The gist
- Gilmer (7-2) at Spring Hill on Friday, Nov. 6 at 7:00 p.m. in Longview, the last regular-season stop before the 4A Division II playoff bracket.
- The Buckeyes have scored 460 points in nine games and given up 355. The scoring half is historic. The other half is the thing the Carthage night told us to fix.
- Empty drive out of halftime, getting a stop when it counts. Those were the honest notes from last Friday, and this is the week to do something about them before Spring Hill becomes the only place left to practice it.
- We like Gilmer by three scores. The number we actually care about is on the other side of the scoreboard.
Clean it up now, or carry it into the bracket
Last Friday's win over Carthage ended with a line about tightening things up before November. The empty drive out of halftime. Getting a stop when the game is on. Those were honest notes stapled to a win we are still celebrating, and they are still true in Longview.
Here is the shape of nine games. 460 points scored, 51.1 a night, the most fun a Gilmer offense has been in years. 355 points allowed, 39.4 a night. Winless Center still reached 29. Pittsburg put 58 on us at Jeff Traylor. Carthage, banged up and missing bodies, still found 42. The ledger keeps ending our way because 51 beats 39 every time, but the January version of a 4A Division II team does not win by scoring first. It wins by getting a stop at 1:42 left in the third of a game that cannot get away.
Spring Hill is the one week between now and the bracket where we get to work on that without the season hanging on the outcome. That is the whole point of the trip.
The matchup
Gilmer walks in 7-2, 3-1 in district, off the 49-42 at home over Carthage on Oct. 30. The road ledger is 3-1, the one loss being the opener at Pine Tree back in August. Friday is an away district game at Spring Hill, 7:00 p.m. in Longview.
Then the bracket starts. Gilmer fans on smoaky.com have already spent the week on Pleasant Grove and Pittsburg, because the winner of that one decides who sits on which side with the Buckeyes. That is a real thing worth thinking about, and it is the exact thing that eats a team alive if the attention Friday is on next week.
Around the barbecue
Gilmer fans on smoaky.com are already past this one. The thread of the week is Pleasant Grove and Pittsburg, because the argument there is whether Carthage and PG land on one bracket side with Gilmer and Pittsburg on the other. Fans are picking apart which draw plays kinder. Nobody is picking apart whether Gilmer leaves Longview with the win.
That is where this gets honest, and that is why the section exists. When your own fan base is already drawing playoff brackets, the staff is fighting human nature at a Thursday walk-through. The Carthage win settled a lot of what this team is. The test now is whether a group that just proved it can beat anybody can also beat somebody it should.
What we are watching: the first drive of the third quarter. If Gilmer comes out of the locker room and puts points on the board instead of punting into the sideline, the Carthage lesson took.
Our take
Three takes. Shout at us on the DaqsPickEm Facebook page if you want.
1. The offense is not the question anymore. Gilmer is at 51 a night, and the only week the number dipped under 40 was the district opener against a Pleasant Grove team that was never going to let it be a track meet. We can trust the offense in Longview. We can trust it in the first round. We can trust it in December.
2. The defense does not have to be great. It has to be timely. Nobody is turning this unit into 2014 Gilmer in one week of practice, and nobody should be asking them to. The job between now and the bracket is smaller. One stop on one specific drive in the second half. Force a punt when the other sideline needs a score. If Friday ends with a defensive stop at the end of the third, grade the night a success even if Spring Hill moves the ball between the twenties.
3. Sleepwalking here does more damage than people think. We have read the smoaky thread treating this like a scrimmage, and we get the math. But this program has been on both ends of that in Octobers past, and it shows up on film. The team that walks in Friday thinking about Pleasant Grove is not the team we want kicking off a first-round game next week.
Gilmer 45, Spring Hill 21. The score is not the point of the trip. The point of the trip is coming home with the defensive drive we did not have against Pittsburg or Carthage, so November is a conversation and not a prayer.
Final whistle in Longview sets the seed. Make your pick on DaqsPickEm, and if you have been following Gilmer every week with us, start with the Carthage recap and work your way back. See y'all Friday.