Time for the Morris football team to start making plays
Word about town after last Friday's loss at home to Prairie Ridge was that perhaps Morris had a letdown before even welcoming the Wolves to the gridiron. Maybe because it was a team the Redskins have never played before, the locals did not feel they needed to come out with the same intensity as they had the week before against Geneseo.
Either way, it was a loss and Morris football coach George Dergo even admitted after the game that his team was not ready to go at the onset.
"The guys came out flat. It happens at least once a year and I don't know why, but it happens," he said. "I could tell it in warmups. What we did was let them get the momentum and then their speed dictated the game."
This past week, I asked Morris senior captain Kevin Henry if he thought that the Redskins may have overlooked Prairie Ridge because nobody about town really knew much about them other than what had been reported in the newspapers. That and what the locals had seen of the Wolves on film.
"I think our coaches do a good job watching the film and letting us know what we need to do," Henry said. "Last week I think it just came down to execution."
"It came down to execution," Dergo said emphatically when I posed the same question to him.
It would stand to reason that execution, or lack thereof, led to Morris' downfall. If not having seen an opponent was the key to a Redskins' loss, the locals would have had trouble with Sterling last year in the playoffs. Instead, Morris defeated the Golden Warriors 27-7.
Henry was one of the players who were on the field when facing Sterling. He thinks this year's Sterling team should be fairly similar to last.
"We played them last year and basically this team is similar. Their offense is run like the pistol or out of a shotgun formation," he said. "I think the guys that played against them last year may have an advantage, but we're going to prepare like we do every other week and hopefully we'll come out with a win."
A much-needed win is probably more the more appropriate statement.
"It depends on the guys making plays," Henry insisted. "It's time for us to come together."
Past time, actually.
So far, this team seems to have put together all of the elements of what could become an orchestrated flop. At least at times — they've come out flat, they've shown little in the running game, had a bushel basket full of passes intercepted, have had breakdowns on the offensive line and watched the defense get worn down and taken advantage of late in games. That doesn't sound like a playoff caliber team when you break it right down. And if it is a playoff team, right now it looks as though they won't make it very far at all — especially if the team goes 5A.
The one thing that I'm not that worried about, however, is the penalties the team accumulated in the last game. Some in the community saw the 10 penalties for 105 yards in this last week's box score and wigged out. That's a bit of an anomaly, however, if you ask me.
First of all, Morris was flagged five times for 15-yard penalties. There were two pass interference penalties [one on the defense which could have gone either way and a very bad call on the offense], a verbal unsportsmanlike conduct on the sideline and the other was two were on late hits that the officials assessed because the Morris kids threw a player down when the play was over but before the official had blown the whistle.
You could tell the tensions were brewing on the Morris sideline because of the officiating but I don't think anything horrible took place on Friday other than over-reacting twice on iffy pass interference penalties.
To me, that game was certainly the exception to the rule. In the first four games of the season, Morris had averaged just 34 yards in penalties with an average of 5 yellow hankies falling on the ground against the Redskins.
That's not bad at all. On top of it all, the locals had not been flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct all year until last weekend.
Regardless, it wasn't because of the officials that Morris lost to Prairie Ridge. It won't be because of the officials if the Redskins don't make the playoffs, either. What it will come down to is execution and how badly this team wants to make it happen.
