It's not today's opponent that is the concern of Lincoln football coach Steven Smith.
At this point, he's more focused on getting his team back on track as the Blue Tigers head to Liberty to face the William Jewell Cardinals for a Great Lakes Valley Conference showdown. Kickoff is at noon at Greene Stadium.
"We've got to stop hurting ourselves," Smith said. "We are so close, and I'm tired of (losing by) 1 point, I'm tired of losing by 7 points. I just want to go in and play a complete game and focus on us."
Lincoln (2-5, 1-3 GLVC) is coming off a 20-13 defeat last Saturday at Truman State. The Bulldogs scored the first 20 points of the game, while the Blue Tigers followed with two late touchdowns to make it a one-possession score in the final margin.
"We didn't execute offensively in the first half and the third quarter," Smith said. "We put ourselves behind the eight ball. We didn't turn the ball over, which is good, but we still didn't execute like we needed to in the first half."
Given one more quarter, or even one more possession, Smith thinks his team could've tied the game. But the final touchdown came with :05 left in the game.
"I definitely believe that," Smith said. "If we had a little more time, we could've (won), but they don't give you more than 60 minutes."
William Jewell (1-5, 1-3 GLVC) lost 59-21 last Saturday at Missouri S&T. The Cardinals fell behind 38-0 in the first half, punting on each of their first seven possessions. Six of those were three-and-outs.
William Jewell's offense is led by sophomore quarterback Will Schneider. For the second straight week, the Blue Tigers will be going against a dual-threat quarterback, as Schneider easily leads the Cardinals in rushing with 293 yards and five touchdowns.
"When you have a dual-threat quarterback, you have to stop them from running," Smith said. "That's the biggest thing for us. We've got to make sure that we handle our part of it and make sure we shut the run down, make sure we shut the pass down and be good at what we do."
Schneider has completed 95-of-197 passes for 1,093 yards with five touchdowns and two interceptions in William Jewell's spread offense.
The Cardinals are averaging 99.5 yards rushing and 183.3 yards passing per game. Senior Bulla Graft has split time between running back and wide receiver. He leads the team with 194 yards receiving and two touchdowns while adding 105 yards rushing.
Junior wide receiver Keelon Vann had three catches for 68 yards and a touchdown against Missouri S&T.
"We've got to contain the quarterback so they don't have that threat," Smith said. "We have to take that threat away from them and make them throw the ball.
"I think our (defensive backs) are playing very well right now. We want them to throw the ball."
In five of their seven games, the Blue Tigers have held their opponents to 20 points or less, yet are only 2-3 on those occasions. Lincoln's scoring defense ranks 66th in NCAA Division II, allowing an average of 23.4 points per game.
Smith said Lincoln cannot allow 351 yards rushing like it did last week against Truman State.
"We stopped their quarterback in the second half, but then we gave it up to the running back in the second half," he said. "In the first half, the quarterback was getting to us. We just have to put it all together."
Meanwhile, William Jewell is allowing 37 points per game, which ranks 139th in Division II. Only once have the Cardinals held an opponent to less than 20 points. That came in their only win Oct. 6, when they beat Southwest Baptist 14-10.
William Jewell utilizes a base 3-4 defense, but Smith said the Cardinals will occasionally put four players on the line.
"They're a 'no quit' defense," he said. "We just have to make sure we execute offensively and don't give them a chance to get stops."
Junior linebacker Brock Geisz leads the Cardinals with team-highs of 47 tackles and 3 tackles for loss. Senior defensive back Thaddeus Glenn had 43 tackles and junior defensive back Donte' Colum has a team-high three interceptions.
Lincoln's running game took a step back last weekend. After averaging 149.3 rushing yards per game in the previous four weeks, the Blue Tigers finished with 12 net yards rushing against the Bulldogs.
"This week, we're going to play some smash-mouth football with this team," Smith said. "We're going to get our running game back on track, which will open up the passing game even more. We're going to try and put ourselves in the best possible situation to win this game."
Senior wide receiver Blake Tibbs had four catches for a season-high 158 yards against Truman State, including a 77-yard touchdown - his first of the season - that got Lincoln on the scoreboard. He added two more catches of 41 and 35 yards on the Blue Tigers' second scoring drive.
"We made some big explosion plays, but I thought we should have made them earlier in the game," Smith said. "But they did double up on Blake, so when Blake's getting doubled, other guys have to step up."
It has been a slow process, but Smith is noticing an improvement compared to this point last season.
"We're not turning the ball over as much, we're not giving up a whole bunch of plays on defense," he said. "It's just the little things that we've continue to do to get better."
III
William Jewell leads the overall series 4-0 against Lincoln. Three of those games have been decided by 10 points or less, including last year's 13-3 win by the Cardinals at Dwight T. Reed Stadium. After last week's performance, Tibbs is second in the GLVC with 81.4 yards receiving per game. The last time the Blue Tigers won a conference road game was in 1975 against Central Missouri. Lincoln running back Hosea Franklin will miss his fourth straight game today. Smith said he is currently rehabbing his knee following surgery. "He is doing everything he needs to do right now," Smith said.