A Quick Look at the Colts and Buzzards

The Buzzards hope to make this a familiar sight, Saturday

The Buzzards go on the road for what is an important early season test against the South King County Colts. It will be interesting to see how SKC responds to adversity, getting blown out on the road just a week ago 27-3 to the Yakima Mavericks. On the other hand, the Buzzards rolled over Grey's Harbor 36-0 and are flying high after a rough start to the season.

Having not seen the Colts play, I simply have to go off of statistics which I can see, and since they haven't uploaded anything from the Yakima game, that makes it a little more challenging. However, there are two things which stood out to me at a glance. Colts QB Cody Oakes went 6 of 17 for 155 yards and two scores, being intercepted once. What that tells me is that with a 25.8 average yards per completion, the Colts love to sling the rock. This bodes well for the Buzzards as their secondary has proven to be stout time and time again. While Oakes does enjoy throwing the ball down the field, he does so inefficiently. With only a 35% completion percentage,  Buzzard DB's will have plenty of opportunities to wreak havoc and force some turnovers.

With again, admittedly limited statistics I took a look at the Colt defense. In the game against the Monarchs, the Colts were able to jump out to an early lead as they put up 17 points on their first three possessions. They were able to hold that lead with a defense which allowed less than 200 yards on the day and flummoxed the defending champions. Benzo Scalan recorded a pair of sacks for the Colts to lead the D. The Buzzards multifaceted run game may be a problem for the Colts as they have the ability to go inside or out. The most important factor will be whether they can hold onto the ball and get positive yardage on first down. If they do that, they will stand a solid chance of gaining the yards they need to put points on the board. This defense can give up yards and points, as was evidenced last week against Yakima. What it comes down to is execution for the Buzzards.

A combined team effort is what it is going to take to come out of Sunset Chevrolet Stadium with a win, but the defense is capable and the offense is ready. It looks to be quite a game.