“We saw some good stuff and we saw some bad stuff.”
That’s how Brownwood Lions fourth-year head coach Sammy Burnett summed up Friday’s initial scrimmage of the season Friday morning at Gordon Wood Stadium.
The Lions hosted the Salado Eagles, coming off an 11-2 campaign and ranked No. 12 in Class 4A Division II by Dave Campbell’s Texas Football, as Brownwood tallied one touchdown while yielding six.
Brownwood’s new up tempo offense generated a touchdown just six plays into the scrimmage, but two turnovers prevented the Lions from reaching the end zone again.
“I saw some good play from (quarterback) Chance Jones and (receivers) Jason Jackson and Thad Hinds made some good plays offensively,” said Burnett, whose 2020 team posted a 4-6 record. “Our line did petty good up front. We had the opportunity if we wanted to just to pound the ball up front.
We protected well, we ran the ball pretty well, and we blocked decent on the outside. Chance got rid of the ball and he took a couple of hits a couple of times to deliver the ball and I thought he did a good job of that. We did turn the ball over twice which stopped two drives and we had a first down called back that they said wasn’t a first down. The reason our drives were stopped was because of us.”
Defensively, Burnett stated earlier in the week the Lions would not scheme Salado’s unique slot-T offense, and the Eagles made the most of the situation. Salado produced 524 yards on 47 snaps, an average of 11.2 yards per play, and finished with 20 first downs to go along with the six scores – four of which were generated by the first-team offense.
“Defensively we got hit in the mouth but what happened to us on defense we’ll eat because we allowed it to happen to us,” Burnett said. “We didn’t put them in the position to be successful, we just wanted them to be physical. If we were scheming them we would have adjusted and done all that, but it’s a scrimmage. We knew they were going to get us off tackle and they kept running off tackle. We just told them to go be a player, man up and be physical.”
The Lions’ lone touchdown came on a 32-yard scoring toss from Jones to Jason Jackson. Jones finished 8 of 13 for 113 yards with the touchdown, Jackson caught three passes for 48 yards, Hinds added three grabs for 49 yards and Case Markham finished with two receptions for 16 yards. On the ground, Konlyn Anderson led the way with 43 yards on seven carries. The Lions produced 267 yards and 11 first downs on 46 snaps.
Defensively, the Lions yielded touchdown runs of 17, 2, 54, 3, 1 and 15 yards. Salado also threw for 126 yards on three completions.
“We told them Salado was the type of team that was going to play about ankle height, you have to get down there and play with them,” Burnett said. “They’re physical, they’ve been doing what they’re doing for a while and they know what they’re doing. We just have to learn to step up and match that intensity and physicality on defense.”
The Lions return to practice Monday afternoon and will take part in their second scrimmage at Godley on Thursday evening.
Heading into the third week of preseason practice Burnett said, “I want to see more consistency offensively. We’re having to get on some people about getting in the right formation, we’re having to get on them about not missing a block up front. We need consistency where we make sure we’re not busting assignments. We need to make sure the running backs are hitting the hole where they need to hit it and make sure they are trusting their lineman instead of trying to make something out of nothing.
“Defensively, we just need to find ourselves and see who we are. We need to find out if we’re going to play with great passion and be physical.”
