Week 4 Review

In barely over a half of football, the Cardinals dominated Twinsburg their 49-0 win.  The game was called after one possession in the 3rd quarter when lightning filled the skies.  There were lots of positives to take away from the win.  It is also fair to put into perspective that Twinsburg is currently 0-4 and it is difficult to say how good they are.  For what its worth, their four opponents so far are 15-1. 

Krizancic's Rise

Privately, I had some concerns about senior Conner Krizancic running the offense.  During the scrimmage season and the first couple regular season games, Krizancic shared duties with sophomore QB Matt Eiswerth.  Krizancic had mixed results.  He was mostly used as a running threat.  As a fan, it was difficult to see the offense lose Conner at receiver, a position in which he is a top 5 or 10 talent in the entire state.  We saw first hand that Eiswerth can play with his 5 touchdown passes in Week 1.  We also saw that the two QB system failed miserably against a very talented team like St Ignatius.  At that point, it seemed the best chance for the offense to succeed was to stick to one QB.  Unfortunately, neither had any varsity experience at the position.  The coaches went with Conner and this the Week 4 win over Twinsburg showed a lot of reasons why. 

Stellar Offense

The offense was pretty close to perfect on this night.  The opponent was not exactly stellar, but this was a big step from Week 3.  Rather than sticking to a safe and rather predictable offense (that still would have likely been successful), Mentor's offense went for big and usually were able to hit.  Krizancic looked significantly better than any other time I have seen him.  After a pretty pedestrian 127 passing yards on 23 attempts, Krizancic threw for 227 yards on just 11 attempts.  This went along with his usual effective running game that included a 76-yard touchdown run.  What stood out from Week 3 to Week 4 was a passing game was anything but safe.  Several strikes down the field to Brandon Fritts, Corey Plavcan, and Eddie Daugherty were right on the money.  Daugherty continues his offensive terror.  It was especially good to see Fritts and Plavcan make big plays. 

Future is bright

The strength of the current senior class is obvious.  But don't sell the younger guys short.  The defensive tackles use a rotating trio of underclassmen.  All three (sophomore Billy Hudson and juniors Trevor Morrison/Nico Lautanen) have been very effective in stopping the run and getting to the QB.  Junior LB J.D. Matsko is a mainstay on the defense after getting some starts in 2012 as a sophomore.  We know what sophomore QB Matt Eiswerth and junior RB/WR Eddie Daugherty are capable of.  Junior receiver Kyle Tankovich has 7 catches for 67 yards and a touchdown.  Look for that production to really blossom as Krizancic continues to stay at QB.  Sophomore RB Alex Mathews has 114 all purpose yards and 3 TD's so far.  Projected starter Jerrell Jackson, injured to start the season, got his first carry of the season to start the half against Twinsburg.  It was a beautifully ran 30 yard touchdown. 

What's ahead?

Mentor will play an NOC crossover at Brush, a 2-2 team that has lost a couple of games in the closing minutes.  The Arcs have more talent than Twinsburg or Euclid, so if the defense can continue their shutout streak it would be very impressive.