The Montana State University-Northern football team is back in Havre after a heartbreaking (21-20) loss suffered this past Saturday night on the road to Arizona Christian. The Firestorm were able to score on a last-second passing touchdown that resulted in the Lights dropping to (1-2) on the season.
Head coach Jerome Souers was candid when speaking with New Media Broadcasters about reliving that defeat on the field that night.
“We went toe-to-toe with those guys and played them tough for about three and a half quarters and made some good plays and got us on our heels,” Souers said. “Ultimately, it came down to their quarterback (and how he) broke down our secondary when he attacked the line of scrimmage and then through the ball to the guy that was left.”
“At that point, it was tough to watch, tough to go down that lane with all that preparation and have it go that way,” Souers continued. “But that’s the name of the game. When you’re on the road, you have to learn to be great in the fourth quarter and can’t make the mistakes that we did.”
The moments at the end of the Arizona Christian game shifted how the bye week is going to go now for the Lights. Souers detailed the mentality of preparing for the week and how that will affect his team moving forward.
“To have a win last Saturday would have put us in the bye week with a different mentality, but maybe not with the sense of urgency that we have now to correct things,” Souers said. “We need to continue to improve, so we’re going to try to use the events that happened Saturday to teach us specifically what we’re doing well and what we need to improve on and that goes for all aspects of our team.”
Souers’ game his team a message as they keep going with their preparation for the next game on September 30th.
“It’s to stay the course,” Souers said. “Now that you’re seeing improvement, you’ve got to practice better in order to play better.”
“You have to give game-like effort during the week, not just on Saturday,” Souers continued. “Put in a lot of energy and a lot of repetition to improve and get good at what we’re trying to do.”
When asked what the team will be working on the most during the bye week, Coach Souers once again touched on the offense, which despite scoring the most points in a football game in almost two full seasons, still has a lot to work on.
“We just have a lot of new players on offense; getting an offensive line to work in constant with each other,” Souers said. “The quarterback rapport with the receivers improves in time and those are the things that we need to continue to do.”
Looking at the team from the ground floor up, Coach Souers wants his players to know that they are still on the right track when it comes to execution and not letting the moment get away from them.
“For us, it’s maintain our responsibility and making plays within the confidence of that responsibility and don’t go on your own program,” Souers said. “That happens too often in this game.”
MSU-Northern plays at home against Carroll College on Saturday, September 30th with a 1pm kickoff scheduled at Tilleman Field.
