Eagles Look for First Win of 2010 as They Host Bentley on Thursday Night
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. — Some of the best medicine for any team coming off of a loss is to get right back out on the playing field, and the Carson-Newman football team will be doing just that after Saturday's 24-21 season-opening loss to Winona State.
The 20th-ranked Eagles are set to host Bentley on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Burke-Tarr Stadium, just five days after letting one slip away against the Warriors. C-N head coach Ken Sparks is interested to see how his young team responds.
"I'm glad it is a Thursday game to be honest with you, so we don't have to sit around and boil over (the Winona State loss) too long," Sparks said. "There were so many things that we needed to do better, but it's in the past. We've got to move on. That's what first games are for. We've got to learn from the mistakes."
The mistakes were costly for the Eagles (0-1) on Saturday, as they turned the ball over three times, including twice in the red zone during the first half. Sparks said ball security has to improve greatly for his team to be successful.
"(Saturday's fumbles) were just a matter of holding onto the ball," Sparks noted. "There was only one that happened on the exchange. All the rest of them happened because of the ball carrier not securing the ball."
C-N will look to rebound against a Bentley squad that it defeated 59-18 in 2008. However, the Falcons have since changed coaches and wen 8-2 under head coach Thom Boerman in his first year last season, winning a share of the Northeast 10 Conference title.
Sparks said his squad better be prepared to see anything on both sides of the ball come Thursday, since it will be the Falcons first game this season.
"We haven't seen any film on them. We saw them in 2008, and I don't think that will help us to much in 2010 since they've got a new head coach," Sparks said. "We are working to come up with something."
With Bentley's top two rushers from a year ago gone because of graduation and senior quarterback Bryant Johnson returning to lead the Falcons' offense, C-N better be ready to see the ball in the air quite often on Thursday. Johnson threw for 2,436 yards and 19 touchdowns last season, including three 300-yard performances.
"He threw for almost 3,000 yards last year," Sparks said. "That tells you we better get ready to play and maybe try to knock one or two more (passes) down than we did last week."
The Eagle defense allowed Winona State quarterback Kevin Aber to complete 19-of-39 pass attempts for 229 yards and two touchdowns on Saturday. Sparks pointed out that C-N's front seven must do a better job of applying pressure against the Falcons.
"We've got to play lower and play better technique (on the defensive line)," Sparks offered. "We played high, and when you play high, you play slow. It's a bad combination. It was just a regular first game not playing the way that we needed to play."
Defensively, the Falcons will field a young unit, having lost their leaders in tackles, interceptions and sacks from last season.
C-N leads the all-time series 1-0. Thursday's trip to Burke-Tarr Stadium will be Bentley's first ever. The Eagles will be looking to avoid a 0-2 start in back-to-back seasons for the first time during the Sparks era.
