Decatur 64- Bridgeport 28 FINAL

[Chief Woodman]

Decatur scores TD's on 5 of 7 drives in the second half. One of the "Stoped" drives had a dropped TD pass and the other was just running out the clock at the end of the game.

Great adjustment by the Decatur defense in 2nd half completely shuts down the Bulls.

Overall the Eagles score on 9 of 13 "O" series (70%) and Bridgeport scores on 4 of 14 "O" series (29%).

[shsu62]

Always glad to see the Eagles get a win over the Bulls. Any win is a good one. Just wish i could have been there to see it. Looks like good halftime adjustments and just to many weapons for the bulls to handle. The coaches for the eagles must have made some good adjustments and came out the second half and played ball.

[SoulTaker_IP]

Another comment about this game, what happend to bridgeport, they were actually hanging with these guys..... decatur coaches make some changes during half or what?

[Chief Woodman]

I got to give credit to the bulls. They do have a good offense. Too bad they are pressured to score everytime they have the ball due to lack of defense though. Ranchview might have a better defense.

[Chief Woodman]

Originally posted by SoulTaker_IP
Another comment about this game, what happend to bridgeport, they were actually hanging with these guys..... decatur coaches make some changes during half or what?

Yep. Decatur stopped putting 8 in the box and shut them down. Bridgeport also hurt themselfs with some poor passes and dropped passes.

They could go a couple of round in the playoffs if they can find a defense.

[Bullaholic]

I think the Bulls gave the Eagles all they wanted for the 1st half, Chief....too bad football is a 4 quarter game. You're right, if our "D" ever steps up to our "O", the Bulls will be a force to be reckoned with. The Eagles are a great team, proved it again tonight, and as they will go D1, we wish them well and hope they win the state championship.

[GreenMonster]

I need more info..... what kinda changes did decatur make or did they just start executing better? Did bport neglect to answer the 3rd quarter buzzer or what? Details Gentlemen Please more details.

[Chief Woodman]

Originally posted by Bullaholic
I think the Bulls gave the Eagles all they wanted for the 1st half, Chief....too bad football is a 4 quarter game. You're right, if our "D" ever steps up to our "O", the Bulls will be a force to be reckoned with. The Eagles are a great team, proved it again tonight, and as they will go D1, we wish them well and hope they win the state championship.

They did indeed give the Eagles some action in the first half. The bulls did several firsts this year against the Eagles:

bulls scored more points against Eagles than anyone else has (28).
bulls score more against Eagles first defense than anyone else has(28).
bulls score more against Eagles in first half than anyone else has(28).
Closest score at halftime this year(29-28).
Largest lead against the Eagles this year (14)
Conclusion: The bulls offense in the first half is the best offense the Eagles have seen all year. Too bad they only showed up for 2 quarters. change that and you can hang with anybody.

Now the bad news: bulls defense stops the decatur offense less than any team we have seen this year (Ranchviews defense held us from scoring more times than the bulls, Decatur just had the ball for more posessions against Ranchview than they did VS the bulls.) Change that, and you could win the Region 1 title in Div II.

Come on guys- find some defense and make a huge run for 7-3A in Div II!

[Bullaholic]

GreenMonster....Decatur came out after the half and started really blitzing the young soph Bull quarterback, forcing him to hurry, miss some open receivers, and throw a couple of int's. Then they would guess right on the running plays and shut Colin Jones down. On offense, Decatur started going to their all-state receiver, Brian Christian, with some mid-range routes and let him get a bunch of RAC. They would also throw the "fly" patterns and our smaller, slower DB's couldn't stay with their bigger, faster receivers. Godboldt, a strong, fast, running back kept their drives alive with sweeps and broke a bunch of tackles to keep drives alive. However, we are really proud of our young Bull team for taking it to a superior Decatur team in the first half, and trying to hang in there even though outgunned badly during the 2nd half.

[Chief Woodman]

Originally posted by GreenMonster
I need more info..... what kinda changes did decatur make or did they just start executing better? Did bport neglect to answer the 3rd quarter buzzer or what? Details Gentlemen Please more details.

Already told ya- Decatur stoped putting 8 in the box and went to a pass defense. Passing was what the bulls were doing, Decatur just waited till halftime to make the adjustments. Once they did that, the party was over.

bridgeport might have worn their arms out at halftime patting themselves on the back for the 1st half accomplisments. Forgot that it is 4 quarters, not 2.

[GreenMonster]

Thanks for the extra info guys. :clap: I applaud your hospitality. My previous post sounded a bit agitated but I promise it wasn't agitation I just wanted to know more about the Battle of Big Sandy. Sounds like a great game for a half. Good luck to both teams.

[slpybear the bullfan]

Originally posted by Chief Woodman
Already told ya- Decatur stoped putting 8 in the box and went to a pass defense. Passing was what the bulls were doing, Decatur just waited till halftime to make the adjustments. Once they did that, the party was over.

bridgeport might have worn their arms out at halftime patting themselves on the back for the 1st half accomplisments. Forgot that it is 4 quarters, not 2.

Chief, I don't think anyone from Bridgeport "wore their arms out" at halftime. We have watched our team all year long and know their strengths and weaknesses. We are very well aware that the Bulls need to put together four quarters of ball.

Just an aside... NO ONE was expecting the Bulls to hang with the Eagles... and when they did for a whole half I am somewhat suprised by several of the "Bridgeport didn't show up for the second half" comments. Wasn't Bridgeport playing the #1 or #2 team in state? Were we supposed to keep up all through the 3rd and 4th Quarter and expect Decatur to not be the incredible team they are?

The Bulls did show up for the second half. And Decatur came out and showed what a great ball club they have. They were the better team and it showed in the final score.

[olddawggreen]

Congratulations Eagles!

[Chief Woodman]

In truth Slpy, the bulls are a good team. You guys played us better than Gainesville or Wylie. Your bulls can go a little ways into the playoffs if you play some of your talent both ways. Defense has hurt your team as evidenced by the close losses you have had. Get some help on "D" and you guys will be tough on any team in the State.

I do have a hard time thinking that the bulls were not patting themselves on the back in the locker room. They had reason to. They did better against Decatur in the first half than anyone except Graham has so far this year. The bulls coaches did not seem to make many halftime adjustments however. They must have thought that they were doing really good, and they were. Maybe they did make adjustments, and the Eagle depth just took over.

Whatever the reason, you guys looked like two different teams on Friday night. The first half team could win state if the defense was just a little better. The second half team would have problems just making the playoffs.

[Keith7]

goodjob Decatur

[Bullaholic]

Chief....one of the big factors in the first half was several new plays and variations that were put in just for the Decatur game. Our bag of "tricks" just wasn't 4 quarters deep, and we went back to our standard sets in the second half, as the "surprise" advantage was lost. That coupled with the intense "blitz" by the Decatur "D", just shut us down in the 2nd half.

[slpybear the bullfan]

That and the Bulls need to learn to win the battle of FIELD POSITION. This week was as it was all year... we constantly give opponents the short field. Need to work on that....

[shsu62]

People say the bulls played them close and it was close. You dont play one half of football that is why it is 4 quarters and the eafles showed the true team. I dont see why people are getting all excited because they had a lead or close at the half. IT doesnt matter look at the final score and it doesnt look to pretty. Go Decatur

[slpybear the bullfan]

Wow... shsu62... that is some nice class after a big victory.

Nice.

[BullsFan]

Our boys have nothing to be embarrassed about after last night. If they aren't patting themselves on the back this morning, they should be. And personally some of these comments just seem mean-spirited. Given where we were three weeks ago I think Bridgeport's making a pretty miraculous surge this late in the season. As I said last night, that first half was more than I ever expected to see in that game, and last night was a moral victory for us even if it wasn't an actual one.

Did we win the game? No, of course not. But NO ONE expected us to. There's no way we should have. Decatur's ranked number one in the state, and we're ranked...well, let's just say we're ranked considerably lower. And you may accuse us of patting our own backs at halftime, but I'd be willing to bet it was a different story in the other locker room. No one expected us to come out fast and furious that way, and no one expected us to be 14-0 two and a half minutes into the game. As Coach Story himself said, some of them expected us to just hand the game over to them, and that obviously didn't happen.

And it'd be pretty interesting to see how the teams of some of you guys commenting played Decatur. I wonder if you could do as well as we did.

In any case, I'm awfully proud of our boys after last night. The good news? We're a young team with a lot of potential, and I think we have nothing but a bright future in the next couple of years. And in the meanwhile, we had a GREAT first half last night. Go BULLS!

[slpybear the bullfan]

Originally posted by shsu62
I dont see why people are getting all excited because they had a lead or close at the half.

Go back and read the 4th and 6th posts from Chief Woodman on this thread. If you can't figure out why folks are excited then don't worry about it and enjoy your season.

[shsu62]

I dont play for Decatur any more. I have moved on to college but its just about the big rivalry. Always glad to see Decatur beat Bridgeport any time at any sport. Its a competitive nature u get from growing up there. So didnt mean to offend anyone but always love to see Decatur beat Bridgeport big

[Leopards,class of 75]

The Eagles may just be the team to beat this year! Good job and good luck in 2004!!!