Rez

Rankings both mean “nothing” and “something” at the same time. They don’t tell you who will win the game on Friday, but they do give you a reasonable prediction of who might. That is, rankings mean nothing for some purposes, but they are helpful for other purposes, especially if you happened to not know much about any of the teams. I’d say being on the list tells us more than where on the list you are. Looking at the top ten, knowing nothing about any of the teams, you would be highly confident that #1 would beat nearly any team in the state in that classification. You would be less confident saying #1 would beat #2, because they are likely too closely matched to make a strong prediction. And, you would be more confident saying that #1 would beat #10 than you would be saying that, for example, #9 would beat #10. All that being said, everyone knows Huntsville is better than PNG, but Huntsville also lost two games in a row (albeit to really good teams) and rankings always punish losses. That’s a big way rankings are not helpful- they don’t seem to factor in who you lost to. On the other hand, most two-loss teams would drop out of the top ten, so maybe Huntsville is getting credit for its quality of losses. Just thinking out loud.

He just had to turn the iPads on for them. They could operate the iPads by themselves.

The other defense will be like “Are they allowed to do that?”

That's a lot of passes for Vidor. I wonder if this is a long-term thing or if Crosby was giving it to them. I've been saying for years that Vidor should incorporate the pass. I don't think there is any excuse for not doing so.

How many passes did Vidor attempt/complete against Crosby?

2012. PNG was 2-8 that season.

You make winning last year sound like a loss .

I haven’t seen Vidor or Crosby this year, so I’m not going to comment on whether they are better or not than any other year. I will say that the 2012 Vidor team that beat Crosby was pretty dang good. And the 2016 Vidor team that beat Port Arthur and took a much better version of Crosby down to the wire was solid. So it’s not that controversial to say this Vidor team is worse than those Vidor teams. If Crosby is not good (and we’ll have to see about that — it’s a long season) then this Vidor team still has plenty to prove to match up with 2012 and 2016. Things look pretty good so far. Hopefully PNG will be a loss, but i’m rooting for them otherwise . Great win, Pirates!

Unless i’m wrong, we haven’t allowed more than a touchdown in the second half in any game this year.

Good job, Pirates!

Just think of it as a big sprinkler. Bulldogs like sprinklers.

This Baytown Lee team reminds me of the PNG 2014 team. Through the first several games, playing weak competition, PNG averaged more points per game than any other PNG team in history. Then we played real competition and looked a lot more mortal. Baytown Lee is still unproven, in my book. We’ll find out who they really are tonight.

I think it is good prep for Crosby for Lee as well. I’m not skipping to anything — Do I think PNG will win? Yes. But I think Lee is going to be a force this season, so may the best team win.

How does that work? Is that a rule, or are you referring just to the mismatch it causes by two teams missing out on the round robin? Edit: Never mind, I just saw WO-S Grad's answer.

Baytown Lee looks solid and scary. The one thing I will say is they don't seem to have been challenged yet. PNG will be a good test. PNG needs to play solid defense. If we get in a shootout, who knows what will happen. This will be good prep for Crosby either way. The best part is we have fancy new invisible ipads. No more getting caught. Everyone in the crowd gets one, even the little kids.

Maybe it will be a motivator. Any idea what percentage of the team has been displaced? Did Coach Matthews flood again?

Vidor by 20.

Crosby takes this one.

PNG's O has a lot of work to do. I think they will make the right changes. What we're missing is it seems like we are missing a dominant receiver presence. The last few years we've had players like Keynel McZeal, Preston Riggs -- guys who demand attention and can always get open. Someone still needs to step up. How is Crosby's O-line?

Good observations. For both Crosby and Nederland, I think a lot of us will be surprised. We know Crosby can score against good teams. I think it is premature for people to write them off. I have them as on the playoff bubble as of today, but I will not at all be surprised if they prove us all wrong over the next few weeks. The only thing that makes them look weak (both Crosby and Nederland) is that they usually play better against the slate of competition they've faced in the preseason. But they definitely have the pieces to put together very good teams. Also, BH and Baytown Lee seem weak on defense. Add to this the fact that both Crosby and Nederland have had to play in grittier, uglier, more difficult games against more difficult competition (I don't know anything about Kingwood Park), and have, overall, faced more diversity. That makes you strong. Add that strength to the talent we know is on the field and we're looking at dangerous teams. I still think PNG is a playoff team, but any four out of Baytown Lee, BH, Crosby, Nederland, and PNG is a safe bet.

Sounds like a good game.

Does BH have a defense?

What do you mean? I'm not taking anything out of context.

It was "they cheated the way they outplayed us." I think it was a joke, as in "It was unfair for them to be better than us," the way I understand it. Not, "they cheated."

(In no particular order within clusters) 1-3 (playoff confidence): PNG, Barbers Hill, Baytown Lee, 4-6(playoff bubble): Nederland, Crosby, Santa Fe 7-8: Vidor, Dayton