Reeling Red Raiders host Russellville

By Staff
Mike Self FCT Sports Editor
Heading into the 2006 season, many observers expected Decatur to be the primary challenger to Russellville's reign of dominance in Class 5A, Region 8.
After all, the Red Raiders were coming off a 10-2 season in 2005 that included a trip to the second round of the Class 6A playoffs, and the much-anticipated drop to Class 5A had many Decatur supporters thinking Super Six thoughts.
Things don't always work out as planned, however.
The Red Raiders were ranked No. 2 in the state behind Russellville going into Week 2, but that's when the wheels started to fall off.
Decatur committed five turnovers and had a potential game-tying touchdown in the fourth quarter nullified by a block-in-the-back penalty in a 17-7 loss to Hartselle.
The following week, the Red Raiders fell to 0-2 in region play when a last-second pass was broken up in the end zone in a 13-8 loss to J.O. Johnson.
In Week 4, Decatur appeared to have righted the ship as they led No. 2 Athens 17-7 at the half. The Golden Eagles then rallied for 27 unanswered points in the second half, including a controversial touchdown pass on which the receiver appeared to be out of bounds, to win the game 34-17 and drop Decatur to 0-3 in Region 8.
The losing streak reached four games the following week against Sparkman before the Red Raiders finally earned their first region win last Friday, 48-7 over winless West Point.
"It's just been one of those years for them," said Russellville coach Perry Swindall, whose Golden Tigers (6-0, 4-0 region) can shatter Decatur's slim playoff hopes and clinch a postseason berth of their own in the process when they travel to Ogle Stadium tonight. "I think they've lost some close games, some games they probably could have won if a couple of breaks went their way. They've lost some players, too. They've had a couple of guys get injured, and that definitely set them back a little."
Despite the Red Raiders' struggles, Swindall said they do pose a threat to Russellville's streak of 39 consecutive wins in region play dating back to the 2001 season.
"They're still a very good football team, even though they don't have a good record," said Swindall, who is just six wins shy of 100 in his Russellville career. "They have the biggest offensive line we'll face all season. They average about 295-300 pounds on the line. Physically, they can just line up and mash you. They've turned the ball over quite a bit, but they're definitely capable of moving the ball and scoring some points.
"If they put it all together tonight, we'll have a hard time beating them. It's one of those situations where if we don't play well we'll be in trouble, but if we play really well I think we'll have a good chance to win the game."
The Golden Tigers will have a little extra incentive when they hit the field tonight, knowing they can officially clinch a playoff spot with a win. Decatur, meanwhile, must win its three remaining region games and hope that either Athens, Hartselle or J.O. Johnson loses their last three region games.
"Their backs are against the wall now," Swindall said. "It's do or die for them, and that is a little bit of a concern for us. Really, though, we're focused more on us right now. We still have to take care of some misalignments and missed assignments on our part and work on getting better as a football team."
Russellville's offense failed to score a point for the first three quarters of last week's 32-19 win over Athens, but the defense registered a safety and returned two interceptions for touchdowns to keep it close until the Golden Tiger running game got rolling in the fourth quarter.
Swindall said he challenged his team to play with more intensity during his halftime talk.
"The jist of it was, if you want to win you're going to have to play harder in the second half, he said. "After looking at the film, we didn't play as badly as I thought in the first half. We hammered them on our first two drives and should have had 14 points. Our defense ended up scoring those points for us anyway, but we kind of got off track offensively midway through the second quarter.
"I just told our guys that if they wanted to win they were going to have to come out in the second half and really hit them and take the game to them physically. We needed to play with more intensity and execute better, and I think we did that."
Junior running back Mike Abernathy topped the 200-yard mark for the second time in four weeks, finishing with 215 yards and two touchdowns on 37 carries. As a team, the Golden Tigers rushed for 277 yards on 61 attempts.
More of the same may be in store for tonight against Decatur.
"I think our running game versus their defense line is a pretty good matchup," Swindall said. "We'll just have to wait and see what they give us. We'll do whatever it takes for us to win, whether that means throwing it 30 times or running it 50 times."