Well How the funk can I follow that up?!?! Great analysis by McCar. Superhero who even found spare time last week to pull me off the ledge after the Willowbrook game.
My 2 cents:
Can the St. Rita D keep Elliot and his dangerous legs in the pocket on the majority of snaps?
Can the St. Rita QB Armbruster tuck and run it at the appropriate times when nothing is available and green is in front of him?
Can the St. Rita D not get roped-a-doped by Coach Lynch's well-timed and indeterminant use of major misdirection plays? I refuse to call them 'trick' plays, they are solid play calls, period. In Week 2, the two major first half plays to get Mt. Carmel a 14-0 lead were a 50 yard flea-flicker for a TD and a 50 yard reverse to the 1 yard line. A short field from an interception to get to 20. And then some throwaway TD with a minute to go (with the 2-point conversion) to show the score to the public as 28-0 and making me sound like an idiot trying to explain that the St. Rita D didn't play too bad. (Disclaimer: Elliot was possibly 75% healthy in that game)
Can the St. Rita O get their athletes out in space against such a quick, tough D?
Can the St. Rita D disrupt Mt. Carmel's high red zone play action shots?
Can both teams' skill players make excellent-tackling defenses miss enough tackles to move the chains and more importantly, put points on the board?
Can the young St. Rita secondary keep 5 yard passes to a gain of 5 yards and keep all the talented Mt. Carmel Wide Receivers in front of them to keep chunk plays in check?
Can the St. Rita Wide Receivers block the aggressive and great-pursuit Mt. Carmel D to turn 2-yard gains into 6-8 yard gains?
Here's hoping to a great rivalry game that has marked the passage of time for so many generations of South Side Chicago Catholics for over a century. And with nearly all my questions dependent upon St. Rita's answers on Saturday, and a healthy-enough Jack Elliot, I put the Caravan, today, as a solid low-double-digit favorite this coming Saturday afternoon. The math does not lie. It's 105-17 in the last 3 matchups. But if St. Rita answers those questions posed above, this St. Rita alum and fan, who turns 17 years old every time these two teams meet, might be able to pound a few Old Styles and actually get a full night's sleep waiting for the 106th meeting, instead of being shook awake in a ball of sweat from the night terrors of gold pants, brown and white Cardigans, Furjanics, McGrews, Domers, Scapulars etc. Godspeed young Mustangs. St. Rita of Cascia...Pray for Us!
