Bears look to break into win column against #9 Holmes

After a tough season debut, the Bears will try again to get into the win column when they host the 9^th-ranked Holmes Bulldogs Thursday night.

The Bears come into the game following a 35-20 loss to Coahoma while the Bulldogs were victorious over East Central, 49-14.

Despite the loss in week one, head coach Tucker Peavey said the Bears remain upbeat. "Their attitude's been great," he said. "We had a great practice Monday. They've bought into 'we've still got to go to work, we've got to get better and get ready for the next week.' All of that's been positive."

Peavey said the Bulldogs are "a very good football team. (They) have a lot of experience (and) return a lot of starters. They're certainly a very effective run team of offense and defensively they're very physical. They're not going to sit back and wait on you, they're going to come and get you. So, we'll have to be able to execute and be ready for things to happen at a fast pace."

Peavey's keys to a Bears' win? "Obviously, we don't need to turn the ball over. Their offense is one that's going to use up a lot of clock and whenever we get the ball on offense we've got to get (it) into the red zone and come away with points. Don't turn the ball over and don't give up the big play on defense and you'll have a chance to be in the game."

Defensively, the Bulldogs surrendered 353 total yards to East Central with 201 coming on the ground and 152 via the pass. What will the Bears do to meet or exceed those numbers?

"I think we've just got to stay within our game plan," said offensive coordinator Cam Achord. "We're not going to try to do anything different than what we do. We're just going to go out and execute and that's the biggest things. (We'll take) the plays that they give us (and) not try to go too much. But, if they give us an opportunity, we've just got to be able to execute on the offensive side and I think we'll be able to move the ball at that point."

"That's the biggest thing," Achord concluded. "Doing what we have to do on our side and handle our business and then we'll be able to move the football and hopefully put some points on the board."

Defensively, the Bears will have to focus mainly on stopping the Bulldogs' rushing game. Of their 494 offensive yards against East Central, 457 came on the ground.

"They'll run the football probably more than anybody in this league," said Bears' defensive coordinator Kelby Bowman, "because of what they do on offense. They'll almost always have three running backs on the field at one time. They're a triple option team so this week our preparation, our focus is really just to stop the run."

"They can throw the ball, they do have some good pass concepts," Bowman continued, so we'll have to prepare for that as well, but the biggest portion of our focus this week is the run."

Kickoff Thursday night at John I. Hurst Stadium is set for 7:00. The game can be heard on WAKH 105.7FM (k106), k106.net and southwestbearathletics.com.

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Bears look to break into win column against #9 Holmes