Monday Morning Quarterback: Serious shuffling in the polls; who's in, almost in, and praying for the playoffs?
Central Georgia polls
Told ya there’d be shakeups.
Veterans tops the 5A defending state champs. Jones County gets a huge region road win. Stratford surprises Tattnall, Bleckley County knocks off Washington County.
If you wore no colors – hand’s raised – or your team didn’t play, it was a wacky Friday night.
Division II is becoming a struggle again with the order, with ranked teams losing. Somebody has to be somewhere.
Division I (6A, 5A, 4A)
1. Jones County
Yessir, the Greyhounds made the jump of a spot and deservedly so, beating Dutchtown on the road. It was fairly low-scoring, a good sign for Jones County which will have to find different ways to win for at least two more region games, and in the playoffs.
2. Warner Robins
Harris County gave Warner Robins a pretty good game for awhile, but this team that’s become so solid at playing steady and taking care of business did just that.
3. Veterans
The end of the Bainbridge game was notable, in that it appears the Bearcats got shafted out of a final play. No, we don’t know what would have happened, but the odds – at least, the feeling here – is that Veterans would’ve come up with the play. Since that’s what the Warhawks seem to be doing, coming up with plays. Knocking off the defending state champs should be a boost, but avoiding that hangover has to be a concern.
4. West Laurens
Nothing new after a romp over Spalding. And the Raiders are off this week before getting a crack at Mary Persons in Forsyth.
5. Howard
The Huskies were off, after the humbling by West Laurens, and their home game against Perry is the only 2-4A game this week. It’s a statement game for Howard, looking to show it can rebound from a rough loss – albeit to the best team in the region – and regain focus on the rest of the season, and beat an underdog.
Division II (3A, 2A, A, others)
1. Peach County
A week off is followed by a visit by Rutland for the consensus No. 1 team in 3A.
2. Dublin
The Irish have gotten, in different ways, a few tests the past few weeks, with Bleckley County and Dodge County, even if stats indicated otherwise. There is still the issue of improving the passing game, because some running team in the playoffs will win a huge game with an efficient – and confident – passing game. But goodness, the Irish are clicking.
3. Bleckley County
The Royals were clutch all over the place at home in beating Washington County, the jump from No. 6 aided by losses by Westside and Lamar County. Bleckley County was 5-2 only two years ago and off a win over WACO. They beat East Laurens and lost to Dodge County and Southwest and missed the playoffs. A repeat is highly unlikely.
4. Washington County
The Golden Hawks have hit a stretch of inconsistency on both sides, the romp over East Laurens notwithstanding. A restoration of confidence and sharpness is key this week in practice.
5. Westside
There’ll be some second-guessing about strategy late in the loss to Jackson, the Seminoles eat up clock in a tie game rather than trying to score quickly, even if allowing some time on the clock. As noted here before, Westside rarely loses two region games, but this might be one of those years. And with Peach County left, at a minimum, it’s a two-loss region year.
6. Dodge County
The game against Dublin was closer for awhile, and then not, and the stats were substantially lopsided. But the Indians continue to improve. That said, they’ll face a back-to-the-wall Washington County team in Sandersville, a game in which nobody will leave early.
7. Mount de Sales
Things went as expected against Twiggs County, so the Cavs will be a little rested and healthier with the visit from Tattnall this week in something of a statement game. The Trojans screwed up Mount de Sales’ perfect season last year 28-17.
8. Lamar County
Now the test. How do the Trojans rebound from a 46-7 loss to Callaway in a battle of top-10 teams that sure didn’t end up as a battle of top-10 teams? Well, that bad news is Lamar County is off this week. Next week is Bremen, which could be tied with the Trojans at kickoff.
9. John Milledge
The Trojans keep on keepin’ on. They beat Bulloch 29-14 last year, 28-14 last week. Nice consistency.
10. Northeast
The comeback against Southwest is another positive for the Raiders, who are suddenly back in the playoff hunt with Washington County’s loss to Bleckley County. Now, if Northeast – off this week – can get out of next week’s Dublin game healthy, the Washington County game will be huge.
Loughdmouthings
Goodness, the fun in 3-AA we’ve talked about is picking up.
Is it almost upside down?
Dublin will win the region.
Washington County is now on that bubble list of teams that could be home after 10 games. And suddenly, Northeast has a little more life.
The licking of wounds takes place in Eastman this week with Washington County at Dodge County. The Indians are 2-1, and would unofficially clinch a playoff spot with a win, since East Laurens is next followed by what could be a winner-gets-second finale against Bleckley County.
A loss is huge for Washington County, which has Southwest, Northeast, and Dublin left. The Golden Hawks will be big favorites against Southwest, favorites against Northeast, and a sizeable underdog against Dublin.
Odds are for a 2-1 finish against those three teams, but only a little better than 1-2. A revived Northeast will be a problem if it avoids concerns about playing in the House of Pain.
The Raiders can go 2-1 down the stretch and be 3-3, and likely – depending – be tied with the Golden Hawks.
Oh, good grief, the potential for dizziness is extremely high. …
We’re looking at three Class A teams making the GHSA playoffs: Mount de Sales, Stratford, and Taylor County.
Tattnall and FPD have to win out and get some help on the private school side, but Stratford also needs to beat FPD to pretty clinch it.
Taylor County is no lock, by any stretch, on the public side. The Vikings need to split in the final four games, with Hawkinsville and Dooly County and then two region crossovers. …
A quick look at who’s unofficially in the playoffs, figuratively speaking, not necessarily mathematically speaking just yet:
Class 5A: Jones County, Warner Robins, Veterans.
Class 4A: West Laurens.
Class 3A: Peach County.
Class 2A: Dublin, Bleckley County, Lamar County.
Class A: Mount de Sales.
On the bubble, trending toward “in”:
Class 4A: Howard, Baldwin.
Class 3A: Westside.
Class AA: Dodge County.
Class A: Stratford.
In the “seriously sweating it out but alive” category:
Class 6A: Northside, Houston County.
Class 4A: Mary Persons, Perry, Upson-Lee.
Class 2A: Washington County, Northeast,
Class A: Macon County, Dooly County, Tattnall, FPD.
Region 4-3A is progressing toward a race for seeding. The problem for on-the-outside Central and Rutland? They still have Peach County left, and lose tiebreakers with Westside. Central can stay technically alive with a win this week over Pike County, which could – although it’s unlikely – lose three more region games.
The Chargers are probably more of of a threat – barring the Bibb County Tease – than they get credit for. Three losses have been by one, two, and four. And they’re underdogs in two of the final three. Is there an upset in their future? …
Memo reminder to all coaches using Hudl for box scores and stats: please check the final numbers out before sending/finishing, because the majority of boxes forwarded the past few weeks – and much appreciation – have had incorrect scores all over the place. More, in fact, have been wrong than right.
And it’s never a bad time to check rosters on MaxPreps and Hudl and anywhere else.
It really isn’t, because there are issues.
Note to keepers of standings, results
In this age of technology, certainly more teams can have stats on Friday night or Saturday morning to send to centralgasports@gmail.com so folks can find out what happened – everybody loves reading about high school football on a Saturday morning - other than seeing video of a few plays that don’t tell much about the game.
Thanks last week to Brentwood, Mount de Sales, Westfield, Dublin, and Perry for Friday night’s boxes, Peach County on Saturday, and info Northeast, Howard, and Upson-Lee on Saturday and Sunday. Alas, that’s still only nine out of about 50.