Cardinals Offense Struggles On The Road

The Soda Springs Cardinals took on the Ririe Bulldogs on the road last week.  For the second week in a row Soda Springs faced an opponent that is trending upward in their respective districts.  The Bulldogs have a big physical line that they are built around.  The majority of plays coming from the Ririe offense were designed to attack the middle of the defense where they looked to just overpower the smaller defensive line of the Cardinals.  Despite being outmatched on the line the Cardinals defense did very well hanging in the trenches for much of the game.  Often in football you can bend but if you don’t break you will find some success.  Unfortunately for the Soda Springs defense they did break but only on a handful of plays.  The majority of the scoring for Ririe came off of long runs that slipped past the defense.  It can be a frustrating thing to watch as your defense holds the other team to minimal gains for several plays to only watch them slip up on one play that costs you a score.  Despite giving up those few big plays I felt like the defense showed some real potential and I think they will improve as the season moves forward.

A bigger problem for the Cardinals right now is an offense that seems to always be on its heels.  Unfortunately, I don’t think there is any one particular aspect of the offense that is causing more of an issue than another.  In Friday night’s game the offense only held the ball for five plays in each of the first two quarters and ended the first half with negative yards.  The third quarter was much the same with the time of possession heavily in favor of the Bulldogs.  Only when Ririe had pulled most of its starters in the fourth were the Cardinals able to move the ball.  When it looked like Soda Springs may be on their way to their first score of the season the drive ended with an unfortuitous turnover off of a bad snap.  The game ended with the Cardinals once again being shut out.

Soda Springs will have time to work on bolstering their offense this week as they have a much needed early season bye.  Next week they will be on the road once again this time to face the Firth Cougars.  Firth is a team that has also suffered big losses in its first two games giving Cardinals fans hope that maybe that can be a game that will turn the season around for them.