Bear Tracks Week 3 | 2018

With the game on the line and BHP’s quarterback basically in the grasp of the a defensive lineman, the words from Vern Lundquist ran through my mind. “Four man Alabama rush. They got him … no they didn’t, Oh my grashest. How about that!” Replay the play in your mind as you listen to Vern (Vern's Call). In the end, BHP was able to have some sort of redemption over the team that defeated them for a region championship last year.

With that cardiac thriller against Greenville, BHP pulls to 2-0 and sets up a match up against undefeated Anderson County rival T.L. Hanna this Friday night. T.L. Hanna is the top ranked team in the state of South Carolina from all classifications and the Bears will take a short bus ride to Anderson looking for the upset.

Week 2 Review

Although the game did not have the same stakes as the matchup last season, the actual game lived up to the expectations. This game brought two consecutive seasons with the game being decided with less than a minute left on the clock. This year however, BHP came out on top.

As the game was unfolding and now looking back on the statistics, it would be very easy to think the statistics for each team had been switched. BHP is most known for a powerful running game and Greenville, a high power passing team, seemed to switch playbooks. BHP put on a show with big plays in the air, while Greenville ate up yards on the ground. But in the end it was a busted play that resulted in the go ahead touchdown for the Bears. (We say busted play with the utmost respect).

Week 2 Review Stats

• Since 2014 BHP has only had 6 games with a passer who threw for 200 or more yards, Camden Bratcher has 4 of them.
  • Only 2 BHP receivers have gained 150 or more receiving yards in a single game since 2014 and BHP’s Jacob Howard’s 167 yard performance is the most receiving yards in a games in that time frame.
  • BHP is scoring 10 points per game more than their 2017 season average.
  • BHP is averaging 3.4 yards per play more than they did last season.
  • BHP is averaging .4 more rushing yards per game than last season, but 118 more yards passing per game than last season.
  • Since 2014 BHP has only had 15 plays that have gone for 70 or more yards; 6 have been passes and 2 of the 6 have come in the 2018 season.
  • Only 6 BHP receivers since 2014 have had 100 or more receiving yards in a game. There has been one in each game this season.
  • Since 2014 BHP has allowed only 4 rushers to gain 150 or more yards. Greenville’s Collin Wakefield is the first to gain 200 or more.
  • Since 2014 BHP has allowed 200 or more rushing yards 6 times and are 2-4 in those games.
  • This season BHP has only had 26 plays that resulted in zero or negative yardages, while causing opponents to have 48, or 34% of plays ran (both numbers include incompletions).
  • This season BHP’s Camden Bratcher has an Points per 30 Passing Attempts of 35.89, double last season’s 16.94.
  • BHP has not surrendered a 3rd quarter point this season.
  • The 73 plays ran by Greenville against BHP Friday night was only the 6th time since 2014 that 70 or more plays have been ran against BHP.

Game Sidenote:

BHP’s offensive staff showed a level of creativity and mastery that may have been unlocked by the offensive talent BHP has this season. I want to highlight two instances of this, one strategic and one tactical (both are on video and I have no inside knowledge of the system, this is strictly my laymen view).

First, on the winning drive BHP had a 3rd down and 10 on the 25 yardline, down by 7 with 1:19 left in the game. Most people would expect BHP to pass in this situation and maybe even take a shot into the endzone because of the spacing provided by being outside of the redzone. However, BHP’s coaches, knowing they would have to go for it on 4th down if they did not get a first down and a 4th down and 10, handicapped their play calling in such a huge way that they called an inside run play (not sure if it was a dive or a draw, doesn’t really matter). The play gained 12 yards, giving BHP a first and 10 and putting themselves in place for the go ahead score. The outcome was not the beauty of the play call. The coaches put in place a decision with outcomes that extended the game and increased the probability of scoring and winning the game.

The second situation we want to point out came on the first scoring play for the Bears. The reason we wanted to point this play out was the tactics that were use. BHP lined up with three wide receivers to the wide side of the field, one receiver (Nance) to the short side, and the running back (Dixon) directly behind the quarterback (Bratcher) in the pistol. Before the snap, Dixon was motioned to the short side of the field and became the widest player on that side moving Nance basically to the slot position. This caused the Greenville linebacker that would be responsible to cover Dixon to widen out and cover Nance, being the innermost threat. Dixon runs a 5-8 yard stop route and the Greenville cornerback played either press coverage or a short zone which had him locked on Dixon. Nance runs a corner route to the goalline. The Greenville safety would be responsible for Nance because his task was to cover the deep half zone. BHP ran a streak (or go or 9 route) and a post route on the front side which threatened the strong side safety, making the weak side safety to hold his ground for a split second in case the post came into his zone. This gave Bratcher enough of a window to complete the pass for the touchdown. Also, because the cornerback did not drop into a deeper zone because of his responsibility to guard Dixon, Bratcher was able to throw the pass lower and away from the safety, making the pass nearly un-interceptable. This type of motioning a running back or tight end to the widest player is straight out the New England Patriots playbook. Making a defense declare a position, motioning a running back or tight end which, because of the defensive formation, will require either a linebacker to guard a wide receiver or a cornerback to guard a running back, will always favor the offense.

We just wanted to give a tip-of-the-cap to the offensive coaches for these two playcalls last Friday night and hope to see more as the season goes along.

Week 3 Preview

Two years in a row BHP will travel to T.L. Hanna with both teams being undefeated at gametime. This time last season T.L. Hanna had not completely shown the full picture of how dramatic the turnaround would be after bringing in a new coaching staff. After an undefeated regular season in 2017, T.L. Hanna comes into 2018 marked as one of the top teams in the state.

Last season’s matchup showed how good T.L. Hanna had become. T.L. Hanna scored 20 points in the 2nd quarter, which inevitably was too much for the Bears to overcome. BHP was held to the 2nd least total yardage game in four seasons in last year’s matchup. BHP was out gained by 145 total yards against T.L. Hanna and BHP has only been out gained by an opponent 11 times since 2014, with T.L. Hanna doing it twice. In those 11 games BHP is 2-9.

Last Season’s Game

Score: BHP - 14, T.L. Hanna - 33

BHP Stats

Total Yards: 54 plays for 174 yards
Rushing Yards: 29 rushes for 95 yards
Passing Yards: 10/25/0 for 79 yards

Individual Leaders

Rushing: RJ Ellis - 17 rushes for 53 yards and 1 TD
Passing: Camden Bratcher - 10/25/0 for 79 yards
Receiving: Zy Scott - 3 catches for 41 yards

T.L. Hanna Stats

Total Yards: 52 plays for 365 yards
Rushing Yards: 47 rushes for 319 yards
Passing Yards: 2/5/0 for 46 yards

Individual Leaders

Rushing: Braylon Peterson - 11 rushes for 139 yards and 2 TDs (only 1 of 2 rushers to score 2 rushing TDs against BHP last season
Passing: Alex Meredith - 2/5/0 for 46 yards and 1 TD
Receiving: A.J. Bryant - 1 catch for 34 yards and 1 TD

BHP will look to once again show a balance attack while trying to hit explosive plays in the air as they have in 2018. The Yellow Jackets will show BHP an offensive attack and a caliber of player that they may not see the rest of the season.

One area of the game BHP has an advantage in is the experience they have gained this season in a close game. BHP played an emotional four quarter game against Greenville and can draw on that if the game Friday Night stays close until the end. T.L. Hanna has not had any resistance in their 2018 games this season and not playing starters for a full game may give BHP a leg up.

Fun With Small Sample Sizes

Being only two games into the season, we may lock in on what we think are trends but may actually be outliers once we get a wider sample size. But it is kind of fun to look at the pace BHP and their players are on if we extrapolate their season stats so far to a full season pace.

Projecting Regular Season Stats

Camden Bratcher

• Season: Passing - 130 completions on 210 passes with 0 interceptions and 30 passing TDs for 2,750 yards.

• Season: Rushing 45 rushes for 420 yards and 5 TDs.
  
  

  This would be the most passing yards in a season for any BHP player, 8 completions from being the most completions in a season, and 20 passes from being the most pass attempts in a season. If you combine his rushing and passing projections he will surpass the most season touchdowns and total offense marks held at BHP.
  
  

  If we add these projections to his career totals, Bratcher will be in line to break even more totals. At his current pace he could take over 1st place all-time at BHP in passing yards with 4,343 yards, passing completions with 276, and highest completion percentage with 60.1% for a career.
  
  

  As we said, small sample sizes allows us to make estimations that may not represent the data set as a whole once we get to the end of the year. Nevertheless, the stats Bratcher has put up so far this season have been extremely impressive.
  
  

Conclusion

BHP may coming off one of the best and most exciting regular season wins in recent memory, but waiting for them this week is the top ranked team in the state, T.L. Hanna. Recent history has shown a dominate T.L. Hanna team, but BHP will look to make a statement against a fellow Anderson County school.

We are making a biased pick with this one, but we honestly see a strong case to be made for BHP. BHP shocks T.L. Hanna 24 - 21 with another last minute score by the Bears.

Nevertheless, this will be a great game and we should all support the team by showing up to T.L. Hanna for the game.

But if you cannot make it, be sure to follow us on twitter @bhp_bears for live updates.

Let us know if you agree or disagree with our prediction in the comments below or on our social media pages (@bhp_bears or /howboutthembears).