By By BRIAN HAINES, Sports Writer
Washington wrapped up its final 7-on-7 passing league game on Thursday at Washington High School and the Pam Pack continued its trend up and down play.
At times Washington looked solid on both sides of the ball. The defense had several good stands against Havelock, while the offense featured a few good touchdowns mixed in with a couple of interceptions.
Overall, coach Sport Sawyer said he was happy with the effort his team put in during its six-game passing league season.
“I would give us an average grade. I think we have done good at times and at times I think there were times that we needed improvement, but that’s expected on an inexperienced team,” Sawyer said. “I think it’s an average (grade) that our guys worked hard for; that’s bright spot.”
Heading into the passing league Sawyer said he wanted to get a better evaluation of his roster and see improvement by his players. On Thursday after the scrimmage with Havelock, Sawyer felt he and his team met both goals.
“I think (we have met our goals) because now we have more of an idea of who can play what position and who will be backups,” Sawyer said. “In the beginning of the summer we were more like ‘who is going to play where etc.’ So after a month into this thing, I now feel more comfortable with these guys.”
Sawyer was particularly happy with some of the more fundamental aspects of his team’s play.
“I saw a lot of good route running, having the receivers come back to the ball,” Sawyer said. “Some of the defensive guys did a good job of getting to the ball. Our quarterbacks’ reads are getting better; I saw some good things in the basic fundamentals of football.”
Defensive coordinator Jon Blank echoed Sawyer’s assessment and gave his defense a satisfactory grade for its six games.
“I would probably give them a B-,” Blank said. “We are better than average I think, but we have some holes to fill and we need some guys to step up and fill them.
“We are young in some positions and those guys just have to learn. If they rise to the occasion them we can be an A+ defense again.”
Blank praised his unit’s ability to learn the defenses.
“We really did a good job of picking up our multiple coverages,” Blank said. “We put in some different packages that we haven’t run before and I was real pleased with our mental ability to play the game.”
While Blank was happy with the overall play of the defense, he said some of his players need to make a few adjustments.
“I didn’t like the reaction of some of our younger players to adversity,” Blank said. “I want to see our tempo improve a little bit. I see some guys not giving me the speed that I want at game time.”
The Pam Pack will do some light work next week, before taking some time off to rest up before official practices begin in early August.