Steven Jones thinks it had to do with the headlines.
Specifically, the ones about his El Dorado team's high-flying offense, and all the unit had done this season to march the Wildcats to a Class 6A state-championship appearance.
"I think that fired them up a little bit," Jones said of his defense. "I think that they played it with a chip on their shoulder, and they made a statement today."
Whatever it was, defense was the difference Saturday for the Wildcats, who beat Greenwood 27-17 at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock for their 10th state title. El Dorado's defense matched Greenwood in a slugfest that saw records broken plenty of defensive play-making.
"They just shut us down and really limited what we do offensively," Greenwood Coach Chris Young said.
The Wildcats set a title-game record, limiting Greenwood to minus-44 rushing yards. It was the lowest total allowed in the modern playoff era, since Augusta limited Prescott to minus-9 in 1983.
"Incredible play," Jones said. "Really getting to the quarterback. ... We've got three guys rallying to the ball, it seemed like, every play. A great job by our defense coordinator Trey Outlaw. He put together an awesome plan, and defense won it for us tonight."
As a team, El Dorado (11-2) combined for 13 tackles for loss, including eight sacks. It generated five of Saturday's nine combined takeaways, three of which were fumble recoveries and two interceptions. They scored 20 of their 27 points off turnovers. Cornerback Mario Ganter was the Wildcats' lone player with multiple takeaways, recovering a fumble to go with his interception.
The Wildcats limited Greenwood to 165 yards on 46 plays, the Bulldogs' lowest single-game total this season. El Dorado linebacker Patrick Sixbey, who forced a fumble, said there were a lot of nerves coming into the game.
"All [our coaches] said about Greenwood was how fast their offense was," Sixbey said. "And we never played a team like that. So, the whole week of preparation, it was very frustrating to try and play to their game speed. To see it pay off, ... it's just a great feeling."
Young said he believed his Greenwood (9-4) team played well enough defensively to win the game, largely by slowing down the state's third-leading passer in Sharmon Rester.
Rester finished 10-of-23 passing with 104 yards and 3 interceptions. The performance set a single-game season-high in interceptions and season-low in passing yards.
The Bulldogs' four turnovers were highlighted by defensive back Braden Skaggs, who had all of Rester's interceptions. It tied an individual title game record, which was set by Joey Savin of Fayetteville in a 2015 win against Springdale Har-Ber.
"Their defense was the difference in the ballgame," Young said. "There's no doubt. Their quarterback's a good player, but I thought our defense played outstanding. Their defense just shut us down. We couldn't do anything. You can't win a ballgame if you can't score points, and there's a great example of that today."