[picktown_tiger]

I haven't seen anyone start this thread, so I will. Will thew Tigers "D" be able to contain the Jayshon Jackson Show? Will the "O" play a solid game this week? Will special teams play be more solid in the punt game? Will the Tigers harness their rage and put it against the Westerville South team instead of penalties and poor discipline on the field? Finally, will the Tiger faithful, students included, show up for the game and GET LOUD this week? I still have confidence in my Tiger team, but these questions need some answers. Let's get it going and GO TIGERS!!!!

[picktowncentral]

All good questions. Peanut has over 2000 total yards this year on his own. PC hasn't given up half that much all season combined...

[TigerCentralR&B]

But has peanut been up against a D like Picktowns? I worry that too many fans were talking about the HD matchup...don't want to get caught looking ahead.

[Brunodog]

Jackson is in a class of his own. No, he isn't getting the big time program offers, being a little short and undersized, but you can't argue a guy that has over 2400 yards this year.

Didn't get a chance to see Pick. Central play this year, but they are obviously the real deal.


Got to watch South play Coffman last night at South (as well as their matchup earlier this season at the 'Shoe).

South made it a VERY long night for Stoudt. He was scrambling a lot and making plays on the fly and took some big hits. Give him a lot of credit, because his line looked AWFUL against South's d-line and blitz scheme.


Obviously, PC is the better team on paper, but I feel it will be a very close game IF and only IF South keeps the penalities down. They had roughly 150 yard (quote me if I am wrong) in penalties. I think 11 to be exact. 2 big ones brought a TD back and a 50+ yard run by Jackson back (he would have gone over 350 for the game if that didn't get called back).

I think South losing to Olentangy last week was a blessing in disguise because they definitely made adjustments for Coffman and just manhandled them.

The QB for South had some good balls and they seemed to go to #13 Jones a lot. I think they threw to him 6 times and he had 4 catches (1 TD, could of had 2, but dropped a deep ball in the 2nd half). I don't know if he is their #1 receiver or what not, but he was the go to WR.

PC should stack the box with 8-9 men EVERY single down that is less than 10 yards to go to stop Jackson.

PC should win, but I feel that this will be their biggest test of the year to date and South could give them all they can handle.

Being a South Alum, I wish the best for Coach Pentello and his staff as they look to upend one of the best teams in the state. Good luck to both sides and go South!

[walt]

Originally Posted by Brunodog

Jackson is in a class of his own. No, he isn't getting the big time program offers, being a little short and undersized, but you can't argue a guy that has over 2400 yards this year.

Kind of reminds me of the situation with Nix from Reynoldsburg last year. Everyone who saw him play knew he was a great talent, yet the big time schools didn't offer because he was a few inches too short for them. Now look at him. I'm not sure why Jackson isn't getting the offers, but I have reason to believe he's been overlooked for the wrong reasons.

Originally Posted by Brunodog

Obviously, PC is the better team on paper, but I feel it will be a very close game IF and only IF South keeps the penalities down. They had roughly 150 yard (quote me if I am wrong) in penalties. I think 11 to be exact. 2 big ones brought a TD back and a 50+ yard run by Jackson back (he would have gone over 350 for the game if that didn't get called back).

Well.... Pickerington Central has been known to keep the referees busy. In fact, if Westerville South is a heavily penalized team, we may have to ice the refs arms down after the game because they're going to sore from throwing too many flags.

I definitely think this is going to be an interesting match up. Central's defense against the run has been crazy good this year, but we haven't seen a back like Jackson. On the flip side, I doubt South has seen a defense like the Tigers. The South offense vs. the Central defense will be the match-up everyone talks about, but in the end the game may be decided by the match up on the other side of the ball for both teams. Central's offense has been pretty efficient (at times down right explosive) all year. However last night they went to sleep in the 2nd half. There are/were several possible reasons (playing conservative with 24 point lead, team lost fire & intensity when they got up big, etc) but Troy was able to shut them down in the 2nd half like no other team this year. Typically Central's offense wears the opponents down and it seems like we've owned the 3rd quarter of most games...but not last night.

Should be a good one.

[picktowncentral]

"PC should stack the box with 8-9 men EVERY single down that is less than 10 yards to go to stop Jackson." Truthfully, it'll probably be 7.... 2 down linemen and 5 LB's / hybrid players standing around with 4 DB's...

[Walking Boss]

Jackson will test PC's tackling ability like no one they've seen. I would be pretty surprised if he is able to go over, say, 120-140 yds in this one, however. It will be easier to hit or surpass that mark if he busts a 75 yarder of something like that, but I think there is enough speed in PC secondary that he won't have one that long. He may, but I think his quickness is more impressive than his overall speed.

It is also all together possible that they completely stuff him and hold him to 50 yards or something like that. I don't rule out the possibility. They couldn't do it with the front seven alone, IMHO, even thought they have a very good front seven. If they have to bring an 8th or 9th up, Ball can be dangerous. His passes aren't pretty, IMO, but he can be very effective, especially if too much attention is paid to Jackson (see the Jerome game). I played in a similar game back in the ol' leather helmet days. We were facing the top running back in the county and we were so pysched to stuff him that we putting 8-10 helmets on him each play. He ended up with 20 yards on 22 carries, or something like that. Unfortunately, their WB took two counters 70+ yards to the house and we lost by 3 TDs. The Tigers have the athletes and the brawn that I don't think they have to sell-out in that fashion.

I'll be curious to see how PC's o-line deals with South's blitz packages. I've been very impressed with the Tiger's o-line the two times I've seen them. They are fortunate in this regard, in that they face tremendous defensive team speed and chaos-causing blitzes every day in practice.

I am now of the mind that this one will be more competitive than I was thinking it would be a few weeks ago. Central is still the comfortable favorite in my view, but they certainly can't take South lightly and will need to hit the field with their heads screwed on straight.

[Squirmydog]

I had the pleasure of getting to know Peanut a little through the Ryan Nolan camps. He is nothing but a genuinely nice, hard working young and I am pleased that he chose to stay at my alma mater. Athletically, he is a little freak. He is going to be a success at whatever he chooses to do. This should be a hard fought, close contest. If Pick Central gives Peanut a lane to run, The 'cats might bite 'em.

[Kill0331]

The Tigers should watch the South vs Groveport Madison film. Jackson rushed for something like 150 yards but on like 35 carries and the Cruiser defense held him out of the endzone.

[North/Side]

I watched some of his film. Very impressed for the power he has for such a small back.

When I think little guys that are great backs I think speed, and while he does have some speed, he doesn't have that "breakaway" speed. Many plays on the video I saw he got ran down by the opponent. This is not a knock against him at all, just stating what I think.

Pickerington should have their hands full. They need to wrap up and bring him down.

[coke72]

With the Talk of the Tiger O versus the South D amidst the 'How to Stop THE Peanut' talk. (Just a play on THE Ohio State University thing.)

What are the strengths of the South D. The blitz packages have been mentioned. Is it their speed, size or postion group(s). What is their size like up front?

The Tigers will need to tighten up some nuts and bolts this week and get ready to rock... The tackling has been strong all year and it needs to continue this week. Right now, it is the only week that matters. Last week is over and no sense talking about anything else than the game at hand.

[North/Side]

Anyone from Westerville South.......

How is Taven Howell doing? Last I heard he was moved from LB to D-line but I haven't heard much about him. He was a freshman at Beechcroft when I was a senior before he transferred. Like to see how he's coming along.

PM me if interested in talking further

[Brunodog]

Response to previous couple of posts...

PC should watch the groveport film on how to "contain" Jackson. But, take note, Ball is a 10 times better QB since week one.

I agree with the post about Ball being effective though. That is mainly because he throws great short route balls. His 5-10 yard routes are usually very accurate as well as his deep balls. And he is mobile as well. I think we may see him pull the ball on a lot of the zone reads (even though he just gives it to jackson 90% of the time).

From what it sounds, WS is going to have to catch PC off guard a lot.


As far as South's defense...I only saw 2 games this year since I am away at school. But the thing I took away from the 1st round game was that Stoudt had guys in his face ALL night. He literally had maybe 4-5 pass plays where he had more then 3 seconds to throw. It looked like WS was really confusing the O-line of Coffman who was coming on the blitz and who wasn't. They would walk up 6-8 people and drop 7 on the same play. They would rush 3 and sometimes that was enough.

South doesn't have a true stud on D this year. Just a bunch of good solid athletes.

As far as Taven Howell, he is still at LB from what I saw at the Coffman game last night. He has been a productive player all year. Good tackler.

I hope I can get off work and come up for the game. If South doesn't penalize themselves and doesn't turn it over, I think their defense is going to surprise PC.

[Webko]

I think the playoff grind will really begins with this game. I do think PC will have their handsful.

I don't know if the Olentangy v. South game says too much about WS. I am going to say that this was their bad week. I thought WS was lethargic for a big part of the game. It's like they were not ready to play. They were very slow. (Either that or Olentangy was that fast.) I did like WS' O-line. They were solid. I was not impressed with WS defense, and I think PC will have more opportunities in this game versus Troy.

I don't think you will see the two man d-line fronts on this game. Obviously, the running attack by WS plays well to PC's rushing defense strength. PC will need to make WS pass the ball. Get the game to be one dimensional, similar to what they did to Troy. I think the Tiger defense will bend more in this game than in recent games. But that being said the Tiger d-line was great against the run all season. I don't think this will change. The Tiger linebacker core between #6,#40,#41,#45 are just playing crazy good.

I really think the Tiger offense will need some serious pre-work for this week's game. This game should play out similar to Troy.

Be prepared sportsfans. There is going to be a lot of yellow laundry all over the field in this game. WS and PC are soul brothers with a large volume of penalties. I think both sides will be pulling their hair out at some point in time.

I am hoping that the Tigers will have a decent following. I thought there was poor showing in the stands for a home playoff game. I arrived late on Saturday to easily find many seating choices. It seems like since Newark the excitement in the stands has been lame. Our team is winning and doing their jobs and I think the Tiger supporters should do the same.

Tigers will need to generate some turnovers again to help the momentum of the game. I hope the penalty bug leaves our program soon. Better teams are on the horizon.

We are going to our home away from home this week. Once again our boys need our support.

GO TIGERS!!!!!!!

[walt]

Originally Posted by Webko

I am hoping that the Tigers will have a decent following. I thought there was poor showing in the stands for a home playoff game. I arrived late on Saturday to easily find many seating choices. It seems like since Newark the excitement in the stands has been lame. Our team is winning and doing their jobs and I think the Tiger supporters should do the same.

I think the number of fans traveling to road games has been good. I just think that outside of a few excited parents of players, the crowd has been quiet and unenthusiastic since the North game. The fans and student section were great through the first four games, but seemed bored (or spoiled) since we beat North.

[K-Zone]

I believe PC will be able to control the WS running game. PC is used to preparing for teams with multiple backs that can all run (eg; Lancaster). Also, their DB's are as fast as Jackson. The question will be if they can tackle him in the open field and can their defense stop PC on offense. Should be a good game, I like PC 24-7.

BTW South fans, I am not implying that any back from Lancaster is as good or as fast as Jackson, I'm saying that if PC can control Lancaster with 3-4 runners to prepare for, they can prepare for one.

[longballhitter]

Originally Posted by K-Zone

I believe PC will be able to control the WS running game. PC is used to preparing for teams with multiple backs that can all run (eg; Lancaster). Also, their DB's are as fast as Jackson. The question will be if they can tackle him in the open field and can their defense stop PC on offense. Should be a good game, I like PC 24-7.

BTW South fans, I am not implying that any back from Lancaster is as good or as fast as Jackson, I'm saying that if PC can control Lancaster with 3-4 runners to prepare for, they can prepare for one.

Saturday Night, I came away more impressed with The PC linebackers. 40 and 41. If they play as well as they did Saturday, Jackson will have a tough night. They will also have to force a TO or two and get field position. Otherwise it will be a very low scoring game.

[plainsball]

How many yards and TD,s does Jackson have for the year.

[gdtrfb]

Originally Posted by longballhitter

Saturday Night, I came away more impressed with The PC linebackers. 40 and 41. If they play as well as they did Saturday, Jackson will have a tough night. They will also have to force a TO or two and get field position. Otherwise it will be a very low scoring game.

#41 Garrett Foster is only a junior and #40 Greg Basalyga is a sophomore! They fly to the ball and hit like a jackhammer. Can't wait to watch them continue to grow and develop.. Imagine Greg as a senior??

[Webko]

Originally Posted by gdtrfb

#41 Garrett Foster is only a junior and #40 Greg Basalyga is a sophomore! They fly to the ball and hit like a jackhammer. Can't wait to watch them continue to grow and develop.. Imagine Greg as a senior??

Don't forget about #6 Jay Smith. He really has stepped up his game since mid season. Even #45 Jake Kincaid,(sorry? Not sure of name), is in the rotation and is solid. I really enjoy the young linebacking core. I can only imagine how much more they will be next year.