by Tom Condardo
Mark Twain once said there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Bill Belichick often says statistics are for losers.
Well with all due respect to Mr. Twain and Mr. Belichick, I happen to like statistics. And I agree that in football, ultimately it's the final score that matters, but you can often glean some interesting nuggets from the numbers within the game.
First let's look at the overall yardage. The Clippers had a 287-240 edge. However 155 yards came on just three plays - the double pass, the TD run by Rob Shay, and the long pass down the seam in the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, those three plays led to three of the Clipper TDs.
Now let's look at the Clipper rushing game. With a bevy of athletic skill position players, the Clippers are often difficult to slow down in the run game. The Pioneers actually did a pretty good job of containing the Newburyport running attack. The Clippers ran the ball 37 times and on 26 of those, the Pioneers held them to three yards or less. On eleven of those, or one third of their runs, the Pioneers threw them for negative yardage. If you take out the 58 yard Shay run, the Clippers averaged 2.1 yards per carry.
This ability to contain the Clipper offense was evident on extra point tries. Newburyport missed the PAT kick on their first touchdown. The Pioneers than denied two point tries after three of the next four Clipper TD's - two rushes and a pass attempt.
Bottom line results are what matters, but there are some encouraging signs coming out of a losing effort. Head coach Neal Weidman and his staff have brought this group a long way from the first scrimmage against Masco, so there is every reason to expect continued improvement going forward. If that happens, positive results will follow.
Key Conversions
Another key to the Clipper win was their success in third and fourth down situations. Newburyport was 7 for 11 on third down and 2 for 2 on fourth down for an impressive 69% success rate. Now understand that three of those conversions were gifted wrapped by Pioneer penalties, something that is very concerning to Weidman.
"We had some really undisciplined penalties," the coach told me after the game.
When I asked how to correct that problem, Weidman was blunt.
"That has to come from them. They're going to have to fix that," he said. "If it doesn't stop from certain people, then they just won't be able to play anymore that's all."
The Pioneers' weren't nearly as successful on third and fourth down picking up only 2 of 7 on third, and 0 for 4 on fourth for a total of 2 for 11 or 18%.
Flag Day
Both teams had issues with penalties as the officials threw 18 flags that cost the teams a combined 157 yards. The Pioneer's most frequent call was face mask - three of them, while the Clippers had the most trouble with pre-snap penalties - four illegal motions and a delay of game.
Feeling Chippy?
The experienced Clippers with 16 seniors definitely tried to intimidate the younger Pioneers but the Lynnfield contingent was having none of it. They stood up to the Clippers and dished out as much as they got in the physicality department. The game looked a bit chippy, but Weidman didn't necessarily agree with that assessment.
"It wasn't too chippy," he told me after the game. "There's a mutual respect between the two teams. We play hard at each other and have had some great games with them over the years. I think while the game was going on there was some emotion but after I think it wasn't an issue."
Clippers Avoid Getting Nicked
For the first few kickoffs, the Clippers went straight at junior Nick Kinnon and held him in check except for a 32 yard return in the second period. But after Kinnon showed off his speed on the 36 yard TD run, they changed their strategy a bit. By the final couple of kickoffs, they were pooch kicking to the up men. That could be a strategy future Pioneer opponents may adopt to negate Kinnon's explosiveness.
Time Stands Still
One of the favored tactics to diffuse the Pioneer up-tempo offense is to slow things down when the opponent has the ball. Newburyport uses this strategy better than most and it was on full display Friday night.
Here is the official MIAA rule for time between plays.
"The play clock will always be 25 seconds. The 25-second clock is any device under the direction of the appropriate official used to time the 25 seconds between the ready-for-play signal and the ball being put in play."
The problem comes in the time it takes the official to give the "ready for play" signal from the end of the prior play. Weidman was not happy with the delay - and extra time - being given to the Clippers between plays.
At perfect example occurred at the end of the game. The Clippers took over with 1:53 remaining. They ran two plays including a final kneel down. That's almost 57 seconds per play. Now granted, this was the end of a lopsided game so some discretion is to be expected there, but the urgency to get the ball ready for play wasn't much better throughout the game.
Over exuberance
The Clippers were obviously pumped to win their opening game under new coach Mike Levine after struggling through a 3-7 season last year. However, the Clippers reacted as if they had won the Super Bowl, whooping and hollering all over the field, running over to their boisterous fans and generally carrying on.
It appeared to be a bit over the top but on further review, you have to look at it from their point of view. The Pioneers have been the big dog on the block for several years. The Clipper seniors had lost three straight to Lynnfield by a combined 86-19 score so it was a pretty big deal for them to finally knock off the Pioneers.
So although this is a different season and a different Lynnfield team, the Pioneers will still carry the bullseye on their backs and will be major target for teams they have roughed up in recent years.
That's it for now. Check back Tuesday when I'll take a look around the league and the division.
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