What KHMO’s Bill Shuler is Watching This Weekend

Palmyra-Lutheran North, Missouri @ Texas A&M and Sunday’s Chiefs and Rams Games.

Palmyra matches up with Lutheran North at 1p Saturday at Palmyra. This is the third meeting between the programs. The other meetings were in the 1999 and 2000 semifinals. Both previous games were in St. Louis. Lutheran North cruised to a win in 1999. Palmyra held off the Crusaders in 2000 for a 21-14 win. In that contest, the Panthers defended seven throws to the end zone from around 25 yards out in the last five minutes before Alex Pugh came up with a game ending sack to seal the win.

This edition of the Lutheran North Crusaders brings considerable size with linemen weighing in between 230 and 290 pounds.   The book on them is that they’re not flashy, but solid.

I’ll be keeping an eye on how Palmyra’s defense does and how they match up with Lutheran North’s size.

And, there is snow in the forecast. The cold weather gear is ready. Harold Smith has the call on KHMO and here on khmoradio.com. I'll be working the sidelines.

Saturday evening, I’ll find a nice warm place and take in the Missouri-Texas A&M game.  Mizzou has shown the ability to win on the road in the SEC and they’ve had good success over the years against the Aggies since A&M came into the Big 12.   The Tigers have had some difficulties on offense at times this year. I’ll be watching Maty Mauk. When he gets in trouble it seems to be from trying to do too much at times and some opponents—in particular Georgia-- made him pay.  I’ll also be watching the Mizzou defense. They’ve been very good at hassling quarterbacks and forcing turnovers.  That defense is why the Tigers lead the SEC East.

Sunday, I’ll be switching between the Chiefs and Seattle and Denver and the Rams.

Arrowhead Stadium is an unpleasant place for reigning Super Bowl champions. It’s also an unpleasant place for first time visiting quarterbacks. Seattle is the reigning Super Bowl Champion.  Russell Wilson is making his first regular season visit.  How this game plays out will be determined by how well Seattle’s offense handles the Chiefs defense and the noise.  I suspect that Wilson will join a lengthy and distinguished list of quarterbacks who had tough debuts at Arrowhead.

Denver visits the St. Louis Rams. Ugh.  ..Especially with the Rams making a quarterback change and the Rams offense working against a respectable Broncos defense.  The Rams can make this interesting if they can stop Denver on the first series or three and put some heat on Peyton Manning.  The Rams front seven is skilled enough to present some problems.  The rest of this matchup is unsettling.

It is also worth noting that Denver running back Montee Ball played against Hannibal in 2006 and 2007.  Hannibal throttled Ball as a sophomore in ’06 but he ran wild as a junior in ’07.