LAMPASAS – “If we score 28 points a quarter, we’re going to be pretty successful.”
Those were the words of Brownwood fifth-year head coach Sammy Burnett following the Lions’ second and final scrimmage of the preseason Thursday night against the Lampasas Badgers.
After an admittedly slow start during the controlled portion of the scrimmage, in which Brownwood scored and allowed one touchdown, the Lions lit up Lampasas in a 15-minute live quarter by a 28-6 count.
During the live quarter, quarterback Ike Hall rushed for touchdowns of 23 and 9 yards and threw a 43-yard scoring toss to Thad Hinds. On the 23-yard scamper, Hall escaped what appeared to be a sure sack to find the end zone. Also, Konlyn Anderson added an 8-yard touchdown carry.
“You look at our quarterback and I think he’s progressing week by week,” Burnett said of Hall. “He’s a dual threat so if you’re going to heat us up, we’re going get some protection and beat you deep. or if you lose containment, he’s going to take you for about 20 or 30 yards. Him being a dual threat is a positive for us.”
The Lions defense recorded a pair of interceptions by Colton McMillian and Stevie Ramirez in the live quarter, each of which were turned into touchdowns by the Brownwood offense.
“In the live scrimmage I thought we got in sync,” Burnett said. “I thought the offense excelled and the defense stepped up and kept them out of the end zone except for once off a busted coverage.”
Further elaborating on the offense, Burnett said, “We have big play potential, but I always want to run the football. Running the ball sets up the pass and I thought we ran the ball well. We moved the chains and we wanted to take a shot when they tried to stop us by loading the box. We were able to throw the ball vertical and put points on the board.”
The Lions produced 191 yards on just 18 snaps in the quarter, an average of 10.6 yards per play. Hall completed all four of his pass attempts for 106 yards – including a 28-yarder to Jason Jackson that was negated by penalty. Hall also rushed four times for 56 yards while Anderson chipped in 29 yards on eight carries. Hinds scored on a 43-yard reception, Jordan Leach caught a 27-yard pass and Brayden Daub added an 8-yard reception.
As for the defense’s performance in the live quarter, Burnett said, “We were flying around, got some three and outs and punts, and the busted coverage was the only play they had. I thought our defense played well. We put some kids in at different spots to get good looks so we could see them on film. We’ve got a long way to go, we’ve got some potential, but we’re not near where we want to be.”
Lampasas finished with 115 yards but produced 96 yards on two pass plays. The other 13 snaps netted 19 yards, two turnovers and a punt.
During the controlled portion of the scrimmage, in which each team took 28 offensive snaps, the Lions scored a touchdown and allowed a touchdown. Brownwood’s score was the result of a 42-yard pass from Ike Hall to Jason Jackson.
“I thought we came out kind of slow, but offensively we did a pretty good job other than the drops early in the controlled scrimmage, that hurt us,” Burnett said. “But we were also pretty vanilla. We ran about six plays.
“Our defense played well but we put them in a bind coaching wise. We played our base defense and knowing what they were going to do, we knew they were going to get some yards.”
Coming into the scrimmage, Burnett wanted to keep an eye on the secondary as Decatur didn’t pass much during the first scrimmage; the offensive line, due to some changes in personnel; and the receiving corps and how they performed in both the run and pass game.
“Other than the drops I thought we did really well especially when they wanted to go press man and go one on one,” Burnett said. “I think that’s not a good decision for a defense against us, we just have to be able to protect up front. I want to go watch film and see how our line play was. We moved some kids from the right side to the left side and they’re having to learn technique there. We put in some other kids and looked at different personnel groups with the five up front, so we’ll have to study that and watch in practice next week to make sure we have the right dudes in the right positions and they’re comfortable and ready to go.”
Regarding the pass defense, Burnett said, “I thought it went well. We knew what they were going to do, that short roll and throw that gift right out there, but we chose to stay in cover 3 because we’re not showing everything. We wanted to base and just do that and not worry about the rest.”
On the health front, linebacker Jaylan Brown suffered a right ankle injury and his status for the Aug. 26 season opener at home against Abilene Wylie is currently unknown.
“It will be next man up if he’s not able to go on that ankle next week,” Burnett said.