Turnovers on offense and stopping the big play on defense. The theme behind McAdams’ 20-0 season-opening football loss at J.Z. George was as simple as those two things.
“If we don’t give up the big plays we would still be playing now and it would still be zero to zero,” said McAdams head coach Kenneth Nelson.
The veteran coach said it is no secret as to what his team has to do when the Bulldogs play host to West Lowndes on Friday night at 7.
“That main thing is just taking care of the football,” he said. “We have to make sure we secure catches and handoffs. We just need to focus on the little things, fundamental type of stuff.”
He said the defense played well overall, but had a hard time getting the J.Z. George offense off the field at times.
“Defensively we just want to stop teams on third down, especially third and long situations and make sure we don’t give up the big play,” Nelson said.
Nelson said the improvement between his team’s jamboree and the season opener was obvious, but that his team needed to keep improving.
“We only had 32 offensive plays,” he said of the game against JZG. “We have to sustain drives and can’t turn over the football.”
Jalen Perteet rushed for 45 yards on five carries, while LiKrarius Ward had six carries for 35 yards. Johntavis Rimmer hit on 3-of-8 passes for 31 yards, with Tavion Rimmer having the long catch of 19 yards.
Defensively Tyderrius Williams led the way with eight tackles, while Tavion Rimmer, Lewis Latiker and Mekyle Riley had five each,
Deriuan Townsend scored touchdowns on runs of 54 and 19 yards for the Jaguars, while rushing for 181 yards on 21 carries. Jacob Johnson had 105 rushing yards, including a 33-yard scoring run, on nine attempts for JZG.
J.Z. George led 14-0 at the half, then added a touchdown in the third quarter. The game was called with 10 minutes left to play due to heavy rain and lightning.
West Lowndes comes into Friday night’s game at 1-0, fresh off a 34-6 win over Ethel.
