Wins are a wonderful thing no matter how aesthetically pleasing the performance. But there was far more that gives cause for concern emanating from Saturday’s overtime win over the Idaho Vandals than offering signs of hope. Maybe the most alarming observation is that five games into the season there seem to be elements of the team that are regressing rather improving.

First, Idaho is not a very good football team. With several difficult league opponents on the horizon and more importantly, several winnable games upcoming the Cavaliers have too little margin of error (as JHoo pointed out last week) to fail to finish drives, turn the ball over three times and make habitual kicking game mistakes.

As we head into the off week and take stock of the club’s status, we find the production and performance from the running backs and defensive line remains constant while the punting game is up and down. There has been noticeable improvement in wide receiver, defensive back, linebacker and kickoff return play of late but I’m not ready to call these outfits ‘improving’ just yet – I want to see them against the Yellow Jackets and Wolfpack. There has been a slight improvement in receiver and kick coverage play, but consider the recent opposition. For the quarterbacks, offensive line and punt returns, there has been a steady decline.

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