Appalachian State has won three straight games despite some flaws, but has had problems in at least one phase in all five games. That leaves the Mountaineers still in search of a coveted complete game.
"We're working toward it," said Coach Jerry Moore, whose team will play at Wofford on Saturday. "I don't think we're close, to be real honest.
"There's good and bad to that. One of the things you've got to do to have a good football team is get better each week. We're trying to do that, we're striving to do that. But we certainly haven't done that yet."
At East Carolina, Appalachian had a horrendous first half. Against McNeese State, the defense was porous and the special teams shaky. Against Samford, the typically high-powered offense scored just two touchdowns. At The Citadel, Appalachian barely escaped with a win. The Mountaineers finally had a blowout win Saturday against overmatched N.C. Central but had to overcome two first-half turnovers and 10 penalties.
"We haven't had a game where we've dominated for four quarters, a game where we've put together the whole package -- offense, defense and special teams," offensive tackle Mario Acitelli said.
Quarterback Armanti Edwards said: "We need to do that from now on, for the rest of the season. I feel like we've had enough games that we haven't played the best in, even though we've come out with some wins. I don't think that will last the whole season. We are anxious to get to the game to where we finally play our best."
Appalachian had 16 starters back from the team that won a fourth straight Southern Conference title last season, but losses to East Carolina and McNeese in the first two games dropped the Mountaineers in the national polls. And SoCon rival Elon jumped ahead of Appalachian in the rankings.
"We know we are better than we've shown," safety Mark LeGree said. "We have played a couple of good games, but we still haven't played great."
Moore said: "I think we're close. I think we've got a chance to be a pretty good football team. We're a ways from it right now, and probably if you look back in years past, except for maybe 2006 when things just seemed to flow, we've struggled a little bit about this time of the year trying to get all the right guys on the bus, so to speak."
At times, the problem has been offense. At times, defense. The Mountaineers converted just 3 of 11 third-down tries against Samford and allowed 522 yards against McNeese.
"I know last Saturday, we had too many penalties on offense," Acitelli said. "That's something we've got to correct. We'd be in the red zone and have an offside or a hold, and those kill drives. And we had drives against The Citadel stall because of mistakes, and we had to settle for field goals instead of touchdowns."
Players said that knowing they can win three straight despite some flaws offers a definitive upside if and when mistakes are minimized.
"In a sense, it's nice to know that, in some games, we've been able to win despite not playing up to our full potential," Acitelli said. "But, that being said, we need to get to the point where we are being more consistent and playing well in all phases all the time."
tbowman@wsjournal.com.
727-7320
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement