By Joel Weckerly, Sports Editor

The football team will focus on offensive toughness in practice this week, head coach Gary Gaines said. His statement came on the heels of a 30-12 road loss to Central Arkansas Thursday, a loss in which the Wildcats’ defense played well, but their offense couldn’t find its groove.

“We weren’t physical enough up front, and our backs and receivers weren’t going all out, either,” Gaines said. “We were too cautious, and you can’t play a game that way. We need to toughen up on offense.”

He said the defense looked pretty tough, however. Junior linebacker Shawn Taylor recorded 14 tackles and an interception for a touchdown, while junior linebacker Randall Webb and senior safety Dawon Gentry each had 6.5 tackles in the loss.

“Our defense played really well for the first game,” Gaines said. “They were just on the field so long that they were fatigued by the fourth quarter.”

He said he hopes that ACU’s offense will follow suit with past years and catch up with its defense in terms of performance.

“I hope so,” Gaines said. “[Central Arkansas] just had a good defense, but everybody we play’s gonna have a good defense. Our first game was a barometer; it was a measuring stick. We’ll see if we can turn it around.”

ACU (0-1) will attempt that 2 p.m. Saturday at home against Fort Lewis.