PLYMOUTH — It wasn’t Netflix but it was a week for film and review after Plymouth’s Rockies dealt with their first loss of the new season.
“I think we came to the conclusion that they out schemed us on defense, there’s no way around that,” said Plymouth head coach John Barron. “Their (defensive) tackles were good. We had our hands full with them and they disrupted a lot of things we were doing. We were a little predictable and that led to some negative plays at times. Our execution wasn’t very clean, we weren’t very comfortable.”
The result was a game that played into Northridge’s game plan more than the high powered offense of the Rockies.
“It was almost like a punting contest after awhile,” said Barron. “We couldn’t get anything sustained especially in that third quarter. I think frustration set in but even in all that I think our defense played outstanding, I think our special teams played well.
“None of us want to lose and winning is always the goal but hopefully we’ve learned from it,” said Barron. “There weren’t a lot of guys in a good mood on Saturday. They are ready to get back at it. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves because Memorial’s record doesn’t show what they can do to an opponent.”
The Chargers are 0-4 but have an approach that shortens the game and allows them to be in a good position at the end.
“Warsaw only ran 27 plays last week (against Memorial) typically you run 65,” said Barron. “They can play keep away and we can’t get into a situation where we can’t get them off the field. Scott Shaw is a really, really good coach. There hasn’t been a team that has frustrated us more except maybe Northridge. They have some athletes and they have some guys if we don’t pay attention to them they are going to hurt us.”
They also run an offensive scheme that has frustrated the Rockies even this year in the pre-season.
“They are big up front on the offensive and defensive lines,” said Barron. “They are a double tight ‘T’ similar to LaPorte and sometimes they get into the straight ‘T’ but they want to formation you, that means they’ll do unbalanced lines, sometimes they’ll have six or seven offensive lineman in the game. They want to create misdirection, confusion but also power they want to run you over.”
The Elkhart defense presents another similar problem for the Rockies.
“They are an attacking defense. They are going to be a little bit different than Northridge but they are going to stunt anywhere, anytime,” said Barron. “They are going to challenge us to throw the football. I think that’s what the formula was to beat us is to challenge us to throw the ball and get the ball out of Cole’s hands. Hopefully we have some answers to that this week.”
“We can throw the ball down the field, Cole has a strong arm we have to protect him a little better, maybe roll him out a little.”
Key for Plymouth is something similar too.
“We have to establish our running game again but also we need to throw the ball on first down,” said Barron. “We need to challenge ourselves to put the ball in the air and not worry what second and third down looks like if it’s incomplete. We have athletes on the perimeter.”
Game time at Elkhart Memorial High School is 7 p.m.
