The Live Oak Acorns and the Sobrato Bulldogs have started out
the football season with a combined record of 0-3. Sobrato lost
their first game to the Santa Teresa Saints on Sept. 1, and dropped
Saturday’s home opener to the Pacific Grove Breakers. Live Oak
meanwhile lost their first game to the Saratoga Falcons in front of
a home crowd Friday.
The Live Oak Acorns and the Sobrato Bulldogs have started out the football season with a combined record of 0-3.
Sobrato lost their first game to the Santa Teresa Saints on Sept. 1, and dropped Saturday’s home opener to the Pacific Grove Breakers. Live Oak meanwhile lost their first game to the Saratoga Falcons in front of a home crowd Friday.
This puts me at 0-3 for my picks of our home teams in the South Valley Newspapers’ Pigskin Pick ‘Em, but I’m still confident that with some tuning our talented teams will shake their early jitters and start winning some games.
The Acorns and the Bulldogs both have the talent, coaching, and the desire to come back from dismal starts, but they will need to improve in a few areas to make the transition.
Both teams need to work on timing between their quarterbacks and receivers.
In Sobrato’s first game, two missed catches in the red zone led to turnovers. One came in the first quarter when a nicely placed ball to the corner of the end zone narrowly missed the hands of Sobrato’s tallest receiver, and the other came on a dropped ball inside the 20.
When I played prep ball I had a coach once tell me, “If you want to make all-league you better dive for the ball.” Well I listened to him and as a result I caught a few diving touchdowns, and I ended up making first team all-league as tight end.
During Saturday’s Live Oak/Saratoga matchup I recorded a 2 for 16 passing effort (including a flea flicker) for Live Oak.
Bad timing and few dropped passes really hurt Live Oak’s effort, but putting an extreme emphasis on their passing game during practice could really balance out the Acorns’ offense.
Another coach I had during my football days would remind me after EVERY ball I dropped that, “If the ball hits your hands you have to catch it!”
A receiver must come to the ball and not wait for the ball to reach him.
To their credit both Sobrato and Live Oak have strong offensive and defensive linemen, still, they have to maintain their blocks (on offense) and give their quarterbacks that extra second to find his receiver and get the ball away.
Despite the losses, I have enjoyed watching the defensive efforts of both teams, including the strong hits, sacks, caused fumbles, and the interceptions.
Hopefully the talented but unproven offenses can dig a little deeper and finish their drives in the red-zone … that way I won’t have to hesitate when deciding whether or not to choose them in my weekly pick ’em.
