn't about Jacksonville, so I'll concede you're correct that Nederland beat the snot out of them. I think it means Nederland is a good team. Maybe not a great team, maybe not even that good of a team. PNG has had years and years of absolutely decimating weak teams (2014 comes to mind) with record-setting performances only to get a wake-up call against Nederland. I will say PNG has faced three weeks in a row of playing only bigger and faster competition (all either 5a2 or 6a) in close games with a lot of adversity (a lot of it self-inflicted). Nederland has had one tough game against a good team, and a tune up game against an awful team. In that way, PNG is "older" in the season, which may provide an advantage. The key will come down to the defenses. It isn't clear to me that we should say that Nederland definitely has a better defense than PNG -- Against their only good competition they gave up a whole bucket of points about as quickly as a team can give them up. So they may be in the same boat as PNG, defense-wise. It's looking like it will be another one-score game. Also, if ya'll see an adult-looking kid step in at QB or RB with a strong resemblance to Roschon Johnson, pay no attention. That's our new freshman, Joshcon Rohnson. Just moved in.

One thought is that Jacksonville is not a good gauge of where Nederland is. Nederland should have scored 100 on them, as bad as Jacksonville was.

Both teams have shown signs of solid development. I'm more familiar with PNG's strengths and weaknesses. Nederland looks tall and fast. It's hard to gauge how good they really are from that Jacksonville performance - Jacksonville looked pretty terrible overall. PNG has only played teams from bigger schools, which I think should give them some really good experience heading into the game. PNG's problems dealing with a running QB are going to be tough to deal with. Nederland showed a lot of strength nearly coming back to win against Lufkin, and of course PNG has had to play from behind in every game. Nederland QB appears talented, competent, and not prone to mistakes. Nederland RB is fast and strong. PNG has probably the best QB in the area, and a stable of receivers with (mostly) good hands and smart route running. PNG also has two solid RBs. PNG has struggled on defense, but so did Nederland against Lufkin. PNG has played more games, and all three of the teams they played were tougher than Jacksonville. So PNG might have an experience edge, but with PNG's defensive problems that might not make much of a difference. For the first time in several years I genuinely think it's a 50-50 split.