One game does not make a season. That's why writing off a team after watching them play once is unfair. But watching Alcovy play against Eastside Friday, I saw some disturbing trends that lead me to believe it could be another long year if the Tigers don't make some changes beginning Friday.

The offense was again too predictable. Alcovy lines up and runs the ball straight ahead or around the edge. There was no passing game whatsoever and you simply can't be one-dimensional against good teams. You especially can't let a team with a defensive front like Eastside pin its ears back and play run exclusively. The Tigers will face other great defenses this year starting with Friday's game against Harris County.

Alcovy did take some shots downfield early in the game to at least keep the Eagles honest for a half. But in the second half, Alcovy had all but abandoned the pass in favor of handing off to Devon Edwards and a host of other backs. The one guy who didn't see action after the first quarter was Tre Sorrells and that certainly didn't help the cause. Still, even with Sorrells, the Tigers need to integrate a passing game.

There were some bright spots for Alcovy to build on. Edwards ran pretty well and did break a 91-yard kickoff return for a score. The kid has wheels and is tough and after missing the entire 2010 season, will be a major factor going forward.

Defensively Alcovy played hard and didn't get run over. You'd expect that out of a Kirk Hoffman coached team. His kids will play hard. Defense alone won't win ball games though. At some point the Tigers will have to develop a balanced offense.

Of course, you can only do what your talent will allow. The passing game in general is almost a forgotten part of football anymore in high school. At least that seems to be the case in Georgia. Not many teams have a quarterback who stands in the pocket and throws 25-30 times a game for 300 yards. It seems more and more like quarterbacks are just another running back who throws the ball occasionally. Personally, I don't get that. When I was in high school, we threw the ball all over the lot and our quarterback regularly surpassed 250 yards in a game. Again though, maybe I've been out of the loop too long or maybe the game has simply evolved.

The other thing to consider is the quarterback position itself. For whatever reason, kids don't seem to want to play it. That too is perplexing to me. Everyone always wanted to play quarterback when I was growing up. We all wanted the ball in our hands so we could chuck it around. If we didn't play quarterback, we wanted to play receiver.

I have to constantly remind myself this generation of high school athletes is different. Where we would come home from school and get a game of pickup football going in the street, kids these days would rather hone their skills at Madden on their Xboxes. Perhaps that's why high school football has changed. Kids simply don't have the same skills we had.

I've been saying this for the past couple of seasons so it's not like I'm breaking new ground here. And it's important to point out the Tigers were without starting quarterback Cornell White so maybe the gameplan will change with him back under center. I know Alcovy wants to win games. And like I said, it's just one game and we haven't see the Tigers with White at quarterback yet.

Hoffman is high on White's ability to throw the ball and said he has improved immensely after a solid offseason. So I may be singing a different tune come next week. I'm not writing the Tigers off by any means. But I got a bout of déjà vu watching their opener.

I'd like to see something different for a change.