Bears to host Tigers of Northeast Mississippi

Looking to bounce back from two straight losses, the Bears make their second straight home appearance Thursday night as they host the Tigers of Northeast Mississippi.

The Bears enter the contest at 1-2 after a 27-0 home loss to Hinds. The Tigers come in at 2-1 after a 54-10 defeat at East Mississippi.

Despite the struggles his offense has had the past two weeks, Bears head coach Tucker Peavey does not foresee going back to the drawing board. "No, we're not going to start over," he said. "What we've got to do is zero in on the things that the players are comfortable doing" in order to give them the best chance to succeed.

The Tigers come to Summit averaging 212 yards through the air and 162 on the ground. What will it take for the Bears to move the ball on them? "I think we're going to have to throw and catch the ball," Peavey said. "I think that's the big key to keeping the defense backed off us so that it opens up the running game and vice versa; you have to be able to run the football."

In order for the Bears to come out on top Thursday night, Peavey said "We're going to have to play good defense. To me, that's always a key to winning. Offensively, again, we've got to get points on the board. Forget about the actual score and just do the things, one play at a time, that it takes to move the ball down the field. And, the biggest thing is to eliminate unforced errors. It's not that we're not seeing things that we can't do, because we do them in practice. We've just got to make sure we're doing them when game time comes."

Although the Bears have seen 61 points put on the board by their opponents the past two weeks, defensive coordinator Kelby Bowman does not expect any changes with his unit this week.

"Sometimes the score doesn't necessarily reflect your success on defense. It could be special teams or it could be an offensive turnover or it could be defensive scores. I'm going to focus on the next opponent and continue to focus on our approach for the game and our preparation."

Bowman said the Tigers "have done a lot in the past three games offensively." They come in picking up 216.7 yards via the pass and 129 yards rushing the ball. Freshman quarterback Mason Cunningham (6' 2", 185) has completed 59 of 101 passes for 629 yards with four touchdowns and three interceptions while freshman running back Dorian Banks (5' 10", 175) has carried the ball 55 times for 208 yards.

"I think they're a well-coached group of guys so our preparation's going to be the same. I would expect them to be who they are. They're a 50-50 run-pass team. They'll establish a run if they can and they'll take what you give them on defense as far as the pass, so we'll just have to make sure we prepare for all things run and pass."

What will it take to hold the Tigers' offense in check? "Just like any football team, whether it's peewee football or NFL, it's going to take being fundamentally sound on defense and making sure every player does his job," Bowman said. "I don't think there's a special recipe that we have to go and use. I just think the players have to do what they're coached to do and the coaches have to do our part in preparing them the correct way and at the end of the day you live with the results of that."

The game is set for a 7:00 kickoff at John I. Hurst Stadium. It can be heard on the radio on WAKH 105.7FM (k106), on the internet at southwestbearathletics.com and k106.net and on smartphones (download the k106 app).

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Bears to host Tigers of Northeast Mississippi