Muskego Hitmen Football

Everyone, even the greatest of athletes, have a bad game from time to time. It happens, it is a part in football. Unfortunate for the Hitmen when several players have their 'off day' in the same game.  It all came down to execution, and we were simply unable to execute our offense plan as it was drawn up, and the Venom took advantage as any good team would.

The Hitmen seemed to have everything going for them.  They were playing on their home field.  They were coming off a big win against a tough Blue Devil team.  The Milwaukee Venom had sustained some key injuries the previous week.  On paper, everything looked to be going Muskego's way.  However, when playing in a rivalry game against a team like the Venom, you can throw the paper, records, injuries, and everything else out of the window.  You know you're going to get a hard-hitting, spirited game.  After a tough loss to the Venom in the 2008 IFL playoffs, a game in which the Hitmen dominated every statistical category except for the score, the Hitmen knew the Venom would give them everything they had and more.

The game was sloppy on both sides, often seeming as if each team was trying to give the game to the other team.  Both teams were missing some key players in the line-up, but battled hard with the guys on the field.  After having their way on the ground to the tune of 251 yards one week ago, the Hitmen were unable to get a consistent running game going against the Venom, who stacked the line-of-scrimmage with eight men in the box and dared the Hitmen to pass.

Th'[ah] ['Bau]cks -n, Noun

The box, also known as the tackle box, is an area which spans the distance from the left offensive tackle to the right offensive tackle and 5 yards in front or behind the offensive center. Deffenses with pack a large number of player inside this area in an attempt to prevent positive gains from the running game.

We figured that the Venom would try to take away our running game after what we were able to do last week. We put together a scheme to attack what they would give us defensively, we were just unable to execute. Wrong routes, some bad throws, dropped balls, and just an inability to connect with open receivers kept the Hitmen passing attack in check for most of the game.

The Hitmen Offense, although not impressive, actually out-gained the Venom offense, as the Hitmen Defense held the Venom to only 121 yards on the night.  However, turnovers and penalties kept the defense on the field way far too long leaving them drained leading to under-performance.  The Venom offense struck first in the 3rd quarter capitalizing on what turned out to be a pivotal turnover by Muskego. Shortly followed by pass interference call, the Venom found themselves in scoring distance for the first time on the night. From there it was academic for Brent Ferdinand and the rest of the Venom. The Venom up by seven.The Hitmen answered back as Trevor Hunt picked off a stray pass setting up Booker Stanely for a quick Touchdown. However, the Venom, not to be outdone, blocked the ensuing Extra Point keeping them ahead on the leader board.

Late in the game, it was a lone, one yard QB sneak that put the Venom up by 7 with less than two minutes in the game. To add insult to injury, the Hitmen landed themselves as personal foul on the following kickoff landing them firmly on their own 20 yard line.  The tide began to change, as found Brandon Blawat in the back of the endzone for a touchdown.  The Hitmen initially lined up for 2 points and the win, but after a false start penalty backed the Hitmen up to the 8 yard line, Coach Blawat decided to bring the Field Goal unit on to kick the Extra Point (PAT)  This decision proved costly as the PAT was once again blocked, securing the Venom victory.

"I felt going for 2 on the 3 yard line was the right call. I really feel we had a good play called and based on the alignment of the Venom D, I felt confident we would've been successful.  However, after the false start, it changed things a bit.  It's tough to put the game on the line with an 8 yard run when the Venom had done a pretty good job of stopping the run all night.  It's tough to pass inside the 10 with the back of the endzone as an 'extra defender', and we didn't have a time-out to take to think it over.  I felt that our 'highest percentage' shot was to kick it.  Decisions like that are tough and will undoubtedly be second-guessed.  If we still go for 2 and make it, we win.  If we miss, we wonder why we didn't just kick it.  Either way, we needed to execute what was called and we failed to do so.  We finished the game with 10 penalties for 120 yards, 4 turnovers, 5 dropped balls, and 2 blocked PAT's.  You're simply not going to win a football game that way.  We've got 3 weeks to figure it out before the playoffs."

- Head Coach Jason Blawat

Football is considered a game of mistakes. During the course of a game, nothing ever goes as planned. On paper, every offenseive play is a touchdown and every defensive series is a 3 & out. The teams that can minimize the occurences of mistakes and the impact of the ones they are bound to make  tend to come out on today was the Venom took advantage of the mistakes the Hitmen made. Hats off to the venom