TraderB

Whitehaven Henry County 38 -- Ridgeway 35 Dresden Harding MUS Baylor

1) Whitehaven 2) White Station 3) Ridgeway 4) Chester County 5) BTW 6) Knox Webb 7) USJ 8) Harding Academy 9) DCA 10) MUS 11) Brentwood Academy

This game will not be a shootout. Offense sells tickets. Defense wins games. -------------------------------------------------- Whitehaven's defense will do what it does -- shut down another opponent, Arlington. Whitehaven 28 -- Arlington 17

White Station wins this... Whitehaven WILL walk thru .... well, let me just say that Whitehaven will defeat Arlington. Whitehaven and White Station will be playing in 2 weeks.... is my prediction.

Uhh, what's that old saying.... "Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good!" ...something like that, I think. Well, I -- TraderB, say that lady luck definitely smiled down on me, last week! Heck, I probably should have driven on down to Tunica and pushed that luck even more! Lord knows that I was definitely thinking "Boom or Bust," after making some of those week 10 picks! ------------------------------ With the playoffs here....Hey, Lady Luck -- where u at!!??

Millington seems to be on a roll and get the benefit of their boisterous home crowd. Coach Rutherford is guaranteed to have his Spartans prepared to exploit Millington's weakness and will tweak his game plan accordingly. While I'm picking Millington to outlast White Station (in what figures to be a very competitive and exciting game), I absolutely would not be shocked to see White Station defeat the Trojans.

1) Whitehaven 2) Arlington 3) Brighton 4) Millington 5) Henry County 6) East 7) Dyer County 8) Ridgeway 9) Mitchell 10) Chester County 11) Obion County 12) Covington 13) Lewis County 14) BTW 15) Union City 16) SBEC 17) ECS 18) St.George's 19) St. Benedict 20) Briarcrest

Arl 24 -- Mil 14 ................ Arlington pulls away, late. CBHS 24 --- St.B 17 ................. My gut says CBHS. Bar 28 -- CG 22 .................... 2 games in 5 days will hurt Craigmont. WH 41 -- East 14 ............. A tired East team will get blown out! SH 28 -- Fair 22 .................... Sheffield in a close one. Ger 24 -- WD 22 ..................... Kicking game will decide this one. Ham 30 -- Mel 12 ............. Melrose's football program has sunk to new lows! Mit 14 -- HC 12 ..................... tossup! Bri 27 -- DC 21 ..................... Home team prevails...eventually. RW 40 -- Cv 20 ...................... A distracted C'ville team simply will not be able to keep pace.

MUS 31 -- WS 17 RW 42 -- GT 24 WH 35 -- Mit 14 Ea 40 -- CG 22 Ham 20 -- WW 18 WD 34 -- Col 21 BR 42 -- Cor 16

Final: East 31 -- White Station 26 ------------------------------------ I did not listen to the game continuously. So, I really can't say for certain.... I do, however, recall the announcers commenting on how East's Quarterback (Redmond) was the biggest thorn in White Station's side, via the "Wildcat" offense. They said that White Station pretty much contained East's RB, Kimbro. I absolutely, positively did NOT expect East to defeat White Station! Kudos to the East Mustangs for an excellent "bounce-back" game, following last week's embarrassing blowout loss to MUS.

4th Qtr -- 2:20 remaining: ------------------------------------- East 31 -- White Station 20

Score update: ------------------------- End of 3rd Qtr. East 25 --- White Station 14 ------------------------------------- Listening on 88.5 FM

CBHS 35 -- BC 20 .... Briarcrest's late-season skid continues. CGM 28 -- Mill 21.... Should be a good, competitive game. WS 35 -- East 18 .... East has the better record; White Station... (much) better team. GT 24 -- Hou 13 ..... Lowe/no Lowe...no matter! Gtwn gets the win. MUS 38 -- StB 10 .... St. Benedict is totally outclassed in this one. RW 41 -- SW 28 ..... Most exciting game of the night! St.G 24 -- USJ 21 ... Nail-biter. ---------------------------------------- Central 16 -- Hamilton 6

Arl 35 -- St.B 24 WS 35 -- BC 24 CBHS 28 -- ECS 14 F 34 -- WW 31 GT 35 -- SW 20 RW 28 -- Hou 17

Arl 38 -- Crg 28 ... Arlington is obviously not as bad as I once thought... Crgmont is not as solid... ECS 31 -- Brc 28 ... ECS will outlast Briarcrest. East vs Central ?? ... (haven't they already played?)... East 33 -- Central 20 MUS 28 -- CBHS 20 ... MUS is simply more battle tested. Gtwn 34 -- Coll 17 ... Germantown rolls (unfortunately)! RW 35 -- WD 28 ...... This will be an exciting game! Har 31 -- FACS 20 ... I'm picking the home team. ------------------------------------- Millington 24 -- Cordova 14

Kwc, I've seen MUS twice, and East once (plus one early season scrimmage, for whatever that's worth). I'm 100% convinced that East is a PRETENDER, primarily due to its defensive inadequacies. MUS, on the other hand, looks to be kinda' on the edge between contender and pretender and has a considerably better defense than does East. MUS seems to play sort of an opportunistic, bend-but-don't-break type of defense. They tend to stiffen up in the Red Zone. Given this, I suspect that East's RB (Kimbrow) will likely bust a number of long runs, probably resulting in a couple of TD's. Other than that, MUS will very likely keep East out of the end zone. East's defenders are often caught out of position (poor discipline??) and don't tackle very well, consistently. I strongly suspect that MUS' coaching staff has observed this... If that trend continues for East, then MUS' coaching staff will likely be quick to exploit it, often. The result: MUS and its ever-improving spread offense should have no trouble hanging 35 points on East. -------------------------------------------- While East could absolutely SHOCK me, by defeating MUS....as you said, Kwc -- we will see... p.s...... should MUS' backup QB enter the game, don't be shocked to see him torch East's secondary!

Bri 27 -- Mil 20 ....... Toss-up! Home team gets my nod. MUS 35 -- East 14 ...... East's defense finally gets exposed. Arl 38 -- Briar 17 ..... Another swiss-cheese defense gets exposed. WH 41 -- Cen 8... Cake walk for Whitehaven. CBHS 28 -- Coll 6 ...... Collierville is simply overmatched. CRG 26 -- Mit 14 ..... Craigmont gets back on track.

Woodale 33 -- East 28 ... I'm just not sold on East's defense. CBHS 23 -- WS 14 ...... CBHS just seems to have WS's number. ECS 24 -- USJ 14 ....... ECS is clearly more battle tested. WH 24 -- RW 7 ... Whitehaven's (likely) conservative game plan will keep this game close. Gtwn 34 -- Hnd 31 ...... The team with the ball last will win... Mit 40 -- Mlr 26 ....... Home field and Orange Mound pride will not help Melrose. Smy 34 -- OB 31 ...... I'm also not sold on OB's defense. Mental fatigue won't help, either.

I'd compare Olive Branch, Mississippi (6A, largest division) to a couple of recent Memphis teams -- teams which Smyrna (and its fans) might be familiar. If not, then I'm sure there's some film footage around somewhere... if you're so inclined. --------------------------------------------------------------------- OFFENSIVELY -- 2009 Mitchell (5A, at the time) / 2009 White Station (6A) high-scoring, explosive, high-octane offensive team with playmakers all over the field... absolutely no problem scoring points (Mitchell just had problems stopping the other team from scoring)! 1) Mitchell lost to Beech (50-42) in the Semis... White Station won the 6A Championship over Maryville (37-27). 2) Mitchell's passing game was lethal; White Station tend to beat you either way, and on special teams. 3) White Station did not have as many playmakers as Mitchell, but had more depth. 4) OB has the depth and playmakers, and can beat you either way -- mostly running and short passing game. 5) Mitchell had no kicker; W.S did... 6) O.B. usually has a solid kicker and punter. DEFENSIVELY: -- White Station 2009 playmakers; fast, especially on the edges. Average in the trenches. Tough, hard-hitting LB's. So-so secondary. bend, but don't break... too often; opportunistic. 1) For whatever reason, Olive Branch's defense has been its achillies heel over the years. 2) This is pretty much (IMHO) the reason that they haven't been able to get past South Panola, and advance to the Mississippi State Championship game. 3) W.S.did not face a team as stout as South Panola, except MUS ...and W.S. got blasted by 3 TD's. 4) MUS defeated S.P that year. Both teams went on to win State Titles. 5) For what it's worth...In Spring scrimmage vs Ridgeway, OB outlasted RW (6 or 7 TD's to 4 or 5 TD's....something like that). 6) Defensive woes...AGAIN? ----------------------------------------------- Smyrna's defense (especially vs the run) will be the main key to victory, IMHO. Tackling well in "space" and preventing the big-play will help facilitate this... Lane-discipline is crucial... I suspect that Smyrna will manage to score its share of points. I've followed Olive Branch football for about 5 or 6 years and usually see them play 2 or 3 times, annually. I always root for them...except when they play a Tennessee team. My gut says that this is going to be a high-scoring, exciting game! Good luck, Smyrna.

I agree that MUS is (should be, anyway) a better team, as a result of having played two tough teams. At least they now should be acutely aware of their weaknesses and strengths, then take steps to zero-in on these respective areas. --------------------------------------- One glaring weakness: receivers and kick-off coverage. MUS' receivers dropped entirely too many passes, ALL NIGHT LONG, particularly on critical 3rd downs and in the 2nd-half when desperately needing to sustain drives and build momentum for a comeback versus South Panola. The kickoff-coverage team, for the second straight week, allowed another cheap touchdown! That's got to be fixed. Other than the above issues, I genuinely believe that the backup QB (#12, I think) made a super strong case for being the starter! Oh sure, he's not perfect; the offense team just seemed to really get in better sync and perform much better and more efficiently with the 2nd-string QB at controls. Coincidence? I think not... MUS' strength appears to be its defense. Oh sure, the Owls' defense gave two or three big running plays. That happens to all good defenses at some point. Nevertheless, they regrouped and pitched a shut-out during the 2nd-half! That's pretty darn good, in my view. In fact, the defense actually kept the Owls in the game -- giving up only 2 touchdowns. That, too, is an excellent outing. There is no doubt in my mind that MUS has all the goods with which to become a bona fide Title Contender. In order to make that a reality, however, it's absolutely imperative that they minimize their weaknesses and maximize its offensive productivity. Based on their track record, I strongly suspect that the coaching staff and players will quickly address these issues and that the Owls will legitimately emerge as a stronger, more potent team.

MUS 16 -- SP 14 .... SP's young team has issues on both sides of the ball. WD 44 -- SW 18 ..... New season, same result. Mit 34 -- Fair 8 .... Fairley losing to Hamilton? This can not be a good sign. BC 34 -- MLR 24 .... I never thought I'd see the day when Melrose lost to Overton. Bad sign!! WH 34 -- S.R 13...... 100% guess. Col 20 -- Hou 17 .... Gotta' pick my Alma Mater in this one. Mill 38 -- Bar 17 .... Millington appears more improved than does Bartlett.

MUS 16 -- South Panola 14 ------------------------------------ This year's South Panola team is merely a shell of its dominant 2010 squad...and that's putting it mildly. The manner in which they lost their Nationally televised game to Hoover was quite shocking -- they got thoroughly dominated, completely outclassed and totally out-coached. Astonishing! I have been following South Panola ever since they played Germantown, way back around 2004 or 2005. They have mostly been very dominant, ever since....until this year. I have NEVER seen a SP team as inept as their 2011 team squad! It's not much of a stretch to say that they look like just another "middle of the road," average football team. In short, South Panola suddenly looks very, very beatable. Their "ugly" loss to Hoover seemed to just obliterate SP's long-standing aura of invincibility. I genuinely expect MUS to march confidently into Batesville, Friday night, and methodically expose South Panola's weaknesses and emerge with another hard-fought victory over the youthful Tigers.

WS 28 -- Arl 14 ...... WS is out to prove its mettle, once again. Arlington is obviously waaaay down! BC 33 -- East 26 .......... Most exciting game of the night!! East's defense is still too porous. CBHS 17 -- Gtwn 13 ........ Another close, low-scoring contest between these two teams. Blount 21 -- Crgmt 12 ... My heart says Craigmont. My brain says to pick the Alabama team. ECS 27 -- St.Geo 17 ........... My gut says that ECS is likely the tougher team. Whthvn 40 -- Fairley 12 ..... When has Fairley EVER beaten Whitehaven....It will not happen tonight! Mill 28 -- Kirby 12 ........... Kirby's football program is still in shambles. Skyline, TX 35 -- RW 20 ..... Skyline's QB will torch RW's secondary. RW will bust some long TD runs.

Whitehaven should, therefore, have ZERO problems destroying Ridgeway!

Bellgo, You are definitely not alone.... Ridgeway's loss shocked a whole bunch of people, including me! I fully expected RW's offense to pick up where it left off last year; its defense...well, while their Head Coach spoke about the loss of a lot of guys on that side of the ball, I genuinely never expected the Roadrunners to be this impotent! I mean, they looked absolutely horrible versus the pass. Their run defense, however, was actually quite stout. They just totally shut down White Station's running game. As for White Station...I figured that they would be improved over last year, but I seriously did not expect them to embarrass Ridgeway in this manner. The Spartans, to the credit of their coaching staff, took full advantage of Ridgeway's biggest weakness -- the secondary, and just chunked the ball deep down field repeatedly. It was as if their game plan was to just get the ball up into the air and let their receivers find a way to catch it! It often looked like something you'd draw up in backyard football. It worked. Often. I used the word "chunked" because, in my view, that's pretty much all that White Station's QB was doing. He does not seem to have a very strong arm, nor does he appear to be a very accurate passer. He was, however, very effective. At the end of the day, I guess that's all that really matters -- results. Anyway, White Station kept Ridgeway on its heels -- offensively and defensively, the entire night. The Spartans stacked 8 men in the box and just DARED the Roadrunners to run the ball. They couldn't, consistently anyway. They could not throw either! Ridgeway's QB was woefully inaccurate and indecisive; he moved like molasses, as if he were stuck in the mud or something (the field was bone dry), whenever he attempted to run the ball. The result was a complete and total breakdown of its offense, thanks to White Station's super aggressive defense. Based on body language, particularly after White Station scored its third unanswered TD (to go up 21 to 7), you could just tell that Ridgeway was one shell-shocked and frustrated football team! They were beaten. Soundly. The rest is history. ----------------------------------------------- Kudos to White Station for a well-executed game plan. They must be beaming with confidence right about now, and super excited about their immediate football future. As for Ridgeway... well, let just say that they've got a WHOLE lot of work to do -- physically, mentally and every other way imaginable. Meanwhile, their future opponents are likely licking their chops to get a chance at revenge. They smell blood in the water, already.