East 40, Murray 8

This is likely close to one of the most complete TEAM efforts I've seen by us so far this year. Good job to everyone on the team for the contribution they made both in practice this past week, and in the game on Saturday. We came out and from start to finish, dominated the way we needed to in order to get this win and get to 6-0. It feels very good.

I cannot single-handedly point out people for their efforts, as there were many. The OL did a great job of protecting Trevor. The receivers caught anything within their grasp, and the RB's ran hard as if their life depended on it. This is what we need every week (especially this up-coming week).

Some things we still need to work on:

- DL needs to maintain lanes as they rush the passer. This is the same kind of thing we teach you in the pursuit drill. The DE's especially need to ensure they are taking an outside contain rush on the QB when rushing in.

- DB's need to always keep their receiver, wheather it's a TE or a WR, in front of them. Our first defense gave up one long pass and a near TD, had the TE not dropped the FB in the end zone. This is not good and worriesome for me as a coach as I know that Skyline LOVES to throw to their TE the same way Murray tried (which is similar to how we do it on the Counter Pass). Corners and SS's, PLEASE make sure to take special note this week that you will not allow a TE or WR get away from you.

Other than that, we played a great game. Next up, SKYLINE. Nothing more needs to be said about this game. They want you and they want you badly. Skyline is a good, fundamental FB team that does not make many mistakes. As you can see in the season stats, they average around 16ppg and allow only 5.1 ppg, so I belive this is going to be a big challenge for our offense. If our defense can keep skylines offense off the field and get the ball in our offense's hands often, we will be successful.

Offensively, we need to be ready for a battle and expect to RUN, RUN, RUN against Skyline. I guarantee you they will put double coverage on our WR's. If they don't, then we will throw, but we know they are a good team and likely have filmed one of our games and know of our ability to pass and how it's a big part of our offense. This week, we will focus on grinding out the football and throwing when we need to. RB's, this will be the game of your life. Expect to block hard for each other, and carry the ball tight (Skyline loves to make you turn the ball over).

This is a home game, so we have that to our advantage. Come to practice ready and focused. I don't want to see a bunch of joking around and clowning around before practice. You should want to start on time, not us coaches. You should be begging us to help you get better to beat Skyline. If we win this game, we are lined up go to un-defeated with the remaining schedule we have (of course, we can't take anyone lightly) and it is likely that we will face Skyline again in the play offs, so we must expect that as well.

I'm proud of what you've accomplished so far, but I still expect more out of some of you. I want to see more leadership out of the starters. When I say leadership, I mean leadership by example of working hard during practice and helping out those on your team that need it. I still see too many goof-offs and it worries me a lot. Let's make sure to step up and be leaders this week. I'll see you on the field.