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Tigers trying to tackle mid-season doldrums
By Joe Warren
Nevada Daily Mail
Coming off three straight losses the Nevada Tigers have perhaps their biggest game of the season when McDonald County comes to town Friday.
The psyche of a rebuilding program can be fragile at first, and not having experienced the positive feeling of a win in almost a month, the Tiger football team might fall into that category.
Tigers head coach John Skeans senses the importance Friday's game has on Nevada's prospects for the rest of the season.
"This is a vital game for us for our season," Skeans said after practice Wednesday. "We've got to come out and set the tone early and we've got to play as well as we can play."
The Tigers (2-4) have not played as well as they can play for at least two of the the last three games.
The Webb City loss on Sept. 24 aside, Nevada has arguably regressed since their last win over East Newton on Sept. 17.
Against Carthage on Oct. 1, and especially against Neosho last week, Nevada has not done a good job executing and continues to make too many mistakes to defeat a quality opponent.
Skeans recognizes this and says the Tigers are in need of a big game to turn things around.
"We need to put four good quarters of football together," Skeans said.
Last Friday the Tigers had a good first quarter, leading 7-0 and just missing two other great scoring opportunities with a missed field goal and a fumble on the Neosho 23-yard line.
Nevada then seemed to let off the throttle and Neosho battled back to take an 11-10 halftime lead.
In the third quarter Nevada again came out of the blocks strong, controlling the ball so well that Neosho only ran five offensive plays, only to falter down the stretch.
Neosho answered with a 17-play drive in the fourth period that took more than 9 minutes off the clock . Neosho went on to win 14-10.
Skeans said the message was simple after reviewing tape from the Neosho game.
"We've just got to get better in all phases of the game," Skeans said.
Against McDonald County, Nevada will see a team that has not been as good as Neosho, but one that will likely welcome back a starting quarterback that has been sidelined all year with a broken collarbone.
That leaves a huge unknown in the game-planning that takes place.
Nevertheless, Skeans believes that if the Tigers can play better within their schemes for the entire game, Nevada will have a good chance to snap their three-game slide.
"Execution on both sides of the ball, we continue to work on that," Skeans said.
On the practice field Nevada has continued to improve all season. Skeans said that the team just needs to carry that over into the games.
"We're just continuing to learn and get better as a team," he said. "We're continuing to work hard with everything we do."
The Tigers will be facing a balanced McDonald County squad. The Mustangs will throw a variety of formations at the Tigers, making pre-snap reads and first-step reads important so Nevada does not get caught in an unfavorable matchup.
Skeans said the Mustangs have been a better running team this season, but that the Tigers can't afford to let the passing game go unnoticed.
"I think they've gotten better as a passing team every week," he said.
Defensively McDonald County will employ a base 4-3 defense, something that Nevada has seen before.
That means that the Tigers will not change much offensively to adjust to McDonald County.
"We're going to stay with some of our base packages," Skeans said. "What we've got to do offensively is execute."
This week Skeans said not to look for any drastic changes in regards to the offensive scheme, but that the personnel within the scheme might be adjusted a little bit. Skeans did not want to go into detail as to what changes would take place.
What the Tigers are looking for is consistency. As was seen against Neosho, Nevada can move the ball offensively. It is just a matter of eliminating a key penalty here and a missed block there.
Turnovers hurt too, but the Tiger defense has created some turnovers of their own meaning the offense just needs to put a few more points on the board.
Only then will it be possible for the Tigers to get that elusive third win. A win that could turn around the season.