Bucs Parents
Outstanding performance in Sunday’s game!!! We really came together as a team, and played an excellent game. Our offense ran for 3 rushing TD’s in the game and converted on 2 of the extra point attempts. Our defense also played great all game long, and was able to stop most of their ball carrier runs (Fantastic job to everybody)
Game Result:
- Bucs_20
- Steelers_13
Game notes: We had 5 different players score in this game (Awesome!!). One of the team goals for this season is to allow every player to experience the thrill of scoring points in the game.
What went well:
RB hand-off plays: Our QB x RB exchanges were terrific. There were a couple of drops, but overall we very clean on this exchange (Again, this is not as easy as it seems when you are in a game situation). The QB’s did a great job hiding the football with the fake hand-off’s while getting the ball accurately to the real ball carriers. Also, our RB’s were quick to take the hand-offs & turning up the field – following the intended direction of the play and letting the fake RB’s draw the defense away. (Great job QB’s & RB’s)
Defense Speed and Flag Pulling: Also, our defense played great all game long. We were quick to move of the snap and pull the ball carrier’s flags. We even were able on a couple of plays top catch up w/ the RB, who had gotten past our initial defense, and pull the flag before making it to the end zone. (Great job defense – both squads)
What we can work on:
RB Hand-off technique: Even though our QB x RB exchange was good, we did have a couple drops (which unfortunately takes away a potential big play). We’ve been working with the kids to make a large opening with their arms, with one arm up and one arm down (called “running back arm positions”), giving a large target for their QB to hand off the ball to. It’s understandable that the kids naturally want to take the ball in their hands, but unfortunately, the ball can easily go off a finger tip or miss their hand all together (and cause the drop). Now being able to experience a QB x RB exchange in a game situation, the kids seemed to realize how important the proper RB arm position technique is. (We’ll work on this at the pre-game practice next week)
Moving as a unit on defense: While the kids are naturally good at swarming after the ball carrier and pulling flags, we need to work on moving more as a group, and “boxing” in the ball carrier. There were a couple plays where it seems we took “turns” trying to grab the ball carrier’s flag (kind of like those old kung-fu movies where the bad guys have like 20 guys against the 1 hero, but they only try to fight him 1 at a time). If we can get the kids thinking more as a defensive unit, then they can move together w/ the ball carrier and trap him in our defensive boxes. (We’ll also work on this with the kids this week at practice)
But, we want to stress that the kids played extremely well in this 1st game, and we were very proud of every one of our players. (Fantastic job to everybody – the Bucs are 1-0!!!)
Follow-up Items:
Game Snap Shots: Parents, if you happen to get a good picture of your MVP during the game, be sure to send it to us. We can load up pictures to our teams homepage (1 picture to the game wrap-up news article and/or add up to 3 additional pictures in the picture gallery section). And the gallery can be updated for each week’s game.
That should be it for now, let us know if you have any questions / concerns.
Sincerely, James Neal & Greg Thomas (Bucs Head Coaches)
As always, you can find this and all previous correspondence in the news section of our team page:
http://www.michiganyouthflagfootball.com/Default.aspx?tabid=181866&mid=205444&teamid=203106&ctl=teaminfo&seltab=teamnews