Looking for Rover Insights on LVL

[JBinPA]

Rover, I had promised a young man who plays both ways for Nazareth that I would get out one of these fine days to see he and his team play.

Unfortunately, I chose the ACC - Naz game since it was afternoon and LS was that evening. I had to leave as ACC made it 49-13. The game was at the end of the third and was pushing 4 hours at that point. The Naz kids played hard and it killed me to watch RM smirking on the ACC sideline.

My question, with all that has gone on in the LVL, is the league that wide open or is the quality of play diminished? I really thought Naz would push ACC based on all that has gone on; man, was I wrong!

Thoughts?

 

[RoverNation05]

With it being election season, it's appropriate to say that a healthy middle class is a sign of strength?

I think there are less bad teams in the Lehigh Valley. ACC, Nazareth, and Liberty have made clear improvements, Northampton isn't very good yet but Siscly has at least upped their quality of play. I don't think the top tier is as good as it has been, if anybody is a contender at the state level, it's Freedom if they get Diez back, although I'd be more confident in their chances if they had one more athlete on the perimeter.

Specifically in reference to Nazareth, the Lehigh Valley picture would make a lot more sense if they lost to Liberty. Give them credit, unlike Parkland and Becahi, they didn't let Liberty sleepwalk through an entire quarter and get away with it. They are kind of an empty calories team, they have a pair of dangerous receivers and a coach who is smart enough to get them the ball in positions where they can make big plays. That's about all they do well. That, plus turnovers and a special teams TD was enough to beat Liberty and scare Freedom. Honestly, I would not be surprised if they lost out. Or if they upset one of Freedom, Parkland, or Easton.

As a general note, as we've seen in college, the spread is a great equalizer. It's like those March Madness games where one team is clearly better, but the other bombs a bunch of threes to hang around.

The toughest thing to do is tackle in space, and teams almost every team up here (really everyone in the Valley but Easton, Emmaus, and Northampton) has moved to a shotgun offense where they get the ball out of the quarterback's hands quickly. Having to defend the whole field negates some of the physical advantages of better teams, and will exploit any team that isn't sound in it's defensive principles or can't tackle. At the end of the day , the team that's more physical is going to win more often than not, but scheme (and good coaches) is giving some middle tier teams more of a punchers chance.