Trine vs. Manchester
It never gets old! This was my final season opener in college football. Coming into the game I knew everything about Manchester. What coverage’s they would call before they would even call them. On top of that I played against the Spartans 3 times previously in my career.
Knees weak, and palms sweaty is the motto still for that first game of the season. I always seem to have those jitters throughout the day, probably from being so anxious to play somebody else. I really get tired of playing against my own defense all camp, so once that Thursday comes around against Manchester I get too excited.
Once that ball is kicked off, it turns into an all-out war, where the outcome is usually, us, the Thunder victorious!
As the game progressed I became more and more frustrated. Not because of my play, but the teams play and the play calling. When you put everything into this game and out work everybody around you, you expect the team will do the same. It was just something that I was not getting from the team in the game, defense or offense.
I felt as if the D was playing like bums, and the offense wasn’t making enough plays. Let me be completely honest Manchester is nowhere in our league, nor are they as good as we made them look last night! We as a team played awful, I thought.
One thing I did notice this season since I have grown to understand the game more, we never really have blown out Manchester since I’ve been here. Even in my freshmen and sophomore seasons where the team was ranked in the top 15, we failed to blow out Manchester. Both those years we struggled with Manchester then went on to dominate every game after that.
I think it’s a first game struggle that we continue to have year in and year out. We will find out what happened in film and get it worked out, because one thing I know is film does not lie!
Ultimately, I played well with 7 catches for 64 yards, but that’s not even close to what I am capable of. But I’ll take it none the less and move on to Elmhurst week preparation and see what I can do to prevent a game I’ll call average. We also got the win 24 to 14 so I can’t complain too much about the play calling because at the end of the day it’s better to win with your team mates, then lose with stats and without them!
By Ja Vontae Hence