After a pair of SEMO North Conference losses to Sikeston and Farmington and a loss to the ultra-athletic Ritenour in between, the Mules are spending the fourth straight week searching for four quarters of clean football.
Poplar Bluff (2-3) has largely gotten the strong start coach David Sievers wants recently. The Mules marched on their opening drive against Sikeston, but fumbled at the 1 and never quite recovered and lost 34-0. On homecoming night against Farmington, they forced three first-quarter fumbles for turnovers and led 7-0 heading into the second quarter.
However, the problems on offense felt like a game of whack-a-mole. Sometimes the offensive line wasn't blocking well and the Mules quarterbacks didn't have time to pass. Sometimes the offensive line blocked well but the passes were off. Sometimes the passes were on the money but got dropped. The Knights scored 24 unanswered points.
"We're not as fundamentally sound as we need to be," Poplar Bluff coach David Sievers said. "It's easy to say we didn't block and tackle real well. We tackled well Friday night. We didn't block well on the line, we didn't block well on the edges, we got defensive lineman crossing our face that should be sealed on the backside."
An offensive line coach for decades, Sievers is starting the fixes there.
"We spent a lot of time yesterday, we're going to spend 10-15 minutes today just kind of beating on each other a little bit, just getting better at what lineman are supposed to be able to do," he said, adding they'll be hitting the fundamentals especially hard. "Farmington's nose guard was crossing face and making tackles that he shouldn't have been able to make. That's just on us. We didn't play really well up front. When we did, we couldn't play pitch and catch.
"The most disappointing thing is we have the same kids doing the same things wrong over and over. We're on them, and we practice it, and we think we have it fixed. As coaches, we are definitely not doing something quite right."
The Poplar Bluff offense gained 139 yards against Farmington, 76 of that on its touchdown drive late in the first quarter. The Mules averaged 4.14 yards per rush while Josiah Kilgore and Steven Pierce combined to go 6 for 23 passing.
"We had flashes. We did some good stuff last Friday night, but we just never put it together," Sievers said. "I think we are a better football team than we've shown the past couple weeks."
While that side of the ball was inconsistent, Sievers was happy with the defense, led by Dylan Wells, Cameron Sweeney, and Logan Strauts who all had at least 10 tackles.
"We played hard. Defensively we ran downhill well. I think from an offensive standpoint, we cleaned up some of our route-running issues. We just weren't really successful in getting the ball to them and when we did get the ball to them we couldn't hang on to it," Sievers said. "The defense played well enough for us to win that ball game and I think if we get three scores we win that game."
For those scoreboard watching at home, Cape Central (1-4) and the Mules have had similar outcomes against Farmington and Sikeston. The Tigers lost 38-20 at Farmington and were shutout at home by Sikeston 21-0. It was the first time Cape Central had been shutout since Oct. 10, 2014, against Chaminade.
"Defensively, if we prevent a bunch of big plays I think we'll be OK. Offensively, we just have to find a way to play a clean game," Sievers said. "They're not as athletic as what Ritenour was, but they are along the same lines athletically as what Sikeston was so we are going to have to be ready."
Cape Central quarterback Cameron Cox was 10 for 24 for 76 yards with an interception against Sikeston and ran 15 times for 36 yards to lead the Tigers, who had 173 yards of total offense.
"They are definitely a big play team," Sievers said. "Defensively they want to run downhill and create problems. They want to load up the box. We are going to have to play pitch and catch, and we've had a good week of practice."