Top Players up to this point?

Camden Crooks (Cushing)
28 Rec
709 yards
9 TD
3 INT (1 pick 6)
1 Kickoff Return TD
2X 300M State Champion
181lb Powerlifting State Champion

Blaze Berlowitz (Cushing)
64% completion
1,417 yards
20 TD
2 INT
1 rushing TD

Agreed. The line play still isn’t that great, but they have done enough up to this point. I still wish the line play and rushing attack were better, and I said I wouldn’t get too excited until they played Wagoner.

Wagoner has a really good run defense. They held Coweta to -17 yards and Grove to 72 yards (52 to the Crawford kid). Cushing ran for 126 and 3 TD against them. Granted, 89 on 1 play, but they still ran decent against Wagoner.

Another thing that makes me feel a little better is, even though Cushing can be pretty one-dimensional at times, it did not help Wagoner (or anyone else up to this point) slow them down.

Believe me, I know the importance of being able to run the ball to make a deep playoff run and ultimately win a state championship. But I think a couple things play out in Cushing’s favor more so than maybe other teams that didn’t have a great or even good rushing attack:

The defense is legit. When the starters came out, these are the totals they gave up: (Bristow 0, Perkins 27 (stayed in), Berryhill 3, Miami 0, Catoosa 0, Wagoner 0, McLain 0). There’s some bad teams in there, but the games to pay attention to are the fact they gave up a combined 3 points to Bristow, Berryhill, and Wagoner.

They will have way more athletes than any team they play this year, most being 3 year starters with a couple 4 and 2 years sprinkled in. Their 3rd best receiver would be the #1 on almost every team and their 4th best would be better than some teams #1 and almost every teams’ #2.

We talk about the lack of running game, but their running back has the speed to take it to the house any play, as was evident with his 89 yarder against Wagoner.

They will have the first two rounds at home (turf) and the semis and finals will also be played on turf. That will help tremendously should there be bad weather.

Garza is only a freshman also. Had 5 touchdowns vs Chickasha and also does the kickoff

Crooks is the best player I have seen in 4a this year. Stud on both sides of the ball. Berlowitz may be the best Qb in Oklahoma this season. I've heard the Qb at Broken Bow is a stud? anyone have any insights on them? Huge win over Poteau last week

Thanks for the in depth response scope. I caught the 2nd half of the poteau/bbow game on the livestream and was impressed by the savage defense for the most part shutting down the poteau running game. Poteau's main rb I heard was out for the game though?

Didn't watch the Bristow game. I did watch quite a bit of the Berryhill game, and I liked the way Cushing handled the run from Berryhill. I thought their guy might give Cushing a little more trouble than he did. 

89 yards? I've been giving Jones credit for 95. Regardless, that was the dagger through Wagoner's heart, IMO. I don't see Wagoner getting the W, but they sure needed a stop that series, and a follow-up score would have been nice. Letting Cushing score, after being in the shadow of it's own goal, would have taken the wind out of Wagoner's sails. Jones running for 90 totally destroyed the mast. 

Perkins score still surprises me. I know their kid is a horse, but I did not anticipate that. I imagine the 4A coaches are watching that film.

Wagoner was getting good pressure on Berlowitz. Unfortunately, I was watching the stream, and the one camera rarely had a shot of the field, so I didn't get to see what the coverage was like. From my perspective, Wagoner did what it needed to do up front. I have to assume Berlowitz made some hellacious throws, because he completed several passes under some serious heat. 

Wagoner's losses are to 3 teams that are at the top of their respective districts. Grove and Coweta were tough ones. Cushing's style can pile it on, especially if their opponent has to get outside of it's comfort zone, and feels like it needs to be playing catch-up. That's where I felt Wagoner was after the long run. I don't know what has been said in their locker room, but I find it hard to believe Wagoner and October 7 wasn't on Cushing's board all year. All said, I'm not counting Wagoner out, and I think there is actually a shot for Wagoner and Cushing to meet again in the finals. Wagoner is no slouch. 3 loss seasons aren't what you guys are used to, but as they say, it aint over...