Bearkats look to learn from their two losses
9/22/2015 8:50:00 AM | Football
There's an axiom in football that says a team makes its biggest improvement of the season between week one and week two of the game schedule.
However, for Sam Houston this fall, the Bearkats had an open date after their 59-45 loss at Texas Tech.
“We didn't have a week two this season,” Sam Houston head coach K. C. Keeler said. The Bearkats' skipper believes the inactivity was a factor in Saturday's 49-46 loss to Lamar.
“We prepared okay. We were really excited to play,” Keeler said. “But, when Lamar bloodied our nose early, we were really surprised. There was some panic on the sideline. We did a poor job of filling gaps on defense. It's as simple as that.”
After a 14-14 first quarter, Lamar ran off 21 unanswered points to lead 35-14 at intermission. Sam Houston fought back to outscore the Cardinals 32-14 in the final half.
“In the second half, we got things squared away. We forced five straight three-and-outs,” Keeler said. “But we had dug ourselves too big a hole. We were really disappointed that we blew a great opportunity.”
Lamar rolled up 551 yards total offense and held off a furious Bearkat rally that saw Sam Houston cut the margin to three points twice.
“Lamar is a very good football team,” Keeler said. “Ray Woodard did a great job coaching We were humbled and maybe, for us to become what we can become, we needed to be humbled.
"We were all feeling good about ourselves after that Texas Tech game. For two weeks we heard about how we should have beaten them. Now the reality is we've dug ourselves a little hole and we need to go play good clean football from this point forward.”
A year and six days ago, on Sept. 13, 2014, eventual NCAA Division II national champion Colorado State-Pueblo handed Sam Houston a 47-21 loss at Bowers Stadium to drop the Bearkats to 1-3 for the year. The Kats bounced back to win 10 of their next 11 games to take the Southland championship and reach the FCS semifinals.
“The theme all last year was that, if we play clean, we're going to win,” Keeler said. “With a 4-1 turnover ratio, we did not play clean at Texas Tech. We did not play clean early in the Lamar game on both sides of the ball. The second half we played a pretty good game, but it wasn't enough.
“This is a great learning opportunity for the team. Each coach and player needs to take a hard look at how they can improve at doing their job. We need to move forward and take things one game at a time. We can cry about it or learn from it.”
Sam Houston returns to action Saturday versus Houston Baptist on “Bearkat Family Weekend” in a 6 p.m. game at Elliott T. Bowers Stadium.
“We had a fantastic crowd at last weekend's game,” Keeler said. “It was a great atmosphere. The fans make a big difference. Their support helped us turn things around last year.”
Tickets for the Houston Baptist game and Sam Houston's four other remaining games at Bowers Stadium plus the 90th “Battle of the Piney Woods” presented by H-E-B at NRG Stadium in Houston are available now online at www.gobearkats.com or at the Sam Houston athletic ticket office on the west side of Bowers Stadium. The ticket office number is (936) 294-1729.
