JoeWillie12

CCS is no muffin. Just a little more discipline and focus and this team would be tough. Not a lot of speed but plenty of size and determination. Penalties and turnovers killed them tonight. Great win for Marion.

I believe Copper Basin will win this game, even with the long drive to endure. A solid football team ready to rebound from last week.

My bold prediction for this week is Marion will definitely win by at least ONE point, likely a few more. Ambassador, assuming your 8-2 preseason prediction comes true, congrats. I wouldn't have ventured that even knowing last year didn't reflect Marion's capabilities. Best just leave that nightmare buried. Last chance for the Warriors to get their defense right before things become really serious.

Tackle that Miller boy quick. Lots of other stuff a team needs to do to beat Polk but that would be a good start. Good luck Pirates. 411 yards (thats Four Hundred and eleven yards). Good grief. Please don't let that happen to the Pirates.

Wish that was "tongue-in-cheek" prediction, but likely it ain't. I think Marion better start improving on their defense fast. Sooner rather than later we'll run into a defense that can hold our offense to something less than thirty points. Just not sure our defense can hold any respectable offense to that low a total. Puzzling to me; intensity seems to be there, plenty of hats on the ball, etc. Continue to arm tackle; a FEW players seem unwilling to bring a lick. thank goodness for those who will. Overall defensive team play just don't seem to be there. CB was a formidable opponent. Competition won't get any less so from here on out. Marion will go as far as their defense will allow them. Good luck Friday.

Tough luck Pirates. Too much stress at Marion/CB game for me to slip away to watch any of this game live. Did anyone else notice in paper yesterday that 8 of 9 TFP sports gurus had the Pirates, a once beaten 1A team, picked to beat Boyd, an unbeated top ranked 2A team. Just shows what kind of respect this SP team commands locally and statewide. That hasn't changed. Boyd was simply better and bigger this year. Regroup, refocus and get ready for these two upcoming games, both huge. Pirates can win both but it'll take a total team effort to get it done. Schedule was no friend to SP this year.

Likely did Ambassador. On page 14 you also predicted a stress free game for Marion. PG and TTP summed this game up nicely. Our passing game kept us in it early, team didn't fold, bruising ground game became more difficult for CB to stop as the game wore on. No fumbles or turn overs tonight (hope that's correct this week). Seemed every time we had the ball scoring was essential. Turn overs would have cost us big this game. Good job to all backs and receivers on that part. Game ball to #45 for that last tackle to stop CB on 4th and 1. Game wasn't secure until that point. Also #24 for a TD saving tackle earllier in the game. Kudoes as always for the exceptional job #20 turns in each week. Last TD run was impressive. Very impressed with CB team. Confident and well coached. No quit in these guys either. MC has opportunities to fold early; CB has the same opportunity in the 2nd half. Neither team did. Simply came down to Zeman pounding the ball late in the game. Congrats to the cougars; hope you do well in upcoming playoffs. A team this good deserved more support from their fans. CB folks who stayed home missed one well played ballgame. Good job CB. You have my respect.

Rain could have some effect on game outcome but I doubt it. Still see SP pulling away to a comfortable win in the 2nd half. It will take a perfectly played defensive effort to contain these speedsters. Just don't see that happening. If the score is low and close Pirates might be in trouble. I will see some part of this game late.

You're not serious I hope. Warriors have done better lately but they still have trouble holding onto a dry ball, let alone a wet one. I expect Basin to be a hard hitting team, pulling and grabbing at the ball every play. Other teams see Marion's weakness in this area. We can't afford another 300+ yard, four or five fumble night from this offense. Marion needs to be focused tonight and not beat themselves. Do that and the wins keep coming. Don't see Basin stopping them; just continue to hope defense steps up and offense don't stop themselves. I'm hoping for dry weather.

It's obvious I'm a big supporter of this coach. Most improvement of Marion this year is due to his presence. However, by this time last year Marion players for the most part had given up on the season and were simply playing the year out. JMO There will be no real comparison to the Marion team you face Friday night and last years version.

Not only does South Pittsburg have the best backfield in 1A, looks like their city council will soon have the best backfield in Tennessee. Didn't I see Jimmy Wigfall's name on a sample ballot in the paper?

Coach Mac will have his offense ready for Basin. If he has Basin tapes he'll find ways to score. I'm confident about that. Remain concerned with our defense. Another effort like the past two I'll come around. A consistant defense is all Marion needs to become a dominant team. They're still running under the radar right now; that's a good thing so long as they keep winning. What's up with these Wingman10 predictions? Still bellieve he's a coach or program insider at least.

Earlier in this thread someone referred to Marion as South Pittsburg's little brother. How many consecutive loses does it take to make one a little brother and how close is Boyd to gaining that distinction. Whatever it is they'll be another lose closer after Friday night. Another close 1st half (adrenalin and such don't you know) followed by a dose of dizzying reality as the second half unfolds. Slow down just a step and these SP backs are just gone. IF Marion manages to pull ahead of Basin at halftime (don't believe it'll happen) I might just sneak off and watch the second half of this game. Go Pirates.

Not saying I disagree, but darned if I don't feel Marion just got slapped. Stings a little whether it's true or not. Could have worded it a little better, something like Marion is a shorter drive so Basin will likely continue with the Warriors.

To be clear, I'm not one of these posters predicting another Marion coaster type win. Single point will satisfy me. Agreed that if Basin can rein in Marion's ground attack it will be a long night for the Warrior fans and team. Don't think it will happen but who knows. I do believe the Basin offense will cause some problems for this Marion defense. Playing better lately but this game might require quick defensive adjustments play to play. Hope they're up to the task. Need another win Friday, at whatever margin, to keep the momentum up.

I heard play ratio was heavily skewered in SM favor. Still, thirty tackles is eye popping. Surprised this type performance didn't garner more local attention. Hats off to Jake. If he approaches that number against BB Pirates might be in trouble.

I was, it didn't and I was simply responding to your statement about no one being sick so no SP excuses. Not interested in discussing past games just used that one as an example of BB posters not accepting a lose gracefully. Formula for beating Pirates is Contain. simple to say, no opponent has pulled it off yet, including SM. Do that and Boyd wins. Boyd cannot win a shootout. Right now I'm leaning toward Boyd leaves speedway thinking like many others this year, "IF we'd just..."

A decade or so! In that case, exponentially pitiful.

Thanks for the correction PG. I exited game just after Marion failed on 4th &3 near midfield in 4th quarter. Looked like Coach Mac was in "run the clock down mode". Tried to beat the traffic down that construction lane connector to Interstate.

Glad this is a home game. Don't know anything about Copper Basin. Do they have any effective passing game, great outside speed, etc. They will not beat Marion by simply pounding the football. Marion, on the other hand, likely can beat CB by that means. I see Marion getting even better on defensive side of football. Continue portecting the football. No fumbles lost in last game I believe. That should continue to be the standard / expectation.

Totally agree and regret I won't be able to attend. Should be a battle.

Remember Marion 7 Boyd 6. Pirate posters have no corner on making excuses for why they lost a game. IF your Bucs can contain these SP speedsters and make the Pirates work for scores like any other mortal team Boyd will likely win. Give up those two, three and four play TD drives to Pittsburg, like every opponent has so far, and Boyd will lose. I don't see Boyd scoring 50+ points on Pittsburg; that seems to be the measure to post a win over them.

Solid overall game effort from Marion. Marked improvement in tackling, aggressivness on defense, protecting the ball, etc. Offense continues to execute well. 2nd Quarter several wide option plays still demonstrated Marion continues to be vulnerable to quick outside plays. Grace managed to keep game close in first half by exploiting this. Quick 2nd half scores allowed Marion to coast through remainder of game. Grace looked to be a well coached team that gave good effort throughout game. Just missing any exceptional, take charge athletes that teams at this level need to be successful. They were unfortunate in catching Marion at a time team seems to be peaking at all levels. Stay focused Grace; JoeWillie feels your frustration having been there not too long ago. Next weeks opponent will be a better test of just where this team is. Thumbs up on this weeks improvement and play Marion. Don't stand pat, stay hungry. Grace field is terrible. Upon entry saw that single bench seat behind visitor sideline and thought Grace must not be expecting a very large Marion turnout tonight. Realized soon that ALL seating was behind Grace team. No 13th man for Marion team. Mariion team standing all alone past North fourty just this side of hickernut flats. Pitiful. Note to Grace administrators: Either put in some visitor bleachers or give up home team sideline position to visiting team.

Yep to this, Yep to Wingman10's post, Yep to 98NationalChamps post. Just need another Win, at whatever point spread, to keep things going.

OP, I posted earlier during past week, Marion is more talented than most folks realize. Never said Marion would dominate SP, simply beat them next year. I'll go ahead and predict it now, by ONE point. That has become a solid number to expect Marion to prevail by. Losing Seniors will hurt, sure. I believe in this coach. He will not stand pat on this defense performance. A little improvement and this team will be dangerous. Even with lose of Seniors I think Marion stands pat on offense next year and shows marked improvement in defense. I expect a close SP/Marion game (finally) regardless of who may win. As for topic, I've already stated SP wins.