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Bulls Fall Short to Rams
by Jimmy "BullWriter" Rodriguez, Fever Reporter (9/9/2006)
I've read some of the posts and they amuse me. No way in hell Mineral Wells is a power house. They are not bad for a 3A program, problem is they are in 4A. They lost all of their studs from a season ago and the only reason they won was because of luck.
Their quarterback has no discipline, can't throw (longest completion was 18 yards) and flirted with disaster on every option play; waiting until the last minute to pitch the ball. His style of play is exactly why the Bulls were able to almost pull out the win at the end.
But I'll give them credit because they were able to wear down the Bull defense on that final drive.
Anyway let me report on the game itself.
The first half it was a snore fest with neither offense being able to do much. Mineral Wells had two punts to start the game before finally moving the ball and turning the ball over on downs at the Bulls' 2-yard line.
They never threatened again but had various turnovers.
The Bulls were not fairing any better. They punted on their first possession and fumbled on their second. A punt was followed by a rookie mistake. Green, who has excellent scrambling ability, tried to lob a ball to a receiver but the defensive back read him the entire way and intercepted the pass.
On the following drive, Green used his legs to move the ball. A bad snap was picked up by Green and with the passing rythmn broken, he sprinted out of the pocket. He managed to gain 38-yards to the Rams' 21-yard line but the Bulls shot themselves in the foot again. Penalties killed the drive.
Their final drive, they took over on the Rams' 37-yard line with 1:23 remaining in the half but a bad read or wrong call resulted in a very easy pick for the secondary.
The Rams didn't get things going until the final drive of the third quarter. They mounted a 16-play drive that started at their 34-yard line. They converted 3 third down and 2 fourth down attempts on the drive. The first fourth down attempt was at the Bulls' 24-yard line. They converted the 4th-and-7 try with an 11-yard run.
Their final conversion was at the 6-yard line and they pushed the ball foward to the 2-yard line to end the third quarter.
They scored two plays later and the floodgates opened.
The Bulls put together an 8-play drive of their own and moved from their 41-yard line to the end zone. Green was 4-of-5 on the drive and his last pass connection was to Dustin Krebs to the Rams' 6-yard line on 3rd-and-4.
Abel Prendez got the call on the next play and ran the end around to perfection but still had to leap to get into the end zone. Antonio Martinez made his first extra-point attempt of the season and gave the Bulls a brief lead.
The Rams used some trickeration on the first play of the ensuing drive. A poor pass was the only thing that kept this from being a half-back toss for a touchdown. As it stood the defender was burned for 33-yards to the Bulls' 21-yard line. Four plays later and Mineral Wells regained the lead. The 2pt conversion was good and the Bulls trailed 14-7.
Not to be outdone, the Bulls put up another score. This time some dramatics and luck came into play. Green was pressured and he ran out of the pocket. He saw James Kilpatrick in the middle of the field and tried to connect on the run.
Once again the defense read the pass and was able to tip the ball, but the ball floated back into the hands of Kilpatrick. He cradled the ball in and out ran everyone to the end zone. The improbable catch turned into a 73-yard touchdown.
The extra-point attempt was blocked, continued toward the goal post, hit the crossbar, but bounced out.
Leading 14-13, Mineral Wells looked like they were content to sit on their lead and run the ball. That plan would've worked had it not been for the fact their quarterback had fumble-itis.
All night Kevin Harvey was flirting with disaster, tossing the option at the very last minute. This time he tossed it in plenty of time but he just made a horrible toss. Caleb Kaker was Johnny-on-the-spot and scooped up the ball at the Rams' 27-yard line and rumbled forward to the end zone. It was Kaker's second recovery of the night.
The Bulls attempted the 2-point conversion but fell a foot short, so they led 19-14 with 4:59 remaining in the game.
The Rams rolled up their sleeves and used up all but 35 seconds of the remaining 4:52.
11 plays was what it took for them to punch the ball in and win the game. On the drive they converted 2-of-3 third downs and converted a critical 4th down at the 29-yard line with an 18-yard completion (his only good pass).
The touchdown itself was all luck when they attempted to punch the ball in up the middle. The ball was literally knocked loose but the loose ball found its way back to Harvey, who was standing 5 yards behind the play. He picked up the gift and outmanuevered the only Bull player who noticed the lucky bounce.
Harvey was able to avoid the tackle and pranced into the end zone for the win. He added the extra-point but the Bulls were unable to mount a serious drive to end the game.
The final was 22-19 but once again the defense fell victim to offensive inconsistencies. They were left out in the field too long and eventually wore out. They used a lot of substitutions and that helped out a lot but the lack of continuity until the final quarter wore down the defense.
I felt a lot better after this game than I did last week so the Bulls are definitely on the road to recovery.
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