Off to an 0-2 start, Alcovy (Region 2-AAAAAA) and its coaches are keeping it simple with the team, as they look to get better just two weeks before region play begins.

In its first two games, Alcovy has managed only one touchdown. The poor production has been accompanied by slow starts along with a number of simple mistakes such as dropped balls.

“We’ve started off slow, the simple reason, we’ve made a lot of mental mistakes,” Tigers head coach Kirk Hoffman said. “It’s almost like we’re thinking too much now. All week we’ve talked to our kids about just reacting. You know what you’re doing, so believe in what you’re doing and follow the play.”

“The big thing is, it’s just the number of reps. When you’re fairly young like we are, the reps are important. The more you do it, it just becomes natural to you,” Hoffman said. “That’s why the stuff we’re doing, we’re not trying to make things complicated. We’re not ready to be a very complicated football team. We’ve gotta be real simple and get the little things done right and build off that.”

As far as execution goes, Hoffman believes his team has mostly been able to execute well, except for a couple of players. If the team can get all 11 players to be on the same page, Hoffman believes they will find success.

“Looking on film the last two games for us, we talked about this Sunday, out of 11 players on the football field what we’re doing is we’re getting eight or nine doing the right thing and two not. We’ve gotta get 11 doing the same thing,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman says that the team has grown from the first to second game, although their production doesn’t seem like it.

“There were a few holes we just didn’t hit right with the back and the dropped balls. I think we had six dropped balls, which would’ve really changed the complexion of that. Those are things that we’ve gotta get better at,” Hoffman said.

Coming in, Pebblebrook (1-1) has allowed only 20 points in its two games and scored 27 points in that same timespan.

“When we’re on offense, we talked to our kids and said, ‘Look, they’ve got a lot of seniors on defense and they play sound football.’ Which means, we’ve gotta counter with being sound. Not try to do things that we can’t do,” Hoffman said. “We just need to be sound and just get after them a little bit. All week we talked about, we’ve gotta keep getting better at doing the things before we can advance offensively what we’re trying to do.”

“Defensively, it’s real simple. All 11 on the same page, doing the same thing at the same time. You gotta give Baldwin credit, they knew we were a kind of small upfront. They came out with those six big lineman and said, ‘Here we come right at you,’” Hoffman said. “We found an answer to that. Again, you go back and we’re seeing eight or nine doing it and then two or three not doing their assignment. It seems like every time that happens we (gave) up a big play. To be a good football team you can’t give up big plays.”

Hoffman says that the team had a good week of practice and that things are looking better.

“I thought the kids this week have bounced back,” Hoffman said. “I’ve been real pleased with their effort. We’re getting better and hopefully we can continue to get better and make some strides. Hopefully, by the time we get into region play we’re getting 11 kids on the same chapter.”