{"id":2849,"date":"2017-11-06T23:09:36","date_gmt":"2017-11-06T23:09:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/?p=2849"},"modified":"2017-11-06T23:09:36","modified_gmt":"2017-11-06T23:09:36","slug":"whats-going-on-in-football-with-all-the-high-scoring-offenses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/?p=2849","title":{"rendered":"What’s going on in football with all the high-scoring offenses?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

TERRY MOSHER<\/p>\n

It\u2019s back to the Boneyard for me. I need to get rid of all these thoughts careening around in my head that are clogging up my mind. Take football. Please. Do you see all the scoring in the game, including high schools?<\/p>\n

Take high school games this weekend.\u00a0 In 4A playoff games \u2013 all the state high schools were involved in some sort of playoff this past weekend \u2013 there were 14 games and the winners averaged 41 points.\u00a0 Richland defeated Mead, 62-7. Man, what is going on?<\/p>\n

Then in 3A, the winners in 16 games averaged 40. My old school, Ferndale, blitzed Ballard 70-7.<\/p>\n

The 15 2A winners averaged 35 points, with Fife and North Kitsap setting the pace, each scoring 66 points.<\/p>\n

This brings up this thought swirling around my addled mind: North Kitsap better watch out. I\u2019m seen the unbeaten Vikings play three times and they have fumbled 10 times in those games. I\u2019m sure coach Jeff Weible is concerned. His high-powered running game behind senior Dax Solis, who ran for 367 last Friday in the Viking\u2019s 66-25 win over Eatonville, has plowed through 10 games, but the competition doesn\u2019t get easier and a mistake could turn victory into defeat. Just take note of what happened to the Seahawks this past Sunday when they had 16 penalties and two interceptions in a stunning last-second loss to the Washington Redskins at home. The Redskins didn\u2019t so much win the game as the Seahawks lost it by their vast mistakes.<\/p>\n

And if you think scoring in football has slowed from high school to college, consider this past weekend when the top 25 teams averaged 33 points with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State setting the pace with a 62-52 win by Oklahoma in the Bedlam Game (the Bedlam name came from the annual wrestling match between the two schools because the crowds were so raucous).<\/p>\n

On the opposite side, the Washington Huskies are allowing 10.4 points a game, and that would not be that high except UCLA scored twice in garbage time to tack on 23 against the Huskies, the highest single-game total they have given up this year.<\/p>\n

The Huskies are the top-ranked defensive team in the country, allowing 214 yards a game (Alabama is second). Washington is second in defense against the pass (Michigan is first) and fifth against the run (TCU is first).<\/p>\n

Washington is riding that defense to an 8-1 season and a No. 9 ranking in the country because their offense (total yards) is only 52nd<\/sup> best n the land.\u00a0 No big surprise that Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are 1-2 in total offense and Washington State, which is led by senior quarterback Luke Falk, is the No.1 ranked passing offense and the \u00a07th<\/sup> best in total offense \u00a0(the Cougars are 127th<\/sup> in rushing offense out of 130 teams).<\/p>\n

Speaking of the Seahawks, they are not the great team most think. \u00a0Halfway through the season it has become evident to me that their receiving corps is having trouble getting open. I have noticed lately that teams have schemed hard to take away repetitive routs and place tight coverage on the receivers.<\/p>\n

Then it\u2019s a matter of getting heavy pressure on Russell Wilson and if they both work well in concert the result is a weaken offense because the Hawks\u2019 shaky offensive line isn\u2019t good enough to create running lanes for backs that are not the greatest (having rookie RB Chris Carson go down with an injury has created a major problem with the run game).<\/p>\n

As a result, the Seahawks are relying on a very good defense to keep games close and then hope Wilson can once again produce his late-game magic. It didn\u2019t work last Sunday when Kirk Cousins\u2019 late magic pulled off a stunning upset win for the Redskins and Wilson\u2019s only hope was to pull off a miracle Hail Mary pass that was batted down as time ran out.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think that defense can hold up through the last eight games. Coach Pete Carroll has to pull a rabbit out of the hat for the Seahawks to make the playoffs. And I watched the post-game remarks by him after Sunday\u2019s defeat and it\u2019s the first time I can remember the messenger of good will and positively being so visually stunned and upset. This was a win he had counted on and it all went up in the smoke from mistakes and failure to run the ball as well as going against a Redskin defense that took away his receiving corps (Paul Richardson was almost invisible).<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have an answer for Carroll. They play Thursday night in Arizona against the Cardinals that have all but abandoned the passing game with Carson Palmer out with injury and now are relying on the aging Adrian Peterson to run the ball.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure the Cardinals will be fired up because a win gives them some hope in the NFC West, so we\u2019ll just have to wait and see what Carroll will do to get his team ready and get them ready to quit making mistakes.<\/p>\n

Okay, I have to go pick up my granddaughter from work. Keep the faith, and stay away from guns.<\/p>\n

Be well pal.<\/p>\n

Be careful out there.<\/p>\n

Have a great day.<\/p>\n

You are loved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TERRY MOSHER It\u2019s back to the Boneyard for me. I need to get rid of all these thoughts careening around…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mosher"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2850,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2849\/revisions\/2850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}