“I didn’t see much to panic about at all”
The Tigers roll with a comfortable 42-13 win over Cinco Ranch, and the Tigers are now just a Seven Lakes and a Taylor away from a district championship and the state playoffs. The season moves fast once it starts.
In watching this back, I thought Katy did a great job in the trenches on both lines. Katy was clearly the dominant team physically, and I would say this was the most consistently solid blocking performance I have seen from the Katy Hawgs across the board this season. We’ve talked a lot about watching Echols move from center to tackle a bunch lately to help spur the running game, but in this one he was just fine to stay at center flanked by the rest of his Hawg buddies.
Offensive Push
As a pro tip for any new Katy folks or opponent fans, if we are running the fullback for big chunks, look out. The Hawgs were getting massive push and really moving the point of attack, so Johnsey was able to have a lot of fun from the fullback spot in this one. They helped make Hill’s job easier as well, and for him it was mainly an exercise in vision and getting into the right places. Hill does a good job of following the blocks and running where he is supposed to.
Hill has had a lot of responsibility placed upon him recently with the depth issues encounter at the running back position, and he is growing up before our eyes. I would still like to see him get some help by playoff time as I don’t believe Katy can demand a 30 carry workload against a later round playoff opponent in the North Shore mold. I think the Tigers will need more bodies to run at folks in order to progress beyond Thanksgiving, but that’s just my chessboard view of things. In the playoffs, you need the ability to gain something from not a whole lot (physical punch) to keep folks honest.
Defense limits production
Defensively, Cinco got behind Katy a couple of times early in the game where we lost track of coverage. They hit a couple of throws for big gains initially, and missed one or two others wide open. Once Katy settled down, and the Coughran pick helped, I didn’t see those issues crop back up until Cinco’s scoring drive in the fourth.
The Cougars got their first and only points of the first half via the blocked FG. That was really the only bad thing I saw from Katy in the first half, and I think Cinco deserves a lot of credit for making that play. Sometimes blocks are just the other team making a great play and not necessarily a mistake you make.
Katy didn’t give up much on the ground at all. There was only the one explosive run from #7 to set up Cinco’s second touchdown in the fourth quarter that I noticed. Other than that, Katy’s defensive line was in control of the game similar to the Katy OL on the other side of the ball.
Defensively, Katy has become a settled unit personnel wise during the regular season and you expect to see increased chemistry as a result of having such a settled first XI. It will be interesting to see what happens when sub-varisty move ups enter the equation here shortly and where the Tigers might find reinforcements there. Depth is crucial in the playoffs.
I don’t know the overall penalty yardage in this game, but it did seem like Katy was the more penalized team watching this on film. Katy is either extremely undisciplined or gets special attention. And I’m being sarcastic on the undisciplined comment. The Tigers will take an honest look at those plays I’m sure and figure out where we can do better to try and avoid those because they can make a huge difference in a closer game.
What’s next?
Overall, I see Katy as more or less moving in a good direction at this point in the season with a pretty solidified team overall. There are depth challenges at running back right now and at receiving with some of the long term absentees, but I feel the Tigers are navigating those well. However, come playoff time, I believe Katy will need further help with a chessboard view to the state playoffs.
Injury/absentee recoveries and playoff move ups could have a real impact with this team and help the Tigers make the jump up to the next level when we need it come prime time.
As far as this game was concerned, I didn’t see much to panic about at all. Katy controlled both lines of scrimmage with not much of a problem and secured a comfortable win.
