Beaver Graham 2019

[Hokie1Pokie 350]

Graham got robbed a bit by the officials. 2 touchdowns, long TDs called back, had to be over 100 in penalties, and the Graham player taking the ball away from the Bluefield player and the officiating crew gave them the ball back on the return. He possessed the ball before the Bluefield player was out, but it was right on the Bluefield sidelines. 

Graham wasn't winning that one with that crew, which is typical for when Bluefield is the home team. Noticeably, the Bluefield stadium announcer (still love ya Blue. Researcher) helped out the officials with the usual subtle hints of suggestion on where to spot the ball, and he gave outstanding explanations of why a call was made in favor of Bluefield, but remained incredibly silent on why a call wasn't made in favor of Graham, lol. BR, people actually do notice this. 11 thousand people aren't stupid. They get the attempt at giving the official subtle suggestions by saying, "the pass was overthrown and incomplete," which is an attempt to get the crew to think about that pass interference flag against Bluefield by considering whether the pass was catchable or more important, whether You thought it was catchable.  As for the decleating penalty, horrible call. The player wasn't decleated. He had his left foot in contact with the ground from the time he was hit until the time he went to the ground.  On the first Bluefield run of the game for a score, they missed a clear, very clear takedown which would be a hold in any state anytime other then last night. So yes, I think the officiating was pathetically poor last night. When you have a game with about 4-5 major 50/50 type penalties that can be considered going either way, Bluefield went 5 for 5 and the received the benefit of the calls over Graham. That's the noticeable part. It's kind of like 2 Hoops teams playing the same intensity of defense and one shoots 40 free throws and the other shoots 8. It just doesn't look that good.

All in all, credit Bluefield for doing just enough to win. They are a solid big play team and defensively, they are solid. Those two teams are pretty close though. I was concerned before the game whether Graham was good enough to beat Bluefield. Graham was good enough. I think Graham would be good enough to beat Bluefield 4 out of 10 times, maybe 3 of 10. That's a good sign for Graham for the rest of the season. Bluefield will very easily once again play for a state title. I think they are a slightly better team then Graham, but playing with a normal officiating crew somewhere at least 10 miles from the WV border, and Graham might have actually come out on top last night. But on the majority of nights if they played 10 times with a crew that's not easily suggestible or biased, Bluefield wins 6 out of 10.

My thoughts are that both teams are slightly better than last year.

[Bluefield researcher 1,195]

I sure hope I can get Graham a win over Tazewell next week.

[Hokie1Pokie 350]

4 minutes ago, Bluefield researcher said:

I sure hope I can get Graham a win over Tazewell next week.

LOL, you do a good job dude.  The subtle hints or subtle suggestions are SMART and every home announcer worth a grain of salt does it, or at least most do whether intentional or not, and I think they should do it, and that crew last night were all ears, lol. You do great work brother. Now as for the way Tazewell is playing, yes....we are going to need the subtle suggestions because the Bulldogs seem legit this year.

As for Graham and Bluefield, Bluefield is the better team. Graham had chance after chance and couldn't capitalize. Also, Bluefield had chances to put it away earlier and didn't capitalize.

[Eersfan 36]

The officiating might’ve been bad but so was the gameplay. Graham has benefited more from horrible VHSL officiating way more often than the opposite. 2008 and 2012 are those instances. And as for the decleater, 2 years ago both the SSAC and the VHSL said they were gonna start penalizing on crack back blocks. I remember the same call being made during a Tazewell - Graham game in 2017. It doesn’t matter if the offensive player has his feet on the ground or not. If it’s a hard hit above the waist on a trailing defender focused on the ball carrier, it will get called. Neither team played well. There was very little discipline on either side. I saw a Graham player cuss an official to his face and it never drew a flag. I saw another Graham defender try to step on the fingers of the QB and his own teammate pulled him away. There could’ve been another 100 yards in penalties for both teams, just in personal fouls. That’s a lack of discipline. Both teams are loaded with speed and talent that no one in this area has. Yet we saw an ugly game from both sides. That’s not the fault of the officials or the PA announcer, that’s on the coaches .

[Hokie1Pokie 350]

1 hour ago, Eersfan said:

The officiating might’ve been bad but so was the gameplay. Graham has benefited more from horrible VHSL officiating way more often than the opposite. 2008 and 2012 are those instances. And as for the decleater, 2 years ago both the SSAC and the VHSL said they were gonna start penalizing on crack back blocks. I remember the same call being made during a Tazewell - Graham game in 2017. It doesn’t matter if the offensive player has his feet on the ground or not. If it’s a hard hit above the waist on a trailing defender focused on the ball carrier, it will get called. Neither team played well. There was very little discipline on either side. I saw a Graham player cuss an official to his face and it never drew a flag. I saw another Graham defender try to step on the fingers of the QB and his own teammate pulled him away. There could’ve been another 100 yards in penalties for both teams, just in personal fouls. That’s a lack of discipline. Both teams are loaded with speed and talent that no one in this area has. Yet we saw an ugly game from both sides. That’s not the fault of the officials or the PA announcer, that’s on the coaches .

Hold up now. I agree with most of what your saying, but to be clear, I never stated it was "all" on the officials, I never hinted anything regarding outcome about the PA Announcer. The PA Announcer thing was a friendly jab and had no relevance to the outcome of the game and he is among the best in the Eastern US, not just SWVA, and I mean that.  As for the officials and four or five big 50/50 calls that went 5 for 5 in favor of Bluefield, yes, I am saying it had "some", not all, not most, but some part in the outcome and I stand by it. Its the worst officiated Graham and Bluefield I've seen since the intentional cheating by George and Bill from back in the 80s and 90s.  As for the game, I saw two incredibly good 2A or AA teams with lots of nerves and lots of athletes, and neither team will be touched until they reach the state semi's. I think Bluefield goes to LB and wins by 10. 

[Eersfan 36]

I think Graham will be challenged a couple times this year. Maybe not stiff challenges . I’d say LB will still have Bluefields number. 2A in Virginia is pretty weak. Bluefield doesn’t have much competition on their schedule but they will still face solid teams in Fairmont, Keyser, Bridgeport come playoff time. How tough those games will be depends on home field advantage.

[BBHoops_18 206]

1 hour ago, Eersfan said:

I think Graham will be challenged a couple times this year. Maybe not stiff challenges . I’d say LB will still have Bluefields number. 2A in Virginia is pretty weak. Bluefield doesn’t have much competition on their schedule but they will still face solid teams in Fairmont, Keyser, Bridgeport come playoff time. How tough those games will be depends on home field advantage.

Pretty sure a few schools in VA dropped from AAA to AA. 

[BigWinners 1,643]

1 hour ago, Eersfan said:

I think Graham will be challenged a couple times this year. Maybe not stiff challenges . I’d say LB will still have Bluefields number. 2A in Virginia is pretty weak. Bluefield doesn’t have much competition on their schedule but they will still face solid teams in Fairmont, Keyser, Bridgeport come playoff time. How tough those games will be depends on home field advantage.

 

not true. 2A football in VA is very good. Look at some of the scalps teams like Graham, Appomattox, Glenvar, Union, Richlands, etc... have had in recent years.