Graham’s 1st team has been giving up an average of 7 points per game. Bluefield they gave up the most. I’d be shocked if Ridgeview scores 42 on Graham. I’m not saying they can’t beat Graham, they certainly can but Graham’s defense would have to totally implode to let a team score 42 at this point IMHO.
I know that the Bluefield game was only 4 weeks ago, but this is a different RV team than played them. The Beavers did them a favor as it woke the program up. It seemed to be sleep walking up to that game. Since then they have looked like team we expected coming into the season.
I’m picking with my heart maybe a bit but I think they find a way to get it done 20-14. I believe this could be a low scoring game as both defenses are really good.
Hey fellow RV fans. I know we all have them but don’t you dare bring your hoverboards to the game on Saturday. It amazes me what some people can come up with when in a board room.
Far from it. I don't like Graham and don't pull for them other than the fact of Tazewell Co and SW district. I could say plenty that would get the tides turned on me quick with Graham fans but I prefer to keep it civil. I just simply call it like I see it. Bluefield far best team we played all year, followed by Graham, then Riverheads, finally Ridgeview behind that. Yes they are good but they are not the almighty best that I have seen. Just giving the unbiased opinion of what I have seen like it or not. Next Sat night I might eat my words or I may have been spot on, we will just have to wait and see.
This RV fan was very impressed with Graham last year. You can say that Graham was a great team and RV imploded some. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. I believe Graham had a lot to do with the implosion. The kickoff return that was called back did change the game. Whether RV would have won? I doubt it, but I certainly do believe the game would have been closer.
As for this year, I agree with how @SwvaOGdescribed it. Penalties and turnovers will determine it,. If RV brings their A+ game it’s a low scoring affair.
The RV defense has been great the last 3 weeks and most of the season. The Bluefield game being the exception.
I think when people said they weren’t impressed with Ridgeview it was probably more of anger with the way the events played out for Tazewell. They should have actually said they were dissatisfied in Tazewell’s execution, not that they weren’t impressed with Ridgeview. I think the final score leads people to believe the game was something it maybe wasn’t. It was a blowout on the scoreboard but it didn’t feel like one on the field. I don’t say that taking away anything from Ridgeview, as it’s obvious they are a very talented team. I’ll breakdown my thoughts and that will be all I’ll say on the subject, as I don’t want to hijack this thread since ultimately Tazewell is playing basketball and Graham/Ridgeview are playing for a region title.
To start the game, Tazewell’s defense forces a punt and seemed to have momentum at that point. Beavers did a good job holding onto the ball until the last second before punting which gave the coverage team time to get down field and force the muff. Ridgeview recovers at the 20. 6 plays later they score from the touchdown after converting a 4th and 2 on that drive. XP blocked - score: 6-0
Next drive for tazewell is a 6 play drive where they got past mid field. Tazewell’s receiver catches a screen pass, tries to reverse field, runs backwards 9 yards and gets tackled which puts Tazewell well behind the sticks. Tazewell punts.
Ridgeview’s drive goes 6 plays, then punts back to Tazewell.
Tazewell - 3 & out, punt.
Ridgeview’s next drive is their most impressive of the day. 60 yard drive for a td. Tazewell had done a great job up until that point of shutting the run game down but Hill broke a 15 yard run where there were 2 missed tackles at the line of scrimmage. That run flipped the momentum. Hill is an excellent player, btw. XP good. Score 13-0 a few mins into the second quarter.
Tazewell’s next drive they have some success moving the ball. This one was a 6 play, around 45 yard drive. On the 5th play they make the first play where they were able to get one of their playmakers on the edge in space and that’s the play when Taylor gets ejected. On the next play the backup RB comes in and a busted play happens. Backup RB runs a counter when Creasy seemed to expect him to run a straight dive for the read option, and when he wasn’t there for it Creasy tried to tuck it but fumbled and Ridgeview runs it back to the 15.
Ridgeview starts on Tazewell’s 15, runs a couple plays to get a TD. XP good. 20-0 with just a couple mins left in the half. At this point it was over.
Tazewell takes over. Completes the first pass near midfield but the sideline gets a 15 yard penalty. Next play also a completed pass but a holding call on Tazewell and a personal foul on Ridgeview were offsetting penalties which led to a replay of down. Ridgeview brings pressure and gets a sack. Last play of the half they bring pressure and get another sack, which is the one that Creasy got his leg rolled up on. Tazewell has to regroup at halftime and figure out a plan on offense and defense without Taylor, who is arguably their most important player, and a plan to help Creasy which will have more limited mobility going forward.
While Taylor was in on defense Ridgeview didn’t have success on their inside run plays. I believe their longest rush, outside of the one Hill broke the tackles on and ran outside, was 3-4 yards. He’s a player that moves around a lot on defense, and gets in the backfield most plays so you always have to account for him. On offense, Taylor was their most physical player with the ball. He was the guy that would pick up a 3rd and 3 on a tough run and also could get on the edge and stiff arm his way for plenty of yards like was seen against teams like Virginia High and Richlands. Also Taylor, a 6’2 “ 200 pound strong kid, provided a lot better blocking option in the backfield on pass plays. Backup is 5’8” 160 pounds, so when he’s in pass protection Ridgeview was obviously going to come a little harder at Creasy at that point in time. Good defensive coaching adjustment by Ridgeview at that point.
Not making excuses for the reason Taylor was ejected, just stating the fact that when he went out Tazewell had to adjust their offense and defensive game plans on the fly, which is hard since I don’t know if a team in this area that could sub a kid in off the bench in his place and get anywhere near the production on the field.
So after halftime, Tazewell doesn’t covert on 4th down on the opening drive and Ridgeview takes over on Tazewell’s 35. Hill takes two separate what could’ve been 4-5 yard carries and breaks tackles to carry the team to another td. 27-0 early in the 3rd.
Next drive was Tazewell’s best of the day. 11 play, 60ish yard drive to around Ridgeview’s 10 yard line. At that point Ridgeview sends a blitz and sacks Creasy. Tazewell’s sideline believes it should be a penalty for hitting the QB in the head and after arguing that point with the ref for a minute the ref throws an unsportsmanlike on Tazewell’s sideline. Now instead of being at the 10 yard line with a chance to score they’re taking the snap from the 36 yard line, needing to get to Ridgeview’s 3 yard line for a first down. Creasy throws the Hail Mary type play a little under thrown, the receiver falls down trying to make the adjustment to come back for it, and Beavers gets an easy INT & runs it back to the 38.
The next play Ridgeview runs a good route concept on the outside. Tazewell’s cornerback was able to make the adjustment to get back in position with the ball in the air but Counts used his body to get him off balance. The corner falls down right before the ball gets there and Counts has an easy 65 yard catch down to the 4. Two plays later Hill runs it in. Ridgeview faked the 2pt to get the running clock and then the rest of the game didn’t really matter. Score: 35-0, which ended up being the final.
Ridgeview’s scoring drives were:
20 yards - set up by a muffed punt
60 yards - Excellent drive.
15 yards - set up by a fumble
35 yards - set up by a turnover on downs
68 yards - set up by a 65 yard busted play by the DB.
So that, I believe, is where the “Ridgeview wasn’t that impressive” thoughts come from. To Tazewell’s fans that know how much talent they have, it was frustrating to see the score being 35-0 when you believe that you gave away 28 of them. And on the other side of that - if Tazewell hadn’t turned the ball over, ended up punting and Ridgeview had long field a there’s nothing saying they wouldn’t have scored the same amount. But most Tazewell fans wouldn’t agree with that with the way Tazewell’s defense was playing the first quarter and half of the second.
Ridgeview, again, is super talented and their defense is underrated. They won, they advanced. They’ve been there before. So this isn’t me downplaying them, it’s me trying to explain both sides of it for the ones that weren’t there & just seen the score. The game was closer on the line of scrimmage in the first half but I think their back 7 is better than most people would think, which is the main reason Tazewell’s offense struggled. Ridgeview’s offense is highly touted, especially O’quinn & Beavers, and you expect them to make those big impressive plays as they’ve done plenty of times before. So if you’re expecting that to happen and it doesn’t then I could understand maybe why you would say that they didn’t impress you.
My thoughts are: they didn’t make any overly “impressive plays” because they simply didn’t have to, not because they weren’t capable of doing so. I think had the game 20-7 or something similar then there wouldn’t have been folks saying they weren’t impressed, they would’ve been able to compliment Ridgeview on having a great team with very few weaknesses.
Tazewell going forward has to find a way to not continue to beat theirselves after the first thing goes wrong. You can just about pinpoint one play in every single loss that was an unfortunate event for Tazewell and they were not able to recover from it. They’re capable of it, as they shown in the second half of the Richlands game, but they have to have that same mindset against every team, not just the team they want to beat more than the others. They’ll bring back most of the team next year. Harris will be hard to replicate but there will still be a lot of talent next year and the year after. Hopefully a couple of the kids that should step up to be leaders, that are capable and willing, will help the other players with their mindset and it can help them get over the hump going forward. That’s a big ask for kids 14-18 that haven’t been there before so fans need to be realistic in their expectations and remember that winning 5,6,7 games and making the post season is a lot more fun than the stretch they went on from 2010-2017. It could be even more fun when they learn to win the battle between their ears.
Good luck to both Ridgeview and Graham going forward. I think either will be a great representative for our side of the state in Salem if either were to make it that far. After this week it’s SWVA vs. everyone and we’ll all be friends again.
I wouldn’t say they imploded. They couldn’t handle Graham’s line on both sides of the ball. That will decide this game as well. Graham is returning 4/5ths of their line. The question will be is Ridgeview improved enough to give O’Quinn enough time to get the pass off and can they stop Graham from gashing them on the ground. If they have it will be a game. If not it will be a different year but same result.
If it wasn’t for Ridgeview self imploding they would have beat Graham last year. I say this year RV takes it. They’re playing with a chip on their shoulders right now.
Ridgeview has played one team with the following elements
1. Very good offensive and defensive lines
2. Multiple playmakers with speed
3. Great coaching
That team blew them out. Saturday will be the 2nd team they've played with all 3 elements. We're going to find out. Time for talking is over.
I think the lost of Jones will be too much for the bearcats to overcome in this one. They were able to pull together and win last week but the backup QB just doesnt run the offense well. They were able to throw quick screens and go balls and win last week because they were just able to out athlete Lee. I do not see this being the case this week. The way Ridgeview runs to the football on defense will negate the speed of VA high and shut them down. I think the defense of the Bearcats has been a weak point most of the season so Ridgeview should be able to score at will and VA high will not have to fire power to keep up.
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Kaitlyn Owens got a reaction from Graham32 in Ridgeview vs Graham Region D Championship Rematch!
Kaitlyn Owens got a reaction from BandanaVTDavis4321 in Ridgeview vs Graham Region D Championship Rematch!