Playoff hopes dashed

Cannon Co. 34, Smith Co. 0

By Terry Collins Courier Sports

WOODBURY — The Smith County High Owls football team moved their game up one day earlier to face Cannon County in Woodbury last Thursday night.

The Owls were in a “must win” situation or be eliminated from the Class 2A playoffs.

The host Lions used big plays in the passing game to register a 34-0 victory to improve to 5-2 overall and 1-1 in Region 4-2A. 

“We need to execute better,” said Smith County High football head coach Matt Dyer. “We need to fix our mindset. We need to find a way to get to the next play when things don’t go our way.”

Dyer continued, “On defense, we need to stop giving up big plays, especially on third down. We need to quit letting previous plays affect our effort on future plays. We need to swarm to the ball better and get black hats to the ball. Offensively, we need to execute better and more consistently. We need to stay on blocks and play to the whistle. We need to protect our QB better, in our sprint out, waggle and boot, and drop back, he is having to move around too much. We also need to quit taking so many sacks and getting behind the chains with negative yardage plays. We need to throw the ball in time better and get into our routes faster whether it is quick game or anything down field. We just need to find a way to compete for four full quarters and quit making so many mistakes. We will learn from this and keep trying to get better and earn more experience.”

Smith Co. lost their fifth straight game to fall to 1-6 overall and 0-3 in region play. 

READ MORE IN COURIER SPORTS