 "Photo: Seth Cook")
Last year, the Northwest-Southwest Baptist football game got out of hand quick. The Bearcats scored early and often, and the third-stringers were playing by the third quarter.
But on the heels of a 17-point loss to Abilene Christian, it seems unlikely the 'Cats are overlooking their purple counterparts.
"The motivation is plain and simple, we have to get a lot better," coach Mel Tjeerdsma said. "We've got a lot of things to work on. It doesn't make any difference if we're playing Southwest Baptist or Missouri Western or Truman. The important thing is what we do, and how well we improve."
Tjeerdsma hopes the sting of losing might refocus his team and ultimately help them.
"When they watch the film, I would think they'd be disappointed, and most of them will be disappointed in their performance if they honestly evaluate it," Tjeerdsma said. "We have to learn from it and build on it. There's a great lesson to be learned there if we'll approach it that way."
The 'Cats' focus sits on the purple Bearcats now, an improving team that surprised people in their season opener against Southeast Missouri.
Southwest Baptist lost their opener 35-28 in overtime, but showed improvement from last year, Tjeerdsma said. Running back Jeff Finnell rushed for 111 yards on 20 carries, while the Baptist defense registered seven sacks.
Part of their improvement comes from an improved defensive line, Northwest senior offensive lineman Matt Nelson said.
"They're (Baptist) a bunch of hardworking kids," Nelson said. "There's some good athletes, but they're not stacked on athleticism. But they're all going to work hard, fly to the ball, try to rip the ball out and try to get up field on pass rush.
To see success Saturday, the 'Cats may need to improve their defensive line play. Northwest surrendered 177 yards to Wildcat running back Bernard Scott last weekend and didn't spend much time in the Wildcat backfield after the first quarter.
Abilene Christian's no-huddle offense gave the 'Cats trouble, Tjeerdsma said, but he's confident the defense will improve in time for Baptist who also runs an up tempo offense.
Safety Myles Burnsides hopes the defense can make the adjustments necessary to compete with teams like Abilene Christian. He saw a move toward press coverage, a tactic the 'Cats used more as the game went on, as a step in the right direction.
"We have depth at the corner position," Burnsides said. "We have a lot of corners that can come in and play with anybody. It was evident in that at the end of the game when we were kind of struggling to try to get back in the game and make some plays, we switched to some man coverage, and I think we did pretty well."
The game against the purple Bearcats begins at 6 p.m. Saturday at Bearcat Stadium, and though people will expect Northwest to repeat their performance from last year, it may come down to focus during the game and in the week leading up to it.
"We knew Abilene was a great team, and we should have come out more focused," Nelson said. "I felt like we were focused in the first quarter, but I think we kind of lost that, got a little lack luster and didn't keep going after them. We definitely need to stay more focused during practice and during the game."
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