Bishop Media Sports Network
Brunswick High Pirates Coach’s Show With Sean Pender September 12
Glynn Academy Red Terrors Coach’s Show With Rocky Hidalgo September 12
MCA Buccaneers Coach’s Show w Tony Glazer September 11
College Football Top 10 Week 2
NFC South
By: Kenneth Harrison Jr.
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The NFL season has officially kicked off and there were some great games.
All 32 teams (even Cleveland) believe they have a chance for a winning season at this point. Well maybe not Buffalo but you get my drift. We’re going to take a look around the NFC South to see what we learned.
New Orleans and Tampa Bay played a great, high scoring game. The Buccaneers won 48-40 on the road. The first thing that jumps out is the lack of defense from both teams.
Jameis Winston is currently serving a three-game suspension, so journeyman QB Ryan Fitzpatrick played. Surprisingly, Fitzpatrick threw for 417 yards, 4 touchdowns, no interceptions and completed 75% of his passes.
He played amazing but he has been inconsistent his entire career. I believe if he wins another game, he will take the starting job from Winston.
The Saints have been known for elite offense since Sean Payton and Drew Brees came to town in 2006 and they did not disappoint.
Wide receiver Michael Thomas had a monster game with 16 catches, 180 yards and a TD. He also had a costly fumble that Tampa Bay recovered.
Alvin Kamara showed that he would not have a sophomore slump. He scored 3 total touchdowns, a 2-point conversion and had over one hundred yards receiving.
Carolina beat Dallas 16-8. The Panthers defense looked good, holding Ezekiel Elliot to 69 yards rushing. Cam Newton lived up to his Super Man nickname, leading the team in rushing yards. He scored a TD on the ground and he looked better as a passer by completing 65% of his attempts.
We have to take into consideration this was against the Cowboys and their offense is not very good. Dallas has been elite at running the ball but they do not have any playmakers other than Elliott.
I think Carolina’s defense is good but we need to see them against better offenses.
Linebacker Luke Kuechly left the game in the fourth quarter with a knee injury so that is something to monitor.
Atlanta opened on the road against the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles won 18-12 and it was a sloppy game that was delayed to due lightning.
If you recall in last season’s playoff game it came down to the final play and the Falcons could not score the winning touchdown.
The Red Zone woes continued for the Falcons and that is troubling. They had five trips to the Red Zone and scored once.
On the final play of the game Atlanta was inside the Eagles 10-yard line and of course, they have to throw to Julio Jones. Unfortunately, Ryan did not throw him a catchable ball, just like the playoff loss.
I’ve always been a big Matty Ice fan but his expectations were raised when he signed his new $150 million contract. He’s under much more scrutiny and I feel this is a Super Bowl or bust year for the Falcons.
We have 15 more games left so I do not want to overreact after week 1.
The NFC South looks like it will be the most competitive division in the league again. I believe if one of the teams can get home field advantage in the playoffs they will get to the Super Bowl.
Eagles Talon UMass
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Georgia Southern did much more than avenge a blowout loss from last season on Saturday night at Paulson Stadium.
The Eagles dealt out a beating of their own.
Georgia Southern racked up 488 yards of offense and scored 24 of the game’s final 27 points as it avenged a 2017 loss to Massachusetts with a 34-13 victory to move to 2-0 on the season.
“We preached it throughout the week,” Georgia Southern coach Chad Lunsford said. “We’re a blue-collar team. We’re not sexy. We need to play a lot of guys and have them fill a lot of roles to win games, and that’s what we did tonight.”
Trailing 3-0 in the second quarter after a Mike Caggiano 32-yard field goal put the Minutemen up in the first period, Eagle quarterback Shai Werts hit Cam Brown for a 5-yard touchdown strike that put Georgia Southern up. The touchdown and catch were career firsts for Brown.
The Eagles kept the momentum rolling as Tyler Bass connected on a 41-yard field goal. UMass answered with a 12-play, 75-yard drive capped off by a 1-yard touchdown run by Jordan Fredericks.
Primarily a rushing team, Werts got the Paulson Stadium crowd jumping with consecutive completions to Wesley Kennedy III for 25 and 28 yards, respectively. Werts skipped into the end zone from 3 yards out with 35 seconds to spare in the half, giving Georgia Southern a 17-10 lead that it never relinquished.
“It was a lot of fun out there,” Werts said. “(Fields) and all of our running backs were doing their thing all night. Once (UMass) had to respect the run, it really opened up what we could do passing.”
Tyler Bass kicked a career-long 50-yard field goal to begin the second half for the Eagles. The Minutemen answered as Caggiano split the uprights from 41 yards out, but the Eagles took full control after that, racing down the field on a five-play, 70-yard drive capped by a 17-yard play-action toss from Werts to Colby Ransom.
With just over two minutes to play, UMass had all but waived the white flag but the Eagles dealt a knockout blow. Georgia Southern ate up over five minutes of clock and Monteo Garrett plowed in from five yards out to make it a laugher.
“One of the things about being a blue-collar team is that you have to know how to finish games,” Lunsford said. “We missed a few chances to do that earlier in the game, but at the end we were able to step up and finish it.”
Werts followed up a 163-yard rushing performance in the opener with 154 passing yards and two touchdowns on a 6-of-9 performance Saturday.
He also chipped in 83 yards on the ground while Garrett ran for 90 to combine with Fields for the bulk of the Eagles’ effectiveness on the ground.
Massachusetts starting quarterback Andrew Ford completed 22 of his 33 attempts but a swarming Eagle secondary limited Ford to just 190 yards through the air.
The window finally shut for good on Ford’s final pass of the night as Eagle linebacker Benz Josue perfectly read a receiver settling into a hole in the GS zone and recorded his first career interception.
Georgia Southern is riding high and quickly putting the ghosts of 2017 behind it but the Eagles will face their toughest test of the year next week as they hit the road to take on No. 2 Clemson.
College Football Fallout Week 2
By: Jason Bishop
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Week two of the college football season is now in the books and some great outcomes and storylines arose from the “Saturday that was”.
I wonder what it will take for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets to consider moving in a different direction, away from Paul Johnson.
A loss to non-Power 5 South Florida has Tech fans groaning again about Johnson and that Triple Option. However, the problem isn’t the triple option or even Paul Johnson’s coaching, the problem is recruiting.
Georgia Tech was considerably outmanned against South Florida, which had athletes all over the field and that ultimately reflected on the scoreboard.
Also, currently, South Florida and UCF are the best 2 non-Power 5 teams in the country. Thus, there should not be a lot of outrage amongst the Yellow Jacket faithful about losing to the Bulls. They are currently better.
Speaking of better, I think it is pretty safe to say the Georgia Bulldogs are better than the South Carolina Gamecocks. The Dawgs went to half up by 10 and then Kirby Smart “let the Dawgs off the chain” in the second half and South Carolina had no answers.
In my opinion, Georgia and Alabama are the two best teams in the country, again.
A team that is not among the best 2 in the country is Florida. The Gators had beaten Kentucky 31 straight time and had not lost to the Wildcats since 1986.
That streak is over. Kentucky took advantage of a bad Florida offense and came away with a 27-16 win in Gainesville. Yes, in the swamp.
Long gone are the days where no one won in the Swamp except for Florida.
One thing that truly amazes me is how the University of Florida cannot find a decent QB when they are the flagship school for one of the four most talent rich states in the country.
Especially, when you thing about the great QB’s that have played there in the last 30 years. One thing is for sure, Feleipe Franks has a lot to work on.
One last thing, for people who are not paying attention, LSU is better than you think.
Next week the Bayou Bengals will have a chance to prove this to the country as they will take on the Tigers from the plains in Auburn.
The winner will have the inside shot of dethroning Alabama in the SEC West.
Jousting Match
By: Rich Bontrager
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
For the second straight week the Frederica Knights would score more than 60 points and control all sides of the ball as they defeated Bethlehem Christian 60-21.
Seven different Frederica players would score, including 3 more touchdowns for senior running back Isaiah Jackson. All three of his TD’s would be in the first quarter of play and help make it 27-0 at the end of that quarter. By half-time the GISA offensive player of the past week would have over 150 yards rushing.
Other teammates that contributed to the lopsided win included Jashawn Sheffield (two TD’s), QB Denver Anthony, (two TD’s), Harry Veal, JT Elliot, and freshman QB Thomas Veal late in the fourth quarter.
At half-time the Frederica Knights lead 41-7 and limited the Knights of Bethlehem Christian with less than 50 yards of offense and one score off of a 55-yard bomb.
The defense set the tone of the game when Josh Meadows (So.) intercepted Jacob Adams’ pass down field and help set up Frederica to get the second score of the game with 5:35 left in the first quarter.
With such a lopsided victory for Frederica, you must give credit to the coaching staff and head coach Brandon Derek.
Despite having several key players still out due to injury, the coaching staff has figured out how to assemble a winning team. The play calling in this game was made up of a never-ending rotation of players and plays.
This coaching scheme kept the Knights of Bethlehem guessing who might actually get the ball. Every series in the first half was a totally different package of players on offense.
Frederica takes their 2-2 record and will make their longest road trip of the season next week as the travel to face Augusta Prep.
Preseason predictors have said Frederica could win by 30 points or more. Will the Knights advance to 3-2 and break 60 points for the third straight week before getting a much-needed break?
To Coach Brandon Derek, that would be the ideal situation for his team that has battled extremely hard and suffered tough injuries the first two games.
Not So Fast
By: Josh Aubrey
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Statesboro Blue Devils have made great strides over the past two weeks, starting the season 2-0.
Friday night the Warhawks showed the Blue Devils they still have a ways to go, holding Statesboro to only 34 yards rushing and shutting them out 21-0.
“Everybody in our community – which we love and appreciate their support – was telling our kids and each other that Statesboro is back,” Statesboro coach Jeff Kaiser said. “Statesboro is not back, this is a journey and a process of getting to where we want to be. We are a lot further along than we have been in a while, but we aren’t where we want to be.”
The Warhawks defense stacked the line and shut Statesboro’s rushing attack down. Davardrion Lipsey managed only 30 yards on 14 carries, while Jaylen Roberson was held to just one yard on 14 carries.
“They are by far the most physical defensive line we have seen,” Kaiser said. “What really disappoints me is that instead of biting down on the bit and getting after it physically up front, we did not execute and were not physical.”
With the rushing game ineffective the Blue Devils were forced to do something they had only done once in the first two games, throw the ball. Quarterback Drake Horton completed 5 of 17 passes for 70 yards and had 3 interceptions.
“They forced us into doing what we don’t do and that’s throwing the ball,” Kaiser said. “We had a few good spots there but we threw too many interceptions and we have to do a better job keeping the ball.”
Statesboro managed two first downs on their opening drive but were forced to punt. The Warhawks then marched downfield on an 11 play 75-yard drive that culminated in a 12-yard Sebastian Verger touchdown for a 7-0 lead.
The Blue Devil defense held strong through the rest of the half. Veterans tried a fake punt that the Blue Devils stopped and Statesboro also recorded a fumble recovery at midfield by Flip Dixon.
The Blue Devil offense was unable to take advantage of field position on a couple occasions in the first half, having one drive end on an interception and another on an unsuccessful fourth down attempt.
In the third quarter the Warhawks busted free for a big play, as Verger kept it on an option right and streaked down the sidelines for a 47-yard touchdown and a 14-0 Veterans lead.
Horton was picked off twice in the third quarter, the first interception was returned 33 yards inside the Statesboro 20-yard line.
That would set up the final score of the night as Cyrus Zuell busted up the middle for an 8-yard touchdown, and a 21-0 lead.
“We need to get things ironed out, and get our heads straight and understand what we need to do to get better,’ Kaiser said. “I have one hundred percent faith that our kids will come in Sunday afternoon and watch film, and come Monday ready to get better.”
The win improves Veterans record to 4-0 on the season, while the Blue Devils drop to 2-1. Up next Statesboro travels to Effingham County Friday for a 7:30 start.
Frederica Academy Knights Coach’s Show with Brandon Derrick September 5
