High school football at a public school with 4A enrollment is cyclical. The Dragons graduated 22 seniors last year, including the state's all-time leading rusher that had D1 offers and chose to walk on at IU. They also graduated 3 starting OL, including Michigan State's Kyle King. They graduated their ENTIRE secondary and 7 of their top 8 WR.
Everyone knew this would be a rebuilding year at NP. I had hoped the sophomore class would be ready to step in, but the virus ruined that. Less weight training and conditioning, no 7 v 7, no scrimmages. And it's shown. Not a great year to be inexperienced in a lot of key spots.
Finally, injuries . . . the Dragons have been very fortunate with injuries the last two years. And seem to be paying the piper this year. NP has lost three starters for the season. 8 more starters have missed multiple games due to injury. That's 11 starters that have missed significant part of the season. Some significant depth is also injured. In the GF game, the Dragons were missing 7 starters. The QB for the Dragons in the JV game hasn't played QB since third grade. It's been just a MASH unit. But that's just the way football is. You strap up and play with what you've got.
That being said, the Dragons have been competitive in every game and are 4-1 for goodness sake.