Plainview wins battle of the Indians

The Comanche Indians were outmatched by another set of Indians as Plainview shutout the visitors 51-0 last Friday night.

Plainview scored on six of its first seven possessions. Comanche struggled offensively, picking up just a couple of first downs on the night and never found the end zone.

“We didn’t play very well,” said Gary Robinson, head coach. “We all know going into that game they were favored and they beat us pretty bad last year. They are a 3A team. I felt like they were faster than Marlow going into it. Our boys knew what they were up against. But, on top of that, I just don’t think we played well.”

And the coach thinks a lot of the responsibility falls on him.

“It was my fault and our fault as a coaching staff,” Robinson said. “We didn’t prepare them well enough I don’t think. They came out in a three-man front and we didn’t prepare our sophomore center for that and that nose tackle was pretty good. We did some stuff that was uncharacteristic of us.”

He was still able to find some positives.

“In the first quarter, I think our offensive linemen did a pretty good job of blocking counter and lead,” Robinson said. “It’s just tough because we are so young. I don’t know if that was the problem or not, but we can’t escape the fact we didn’t play well. I think we can play better and I think we will play better this week.”

Robinson plans on ramping up practices this week in preparation for Lindsay. It will be the third straight road game for the Indians.

“We’re going to pick up the intensity and practice more in full pads and try to be a little more physical,” Robinson said. “We’re going to try to get a little more sense of urgency.”

The Leopards will present a different challenge as Comanche opens district play.

“They’re big, but I don’t think they have the speed that we’ve seen the past two weeks,” Robinson said. “Dibble pretty much played toe to toe with them. Lindsay won 30-0, but Dibble put together some good drives. I think our speed can help us a little there.”

After two straight weeks of getting behind quickly, the coach thinks his team will be able to hang closer.

“If we play well, we’re not going to be suddenly behind like that,” Robinson said. “They’re experienced and they’re older. They have 82 kids on the roster and 10 coaches and I’ve got about 40 kids and four coaches. So, there are advantages they have over us. They’re a big-time football school I think we can play with, if we just cut out playing like we have. I thought we played pretty well against Mangum, it was the stupid penalties that hurt us. We’ve got to get better and I think we have to be better than what we were after playing two teams that I think are going to go pretty deep in the playoffs. It should make us a better football team.”

Robinson said they have been adding a little to the playbook, but mostly they are just trying to stick to their base, especially on defense.

“We’ve got a few more pass plays, I think we need to take some more shots downfield,” Robinson said. “Even if it’s incomplete, we’re going to try to loosen up the defense a little bit. Then maybe we can use those small, quick screens a little more.”

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. in Lindsay.