Sometimes in order to take a step forward, one must first take a step back. In preparation for the 2020 football season, El Dorado’s coaches reviewed the things that went wrong in a 4-7 2019 campaign.
Coach Steven Jones unveiled a list of items the staff focused on during the off-season.
“On the field, special teams we were not very good,” he said. “We’ve really put an emphasis on that in fall camp. And then, one of our Achilles heels last year defensively, was stopping the run. We weren’t very good at stopping the run last year. We look like a team that’s eager to prove that we can stop the run, especially how they played defensively against North Little Rock. I think there’s a chip on the shoulder of the defense. They’re playing with confidence. They’re flying around and making plays. Over there, I feel like we’ve improved as far as our mentality goes.
“Special teams, the kids understand the importance. We were up by 10 against Benton last year, a team that played in the state championship game, and we get a punt blocked. Little stuff like that just killed our momentum.”
Three blocked punts led directly to losses to, not only Benton, but at Sheridan the previous week.
Some of the Wildcats’ other miscues weren’t so glaring. El Dorado was only minus-2 in the turnover margin for the season. But the Cats’ turnovers stopped key drives in close games. El Dorado also averaged 83.1 yards in penalties per game. The offense gave up 45 yards each game in penalties, averaging just over five flags per game.
“Offensively, a lot of the things last year were pre-snap mess ups, or we snap the ball low, or we’d drop a snap. Little bitty things that have been fixed. We just look like we know what we’re doing a little better,” said Jones.
“Pre-snap and post-snap penalties are something that killed us last year. We need to make sure those things don’t happen. That really comes with playing as a team and holding one another accountable, making sure we don’t do something stupid after the play or on the sideline. We are focused in on what we’re doing. Our discipline has improved a ton. Our kids come in and work. They lock in and they understand what we need to do for that day to get better.”
As with every coach, Jones talked about winning the turnover battle. The Wildcats had 24 turnovers on the season, just over two per game. That’s not terrible but when the margin of error in small, giving the ball away twice a game doesn’t help a team’s chances.
“You look back at most of the games we were in, there was a key turnover that really gave the other team a better chance to win,” said Jones. “We have to take better care of the football offensively. Defensively, we want to get as many turnovers as we can.”
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September 02, 2020 at 06:57AM
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Wildcats hope to correct mistakes from a year ago - El Dorado News-Times
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