Coming off of a thrilling 34-20 win Saturday against Hinds on Homecoming, the Bears will be aiming to make it two in a row Thursday as they make the trip East to Ellisville to face Jones.
"We finally got into the right column that we wanted to get in," Southwest head coach Cliff Collins said. "We have to keep it going, we have to go out and have a good week of practice. We have to go out and play the way we are capable of playing. We have a good football team and I've been saying it all year long. I couldn't be more proud and more happy for our guys, our players. They deserved this and what a way to get it on Homecoming."
Despite coming up short against a ranked Northwest team two weeks ago, the Bears (1-6, 1-3 MACCC South) have performed better on the field since the bye week the week prior. Collins chalks it up to a simple plan.
"I think guys just doing the little things better…getting 100% check in at breakfast. It is the little things, what we are supposed to do," he said. "Just correcting the mental errors, we cut our turnovers in half, we protect the ball on offense. We are still giving up big plays but we are creating takeaways."
The improved play will need to continue this week against a strong Jones team who will be pushing for a turnaround. The Bobcats enter on a three-game losing streak but Collins does not want his team to focus on that, just play the Bear brand of football. Part of the plan is establishing the ground game early.
"We have to be able to run the football," Collins said. "We have to be able to run the football and stop the run. We did both of those things (Saturday). If you look at those two stats, offensively we had one guy rush for over 100 yards and defensively we gave up (only) 20-something yards rushing."
The Bobcats boast a run game led by Gerald Modest who averages 58.7 rushing yards per game and has three touchdowns. At quarterback, they are led by Blake Murphy who has thrown for 979 yards and seven touchdowns. The leading pass catchers thus far have been a pair of sophomores in Harrison Knight (24 rec. 272yds 2 TD) and Marlon Lindsey (25 rec. 269 yds 3 TD).
"Jones is a good football team and they are going to come in fired up," Collins said. "They dropped their last three and we are going to try and make it four in a row."
Southwest counters with a rushing attack that had its best performance of the season against Hinds on Saturday, led by 121 yards and a score from Chris Hunter. Quarterback Quez Goss also had a stellar outing, completing 23-of-36 passes for 238 yards and two touchdowns.
While the offense shined, the defense put up just as good of an effort, especially with generating five takeaways. Danarius Hilliard forced a fumble and Gary Bailey Jr. recorded an interception but Vinay Singh stole the show with three interceptions of his own, one week after moving from the linebacker position to safety.
Both sides of the ball will be looking to carry the momentum over to Thursday. Kickoff between the Bears and the Bobcats is set for 7 p.m. from Sim Cooley Field in Ellisville.
