2016 DARK SIDE RANKING FINAL
- Thread starter JCHILLTOPPERS
- Start date
I don't think LA could stop them. Score wouldn't be a blowout, but I see a PR win.
I like ESL's speed on defense in a matchup with MS. IMO, ESL clearly had the best defense in the state and would limit the Greek freaks as well as anyone possibly could. Offensively, they would score enough and Thomas would be a tough matchup for MS. He would break some big plays, as well as the QB.
I had LA ahead of PR. For the record I had PR the highest entire season in the DSR. I had LA over them when u look at the common opponent they had. LA beat Huntley with their 3rd string QB 24-0. PR had their closest game of year 31-20 vs Huntley.
Ok but we beat them by 10?
@Ramblin If the DSR was going by "What have you done for me lately" then for sure MS is #1.
@DOS Great points. The Hawks road was treacherous!
Regarding LA, this has been kicked around in other threads, but I didn't understand their game plan against MS. Why wasn't Marwede targeted more often in the pass game? When I think of LA, I think of great coaching and a highly disciplined team and approach. I thought they played a very sloppy game against MS. Granted, it's HS kids, but that was a bad loss for the Ramblers. Of course, a lot of credit goes to MS for forcing the Ramblers to play poorly. But, some of LA's poor play was self-induced, and the offensive game plan was a bit of a head scratcher.
I agree PJJP. It was like they wanted to win without using him. Total head scratcher.
It would be like MS not using Perez, Montini not throwing to Westerkamp or GW not giving Brodner the ball. You just don't do that. I would love to hear Ramblin,Liam,MWitt or any other LA fans opinion on this.
The Flyer speed/ run D is why I had them over PR. Flyers suffocated GBN on the ground u had to be able to pass vs them.
BTW how cutting edge is the DSR to have W Aurora in there.....why not beat Huntley about the same as PR and only lost to 8A champ 42-40
We have one common opponent which we beat by a greater margin.
Also Deerfield,Montini,Lake Forest,Dekalb and SHG are not even comparable to West Aurora,Barrington,LWE,Palatine and LA.
CBC only had one loss outside of ESL which was in the semis with their star WR and RB injured and out for the season. Making it to the semis losing that fire power says a lot about them.
True, if it were a one game season...or if the DSR were based on just the playoffs. Can't ignore the fact that MS is 11-3. Obviously, I am not alone in that regard.
MS deserved to win 8A. Not so sure they deserve to be #1 in the final DSR.
True, but how comparable are 14-0 and 11-3?
Please don't misunderstand. This is not sour grapes. It's a totality of work thing, and I will be the first to admit that I don't have an easy answer to it relative to how it all should shake out in the final DSR.
If it makes you feel any better, MS definitely won the popular vote!
I still have not seen the game. Work and personal commitments have had me out of state/country for the quarterfinal and final games this season. I can only guess that the coaching staff tried to use him more for his decoy value and hoped that would open up other options. If it had worked, the board would be singing the praises of his strategy. Hero or the goat. Feast or famine. I get it.
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maxpreps had them with 3 losses over the weekend and #3 in MO. I see they changed a score now. Either way they lost by 2tds in a semi. Unless that score is wrong to who knows. Either way I put more weight on beating a defending 8A champ in IL with a 30 game winning streak then a MO semi team.
Maybe. I gotta ask you what happened to Prince this year? I think with him they are totally a different team.
One thing is I'd have Flyer 1
Ha, not at all, just poking him. I'm a flag burning hippie by MW's standards.
You won't get an argument from me but, the next question is how can you punish a team that never lost?
I don't know if all are equal, but not even comparable is a stretch. 3 of Montini's 4 losses were to state finalists in 6A, 7A and 8A, with 2 champs. I'd say they could have handled a few of those teams in your list.
He never got to 100% and the hamstring issue just lingered all year. Too bad, he's a great kid who should have had a banner year, but he just couldn't get over the hump.
JCHILL:
No problem. As you full know, I seethe goodwill and was pleased to contribute, although I do not seek to re-claim my seat on this illustrious board.
I do, however, take exception to your characterization of me as a non-gangster. I submit my delicate features can be misleading, but my lacking a rugged Marlboro-Man exterior should not disqualify me from gripping some degree of aggressive nature.
While the two of you are engaged in your rainy-day fun at my expense, I would like to clarify my conservative credentials. I am neither an admirer of Mussolini nor did I despair with Castro's death. I did, however, find great pleasure in HRC's election defeat and consider seeing the old termagant's humiliation one of the more beautiful moments of 2016.
Illuminating on the issue you two broached, although I despise the burning of the flag, a symbol many have fought and died to protect, I find it falls under the Constitutional right to protest and should be protected, but will choose to keep better company than with those who do engage in the abhorrent act.
To strengthen my political positions, asked my opinion once on the Woodstock festival by some scuzzy, long-haired, tie-dyed-wearing piece of counter-cultural white trash who had described at sleep-inducing length the gathering as some hallmark in American history, I responded: "I would have nerve gassed the entire lot of them and made apologies later."
I did not watch the game, nor have I read a single article about it. Here are the stats of it from the IHSA website:
LOYOLA MS
Score......................... 17 27
FIRST DOWNS................... 18 14
RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............ 40-215 38-182
PASSING YDS (NET)............. 159 124
Passes Att-Comp-Int........... 19-11-1 20-11-0
TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS..... 59-374 58-306
Fumble Returns-Yards.......... 0-0 0-0
Punt Returns-Yards............ 0-0 2-19
Kickoff Returns-Yards......... 2-27 2-51
Interception Returns-Yards.... 0-0 1-0
Punts (Number-Avg)............ 5-33.4 6-41.5
Fumbles-Lost.................. 1-1 0-0
Penalties-Yards............... 4-35 2-20
Possession Time............... 22:49 25:11
Third-Down Conversions........ 2 of 12 7 of 15
Fourth-Down Conversions....... 3 of 4 0 of 0
Red-Zone Scores-Chances....... 2-3 5-5
I know what they say about stats, but, still, this does not look like a game where LA played "poorly" or a "very sloppy game." If what you say is true, then what does that say about MS?
What it looks like to me is a game where the Hawks optimized their red zone forays and where their punter and punting special team kept Loyola pinned back in their end for most the the game. Six MS punts and zero return yds for LA? That's off the charts good. Only three red zone forays for LA even though they outgained MS on the ground and in the air? Wow. That, to me, is the whole ball game right there. To claim that this was a bad loss for the Ramblers is really stretching it given what these stats say.
pjjp, I don't mean to pick on you, but when I see all these posts about the MS RB slicing through LA's defense (even though he was outgained by 50 yds by the LA RB), how Loyola was badly outcoached, sloppy game, poorly played, bad loss, etc., this kind of talk simply does not add up with the stats and it takes away from the MS victory.
LA faced an opposing punter who was locked in. That, plus LA's inability to be productive on third down, looks to me like the keys of the game. That last one I put squarely on the MS defense and LA's inability to solve it. That doesn't make it a sloppy game, though.
I gotta find the game somewhere.
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His Little Red Corvette ran out of gas, it seems. RIP to a great musician!
Ramblr: my thought on LA was they did not look like the LA team I anticipated. This was the third time I watched LA this year - each time was against a good team. I think sloppy game/poor game plan etc is sometimes relative and often unfair against teams/coaches. I think the bottom line was, it "felt" to me like LA could have played better. I don't know what that really means though.
I would add that beyond the 2 of 12 on 3rd down for LA one could also look at the 7 of 15 for MS on 3rd down as a very telling stat. MS converted about 50% of the time and was able to move into the red zone more times than LA (red zone was already mentioned by Ramblin). Also - I would add there was one turnover by LA and zero for MS.
Also - Just wanted to add a thank you to JC and all the DSR voters for the DSR work this year - it was very enjoyable and was one of my favorite threads (on the weeks it was published
)
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"Saturday couldn't come soon enough". It came and went, and I would have paid big money to see your face when you found out.
I sincerely congratulate the LA boys on a great season, I am also waiting for the Declaration of the NIPL.
Since we were a 14-21 pt underdog, I believe there was at least a 24 pt swing. And since you "haven't watched", you will find that your team was out coached on an epic level when you watch. Stats sometimes tell the story, and sometimes they are highly misleading. What stats do not measure are bad decisions, momentum, and heart.
For us to beat a team of that size and athleticism, there had to be several factors at work in our favor all in the same game. The two biggest were our kids heart,and our coaching staff.
There WAS one thing I found very interesting tho..
At the end of game 1 this year when the boys were lining up to shake hands, Romano sprinted to the Front of the line to make sure our boys saw him first and was very animated throughout. Enough for people to notice and comment. People who didn't even know the history.
At the end of the game that mattered, he was somewhere in the middle of the pack... nowhere to be seen.
Just an observation.
In the end, the most important thing is that everyone on the field and off got home safely.
Is that your salvage statement - being magnanimous after being a jag?
I hear ya, JCHILL, and I will take your word for it that the game felt like LA could have played better.
This raises a point about sports in general that I have often felt, no matter the sport, and no matter the level. Regardless of how good the losing team looked, and no matter how close the game was on the scoreboard and in the box score, the losing team frequently is described in negative terms rather than saying that they played well in defeat and were simply beaten by a better team that day. The flip side of this is that, in games that could have gone either way, the winning teams are frequently lauded as being much more convincing victors than they really were.
Being a jag...How so?
And if I was... it would have been intended for Ramble-on only.
My apologies if I offended you in any way
No, you also intended it for a 17 or 18 year old kid when you were talking about Romano.
Feel good now? Feel like you've made some kind of point by singling out a specific teenager with a petty and classless comment?
Way to go, big man.
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