Playoffs!

The redskins are going to the playoffs! Ever since week nine, the bye week, the Redskins have not lost a game, and rookies Robert Griffen III and Alfred Morris have made that all possible.  RGIII is rated amoung the top quarterbacks in the country, and Morris broke the Redskins' single season rushing record, set by Clinton Portis.   Their last game against the Cowboys, a division rival, held the gravity of a playoff game in the sense that the winner would make the playoffs and the loser would start their offseason.  The Redskins had beat the cowboys earlier in their win streak, and they had little trouble doing it again.  RGIII threw for multiple touchdowns, and Alfred Morris ran for 200 yards. 
The Redskins won the game, which started their postseason and marked the first time the Redskins have won their division since 1999.  The best part of this team is it's youth: RGIII and Alfred Morris are both rookies, so hopefully the team will be experiencing success for the future.
The only issue the Redskins may face is the health of RGIII. He suffered a knee injury against the Baltimore Ravens and has had to wear a brace ever since.  Against the Seahawks, he is expected to be near 100% but still not able to run as much as he usually does.  The solution is Kirk Cousins: another rookie quarterback on the Redskins who won the game against the Cleveland Browns.  If RGIII is unable to continue at any time, Cousins is ready to step in and keep the offense going.



Wrestling Scoring System

Now, since I believe i have convinced you to attend some wrestling matches, I should probably teach you how the scoring works.

A wrestler can score by:

• Taking their opponent down (2 points)
• reversing control (2 points)
• escaping control of their opponent (1 point)
• holding their opponent on their back for a certain amount of time (3 max points)
• holding them there for 2 seconds (2 points)
• holding them there for 5 seconds (3 points)
• note: if one holds an opponent on their back for five seconds, they only get 3 points, not 3 plus the 2.
• any technical violations (full nelson, locked hands, illegal headlocks, unnecessary roughness, etc.)
• the first technical violation is a warning, the second is one point, the third is 2 points, and the fourth is disqualification. some may vary due to the referee and/or the severity of the violation.
• Stalling (similar to technical violations, but the scoring and definition varies per ref)
• pinning the opponent is an automatic win for the pinning wrestler, no matter the score

Some of this may seem a little strange, but you will see the referee awarding points, so you can see what is ment by some of these. 

Now, the team points are different.  The team points are what decide who wins a match, and how a wrestler wins is taken into account.

A team scores by:

• pinning their opponent (6 team points)
• winning by points but by less than a ten point margin (3 team points)
• winning by more than 10 but less than 15 points (4 team points)
• winning by over 15 points, results in disqualification of losing wrestler (5 team points)
• a forfeit, which happens if a team doesn't have a wrestler for a certain weight class (6 team points)
• unsportsmanlike conduct towards the other team, may result from unnecessary roughness (deducts one team point from offending team)

After every weight class has wrestled, the team with the most team points wins. 

Now that you know how a wrestling match is scored, I urge you to come to our next match.  we have one at Blake at 6 on Tuesday, and our next home match is the week after winter break. Hope to see you there!

Wrestling Misconceptions

As many of you may know, I am a wrestler for Blair. We have already started our season and had a few teammates place at a tournament this weekend.  We graduated a bunch of good seniors last year, but we still have a good team that is looking to have an even greater role in Montgomery County wrestling in the future. Wrestling is a tough but rewarding sport, and once you get into it, you just can't get enough.

Most of you, however, have not even considered wrestling to be a sport and have forgotten about it.  Many of you believe it is too weird to watch, even though you probably havn't seen a match. You probably think the sport is too harsh and violent, and maybe even slightly homosexual. Although it could be those things, (except for that last part) it is really interesting and it helps build character. 

Wrestling is one of the toughest sports because not only does one have to go to practice like other athletes, but they also have to cut weight and make sure they don't gain too much.  Someone could argue that hockey or football is tough, but like the link says, those guys get to have a heaping plate of dinner after practice while wrestlers go to bed hungry.  Wrestlers sometimes lose a crazy amount of weight (myself included) just to face smaller people, which makes it more likely they will win. 

Since the sport is extremely tough, wrestlers build bonds with their teammates who are facing the same situation and they create tight friendships through it, as well as respect for each other for sticking with it. 

The sport is also very rewarding because its not your team beating another team, it's you beating one man in a fight.  On a hockey or football team, your team could be winning games without much individual contributions; but wrestling is a completely solo sport.  If you win or lose, it's all on you and not your teammates.

Wrestling is a tough sport, and it's also really fun to watch.  Sometimes, people get slammed to the mat, or there could be a sudden death overtime match that draws down to the wire.  It's cuper exciting to watch, and because of this, I urge any of you readers to go out and see a wrestling match or tournament or something.  You won't regret it, and once you get past the initial strangeness of the sport, you'll find yourself loving it.

Redskins making a comeback

On Thanksgiving, the Redskins pulled out their second consecutive division win against the Dallas Cowboys, 38-31.  The previous sunday, the Redsking beat the Eagles 31-6, and they looked really good coming out of the bye-week.  Quarterback RGIII threw for 311 yards with four touchdowns and only one interception against the Dallas defense, and running back Alfred Morris scored the other touchdown.

Although the Redskins looked outstanding, their defense didn't do as well in the second half.  At halftime on thursday, it was 28-3, but the defense gave up four touchdowns in the second half.  This leaves room to believe that although the Redskins are looking strong, their defense needs to get stronger and deal without key players such as Brian Orackpo and Brandon Meriweather. 

The Redskins have to face the strong giants, who have already defeated them earlier in the season.  If the Redskins do win against the Giants, they will be tied for first place in the division, and possibly with Dallas as well.

Capture The Fall

This is my capture the fall video, and it's called Fallen Leaves and Baseball. In it, there are some shots of trees turning red, orange and yellow, as well as some postseason baseball.

The point of this video is to describe what fall means to me personally, and whenever i think of fall, i think of the trees, but also postseason baseball.

This year, i had the good fortune to go see two local teams play in the postseason: the Washington Nationals and the Baltimore Orioles.  Those games were the first of playoff baseball i have ever been to, and both teams havn't really been that competetive until this year.

Before, the Nationals have never made the playoffs or even got second place in their division.  The orioles have been to the playoffs before, but not in at least the last decade. It was pretty cool seeing them both develop and become such great teams, and also the games were awesome (even though both the games i went to, my team lost).

Anyways, i hope you guys enjoy my video about what fall means to me.

Although the Redskins were supposed to be noticibly better this year with rookies such as Alfred Morris and Robert Griffen III leading the offense, they have fallen short of their expectations.

The defense has been terrible this year, ranking just about last in the NFL.  This could be due to the losses of Brian Orakpo and Adam Carriker, two cricial Redskins defenders.  Orakpo suffered a torn pectoral in week two, and Carriker a torn quad, and both won't come back this season.

Players such as Ryan Kerrigan and London Fletcher have been trying to carry the weight of the defense on their shoulders, but have been unsuccessful in doing so without Orakpo and Carriker.  Since the defense has been unable to stop opponents, the offense has to deal with the pressure it presents. 

When the defense is giving up long drives and touchdowns, the offense can't afford to waste possessions.  They have to score as much as they can every game and often with less time than they should have.

The Redskins have so much potential but are under .500 due to a lack of a strong defense and a huge amount of pressure that the offense cant handle.

 

Last year, Blair's varsity football team went 0-10: one of their worst records in the past twenty years.  After that, everyone has developed the opinion that Blair football is going to be terrible forever and that there is no hope. 

 

This could not be further from the truth.  This year, the players have been working as hard as they can to make sure they dont repeat last year's record. We have already won two games, and in both of the games, the team looked really strong.

 

At the beginning of the season, teams like BCC and Quince Orchard had no trouble at all defeating us, which left many to believe this year would be bad too.  But, we defeated long-time boulavard rival Northwood, which helped boost our spirits after 15 straight losses.

 

The JV football team, unlike their varsity counterpart, has been playing strong both this and last year, which leaves us to believe that the varsity teams for our junior and senior years are going to actually be competetive within the county. 

 

At this point, all we can do is work hard and make sure we get stronger as a team in order to bring competetive football back to Blair.