Bastrop’s Achilles heel was exposed again on Friday — the Bears cannot stop big running backs.
It’s kind of like that nagging injury that won’t go away.
The Bears run defense was again suspect, especially in the second half,  against McNeil at Kelly Reeves Stadium in Round Rock.
The Mavericks had 92 rushing yards in the first half on 27 carries, which comes to 3.4 yards per carry.
In the second half, McNeil called running plays on 26 of 29 downs, ran for 144 yards and averaged 5.5 yards per carry.
To be fair, unlike losses to Bowie and New Braunfels in 2009, one or two running backs didn’t do it on their own.
The Mavericks did it all by committee.
Cooper Lewis rushed for 86 yards. Tracy Mitchell ran for 80 yards and Daniel Williams, brother of Aaron Williams, ran for 52 yards.
Between the three of them, Lewis had two touchdowns and Mitchell scored one. All on the ground.
Go back to the end of the 2009 season and you will see Bastrop’s run defense has always struggled against good running teams.
Bowie’s Brelyn Sorrells ran for 225 yards on 26 carries by himself.
It was part of a 368-yard day on the ground in the Bulldog’s 34-14 win over Bastrop.
The following week, New Braunfels had a more balanced offense, but ran for 233 yards against Bastrop as a team.
Running back Jeremy Garcia averaged 8.1 YPC, rushing for 138 yards on 17 attempts.
Look at the wins against Westlake, Connally, Pflugerville and Akins.
Those teams had just 169, 70,  234 and 83 yards respectively on the ground.
Westlake balanced their offense out and threw for 180 yards.
And I know what you are saying, “Pflugerville ran for 234 yards and Bastrop beat them 41-26.”
The Panthers did have two turnovers and gave up a defensive touchdown in a 28-point second quarter by the Bears. However, Pflugerville did outscore Bastrop 26-10 in the second half.

Running troubles
Bastrop head coach Gerald Perry said on Monday, the game plan for McNeil was to establish the run.
And the Bears did just that, calling running plays on 10 of 18 downs.
Bastrop wasn’t as successful running the ball as they were throwing it.
The Bears ran the ball 22 times and averaged 3.87 yards per carry with their longest rush being just 12 yards. Only four of those plays went over 10 yards.
Bastrop was much more successful through the air, tallying 197 yards on 26 attempts, averaging 7.6 yards per reception.
The Bears passing offense scored three times and had 12 plays go for more than 10 yards, with four going for more than 20.

A tale of two halfs
In the first half, Bastrop was able to move the football with ease.
The Bears out-gained McNeil 191-92 in offense.
The Mavericks defense did a 360-degree turnaround and held Bastrop to three-and-out on four of six possessions in the second half.
The Bears’ longest offensive play was just 25-yards, which came on a touchdown pass to Josh Taylor in the final minute of the game.
Before that play, the longest was just 10 yards on a run by Josiah Monroe.

Injury report
Bastrop is healthy after Friday’s game.
Perry said there were no injuries that would keep anyone out of Thursday’s game with Seguin.

STOPPING THE RUN
In Bastrop’s last three games, teams have averaged 269.6 yards rushing against the Bears defense. In each of those games, Bastrop suffered a loss. Here is a breakdown:

Player, school    ATT    YDS    TDS    RESULT
McNeil    41    218    3    L, 20-22
Leading rusher: Cooper Lewis (18-86 yards , 2 TDS)

New Braunfels    29    182    3    L, 42-21
Leading rusher: Jeremy Garcia (17-136 yards, TD)

Bowie    36    368    4    L, 34-14
Leading rusher: Breyln Sorrells (24-225 yards, TD)