WARDSVILLE, Mo. - The game plan for the Blair Oaks Falcons this week against the Eldon Mustangs is simple - first things first.
As in, being good on defense on first down.
"It's first down that you've got to be able to win," Blair Oaks coach Brad Drehle said. "(Eldon has) done a great job in their first two games of having a ridiculously high percentage of times where they've gotten 4 four yards or more on first down. If you're able to do that, you're able to control the chains, you control the tempo, you control the clock, you control everything."
If this year wasn't evidence enough, there's plenty of precedents in recent memory.
"We went back and looked at the last few years, and they've done a good job of coming in and establishing their game plan," Drehle said. "Last year they ran 19 plays in their first drive. The year before, they ran 12. The year before that, 12.
"They've done a great job of game-planning us and we've worked to make adjustments in the game to handle some of that. We've just got to start better."
The good news for the Falcons is they were able to win all three of those games, and by big margins. Still, the Mustangs' Wing T attack features two backs that should test Blair Oaks in Levi Shinn and Shane Randall.
Blair Oaks comes in to the game at Eldon with a 2-0 record, while the Mustangs are 1-1 after beating Madison Prep, a first-year varsity program, by a 42-8 score to start the season. Eldon then lost 55-33 to Hogan Prep last week.
"Shinn and Randall alone combined for 42 carries against Hogan Prep - even in a loss, if you rush the ball 50 times, that's a bunch."
The Mustangs have been to the Class 3 quarterfinals each of last two years and have been state-ranked both seasons. And while the offense has been impressive for the Mustangs, you don't make playoff runs like that without a pretty good defense, too.
"They've got a couple really nice players," Drehle said of the Eldon defense, which will operate out of a 3-4 base set. "... It will be a challenge, because they will come at us differently than what we've seen the first two weeks. The big thing is just winning the line of scrimmage. They've got some big kids."
Attacking that defense will be a Blair Oaks offense that switched quarterbacks last week, with Mikel Drehle starting in front of Jordan Hair. While that is still a developing situation, Brad Drehle said one other area stood out when examining last week's win against Owensville.
"The biggest thing that you take away from the game film was the step forward our offensive line took," he said. "I feel like they played extremely well.
"... In the first two ballgames, we've done nothing but run option. It's been inside veer, outside veer and belly option, or speed option, whatever you want to call it. That's just three plays, and we need to expand that. Part of the reason we haven't is getting our offensive line up to speed. They took a huge step forward last week, so that it allows us to expand things behind them.
"Like I told the kids the other day, the season's not about one game or one play. It's a journey, and we've just gotten started."
Making any adjustments a little different from past years is the compressed preseason schedule this year.
"We're really at Week 2 right now," Drehle said. "We're in a completely different place than normal. So we haven't had an opportunity to see all of the things we need to see. Then you had the extreme heat in the first game, so I think you'd have a lot of coaches tell you the same thing - it just came on us so fast and is different.
"I think over the next couple weeks, people are going to begin to see where they're at and what they're capable of. I hope we take a big step forward, I believe that we will."
The change at quarterback was an attempt to jump-start the running game, and that seemed to work last week. But the end goal is to have both running or passing be legitimate options on every play.
"The glaring thing (from last week) is just being able to throw the ball more consistently, and some of that is just repetitions," Drehle said. "Finding a way to use both Mikel and Jordan is a goal of ours going forward, trying to mix those two talents.
"We realized at the end of the last year, in order for veer to go, you have to have all three of those pieces (in the backfield). Jordan does some tremendous things, but that (running) piece, Haydn Lock was better at it. And Jordan was the much better passer. Right now, we're kind of in the same place with Mikel and Jordan. It's just finding a way to blend those two kids together so we can find a way to compete."
That could require some flexibility.
"It's finding the best way to get the football to the guys who are making plays," Drehle said. "You have to be creative in order to do that, so sometimes we have to adjust our game plan. We feel like our system is such that we can do that."
And the Falcons may have time to figure things out if the defense plays the way it has so far this season, allowing just three points in two games. The Blair Oaks starting defense didn't allow a first down last week and held Owensville to minus-24 yards in 12 series.
"We're in a different place where our defense has got a little bit of attitude and swagger about them, and I think they can carry us," Drehle said. "Some years we've tried to go, go, go, go, go, go (on offense) and force people into a place where it's been a conditioning thing. I think that put our defense in maybe not the best situations, and maybe it's time for us to rethink that a little bit. It's about playing to the strength of our kids."
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