Class B wrote:Thoughts on the Region 3 game of the week: This will be a one score game either way. I think Ryan will be surprised to find out how physical DLB plays. I think both teams are pretty solid in the trenches and that will be fun to watch. DLB has an athletic QB where you have to respect his ability to run and throw. Of course Ryan is pretty solid at the skill positions too. I'm trying not to make this sound like a cliché, but it really does come down to who wins the battle of the trenches. I like DLB's chances if they can stop the run and force Ryan's QB to make throws. I like Ryan's chances if they can keep Gunville in the pocket and not create opportunities with his legs.
I was at the game and fully expected it to be closer than it was. Bishop Ryan completely dominated the trenches on both sides of the ball...they rushed for over 400 yards and held DL-B to about 100. To put it in perspective, when an RB was “met in the hole”, Ryan was gaining 4 yards while DL-B would lose 1. That’s a big difference in how the lines were driving off the ball. Had it not been for a couple turnovers and 15 penalties by Ryan, the game may have been even more lopsided!
Neither passing game was very effective, partly due to weather and partly due to game plan. I was somewhat surprised by the effective downfield coverage by the Ryan DBs. Many times the DL-B QB was forced to throw the ball away because no receiver was open as his running lanes were closing.
As one might fear in a rivalry game with playoff implications, it got a little chippy. There were definite cheap shots taken by BOTH teams...so don’t believe it if you hear one team was dirtier than the other. They both displayed some “character issues”; with twisting ankles at the bottom of the pile after the whistle, leg whips, unnecessary crackback blocks and the such. Again, I will defer to the high emotion/implications of this rivalry game and hope the extracurriculars were due to that.
The wind was strong to start, but actually diminished throughout the game, so it did not seem to have as great an impact as one would have thought. The temps were in the 30s, but c’mon, it’s ND football. You can’t expect perfect weather all the time!
Quite frankly, it looked like one team wanted to be playing and one team did not. I bet you can figure out which team was which.