Re-watching Grimsley’s 63-34 Win over Rolesville: My Three Big Takeaways

Re-watching Grimsley’s 63-34 Win over Rolesville: My Three Big Takeaways
from Michael Fanning, covering Grimsley HS football for GreensboroSports.com and doing an oustanding job in coverage of the Whirlies……

Most coaches will tell you that by the end of week two you will have a pretty good understanding of what your football team is capable of. After rewatching Grimsley’s 63-34 home win over Rolesville, the Whirlies might be capable of a lot.

First, thou, let me be honest. Through two weeks of football you are probably asking, “Mike, have your pre-game predictions been accurate?” No. Or maybe you are asking, “Mike, are you even qualified to make predictions?” Probably not. On paper, this game looked like a defensive struggle that would be a great test for the Whirlie offensive line and young quarterback. Was I right? Not even close, but guess what, just like this Whirlies offense, I am learning and growing too.

So if you’re still reading this, lets jump into what I noticed when I re-watched Friday night’s game:

Number One: Pre-snap motion by the Whirlies confused the Rams defense. In week one, the Rolesville defense was relentless, generating 4 turnovers and constantly getting in the backfield to disrupt both the passing and rushing game of Butler. Would the Rolesville pass-rush and blitz scheme bother Grimsley and their young quarterback? How about three straight touchdown drives in the first quarter alone! How about Brandon completing 83% of his passes for 219 yards and 2 touchdowns. Throw in 334 rushing yards and you can see how the Whirlies took control of the game. Grimsley head coach Darryl Brown challenged his offense to start better than they did against Mount Tabor and they responded by scoring touchdowns on 9 of 11 drives. Six different Whirlies caught passes mostly set-up by pre-snap motion that created match-up miscues in the Rams secondary.

Number Two: The defensive secondary of Grimsley was aggressive and played the bubble screen to perfection. Guess what? Film study works. Rolesville used running back and wide receiver screens to perfection in their win over Butler in week one. Grimsley noticed and the defensive backs played behind the line of scrimmage all night, nearly intercepting three bubble screens and coming away with two interceptions. By taking away the short passing game, Rolesville became one-dimensional as the Whirlies pulled away.

Number Three: The little details in kickoff coverage. Rolesville has an excellent kickoff return team. Return specialist Johnatan Dunn Jr. can do special things in the open field. But the Whirlies stayed disciplined and never let him get away. The only big return was a reverse in the third quarter and Grimsley did a nice job of staying in their lanes and directing him to the sidelines. Special teams were special again for the Whirlies.

Next up for Grimsley is a road trip to Pfafftown to take on Reagan this Friday night at 7:30pm. Should I make a prediction? No, because I still don’t know what this team is capable of.