Blitz gives Pioneers fits: Wildcat LB’s on the attack entire game
Saturday night at Nunley Stadium the Tullahoma Wildcats did what most teams have done against the Pioneers all year — send everybody they can at the quarterback.
The Pioneers have had problems picking up the blitz this year, and Tullahoma sent their linebackers all night long.
“Tullahoma sent their ‘mike’ linebacker at us all night,” said Pioneer line coach Matt Turner. “We did a pretty good job picking him up in the first half, but in the second half we started having trouble getting to him. The line held their blocks in the first half and our up back is responsible for picking up which ever linebacker they send at us.”
Quarterback Joey Haston was rushed all night, and when he did have time to drop back to pass he was still hurried. Haston was sacked four times for a total of minus-eight yards. The Pioneers had trouble with the option as the blitzing linebacker kept the Pioneer offense off-balance.
“Last week we did a pretty good job of picking up the blitz, but this week we had to make a few adjustments with the loss of Preston Smith and T.J. Jarvis,” Turner explained. “Jarvis knows where he needs to be to help out when they send somebody up the middle at us, and with the loss of both of these backs it hurt us tonight.
“We may have started to get a little tired and we just didn’t have any backups tonight with the loss of Smith and Jarvis. When these guys get in there that usually don’t see as much playing time, they have to learn to settle down and focus on what they have to do. When you’re sending linebackers at them like Tullahoma did tonight it’s hard to get into any rhythm and settle down so they can pick up the blitz. Tullahoma kept us out of sync all night.”
Tullahoma played a pretty much straight up defense, but good containment on the outside combined with the pressure up the middle forced Warren County to run the ball straight up the middle.
“Tullahoma had a hard-nosed kid out there tonight that just came at us hard on every play,” Turner said. “Tullahoma sent 35 (Chris Peterson) hard from the outside and he shut down our option tonight. He came at us on almost every play and was just one of those players that is going to be hard to stop no matter what you do.
“I’m sure we’re going to see more of the same from Cumberland County next week so we have to go look at the film and see what kind of adjustments we have to make. When you have a team that blitzes like Tullahoma did it only takes one missed block to spoil the play. We have to stay consistent so our offense can get into a rhythm and tonight Tullahoma put pressure on us up the middle and we never had that chance.”