A shootout against Terra Nova wasn't advisable.
And it wasn't part of Carmel's game plan.
But that's what happened in a 52-49 loss.
Carmel wanted to run the ball and it did it well, piling up over 300 rushing yards, with quarterback Connor Marden rushing for five touchdowns.
Turnovers, though, were a thorn in the Padres side. Two turnovers lead to Terra Nova touchdowns while another touchdown occurred after a safety.
A 13-point lead became a 10-point deficit when Terra Nova ran off 23 unanswered points.
Defensively, Carmel has struggled in the playoffs. In its last five postseason losses, it has given up 39, 33, 49, 77 and 52 points.
It's hard to argue with the cliche 'defense wins championships.'
John Devine has been writing about high school sports in Monterey County since, well, practically since he was an athlete at King City in the days just after leather helmets. In PrepNation, John has even more in-depth analysis of the latest results and news he's brought to you in The Herald and in his weekly videos.
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1 comment:
I agree with you. Defense does win championships.
However I believe that looking at just the points allowed in 5 losses presents a biased perspective.
First, let's look at the 5 losses. Carmel scored 197 points in those 5 games and gave up 250. That says they lost these 5 games by just an average of 10 points per game. Sure had they played "better" defense in these games they might have won some of them, but losing by an average of 10 points isn't something that suggests a huge defensive deficiency.
Second, over the same period (2010 season to present) Carmel has won 6 play-off games. In those 6 wins, the Carmel defense held their opponents to 21, 35, 7, 35, 26 and 14. Carmel gave up 138 points in those 6 games and scored 289 points...for a margin of 25 points per game.
And this doesn't count the 2009 season where Carmel won 3 play-off games beating their opponents by an average of 35 points per game.
As I started, I do agree with you that defense wins championships. And yes there is no doubt that giving up 50 or more points in 3 of their 5 play-off losses is too many. But just because Carmel gave up that many points doesn't necessarily suggest Carmel needs to tear apart their defensive schemes and start all over again.
At least that is my opinion.
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