02/25/06 Fordam Scrimmage

The weather was much better than we expected: mild and only slightly windy. We regard Fordam as the second team to beat in our section, behind Rutgers, so this scrimmage had some importance to it. We wanted to come out strong and win, if only to boost confidence and set the tone for the rest of the season.

Predictably, the stack offense was sloppy. We needed more practice and it showed. There was just no sense of decisiveness early on in the scrimmage. We stacked too deep and too lazily, we were not engaging the dump or looking at the dump too late, and we did not execute the offense when trapped at all. Our throws were sub-par and some very routine passes were dropped. I expect this to improve though. We will have more time to work on fundamentals now that we've introduced everything, and once everyone settles into the system and knows what to do, they can concentrate more on those things in the game. The little errors will hopefully being to disappear as everyone becomes comfortable.

We traded points with Fordam to 5-5, and took half 8-5 after some inspired man defense. However, too many of them have the bad habit of biting really hard on fakes, trying to get point blocks. The object of the mark in our man defense is to make it uncomfortable for the opposing handler to huck, not to get a point block, so they must learn to take small jump steps back and forth, rather than lean heavily or cross their feet. The good news is our marking is improving--Sarah's and Amanda's especially. Our man defense forced several turns, and it was one of the Femmes' weakest points last year and in the fall. Fordam had a decent deep game and did not execute it well during the scrimmage.

In the second half our stack placement and trap zone improved a great deal as well, but we failed to convert numerous times on the goal line, and Fordam clawed to 8-7 before we pulled away to win 13-8. I'm not so worried about the end zone turnovers, because its something we were successful with in the fall. The problems in this one scrimmage are likely to be a fluke. I think if we ingrain in them the importance of valuing possessions near the goal line, we won't have this problem by Sectionals.

The things that do trouble me are the inability of our handlers to execute the throws needed to make the offense run, as well as the lack of focus on the field by everyone. We need everyone dialed in and ready to go. Little mental errors like floating a dump or dropping a disc are simply unacceptable. Again, I think this will improve steadily as we get comfortable with the system and we don't have to think so much on the field about what we should do next. I am generally disappointed with our level of fundamentals. We will need to drill a lot more in order to stop making throw/catch errors.

That said, we still won. It was a decisive victory, and with a few more efficient end zone possessions, it could easily have been 13-5 or 13-4. Our handlers did not play well, our cutters were confused half the time. Yet we still won. I don't know if this says more about how strong our team is or how weak Fordam is. I do like the mentality of our team at the end of the game--they were dissatisfied, even in victory. They know how much more work needs to be done and how good they should be. Fordam may improve as a team before sectionals, but Zac, I, and the rest of the Femmes know, not nearly as much as we will.