After suffering their first regular-season loss in close to two years, the Wildcats have to move on and think about the rest of the season.

West Texas made it quite obvious the Wildcats have a lot of room for improvement. The biggest problem for ACU on Saturday was its inability to stop a runner on first contact. I have watched the game footage, and on most of the big West Texas plays, you can see Wildcats missing tackles and not wrapping up. That was odd to see, because in all previous games, ACU made contact with the ball carrier, wrapped up and prevented extra yards. Perhaps it was a lack of focus. Or maybe West Texas coats its players in Vaseline before each game.

The Wildcats also struggled to move the ball through the air. Red-shirt freshman Mitchell Gale was strangely inaccurate, and the offensive line often did not give Gale the time he needed to let plays develop. The two West Texas ends, Eugene Sims and Broderick Marshall, at times proved to be too much for the offense.

I thought Keithon Flemming showed everyone why West Texas missed him so much early in the season. ACU had no answer for the screens the Buffaloes threw early and often. Flemming was fast, and more often then not he beat the Wildcat defenders to the point of attack. I was hoping to see Justin Johnson come into the game and play some outside linebacker to counter Flemming’s speed, but I am not sure that would have helped much.

The Wildcats are still in a great position not only to make the playoffs but also to get a first-round bye. The Wildcats have fallen to No. 4 in the regional rankings after the loss, but they could move up quickly, due to the quality of opponents left on their schedule.

For those new to the process, I would first like to say national rankings mean absolutely nothing. Although it hurts to lose the No. 1 spot, it really does not matter in the grand scheme. What do matter are the regional rankings, which determine a team’s playoff seeding. In order to make the playoffs, a team has to be ranked in the top six in their region; to attain a first-round bye, a team has to be one of the top two ranked teams at the end of the season.

Regional rankings are not determined completely by record. They also take into account a team’s strength of schedule. The SOS is based on the team’s opponents’ record and the SOS of the teams they play. The SOS can go up or down during the season, depending on how the opponents fare the rest of the season.

The best scenario for ACU’s future is as follows: to have a real shot at being one of the top two seeds in the region, the Wildcats need to win the rest of their games and their opponents to win the rest of theirs. Success hinges most on what West Texas does the rest of the season. They were 2-5 when they beat ACU, but they were missing Flemming for the better part of the season. If the Buffaloes win the rest of their games, the Wildcats’ SOS automatically will increase. If ACU does win out, then the worst they would finish is No. 3 in the region, which does not get them the bye but does give them a first-round game at home.

Unfortunately, the best-case scenarios do not always happen. If the Wildcats lose a game, they are at the mercy of the other LSC teams. Should ACU lose, they would need WT to win the rest of their games to improve their SOS, and the team they lose to would need to win out also. On top of that, all the teams they beat would have to lose their remaining games, and I hope it does not come to that.

There is a possibility ACU could just fall off the map and finish 7-4, forcing them to miss the playoffs entirely. But, I do not see that happening. The Wildcats are too talented a team to just quit. Plus, I don’t think the coaching staff will let the players lose focus.

Grant Boone, voice of the ACU Wildcats, brought up a great point about the game and ACU football in general. He said the program has come a long way in the past few seasons. As proof, he pointed out how upset all of the fans were about one loss.

Just four short years ago, in 2005, the Wildcats went 4-6 and didn’t get a whiff of the playoffs. Since then, ACU has gone 34-5 in the regular season. Athletic Director Jared Mosley, Head Coach Chris Thomsen and the entire coaching staff should be congratulated for what they have been able to accomplish in such a short amount of time.

Fear not, Wildcat fans. This is still a very good team with a very good chance at getting a high seed in the playoffs.