Eagles Not Given A Chance To Take Off

The Jackets took care of business vs weatherford as everyone expected. The eagles were able to score three times but luck was involved on all instances. Two of the touchdowns were scored in broken coverage situations and another during a confusing kickoff return coverage. These kinds of things will happen, Jacket fans, as while this is a group of talented youngsters-there are some inexperienced players that are just beginning their journeys to achieve Jacket greatness.

The score of 38-21 is really a small part of evaluating this game. The score could have been much higher and as mentioned above weatherford was somehow able to take advantage of Jacket miscues.

I don’t think anyone would argue that the D.O.G (Dawg Of the Game) was Senior Harrison Evans. Watching him pummel the eagles on both sides of the ball started out exciting but towards the end of the game became somewhat frightening due to the utter devastation and destruction he dealt out to the eagle team. Seriously folks, Harry will either be banned in weatherford or treated like a conquering hero with roses being thrown at his feet when he visits The Shed-Weatherford location. Be it vicious sacks of the QB or pounding linebackers while carrying the ball, Harry definitely let the eagles know who was going to come out with the victory Friday night.

Wrigley Kennedy is right up there in DOG consideration. He made Swiss cheese of the eagle offensive and defensive lines and to any ball carrier that was unfortunate enough to be caught in his grasp were stopped dead in their tracks. On one play following a hellacious Evans blindside sack, the eagle QB saw Harry coming after him again and to his credit, started to run like away like a fat turkey on thanksgiving only to find the massive Kennedy waiting for him with open arms. Unfortunately for the QB, Wrig wasn’t there for a consoling hug and was quickly reintroduced to the turf.

The offense was much improved. The first game jitters were gone and we got a taste of what to expect from the Jackets. Jax started to find his touch with the pass and the birthday boy also showed how deadly he can be with his legs as he has been throughout his career as a Jacket starting from his 5th grade season. His ability to change direction and see the entire field gave the eagle defense fits all night long.

A player to watch emerged in the form of Ethan Karcher. The Junior RB certainly passes the eye test physically but his performance made this learned observer recall images of former Tampa Bay Buccaneer/Purdue Boilermaker Mike Alstott in the way Karcher absolutely refused to be taken down by one or even two eagle defenders.

Cade Covalt made his presence known by returning an interception for a TD and Aaron Delatorre booted an impressive 47 yard field goal in the first half.

All in all it was a great performance by the Jackets and this writer sees no reason why it won’t continue next week versus the winless Chisholm Longhorns.

However as in life you have to take the good with the bad, there were some negative aspects of the game. Jake Reagan suffered a concussion and was overheard on the sideline speaking a language that only he and perhaps an ancient Sanskrit gridiron coach could understand. Reagan will more than likely enter protocol and hopefully be back in time for the Chisholm game.

Senior Noah Friesen had his knee rolled on by an eagle defender who was probably just trying to get out of the way of harm and quite frankly who could blame him. Evaluation is continuing on Saturday and updates will be given as soon as they come in. The initial visit at McBride is promising but it is still a wait and see situation.

Tanner Parker, who is also coming back from knee issues from last year, gutted out a solid performance covering for Friesen while battling cramps on a muggy evening (hydrate, hydrate, hydrate).

As far as next week goes, Chisholm sucks but that’s no reason not to continue making improvements, especially going into the off week. Go out there and put the horns down convincingly and carry that momentum forward.