West Memphis still looking for that winning formula

Blue Devils seek turnaround in road clash with

Jonesboro

WM School District Having won two of their six games this season, the West Memphis Blue Devils have tried multiple things to try and fix the team’s problems.

They shook up the starting lineup last week, inserting some new starters on both the offensive and defensive lines. It didn’t pan out, however, in a 31-23 loss to Sylvan Hills, the team’s second straight defeat.

The Blue Devils (2-4 overall, 1-2 in the 6A-East Conference) will try once again to get it together when they travel to Jonesboro (5-1, 3-0) Friday night.

Correctively speaking, however, the Blue Devils would do well to try and reverse the giveaway-takeaway column.

West Memphis has turned it over six times the last two games while its opponents have only turned it over once. Four of the six Blue Devil turnovers have been converted into touchdowns and another was turned into a field goal last week against Sylvan Hills.

“There’s no question that turnovers are killing us,” said West Memphis head coach Billy Elmore. “I really think you can pinpoint our problems on just that.”

But also at the core of the dilemma is West Memphis’ inability to defend the run and its inability to churn out enough yards itself on offense.

“We pride ourselves in being able to stop the run and being able to run the ball, but we haven’t been able to do either one,” Elmore added. “Against a team like Searcy, that doesn’t hang its hat on the run game…

you should basically be able to eliminate the run game. But we weren’t able to do that. Against Sylvan Hills, you should be able to at least slow down their running game. On top of all that, we haven’t been able to run the ball, control the clock and keep our defense off the field. We don’t mind throwing, but we don’t want to get in a situation where we have to throw on every down.”

Still six games into the season the Blue Devils are rather hard to figure out.

They have shown to be a team built around momentum.

After falling behind 21-0 by the 8:52 mark of the second quarter, the Blue Devils stormed back to cut it to 21-20 by halftime with a very concentrated effectiveness on offense.

However, the power was pulled from the plug by the start of the third quarter, which has been the Blue Devils’ most productive quarter before that.

“Usually we’ve been known to come out after halftime and performing well,” said Elmore. “We got a stop on defense to start the third quarter, but the offense just couldn’t get anything going.”

Elmore has three straight victories over Jonesboro after the Blue Devils experienced a brief drought against the Hurricane. This year, head coach Randy Coleman’s squad is improved from last year.

“They have the best defensive line we’ll see this year,” Elmore commented. “I’m also sure it’s the best defensive line in 6A football. They are probably the most well-rounded team on our schedule. I think if we put our stuff together we can compete with them and then go on to win the game. If we play like we have the last couple of weeks I don’t think we’ll be in the game, but if we play the way I know we’re capable of playing I think we can win.”