Early Season Struggles Plus Solutions and Predictions

OXFORD — The beginning of the 2017 season for the Talawanda Football team has not been one to necessarily remember. Two games into this season and the Braves remain scoreless. The team is 0-2 after losing to both Madison and Badin. Why have they been off to such a rough start?

Last season, the Braves graduated 20% of their team after graduating 14 seniors in 2017. With major losses coming at the quarterback, tight end, and even the linebacker positions. Due to these players graduating leaves these spots to be filled with younger, less experienced players sometimes. This years roster is filled with only seven seniors but is loaded with a talented Sophomore class. Most of these up and coming players play on varsity and have never played under the Friday Night Lights and will take some time getting used to it. Eventually their success at the junior varsity level will translate over to the varsity game given some time. Last season, the jv team had only one loss in all of their games which leaves us with hope of future success.

As shown in the first two games of the campaign for the Braves, their has been a lack of offense which has definitely proved to be a problem. This could be due to the fact of once again the young core that Talawanda has and the lack of depth on the offensive line. It seems at times that the line cannot hold position which makes it hard for the quarterback to have enough time to execute what he needs to do. There hasn’t been many passing plays executed so far and this could be simply because of the offensive line breaking down causing the quarterback to be rushed.

The Braves next game is away against Eaton this Friday, Sep. 8 at 7p.m. and the theme is a country out. Make sure to be there to support the team in as many ways as possible!