By Dustin Dobbins

Sideline Guru (Playoffs!)

Hello again Dekalb County Football Fans. The regular season is over and the playoffs start this week every team has to be on top of their game now. It’s one loss and you're done from this point on. Six teams from Dekalb County made the playoffs. Fyffe and Fort Payne play at home. Plainview, Geraldine, Collinsville and Valley Head take to the road. So let’s get started.

Lafayette (6-4) at Fyffe (9-1)

The Bulldogs come to Red Devil Stadium Thursday night, looking for a upset. Whitlow is having a good year at Quarterback. He has thrown 15 touchdowns but also has thrown 11 interceptions  (Hum). Boston-Gaines is the main receiver with 70 yards a game. Houston is the main rusher with about 70 yards a game. On defense Dukes, King ,Higgins and Boston all have 100 tackles. For the Red Devils Benefield and Kilpatrick will lead the offense and the Martin boys will lead the defense. Bulldogs give up over 30 points a game and Kilpatrick and company will get those numbers and more. Fyffe wins 42-14.

Briarwood Christian (4-6) at Fort Payne (8-2)

The Lions made the playoffs somehow. Their passing game is awful, 1 touchdown and 15 interceptions and their leading rusher only gets 31 yards a game, on top of that the Lions defense is suspect at best. The Wildcats are going to win this one fairly easily. Turner should have big game. King and Ridgeway play good to. Wildcats 31-14.

Valley Head ( 3-7) at Wadley  (8-1)

The Tigers take to the road to play the Bulldogs. Harrison and Leps won’t be enough on offense and Nixs and Harrison won’t be enough to slow down the Bulldogs explosive offense. Bulldogs 42-18.

Collinsville (6-4) at Randolph County (10-0)

The Panthers  travel to Wedowee for the first round of playoffs . The Panther’s will need Jones and Reed back to have a chance in this game and the Brockitt  brothers also, while  Blakely and Nash will have to be at top of their game. The Tigers are the real deal with Hannah averaging 157 yards a game rushing. Prestridge 141 yards passing and as a team the Tigers score 40 points a game , while rolling up 400 yards a game on offense. This spells a loss for the Panther’s. Tigers win 40-18.

Geraldine (6-4) at Winfield (9-1)

The Bulldogs could be in trouble. Hood, Willoughby and Jiminez will have to play both sides of the ball extremely well and Murphy will have to play more aggressive throwing the ball. The Pirates get 40 plus points a game and give up around 2 touchdowns a game. Pirates win 33-12.

Plainview (6-4) at Oakman (7-3)

The Bears lost to Fyffe last week. In a hard fought game, the good thing was no one got injured before the playoffs started. Dukes will recover fine and Mueller will be back to himself this week “hardnose running “. The tackling robots Farmer and Wooten should anchor the defense. The Wildcats 2 backs Martin (with over a 1,000 yards rushing) and Gilbreath with 900 yards rushing. Lyles is the Wildcats main receiver with close 500 yards and that kid Keys has 12 touchdowns.  The Tigers Defense is led by Caldwell with 93 tackles and Moody with 80. This is hard one to call. May have to flip a coin on this game. I’m going with my gut feeling on this one. The Bears win with a solid defensive performance 21-14. See you at the game don’t forget your hand warmers.

*Next week we will have Southern Torch Most outstanding players of the year and Offensive and Defensive MVP’s.