Good summary,
@Chadstroma . Pretty rare for a youth game to end with a single digit win.
Were there any standout players on the other team?
It was only the third game all season long in regular and playoffs that we gave up any points. On the other side, they scored 42 a couple of times, 37, and a couple of mid 20's through games. So our defense still did a great job against the best offensive team in the league.
There were sevreral good players but none that I would put on the same level as my son or our stud. The best player was their QB who ran well but that was more about their scheme and blocking that was on point and kept opening up big holes. Mostly the holes were opposite of our stud on the line and then either my son cleaned up but they would have had 2-4 yards before he got there or on their big chunks my son got lost in the wash (part of their scheme really) and one play where he actually got blocked really well.
There was one kid who made a couple of pays for them too... their wideout.... but that kid should be thanking God today but I don't know if he knows how close to death he came. He got held up after a quick pass to the flat. Our stud came flying in full steam and at the very last second, this wideout turned just enough trying to break off and it was just enough for out stud to miss. If he connected.... ouch. Specially since he was a smaller kid. The next play, he slashed us for about 20 on another pass which eventually lead to their TD.
Their school is a bigger school (may be the biggest in the conference numbers wise but I can't say for sure). I can probably explain the difference better in basketball....Our class of 6 grade boys is larger than normal for our school. We have had three basketball teams since third grade because of those numbers which all of our other grades having two (maybe even one). They pretty much consistently have 3 teams and well stocked teams (our three have been 9/8 roster teams, they are more like 10 each) Their basketball teams for our grade are above average- most of their players range from good to better than average but they have no star level players. If we had an all-star team for the conference, they would not have anyone representing them but they are very deep. Only them and another team will have depth like our team will but they don't have the high end talent that our team has. I would say the football team is similar to that- no obvious superstar but very deep and they are very well coached and that 'beast' offense is a hard one to stop if you execute it well- which they did.
Our weakness all season long has really been about our offensive line. We managed to cover it up through dominant defense and special teams with just enough offensive production but they were able to make a couple of big plays where our line gave it up (and plus one where my son screwed up). My son playing RB and a little WR really did make our offense better but just wasn't enough. I will say that I like our coaches and think they did well but I do think that they could have rode my son more. It seemed to me the gameplan on offense was to mot rely on my son as much.... maybe thinking that the other team would key in on him from his big days in the playoffs. Most of his runs were.... I think the same play call.... basically an off-tackle run. They ran him on a pitch out and he got a big chunk but when he started driving the team down the field, they would take him out and the offense would sputter. I mean, he was running at a 7 yard average.... if I was coaching, I would have rode him more. But again, I think gameplan wise they designed and practiced more plays with our other guys the problem is that if our line didn't perform well, the plays would not work out well versus my son would still get a couple of yards pushing 4 of their guys when the line did not perform well. But I am not the type of father to criticize coaches... even more so in football as I could not do what they do. It is easy to play Monday morn QB and say what you would do differently when something doesn't work. It is much harder to actually do it.
The coaches and the boys did a great job over the whole season. You can't win them all even though you need to try.