Rarely does a championship game live up to its billing, but the AAAA Region 1 Championship did just that. With a season finale that matched two 8-1 teams looking for a region title, the scene was set. After the dust settled, Greenville came out victorious, but the game produced in epic fashion with both teams scoring 21 straight points, one team with a 400-yard passer and a 250 yard receiver and the other team with a kickoff and interception return for a touchdown, both teams show why it all came down to them. BHP came up just short of back to back region championships, but locked up home field advantage in the first round of the playoffs. BHP will face a familiar opponent in Union County and will look to bounce back from their second loss of the season.
And it all comes down to this! With the win over Wren, BHP created a regular season finale showdown to crown a region champion. BHP will be looking to win back to back region championships however, one of the best teams in South Carolina AAAA will be waiting for them. To set up the match up Friday night, BHP had to take care of Wren and with a dominating defensive performance and they did just that. BHP traveled to Wren and proceeded to take the win over the third Anderson County school this season. With the win, BHP is guaranteed to take at least 2nd place in the region and have a home playoff game. Even as we leave the game unsatisfied, BHP came out the victor and now boasts an 8-1 record.
BHP rolled into their Week 8 match up with Daniel on a four game winning streak and a seven game region winning streak. Both were extended with a 21-7 win over Daniel. Historically this match up would decide the region winner (since 2000, 15 of the 17 seasons either BHP or Daniel has won or shared 1st place in the region). With the win over Daniel, BHP keeps their region title hopes alive. To continue the hope of a region title, BHP will travel to Wren. BHP will need to be able to slow the game down and not let Wren’s hyper offense get started. BHP showed the ability to stop the run against Daniel, but has still shown that they are susceptible to a deep passing attack. We will see how they fair against a pass happy team on Friday at Wren.
As we try to understand the rushing game and the offensive line play through a statistical lens, we must try to determine which part the offensive line plays and which part the running back plays. In our last post we looked at power success and stuff rate, which are directly related to offensive line play. In this post we will go over open field and second level yards which are both in direct relation to the ability of the rusher along with the ability of the offensive line to open rushing lines.
Two of the new stats we are tracking this season are power success and stuffed rate. When it comes to analyzing offensive line play, these two stats are the most important. Offensive line coaches love to talk about being physical and attacking at the point of contact and that is what being measured with these two stats.
We will go deeper with each of these stats in later post but this post will give you an overview of what can be expected as we go through the season.