All the talk has died down now. Newton football was named Fox 5’s team of the week on Thursday and has drawn plenty of media attention the past week for its victory over Valdosta. None of that matters tonight when the Rams take on Central Gwinnett at 7:30 at Sharp Stadium.

Rams’ head coach Terrance Banks is aware of the attention the team’s been getting and so in order to keep his players focused on their goal Banks says, “I simply asked them, ‘Are (you) ready to turn your pads in?’”

“Everyday I give them a quote,” Banks said. “One of the quotes that I gave them last week and I gave it to ‘em again on Monday. I said, ‘I’m repeating this quote for a reason, especially this week. That was a quote from Chuck Noll where he says, “Pressure’s something you feel when you don’t know what you’re doing.” This is game 12, we can’t change who we are. We are who we are and so let’s go play.”

In practice this week, Banks says that the team has been led by its captains, especially the seniors.

“Romario (Johnson), A.J. Palomino, Vinny Jengelly and Jordan Manson are leaders. Those are the captains,” Banks said. “One thing you can say about the first three – Johnson, Palomino and Jengelly – is they all make the all-region team. Palomino, Jengelly and Manson are seniors. They’re not ready for this ride to be over with. The motto is “Play 12.” Now that we’re “playing 12,” the motto is practice on Thanksgiving Day, but you can’t practice on Thanksgiving Day if you don’t handle business (Friday night).”

Central Gwinnett upset North Gwinnett 12-9 last week without the team’s starting quarterback and after losing one of their receivers during the game.

“On offense, you don’t know who you’re going to face, so you have to prepare to get the best. I don’t know what quarterback’s coming out there. I don’t know what receiver is coming out there. We’re prepared for the best they got,” Banks said.

Central’s defense is a thing of its own, and Banks’ main concern.

“They’re defense is outstanding,” Banks said. “They remind me of the defenses that I’ve had to coach against before and the fact that they’re coming from every angle. Every blitz you can imagine, they’re gonna come – safety fires, corner fires, four overloading on one side, so they’re a heavy blitz team – they zone blitz. They wanna get you in second and long situations or third and long. Once they do that then it’s real easy to backup and keep everything in front of them.”

Newton’s fast paced offense and short passing ability should be able to offset Central’s blitz schemes. Johnson usually makes quick reads and will get the ball out quickly to playmakers, which is what Bank’s offense is designed to do. However, a few times per quarter, the Rams like to take shots downfield. The offensive line’s ability to stay within their reads and protect Johnson long enough for him to get the ball downfield will be a key part of the game.

“We’ll have to make sure we minimize mistakes and do stuff to always get positive yards and take our shots at the appropriate time downfield,” Banks said.

“We can’t turn the ball over. North Gwinnett, when they were able to put drives together they turned the ball over and killed the drive. We can’t do that. We’ve got to string drives together.”

Banks says that turnovers, field position and not getting their head down are the Rams’ keys to the game.

“The team that can put the lows out their mind the fastest to get to the next play will be the team that’s able to do what they need to do in the final 12 minutes of the game,” Banks said.

This will be Newton’s first-ever second round state playoff game – not counting the 1987 Newton team that won a couple games in the region playoffs (which were eliminated in 1994) – and it’s a very exciting time for all of Covington.

Banks said, “I’m very excited that the city of Covington, it’s exciting not only for us even Eastside, for a county with three high schools to still have two teams playing. When there are other counties with 16 schools who don’t have that many playing. That says a lot about our type of football we play out here. I hope to see the whole town and I’m thankful for the support, hopefully we can keep it going.”