Adjustment Name of the Game for Red Devils in Week 2
EUREKA – Eureka football coach Kurt Barth believes that you typically learn more in a loss than you do in a win.
The Red Devils started off the fall 2021 season last week with a lopsided 69-20 loss at Nebraska Wesleyan that featured a lot of mistakes and learning experiences.
"After every first game, there are going to be adjustments that need to be made to have a successful season," Barth said. "First game doesn't ensure a successful season, nor does it ensure an unsuccessful season. It's how you respond and how we approach these next few weeks to get better and improve ourselves. That's what's really got to happen."
On Saturday at 1 p.m., the Red Devils will have their chance to respond when they host Olivet on the tuft of McKinzie Field for their home opener.
The non-conference game will be an opportunity for the team to show what it has learned, and how it has moved forward from the loss. The margin of defeat certainly didn't lower anyone's expectations.
"We've got to get better," Barth said. 'All of us have to get better. Not just our players. Our coaches have to do things to put our guys in spots to make plays, and our guys have to make the plays."
Last Saturday, he said, the team made too many mental errors and breakdowns. This was made evident by Nebraska Wesleyan's five touchdowns on 3rd-and-long situations.
It happened on the Prairie Wolves' first drive of the game, which set the tone for a rough afternoon in Lincoln.
After conceding a quick a first down, the Red Devils made two stops for no gain to make it 3rd-and-10. Nebraska Wesleyan went over the top for a touchdown that was called back due to taunting on the next play. The penalty gave the defense some momentum, but Nebraska Wesleyan connected deep on 2nd and 10 for the first score of the game.
On the other side of the ball, Eureka had exactly the wrong start, too. On its first play of the game, the Red Devils had a receiver wide open for a touchdown, but a missed block left quarterback Nathan Garard vulnerable and his pass was tipped and intercepted.
Nebraska Wesleyan scored on 3rd and 11 on the ensuing drive, putting EC in even more of an uphill battle.
"When you go back and look at the film, we saw a lot of good things," Barth said. "But we've said many times that football is the ultimate team sport. All 11 guys have to do their job, and we had some breakdowns where that didn't happen.
"They were a good team that exploited that, and we've got to get that corrected so it doesn't happen again."
Despite the frustrating start and nature of the game, Barth said that the team intermittently saw good things sprinkled throughout the day, good things that can be building blocks towards the kind of season the Red Devils want to have. Chief among them was the play of the team's front seven on defense.
"Outside of a couple plays, I thought our guys did well up front," Barth said. "We handled our gaps. Our linebackers played well. We tackled. About the only thing that maybe didn't happen with our front seven is we didn't get as much pressure as we'd like to.
"As we look to improve going into next week, our guys in the back need to do their job. They know that, and our guys up front got to be a little better in supporting them, getting pass-rush and creating some havoc to where they don't have as much time to get rid of the ball."
Offensively, the Red Devils saw an excellent performance from wide receiver Pierce Bradford. The senior leader hauled in eight catches for 157 yards and two touchdowns – including a 60-yard catch-and-run for a score in which he made an impressive last-second adjustment to pull it off. It was the kind of thrilling play that EC fans are hoping to see made in front of their home crowd this season.
"The biggest challenge from Week 1, whether you win or lose, is bouncing back for Week 2. Obviously, it's always easier to come back for Week 2 with a win, but there's nothing about life or sports that's easy. You have to be ready no matter what.
"Olivet is a very tough team coming in, so we don't have time to feel sorry for ourselves. We've got to pick up and get ready to play another strong team."
Saturday will the Red Devils' first-ever matchup against Olivet. The teams were scheduled to meet in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference-Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association crossover game in the fall of 2020, so Barth has had his eye on their program for a while.
"They're a strong, talented team," he said. "They've got a lot of size up front. They've got a strong running attack. They've got a strong offensive line and a freshman quarterback, so don't know much about him. This is their first game, so we don't know a whole lot, but we know their tradition and what they've done."
Defensively, Olivet features fast, aggressive linebackers, physical linemen and talented cornerbacks who provide good man-to-man coverage.
In addition to paying attention to Olivet in recent years, Barth has some first-hand experience with teams from the MIAA. In 1999, he was a graduate assistant at Defiance, and there he learned the conference's brand of football.
From what the coaches saw at practice this week, they believe they have reason to believe Saturday is going to be a different kind of day for the Red Devils.
"We've had a lot of great competition," Barth said. "Guys were energetic and eager to get things fixed."
