A little more than halfway into the season, the Phoenix Christian Cougars have outscored opponents 342 to 22 heading into Friday’s home game against Tempe Prep. Senior quarterback Hunter Cole has amassed a QBR of 156.3, according to maxpreps.com.

For the sake of comparison, a QBR of 50 is considered average. And with the gun-slinging quarterback as the talk of the 2A Metro West region, players on this team also heap praise in every direction possible.

As easy as it is to say a favorite player to watch is a running back or wide receiver — the flashy skill positions — junior defensive lineman Joseph Kellogg was not taking the easy way out.

“I really like to watch (offensive lineman) Jacob Sharp,” Kellogg said. “He is getting the pancake (blocks).”

In this instance, it takes a lineman to appreciate the work of one of his fellow counterparts.

“I’m a knock-off lineman,” Kellogg said. “I've been a lineman since seventh grade, and I was never big enough, so I like to see the guys who are big enough get the work done.”

Knock-off or not, Kellogg is playing his role, and then some.

After six games, Kellogg has 3.5 of the Cougars' 11 sacks and knows a thing or two about leadership.

“I think of what General George Patton said, ‘There’s no such thing as defense. There’s only attack, attack, attack',” Kellogg said. “I really feel like that’s what I think on the field.”

Kellogg is also tied for the lead in tackles.

Along with Kellogg, junior running back Malik Taylor also prefers watching the blue collar positions on the opposite side of the ball rather than a flashy positions like his.

“(Defensive lineman) Jonathan Herrera (is my favorite player to watch),” Taylor said. “He just gets to the line, and he eats.”

Just like Kellogg is emerging as a leader on defense, Taylor is doing the same thing on the other side of the ball.

Through six games, Taylor already has 767 yards on the ground along with 13 rushing touchdowns.

“My goal this season was to get over 1,700 yards to beat the running back last year,” Taylor said.

Taylor has averaged 13.7 yards per carry, and he also has accumulated 19 yards per catch off of seven receptions with a touchdown catch to go with it.

The man pulling the strings behind the scenes of this offensive powerhouse is coach Brian Cole.

“We’re trying to win. Sometimes those scores get a little bit out of hand,” Cole said. “But in most of those games we’ve had our second team in right after halftime.”

Although the lopsided scoreboards might suggest the Cougars are running up the score, both Cole and Taylor said there’s not much they can do.

“If we keep scoring with our second team I look at that as the other team’s job to stop us,” Cole said. “There will be games where we do score in the sixties, and there’ll be games where we only score in the thirties, so it just depends on the other team we’re playing.”

The last four games have yet to be played, but if the Cougars continue on this current path of success, they’re on pace to outscore their opponents 570-37 by the end of the regular season.

It remains to be seen whether or not this level of play will translate to the playoffs. If it does, however, the Cougars could be a scary opposition when the time comes.