Tribe falls to Nacogdoches Dragons 31-7
Tribe's mid-season adjustments fail to capture win against the Golden Dragons
LARRY KRANTZ

JACKSONVILLE - The Jacksonville Indians have covered a lot of ground on offense this season, though not in the way they probably anticipated.

Gone last Friday was the no-huddle, hurry-up offense and the playsheet wristbands that went with it.

Gone last Friday was any semblance of a spread offense, and with it, a return under center for quarterback-turned-fullback turned-quarterback Paxton Lindsey.

Of course, gone two Fridays ago were Jacksonville's playoff hopes.

So what remains this season is for the Indians to experiment with what may work next season.

And that would be - and this is going to sound bad but I'll explain - finding a way to win.

After a season like this, which is more common than most fans realize, Jacksonville will have a team full of kids that know they never want to go through this again.

Losing is hard on the spirit. It's embarrassing and it's demoralizing.

I'd say the 1-6 Indians can check all three of those adjectives off of their 2007 season checklist.

The offense has moved in spurts and fits, mainly marked by dreaded threeand outs, and worse, turnovers that result in touchdowns.

Jacksonville's Kelvin Hall (4) has the ball stripped form his arms as he is tackled in the Indians' 31-7 loss to the Nacogdoches Golden Dragons. Jacksonville struggled offensively, tallying only 127 yards against the Dragon defense. The Tribe will travel to Pine Tree to take on the Pirates at 7:30 p.m. Friday. PHOTO: MIKE CUMMINS

That's about the extent of the consistency the Indians have managed this season.

And through the first half last week against Nacogdoches, it looked like another night of the same as Jacksonville went to the dressing room trailing 28-0.

The defense started the second half by putting the brakes on a Dragons drive near midfield, then the special teams recovered a fumble after Jacksonville's offense suffered another three-andout.

The Indians took advantage of the good fortune by driving 42 yards in six plays, with tight end Demarcus Sessions catching two passes for 30 of those yards.

Running back Frankie Almendarez scored from 4 yards out for the only touchdown in the second half.

There was clearly a decision made during the no-huddle, spread-offense days earlier this season about which quarterback could get the Indians downfield.

Junior Kyle Stacy turned out to be the guy.

But senior Paxton Lindsey, the team's other quarterback, was back under center in the second half against Nacogdoches, and completed a modest 4 of 10 passes for 57 yards.

The more balanced offense Jacksonville has trended toward in the past three weeks seems to suit Lindsey's talents more than Stacy's, depending less on a big arm than an ability to read the defense and find the open man.

Receiver Kelvin Hall has paid the biggest price for the offense's metamorphosis.

Hall, who's caught as many as eight passes for as many as 147 yards and two touchdowns this season, has just four catches for 40 yards in the last two games, partly because with fewer receivers in the pattern, defenses can afford deep safety help and Hall often appears double and even triple-covered.

That's paved the way for Sessions to burst onto the scene, who coincidentally - or not - hauled in an 8- yard touchdown for his first catch of the season two weeks ago.

Up until the Kilgore game, Jacksonville hadn't even used a tight end in anything but the most obvious of running situations.

Those days appear gone at least for this season, as the Indians will likely trend toward simplifying the offense by running a few plays out of a variety of formations.

It's still possible to spread the defense with two and three-receiver formations, especially with a tight end in play. Forcing teams to not only respect the run, but occasionally running will help the Indians down the road.

I mentioned I'd explain what I meant by finding a way to win.

Finding a way to win

Four years ago - Jacksonville's last playoff appearance - the team won with a punishing, run-focused offense and a vise-grip defense.

Clearly, the Jacksonville coaching staff has to decide what strategy is going to best serve its personnel.

But it's still going to be up to the players to implement that strategy, whatever it is.

Once the coaching staff finds something that clicks, like using a tight end, it's still going to be up to the players to execute - something that between penalties and turnovers, they haven't done consistently this season.

They have the rest of this season to figure out how to make it work.

Here's hoping they take full advantage. Game Stats

	SCORING BY QUARTER
Nac	6	22	3	0	--	31
Jax	0	0	7	0	--	7

SCORING SUMMARY

First Quarter NACOGDOCHES -- Howard Thomas 52 pass from Justin McAninch (kick failed), 2:06

Second Quarter NACOGDOCHES -- Waylon Murray 4 run (DeAndre Reeves pass from McAninch), 10:20 NACOGDOCHES -- McAninch 1 run (William Rivas kick), 6:17 NACOGDOCHES -- Damien Leonard 1 run (Rivas kick), 3:54

Third Quarter JACKSONVILLE -- Frankie Almendarez 4 run (Kyle Stacy kick), 5:37 NACOGDOCHES -- FG: 27, Rivas, 1:37

Nacogdoches		Jacksonville
FIRST DOWNS	31	7
Rushes-Yds.	62-346	23-42
Passing Yds.	164	85
Comp.-Att.-Int	13-23-1	8-19-0
Punts-Yds.	1-33.0	6-38.5
Fumbles-Lost	2-2	3-2
Penalties-Yds.	5-55	1-15

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING -- Nacogdoches: Waylon Murray 35-255, Damian Leonard 18-93, Jerrod Blanton 2-1, Justin McAmimch 6-1, Randy Franks 1-(minus-4); Jacksonville: Chris Hall 9-19, Jonathan Brown 4-6, Kelvin Hall 1-5, Paxton Lindsey 3-5, Frankie Almendarez 1-4, Courtney White 1-2, Jeremy Chappelle 2-2, Kyle Stacy 2-(minus-1). PASSING -- Nacogdoches: McAninch 13-23-1 164, Franks 0-0-0 0; Jacksonville: Lindsey 4-10-0 57, Stacy 4-9-0 28. RECEIVING -- Nacogdoches: Leo Berry 4- 43, Carlos Downey 2-25, Tyler Auxier 2-18, DeAndre Reeves 2-14, Howard Thomas 1-52, Matt Wallace 1-7, Johnny Kennard 1-5; Jacksonville: Clint Copeland 3-25, Demarcus Sessions 2-30, Kelvin Hall 2-16, Almendarez 1-14.

UPCOMING GAMES Jacksonville at Pine Tree, 7:30 p.m. Friday Hallsville at Jacksonville, 7:30 p.m. Nov. 2 Jacksonville at Henderson, 7:30 p.m. Nov 9.

graphic: Cherokeean Herald