Bonus thoughts from Barnstable and McGrath.

Been a long football weekend, and I wasn't even in Indianapolis -- and glad, too, because I can just imagine how many times my game story would have been re-written on deadline.

Anyway, here are a few observations from the last two high school games I covered in this four-game weekend:

** Sunday at Barnstable High, I had a season "first" -- I had to use five pages of my custom-made scoresheets to chart the entire game. That may not sound like a big deal, but it is to me.

You see, over some 40-plus years of covering high school football, I've come up with my own system for recording the plays so I can complile a statistical summary in a short amount of time after the game. I use a clipboard, and in my earlier years of having professionally-printed scoresheets, I designed them to be horizontal on a sheet of 8 1/2-inch-by-14-inch paper.

Well, that was wasteful. I'd use anywhere from 8-10 pieces of paper for each game, and that doesn't lend itself to a quick review while writing, So about 15 years ago, I re-designed my scoresheets to be vertical, and most games require the use of only four pages, regardless of whether they're played in 10-minute or 11-minute quarters.

But every now and then, a game either moves too slowly (too many incomplete passes and timeouts) or the style of offense enables the teams to squeeze more plays into the allotted time. Such was the case Sunday when Barnstable went the length of the entire game in a no-huddle attack. The Red Raiders managed to run off 59 offensive plays (including penalties but not including punts or kickoffs) over 11 possessions that added up to 19:58 (which means Attleboro had the ball for 23:02).

Contrast that to Somerset's 54 offensive snaps in just seven possessions that took 26:42 to complete against Bishop Feehan.

Guess what? The teams that had the ball the most lost the games.

** My thanks to the folks at the Firestone/Bridgestone garage in downtown Falmouth (486 Main St. if you need to stop by as I did) for promptly and pleasantly pulling the nail out of the right rear tire of the Tree Hugger and plugging it up for me so I could make it back to Attleboro in time for the Somerset-Feehan game.

One thing I like about new cars is the air-pressure sensors for the tires. Without that, I figure I would have been riding on a rim sometime around 5 p.m. on Route 28 coming back from Hyannis -- and even though I've got my trusty AAA card with me at all times, I don't suspect that would have been a fun place to be stranded, especially on deadline.

** I can understand why Attleboro was running its first-string offense inside the last four minutes of the game. The Bombardiers had cut Barnstable's lead to 12 points, although I still believe it would have taken a minor miracle to overcome that. Nothing wrong with fighting with dignity for pride's sake.

What I'm not so sure about is why Barnstable sent its first-string offense back into the game with 3:34 left in the game and threw long for a 53-yard touchdown, instead of just trying to run out the clock with a sustained possession.

Oh, well, to each his own.

** By the way, the coin flip for the Old Colony League championship between Taunton, Bridgewater-Raynham and Barnstable will take place sometime Tuesday at a restaurant near the Sagamore Bridge. What, no live TV coverage like in "Friday Night Lights?"

** If you buy a copy of the NFL Record and Fact Book at your local Borders or Barnes & Noble, you'll find a detailed explanation of the NFL passer rating within. I'd be hard-pressed to explain it here in 25,000 words or less without being accused of being a "bloghog" -- and just how is it possible for one to "hog" a blog with the near-infinite memory storage capacities of the Internet? -- but I'm one of those that believes its assessment of the value of completion percentages and scoring as opposed to the negative effect of interceptions is a pretty good gauge of the success of a quarterback's efforts in a game.

Granted, some of the parameters of the NFL method place higher expectations upon a pro quarterback than other rating systems do for QBs at another level of play. But since I'm used to the NFL system, I use it occasionally in my high school stories thanks to the spreadsheet I have set up in my computers.

So, how good was Tommy Romero's second half for Bishop Feehan Monday night? Try "perfect."

Romero completed seven of eight passes for 114 yards and two touchdowns, with no interceptions, in the last two quarters for a 158.3 rating, the highest the NFL system will allow. Overall, Romero completed nine of 13 passes for 154 yards, with three touchdowns and two first-half picks, for a game rating of 109.1 -- and that's still pretty darned good.

** Remember the importance of third-down and fourth-down conversions? Here's the tale of the tape from Monday's game at Feehan:

SOMERSET: 6-10 in third-down conversions, 3-4 in fourth-down conversions.

FEEHAN: 3-6 third down, 3-3 fourth down.

On Feehan's game-winning drive, the 'Rocks converted one of two third-down situations and their only fourth-down try, fourth-and-1 at the Somerset 21, on which Romero gained 3 yards to keep the drive alive.

Somerset, on the other hand, had a Belichickian moment when it went for a first down on fourth-and-2 at its own 34 with about four minutes left in the third quarter. The play failed, and Feehan scored three plays later to cut the deficit to five points.

** I've said before that the meatball sandwiches at McGrath Stadium are excellent, but don't take just my word for it. The young fellow from the Globe who attended the game said that one of those tasty treats made for a satisfying supper.

** That's all for tonight. A very long weekend of football, a little more expensive than expected with the tire repair, but an enjoyable one nonetheless.