Orangefield vs Bridge City

[Old Cardinal]

The Bayou Bowl is tonight. That little OF stadium will be packed. OF boys are 100% effort-no speed, no depth, no size, but good Coaching and a lot of heart. Bridge City has to get ready for a playoff run-its "get over last week" and play ball. BC has some good Coaching in folks like Billy Bryant, Sam Moore, Thacker, Woodall, Briggs, Deutsch etc: Some of us ignorant fans would just like to see a screen or post pattern pass every once in a while against a 10 man line on 1st or 2nd down. Just to relieve the pressure off our offense. Mr. Elmore and Conway are good men; however when they meet any kind of stiff defense they tend to develop tunnel vision. After next season Bridge City will run out of the "Les Johnson" trained youth and be working on the Conway early development program.

[footballfan]

I agree. Newton is over...Orangefield is now. We need to take care of business tonight. Even if we continue to attempt to run on a stacked defense, do you think we could be successful with a different blocking scheme?

[This message has been edited by footballfan (edited November 09, 2001).]

[Old Cardinal]

Who do you block? When you have 8 down lineman and two blitzing and stunting quick linebackers, that's asking too much of seven offensive lineman-don't you think? "Class of '85" or "Birdman", what is your input? There is many ways to get the pressure off your offense-even throw a jump pass right where the blitzer vacated.

[footballfan]

I agree that it's next to impossible to block against that defensive set up, but when we've AVERAGED only 7 pass attempts per game over 9 games, something tells me it's not going to change. I'm not criticizing the line. I am the (step)dad of one of the big tackles and I know how hard they work. What I meant was that if we are not going to pass in those situations, shouldn't we change the scheme to at least try and get 3 or 4 yards per carry?

[Old Cardinal]

I am sorry, I know of no scheme to consistently run against a stack defense. I think the best hope we can have is for folks like Coaches Davis, Robbins, Dotson etc: to try to make Conway think its his idea to throw sometimes against the stack pressure. Your right sir, after that fiasco against Cleveland last year, if things didn't change then, they might never change. Good talent makes everyone look good against weaker teams. It being imagnative and creative that wins postseason games-because these teams didn't get there without some kind of a viable defense. Cong't to your son for helping them get to the playoffs. My son played for BC too-today he is overseas in the military-there's a war going on.

[footballfan]

Thanks for the input. Are you going to the game tonight? PRAYERS AND THANKS TO YOUR SON!!!

[Old Cardinal]

Yes, I will be there, bring your lawn chairs. On your 10-man line question, about twenty-five years ago several of the colleges would run "student body Left or Right", it worked quite often to out-flank the bulk of the defensive lineman. Another scheme that worked was the QB rollout-only if your backs are good blockers.....I look for a few passes tonight, he only throws against the weaker teams. I wish they had more confidence in Jamie Knight, Tyler Briggs and all the others against tougher teams.

[Old Cardinal]

Bridge City 24 Orangefield 0 but it was 0-0 at halftime! Once again Conway never passed on 1st or 2nd down against a stacked 10 defense. Coach Flanegin and his team gave them a good game for over two quarters but talent won the game eventually. John Derr, a 150 # Junior who subed for an injured Senior made many tackles from his defensive end position.

[footballfan]

Hey Old Card - I just got home from the game. As usual the defense looked great, but the offense struggled the first half. I did not have that high of a seat so I could not tell what was happening on the line but at least they got it together the second half. How about that Go-t-a kid. He is fun to watch. Go Cards!! http://bbs.3adownlow.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

[footballfan]

I saw where Hamshire-Fannett beat Liberty which puts Hardin-Jefferson home for the post season and puts BC playing Liberty the first round. I think this is right...do you know?

[netgif]

if i am thinking right, i think BC goes to big school divsion, if im right then they wont play liberty. (i might be wrong)

[Birdman]

Talking to some Orangefield fans after the game, they are ready to run Flanigan off for last night's game. They blamed their coaching on last night's loss. I guess fans are the same everywhere. I thought that OF played a heck of a game. I do think we get Liberty now that HF beat them. HJ is not too happy with the Panthers this morning.

[Old Cardinal]

Birdman: You are probably right, fans are somewhat the same everywhere. I too talked to some good OF friends, they were talking about how dumb our Head Coach was and how Flangin and crew gave them all they wanted for well over 2 Quarters. Everyone was laughing about how "Predictable Conway" did his pitchback to Luther Sanders and then threw the interception to Orangefield. Since that great razel-dazel always takes place at the same time each game, the defensive secondary all broke to the spot its always thrown- and two shielded while one made the interception. Birdman, I am sorry in a way I got off on you; however, all previous Athletic Directors have supported the BC Jr Football Program and in fact tried to help get folks to Coach that had good knowledge and attitudes. Sorry, but I, like many of your sorry fans, feel that Conway's "Short Guy Syndrome" interferes with his Coaching techniques. I feel like after this next years crop of Les Johnson developed youth graduate that he will be moving to another school thats dropping down in classification.... You could do well in the playoffs if he would let any one of his Coaches call the offensive plays, except maybe Elmore!

[Birdman]

Les Johnson developed talent??????? Now you have compromised your entire argument. You must be one of the 14 people in Texas that think Les's 1951 brand of running an athletic department was a good idea. The man is a joke across the state. His offense and defense is the one that blew a 10 point lead with 4 minutes to go for the District Championship. We went from potential Champions to 4th place in 4 minutes. He has already been run off from the school that hired him last Spring. Gee whiz, I get upset at some of our offense as well as you, but to give Les any credit for this year's team is unrealistic. I'm sure I won't change your mind on this nor you change mine.
The one thing we can agree on is that we want the Cardinals to succeed. Go Big Red !!

[Old Cardinal]

Yes Birdman, I agree the Les Johnson is a weirdo, but here is my point-he hired a good Offensive Coordinator and gave him his head. Secondly, he activated a huge amount of boys into playing local football from the seventh grade up. He had an offensive and defensive unit that was cross- trained and his Coaches developed depth. Of the boys that went 25-0 (now Juniors)- through seventh-9th grade seasons, only a small number remain in the program. You will see next year that depth is your only problem. Looking at the development program below the Junior Class you can see that the wheel will come off the rim after next year, that's Conway's development program. I can't understand why the School Board didn't hire that Offensive Coordinator for Plano or one of the many other excellent candidates. At least someone that did not have a rep. of being outcoached continuously. How I wish a concerted effort would be made to get some of the Juniors walking the halls back into the program and playing ball next year. With a little depth that will be a wonderful team.

[Birdman]

What do you mean by the defensive and offensive units being cross-trained? Under Johnson, they were specialized on one side of the ball. That was a problem when the coaching change occured because there were offensive players that had never tackled and defensive players with no offensive skills. Les did get the numbers out for football. Those numbers were always exaggerated but were high none the less. This also came at the expense of other sports. The one area I will give Les his due was his off-season program. It was a good one, but once again he didn't have any common sense about it at times. He always insisted that all players lift and test on the days he deemed proper even to the point of wanting starting pitchers to max out on days they were to pitch. I am not here to defend Conway or any other coach. I just get upset at the bleacher coaches that think everything bad that happens in the game is due to poor coaching and everything good that happens is due to talented players overcoming their coaching. I hope we can agree to disagree and get after Liberty Friday night!

[Old Cardinal]

I agree with most all that you have said; however, I think it's time to allow a proven Offensive Coordinator to run the Offense. The defense is well Coached, five or six shutouts and- they had to stay on the field most all the time against Newton. Try as he did, Curtis Barbay could not put that BC defense away till into the 4th Quarter! Look at how many times that defense has had to stay on the field because the "playmaker" runs the fastest kids in the Dist. between the tackles against 10 in the box! I like the BC Coaching, its the weaker influence from Center, TX that's keeping many ex-college football players(or as you call them Bleacher Coaches), agast! Averaging 5 or 6 throws per game, when you have excellent passing and receiving skills and plenty of speed, is a bit ludicrous. I have heard that some who hired him have been saying for several years, that they made a mistake. I think he may be able to bull up the middle against Liberty and win, but he better get someone else to call the plays if he wants to beat the winner of Sweeny vs Splendora. With that one change, I can see BC representing Region III against probably the winner of the Sinton vs Zapata game, from Region IV. Go Cards against Liberty!!!!

[Birdman]

Old Cardinal - I think we have both had our say. If the truth was known we agree on far more than we disagree about. We definately agree on pulling for our Cardinals Friday night. Thanks for keeping this discussion civil. See you Friday night!!!!

[Old Cardinal]

Birdman, I have enjoyed the discussions with you...Even if that gentleman would just let his Coaches coach and not have to call the offense, I can see wins over Splendora or Sweeny....then, Taylor or Gatesville....even a possiblity of a win over Region IV's probable Sinton vs Zapata winner. I bet you guy's do get ticked hearing all of us tout the talent side and not the Coaching side. At Orangefield, I touted the Coaching side on Friday night. I watched OF play a 2AA in their first game of the year, it was stopped at halftime because of lighting. That was the least talented 3AAA I think I have seen. To see them put their guts on the line, and play BC several good quarters was quite inspiring. What a change by the end of the year-I would certainly take Flanigin, Hanks, Sanders etc: as Coaches-they epitomize what its all about.

[classof 85]

Lets also not forget how many of our kids went on to college with Johnsons help!They may not have been full rides but you have to think back to last years 8-2 team which had 1 move on to college other than B.King who really went for B-Ball.Looks like Conway kinda left them to fend for themselves now does't it.We will know more after this years signings.By the way I would take Johnson over Conway anyday as a coach - not as an A.D. or a person.Look around how many more times a game are we throwing than when Johnson was here. BALANCED , BALANCED ,THIS IS WHAT CONWAY NEEDS TO DREAM ABOUT AT NIGHT SO THAT HE WILL NOT BE HAVING NIGHTMARES ABOUT IN IN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS.

GOOD LUCK TO THE CARDINAL PLAYERS!!!!!!

[Old Cardinal]

Good point Class of '85, maybe if everyone that he meets in BC ask him why he doesn't believe in a BALANCED attack, he might just get the idea. I think he just needs someone to call the plays for him!

[Birdman]

Johnson with a balanced attack????? It seems our memory is short. The only time the ball was in the air was when we punted. Johnson took great pride in his "scholarships". He did work hard working college coaches, no taking that away. He just wasn't honest about what the kids were getting. Few lasted a year. Many of the "scholarships" were grants-in-aid. In the Penny Record, they were football scholarships. Just a little "spin" for propaganda sake.