The Selma Times-Journal

Not a team in the world would leave a 45-6 win on the table.

But the score of Meadowview’s game against Kingwood last Friday is a bit misleading.

The Trojans (2-0, 1-0 Region) put up an outstanding game skill-wise, a performance coach Rick Jackson said is likely the best he’s ever seen from his team.

But skill doesn’t win every ball game.

“We’ve still got areas we need to improve in,” Jackson said. “I’m disappointed we weren’t able to run the football like we wanted to. We’ve got to be able to run the football, and we didn’t do that very well last week. I use the word disappointed because we expect more. It’s in there. We’re 2-0, so I can’t say I’m unhappy about a lot of things.

“Up front we’re just not getting the job done consistently. We’ll make a play or two, and then we don’t for a while. It’s not just the line, it’s the wide receivers and running backs, as well.”

Jackson almost sounds like Nick Saban, who chided his Alabama team for not being aggressive enough up front in their blowout win over Western Carolina Saturday.

Both coaches were justified in their assessments of their teams because the best competition is yet to come.

For Meadowview, the next game is against Springwood (1-1, 1-0 Region), a team that beat Evangel 24-0 last week.

The Wildcats beat Meadowview by three touchdowns last season and return 16 starters. Jackson they will be as good, if not a better team.

The Trojans’ big worry is being blindsided by a group that probably hasn’t shown all its cards yet.

“They shut out Evangel on a sloppy field after a thunderstorm,” Jackson said. “I don’t know if the things we saw on tape are the things they’re going to do. They like to spread the field but, but we saw them play smash mouth football. They won the football game by running the ball downhill. This is going to be an awfully big challenge for our football team, especially at this point in the season.”

Not many people worried about whether Meadowview could score points coming into the season. The major question was how well the defense could hold opponents.

So far, so good. The Trojans stood pat last week with a Kingwood offense that can be both physical and vertically explosive.

With eight games left in the season, this is no time for the Trojans to pat themselves on the back for a job well done.

Potential and playoffs start with the same letter, but they are by no means synonymous.

“The biggest job we have this week is staying focused on the next game,” Jackson said. “We have two big wins, but we can’t expect to sit back. Springwood is also 1-0 in the region, and they’re a good team so they’re going to be laying up for us.”