Bears Defeated In Hard Fought Battle

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After an impressive season opening win against the Austin Peay State University Govenors the Bears will have a short week before they play their first FBS team of the season in the University of Alabama- Birmingham Blazers on Sept. 4. UAB from the Conference USA conference will be an early test for coach Nathan Brown and his 11 ranked Bears. “ I think if you can control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball you will have a great chance of winning,” Brown said. “In game one against Austin Peay we did that. UAB posses an entirely different challenge. They will have as much size and length as we will play against in the trenches. We have to play harder than them and good things will happen.” UAB finished 9-5 overall and 6-2 in conference play. UAB at home last year went undefeated at 6-0 a stat the the Bears will have to aware of coming into the game on Thursday. “We won’t be able to play the way we did last night and beat UAB,” Brown said. “They are too talented to do that. Breylin and our offense made enough plays late in the game to get the win. We can rely on that this week. We have to be solid from the get go.” UCA on the other hand is riding high off the momentum they got after their fourth quarter comeback against Austin Peay. The Bears offensive line stood tall for most of the game and now as they look forward to the game against a much larger opponent in UAB the offensive line and the battle in the trenches will be extremely important. “ Flipping to the run game, our online controlled the line of scrimmage,” junior offensive lineman Will Burgess said. “If we can get on our blocks and maintain them long enough for kiki ( Kierre Crossley) to get free, we will have similar success. Like I said controlling the line of scrimmage will be crucial. The run game will be crucial for the Bears in this game. Senior running back Kierre Crossley will need another excellent game like he had against Austin Peay. “I think success in the run game is crucial anytime you play up in divisions,” Brown said. “UAB posses a lot of challenges for us but we are going to need to control the clock and the time of possession and the way we do that is with a solid running game.” UAB will have a few things going in their favor even before the game starts. The Blazers have not played yet so they will be the more fresh of the two teams. The other thing that the Blazers have is home field advantage. This will be the first true road game for the Bears since the Austin Peay game was on a neutral field. The Blazers will play a conference schedule this fall. The game against the Bears will be one of the last three non conference games they play before they start conference play. The game will be on ESPN3 on Thursday with a 7 pm kickoff.