After the Tigers' win in their season opener against the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Fightin' Engineers Saturday evening, the coaching staff and players will have to wait an extra week to return to the gridiron.
Next weekend, the Tigers will face Allegheny College. In the meantime, the team is using its extra time to tighten up aspects of the 23-13 win.
"There are always things you can improve on once you've watched the tape," said head coach Robby Long on WGRE's Tiger Talk. "Any time you can teach off of a win, you're doing good things as a football program."
One of the key points of focus on the defensive end will be fixing the mental mistakes made in the second half of Saturday's game. After holding the Rose-Hulman offense to just 80 yards in the first half, the Fightin' Engineers unleashed an aerial assault that confused the DePauw defense at times.
"Part of building this team is going to be building their mental toughness," said defensive coordinator Scott Srnka on Tiger Talk. "When we get tired, I think our guys need to focus harder on their task. We gave up some plays because we had missed tackles, and we let guys beat us on a double move."
But there were high points on defense with the constant focus on all-region running back Kyle Kovach of the Fightin' Engineers. Kovach, who averaged 105.7 yards per game last season, gained just 35 yards on 17 carries.
"That was a point of emphasis all week," Srnka said of Kovach. "Not only did we know he was a great running back, but also, we knew he was a great pass receiver. We had to stop the run to get him in long situations at third down so we can pick and choose what we want to do."
Fixing those mental mistakes will be key when the Tigers face future NCAC opponent Allegheny College. Against better competition, opponents' offenses will convert mistakes into easy touchdowns.
"In the first half, we were playing together and were sticking with our assignments to shut them down and get them to three and out," said junior defensive back Robby Schuler on Tiger Talk. "It's just assignment problems in the second half which we have to work on."
One major blown assignment occurred in the third quarter when Rose-Hulman quarterback Mitch Snyder threw up a long pass down the middle of the field to wide receiver Dominic Sena for 55 yards. It is instances such as these that Long and Srnka both refer to as not playing "technique defense."
But, as the defense accomplished one of their top goals in stopping Kovach, the offense accomplished on its own by battling through adversity with new faces in key positions.
"This offense, our defense and special teams unit, having so many new faces out there, there was going to be adversity," Long said. "I talked to the team about that later in the week. Things didn't always look pretty, but guys were fighting together and working together trying to get it done."
After the first two offensive series saw the Tigers trotting off the field after just three plays on each occasion, the offense was bailed out by DePauw's tough defense and excellent special teams play. With first year starter senior Ethan Schweir at the helm and the offensive line failing to provide running backs senior Jon Ellis and sophomore Armani Cato big enough holes to run through, the offense was mostly stalled throughout the first half.
"There were a lot of times we didn't pop big runs because the wide receivers weren't doing what they were supposed to do," Long said. "It's a team effort, so to improve the running game, it starts at the line of scrimmage."
Both Ellis and Cato rushed for a combined 109 yards on 35 carries. Although they both continually made forward progress on their carries, the small gains of two or three yards could have been six or seven if blocks were provided on the Rose-Hulman defense. On third down, quarterback Ethan Schweir often found himself in passing situations and was able to convert short passes to his wide receivers open near the sidelines.
But in order to improve the running game, according to Long, the entire team must work as a unit with each member playing his particular part.
"We started off shaky and as we went along Ethan got better and our offense got better," Long said.
As the Tigers continue practice this week, the defense will be stressing mental toughness while the offense will be focusing on sticking to assignments and playing more as a unit to open up bigger run opportunities for Ellis and Cato.
"We need to still keep coming into practice with a good attitude," Schuler said. "We're looking forward to getting better every day and getting mentally prepared, that's the biggest thing. As long as we trust each other and our core group and as a defense, we'll start clicking and we'll start playing well."